Bagpuss

Why does the PL not do the in-meeting R/R thing?

I was thinking common sense rather than regulations.

Surely King and Cook aren't riding in their PL matches tomorrow?

Thats one hell of a statement from Glasgow.

I've got a Henka painted programme board, think the artist's name was Stuart Parsley?

As Rosco says, mountains and molehills. British media and fans always seem hellbent on creating a hullabaloo or two whatever the sport on the eve of tournaments, anybody would think we don't want our national teams to win anything. Hopefully they will be left in peace for the rest of the week.

Presumably they will practice again before Friday?

Can't believe I'm doing this but please explain how he is thinking further ahead than those promoters who run training schools and NL teams?

Completely irrelevant. He progressed from very first laps to the first team, thats long term planning. Very similar story for Lewis Rose. And as Danny says, Kerr may well be back in the future, still a club asset. Hopefully the likes of Josh Bailey, Tom Stokes, Ryan Kinsley and Lewis Whitmore will follow in their footsteps.

That all is as may be, my point is that Mr Ford can't be looking any further ahead than those who are nurturing 12, 13 & 14 year olds and then giving them NL team places when they turn 15. You said that he looks further ahead than any other promoter and that simply isn't true. I accept that not everyone can run NL, but Lewis Kerr for example had his first rides at Lynn some three or four years before he made his full Stars debut, and for those initial laps he was as raw as you can imagine. That is proper long term planning. Mr Ford's talent spotting skills are obviously very good but don't try and tell us all that he plans further ahead than anyone else.

Why no Riss at reserve for Germany?

I could definitely see why she excluded Zmarzlik but was very surprised it wasn't all four back. She needs to have been convinced that Zmarzlik was trying to have Iversen off as we can't have exclusions every time riders bang elbows and somebody comes off. Certainly a brave call.

Shame the track is so slick, although no surprise of course. Milik is an absolute wrong un.

Apart from those who also run NL teams, training schools etc.....

I don't see how anybody has been made to 'look a fool' if there are rules in the rulebook which directly contradict eachother.

Better would be fair enough, 'head and shoulders above' isn't.

There is only one person who thinks Ellis is 'head and shoulders' above Bates and they are a Poole fan which unfortunately dilutes their opinion. Hope I'm wrong but the selection of Ellis over the British U21 champion and the rider who is joint 4th in the World U21 standings smells a bit of Poole old boys network. Hopefully Ellis won't be called upon as he will be way, way out of his depth, as Bates would have been. Great experience for them to be involved though (they should both be there in the pits).

Would have been Bates at reserve for me but the other four pick themselves IMO. Hopefully Bates will be involved, like Worrall, for the experience.

Having seen him a couple of times at Lynn he seems a bit too 'safe' if you see what I mean, a bit like Max Clegg. Too keen to stick it round the inside in a neat and tidy fashion rather than go for it a bit more. Plenty of time left in his career to develop a bit more belief in himself and come good, the talent is certainly there.

I expected much, much more from Wajtknecht this season. He's young enough to come good but has been a huge disappointment in the PL.

Half the problem is the type of shale Lynn use, it is so high in clay content that even the smallest amount of overwatering from the sky or the bowser and conditions can become unfit very quickly. We got covered on the first bend during heat one on Wednesday and its was difficult to remove the blobs of muck from your clothes or skin so sticky it was. Can't imagine getting plastered by it on track, no wonder there were such enormous gaps between each rider.

I think all parties had good intentions; the riders all gave it a go and Buster tried to get the track raceable. The problem is that it all took far too long, there needs to be some kind of procedure/protocol for a rain affected track instead of people standing around arse scratching. There was the best part of an hour from the rain stopping and heat one starting in which time a couple of riders from each team could have tested conditions and track work been done. We could all have been home before 9pm.

Absolute shambles. Fingers will be pointed in all directions and to be honest whether people blame the riders (none of them were interested in continuing), the referee, Buster, Rosco or whoever the fact remains that speedway has absolutely no idea how to treat its customers. Complete waste of an evening.

Quite right, we'd not have met if it wasn't for the 2009 PLRC!

The wife and I will be in attendance, what better way to celebrate a wedding anniversary