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It really does not matter what any other team says about the Panthers side as I have not heard a single complaint from our fans. Firstly I am a fan of speedway and whether we win the league or not does not matter but would be the icing on the cake. What I do know is that I am looking forward to being entertained with this team so bring it on.

There's not a "Rye House" feel about the team at all. Rye House had Kasprzak, Harris, Nicholls, Kennett and Robson. Peterborough has a still on it Hans and Harris, that's it. So, you see, absolutely nothing like Rye House at all. This Peterborough team is the best in the league. Every rider etc Harris barring injury will increase their average no problem. I'm not sure that can be said with other teams. Saying all that, and Peterborough fans understand it, it's not how you start a season, it's all about how you finish it. If this team stays together they're top 4 no problem, but the Peterborough Showground always produces spectacular crashes. Also, Peterborough never finish a season with the rider's they start with, pretty much the same as every team so finishing positions can't really be judged until late July, but on paper right now, by far the best team against other teams already signed or predicted.

Can't be as strange as someone who doesn't go, doesn't watch, but spends an inordinate amount of his time on a forum telling people this and having a go at the sport he doesn't go to or watch.

Josh and Richie 2 riders not likely to improve. Worrall was reserve last season and still didn’t pull up any trees. Fully expect him to swap places with Covatti Josh third heat leader I assume and struggled at number two last season Not a lot of excitement for Poole fans

Not very subtle but accurate!

My sentiments exactly it does not matter what opposing fans think , nothing is won on paper anyway, there's a few miles to cover before it is decided who the top four to go in the play offs are and fortune and misfortune will play a part for all teams along the way, but with the assembled team we have it should provide top class entertainment .

Think you are spot on and nice to see a level headed approach. I think Panthers fans will have plenty of entertainment in 2019 and think sides will have difficulty picking up points at yours. May surprise some away and with strength throughout the side think they will be hopefully well placed to pinch points away.

But now an armchair critic with f*ck all to contribute.

As have I. The difference is if signed for this coming season, he isn't leading the team. He was an awful signing last season on the inflated average he was carrying and coming back from injury. Signing him meant the season was as good as over before a wheel was turned. That said, he's a rider that the club has been loyal too (and the rider to them) and have seen him improve year on year so in one respect it was understandable. What would be absolutely criminal, having thrown him in at the deep end at No 1, a position he wasn't yet ready for, is to not take advantage of him having a lower average and another years experience under his belt. He is still improving as a rider and has the potential to move forwards and next time he moves to 1 or 5 he will be in a much better position to perform. I agree, if Pawlicki were to sign it would be a superb signing and at this point I could accept him over Thorssell. What I would not be able to accept is Schlein/Masters being signed at the expense of him. That is sheer lunacy. The only excuse would be if Thorssell flat out stated he didn't want to ride in the UK this year... but then you would have thought he would come out and say something along those lines.

Spot on I have no idea what some people are seeing when they look at this Peterborough team ?, clearly one of the strongest teams named so far Cook / Andersen / Harris will be a match for anyone especially around the showground , "like Rye House" , ... really ....?

Klindt I would think. That would still leave options in case they are still waiting for Richie to sober up after the AbuDhabi F1trip!!!!

I think we can all agree Thorsell didn't have his best year but if he signed as expected then that will benefit Wolves for this season. If he can get back to his best he will be almost unbeatable at Monmore and much better away, I remember him having some excellent meetings at Poole.

Might need to get some TM advice from Garry May on how to manage Holder Jnr.

I certainly would , communication with fans during the winter break is vital in my opinion Buster should be keeping fans up to date with what is going on and not using the mushroom effect but I believe that's the Buster way ,its not exactly mouth watering at all .

I don’t know a Panthers fan who isn’t delighted with the side

That's a no then

Completely agree re the entertainment factor.......plus, selfishly, Thursdays work really well for me...... excited for the first time in ages......

Gotta say, I feel Peterborough look one of the strongest teams so far! 3 decent heat leaders & both reserves will be potent (whichever 2 they are)!

Team is fine. Will easily make the playoffs. If a rider underperforms they will be replaced. 4th good enough going into the playoffs. Middlo always gets the team firing when it matters most. Happy Christmas to one and all.

Over and over and over again...we are bored now of your opinion, once said it created mild interest...now it is mind numbing in its repetition,!

'Was' being the operative word. Absolutely no interest now other than to be critical.

I think Masters will stay at number one in the Wolves team, I agree internationally Max has a better record and would always get the nod in a world cup or cup of nations team but there is no denying their averages are similar.

Personally I would be very happy if we signed Jacob and Ash as the last 2. We would have 4 riders who were riding at No 1 at some point during the last season and all had 8+ averages at some point in the season. Backed up by Kyle and Luke with Ash spending the whole season as a reserve, happy days.

Sam Masters is the number one as a rider of his average should be, he is no less a number one than Fricke.

I just don’t get why any top level rider would sign for a 2nd division team. The money deal was clearly too good to be true.

I don't think its making any noise ?, its all about opinions , i definitely respect yours , My opinion is there's too many question marks regarding BV line up , (Bewley / Worrall fitness , will we get the 2017 Bjerre or last years? ,Lydsey inexperience, etc ).. Wolves look really strong also, Nick Morris could be signing of the season on that average , and if they get Thorsell back I'd have them as favorites

But wasn't the track largely below standard last year? Heard several reports of riders unhappy with the surface (riders who had been happy with it for many previous years). Now it could have been the higher league influence, a whinging aussie influence or something else but Somerset is one of the best race tracks in the country and until last year its been rare to hear a bad word said about it.

Personally I have no qualms over the 'sport' not being mentioned. However, a British World Champion SHOULD be mentioned in a round up of 'other British World Champions' which is something they always used to do.

I actually think you underate Jacob he was coming off a nasty injury and all in all his figures were not that bad.He actually impressed me at the Abbey he was quick and forceful.I see him averaging 7.80/8 this year.

No he wasn't. Not in the year Stevebrum was quoting.

Yes. It was Boxall and Armstrong and they were knocking in scores of 10 and 11 every meeting and making it a mockery. In saying that I believe that is the rule in Poland, and Zmarzlik was one of the beneficiary a few of years ago.

Instead of attention seeking it would be a good thing if you got yourself informed on what the petition is for. It is not for a debate. You can go on the Thurrock council website and keep up with the news if you are genuinely interested instead of putting stupid post on here, so toddle off.

So... Definite play-off teams Somerset - Best looking team in the league, will be hard to beat IMO Sheffield - Strong again, won't be touched at home and will compete for top-spot Play-off contenders Glasgow - Obviously strong, but look weak-ish at the bottom end Redcar - Love our top three and we will get some points on the road, and Stewart Bacon and Smith are very exciting prospects Leicester - They could be the dark horses for me, look a good team Workington - Always strong at home, and can't be written off - but hard to see a repeat of the title Missing out Eastbourne - If Lawson and Kennett are confirmed, they will be hard to beat at home Edinburgh - Not too impressed, they might struggle early on, but like always with a good promotion they will make changes Scunthorpe - Not a bad team, but not sure strength is there to challenge play-offs - List in top-five is a bit of an ask Bottom dwellers Berwick - Might push higher but still not too strong and don't see how they can challenge the better teams Newcastle - Poor team, unless last signing is Nicki Pederson - although I can see them making early changes which could make big difference Birmingham - Built to a budget, can see it being a bit of a struggle first season back

Jake was fiercely critical of the track last year and became unpopular with the track staff. Whilst his popularity grew with the fans, it decreased considerably with the management.

The problem is that the BBC are (and it might be argued, have to be) politically correct. That means if by far and away the 5 greatest sporting achievements were made by white males one of them at least would be dropped to accommodate a female and someone from an ethnic minority. It also means that the awards will never have the credibility that they should, even if the allegations of vote rigging are untrue. The sadness of that is it damages the achievements of female and black sportsmen, because they don't know if they are there because of what they achieved or because they are female and black. While you might - and I think you have a point - object to netball, I would say that skeleton racing is far more of a minority sport in terms of UK participants and spectators. I nevertheless suspect that there would be few who would deny Lizzy Yarnold her nomination as Britain's greatest ever winter Olympian. For me, and in terms of achievement, I would say that hers has been the biggest of all. You'd think, though, that others who were the greatest ever Briton in their field - even if that is a minority sport - might at least have been mentioned. Humph is spot on, though. Just don't watch it.

So the team lines up as follows before the big night... Our two final riders to be announced tomorrow... Fill in the blanks 1. Thomas Jorgensen 7.66 2. Nike Lunna 5.63 3. Victor Palovaara 6.25 (correct average, I got it wrong the other day, 5.80 was his average before he signed for Edinburgh last year) 4. Matthew Wethers 5.78 5. 6. Max Clegg 3.17 7. 9.51 left... Who will the blanks be? Danny Phillips and Lasse Bjerre seem the popular choices, but who knows... I still think we have a decent looking team, might not look the strongest on paper, but I am really looking forward to watching the Diamonds next year, with a lot of new faces and a lot of entertainers... Watching Nike Lunna fly around the outside will be reminicent of watch Rene Bach back in the 2010/2011 seasons... Maybe Rene can be that blank at 5? Maybe he needs money to look after his kid, and speedway is the best way he can make it...

Gosh, i really hope your anger issues are resolved soon

You have a right to discuss but repitition becomes boring. You have a right to discuss but repitition becomes boring. You have a right to discuss but repitition becomes boring.......get it

Your negative posts remind me of a previous poster on this forum. Whatever happened to Matt Ford Fan?

Not an exciting team obviously built on the cheap.Maybe a few mid season changes

Looks like Kings Lynn will be the weakest of the three East Anglian teams

Ive always wondered what happened to David Hemsley

I'll always tend to leap to the defence of the BBC. No matter what other daftness blights the country, the BBC, for me, remains the world's best and best value broadcaster, bar none. It's not perfect, but what is? SPOTY is a classic bit of BBC. High profile, by and large well done, slightly uncool and unrealistically trying to please everyone. I felt Ivan Mauger deserved a nod along with other names lost this year. He's widely regarded as the most successful speedway rider ever and I think this merited it. As for Tai Woffinden's ommission, I'd like to have seen it. But I understand the low relevance of speedway on the entire sporting landscape. And "something they always used to do" is never strong basis to simply carrying on doing it. I suspect that with the increasingly diverse sports landscape and the UK's unprecedented success in recent times (in what other eras have we simultaneously had the World Heavyweight Champ, the F1 Champ the Tour de France winner, multiple Olympic gold medallists and Wimbledon men's champion?)...that listing all of the British world champions would be quite a process and wide open to leaving some out.

Please look after him. Having watched him for about 10 years at Arlington starting with 4 laps before each Elite League match on a small machine we have become very attached to him.

I suspect it will be the Lawson, Kennett & Morley combo that was initially "supposedly" lined up. Obviously there have been a few delays with Eddies average then Morris potentially became available due to his Polish team being refused a licence, thats now been resolved so Morris is realistically off the table and it will be the Lakeside Eagles rather than the Lakeside Eagles......

So you keep saying, but and it’s a big but only you and Sidney seem to think so

we can all sleep easy now.

Well done to all involved in putting the team together

As there was no mention of any Speedway on SPOTY, and Tai is trying to raise awareness of Speedway, I thought I would Request a Bet odds on him becoming next Man Utd Manager. Let's see if we can get this trending? If everyone does it, maybe we can get a mention on the BBC?!!!

Interesting article written by journalist, ex-promoter and regular Backtrack columist Martin Rogers. Spoke a lot of sense and although I never totally agreed with some of his tantrums (Oxford winning at King's Lynn in 1984 for example) how speedway could do with the likes of him now.