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Kings Lynn won the Premier League, Poole won the Premier Trophy. My opinion is that topping a league over a season of home and aways is far more prestigious then a club that wins the final 2 meetings.

Another tough few meetings for the boys hopefully they approach them with the determination they showed against Edinburgh - this won't be easy so need to be on it! Heres to us making the final

As you say Scunthorpe could have run with a half a team of NL riders.... Or they could have scoured Europe for replacements if not enough available in the UK.. Or they could have pulled out of the League... And if they did that they would have at least freed up their non injured riders to replace other injured riders in other teams.. Bottom line is... Maintaining guests = Maintaining zero credibility.. Maintaining zero credibility = Maintaining almost zero mainstream media interest.. Maintaining almost zero mainstream media interest = Maintaining low crowds due to the lack of the publics awareness of it.. Maintaining low crowds due to the lack of the publics awareness of it = Maintaining zero interest in sponsoring it from large national companies.. Other sports have injuries to competitors, often several competitors from the same team. And they have to carry on.... Speedway cannot use 'ahh but this is speedway' as its catch all bollocks, get out of jail card.. If there are too many teams and not enough riders then completely change the dynamic.. Put simply, dont keep on using the same failed operating model over and over again.... As guess what? It doesn't work!

Treble world speedway champion, Tai Woffinden, was interviewed recently by the Polish Media: daily sport newspaper "Przeglad Sportowy" and leading speedway website sportowefakty.pl Here are most interesting fragments of it in my translation. (…) You dedicated your third world title to Tomasz Jedrzejak, who tragically took his own life last August . Who was he for you? He was a friend. I rode with him for many years in the Wrocław team. He wasn't just a teammate. I knew him on the private level. When it turned out that we lost Tomek, it was a terribly sad day for me. In such moments, one does not understand how it all works, why one lose such a great guy. However, this is life, situations which we have to face. I wanted to point it out . (...) Former Poland's GP rider, Krzysztof Cegielski, said that speedway killed Jerzejak. Do you agree with this opinion? If Tomek, or someone from his family told him so, then perhapas that was the case. . However, if neither Tomek nor any of his relatives said anything like that, then people should not speculate what contributed to this tragedy. I think this is something bad. You won three championship titles. Is it possible to compare them in any way? Which one tasted best? Definitely the one from 2013 tatste best. It was my first championship. It was a very important moment for me and an amazing feeling. There is a very big difference when you talk about the title from 2013 and 2015, because I won the first championship in the last round. Two years later I enjoyed the championship during the penultimate round in Toruń. It was really strange to go to the last round to Australian Melbourne with the knowledge that I do not have to fight for anything anymore. My reaction to this championship was also strange. I thought to myself: "Ok, cool, but we must be thinking now about the next title." It was not such an amazing joy as the first time. Five years ago, you said: Absolutely no children for the next 10 years, because I want to get more championship titles. Things have changed a bit in this matter. Was your little daughter in the stands an additional inspiration? Definitely. I confirm it one hundred percent. My life has changed. Five years ago, I was just beginning to get acquainted with my present wife. There were no serious plans. We did not even talk about children. Things have changed when we got involved seriously. Then we decided to marry and we started thinking about a child. Now my life challenge is to make sure that my daughter have everything she needs. It is up to me to provide her with financial and mental support . That she would have the best chance of fulfilling her plans in life. When you won the gold in Toruń, Faye, your wife cried. What was her role in this success? We've been together since 2013. She helped me win three titles. 2014 and 2016 were difficult seasons for For various reasons. I had some successes there, but not at the level I would like to have. She helped me to survive these moments. When I come home after riding, sometimes I'm happy, sometimes pissed off. She endures it all patiently, although for her it is an emotional roller coaster. Thanks to her, I always have a safe haven at home. When I started dating her, she did not know what tspeedway was, and even now she is not particularly interested. The fact, however, that we love each other so much, makes her able to enjoy my sporting happiness. When I am successful, she is happy herself. Tears in Torun probably were tears of joy and happiness, that something I worked hard for the last three seasons, something good for both of us, I have managed to achieve again. Have you had any moment of doubt this season? I do not have moments of doubt. I believe in my skills, I believe that if the best version of myself gets on the track, thenI will be the best. Many experts say that to become a speedway world champion, you have to drive hard, sometimes even unfair. Do you agree with this opinion? I do not agree. Let anyone show me one race, that I rode hard and sent someone in the fence. If I overtake someone, I do it clean. I do not foul anyone, I do not push out anyone, because I can do it in a completely different style. We ask about it, because in Poland there is an opinion that Maciej Janowski does not win medals in the world championships precisely because he is too soft. Maciek is my friend and I think that he will prove to many people how wrong they are. Were you surprised that Nicki Pedersen - three times world champion did not get a permanent "wild card" for next year's Grand Prix? No. There is a new generation group of speedway riders who deserve having a chance. For example, Leon Madsen, who in the Polish league proved that he is world class rider. I am for the refreshment of the cycle. Young riders are able to add a bit of madness and excitement to the Grand Prix, because they are hungry for successes, hungry to get more out of every competition. Speaking of young people. In Great Britain, after years of drought, a young and talented "shotguns" appeared: Robert Lambert and Daniel Bewley. Are they able to break into the Grand Prix? How long will it take them to do that? They must ride in the Polish Ekstraliga and Swedish Elitserien. If they score good points there, in each event, then they will be ready for the Grand Prix. If they can not do it, they have nothing to think about the world championships. They will not be ready forit. Freddie Williams, Peter Craven. Are these names telling you anything? No. They're British double individual speedway champions of the world. Winning the gold medal for the third time, you have improved their achievement and became the most titled speedway rider in the history of Great Britain. It does not matter to me that I am the most titled British rider in history. What matters to me is that I achieve the goals I do set for myself. I set myself a task, I try to concentrate on it, to realize it. History, future, other things do not matter to me. What matters is the satisfaction that after completing my work I can achieve my goal. Does it mean that you do not think about catching up with Ivan Maugera and Tony Rickardsson and the six titles of the individual world champion? I’ll catch up with them. I'm sure of that. It will be difficult to do, considering that at the beginning of this year there was information that you intend to end your career in 5 years time. That's not true. Polish media made an error in interpreting my interview, which I gave in England. I was asked about the goals for the future. I replied that maybe I will ride for the next 5 years and then I will finish my career. Maybe I will ride for a year and then I finish. Perhaps I become the world championship and say that is it. And perhaps I will be like Greg Hancock and will compete for the next 15 years or even longer. The information you are talking about lacked the full context of what I said and one key word: maybe. So for how long will you ride speedway? For now, it is, as it is. I am enjoying my riding. I love what I do. If in the future I will still enjoy speedway then I will continue to ride. When the day comes, that this sport will not give me pleasure, then I will end my career. Some say it's easier to get a title than to defend it the following year. You failed to do it twice. Do you have any plans that for the third time it will not happen next year ? If I knew what mistakes I made, I would not commit them. To find out and understand... these are the keys to avoid disappointment. Now I will have a third chance to correct my mistakes and I will do everything to avoid them and defend the championsho title.

Employing guests to cover for injured riders should be the way to go, but they need to be of a reliable nature, not someone like Ellis who clearly had other intentions. Had we used R/R in the second leg, after his obvious performance in the first, we would have won that Play-offs no problems. I will never understand the reasons why Lynn used a guest who had so much history with Poole... With Robert, Rizz , Proctor and TJ all going well , they would always score more than a dubious guest.... I hope NKI is fit to ride, but if not, don't lets go down that same road as last week. Leave it to our own riders who wont let you down......

since the bbc dropped the met office as their source their forecasts have become very unreliable. Quite where they get there info from now i'm not sure but I've given up looking at it.

Nope. I am not missing any points and I certainly never "avoid" any points or cherry-pick my way through a discussion. I am happy to debate on any point raised, as you will see below. I simply disagree with you. As you will see from my postings previous, I acknowledged that women's cricket is still a sport in its formative stages. Is it bigger or smaller than speedway? Well it's certainly debatable. I am unsure where your figures on 20,000 fans attending league speedway over a two week period come from - are you able to share that source of information? Women's league cricket is definitely in formative stages and league crowds are small and I tend to agree on that front. I suspect they are lower than speedway's, which we can confirm when you produce those speedway league attendance figures. But its World Cup Final sold out Lord's and was watched by 1.1m TV viewers on Sky Sports and 180m TV viewers worldwide. So, there's definitely a lot of wider interest in the sport. So whilst it might irk you that it gets a mention on 5 live, there is clearly an audience who are interested. I hope the sofa appearance on BBC Breakfast of Tai Woffinden eased your rising annoyance over the BBC ignoring the sport. Again, the BBC showed their unique quality of offering fair recognition when it's due. Kind of renders the political correctness point as groundless doesn't it? But let's also not kid ourselves. There would have been other people with other sporting tastes watching that saying "Who cares? Why are they bothering with that Mickey Mouse sport?" Such is the rock and hard place that the BBC often finds itself positioned in between. You wonder why you are not alone in disagreeing with me? Well, this is a speedway forum, used by speedway fans, who are biased towards...you guessed it...speedway. Naturally, a more neutral perspective is bound to get a kicking by some of the more blinkered among this happy band. Finally, yes I agree Woffinden is the best British speedway rider of all time. Does that make him a greater sportsman than an Andy Murray for example? Of course not. Murray reached the top in a truly global sport in - arguably - its most competitive era. Come SPOTY, I'm sure Tai's achievement will get a rightful nod, but even in pure motorsport terms, the significance of the achievement will likely come behind that of Lewis Hamilton (5th WC) and Jonathan Rea (4th WC) - and given the modest size of our sport, that's fair enough.

It is worth whatever someone is prepared to pay for it. Given that I find it hard to believe there is a club in British speedway which hasn't made a loss over the last five years, the value of every club is zero. You are effectively buying an expensive hobby.

100% agree Harris will give his best,but how can a rider.........infact i give up trying to explain to others.

Reduce the averages again and we will end up with more riders struggling to find a team place

Don`t forget Tai was racing on Sunday in Poland, had the big Extraleague end of season awards night on Monday so the earliest he would have been available was Wednesday onwards.

Someone has put this line-up on the internet- can only assume he knows ??- seems a fitting line up for the climax of this series !!!!! 1.Greg Hancock2.Karol Baran3.Edward Mazur4.Nick Morris5.Luke Becker6.Arkadiusz Potoniec7.Michał Curzytek8.Nicklas Porsing9.Aureliusz Bieliński10.Mateusz Rząsa11.Jonas Davidsson12.Kyle Howarth13.Rory Schlein 14.Maciej Kuciapa15.Aaron Summers16.Dawid Stachyra

I don’t accept that - he just didn’t ride as well as he has this season - this May be due to machinery but certainly not an agent for Poole

What a load of rubbish. Ellis had one season at Poole! I would have loved to have kept him, but he was released back to Lakeside and then sold to Swindon. Good luck to Bomber, he will give it everything. That said, I would prefer KIngs Lynn to win the Cup!

Is this an official thread tho ?

Top 10 of all time is perhaps an unrealistic benchmark? By definition you'd expect only one such meeting every couple of seasons. There were 2 or 3 poor GPs , the rest were good to excellent imo. Personally think the last few seasons have been amongst the very best in the gp era, and better than most world finals from 69 onwards (can't comment on pre the recording era)

But to be fair teams can also bring in guests and get hammered on the strength of it

Absolutely wrong there SS, King's Lynn finished top of the league so they were the best team over the season 100%. Poole just got lucky in the play offs.

So the bloke who knocked us out of the play off final is now riding for us in the cup final, if i was a somerset fan i would be up in arms and couldnt offer any support to harris .

2016 was the year they had the test match at the same stadium. Last year was the test match Poland v Denmark at Czestochowa plus meetings scheduled at Poznan and Leszno

He might very well want to ride in the UK next year, and without doubt all supporters would love to watch him racing here. He really is becoming a fantastic GP prospect and for him the economics of the job will eventually have to dictate where he works. Like the rest of us he is still waiting to find out whether or not we'll have speedway in the UK and at what level next year, because he'll need top quality competition to keep him progressing. I must admit he has really impressed me this season, not only in his racing but in his off track demeanour and interviews. Good to see him smile and look like he's enjoying life.

Listen, it's a lot funnier than what's going on in the sport right now!

What a ridiculous thread.

if i was 20 miles away and not a panthers fan , but a speedway fan . I WOULD GO , NO BOTHER . hope he gets a decent crowd and the good people of Peterborough stick with Ged for the last meetings of the 2018 season . less fans = very little chance of selling the club to a prospective buyer . attend , attend , attend . show some support .when its gone , its GONE .

You're sounding a bit like a horrible racist