Aces51

If it's maneuvering he forgot that it wasn't necessary when he got to Poland.

I don't disagree with that assessment but I won't give up hope until it's impossible for us to win. Injuries are part of the sport and we have to accept it. I can think of where we might be if Worrall hadn't been injured before the first league match and if Bewley and now Cook had not been injured but having said that I am pleased that we have achieved what we have despite those injuries and other adversities. I said before the semi finals that if we didn't get through that I hoped that King's Lynn would win the play offs, not for their management, for whom I have little regard but for their fans.

Contrary to what some think the NSS is prepared to be slick as that produces the best racing. In so far as I understand it, the difference last night was that it was colder than expected and the usual watering during the meeting, which helps develop the racing lines, couldn't be carried out because moisture was rising to the surface. It was therefore slicker then usual but that caught out the Aces as much as the Stars. As for the afternoon practice that apparently consisted of Steve Worrall and Kyle Bickley. I don't know Dale Allit but he seemed to have a bee in his bonnet that something untoward had been done. I am confident that Fricke,Tungate and Berge, who are racers who gain lots of points from the back at the NSS, would probably have scored more points if the track had been as it usually is. Whatever, Jye thought was no excuse but he is in good company when wrongly feeling hard done by, Woffinden's recent reaction to Pedersen springs to mind. It's what can happen during the heat of the moment when they're racing and most of us understand that. The real problem, for which there is no excuse at all, was the reaction of Simon Lambert and Allit who escalated a handbag situation and in Allit's case felt it necessary to resort to grabbing and pushing a mechanic against the fence. Officials in particular have a responsibility to try to prevent such problems, not cause them. However, none of that should detract in any way from Lynn's fully deserved victory.

I agree about the handbags, creates atmosphere and is usually remembered long after the racing. What we don't need is violence.

Let's hope so but I can see that any favourable decision by the council might be challenged by those who bought houses in the belief that the stadium was going to be some distance away. If that happens there will be even more delay.

It was good to see that a good number of King's Lynn fans had made the long journey and seemed to be enjoying themselves. I was also pleased that I didn't hear any cheers in the Grandstand when Proctor fell in heat 7 and when he got up he was clapped all the way back to the pits. One point of clarification. The idiot who left a car blocking in the ambulance wasn't anybody in the stadium. It was someone in the Basketball hall.

Last night was the result I and every Aces supporter I spoke to at the stadium expected in our weakened state. King's Lynn are a good team and worked hard for a deserved victory. I won't write off our chances yet but it is a virtual mountain to climb and plainly the odds are very much against us. The 1-5, or 1-4 for the Aces, of both teams arguably underperformed, they scored 29-27 in favour of the Aces. The difference was Palm-Toft who, not for the first time at the NSS, was brilliant. However, those who seem to think that he will ride like that in every meeting need to look at his average. He might but equally he might score 4, it's the nature of the type of rider he is but he is a pleasure to watch when he is riding as he did last night and one of those riders who never gives up. I was in the Grandstand so saw the incident after heat 13 from the opposite side to the TV coverage. I didn't think that Jorgensen did anything too bad, hard but fair is I think the usual description. There was a bit of arm waving and wheel sliding on the way to the pits but to me it appeared that Simon Lambert was the cause of what followed. He went up to Etheridge in what appeared to be a threatening manner and then the KL team manager went up and attacked the mechanic. Maybe things were said which caused him to react, I don't know. I can understand riders reacting in the heat of the moment but team managers have no excuse. Some BV fans are being ridiculous and calling for wholesale team changes. They need to look at how riders have performed over the season, take account of injuries, see what the format is next year, look at individual rider averages and make considered suggestions. It's not over yet but we have done well to get so far considering Worrall and Bewley's injuries and, last night, losing Cook. With hindsight we might have done better with a guest for Cook and r/r for Bewley but it's water under the bridge.

As I said on another topic, you won't have a better chance. If every Belle Vue rider rides to their current home average we could score 50. Unfortunately, it's rare that every rider achieves that on the same night, those averages include points scored against teams much weaker than the Stars and the NSS is a track where King's Lynn have done particularly well. Even so, I'm not giving up hope. One or two Stars riders could have a poor night and one or two Aces could have above average nights, that's the beauty of speedway but the odds are stacked against us. I hope lots of Lynn fans have made the journey, that the racing lives up to expectations, that there are no injuries and that the best team on the night wins.

It's a severe blow that Cook isn't riding and r/r weakens us considerably. Bellego has been decent on his last two visits, 11 from 6 and 8 from 5 but that doesn't fully compensate for Bewley. It's going to be very tough now for the Aces but I'm sure they will all give 100% and let's see what happens. Definitely King's Lynn's to lose now.

The Stars are not likely to get a better opportunity with Dan missing and question marks over whether Craig will ride and if he does, how much his injury will affect him. Craig seems to be dogged by bad luck this year and it is especially unfortunate when he was back to his best. The weather forecast is good so I hope we get the usual brilliant racing and that the Aces can overcome their recent misfortunes and build up a decent lead for the second leg. The Stars are are a strong team and can do well at the NSS so it is going to be far from easy.

I think Rob is also getting it from Twitter. Replying to someone late on Saturday who suggested it might hopefully be a sprain Craig tweeted; "Broken bones but think I’m ok."

Like Belle Vue, Rybnik's real misfortune was in losing Bewley. His 5 meeting average of 2.36 would place him second in the League 1 averages. That is above both Woryna and Lambert, in fact above everyone apart from Jonsson. With Dan in the team they would probably have won.

I'm not sure which average you are looking at but the relevant averages are here http://www.speedwaygb.co.uk/premiershipteamissues18 You want the last one, issue 26. For Mondays home meeting you also have to take into account the 5% added to Craig's average for a guest for a home meeting. Hopefully, Craig's optimism is justified and he will be able to race. Edited to add that A Orlov effectively beat me to it.

You've also confirmed that the wild cards were virtually non existent, possibly at most 4 or 5 in over 40 years when compared to the numbers in the GP's.

Hans has put in some good performances at the NSS but not in the same class as Batchelor albeit his last performance wasn't quite so good, 3 wins and 2 thirds. Neither really measure up to Craig's current form.

My recollection is that the only riders every automatically seeded to the final were the defending champions and that only applied for a few years in the 50's. That hardly compares to the top 8 now automatically qualifying in the GP's. You may be right about the number of qualifying rounds although again it isn't my recollection, perhaps you can provide some details.

Have you seen something to confirm that, last night he said he was aiming to ride but that he did have broken bones. Would be great news if you're right.

Etheridge was sacked because of his away form and because we could win at home with a replacement and we needed away points to qualify for the play offs. His average at home was 5.29 so if he can score 5/6 points he and Berge at reserve will be a good pairing. Assuming he is available, the only guest likely to get a decent score is Batchelor and he wouldn't do as well as Cook on Craig's current form. What we must avoid is Craig riding and having to withdraw part way through.

It always strikes me as odd that many of those who prefer the one off world finals, where you qualify and then it's all down to a final where everyone starts equal, prefer that the team finishing with most points accumulated over a season should win the league title and those who prefer the GP's, where the rider who gets the most points over a season wins, prefer the play offs where you qualify and then it's all down to a final where both teams start equal. Logically, you might expect those who prefer the one off world final to prefer the play offs and those who prefer the GP's to prefer the team that finishes top of the league to win the title.

Craig has tweeted that he has good strength in his wrist, is getting it checked in UK tomorrow and aiming to ride on Monday. Replying to someone he added, broken bones but thinks he's ok. We might have to wait and see what happens when he gets it checked tomorrow but obviously he is going to race if he can.

The state of the track was obvious. Why didn't they take off the top surface before it started? That way we could have had a chance of some decent racing from the beginning and a couple of riders probably wouldn't have been injured and had to withdraw from the meeting. Woffinden came good when it mattered and deserved his win. Whether he is the best British rider ever is obviously open to debate but I don't think you can compare different eras. You could argue that it is more difficult at present because you have to be consistent throughout the season but you can afford a couple of poorer meetings and that ignores that the qualifiers for the one off finals were run throughout the season and in the final you couldn't usually afford to drop more than 2 points to win it.

We are allowed up to 8.07 at home so Masters is too high. Craig has been coming back to his best form and was superb on Wednesday against Somerset so we will struggle to get a suitable guest to adequately replace him. Batchelor is probably the best we can get for Monday. It was going to be difficult without Bewley, without Craig we are really going to have to pull out all the stops to get a win on Monday.

That can't be right. Every time things go against us people keep saying that it evens out over a season.

Adrian Smith said in his programme notes that crowds have improved but I suspect that could just be the school holidays affect. The material difference between this year and last is the Monday race night. We must get back to racing on Fridays. You see that at many of the best Polish tracks, you have to wait for the dirt to move out to create the racing lines. I've always thought they should put on a few junior races first so that the dirt will have moved out by the time the meeting proper starts.

At the mid stage of the meeting I certainly didn't expect that we might win by 10. Some good racing and lots of passing in the second half of the meeting. A superb heat 13, an entertaining heat 15 and Lawson fought hard to eventually pass Berge in heat 14. Congratulations to Somerset and it was good to see their riders going over to applaud the fans who had made the long journey to support them.