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Best of luck to all teams, and fans, in 2019......ENJOY...

The crowd levels have a lot to do with it too....if you watch an average meeting as one of a few hundred spectators you wouldn’t enjoy it anywhere near as much as being among five thousand fans watching it for example. Speedway back in the day seemed so much better due to the bigger crowds, better atmosphere and sense of occasion even though the racing itself was very similar.

Just wondered if you had a bit of insider knowledge It might be... He just doesn't know for sure... I agree with most of your line up... But I would swap Wethers and Lambert around... Clegg at 7 is important imo... Wethers will be a lot better of a number 2 than Lambert will be... But they'll both be average number 4s

It can't have always been the case that teams using a historic name have to be actively looking for a new site in their area, because just a few years ago there was a team called "Mercia Vikings" and there hasn't been any "Mercia" land or any Vikings since the days of King Cnut and Knig Harthacnut over a thousand years ago! The Cnut running them must have been a 1,000 year old Glory hunter using a defunct name to play fantasy speedway who wouldn't put their Danegeld where their mouths are!

Think Max Clegg will be your key rider this year and end up in the main body pretty quick and Simon lambert will drop to reserve so you will always have a strong reserve and Danny will score his average most meeting home and away and think the 2 reserves will swap between the 6/7 pending who they are against

I'd guess at, 2 Lambert 3 Wethers 4 Bjerre The rest as you say.

Yes, but all the cars in an F1 GP are on-track at the same time, so it's the same for everyone at any given moment. That's not the case with a Speedway GP.

I think you are dead right. I also think that while there were some reasons to believe that Mildenhall couldn't raise a team that day the attempt to close this loop hole for riding absences is overdue. Basically, riders could opt out of a meeting for pretty much any reason and teams could get in guests to replace them. That's not on.

Speaking personally, I can't wait for it to start. First meeting Redcar v Newcastle 29 March (almost always first on my calendar for the year - good racing, good atmosphere and good friends from both camps). I am fortunate that I live in a place where - I would say - the best two racing tracks in the country (Belle Vue & Scunthorpe) are easily within reasonable distance. Throw in Redcar, Sheffield and a couple of returns to the apparently much improved Stoke and trips to the north east, the Wight Warriors and the south west and, touch wood, I'll enjoy my speedway this season almost as much as ever (the only downside being no visits to the Wild West ).

I don't really have an issue with TS or IRR. I have no doubt, though, that the NDL was fine without them.

I live about 10 miles south of the stadium, was dry until 6pm then rained pretty heavy til about 9. Dry now & forecast is decent for tomorrow so should be all systems go.

Pretty much like Cardiff to me.Look back at the racing and it is pretty mediocre.But as you say the occasion and bigger crowd makes it seems better than what it is really.

Agreed. Should have left the NDL rocking along without TS. They slash the points limit ridiculously low because they want to bring in the young 2.00 kids.... ...and then in the next breath they bring in TS, so one of those young kids is going to have to give up a ride to the No.1, whereas on the other side their youngsters are going to come up against the opposing No.1 who can now have a 6th ride.

The NDL rocked along with nicely without IRR and TS. Shame that such artificial devices have now percolated down. They are rubbish 'rules' and open to abuse.

Because you were younger imo ......... you enjoyed life more, you were up for a good night out, you enjoyed music more etc etc etc

Of course it's relevent would we have won the league with the seven we started with last season no and many season prior to that as well i am not knocking Neil it's just the way I see it

I love it when Alex Ferguson's reign is described as being easy as the richest club. The majority of the winning under Ferguson's reign was with players coming through the ranks of the club which is where the club's wealth came from. For me, Middleditch has just been Ford's puppet. Ford says who rides for him, who's sacked, which replacements are needed etc. Middleditch for Poole is exactly the same as a team leader / supervisor in business, powerless in hiring and firing and just there to fire up the staff employed by someone else. Matt Ford is the reason and only reason for Poole's success.

If anyone agrees with you or not it matters not. That is your opinion and you are entitled to it. In my opinion I believe Neil has done a great job. But that's my thoughts.

I wonder if Matt was the one finding the riders and putting the team/changes together. I don't know, but Matt certainly knows the rule book inside out

It goes both ways. A lot of people say Sir Alex is the greatest manger of all time. (Yes, he did manage more than 1 team) but the success was with 1 team that was the richest and had the best players in the world. You still have to win. And I think some of 8 prem titles middlo has been pretty impressive. Yes, 2013 was quite easy but 2015 he kept the side together after the shock. I do get the argument though. But I would certainly not describe Adams and Rosco as great if middlo isn’t described as great. In 20 years time people remember championships more than anything else.

I just dont see Middlo as the greatest manager thats all its called my opinion. He has had the best financial backing over the years at Poole and has been able to change riders as and when Poole need to. In my opinion Rosco and Adams have proved they can do it at other clubs with less resources. Lets see how Middlo can do at a different club is all im saying. Poole fans will quite rightly feel he is the best because he has managed their club but i think any manager could have managed Poole..............he was awful as Team GB boss.

I've never been able to understand this theory that everything was better in the old days. You can look back to a lot of results in the 70s and 80s and see absolute hammerings. Imagine how those type of results would be treated on this forum nowadays. The "second halves", I can remember a lot of the time riders didn't fancy it and either went through the motions, or were replaced by local juniors because of bike problems. I bet the forum members would love that these days. The good old days when riders were part timers, travelling about with the one bike on the back of a car. What if that bike got damaged in a crash or blew an engine? You either had to borrow another bike or withdrew from the meeting. You can imagine that going down well these days. You look back at the race time back then, I will use my own club Berwick as an example. Race times in the 70s and 80s are roughly the same as a Northern Junior League race now. Can you imagine many fans nowadays putting up with that as a night's entertainment. Yes it would be great if we could get back to a time where we had the top riders in the world competing in our leagues, but unless we can find some rich benefactors or miraculously find some big sponsorship or TV money, we have to accept this isn't going to happen. Let's face it, we were all a lot more easily pleased in the past. There were fewer alternatives, we were less coddled in those days. Now we want instant gratification and we want it all the time. For my opinion, speedway is better now than it ever has been, throughout the sport. More riders are becoming "professional", the standard of riders have gone up as a whole, right across the sport. But all I see on the forum is doom and gloom. I find I spend very little time looking at the forum these days, the general mood starts to bring me down.

no

I hope this goes ahead OK after all the recent rain and lack of warm weather to dry the ground. Probably better with it being scheduled for afternoon. On a separate tack, I wonder if Sam Ermolenko will be having a beer with his old bosum buddy David Hemsley, now the Beaumont Park landlord, and having a good chuckle about old times??

I only did top 4 and bottom 4 rest will be in the middle... Newcastle will be wooden spoon contenders without big changes