Bagpuss

No doubt the Sky money ended up in the pockets of big name riders.

KK has always had the talent, it's his desire which determines how well he scores. When on song and in full flight their are few better riders in the world.

NBJ was the difference, fair play to him.

Another sensible call off. Everyone knows where they stand. The problem of course comes if they run out of dates when they could have run a meeting in damp conditions in front of a reduced crowd......

Nice touch to pay tribute to the four riders who have lost their lives at the track.

This is what you originally said. It is very different. Riders do practice starts and the odd reasonably fast corner after a standard parade. The Hot Laps concept is three full speed laps from a flying start, at race pace.

I'd suggest you cease digging

'Hot Laps' was introduced this season presumably by Robin Brundle to give those arriving before 7pm some extra entertainment before the meeting (SCB approved). Last week the whole Lynn team did it and then at their request it seems Belle Vue did the same (three laps per rider). It appears its been tweaked this week to be four riders from each team which is a good idea. I like the concept, and as somebody mentioned last week (Najjer?) a Top Gear / Stig style leaderboard across the season could beva great idea.

The ' so called experts' predictions are based on where teams will be in September, not April.

Doesn't matter how many years riders have been racing, many struggle with machinery in the early months. Iversen had no speed at Lynn last week for example. Harris will prove his class over the season, as I'm sure Worrall will too.

Taking the mickey I'd say. Should be a minimum number of rides a team member has to take for me.

Wolves is a unique shape, the team contains riders who ride it very well and they very rarely lose at home so they very much do have a good home advantage. However the majority of the riders in the league have ridden it enough to know how to get round it quickly, the difficulty is going there twice a season against good riders who ride it twenty odd times a year. It's good to have different tracks in the league, variety is good for the Premiership. They are all there to be ridden.

Big difference between what you were running on about on Wednesday night and keeping Kildemand if he wanted to stay. Sundstrom would go because Kildemand is better, not because he is crap and won't do a good job over the season. If every rider who had made a slow start to the season was replaced after three meetings then there would be very few clubs who wouldn't have sacked at least one rider by now. It's just not sensible or realistic.

To be fair if Poole can financially persuade Kildemand to stay and fit Holder in too they'd be daft not to.

Nobody can ever convince me that a 'team' of riders all in different colour kevlars look as good as seven matching team suits. For the top division of a 'professional' sport it's not acceptable, in fact I'd say it should be compulsory for every team in our top two divisions.

Why on earth is it not an NL guest for Andersson?

It would be nice if all the silliness and name calling could stop on this thread, let's get it back to civilised conversation and debate. My prediction 45-45.

Beating Glasgow one week and losing to Newcastle the next - Berwick Bandits in a nutshell.

Well if that doesn't liven the thread up nothing will

I agree about the scoring system, it was one of British speedway's best ever ideas which worked really well, then they went and spoilt it by giving the home team three points for any win. Hopefully one day they'll put it back to how it was.

Great to see such a positive thread, and pleased to read that the racing was so good.

IMO half a dozen meetings is a reasonable amount of time for a speedway rider to 'get going'. Replacing them after any less is a bit hasty.

The season is a long one and I'm sure he'll come good. Showed his class in winning heat 15 tonight. I thought it looked like machine rather than man which held him back a bit last night but he'll get there, he's too good a rider not to.

I'll take that all day long. This Lynn team may not be the most talented but they seem to have plenty of grit and determination. Did Troy throttle off on the last bend of heat 15