Al Stewart

This not how I recall it. You usually know your stuff but I am pretty sure it went from 7 with bonus to 7 without bonus. I remember being concerned how it would affect Cameron Woodward who was in our team at the time. It may well have been 8 with bonus some time earlier.

Sedgmen was third in the Australian Championships last winter which qualifies him for a visa. Davies and Smith I presume qualify on the grounds of their 7 point average in their last season. I'm pretty unimpressed that officials being paid by taxpayers waste their time on this drivel, doing nothing but harm. But equally the BSPA should long ago have appointed someone intelligent (if they could have found such a person) who has no other job in speedway, just to oversee all of the work permit situations and ensure that we avoid exactly what has just happened.

I think it should be enshrined in the rules, to assist promoters who don't realise they are harming their own business. Let's say the optimum length of a 15 heat match is 1 hr 45 mins. Tracks should be fined if they take longer without a good reason. If there is a crash which say takes 15 mins to sort out, then that can be added to the time ie now you are aiming for 2 hours (though ideally the meeting would be speeded up to compensate for the delay). This would also impact on referees who are slow with the 2-minute warning. It's amazing how a fast-presented meeting without much good racing can seem better than a long slow drag even with some decent races.

It's a tough time to be a Redcar fan. I suppose it's OK if you just go along for a drink and a chat, hoping to see a few good races. At least it's a nice venue.

I'm pleased Scotchopper posted as he did because it saves me doing it. It's surely obvious that the article on the website isn't a match report as would be produced for Speedway Star, it is comments on the Edinburgh website primarily for Edinburgh fans on how the Edinburgh riders have done. Whilst I have no plans to check, I assume most clubs would carry a similar article in the circumstances, those who bother to do anything anyway. Time and time again the same characters come piling on to Edinburgh threads to whinge about what a bad lot Edinburgh are, it says more about them than any validity in the comments. Of course everyone wishes Rusty well.

I point out coming 2nd in the British Final, although a good achievement is not comparable to British Finals 20 years ago yet im told thats laughable. Is it? You've changed the comment though - of course coming second in 2014 isn't as good as coming second in 1994 but it's certainly more than the equivalent of just qualifying. What always amazes me though is the attention paid by fans of other clubs to Craig Cook, and the eagerness to jeer every time he doesn't have a good meeting. How about Ben Barker, Josh Auty, Eddie Kennett, Richie Worrall? None of them have gone as far as they should but don't get this attention. Simon Stead gets huge praise just for being good at Sheffield! I'm not criticising any of these riders, it's up to everyone just to do their best. Until late last year I had seen every meeting Cook has had for Edinburgh and I don't have the slightest doubt that if he could ride as well in the EL as he does in the PL he would score much more heavily. As yet he has found it hard to ride with the same fluency and confidence. Maybe he will go on to achieve more and maybe he won't but let's wait and see. Jason Doyle is a prime example of someone very good in the PL who has suddenly gone to a higher level - possibly because he was forced out of the PL. Until 2013 Cook had more than the measure of Doyle in the Premier League, and Doyle had been around that division longer than Cook had.

Craig has still to do himself proper justice in the Elite League. But it's laughable to suggest he wouldn't have made a British final 20 years ago. Runner-up last year ahead of Nicholls and Harris. Incredible how so many feel the need to jump in and comment.

I'm sure he would,why not? He's due one. It was talked about last year but at that point Glasgow had more dates to offer than Edinburgh, though eventually it didn't happen. This year there's no one else offering.

I'm sorry but I know the history a lot better than you do. The only time he made up his mind to leave Edinburgh was to go to the Elite League in 2007. That is what most people would say should be the aim for any PL rider of a decent standard. Unfortunately he lost form and confidence after a month or two in the EL, though he did come back into the Edinburgh team for a short time but got dropped. I did not say he had an EL average, he was stuck on 7.6 from 2006 and that was felt by virtually everyone to be too high for the way he had been riding. He did get a brief run at Berwick but was dropped by them too. In 2008 he had a try at Swindon and then Mildenhall but not enough matches to get a new average. He kept hoping that somehow the rules would change to get him a new average but it didn't happen till post-2010. He did not want to be away from British Speedway in 2009 and 2010 but he wasn't offered a place. I repeat: a Monarch since 2002, other than a failed attempt to go Elite in 2007. Never turned down a place when offered one, would have ridden for Edinburgh or anyone else in 2007-2010 had the chance arisen. No comparison whatsoever with the other names you have mentioned. I'm sure everyone is bored now with this rather sad discussion.

You may not have noticed amongst all the nonsense that Theo Pijper has indeed ridden a total of ten seasons for Edinburgh. I don't think anyone disagrees with the general point, as you call it, but as I said he has chosen the wrong target. Oops sorry I got carried away and got that wrong, it's 8 years for Edinburgh and two on loan to Glasgow plus another part season. Still an entirely deserving case.

Pijper is completely the wrong target. He has been 14 years an Edinburgh rider, has never asked for a transfer, has accepted a place in the side every time he has been offered one and has always done everything possible to race in every fixture even if he had other commitments round about. Sometimes Testimonials are awarded to sweeten a rider's deal for a particular season, but Theo isn't in the Edinburgh team this year. So why would Edinburgh give him a Testimonial, except that it is the right thing to do?

You are talking rubbish. It's almost impossible nowadays to do 10 years at one club due to points limits. I would not expect you to have detailed knowledge of Pijper's career but the truth is he has NEVER chosen to be away from Edinburgh, other than after 2006 when he decided to try to move up to the Elite League. When that didn't work out, he was stranded between leagues on an average which made it awkward to return to PL. He only got back in because his average was reassessed after 2010 to a generously low figure. Edinburgh already had their team at that point so he went to Glasgow. His first loyalty is to his family, so he will ride and do his best for whoever offers him a job. He was perfectly happy at Glasgow, of course, but the fact is the only years he hasn't ridden for Edinburgh were years when he wasn't offered a place.

I don't think there can be much question that he deserves a Testimonial. He's certainly done 8 seasons for Edinburgh and 2 on loan from Edinburgh to Glasgow, and another part-season as well. So what's the complaint?

Clubs need to make up their own riders' wages from the basic (paid by the staging club) to their agreed pay rate. The answer might be for each club to pay points money at a higher rate than basic to all riders for Fours events. That's what happens with individual meetings (which is probably why there are so few). For the Fours it could be worth it. It would mean some riders getting a bit less than they are used to, but for four extra meetings they should swallow that.

That's the real problem isn't it? If the sport was properly organised, good riders would move up full time. But the crucial thing is that you must earn more in the Elite League than you do in the Premier. It would be completely unfair otherwise, and although points money will usually be higher in the EL, the sporadic fixtures make it hard to ensure that it is worth anyone's while to move up. I can't stand doubling up, every team should have its own riders, but we have got ourselves into this unholy mess and it's hard to see a way out.

I heard Charlie Webster on the Moral Maze on Radio 4. I thought she was extremely poor and incapable of arguing her position beyond restating what it was. She didn't even seem to understand the questions being put to her and certainly didn't address them.

Is this the most wrong post ever in the history of the BSF? I see someone else had beaten me to that, sorry.

The way you look at averages, they do lie. Cook pairs up with Sedgmen and Masters for many 5-1s and has 43 bonus points in the Speedway Star lists. Simon Stead has 4 bonus points. Averages with bonus are a much better basis for comparison for top riders who gain most of their bonus points in 5-1s, and the figures are Cook 10.34, Stead 9.70.

I think that TRs in a two leg playoff are a farce. But the only time it's unfair is when one team gets to use more TRs than the other. In this final, both teams got 2 shots at them, after that it's down to how successful they are and that's up to the riders. In this case, if you like, Justin Sedgmen's superb second bend in heat 8 to pass Morris when he was on the TR was the deciding factor. Nowt wrong with that.

How odd that Somerset have scored more points on their track than Edinburgh have scored on theirs, and yet Edinburgh have scored more away. Does that not suggest the opposite? (I see the dopey smiley).

You are definitely wrong about that.

Hard to equate the Pairs with the League surely ?

16 wins on the trot since we drew at Newcastle on 17th August. 18 matches unbeaten since losing at Somerset on 13th August. And that's following a 24 match unbeaten run to start the season. And I still don't think we have all that strong a team.

Awful decision by Gardell.

But when we went to Peterborough, their top five was Blackbird, Dryml, Summers, Ostergaard and r/r with them all getting a ride. They are weaker now. Still a valid point though. This is such a ridiculous post. Edinburgh would never bring in to their team an established Elite Leage rider like Eddie Kennett. We signed Craig Cook in 2011 with the money we got from transferring Aaron Summers. Sam Masters was begging for a team place on Facebook. Justin Sedgmen had been written off by many. Steve Worrall was a 3-pointer. Max Fricke surprisingly didn't have many chasing him, he would probably have gone to Leicester last year to link up with a friend in the area, if they had made an offer but they didn't. Yes it's expensive, of course it is when they score 59 away from home the day after getting 67 at Armadale.