It's a Thursday, the sun is shining, Dave has almost finished his GCSE's and Steffie has a rare day off work during her gap year. Where better to spend a lovely day out than working up at the Abbey Stadium. Whilst I knew Dave was keen to help out, I was less certain when Steffie volunteered to come up for a morning's work, it being a short day since the Robins were in action at Ipswich.
Perhaps it's just me but I can't recall such a fractured season as this one. Maybe it was the rain affected start to the season, perhaps it's the all pervading influence of the blessed "World Cup", the one where Flavio "what's his name" is busy unraveling any credibility that our national sport has, but another blank day on the calendar at Blunsdon.
But the work must continue: the grass continues to grow on the centre green; Colin Meredith's comments about a couple of delaminating kickboards need to be addressed; the kickboards need a good blasting; and we need to get the air fence cleaned (we just don't have time to clean both it and the banners on a race day).
Dave is obviously keen to try out the mowing; the sit on mower is fun to use and he takes to it very quickly.
Mark sets off on the tractor with Punch's trailer hitched behind with the old water tank and an old pressure washer (Jemima, our three wheeler) is back in the pits while we try t get the diesel powered pressure washer to work properly).
It is soon clear that Mark cannot drive the tractor and pressure wash the boards at the same time. We need a willing volunteer - step forward Steffie and off they go together around the track.
Ron can't get over how I've manipulated a "Family Day Out" to get both of them working, but they are enjoying themselves and, more importantly, doing a good job.
It's is a beautiful day - just perfect for looking forward to a speedway meeting, but the Robins lose out on seniority to Ipswich as a Thursday track and so Ron and the boys will be making the long trek across to East Anglia to take on the Witches. We are quietly confident that our lads will be able to pull off a win - they were pushing the Witches very close when the original match was abandoned through rain and the manner of the victory over a Peterborough septet, boasting several Blunsdon track specialists as guests etc. must have boosted some flagging confidences.
The track is parched and very hard. There is no point opening up the surface in case we have any more heavy rain before next week. The hardness of the surface will allow rain to run straight off without turning the top surface to slush or simply washing it away. When we have a better idea of what next Thursday's weather forecast will be like then we can open it up and begin to work it into condition.
Since the end of the last meeting Punch and I have spent about an hour grading and light blading immediately after the meeting and Ron has been working on it since to smooth out any bumps and give us the foundation for next week's track.
The only criticism that SCB Track Inspector Colin Meredith made last week during his unannounced track inspection was about a couple of wooden kickboards on the back straight that have begun to delaminate and need replacing. During the winter we replaced a lot of old kickboards and these were the next on schedule for replacement and we have ready made spares, so Punch sets to work sorting that out before going round with his strimmer tidying up the white line.
The attempts to inflate the air fence on turn 3 came to naught when we discovered a gaping hole in the panel one in from the pit gate. The tear, over a foot long, was through both the outer and inner layers of the material and air was gushing out.
The solution is, as usual with such large tears, to pull the edges together with stitches of cable ties and the to apply a number of small patches to seal parts of the damage before applying a larger patch over the whole thing. We are investigating the use of nylon line and a large needle to actually stitch holes together but this one is so large that small cable ties are much more reliable.
The finished job may not be the most aesthetically pleasing but at least all the air flow is staunched and the bag inflates. Since the bags are covered with the oversize banners I'm not all that bothered by how it looks.
The morning meanders on and soon Ron has to disappear to collect Mads and then make his way to the newly reshaped track at Foxhall Heath, Ipswich.
The glorious noise that assaults our ears from the pits and brings us all scurrying for a look is Bob Crowther, who for so long maintained all the engines at Swindon, on his new 1953 Triumph Triton with a Bonneville engine. Completely rebuilt, it is a real work of art and allows us a welcome break and distraction.
Mick Hunt arrives to go through the arrangements for track staff at the Cardiff GP. I've asked if I can be excused the job of separating / refereeing fighting riders after being caught up rather too closely with the spat between Nicholls and Sayfutdinov at the pit gate
Meanwhile, out on track, Steffie is getting used to this tractor driving and sets off on a lap of honour before driving the tractor and trailer up through the pit gate and down through the pits - something else to put on the CV.
With our work done, we depart early afternoon. The Robins come back from 14-4 down to win 47-46 at Ipswich with Mads top scoring - well done lad!
Now it's time to forget about the bl..dy World Cup and start to concentrate on the speedway GP at Torun in Poland this weekend. This is an important GP for a number of reasons: this is the first GP at the new, purpose built speedway stadium in Torun; the Blunsdon Bloggers featuring Neil Wise, Phil Rice and others are over there hopefully capturing the place in photographs and text for the Blog next week; and Rune has had two excellent performances in the Polish League there.
Next week we will unveil the new 2010 Blunsdon Blog T shirt
