Al Stewart

The Edinburgh Monarchs 100 fundraising group will be holding an online auction of memorabilia and other items on Saturday 6th June. The auction is expected to include rare badges, racing suits and helmets, race jackets, rosettes and programmes. Richie Worrall has promised to donate his league winning Leicester kevlars from last season and the other 2020 Monarchs will be asked to look out some personalised items! Details on how to take part in the auction will be announced well in advance, as will the full list of what is to be auctioned. The auction will be hosted by Scott Wilson, and anyone with any donations can contact Scott on auction@scott-wilson.net

It was connected to the takeover of Sheffield and the way Cliff Carr was treated.

We were late notifying last week I gather. Ours will be on there in future.

I thought we were organised to get this coverage but obviously not. I will investigate.

I bumped into Geoff last year and emailed him last night to check he is doing OK. He is and sounds very cheerful. He stopped coming to Armadale at a time when his work made it awkward, and he also had a spell of ill health. He writes articles on chess now.

Can any kind Diamonds fan recommend how to get from St James Park to the Speedway by public transport on Sunday?

Absolutely correct 2-4 was the best they were ever likely to do.

Michael Breckon

I remember one of my favourite quotes, a rare piece of BSF wit, when someone said "Garrity has declared himself fit", to which someone else replied "He'd declare himself fit if he had three broken legs."

Yes. Though it is on the screen in our stadium every week.

No it's just at the stadium. Permission given by the BSPA and BT Sport.

No not at this stage. It was announced at Somerset last night and I thought they would have advertised it further. It's a test but certainly those responsible believe it is ready for much wider availability.

Whether our season is "done" or not (for me it's not while there are matches to watch), the visit of Somerset to Armadale on Friday will be shown live at the Oak Tree Arena. Could be an important innovation for British Speedway.

I honestly thought Newcastle had a good team when they made their changes. They are Cup Finalists! But some of their riders are miles below what they should be doing.

However, viewed from the situation at heat 4, there appeared to be a problem. You would have needed a crystal ball to be aware that times were then going to improve, maybe of course you had one.

The track didn't look bad enough to me to justify a stoppage. However what the previous posters haven't said is that times went from 58.2 (heat 1) to 64.0 (heat 4 so it suggests there was more of an issue than it appeared.

Masters ave 8.79 Jensen 7.65 so all ok by your measure.

OK I've seen it now. Another unnecessary complication.

What is the rule?

This is spot on. Up to now my belief is that the Team GB setup is far more about style than substance. I would be very happy to admit if I am wrong about that. I can't even think of any way that things can realistically be altered. Either the riders are up to the job or they are not, and things like fitness, nutrition and team bonding sessions make only a marginal difference. The re-definition of 'team' to mean two riders plus an U21 has helped but realistically GB should not need this, there should be more riders at a good level. The aim should be to race Test series against Poland, Australia, Denmark etc with 7 or 8 man teams - proper Tests. This might happen in the future but the selection of Chris Harris (much as I admire what he has done over the years) doesn't suggest that we are aiming in this direction. Even Woffinden said we should be going with youth - surely he has a strong voice within Team GB?

One thing that I haven't seen anyone pick up on is the unevenness of the gates. If I've calculated it correctly, the results were: Red and Blue 51 White and Yellow 74.There were only 4 advantages for gates 1 and 3, 3 of these being against GB or Germany. All six of the 5-1s were from gates 2 and 4. It's disappointing when results in a big meeting, or indeed any meeting, are skewed in this way. The big finale winner-takes-all race is likely to be decided either by luck or by whichever team gets the better gates, assuming the balance is the same on the second day.

18,000

You have it spot on.

Any rider who is currently in the Championship and has not ridden in the Premiership this season can come into the Premiership on his Champ average divided by 1.5. Thus eg Craig Cook came to King's Lynn on an average 0.6 lower than his finishing average for Belle Vue last season, even though his form is probably better. On the other hand bringing a Premiership rider to the Championship, you multiply by 1.5, often making it prohibitive. This of course is intended to reduce doubling up but it certainly won't achieve this. Nobody will ever abandon the Championship because they know it would be very hard to get back in.

To say I empathise with this is an understatement. That is why I am in Edinburgh and not dashing down the country as I did for so many years (and enjoyed at the time).