Bagpuss

It's quite a clever ploy really, keep on rule bending and breaking until people either walk away and find something else to do or give up caring and therefore there are no dissenting voices left genius to be honest.

It's like we've been transported back to the nineties. Says it all that even some NL teams will be racing in team suits. I assume my own club are going with racesuits, if not I'll be laying into them too.

If we lived in a perfect world and riders were robots I'd agree but like every other professional sport which has rule changes there will be teething problems like it or not. As for why we don't have centre green clocks as people have suggested I think we all know it's to try and achieve the same result on the cheap.

You can be prepared as you like and just have absolutely no luck on any given night, it happens although fortunately not very often. Panning the poor chap is pretty harsh but not unexpected on this platform.....Belle Vue fans know what Tungate can do and won't be too concerned.

I expect a lot of the trouble tonight was habit, one would like to think that after a few meetings and exclusions riders will learn to poverty the new rule.

I'm sure everyone was trying but it's the first meeting, bodies and bikes probably need 4-6 meetings to get into full swing. And probably less intensity as no league points at stake. People on here do it every year though, getting stuck into certain riders after one match and then looking silly later in the season.

You can't draw any conclusions from what is effectively a challenge match and not sure why anyone would attempt to to be honest. Other than to try and wind people up of course (yawn). Must have been bloody cold spectating! Coming up for the 90th anniversary meeting on Saturday, looking forward to it.

Other teams 'get away with it' because they aren't daft enough to get caught red handed.

Helmet colours? Anyway they aren't almost identical at all. How long do we have put up with this childish nonsense just because your club have downgraded to race jackets?

Jesus Christ, all he is saying is that Somerset was Holder's first choice and Poole his second. All the other guff you are coming out with is totally and utterly irrelevant.

Race bibs are even more out of date than our club anthem

Agree about Worrall, will be good for his development to get him away from number two.

The worrying thing is this appears to be the idea of the new co promoter who has been brought in to help improve things

A Pole? That's a wind up surely?

Lots of smileys usually means a post isn't to be taken seriously so I'm going to do just that.

Rather than ability may be its a matter of attitude and application? It's a track he clearly dislikes so perhaps he lacks the desire to put in the hard work to master it?

Indeed. Nick Conrad suggested that a sport like speedway should have a theme tune by Slipknot or someone similar, wouldn't go that far personally but it definitely requires something heavier.

I like the idea but the rendition I heard on Radio Norfolk this morning made me cringe. Can't see the quiet and reserved folk of Norfolk belting that one out

Big difference in the image they portray too.

The standard of the reserves and two or three of the number ones, other than that there's not a lot of difference. Middle orders very similar.

You could argue that individuals arranged by a riders club are a variation on team friendlies anyway, they both have the same purpose. All you need is an international calander where meetings are logged and riders then sign contracts to ride in them.....if he goes back on that agreement to ride elsewhere he gets a ban, simple.

Pikey Pirates

Those moto X style outfits arrived in 2000, we had them at Lynn in what was Wagstaff's first season (Silver Machine) and as you say Wolves had something very similar. As Walter says in 1998 the terrible lycra oversuits were used (I think they may have been Wiggy's idea) and didn't last that long and most riders had their own kevlars in team colours made pretty quickly. The lycra suits even had matching full helmet colours! Eurgh. If a much better version of these oversuits could be made they would eliminate the cost of team racesuits without compromising on team identity.