After the flogging the div four riders handed out to both Murraylands and LeFevre , the Salisbury riders were pumped and ready for action , and there was a bit of that also!

All three sides had a full team , which is unusual.Some normally great riders had a bit of a quiet one today by their standards , but at this point of the year ,just making the final is their ambition.

I would like to mention how  , much more proffesional the Murraylanders are looking , their machinery is coming along nicely as is their stature , in the way they are presenting themselves.Well done guys keep it up you are looking great, especially with those tops.

We saw some unusual things today , during racing , one worked ,one didn't! more on that later.

The weather was good for this round and the wind that had been gusting a bit before , calmed right down to a Zephyr of a breeze. The track was good , although some riders found it a little slippery going onto the back straight.

Mick Harley was the Refferee, who did a top job and also explained to riders on the grid , what he expected to happen on the first bend.Like all riders they agreed and then completely disregarded what he said!

The riders were introduced to the spectators as The LeFevre Dolphins; Daniel Pudney , Ty Geertsen , Cameron Crisp , Robert Fitzpatrick (the birthday boy ,more on that later) Farren Wills. The Salisbury Jets; Matt Mathews , Nigel Greenhalgh , Daniel Bax , Ryan Edson (top blocker) , Cody chadwick. The Murraylanders; Kieran Ritter , Dillan harper , Mark Sheldon , Allen Randall , Daniel Thompson.

Well there you have it , two teams comprising all Australian riders against a team from the Bush with one capped rider. I would have thought , on paper the Murraylanders were going to be searching for points straight off the bat , but , even though they were soundly beaten , they never gave up and thats the first sign of a good team. Keep at it boys it looks better on the track than the scores indicate.

Legend; (D) Dolphins (J) Jets (M) Murraylands.

After their introductory lap , Mick whistled up four riders to the toe line to get things underway.

Race one; The Dolphins didn't mess about and threw Pudney and Geertsen straight in against Mathews and Greenhalgh. Pudney rode a good skippers race to hold off everyone else while Geertsen stepped in for the win, a first up maximum for the Dolphins.Mathews was third and Greenhalgh fourth.

Progress score Dolphins (7) Jets (3) Murraylands (-)

Race two; The Dolphins pair of Crisp and Fitzpatrick took another max with Fitzy taking the win. Ritter and Harper came in , in that order for three points.

Progress score Dolphins (14) Jets (3) Murraylands (3)

Race three; It was the Jets turn to turn up the wick against the Murraylanders when they took their first maximum for the day. Bax Led Edson home from Sheldon and Randall.

Progress score Dolphins (14) Jets (10) Murraylands (6)

Race four; Saw even scoring between Fitzpatrick , who won , and Crisp who picked up fourth after a heavy , spectacular crash in the backstraight after tangling with Mathews and re-mounting.The unusual things I was talking about started in this race.Chadwick had been subbed for Greenhalgh and was travelling nicely until he threw a chain, that's when the fun began!

Mathews was well clear in second ,when Cody threw his chain and started to leg his way around for a lap as he realised Crisp was struggling after his big crash. Crisp was given the big hurry-up from the pits and needed to lap Chadwick before the finish and with half a lap to go Chadwick was then allowed to dismount and run his bike the last half a lap , which he did and just hung on to the line to secure third points, very close though.

Progress points Dolphins (19) Jets (15) Murraylands (6)

Race five; The Dolphins subbed Wills for Pudney , to pair up with Geertsen for another max with Wills taking the win. Ritter led Harper home for the Murraylanders.

Progress points Dolphins (26) Jets (15) Murraylands (9)

Race six; Mathews led Greeenhalgh home for another max to the Jets as Thompson was subbed for Randall and picked up third over Sheldon.

Progress score Dolphins (26) Jets (22) Murraylands (12)

Race seven; Saw even scoring between LeFevre and Salisbury when Chadwick was subbed for Bax and took the win over crisp , fitzpatrick and team-mate Edson.

Progress score dolphins (31) Jets (27) murraylands (12)

Race eight; The Dolphins grab another max themselves when Geertsen was seen home by Pudney over Randall and Sheldon from Murraylands.

Progress score Dolphind (38) Jets (27) Murraylands (15)

Race nine; The jets subbed Chadwick for Mathews and went on to take a max by Greenhalgh getting home from Chadwick.Thompson and ritter tangled going onto the backstraight , bringing them both down , Thompson got going quickly but Ritter seemed to have handlebar troubles and was eventually lapped and disqualified , leaving Thompson to pick up third.

Progress score Dolphins (38) Jets (34) Murraylands (17)

Well it's halfway and there's nothing in it at the front , the Murraylanders are really trying hard , but like I said earlier , theyr'e up against two Aussie teams and just being amongst it is all, is a learning curve , which will payoff eventually.  You have to beat the best to be the best!

I think it's great that we have all this new talent coming through as it can only make our sport stronger and more competitive, and that's got to be good!Back to some racing.

Race ten; An impressive 6-4 went the Jets way after Edson did a monster of a job by keeping Pudney at bay for almost three laps while his team-mate , Bax took the win.Geertsen got second ,  while Edson lead Pudney home.That was the ride of the meet , right there, Edson really deserves his rider of the meet for his effort.

Progress score Dolphins (42) Jets (40) Murraylands (17)

Race elleven; Another one of those unusual occurances happened in this race when Wills lost count , due to mechanical difficulties (his chain came off). It ended up giving the Murraylanders a win 5-4 when Wills was disqualified by running his allowed , half a lap , a lap too early! Pointed out quite clearly and loudly by Thompson to the Ref . Of course he was right and even though Crisp won , the second by Thompson and third by Sheldon gave them the win.

Thompson was subbed for Randall.

Progress score Dolphins (46) Jets (40) Murraylands(22)

Race twelve; The Jets grab this occaision to get some more points by getting another maximum when Bax lead team-mate Edson home over Ritter and Harper.

Progress score dolphins (46) Jets (47) Murraylands (25)

The lead has changed hands for the first time in this match as the Jets are now in front by one point!

Race thirteen; A 6-4 was only the second time the Dolphins had taken any points off the Jets since the first race.Pudney won from Chadwick ,who was subbed for Mathews, third went to Geertsen over Greenhalgh.

Progress score Dolphins (52) Jets (51) Murraylands (25)

Race fourteen; And the lead has switched back again as the Dolphins snatch back a point lead.The other bad news is they have just knocked off a maximum against Murraylands when Fitzpatrick lead home Crisp ahead of Thompson who was again subbed for Ritter , and Harper.

Progress score Dolphins (59) Jets (51) Murraylands (28)

Race fifteen; A maximum to the Jets was just what the doctor ordered when they got , just that! Bax led Edson home over Sheldon and Randall of Murraylands.

Progress points Dolphins (59) Jets (58) Murraylands (31)

Race sixteen; A monster race for the Jets when Fitzpatrick went down at the end of the front straight , while in second, and with Chadwick doing a number on Crisp , it allowed Mathews to go on for the win giving the Jets the maximum they needed ,just at the right time.

Progress score Dolphins (62) Jets (65) Murraylands (31)

The Jets wrestle the lead away again with only a couple of races left!

Race seventeen; The Dolphins do all they can to secure a maximum in their last race , and they do when Geersten is seen home by Pudney. The Murraylands pair , Ritter and Harper finished in that order.

Progress score Dolphins (69) Jets (65) Murraylands (34)

One race to go and the Dolphins are banking on one of several miricles that would ensure a win , they are leading by four with only one race to go and they aren't in it.There is still a remote chance a double exclusion could happen , although I would imagine you would practically have to wake them up when the tapes let fly to get them to move in any way.

Race eighteen; Chadwick was subbed for Bax and rode with Edson. The Murraylanders went with Sheldon and Randall. The race was pretty straight forward and the Jets took a maximum with Edson winning from Chadwick over Randall and Sheldon finishing in that order.

Final scores Salisbury Jets 72 - LeFevre Dolphins 69 - Murraylands 37

Saw some great riding and was really impressed with the blocking riders are doing, it has been providing some spectacular racing although the sprinting ,I recon , should be mandatory for everyones final half lap as that was entertaining and provided exciting finishes.A close result today with the points going Salisbury's way and they earnt them too , well done.

Riders did their victory lap and then returned to the pit for the lineup and shake hands with the ref and opposition. Remember me telling you about the birthday boy  (Robert Fitzpatrick) well after everyone had shaked hands they surrounded him and then grabbed him and gave him the shaving cream treatment (it's an annual thing they do to everyone who has a birthday at LeFevre).

After some heavy wrestling the boys ended up with as much on them as Fitzy had on him , when they decided to finish the can off it was on again.The blurred pictures of this happening is not from poor photography (might be!) but excessive laughing while trying to film it.