BWitcher

Nothing to do with Gavan. He is very easily wound up but he stays on topic.

If Poole were ever in this situation they'd have five riders go down with a sudden illness causing their withdrawal, leaving their top two to race in every heat.

Good press release from the Belle Vue promotion over the can throwing incident. Even then there are a few Belle Vue fans somehow trying to 'justify' the incident/s, one saying that Schlein and Masters deliberately came around to that part of the crowd to goad them. I think they're feeling a little too self important. The Wolves riders came around as that is where the Wolves fans were mostly congregated, as in the final last year.

That would be a tad stressful!

What a pleasure it is to read this thread without any of the inane bickering and nonsense. As Fourentee points out, Wolves were paying close attention to the work done on the track. The line had moved to the outside but after a period of grading Sam Masters made a start and kept a tight inside line taking advantage of the fresh grip available.

Didn't Liam Carr score a max at Monmore recently in the NL?

Ah yes, my bad!

Yet Schlein went 3rd to 1st in Heat 14....

Wow. Not long back from the meeting and still expecting to wake up and realise I have a drive to Swindon for a 20+pt defeat ahead of me. Before the meeting every Wolves fan I spoke too all said if we got within 20 we'd have done well. A few of us half-heartedly suggested that if we could make a half decent start we might put a bit of pressure on Swindon and they had got riders who might bottle it.. boy oh boy did it work! At no stage did any of us become confident, we were simply ticking the heats off, "The most they can win now is 20... now 16... now 12" and so on! It was great to see every Wolves rider record a paid win, a true team effort in what has to go down as one of the best, if not the best away performance I have ever seen from a Wolves side. However, the job is only half done. Before tonight's meeting most Wolves fans agreed that even winning on Wednesday would be tough with the team we have, that remains the case. We must be focused and treat it as if it were the 1st leg and we needed to build a lead. We laboured well! Swindon can only win by 56 now.

Ah, ok, so they were getting 4500 earlier in the year were they, then they stopped going to 'wait' till they were in the playoffs.. I see.

Try reading the post I was replying too. In addition, the one thing some people seemingly fail to grasp every time is, if there were no play-offs we don't know for sure Swindon would have finished top. Everything can pan out very differently, there are different pressures involved and the results may not be the same. Yes, complete waste of time Ipswich getting at least 4500 fans in for their playoff match with Sheffield. As for tonight, I travel with a tiny bit of hope and zero expectation. If we are within 20 after this leg I will be very surprised. Not only are we missing Lindgren and Thorsell but Masters is riding well below par, whether it's injury or engines not up to speed. As long as they give their all that's all Wolves fans can ask for and 'if' they can perform the heroics to keep it relatively close who knows on Wednesday.

This is always the problem, teams looking to exploit them.

Err.. yes you would.. the vast majority of years, just saying like.

Some form of squad system would solve it. Easier said than done though of course. No second thoughts at all. In other seasons your comments may make sense, however not in this one when there was so little between the two sides anyway. Swindon finished pts ahead, but the reality of it is, the difference was 1 race pt. Swindon won 46-45 (I think that was the score) at home to Wolves, a 1pt swing the other way and Wolves are top. To be fair, Swindon had a weakened team that night. Wolves surprise loss at home to Poole the night Kyle Howarth was injured as another factor and I'm sure Swindon can point to some matches too. Both sides also had varying degrees of luck when coming up against sides who were hit by injuries.

I agree, I'm not suggesting for one moment it should be allowed.. however, I'd say it has a lot more credibility than running a Grand Final with a guest. I can't see how it would be 'devalued' in any way at all though. A rider has been replaced with a weaker one, from the same club basically. It makes a hell of a lot more sense from a credibility point of view. As you correctly say, those are the rules though.

This is obviously completely hypothetical as it hasn't and won't happen, but... How would Swindon fans have felt if Wolverhampton had been 'special dispensation' to track Tai Woffinden in place of Lindgren in a circumstance such as this? Normally I would be against such a thing and I have no qualms at all about Wolves using a guest and R/R as those are the rules, but would it have made the Grand Final more of an event if a team could have used one of it's own assets rather than a guest?

Bar the last sentence, for which you are entitled to your opinion, the rest is absolute nonsense. Perhaps Freddie Lindgren is a rare breed these days, but he has a passion and a will to win for his team and is proud to do so. It is a very, very strange fan who finds something to criticise in that! Speedway in this country would be in a far better state if more riders had the attitude of Lindgren. To be fair, Craig Cook is of a similar ilk in the Aces side.

I would assume that is the case, Harris at Wolves almost a certainty.

This is a very strange feeling now. Normally I would be absolutely buzzing with excitement, nerves, tension with the Grand Final to look forward too. Sadly, it's almost a non-event. Swindon will likely win by 25+ tomorrow night and it will be all over. That said, I will still be there and still cheer the boys on in the hope they can ride out of their skins and Swindon feel the pressure.

To clarify, where I was stood on the back straight, there were a very small minority who 'cheered' at the crash, perhaps three or four as an argument broke out over it with a couple of Belle Vue 'fans' claiming he deserved it etc. The overwhelming majority however did not cheer. In terms of the boos, quite a few more, although again it seemed to be mostly on the back straight, the home straight appeared to be applauding. The loudest cheer was for the withdrawal of Lindgren from the meeting which was somewhat classless, although I can understand that for some they weren't cheering that he may be injured but the increasing of Belle Vue's chances. All in all it helped contribute to a cracking atmosphere. The banter between Schlein and a certain section of Belle Vue fans was close to the line but again, many post they miss such things from the 'good old days'. The bottle/can throwing of course crossed the line and it's good to hear that they have been dealt with. It's good to see the match and the incidents being discussed on here between 99% of fans without any animosity or arguments, with the exception of one of course who continues to bring shame upon the name of Belle Vue Aces.

Exactly. Racing incident, call could have gone either way.

https://twitter.com/kenneth_bjerre/status/914091321954045952 Here's the incident. Still say it's a 50/50 call, For those saying Bjerre was ahead, impossible for Lindgren to get over him as he did if that was the case. There was room for Bjerre to have taken a tighter inside line, likewise Lindgren could have gone wider. Shutting the door into corners is part and parcel of racing at the highest level, especially in GP's, if you are making a move up the inside you better make sure you've got a clean run as the referees do exclude the one on the inside the majority of the time. Not always correctly I might add.

Not so much without Lindgren AND Thorssell though,

Who were they against though? Over 2 legs do you think Swindon would stand any chance without Doyle and Morris if Wolves had Lindgren and Thorssell? It's a massive massive handicap and unfortunately, if Lindgren can't ride, it will spoil what could have been a great Final. Harris (if available) seems the most likely option to guest, at least we know he will give his all. I'll be there on Monday but I fear that Swindon will build up an unassailable lead.

Doesn't matter how many times you say it, or how many threads you post it on, it doesn't make it true. The reaction of the disgraceful Belle Vue fans, actually I won't call them fans, how about 'Flanges', that seems a better name. lol! Anyway, as I was saying the reaction of Belle Vue flanges is well documented on the meeting thread haha!