The first home match for the Robins after the disappointment of the Sky match loss against Coventry could not have been tougher - the almost unbeatable Poole Pirates and it came on a day when the temperatures and humidity were more akin to those in the tropics than a mid May Thursday in deepest, darkest, rural Wiltshire.
Arriving a little earlier than usual, I decided to try to get as much of the centre infield grass cut as possible before Brian Cox came to put up the centre green advertising boards. Our decision to cut the grass last Thursday, a blank day on the Robins calendar last week, had certainly paid dividends - without it we would have had to use a combine harvester, so much had the grass and the famous Blunsdon daisies grown.
Getting the central area cut while Brian gathered up his boards and Roy started laying out the banners for cleaning meant that we were somewhat ahead of ourselves on a day that started warm and was rapidly getting hotter and more humid. Punch was already on his second watering of the morning and we weren't even at 9am.
While we sorted out the banners and kickboards and Mick Richards blasted them clean, Mark Price checked the oil and petrol levels in the pumps and set them out around the edge of the circuit. We decided that we would delay inflating the panels until late morning other than to check the one that I had had to repair after Mads Korneliussen had visited it the week previous.
Back out on track Punch was wielding a sledgehammer over by gate 4. Having dug back the shale, he had exposed the infamous concrete raft that covers the width of the track and runs from 3 or 4 metres behind the starting gates to about 5 metres beyond. Originally laid when the track was used by stock cars, and also in the era when is was common for speedway races to start from a concreted area, the block has caused us some problems in recent years. Settlement has been uneven and the raft is now perilously close to the surface on gate four, so much so that there is a school of thought that says that the rear wheels are actually digging down and spinning on the concrete and thus making gate four a very difficult proposition for any rider. Whatever the truth is, we have long wished to dig the concrete up but have been thwarted by the sheer size of the job and the necessity to get it done during the closed season, when weather a numerous other jobs have pushed it down the "Ta do Ron, Ron" list!
This is more in the line of an experimental excavation to see if it would be possible to cut out the concrete under the problematic gate 4. We soon find an ancient pipe, probably a water pipe to the centre green, and then the dread concrete. Over by the white line we estimated the concrete to be less than 3 inches thick - out on gate 4 it is more like 4 inches deep and probably deeper. We chip away at the edge but would need a full sized jack hammer to shift it properly. Even if we did, there is no way of knowing how deep a hole we would create and we doubt we would have enough spare shale to fill it, let alone allow it to settle and harden in time for an imminent meeting.
We repair the damage and then Ron puts down some extra shale on gate four which we will wet and pack down during the rest of the day.
THere is relief all round when we inflate the air fence on turn 3 - the gaping hole left by Mads Kornelliussen's bike last week has been repaired and the repair is holding up well - it means we still have three spare bags in case anything desperate happens.
Back behind the pits I stumble across Mick Hunt and Punch looking furtive and lurking around the back of the reserve pits and the new tea room / cafe / hospitality centre.
We have decided that we need to preserve as much of our precious water supply as possible so Punch is loading the tanker with water stored in the large water tank which we sank into the ground. The plan is still to feed this with water from the roof of the away pit but we've yet to get the guttering linked up. The tank is still full of the water that we filled it with when we poured the concrete around the tank so now is as good a time as anytime to use it, especially since the temperature is rising.
The levels of humidity are such that we are all soaked in sweat as we hook up the fence and begin to organise the banners.
Lunch is a real relief - a chance to get out of the sun and cool ourselves in the shade inside the tea room. Once again, as with every week, we are indebted to Terry and Wayne Russell for providing us with a choice of chicken, meat pie or fish from the local fish and chip shop - many thanks to you both!
The only trouble with our lunchtime regime is that it is desperately difficult to get going again in the afternoon. My chicken (it's so big I'm certain it's an Emu) fills me up and the temptation to doze is almost too much. A flying visit from Lakeside boss Jon Cook wakens us from our slumbers and we venture forth to find that the pre lunch humidity has been replaced by a post lunch rise in temperature and a burning sun. Cue factor 50 sun screen!
As we toil in the sun to get the banners up Punch and Ron water the track and tend to it carefully. More shale is added to the top surface and then watered in - when I think back to the massive amounts of shale that were delivered at the start of March and then see the dwindling piles that are left now it shows just how much shale and material we use at Swindon.
Jemima, our new name for the three wheeled vehicle that I've been using recently, is brought out to allow Mark and I to give the kickboards and the banners one last clean with the pressure washer. In a perverse sort of way I'm becoming quite attached to the little machine and, it must be said, although she is not exactly aesthetically pleasing, she is proving to be useful. Not only is she a mobile pressure washing machine, she now has a new job - as a tyre packer.
It is relatively easy to add extra grip to a well prepared speedway track. Our track at Swindon, as commented on by Chris Louis and Kelvin Tatum on Sky last week, is very smooth and much of that is down to the hardness of the base and the amount of work that goes into the track throughout the week, and not just on Thursdays.
With a hard and smooth base to start with, it is possible to rip up the surface and disturb the shale at various crucial parts of the circuit in order to improve the quality of the racing or to encourage riders to experiment with different parts of the track.
At Swindon it has been our practice for a number of years to rip up the shale on the starts and on the insides of turns 2 and 4. The Robins like grippy starts and the banking on the corners has encouraged riders to adopt a mid track and outside exit on turns 2 and 4. In order to give riders wishing to stay down low around the white line, or cut back to the white line on the exits of turns 2 and 4 we rip there as well.
Spikes on a ripper or the blades on a magic wheel are dug in to the shale to a depth of about an inch. The broken up material is then watered and packed down, usually with tractor tyres. The water is essential to get this material to bind together - otherwise it would disappear into the crowd in a plume of dust as soon as the first rider hit it, with little grip added. Once the shale, made up of significant amounts of clay, is wet, it is then packed down. This packing will allow it to develop extra grip for riders and is usually done with a tractor. The trouble today is that it is so hot that we are worried that if we use a tractor is will pack down too much, dry out too quickly in the scorching sun, and provide precious little extra incentive for riders. The answer is simple - pack down with a lighter machine but with one that has wide tyre - Jemima!
I drive back and forth across the ripped material, packing it down as evenly as possible - the results look good.
5 o'clock and we have just about finished for the time being. The track is still being watered but now the pits are full with bikes and mechanics and riders and promoters and guests. It is time to take the opportunity to take some photographs of the bikes that will be used on the track we have so lovingly created.
The detailing on individual bikes nowadays is quite something. Covered with adverts, most bikes have customised saddles featuring logos of the rider. Even after all this time around the sport, I am still both amazed and fearful of these machines. They look so slight and fragile yet they hold a truly ferocious power.
For the last time during his one month ban, we will be without Thomas H Jonasson at reserve. The ban has hit us hard, especially since the ban was imposed by a foreign governing body for an "infringement" that happened last year when he wasn't a Robin.
The two teams set out on their track walk, the Robins joined for the first time this season by Jordan Frampton, in for the otherwise engaged Cory Gathercole. Leigh spends some time with Jordan pointing out lines around the corners and acting as the perfect skipper.
But Poole are the outstanding team in this year's Elite League and most of them ride the Blunsdon track very well indeed. With a couple of the Robins riding with little confidence and a crucial reserve missing, we will be up against it tonight.
One of the highlights for the Robins in 2010 has been the form of young Polish recruit Grzegorz Zengota. He is still learning his trade but he is quick and very determined. He has something of a reputation for making mistakes in his first ride but his form otherwise has been very encouraging. Greg will partner Leigh tonight at number 2 as Ron swaps the riding order to try and maximise the Robins scoring potential.
Back at the tea room the track staff have begun to arrive, most of them straight from their place of work. Time to feature another of the "unsung" heroes who give so much of their own time and efforts to help the sport.
Step forward Neil Luce, pictured above. Neil is a man mountain and definitely the sort of person you would want in your corner if trouble broke out. Neil is part of the team that works under the guidance of Keith Johnson on turns 1 and 2 and his strength is prodigious. While I labour to pick up one air pump Neil quite happily picks up two as if they were made of cardboard. With a wicked sense of humour, he keeps us in stitches with joke after joke, most of which I could not possibly repeat. When everyone is feeling tired and low, it is people like Neil who can lift the mood.
The Robins put up a good fight but go down to Poole in the end. Everyone seems happy with the track although we do have to do quite a bit of work to manage the moisture which is drawn up to surface as the temperature cools. There is no right answer here - too little water earlier in the day and we would have had dust, too much and we would have had unraceable slime, the right amount and we get it coming back to us once the sun goes down.
By the time that the fence has been taken down, banners folded and collected, air pumps stored and everything else put away it is getting on for 10.30pm yet Punch is still out on the track with the blade putting the surface "to bed". The blade has the mesh behind it to even out the surface but Punch also wants to get the "Wonderwheel" out to freshen up the surface and allow moisture back in. This means that Mark and I have to learn quickly how to drive one of the new tractors - it is a little different from Jemima and the other smaller tractors that I've driven in the past.
In fact it is great fun, and I wonder, if we hadn't pointed the way back to the pits, whether Mark wouldn't still be driving round and round at midnight.
11pm and the end of a long and exhausting day. Under the lights the grass on the centre green looks like a carpet - no sign of the daisies yet, although I'm sure that, as I write this, the little blighters are flowering in readiness for next week.
