spanner47

Totally agree, he makes Nigel sound like whispering Ted Lowe. My preferred viewing options are the shortened polish version, you just see the line up, watch the race, and if nothing much happens you then see the next one, if something decent does happen they show it again, perfect way to watch a very average sport.

Sorry Phil, you'll need a better one than that. The only two day events in the olympics (that I can think of) don't end with a sudden death race off. If the best athlete is way ahead then he/she only has to do "ok" in the final event.

Thanks for that. I'm scratching my head to try and come up with the same scenario in another sport. But surely only Speedway could come up with something as unfair as this. I know play offs are a bit unfair on the real champions in many sports, but it's not sudden death like this.

Forgive me if this has been mentioned, I've looked at the majority of pages and haven't seen anything about the dreaded "J" word. With a two day final I suspect they'll want to keep it as close as possible. I haven't gone through this with a fine tooth comb, but I suppose the scores from the first day get added to the second, so if they continue to embarrass the sport by using this awful thing, will each team that falls behind be able to use it on both days?

Fair comment. I can afford Sky but not being a BT customer the price for both is prohibitive. I know you can always find these meetings somewhere on you tube, but you might accidently stumble across the result whilst looking for them.

Such a shame they've priced this the way they have. £35 for a seat is just too much for me and the wife. Would be worth it for the final with 7 competitive teams, but they'll be too many dud races at Belle Vue for my liking. So will watch the whole thing on the telly (HDMI lead from computer) once our friend racers and royals has posted his usual excellent links in the international section.

Very pleased with that 7, or if I rotate my baseball cap (if I had one) 180 degrees, it's well sick innit.

In some ways I'm glad its high as that should mean stronger teams. It's probably been set so high so clubs can have 5/6 riders doubling up, this will save on costs as riders will ride for less if they're contracted to a 1st division club as well as a 2nd division club. Looking at the proposed strength of our team, surely our top five would be wanted in the 1st division.

Thanks for that bruv. So last season we were guaranteed 19 home meetings, next season looks like 13. Nobody bothers with individual meetings these days, but some clubs will have to invent some meetings to fill the gaps. I'm sure we'll have a strong side that will progress in most competitions, but fans of some clubs will have a lot of blank weeks.

Just read the BSPA statement. One whinge, the KOC draw, looks like all teams will be riding the same teams that they're riding in the league cup. I appreciate it's the luck of the draw, but couldn't they have put teams from the same area in different pots?

Looks like we'll be in Div 2 and still riding Thursdays. With the 1st Division riding Mondays and Wednesdays. More than happy with that, just need to put together another good side and hope for less injuries.

Some bloke from Colchester called Kevin Knights. Only get the SS once a year,and it was still on my "must chuck that out pile". His reasoning for backing Berwick was down to Gary Havelock being a "man motivator", might have helped if he'd actually looked at who they'd signed.

No one knows yet, but if BT are going to show it, it's highly likely they won't be paying for the privilege.

Leicester have always resisted moving to a another night, and have preferred to ride Saturdays with loads of guests. So seems strange they've gambled on signing an expensive rider with no TV money and the uncertainty of what crowd levels will be midweek. Hopefully their gamble will pay off.

I can't see how two race nights can work, who wants to ride Monday except for Wolves? This could mean every team riding on the other night some weeks. So where do the guests come from? The top 5 riders of the div 2 clubs will be riding in the 1st Division, so teams will be replacing top div 1 riders with div 2 reserves. There are more Friday clubs in the 1st Division than the 2nd, so chuck some Fridays in when the Danes aren't riding, this would help Belle Vue and Somerset. Yes, it would upset Edinburgh, but better to upset one team than screw up a whole league.

How could any Witches fan turn down the chance to watch a GP star? What a performance with a dodgy shoulder, rode through the pain barrier, what a brave little soldier. Yes, I had forgotten about him.

Don't usually bother with saying about next season before we know what's going on. But hopefully we can keep most of this team. I reckon if we go up into a diluted 1st division, then replace Connor with Nico, that's the sort of team I think we'll be looking at, no TV money will mean very weak sides. If we stay in a diluted 2nd division, then replace Rory with Danyon. Obviously this is total nonsense (like all 2018 posts) but I think this will be roughly the strength of the teams we'll be looking at. But whoever it was that put this seasons team together, make sure they're in charge of putting next seasons side together. Best side in the League, just a shame they never got to ride together, if they had, they'd have been almost unbeatable.

Never head that conspiracy theory before, but certainly wouldn't say it was fantasy.

For the first time I went up in the seats, couldn't hear a thing but never really liked the bloke when I could hear him. Also needed a light to see my racecard. Shame, you get a big crowd, many of whom haven't been there for years. Hardly sets a good impression, not too sure what our rent is, but surely we deserve better. The good Lord said "let there be light, and there was light", but sadly it didn't extend to all parts of Foxhall, also noticed how dark the 3rd/4th bend was, soon the lads will have to attach headlights to their bikes.

Good point, I'd (stupidly) forgotten that our sport is full of cheats, or people that manipulate the rules if you prefer. In that case let teams have a guest, if they go with R/R then it's tough if a rider gets injured, but if you're prepared to pay a bit more to get a guest in, then you should be allowed.

Totally agree, not having a go at your lot, but I'm almost certain this rule will be changed at the AGM.

Technically there are, but no doubt the rule makers will be tweeking the rule that screwed Ipswich over the two legs. Had a top P'boro rider got injured then he could have been replaced by other decent riders, but an Ipswich rider got injured in both legs, but we couldn't replace them with adequate replacements. I thought this was the worst I'd felt after a meeting, but then I recalled Oxford all those years ago. For younger readers, we needed a 5-1 in the last heat to win the cup, Cook and Doncaster gated and it was nailed on, then Cook made a stupid mistake, took Donkey out, they got a 3-3, and the ignorant Yank was doing wheelies.

Never thought the whole meeting would be defined by a split second mistake. Our hatred of Sedgeman has just got bigger, if that was possible. Certainly a season defining decision in so many ways, but nobody could have envisaged how signing him was going to haunt us like it did in both legs of the final. Apologies to Panthers fans, but I just can't bring myself to saying well done, losing a top rider in one leg is bad luck, in both legs is ????????????

Last time I joined a queue this big, the Bay City Rollers were blaring out over the tannoy.

In under three hours time we'll (hopefully) be lifting our first trophy for 19 years. Come on you Witches. We all moan about doubling up, but without it we wouldn't be watching King, Nicholls, Harris and Barker tonight, so I suppose every cloud and all that.