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Once again you malign a rider without worrying about the truth. KK had one bad meeting - the one away to Coventry when Crump returned. JC scored 15, KK, 2. He was “spoken to” after that and his home scores after that - up until JC got injured - were 11+2, 12 and 11. To me, that’s not exactly losing interest. And, if he changed in his van, he must have had a secret door from the changing rooms to the car park as he went in there in his day clothes, and came out in his race suit. I am biased of course because he exceeded my expectations and was one of the most professional riders I had to deal with.

Debs... or whatever you chose to call yourself at this particular moment is like thrush. An irritable twät who just wont go away.

The rule book plus the doubling up and down and the overall experience at the tracks makes the package very undesirable. The bikes are clearly not suitable to most of the UK tracks. Having the top riders back won't really make any difference to the above. Let's face it the sport in the UK needs a complete overhaul top to bottom rule book the lot. The problem seems to be that the bspa for whatever reason for as long as I've been a supporter have never wanted on the face of it to run the UK leagues in a professional manner. Well that's not strictly true the old NL prior the amalgamation with the BL at the end of 1990 was a professional well run league.

Always going to be contentious issue on who they pick ,they should be concentrating on picking better tracks IMO.Give the riders a decent track and you will get some cracking racing.

Against Swindon - Wolves on tv, that is a bright idea

cost IOW and Play Off chance, cost Eastbourne an excellent KOCup Final chance and probably the Cup, crap attitude to the Teams and supporters who pay his wages. what's to like?

I think that having no gp’s and no world under 21’s to think about next year will do Robert the world of good definitely thought that his work load was to much this year. Don’t know if he is likely to get a place in the sec but should be able to cope with that. An injury free year will also help him regain his 2018 form and we mustn’t forget he still is only 21

How about moving it to April 1st. Any year

might be not sure

As the song goes lets call the whole thing off dog racing sunday

are you related to Jenga ?

Yes.

The big surprise has to be Lindback, simply because of the 13-point chasm between the riders in the eleventh and twelfth places. In short, Lindback was an also ran for the majority of this year’s series. Excluding Greg (out the whole year) and Woffy (injured and then coming back from injury), Lindback was the second worst rider in this year’s series, ahead of only Kolodziej. Odd that he’s been included, ahead of the likes of Drabik and Michelsen, who clearly showed better form in 2019. With 14 of the same permanent 15 riders as 2019, the GP is in danger of becoming a closed shop. Even “the new face” (Fricke) rode in half of this year’s series as second reserve rider. It needed at least one fresh face. Drabik or Michelsen would have provided that.

Having started watching at Crayford in 1980, my first hero was Paul Woods, who never really fulfilled his potential From then on, it was Barry Thomas at Crayford and Hackney I think I lost a little bit of love with the sport the day Thommo retired

Having nothing much to do on a damp Monday morning I have had a look at the averages. When Worrall was injured I calculated his average for this season to be 8.76 (including bonus points). The Lions have used 8 different guests (16 meetings) and, on one occasion, rider replacement. Including bonus points the average works out at 8.71. More or less identical!

I cant believe the things that some people say on here About how boring next years series will be People wanting the likes of Drabik, Smektala and Lambert because they are young and will 'add something'. What will they add apart from in all liklihood being the bottom 3 in the series ALL riders have a chance to qualify..............the likes of Zagar and Iversen proving they are the better riders than the supposed young riders. Michelsen is a possibility but he had hos chance and got 5 in the challenge..........and in Vojens he hardly pulled up any trees scored 6....3 points less than Lindback Wouldnt have worried me if it was MIchelsen or Lindback........... Someone has to come 12th and 13th and if those riders who are 12th and 13th are better than the 'young guns' then they need to be in. Nobody can turn round and say that next season we dont have the worlds best 15 riders.

He was. Several times but sadly it didn’t work. He kept himself to himself, used a mechanic based, I think, in Peterborough despite being offered the use of Middlo’s workshop. I still like the guy but am sorry the way things went.

Your dislike of Hancock is reaching laughable proportions now. You're as bad as Adonis/Speedibee with Woffinden. What you mean to say is there is literally zero evidence that he ISN'T capable of competing. There's 30 odd years of evidence stating that he IS capable of competing.

I know that, I would go and see any speedway they put on, not bothered about winning leagues and cups just like to watch speedway (being a Kings Lynn fan that's just as well)

You got that right... Nobody who saw Wroclaw could fail to get a buzz...

Track has had a lot of rain on it and won't take a lot more however a small deficit and rusty Belle Vue will mean Kent will definitely want this one going ahead. I certainly hope its a full and fair 15 heat affair with the best side coming out on top. Nobody likes these evnts decided by contentious decisions.

And Adonis, perhaps he's reading it on his latest 'holiday' from the forum.

Hate to tell you this, when I left UK -left strict instructions for my mam(RIP)never to chuck out any of my speedway stuff.After I knew I wasn't going back I asked her to ship 'em all over-so I have all my progs and Annuals from the sixties till when I left-actually I do refer to them e.g. re the Clive Featherby thread- re Les McGillivray thread will get around to checking out the meetings I saw Les race. Call me a nerd (you won't be the first0 or as you say over there an anorak. I don't care-I'm just glad I still got 'em they bring back lots of memories.

The 2020 line up may be fairly close to the world’s top fifteen but with a very similar field to this year and with pretty much the same tracks it doesn’t fill me with great anticipation for next year. Smacks of more of the same which, for me at least, wasn’t a particularly vintage year.

It's funny, looking at some of the comments on these threads (not just this particular one)... Some don't want Hancock because he's old. Some don't want Hancock because he's "boring". Some don't want Lindback because he's "never finished higher than seventh". Some don't want Iversen and Zagar because "they don't add anything". Some don't want Laguta because he is "just a gater". Some want a bunch of youngsters, just because "they are the future". The thing to remember is that this is the World Championship. Unlike the old system, the GP series is actually designed to include the best 15 riders in the world, and surely, that SHOULD be a goal of ANY world championship. World championships are designed to find the best right now, not those who will be competing ten years down the road. No, it's not going to be perfect, as nothing ever is. There will always be questions. Yes, personally, I would like to have seen Michelsen in place of Lindback, but can ANYONE state categorically that the line-up for 2020 doesn't include - or at least come damn close to including - all the best riders in the world? Steve

I fail to see what Linback has done to justify a wildcard

When the heavens opened at 6pm i feared the worst. The track looked very wet before heat 1, but held up well despite the rain falling for the majority of the meeting. All of the riders deserve a lot of credit for knuckling down and riding very sensibly in what must have been very poor visability.

We are not the only ones fed up with the rain https://www.facebook.com/ItsGoneViralOfficial/videos/714464832351539/UzpfSTEwMDAwMTQwNDMxODI2MjpWSzoxMDE1NzY5NzU0NTU4MzgyOQ/

In the Premiership league matches only count towards rider averages (as they do in the NDL); in the Championship, Shield matches are also included. It should be noted that only matches up to and including the cut-off date count towards averages, so the two CL matches after the cut-off (Eastbourne v Birmingham & Edinburgh v Newcastle) will be excluded from the calculations. The effect of all this is that the 1st October averages should be the final averages for the season.

With playoffs and extended seasons,it is crazy trying to get these fixtures on in October! As S4S said the league should be sorted by end August and any Cups done after.

I was devastated when Thommo left Hackney in 81, although it didn't turn out too bad as he was lining up for us most weeks as our number 8. Plus scoring big in the NL meant he scored well for the Hawks as he was full of confidence. Of course 'the messiah' came home in 84 along with six other riders who I didn't have a clue about, but 'Angel' Andy Galvin, Paul Whitt and good old Moggo turned out to be Hackney legends. It was no more than Thommo deserved when he was part of our fantastic league and cup double year of 88.

I expect they looked at the three riders finishing fifth in the challenge, Asprgen, Loktaev and Thomsen, then quite rightly concluded Lindback was the better choice.

If he is going to call off, he always does it early. He used to do that in his Hackney days. So it looks as if Cityrebel is right.

So basically its the same as this year but Koldej out Fricke in. Good job it was a decent series this year. new faces or not 2020 looks a strong line up.

Good call.The weather is meant to improve on Tuesday and the forecast for Wednesday is no rain at all.

Do you have any compelling evidence to the contrary?

GP's give me a buzz alright, especially on a track that allows racing of the highest order. Its British speedway that is flat for me, for the opposite reasons. I know all tracks cannot be like BV, but preparation for racing is lacking at most.

Not a surprise, but this from the SGP website says it all. Hancock is set for an historic return to speedway in a year, which will see him become the first 50-year-old to compete in the SGP series, when he celebrates his half-century on June 3, 2020. This is not a sporting decision, this is a marketing decision. If we are going purely from sport, there is literally zero evidence that he is capable of competing after what, 15-16 months out of the saddle? Whilst I am not a fan after his pathetic bullying campaign against Nicki, I truly hope that he can compete otherwise it will prove the mockery of the system. So many questions... How much will they hype his age up next season? How much influence do Monster have in this process? Was that the real reason Monster flew him over to Cardiff? Is he definitely riding? Because if not it will be unfair on the reserve call-up if that rider gets told he's riding the series at the very last minute.

Coventry picked him up after he was sacked at Lakeside after he missed some meetings. Schlein went the other way to Kings Lynn in return for Bridger. That was Kasprzaks best season he didn`t do too well the following season when teamed up with Nicholls. Kasperzak was doing well at Belle Vue up until they sacked two riders to bring Crump in after that he lost all interest don`t think he cared for Crump too much it was said at the time he got changed in his van.

I don't believe KK was released from Coventry twice, and when I released him in 2013 it was for just the last match of the season to give Linus Sundstrom an opportunity.

Shawn was fantastic. I was a student in Sheffield at the time and lived watching him. I do remember one night though Simon Wigg making Shawn look half pace. He came from behind in one race and beat him by nearly half a lap.

Depends which league you guys are in now. Rumour is you've been bought by Buster.

Absolutely not. He rode for BV in 2009 and, as Neil Watson found, was a great guy to work with. He and I would meet in the office before every home meeting and go through his pay slips to make sure he was happy everything was up to date, then, more often than not, he’d go out and score double figures. But there is no doubt he is an enigma. When he rode at Poole in 2017 he just seemed to close up and no one - management, fans or fellow team members - could get through to him. Such a shame

Bewley might be someone that benefits from riding a smaller track to improve his skills.

Need the best 15 riders. That would do me.

KK was one of the most straightforward riders I had the pleasure of dealing with. He’s a thoroughly nice guy too.

Agree. There should be a limit to how long guests can be used for an injured rider.

I hope Redcar get through simply because Leicester have used a horses for courses approach to finishing top using guests for Richie Worrall. Injuries are part and parcel of the sport but there should be some sort of time limit to find a replacement or you revert to r/r.

i''m afraid that the british weather is so unpredictable...your suggestion means that for teams not in the play-offs then their season ends in august.. I've seen enough people complain on here when that happens to their side.... as long as all done by end of oct...next year the early October weather will be dry I expect...