J_D

I for one love it. Still a great read. It would be missed if it was not here. Like Richard Watson said, cut back on the black background with white type set, I think I have commented on that before!

Agree about Zagar and Lambert. If IMG do what they have done to justify there Wild Card selections in previous years then they will include the Swedish and British Champion!

Agree about only best available option and some poor auto selection given the time to log in. Tickets brought, not as good location as last year but happy. However my only slight criticism is the timing of the sale of the tickets. Why put them on sale the day before Stockholm GP when many die hard GP fans are either in Sweden or travelling there today? The FA used to do this with England tickets and that was heavy criticised and they stopped doing it.

Decent crowd strange sloping track layout meant in many parts unable to see whole track. Really needed back straight open for best viewing especially due to direction of dust and the lack of distance between parked vehicles and the track on bend 1&2. Lots of good food and drink stalls available and easy exit from car parks. Credit to Swindon Speedway and Max Perry with their stands great talking with them and all the other stands. Presentation was up there with the worst. The amount of people frustrated with the poor and incorrect result announcements was a big let down and joke amongst the crowd, as was the unnecessary delay before the semi finals. 1h20mins to do four heats before another delay before the finals was amateurish as was the inability of the commentator to give out the line ups of the semi and finals in a slow and consistent manner. He was slow giving race results and fast when he should have been slow! Why give out line ups in non programme number order so you have to flit all over the place while he announces at double quick speed? Needed a Phil Morris type Race Director to keep things moving long nicely. Racing was decent enough the Bristol Club should be commended for their efforts.

Yeah looking at the list Zdenek Holub born 19/02/2019 is one for the future!

For the floating supporter living around the Exeter area that still works out about 45 miles for speedway in either direction, you are forcing them to directly choose between meetings which does not on the face of it seem a sensible business plan. I believe when the Elite league finally goes one night there will be an initial dip in attendances as I know of plenty of fans who do multiple meetings in a week. Reduce that income and the tight margins speedway operates by will have an affect.

What I have never understood is why they run so often in direct competition to Somerset. Friday for example it was always going to be a struggle to attract a decent crowd. Somerset had Swindon in town and Peter Kildermand. For a neutral like me on a cold March evening driving to the South West Somerset was always the first choice. However if Plymouth was the Saturday it was have given me the option to stay overnight and attend both meetings. Only hardcore fans would have bothered to attend a meaningless Open meeting over seeing the Elite League stars at Somerset. Too many times last year they were in direct competition with Somerset. It would be interesting to see the attendance figures from last season for when they were not.

Thanks SCB, so he did! I had not realised he returned from his bad shoulder injury for the end of season play offs. Come to think of it he looked off the pace and unfit at the OTA in October. Still I would not discount him based on those meetings. Do those meetings count towards his rolling average if so even better ?!?!

Really? I would like to see how you came to that conclusion as he only rode 1 meeting last year before being injured! I would suspect he may end up at Leicester as they are lacking riders but he is a steal on a sub 7 PL average.

I think Holder maybe in the team as I would have thought he would have already been announced in the Plymouth line up if he was returning as he had a 3 year work permit. I can see him on loan from Poole with Josh returning on a full transfer as part of the Brady deal. I think the team could well be as RebelRebel posted a few pages back: 1. Josh Grajczonek 8.50 2. Paul Starke 6.00 3. Charles Wright 6.89 4. Jack Holder 7.10 5. Rohan Tungate 7.74 6. Ollie Greenwood 3.00 7. Zach Wajtknecht 3.00 However I would personally prefer a more experienced reserve to take the pressure off the 3 pointer I do not think it is in the riders long term interests to put so much pressure on two 3 point riders together. Not sure if these riders have retired or not riding next year but I would swap one of the 3 point reserves for Richie Hawkins on I think 3.34 and replace Holder to come under the limit with Kauko Nieminen on 6.6 (if correct from Glasgow 2015 thread) as he is a more experienced than the touted Kyle Howarth on 6.98. If they are going with two 3 point reserves and Holder is not in the team then Matei Kus on 7.13 is a classy rider to have but it is probably more cost effective having Kyle Howarth.

http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/19768/lot/318/ Another lovely example.

It could be the case of doing what is easy for BSI which is to select the 9th,10th, 11th finishing riders. That should tick sufficient boxes based on nationalities.

It could be the case of doing what is easy for BSI which is to select the 9th,10th, 11th finishing riders. That should tick sufficient boxes based on nationalities.

I think it is a decent business decision by Eastbourne. EL too expensive, PL not much cheaper with all the Northern tracks and too many tracks. NL allows them to develop and use local talent and gives Kelsey Dugard a team place, they will have local derbies with Kent so all in all, sensible.

Not a million miles from both Coventry and Peterborough who are both on borrowed time. Maybe a sensible move by someone :-)