BWitcher

I understand what you mean, you can do that, without the 'kiss my backside' comments etc. Shows a sign of immaturity which unfortunately seems to be a recurring theme with the British riders. The most worrying part is his comment of "I'm up at the top now".. he is nowhere near yet as last night showed.

Until Cook flat out denies it, then it will be believed. That's laid out as a direct quote.

Oh dear oh dear.

Why a joke? Injuries are part of the sport and that's what have weakened Sweden, Australia etc. The Russian situation is different, although they often flatter to deceive anyway (Emil aside).

It used to be only speedway this occurred, and as others have said it's due to having an affinity with the riders you see on a weekly basis. It is now starting to spread to other sports. There are lots of kids around now who support 'Spain' in football and other nations. Again much of this comes from then seeing a Premier League full of foreign players so they levitate towards the countries their teams stars are playing for.

How do you work this out Steve? They will be up against Latvia and very likely 2 of GB, Sweden or USA. You're saying they are too weak to compete with those??

Not talking about friendlies. There's been a 20/20 game just recently where a player was caught out by a member of his own team (who was fielding for the other team).

They don't mind it in cricket though.. and they can sometimes have a player from the opposing team play for them!

Precisely. The new silencers are the best thing to have happened for Peter Johns.

Still he doesn't grasp it. There really is no hope.

Yes I am, but I admit it.

Arrogance indeed! How dare he suggest that 2+2 = 5 is wrong. Very arrogant to bring such advanced maths to the forum. Be ashamed Oldace!

Sidney, you're a good lad, you have great knowledge of riders of yesteryear as well as the present and at times make some great interesting posts.. However, this pattern repeats itself over and over, you get all worked up when someone corrects you, fly into your rage about opinions before descending into the personal abuse. Chill out. You've got a cracking match Thursday night to look forward too that the weather is set fair for!

Yes, when it is facts you are discussing, it is gospel. This is your problem Sidney, you don't understand the difference between an opinion and a fact. They are two totally different things. Again here a question was asked why the rule was changed. The answer has been given. It is Fact. Its been told to you by a number of different sources, but you refuse to accept it and are trying to bring 'opinion' into it. That's the difference. Its not something to have an opinion on. The rule was changed due to cost. FACT.

No, the correct result was 49-42 to Wolverhampton as per the rules of the sport.

Wrong, the league points scoring system DOES NOT contrive results, which you claimed it does earlier in the thread. If I misunderstood that, apologies, but that was what I was referring too. Of course tactical subs of any kind help to keep a meeting closer, that's been the case for 50 odd years so its hardly the cause of the sports problems. The sports problems stem from many issues. Lack of promotion. Lack of presentation. Too much in fighting which leads to a lack of a cohesive plan to drive the sport forward. I agree with Moxey in a lack of continuation in squads.. however that only applies to certin clubs. My own team, Wolverhampton has a very good continuity, sometimes perhaps at the expense of success but I am happy that I've seen many riders remain loyal to the club over a large number of years. Ermolenko, Correy, the Karlssons, Skornicki, Lindgren, Woffinden, Proctor and many more over the years. There has been too much in fighting, promoters trying to get the best of each other, it might bring them short term success, but it's only long term harmed the entire league.

Now you're going totally off tangent.

If only they existed.

Course they were.

What you say makes a hell of a lot of sense. I wouldn't have anything at all against such a system being used. It eliminates tactical rides and simply rewards teams for performance. There is no 'contriving' results involved. The better you do, the more league pts you earn.

Spot on. The same happened last night with Bombers last lap pass of Smolinski. We keep hearing talk of how things are 'too complicated' etc etc and it keeps fans away. Its got absolutely nothing to do with that at all. There are far more complicated sports. Besides, new fans, who are the ones you are trying to attract will know nothing and not be interested in 'rolling averages' etc initially. It's only once they've taken an interest in the product will they start investigating further. There is absolutely nothing 'contrived/fiddled/manipulated' about the scoring system.

Wolves v Poole tonight. There was a superb, tension packed Heat 15 by all accounts, that was even exciting on the radio. I could hear the roar of the crowd as Harris passed Smolinski on the last lap to clinch the maximum 3pts for Wolves. Of course without the tac rides, the meeting would have long previous petered out into a run of the mill victory.

So what happened to all the fans who abandoned the sport (and there are far more of them) before this evil rule was introduced? To be fair Grand Central, you didn't upon re-reading, you highlighted how it can make a meeting more exciting but didn't attack the current system. My bad sir!

No they haven't. Only you and GRW, when you've been wrong about something. You're wrong here. Ask your promoter if you don't believe me.

How is he pushing himself? It's the same race that he would be expected to try to win. It matters not whether you are 'convinced'. That is the reason.