salty

Have been a subscriber on and off for donkeys years - currently lapsed - but tend to pick a copy up at my local Sainsbury's. If I miss a couple of weeks it doesn't bother me. Prefer the off season editions and will try and get this weeks copy to read the article on the 1969 Pirates (my first season watching the sport). Having said that I was disappointed with the coverage of the Hancock furore in Melbourne and I feel the increasingly prolific Paul Burbidge is a tad Piratecentric in his coverage. This season my favourite feature has been the Peter Oakes pages.

Thanks for the answer, Steve. Found it via going to back issues on the Retro site - number 59.

Out of interest what Issue of Backtrack was the feature on team leathers in? I can't find it!!!

Necessary evil in my opinion. See it just as a mathematical process which allows the promoted sides to have a chance to be competitive. What would have been ridiculous would have been to put a ceiling of 12.00. The multiplier of 1.4 has to apply for every relevant rider. Rossiter and Middlo moaning about it is understandable but they would be even more annoyed if the top league had fallen below 8 teams. Haven't seen it confirmed officially what the process will be once real averages are attained. Would be madness to stick at 50 otherwise half the starting sevens would be getting jettisoned by the late spring.

But somewhere else there will be another rider who misses out on a team place - tough as it is on Adam I don't think you can start making any exceptions. Don't forget these average rules and limits are the only way the top league could have attracted the clubs required to keep it viable.

Amazing how a rider can have an absolute nightmare of a season and the following year be one of the most sought after riders! Conversely somebody who rides out of his skin one year and achieves what people perceive to be a false average becomes persona non grata. I always remember Paul Smith having a good year for Hull Vikings in the PL and getting saddled with a 7+ average. Nobody touched him the following season and as far as I know he never rode again.

Seriously? He is saying it is decisions like that which turn people off the sport. Obviously there is not going to be "proof", just like there was never any "proof" that Hancock let Holder past or Poole dropped points at Swindon to lower their averages. But people make their own minds up and start to lose interest. Might not be the only reason why the sport is in the dumps domestically, but it's certainly one of them. Edit: Apologies to HalifaxTiger - should have let you answer the point yourself - as I see you now have.

What PL conversion? Way I read it Newman rides on his PL average (6.31) but up to a 50 point limit.

Isn't the universal format just the same as it was prior to the FTR introduction? Promotion/relegation again? Hasn't really worked before. The new averages thing means Ellis is a wee bit stuffed? Or am I reading it wrong.

"Workington are expected to take their place in the Premiership" ??? Surely they mean "Championship". Very ironic that the first press release outlining the new names for the leagues gets mixed up.

Played a key part in the 1968 title win, but then had to pack it in following a bad injury early in 1969. Who knows how far he could have gone....... RIP

Surely Cricket has to be John Arlott? But the point made is valid. Dave was synonymous with Speedway during it's 70's boom. RIP.

Matej, Magic, Nicki and Emil for me. Feel sorry for Jarek, but it would be very tough on Magic if he didn't get a pick after missing out by just one point.

Ironic you should say that on a Nigel thread. He does love to declare "on a 5-1" after half a lap.

Always glad that a rider can retire fit and healthy. Thanks for the memories Kauko.

After two good rounds I hope Matej can get into the top 8 after Melbourne. Even if he only misses out by a couple of points, I reckon he has shown enough over the past two years (and past two rounds) that he would be deserving of a pick. It seems, however, that he suffers from the same thing as Rune Holta (in his time as a GP rider) that he isn't the right nationality to attract "key markets" and therefore is less likely to get a pick than other riders who do represent the "bigger" nations.

He will stay as a FTR as long as it suits Ford for him to do so. But I hope the other promoters don't fall for the use of the PL average trick again. Every play off he delivers and if the rest of the team had been anywhere near the pace he would have been the match winner again this year.

Best team won. Newman and Ellis deserve loads of credit for keeping it so close, but the top 5(4) of the Pirates were poor.

It's called an "educated" guess. Something beyond your comprehension.

But the other promoters have plenty of form for sanctioning things that favour Poole. The decision to use Premier averages from last season allowed Poole to get a much stronger reserve pairing than if the more logical elite averages were used. But then CVS managed to net Kyle Howarth as a reserve so maybe there was some horse trading there. Buzz off the heat leader list massively favoured Poole and again its hard to see how the other promoters could fail to see how illogical that decision was. Add the Lindback average farce and you have 3 massive decisions that have helped Poole this season alone. Conclusion has to be that the other promoters aren't that bright (possible) or they have reason to keep on the right side of the Dark Lord of Dorset (more likely). Either way, it's decisions like this that mean I don't bother with domestic Speedway any more.

Cradley v Newport. 28th September 1968. I was supposed to have been going to see Wolves (football version) v Liverpool that afternoon, but the people taking me let us down, cue plenty of tears. To make it up to me the folks took me to Dudley Wood that night. Love at first sight, smell etc. As for Wolves...Liverpool gubbed them 6-0.

Count back or run off?

Ye of little faith! Great performance by the Chemics.

"Charging" down the back straight or "charging" into the bend. So they can "stamp their authority" on the race.

Ta I make it nearer 12K, so a sum of less than 7K. Difficult to believe it would be so divisive. Surely precedent is the key to this? If it's always been split 4 ways before hard to see why it should change.