Grachan

It will be even funnier if Kurtz helps Belle Vue into the play offs and Poole get turned over by them. The Aces are certainly the most in form team at the moment.

Of course it makes a difference. It's not about the points being scored, it's about the credibility of the situation.

It is crazy to have a Grand Prix rider unable to ride in the top flight because he is riding the in Second Division. It's time for this stupidity to stop. Of course, supporters of Glasgow will probably call this Division One snobbery, but even they have to see the ridiculous of the situation here, surely. However, with the rules as they are, the decision should clearly be based on when this fixture was arranged and when he signed for Glasgow. Nobody seems clear which was first. But he should never have been allowed to sign for Glasgow in the first place.

In which case he should 100% be riding for Glasgow. Good decision by whoever decided it.

In which case he should 100% be riding for Belle Vue. Bad decision by whoever decided it.

If Poole win this, and it suddenly seems distinctly possible after they lost at home to Belle Vue, Somerset are suddenly having a few worrying looks over their shoulder. They'll have the worst home record apart from Leicester.

Was this re-arranged before Cook signed for Glasgow? If it was he should be riding for Belle Vue. If not he should be riding for Glasgow. Presumably this is what is being followed?

OK. 32 dates for 13 home meetings then. I don't know how it is at King's Lynn, but at Swindon there seem to be plenty of dates where there has been no speedway when there could have been. So much so that fans get frustrated by it.

The fixtures last from the beginning of April until the end of August. With Mondays and Wednesdays, that's 22 weeks to fit in 14 (say 13 with Rye House now out) home fixtures. Two days a week in which to do it. That's 44 dates. 44 dates to fit in 13 home matches. Why can't all the teams manage that? I'm not defending Swindon's scheduling either. It was appallingly bad last year.

There was a bit of a Martin Dugard / Brian Karger thing going on for a while.

I think the point was that fixed nights hasn't had an effect on whether or not a team completes their fixtures, and I don't see how it has. It's really not hard to get all the fixtures in. I remember at Swindon last year there were frustratingly many weeks with no matches - yet they still got their fixtures in before the cut-off despite this. With so few team in the league there really is no excuse.

Maybe, but they said at the start of the year that they were going to make less restarts, so maybe she's the one who is doing it right.

Good for her. Pulling races back all the time is driving people away from the sport. Wasn't there an objective to not pull races back this year? Anyway, Harris didn't jump the start. He just gated well.

I think it's more a case of Penhall going slow to make it an interesting race, knowing full well that Stancl won't pass him. Lanning's commentary is interesting in that race, though, talking of Penhall "playing to the gallery".

The league cup was a decent season opener, and was probably brought in due to the number of clubs in the top flight reducing. I remember one year they went as far as effectively having two league campaigns - with all the clubs meeting each other in the league cup and then again in the league - and then having a final for the league cup at the end of the year. This was taking things too far really. I don't see how increasing from 13 to 15 heats is a negative, although when they first did it they added a second reserve race. The format now is better, although the protected heats format was the worst. The nominated riders heats at the end is a good addition. Bonus points in the KO Cup? I don't remember that. Terrible idea. As was the TR and the Golden Double. The TR was the most stupid introduction of all. They should never have got rid of the old tac subs really, as this was a major tactical discussion point throughout the meeting. When they did that, they effectively changed the entire sport and what it's all about. But, if they brought it back now, people would probably be outraged at how unfair it is to the winning side.