football rambles

Last night we went to King's Lynn Stars v Coventry Bees at the Norfolk Arena. The Stars ran out easy winners defeating the Bees 54 to 35. I'll be reporting on that later, but here are some photos from last night's meeting. Photo of Norfolk Arena At the starting line in race 5 The pit crew at Norfolk Arena. Taking a bend in Race 9, moments before the crash

The Coventry Bees are based in Brandon and used to go by the name of Brandon Bees. They are one of the oldest teams out there being formed in 1928. I am not sure when they changed their name, but we still have this badge from the 1960s when they were known as Brandon, which I found when I was a kid in the 1980s in my Granny's house. Before the war they rode in the Southern League and the National League. They have been involved in the top league every season since 1948. They have been Champions 9 times with the last victory coming in 2011. They almost didn't compete at all in 2011 after walking out of a meeting along with the Peterborough Panthers and were originally excluded from competing that season. At the time of writing they are currently 6th in the league, but with a couple of matches in hand will be looking up to a play-off position.

King's Lynn Stars of the Elite League ride at the Norfolk Arena and have pretty close links to the football club, in that when the Linnets were in financial problems it was the owners of the Stars that bailed them out. They also use the colours of the football team and in fact the town. Since 1994 their colours have been yellow and blue. The original team was founded in 1965 and wore yellow and green, but at that time they were the Norwich Stars. In the modern era of the play offs the King's Lynn Stars can probably feel a bit hard done by having finished top in the first season that the league started using a play-off system. Nevertheless justice was done when they were crowned the 2006 champions beating Sheffield Tigers and doing the double with the Premier Trophy also making its way to West Norfolk. They also finished top the following year and won the cup, however this time Sheffield beat them in the semi finals of the Championship. 2009 was also a vintage year when the

Tonight for a change from the usual football we are going to the Norfolk Arena to see some speedway. In the Elite League King's Lynn Stars will be taking on Coventry Bees. Hope it is going to be a good evening.

You are probably thinking that it has been such a disappointing season that I haven't bothered with an end of season review this time. It has been a disappointing season, that can't be denied. However, there is still a bit more football to be played. The Brewers have the little matter of a League 2 play-off at Wembley this weekend and the weekend after we are off to Craven Cottage for a world cup warm up game between Italy and Ireland, so there is still a bit of football to look forward to ahead of the World Cup.

On Saturday the Eastern Counties league drew to a close and both Ely and Thetford were in need of wins to guarantee their place in the top division next season. If Ely were going to get a result they had a pretty good chance against Woodbridge who were already relegated. Things didn't get off to a great start for the Robins or for the Woodpeckers really, as both teams seemed to struggle. Inevitably though, as has been so often the case the visitors went into the lead and Ely were left chasing shadows. Fortunately, though news was filtering through that Diss were letting in goal after goal. If they lost it meant both Ely and Thetford were safe and as a third goal went in at Diss the game at the Unwind became less and less relevant, which was just as well, as it really was a dull affair. Ely finally gave us something to cheer in the 66th minute. MacDonald put in one of those corners that went into the box and is often hard to see who connects with it. This time Adam Murray seeme