mikebv

And Mark Lemon does have a history of not quite understanding the guest rider rules when booking his own, so possibly wouldn't have questioned it.... It shows how seriously UK Speedway should be taken when a rider can help his team rise off the bottom of the league on Monday, and then be planned in to help put his own team back to the bottom on Thursday... Just let the lad ride.

What is the maximum weight expected to be of any rider with ambition to win it?

Who has the most assets of the DU'ers? If its the Prem and they ask for big loan fees then that might force some teams up... "You want to use our riders, then you pay"... If its the Champ then they may hold the best cards so can dictate what happens...

I have heard Zmarzlik is retiring now this lad will be riding full time... "No point carrying on" said Bartek... Just let the kid ride and find his level... Seems to be a bit of jealousy on here around his signing... Surprise. Surprise...

Just let the lad ride... Be a much better meeting with him there....

Sadly. Even (just) a 30,000 crowd would smash what would be a normal week in the UK... With the ultimate irony being that many within that 30,000 being "close followers of the sport", rather than domestic regulars.. Just getting those fans into the stadiums every week, or even just once a month, would see significant growth for UK speedway... Its been a shame that the only event that gets reasonably significant mainstream coverage, is ridiculously seen by many as one of the main reasons responsible for UK Speedway struggling.. Cardiff has been a jewel in the UK Speedway crown.. Sadly. A crown left hidden away in the back of a cupboard, and not utilised anything like enough to grow the UK sport off the back of..

Therein lies the main problem though for many teams with landlords... 3000 crowds per meetings would knock out around £60k, meaning clubs could pay between five and ten grand a match.. Do that 20 times a season and I would suggest landlords would be much happier keeping the tenant... The saddest thing is that most clubs (in the Prem particularly), will have well over 3000 "followers" who live local to their tracks, but the way the sport has been ran over the past couple of decades in particular, has made many of them (very) infrequent visitors.. You only have to see the play off crowds to see the potential should those who run Speedway ever do if "properly" so fans could believe in it... .

You would have thought that with a TV meeting that some orchestrated protest would have been planned...

Woffy.....

Anyone asked him about KL last week? That "one off"...

Looking for the right set up... Or his gating gloves...

Probably another of those "one offs" that Phil refers to quite a bit....

Is that Woffy practicing starts again with no helmet on?

Of course they do... They have regulations. .. Then, regularly, along comes something that, when the regulations are followed, kicks out a situation that the vast majority then say... "That cannot be correct".... Hence we often have contradictory decisions being made, that go against any custom and practice... Often "in the interest of Speedway".. A more, less suitable phrase, it would be hard to iimagine, as this alone will alienate so many fans..

The reaction will be... "That's perfectly acceptable because it is within the rules".. "Unlike last year, when, it was, errrrrrr, also within the rules"... "But I didn't like it"... " Dribble, Dribble".. An unnatached rider coming in? Not Acceptable A rider coming in who has already been knocked out of the competition his scoring has influenced? Perfectly Acceptable..

No, that wouldn't be allowed.. Those who run the sport have exacting standards... One team will be fine.....

In the interests of speedway?

Me and my lad would have been nowhere near the NSS on Monday as we had seen Laguta earlier in the season so "been there, done that,".. Lambert will add a good couple of hundred to the gate on Monday I would think.. Bottom line is, it is all ran a lot Mickey Mouse isn't it? So it doesn't really matter who wins, loses, or draws (oops, we don't draw anymore do we?).. So, it's good to see another top UK GP talent back... And it also means he will no doubt pick up another league winners medal as he guests for one of the finalists... Last year he came over having had zero influence on the season's results, to replace an injured rider, and we had many in " meltdown", and still dribbling to this day about it... This year he will 100% influence who makes the last four and could then quite conceivably ride for any one of them in the final... Makes perfect sense, and perfectly acceptable...... Good to have him back...

If anything hwpoendls to Dan, can the Aces bring Robert in for the place offs? Bringing him in last year to replace an injured rider, even though he was unattached, seemed to cause meltdown in some quarters... I presume him replacing another rider in another team as a guest in the play offs must be "different", so perfectly acceptable to everyone..?

I thought he said he would only ride for the Aces.. Or was it Wolves? Or maybe Sheffield?.. Or am I confusing him with "someone else"? #aceslegend... Great to see him back over here....

Hasn't someone got fined for fielding a "weakened team" who actually won?

100% agree.. So... Stop the race to the bottom.. Have some kind of salary cap control.. "Saving the promoters from themselves" should be a role profile for someone... Riders may demand "Elton John Money", but when you only get a " Chesney Hawkes" following you need to be realistic...

A perfect scenario for Div 2 Promoters.. Getting to use Div HL's and not having to have two developing UK riders at six and seven.. The long term failure that they cannot see though is the obviously ageing demographic of the Div 1 HL's that they use.. When they go, who replaces them? Hopefully next season we have one "Elite League" which has the top riders in it, and a Champ/NDL alamgam with each team having one Div 1 HL each and two RS's of a similar standard to the Current Div 3 HL's and SS's.. To sell any sport, you need demarcation between the top league and the rest, which then provides relevance to the top league and kudos in winning.. Plus it provides a clear development pathway for lower league clubs to aspire to and grow their clubs, which then organically grows the sport.. When you can pick and choose what league to ride in, and can "relegate yourself", whenever you feel like it, then getting punters to take either league seriously will be a real challenge..

Tail wagging the dog... Cannot ever move forward with that in place...

Guests are a fundamental "must have" at a majority of meetings anyway aren't they so what difference would it have made tonight? It doesn't really matter who wins anyway does it? Maybe this is (another) of those "one offs" and won't happen again...? (Again)....