Carrie

Have you any idea how hard it is to not accidentally find something out?

Thanks for the info, it's a shame, but not a big surprise. Ah well, Cardiff is a bit more affordable for me to get to.

Earlier in the year there was talk about having GPs in Australia and New Zealand next year. Checking the speedwaygp.com website there's still only 3 confirmed meetings showing on the calendar, none down under. I wondered if anyone had any info about how discussions were going? Thanks

In case the link isn't working (or just to save people time) Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty area is the front runner for a NZ event It has an airport (domestic flights only) is only 2 hours drive from Auckland, and has a good range of accomodation available. March is, of course, just comming out of summer and the weather should be really good still. If it happens I'd really like to be able to get over there to see it - but it might need a lotto win!

The cynic in me thinks there may also be some other commercial thinking going on. Putting things 'on the red button' is a good way of keeping a competitive edge over other providers. You have to be a sky subscriber to get it. Good way of saying 'look what you're missing'. Really glad I saw this post though. At least now I know not to start watching it. I'll record the full length programme later and watch tomorrow evening, I get the advantage of being able to miss the adverts as well. Sadly its quite easy to not hear the result by accident

Yup, the rules for how the game is played might take a bit of reading, but can you imagine in rugby if the losing team was allowed to have their next try score double? or in the Ashes if the loosing team could nominate an over to count for double runs?

Why not keep it simple and let the team that can gain the most points win? If the rules made sense it might even encourage more people to watch the sport!

Unless they hold all the big meetings at stadiums with roofs then rain is always a risk; In which case it seems funny that there doesn't seem to have been a plan B. Either that or Sky just hadn't kept up and didn't know what it was.

If a rider is unable to continue because of the actions of another team (i.e. a racing incident that results in an exclusion) then that team should not be penalised. Having a reserve would return it to a level playing field. No team manager is going to keep their best rider in reserve just in case of injury (are they???) so why put restrictions on who the reserve can be? Personally I wouldn't support subs being introduced to the sport.

It does seem to go against any semblance of natural justice that a team can be responsible (as in the referee excludes the rider) for an incident that has the end result of a team losing a rider for the rest of the meeting, whilst the team that caused the loss can, after the one race exclusion, keep riding at full strenght. In league matches I've often thought it unfair that the top rider can only be replaced by a reserve in those circumstances, but better than nothing. Why not allow them to use rider replacement - with everyone entitled to take one extra ride?

It surely can't be fair to regrade the track half way through a race - which it must be if they've already had two starts, especially if that costs someone a place in the semi's (and I'm not just saying it because Scotty missed out)

Excellent racing, but I was surprised at the lack of trackside medical/1st aid support available for the riders. Carrie