Daniel Smith

Woffinden and Lambert were nothing short of sensational tonight. It's been a while but tonight they had me on the edge of my seat shouting and screaming. The only slight negative, the lack of respect to the efforts of Lambert by Nigel and Kelvin. Tai this, Tai that was a bit tiresome.

Seems the same kind of situation that Martin Smolinski is the favourite regardless of form in the same way Chris Harris always got the pick regardless of form.

Absolutely...... Head coach with burger and chips will get you nowhere.

They don't, bit we do get snippets from promoters. Adams and Rossiter have both said Poole voted against Thursday's. Matt Ford has never confirmed or denied it but I suppose he couldn't as he wasn't in attendance (apparently). So who was the individual to cast the Poole vote?? Were promoters lying?? The thing is that fans get shot down on here for lying but the promoters of our sport really don't help themselves either.

You may well be right, but modern rider's need ALL the aspects to be at the top. Mental strength and the fastest bike won't cut it alone. Also every rider is different and react better to different approaches, I'm not naive to think there's 1 way for all. Fitness and nutritional dieting were the difference for Woffy and Doyle to make that step to the top. Neither of these had changed much else, same bikes, same tuners etc, but upped their health and made huge strides. Another working example of fitness and nutritional dieting this year is Robert Lambert. He's been something else this season, lost a tonne of weight and bulked up a bit. It's worked dividends so far. You also have to look at the youngsters who have gone through the Poultec program & the No Limits too. Some big strides for them over the last 2-3 years. There really is so much more to riding these days to just having your head in the right place and the fastest bikes. Of course they help, but if you ain't at your peak in physical fitness you will be left behind. These are facts about every sport that takes a toll on the body.

See, here's the reason I'm getting so fed up with Speedway. Fans have been crying out for British Speedway to get with the times, modernise itself, be more professional. The Great Britain franchise are doing exactly that and bang, "All you need is a mental strength and the fastest bike". That is a so old fashioned approach to world Speedway today. None of the top class rider's just rely on their equipment. Woffy puts his World Titles down to the change in his diet and the way of training. Doyle the last 2 seasons exactly the same. We see it time after time, the Poles haves the best equipment you can buy on the World stage yet fail to deliver individual winners every year. Being mentally strong is very important, I agree. But having the fastest equipment and practicing going round and round on your own is way past it's time. Physical fitness and nutritional dieting, and pre-meeting training is very important. I suppose we'll see if the new approach becomes more effective over the next couple of years.

With Great Britain now taken over by a full time franchise Rosco has to go. Thing's are moving in a more professional direction and the way he behaved regarding Cook was unacceptable. IMO the team management position should go to either Rob Lyon, Neil Vatcher or Olly Allen. Even more radical would be Rory Schlein. These guys are absolutely fantastic with our British youth rider's, inventive with their training and 100% inclusive of every rider they have. These guys are the real future of British Speedway. I'm 100% behind Rob Painter and Vicky Blackwell, if what they've shown so far is to go by, us fans may have something to cheer about in the not too distant future.

Hope so

It's not all over if a rider gets excluded for a tapes infringement. It's all about if the rider's are dedicated enough for their country. All that you have to do is risk being knocked off or ride someone to the fence, in the hope they're excluded and force a rerun with just 2 rider's. You can guarantee the Poles will push it, as would Lindgren for Sweden. Can GB be switched on to pull of a stunt?? We'll find out on Saturday

The new FIM priority regulations only came in this year.

Wouldn't be allowed under the FIM. Already established fixtures would then take precedence over a rearranged fixture. FIM could then impose fines and/or suspensions on rider's and/or clubs.

Unfortunately that isn't Lambert's fault as previously stated

Unfortunately while in the EU we can't dictate like that due to free trade. What we can do is say that each team must have 3 British rider's. It's all in the wording.

If TV is the dictator then I'd like to see is a 2 heat grand final with standard scoring system. Where teams get to go off 1&3 and 2&4, if it ends 6-6 the highest scoring rider from each pair has a match race.

Not exactly British Speedway but the Great Britain team. All the same it's great news and things are looking in the right direction compared to being stifled and suffocated by the BSPA. With Woffy, Lambert and Bewley it's a nice backbone for future progress on the world stage and these are the 3 to work around. There are always good British rider that can clamp on to this. I hope Painter and Blackwell sit down with Adam Ellis too. He's another very good talent that I hope doesn't get wasted and stale. Add to that Richie and Stevie Worrall there's solid base to work with. Obviously it shouldn't be a closed shop but to move forward professionally there has to be a focus on just a few. Woffinden, Lambert, S.Worrall, R.Worrall, Ellis, Bewley. Focus on this 6 and we may just have something to look forward to in a couple of years time.

You are correct sir.

I've said it before, the scoring system in pairs meetings should be 4-2-1-0. Race winning should take precedence over a 2nd & 3rd. If they want to use bonus point for count back then these bonus points should be for 1st & 2nd only.

Speedway and commentary is a strange one. More often than not there's not much to comment on as we see 4 strung out rider's 'playing follow the leader.' I believe Nigel and Kelvin do a terrific job, yes they can be ott but what is there to talk about. Even during the breaks when they go back to Nicholls and Quirk, I find that very boring. Tend to just repeat all that's already been said. 3 hours to waffle over 23 minutes of racing isn't an easy task.

Matt has had quite a few "very embarrassing moments" in recent years. At the end of the day the buck stops with him. Employ the wrong track guy, it's Matt's fault. Employ the wrong rider's, it's Matt's fault etc etc. As much as he cries foul the blame is with him. Maybe he needs to take a long hard look at himself and realise the way he treats his employee's needs to change and show some honesty to his customers. He's now reaping the rewards of historical behaviours.

Didn't think any pairs meeting could possibly be worse than a Monster v Fogo sponsors meeting. This new SON format is the worst possible. I still can't get my head past "what's the point of Friday?" Does Friday have any relevance to what goes on on Saturday or not

That's true but they'll never really know if the promotion worked or becausee it's just school holidays. They'll need to run the promotion on a school week to see if incentives like that really work or if it's just wasted money so to speak.

School half term is the answer

No idea how old Drew Kemp is but his NL scoring has been really really good too

It's not about losing, it's not about the management being nice etc etc. Andersen has had 6 matches and only averaging 2.60. That's shouldn't be acceptable. His scoring has been to the standard of a rider from the NL, that can't be denied. IMO Josh Bailey should be given a crack. If we can afford to carry a 2.5 point rider 100% Josh Bailey should be in.

That's him. He certainly would have a better average than Andersen's 2.60.