MrMungo

It'll be re-staged next Saturday, weather permitting of course!

Thought he rode well, Montie. He impressed me. Looks like he could be a solid reserve for next year.

Completly concur, young Screamer. A very disappointing and abrupt end to the season.

Made my first visit to Lakeside for many, many, many years and despite the diabolical British weather, I rather enjoyed the day out. The people there were extremly friendly, and the track staff worked wonders to get the track even semi-rideable. I really thought it was going to be another wasted trip at about 5pm. Credit has to go to all 13 riders. Some clearly found it easier to adapt than others, but all 13 gave it their best, and you can't ask for more than that. Lots of falls during the meeting, but thankfully the riders used their heads, and most were just innocent-looking slid-offs resulting in no lasting injuries. Even experienced something I have rarely experienced before. A referee admitting he was wrong! It was just a shame he didn't admit to it until after I had filled out my program!

Restaging is this coming Tuesday so I gather, at Scunthorpe. 7pm start.

As far as I'm aware, he was going to ride. Whether he, or anyone else for that matter, wanted to ride is a different debate entirely! The POSF were supposed to be done by Sunday, but wouldn't be at all surprised if they weren't given an extension.

I'm sure they can. Garrity was due to ride for Belle Vue last night, and not Leicester, for example. If Scunthorpe get to the final, I would fully expect the Worralls, Birks, et al to put their NL commitments ahead of the dead rubber meetings in the PL.

Saints lining up as(assuming all riders get through tonight's meeting okay): R/R, Smethills, R Worrall, Wrathall, Nielsen, Dwyer, Holloway

Shall do (if you're wearing shorts )

Cheers 'king. Any other updates during the day would be hugely appreciated. The forecast for the rest of the day seems a little bit hit and miss. Hopefully the rain will stay away - I don't like getting wet!

What was the reason given for KL not being in the KO Cup?

No, Irving is now 3rd in the averages, IIRC. Guest only for your number 1. Birks is also injured, but think he is planning to ride on Thursday.

This might be it?

Honestly? I'm probably not in the best position to comment as I don't know all of the facts. However, Benji Compton was signed as a replacement for John Oliver, aswell as to cover any of the PL riders' unavailability, I am guessing. During the season, there's been nearly someone riding elsewhere. On this occasion though, there's no other PL meetings scheduled, so Sheffield/Scunthorpe effectively had an 8 man team, so they had to leave someone out. I am assuming that NL line-ups need to be declared 3 days before the meeting, but I am not totally sure of that. Later it turns out that Benji Compton can't ride(for whatever reason), so they probably only had the choice of sticking Stefan Nielsen (who I assume is the inexperienced rider you are referring to) at number 8. Either way, I'm sure it will be a cracking meeting tonight. Hopefully there won't be as many falls as there were in March (and a narrow away win would be nice! ). I'll be looking forward to the return leg at Sheffield next week.

Why would I have issues where Mildenhall are concerned? Some very unsavoury scenes I'd say. I don't think I have ever never seen such an over-reaction to a first bend incident. No doubt it was hard and Lambert should count himself lucky to be in the re-run, but even so... Maybe hooligan was not the greatest of terms but people like that don't deserve to be placed in the same category as the decent minded Mildenhall fans. Some fine races towards the end, agreed. Several spread out races towards the middle of the meeting and riders struggling with the track at the start of the meeting, which appears to be the norm when I have visited Mildenhall. Certainly a lively meeting though!

Disgraceful behaviour by some Mildenhall hooligans. I know all clubs have some people like that, but Mildenhall always seem to have far more than most. People like that need to be kicked out of the sport asap. Great back against the wall performance by Stoke. The injuries to Atkin and Nobes (Isherwood looked competitive too in the reserves heat before his bike conked out) obviously stretched them to the limit but to come out of the meeting with only an 8 point deficit is a great effort. Special mention to Simon Lambert, who was immense. To compose himself after the mayhem after the first staging of heat 13 was quite an achievement. Sarjeant also looked good, and Pickard deserved more than his points tally. Next weekend should be interesting!

The track is always like that. Generally it has far too much dirt for a small track.

The Belle Vue home leg has now been changed to the 28th September.

I seemed to recall that he impressed on the P&P day, and was announced as the number 8 then. As the season got going, they seemed to realise there were availability issues, with the side having 4 PL riders, along with Paul Cooper's availability issues. They then signed Greg Blair. Stefan Nielsen was booted down to number 8, and Oliver Greenwood was the number "9" I suppose you could say. Back to the thread, got to feel some sympathy for Ben Reade. Not paid that much attention to his scores, but he's seemed to have done a solid job at reserve. He's perhaps a victim of being in a successful side! Sometimes people grow from adversity, and hopefully Mr. Reade is one of those. It's a tough sport sometimes.

Scunthorpe/Sheffield named Oliver Greenwood as number 8. Whether he was officially listed (on the BSPA site) as number 8, I can't remember.

I think they key element here is that it is a joint venture, so if they do make it all the way (to the final), then in the interest of fairness, the semi should be staged at one track, then the final at the other. It's still the same team - they just don't have just the one "home"! I agree the name element needs to be looked at for next year though.

I'll take number 3, Paul As it is a joint venture, I think they are staging this one at Sheffield, and then if they qualify for the final, it will be staged at Scunthorpe, and the team will be known as Scunthorpe Saints. The team name seemed to be based on where the home leg will be staged. It's a bit confusing. A good idea, but probably needs a bit of tweaking for next season.

It's a shame that Buster sold Ward and Batchelor when he did. They have had the riders who could have spearheaded an EL outfit, but at the moment they just don't have the assets (to the best of my knowledge). Off the top of my head only Topinka, Sitera and Smith are anywhere near EL standard. Out of those 3, Topinka struggled all year, Sitera needs to ride more often at this stage of his career, so think he might be PL bound next year. Smith could be worth a shot at a reserve berth next year. EL speedway (racing wise) has been great this year, but with the team-building, I think they hit gold this year. Might be a different story next year, and the year after (etc) until they build up a stronger asset base.

The news is also on the "Hackney experiment" thread, and your comment is still on there.

I don't know Shadders, but it's possible that they are having a tough time putting out a competitive side. Or maybe the forecast was bad? If they are going to have a double-header, then surely 2nd October would be the best option?