Najjer

It's well and good having a quantity of rider, but the maths will not stack up when actually compiling the required or correct riders. For arguements sake, Somerset last season and even Poole to a certain extent this year couldn't find a number 1 to save their lives. Spread that across 11 more teams and all you end up having is a big league filled with riders, but decent teams and very poor teams. How is that good for anybody except putting teams out of business? One big league is a terrible idea unless you want to water the product down further and incorporating the National League. Watching Jason Doyle blitz riders like Matthew Wethers and Tobias Busch is not my idea of fun! In actual fact the top division could just with Ipswich and Sheffield moving up, freeing up the Thursday issue too and missing riders completely. Even then there would be a struggle to create 10 teams of equal standard.

Especially when the tide is in!

Was he at the OTA last night? I thought I heard it mentioned but I can't remember now!

Sacking somebody via text message means your reputation takes a dent. His reasons for doing so are completely warranted but how he conducted that business is another matter altogether. With regards Allen, I quite agree - hence why I said misfortune and not 'terrible bad luck'. Allen did however seem to imply that he didn't think the puncture was caused by any contact from the fence, as he completely the best part of a lap since that contact.

A few of us commented on Lawson last night too. Much more aggressive and like you say really getting stuck in. Much more like the rider of the year last year that was - Great to see. A word for Nico Covatti too... Looked poor in his first ride but came to life afterwards and was all set for his second win in heat 14 when the red lights came on.

The sad thing is, like I said the other day and commented on last night at the speedway, that nobody wins in all of this. It's comes across as playground stuff from both Charles Wright and Garry May. Everybody loses.... Charles Wright loses as he no longer has a job at Somerset. Garry May loses as his reputation takes a massive dent with the handling of sacking a rider(s) via text message. The Somerset team performance loses as we've sacked last weeks top scorer. The Somerset fans (most important of all) loses as we lose our longest serving rider and most entertaining. The only person who stood to gain from all of this was Claus Vissing but even he now loses as he is so far out of depth riding at no.3 he failed to score last night. If we had had Charles Wright last night, or frankly anybody who would of scored 4 points or so we would of blown Poole out of the water, along with Jake's misfortunes. I hear a few people stayed away last night because of the events of this past week which I'm surprised at. I'm first and foremost a Somerset supporter and all I want is to be entertained on a Wednesday night with good racing and see my team win. Against a better side who weren't carried by their star reserve, we probably would of lost last night and got entertained alot less in the process without Charles. Sad situation all round.

Your wish is my command!

Or a poor reason - as Somerset ride on a Wednesday night.

I wonder why Auty hasn't been signed for Somerset? Demands too high perhaps?

Richie Worrall although he completed a season at the OTA, made no secret of the fact he couldn't get the hang of the track. I don't expect too much from him later on, which is why he's been moved to no.3 and Grajczonek to no.5 for this one. Light drizzle in the air at the moment, should make it perfect for racing later on. Im going for a 45-45 draw.

So you say for the 162nd time.... not that you're bitter that he is now riding as a heat leader

Does that mean R/R or NL guest?

There was plenty of passing, including around the outside.

Not for the first time, the voice of reason. Good post. I think the biggest issue is not that Wright has gone, it's more what he's been replaced with.

This is pure speculation as I haven't checked the international fixture list, I wonder if he was due to miss a few meetings because of the Danish league? As his scoring was more than good enough in my eyes.

I'd assume it wasn't what was said... It was probably more how it was said.

Having two strong reserves is of no real benefit at the cost of a heat leader. Charles Wright has been riding in a heat leader position since the start of the season and has been relied upon to be a heat leader too. The way our team is set out it will be a constant swap between Allen and Wilson-Dean for our first choice reserve position. It's no use having two decent reserves if you haven't got anybody giving back up to Doyle at the top end. One has to wonder, why Ricky Wells hasn't been signed up? Maybe he was an option and for whatever reason it didn't happen, but he would of been much more like for like as oppose to Vissing. First and foremost, I support Somerset and not individual riders - So I really hope this works out for the club as at the moment it looks lose-lose for club, riders and fans involved with nobody gaining.

Well so far we have heard: 1) presentation night last season 2) rowing with the trackman last week 3) disagreement with Gary May over his choice of tactics so.... take your pick really!

Absolutely. With that said, Poole should be taking all 4 points now. Vissing isn't a bad signing but Covatti looks a poor one.

It's been said before by others they were the ones who wanted stupid money to attend the presentation night last season. Somerset wanted Chris Holder in the winter so it's also pretty obvious to work out that Charles Wright and Jepperson were always the Plan B, if not Plan C to that. One can only assume after Charles Wright's antics that was commented on in the Somerset-Wolves thread last week that that was the final straw for him, regardless of his heroics on track!

That'd pretty much the nail hit on the head. We are unbeaten at home and picked up the odd points here and there away and then won at Kings Lynn too. Whilst it's good to see the promotion making a stand against riders like Wright, Grajczonek, Hougaard etc, the changes are disappointing at best. Covatti seems to have been poor for Ipswich.

Terrible news. Just when we thought we had a settled team, especially when they were all starting to click on track at least at home, we're landed with this bombshell. It's no secret Wright wasn't supposed to be in the original team anyway after the presentation night fiasco at the end of last year and Chris Holder was, followed by the reports of him whinging about the track time after time, I suppose it should come as no surprise albeit not easy to accept. Probably even sadder to see Jonas go as he looks like he has something about him, especially if he could learn to gate! Almost left speechless by us signing Covatti and Vissing. Both seem past their best and neither of them are up to Wright's standards. Both very injury prone too so I'm not sure this is the long term solution, so expect some more changes on the way....

Im not sure if it was intentional or not.

Bit extreme - he appeared frustrated when chasing Rory Schlein, his steel shoe came loose and was left dangling which he seemed to toss over the safety fence on the second bend after the race. Just to clarify also, there is no spectators in that section anymore.

Would hardly call him a track specialist. The last few times he has visited he hasn't ridden the track that well considering he rode for us for a few seasons.