Soundbites: 10th May 2005

Cooper	Wilson

"The three heat-leaders have all dropped by half a point or so, while at the other end of the team Paul Cooper has come in and doubled his. Paul will move into the main body of the team as a result and that means Ben (Wilson) drops to reserve even though his figure has also gone up, which must be unparalleled! If the top three start scoring as we know they can then we will have a potent team."
Neil Machin

"After a brilliant start to the season, Claus has been struggling with his confidence for about six weeks now and his lean run shows no sign of ending. We want to make a big impression in the league right from the start, so now is the time to make a change. Dickie Juul has been associated with Newcastle since he first rode for us way back in 1991 and is champing at the bit to pull on a Diamonds race-jacket again."
George English on dropping Claus Kristensen in favour of Richard Juul

"Zdenek was fantastic against Somerset on Monday night, we couldn't have asked for more from him. We're very pleased with his scores so far, but I hope our fans don't put him under too much pressure and expect that every week. He's still learning all the tracks and will take time to find his feet in what is a strange country and environment for him. His English is pretty much non-existent and without Richard Wolff I am not sure how we would have coped. Hopefully in time everything will become more familiar to him."
Pat Bliss on new Racer Zdenek Simota

"The days when teams won at home and lost away on a regular basis are gone now. I think this year we're going to see up-and-down results, with most teams capable of winning anywhere on the night. Full credit to Newport because they rode very well and took advantage of our problems."
Graham Drury on Workington's shock home defeat on Saturday

"We were a bit unlucky in some of the races, but I expected us to go a little bit better than we did. But I still think we can quite comfortably get the bonus point. They are basically a two-man team at the moment so there's no reason we can't do a good job at home and get all three points. It didn't really go to plan up there. I thought we would run them a little bit closer - perhaps one or two races could have swung our way and it would have been a lot tighter."
Exeter manager Graeme Gordon on their defeat at Glasgow on Sunday

"I'm pleased with 63 points. I was delighted to see Screen back among the points after his lean spell."
Ian Thomas on Belle Vue's win last night

"We're basically starting our league campaign in earnest now, and we won't be waiting as long to make any more changes if people don't come up with the goods. We have to get going now, it's as simple as that."
Hull manager Dave Peet

"You can't believe our luck this year can you? Somehow we have managed to keep battling on and have held our 100 per cent home record. I would love to be in the position to be making team changes that will help us win away matches but with the way things are, we are concentrating on holding our own at home. That means, apart from Paul Lee coming into the team, things will pretty much stay the same until some of our team are fit to race again."
King's Lynn manager Rob Lyon

"I am disappointed again. We have riders who need to pull their socks up a little bit. It is frustrating for the fans, it is frustrating for me and our gating was atrocious."
Alun Rossiter on Swindon's defeat at Eastbourne

"My instant reaction was one of anger and disappointment. All season we have been destroying the myth that speedway teams never win away, but just at the end things don't seem to go our way. But, on reflection, our riders were sensational to push a Swindon side unbeaten at home to the limit. It demonstrates how far we have come that we are so gutted by a small away loss. Last season it was more often 20-plus points, not two."
Mick Horton on Peterborough's last gasp defeat at Swindon last night

"I think it's a snub for Dan, a snub for Weymouth and a snub for the Conference League as well. I've got a lot of time for Peter Oakes and I'm a great admirer of the work he's done for speedway at youth and under-21 level. But on this occasion he's got it wrong and I can't see how he can justify what he's done."
Brian White on Dan Giffard missing out on the World Under 21 rounds - Despite finishing fifth in the British Final

"A rain-off of a meeting like that is a promoters' nightmare because whatever date you come up with for the restaging, several riders in the line-up are booked to appear elsewhere. We may have to run two meetings in two days at Byker to fit it in by switching one of our Sunday matches to a Monday so we can stage the qualifier on a Sunday again."
Newcastle promoter Darryl Illingworth on Sunday's GB qualifier

This article was first published on 10th May 2005

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