Floodier and floodier ...
Special message for our esteemed promoter, Rosco. Place the mouse on this sentence and press the left hand button twice in quick succession and you'll be magically whisked to the all colour version of the blog!
Wet, wet, wet ... and love is not all around us!
The Blog has been harping on for some time about the need for rain, and we got it in good measure on Thursday when the wet stuff prevented us from running a meeting against our old foes from down the M4, Oxford. It's our first rain off of the season. So that you don't get too down through the lack of action, or the massive inaction, that was Blunsdon on 10th May, the blog is bringing you exclusive pictures and text from our first "Blunsdon Blog Boys" trip of 2007 - to Perry Bar, home of the newly fledged Birmingham Brummies.
But more of that later.
It had been raining throughout the night and the weather forecast was dire. Punch and Gerald were ensconced in the portals of our luxurious staff room discussing the recent televised match from Blunsdon when I arrived. After an uplifting cup of coffee we ventured forth to inspect the track.
Apart from some puddling of water on turn three and a little surface water just prior to the start line we were pleasantly surprised by the state of the track. Certainly we could get a meeting under way if there weren't substantial amounts of rain on the horizon. While they graded and packed the surface I inflated the air fences, hitched them up to the safety fence, hooked up the green netting and spent a little time checking fuel and oil in each air pump.
By 11 o'clock we were beginning to feel the first signs of rain in the air. The track looked good, the fences were all up and were being cleaned by Mick and Roy, while Brian Cox had erected (he'll love that choice of word!) his advertising hoardings.
Recent high winds had displaced a small section of the new fascias in the pits so Steve Masters was soon on hand to repair and replace. Rosco arrived. Together we prepared a new harrow for the track - a very useful piece of steel reinforcing sheet which can dry out and smooth a wet track quite efficiently.
The clouds were looming by the time that Stan Potter arrived to sort out the starting tapes and soon we were rushing for cover as the serious rain arrived.
It rained and it rained (it got "floodier and floodier" as Piglet has it in "Winnie the Pooh and a rainy day".
Rumour had it that Ceefax already had the fixture down as cancelled at lunchtime. We knew it would be off but we had to wait for Terry Russell, Rosco and the Oxford promotion to agree to call it off before we could do anything else.
While Gerald and Punch took the opportunity for a little light blading and some heavy grading and harrowing, Adam (he'd just arrived straight from work), Roy and I began to dismantle the air fence.
By four o'clock the sun was beginning to come out but the damage had been done. By 5 it was pouring down - the right decision had been reached.
In fact, the constant rain should do us good - the water will penetrate deep down into the base and should bind the whole surface together. The light blading (we didn't want to risk the heavy blade incase we were caught out by really heavy rain and the entire track ruined) and grading should have evened out some of the bumps that were appearing in the track when it was bone dry.
Why wait to blade until the track is wet? One, the dry surface is so hard the blade would probably break before any good could be done. Two, blading a dry track turns the surface to useless dust and pulls great chunks out of the surface, thus rendering it rougher than before. Three, the wet shale cuts much better (like soft scoop butter as opposed to the hard stuff). Four, the moisture in the track binds the bladed material together really well.
And so to Birmingham, and the new Perry Bar Stadium!
But you need to go to the all colour version of the Blog to see an account of our visit to Birmingham!
Wet, wet, wet ... and love is not all around us!
The Blog has been harping on for some time about the need for rain, and we got it in good measure on Thursday when the wet stuff prevented us from running a meeting against our old foes from down the M4, Oxford. It's our first rain off of the season. So that you don't get too down through the lack of action, or the massive inaction, that was Blunsdon on 10th May, the blog is bringing you exclusive pictures and text from our first "Blunsdon Blog Boys" trip of 2007 - to Perry Bar, home of the newly fledged Birmingham Brummies.
But more of that later.
It had been raining throughout the night and the weather forecast was dire. Punch and Gerald were ensconced in the portals of our luxurious staff room discussing the recent televised match from Blunsdon when I arrived. After an uplifting cup of coffee we ventured forth to inspect the track.
Apart from some puddling of water on turn three and a little surface water just prior to the start line we were pleasantly surprised by the state of the track. Certainly we could get a meeting under way if there weren't substantial amounts of rain on the horizon. While they graded and packed the surface I inflated the air fences, hitched them up to the safety fence, hooked up the green netting and spent a little time checking fuel and oil in each air pump.
By 11 o'clock we were beginning to feel the first signs of rain in the air. The track looked good, the fences were all up and were being cleaned by Mick and Roy, while Brian Cox had erected (he'll love that choice of word!) his advertising hoardings.
Recent high winds had displaced a small section of the new fascias in the pits so Steve Masters was soon on hand to repair and replace. Rosco arrived. Together we prepared a new harrow for the track - a very useful piece of steel reinforcing sheet which can dry out and smooth a wet track quite efficiently.
The clouds were looming by the time that Stan Potter arrived to sort out the starting tapes and soon we were rushing for cover as the serious rain arrived.
It rained and it rained (it got "floodier and floodier" as Piglet has it in "Winnie the Pooh and a rainy day".
Rumour had it that Ceefax already had the fixture down as cancelled at lunchtime. We knew it would be off but we had to wait for Terry Russell, Rosco and the Oxford promotion to agree to call it off before we could do anything else.
While Gerald and Punch took the opportunity for a little light blading and some heavy grading and harrowing, Adam (he'd just arrived straight from work), Roy and I began to dismantle the air fence.
By four o'clock the sun was beginning to come out but the damage had been done. By 5 it was pouring down - the right decision had been reached.
In fact, the constant rain should do us good - the water will penetrate deep down into the base and should bind the whole surface together. The light blading (we didn't want to risk the heavy blade incase we were caught out by really heavy rain and the entire track ruined) and grading should have evened out some of the bumps that were appearing in the track when it was bone dry.
Why wait to blade until the track is wet? One, the dry surface is so hard the blade would probably break before any good could be done. Two, blading a dry track turns the surface to useless dust and pulls great chunks out of the surface, thus rendering it rougher than before. Three, the wet shale cuts much better (like soft scoop butter as opposed to the hard stuff). Four, the moisture in the track binds the bladed material together really well.
And so to Birmingham, and the new Perry Bar Stadium!
But you need to go to the all colour version of the Blog to see an account of our visit to Birmingham!
posted by shaleshifter | 1:40 AM
|
11 comments
