4thbender

Let's just hope it doesn't rain: Hillsborough (South Yorkshire) weather - Met Office

Your original statement that "Sheffield is the most dangerous track in the league" is not borne out by historical statistics and is therefore misinformation. Like most teams, Sheffield has seen several of its home riders suffer injuries during recent seasons, but not once have those injuries been incurred at Owlerton. Rather odd considering they are riding at Owlerton week-in, week-out, don't you think? In the absence of evidence to the contrary, a retraction of your disgraceful and dishonest misrepresentation would be the appropriate measure.

Once again this myth rears its ugly head. What evidence do you have to make such an outrageous statement? As I've written before, you have to go back eleven years to find an incident in which a rider suffered career-changing injuries at Owlerton. How many other PL or CL tracks can make such a claim?

The sad irony is that the heavens opened AGAIN at precisely 9.20pm. Given an 8.30 start, this would have most certainly caused an abandonment at around heat 9 or 10, whereupon some obscure rule would have been invoked as to whether the result does/doesn't stand, after which half the crowd would have gone home in raptures and the other half would have become a riotous mob. In the final analysis, it strikes me that the riders' indecision allowed the promotion to dodge a bullet!

It's getting to that point in the season when we supporters start to weigh up our chances in the playoffs. My money is on the following: Finishing positions: 1) Ippo 2) Tigers 3) Leicester 4) Aces This probably means that my Sheffield team will draw the Lions in the semis; they've been our bogey team all season and will probably give us a thrashing. Ipswich will make mincemeat of the Aces in the other semi, meaning it's an Ipswich v Leicester final. My money is on Leicester becoming playoff champs, and I reluctantly have to concede they thoroughly deserve it. Any contrary views?

You'd have to have a heart of stone to ban a guy for attending to the needs of a sick child.

Nice to see young Cairns winning his first ever race at PL level. That'll be something he always remembers.

Has Luke Harison been snapped up by any PL team as a "Rising Star"? Assuming Leon is still not fit for Thursday's match, Luke could be the man. He scored 8+1 for KL yesterday, outscoring Lawson, Harris, Iversen, Kvech and Cook in the process.

I'd go one further and say that the premiership title is bound for Leicester this year. It's the "Kyle Howarth effect": (wherever he goes he ends up on the winners' rostrum).

A couple of weeks? Do you have that in writing?

On Sunday Will Cairns will celebrate his 16th birthday. Does that mean he'll be eligible to become a "Rising Star"?... 'cos Sheffield need one!

Can anyone explain why Leicester have suddenly become Sheffield's "bogey team"? We've beaten all the lower order teams home and away this season and come very close at BV and Ippo, but the only team to give us a real good hiding is Leicester. With a weakened team I'm feeling very apprehensive about tonight's outcome and no other team has made me feel that way this season.

Update on Tai:

Really? That one slipped my attention.

I don't think so, but on 28 March 2007 you did have the pleasure of reducing Sheffield to the ignominy of a 75-15 (yes, that's right: 15 x 5-1's!) at KL in the Premier Trophy. If I'm not mistaken, that's the only time it's ever been done by any team in any competition. Andre Compton blamed the track; after going headlong into the fence in Heat 1 he said that he just couldn't get his bike to turn on the slippery surface!

Luke Becker and Josh Pickering are the latest PL riders to be sidelined through "crashes in Poland". Seems to me there is a great temptation for PL riders to make the weekly Sunday schlep to collect their share of the Polish Zloty on offer, but an unwelcome number are failing to return 'in one piece'. Poland seems to bear a disproportionate responsibility for the decimation of available PL talent.

Yeah, Sheffield really do badly at Foxhall... wait a minute....the last time we came there (Monday, August 19, 2024), Sheffield beat you by 38 - 52!

How many points do they get for a "moral" victory? As for the Tigers heat leaders' colours being lowered, they scored 29+2 whilst Ippo's scored 23+2.... or was there an additional six "moral" points scored that nobody noticed?

Lucky win for Sheffield. We appear to now have a third heat-leader issue. CH is now clearly in his dotage and is nothing more than a 6.0-point rider living on his reputation and memories of past glories. To have any hope of becoming champions we need much more from Kerr and Sedgmen, which we are just not getting. Having said all that, Ippo have a similar problem: Doyle and Sayfudtinov are not the feared pairing they once were, and problems will only increase as age takes its inevitable toll. They've been lucky with the form of Thompson, who had an off-night at Owlerton. These two teams - allegedly favourites for the PL title - are interesting from a management point of view. Much will depend on the actions taken to plug the gaps as their issues escalate later in the season.

Leon Flint must be one of the most improved riders in the PL. I think he's surprised everyone with his early season form.

I'm on record as having predicted great stardom for young Cairns after his appearance at Owlerton at the back end of 2024. If anyone is thinking of sloping off after the PL action I would strongly recommend you stick around for a while to take a look at this lad; he's still at school but he's dynamite.

Not as daft as it seems?...No, it's dafter. For a start, how would you define a "dialled in" home rider, and who would be responsible for nominating who gets handicapped and who doesn't?

Why not handicap riders with weights strung to their backs like they do the horses?

Sorry to hear you won't be with us next week ...(honest!) Speedway can do without fair-weather friends who turn up just to slag-off the racing, the track, the riders, the management, and the fans. If you don't like it, go and pay sixty quid to watch a bunch of multi-millionaire fancy-dans kicking a bag of wind.... or you could pay a bit less and watch the women's version (nicer legs!) However, I must correct you on certain matters about track safety (I've said this till I'm blue in the face), but ALL the injuries sustained by Sheffield riders in recent seasons have been sustained on tracks elsewhere. These alleged injuries sustained at Owlerton last year are figments of people's wildest imagination. There was a single unfortunate incident suffered by Ben Cook who came a cropper on bend 2. He was knocked out cold but was riding again within ten days! To find a serious career-changing injury occurring at Owlerton you must go back to 2014, when Taylor Poole suffered a fractured femur which put a premature end to a promising career. I can therefore say without fear of contradiction that Sheffield has one of the cleanest safety records in speedway.

You sure about this?