Cue Ball

Hmmm not quite sure what happened there to be honest! I posted the first sentence and second sentence about an hour apart and have no idea where the third sentence came from!!!

I'm heading down for a look see, don't think the rain has been that heavy, but it ain't going to be pretty! That would be a no on the practice front That would be a no on the practice front

In addition to the above mentioned riders Josh Bates and Simon Nielson are also having races against similar experienced riders, do would imagine that there will be something like 20 heats in total

Just seen that - it should put a few bums on seats as there will be a fair few that will want to see him ride again

I can't remember a Sheffield team previously having pre-season practice sessions together (prior to the press and practice day at least). They seem to have had a few sessions this year already - judging by team member comments on twitter, it's been great for team spirit and can only be a good thing for people like Bates and Nielson to gain experience from the older riders without the pressure of people watching etc

The problem arises that if one of them has a crash and takes out the fence or needs a trip to hospital, it messes up the main fixture. As people are in the main paying to see the senior team, nothing should be done to jeopardise that meeting being completed or it being unnecessarily held up (in my opinion).

At least 6 home and 6 away isn't it? and then it is on the basis that Andre will make a mockery of his average at reserve and that Simon N doesn't do the same in the main body of the team. Be interesting to see what riding order they go with - I imagine it will be: 1. Simon S 2. Simon N 3. Poole 4. Lanham 5. Roynon 6. Compton 7. Josh But they might be tempted to sacrifice Simon N and put him at no. 5 so that we have 2 solid/experienced pairings in the main body of the team to get points - like we did last year with Facu - and hope that Andre can get solid points at reserve and act like a heat leader when riding with him

Is he continuing? Machin is staying on for a year to ensure we retain voting rights

Hoggy - if you read this.... thank you for all the hard work over the years at Sheffield and in speedway generally. I hope that you do `pop up` again somewhere soon.

What do you know, I was right - it was a good night!

Looking forward to tonight! It should be good

Kozza has conceded defeat on the visa front, think I read somewhere that he is replaced by Richard Hall

Just going by pretty much every other programme in the country. I did say that it is my opinion. Some are better than others, but on the whole they don't give as much news/information as the star and only cost marginally less. For me a programme is something to be disposed of at the end of a meeting and I don't often choose to throw £1, £2 or £3 away, which is what I would effectively be doing as I personally only use the race card to keep track of the score, I don't intend to pay for that privilege. You disagree Spinny and that's fine just stating my feelings on the matter.

Programmes suck, race cards rule! If you want news buy the speedway star - more content, more up to date and you don't get the same copy 6 months later with a crapy paper insert in the middle when there has been a rain off. I for 1 won't paying anything like £2.50 for 10 pages of adverts and the inevitable out of date team bios just so that I can keep track of the score. Sod that for a game of soldiers. All in my most humble opinion of course, people with money to burn will no doubt disagree with me and welcome spending the additional money every week.

More than happy with the free one personally. If they do decide to charge for it, they will probably be stuffed on any season tickets sold so far, but then all they have to is change the website. It's an invitation to treat and so can be withdrawn or amended or they can even choose just not to accept your offer of £15 for entrance and a program at the door. Not a lot any of us could do about it except rely on the promotions good nature to honour what the website states.

I hope that they aren't expecting to charge for it

Simple. Don't buy one.

Albin on a decent equipment would be good - 100% trier and a crowd pleaser

He crashed practising, hardly the fault of him riding for Lynn

I see Steady has signed for Leicester, glad to see him fixed up in both leagues

I've not been to Belle Vue for a fair few years, but last time I saw it on Sky (which I admit may well influence the level of attendance) I wouldn't say that their crowds were all that healthy. United and Wednesday probably don't attract the same levels of support, but then how many Man City and United fans actually come from Manchester?!? I would imagine that the % of Sheffield football supporters that travel to home games is much, much lower. I think speedway support across the country has dwindled regardless of track location, the ones such as Newport and Stoke that had less support in the first place have either disappeared or had to downsize the operation in order to survive. Its a vicious circle, money makes money - eg if you make loads of money you can afford to advertise on tv and/or radio and newspapers etc,and hopefully generate interest and boost attendance/profit, if you don't have loads you can't afford to advertise and once your support starts to slump you can do less about it

Are there any team places left now?

Exactly Willowman!!!

2x top (arguably) football teams, ice hockey team, basketball, rugby, theatres etc... Lots of variety and competition for people to spend their money on. Go to somewhere like Workington or Berwick and there is less to choose from

Stop making sensible suggestions! Isn't Joe a bit different anyway, in that it almost sounds like he has been brought in as a coach first and foremost with manager as a secondary job title. He is there to focus on the young uns and to help bring them on in terms of set up - they can all ride a bike, but as Andre found last year, it doesn't make a difference if you can't get the bike to hook up properly