TheCookster

Is there a confirmed line-up for this event available anywhere yet?

What is the latest on Covatti? When is he expected back?

Brady Kurtz has had a good season, but he looked off the pace against Edinburgh all night. You can hardly blame Leigh Lanham for not gifting him a point that his performance in that heat didn't warrant.

Get Dave Tattum to take over the promotion ... he'll have the crowd figures down to a couple of hundred in no time :-)

Harsh on Leigh. For someone who is supposedly not comfortable on the bigger tracks this season he has averaged 10.00 at Sheffield, 7.65 at Somerset and 7.00 at Peterborough while raising his overall average from 4.90 at the start of the season to 6.73 now. I have always had a lot of respect for his attitude and professional approach and hope he gets sorted out elsewhere very quickly.

Guest appearances don't count towards averages, so that tactic wouldn't work, I'm afraid.

Stichauer could be a good signing for Glasgow, if he can avoid injury. I first saw him when he was riding for Stoke and he was a very promising rider until a bad smash at Scunthorpe put an end to his season. If he can stay injury free he could be a bit of a trump card at reserve.

Is Kasper Lykke back for the match agaInst Glasgow tomorrow?

Match averages are calculated on a “rolling” basis, for a specified number of applicable meetings, taking account of the number of heats and points (excluding Bonus Points) that a rider has scored. This includes ALL heats in an applicable match, including heat 15. The only exceptions are: "tactical rides" where any double points scored will only count at 50% Appearances as a guest rider, which are not included in a rider's CMA Appearances as a number 8, which are also not included in a rider's CMA. The only reason why I can think that someone might have said that a rider's appearance in heat 15 wouldn't have any effect on his average is if that rider was appearing as a guest in that particular meeting.

Then somebody has led you to believe incorrectly.

Thanks Alan.

Any news yet on when Lykke will be fit to ride again?

Current Coventry manager, Gary Havelock, famously sported "dreads" when he became World Champion in 1992 and continued to race with long, flowing hair for most of his racing career.

If they are, then fair enough.

It may just be a question of semantics, SCB - but at present the rider with the highest average ("best") does not have a programmed ride against the rider with the lowest average in the opposing team ("worst"). As a result the "top" rider does not have the chance to improve his average further with an "easy" victory (theoretically) and the "bottom" rider doesn't get exposed to being "beaten up" and having his averaged reduced by defeat in a "harder" race. As an analyst you know that you need to compare like with like as much as possible and that isn't meaningfully possible while the two leagues are using the differing formats. By the way, I am not coming down on one side or the other here, simply pointing out the fact that this particularly method of comparison is flawed. I'm not sure that is what most people are claiming though (though perhaps some are). I think the majority are arguing that the range of quality from 1-7 is more equal in the PL than it is in the EL, rather than on a heat by heat basis.

The race format that has been used since the introduction of the EL draft riders puts a completely different slant on the averages though. In the scheduled course of an EL meeting the very best riders do not compete against the weakest riders. That is bound to compress the range of averages. As long as EL and PL and using different race formats to each other, you cannot meaningfully compare the spread of averages.

Thanks.

How come Howarth is missing?

Any news on Andre Compton since his crash last week?

I would generally agree with that sentiment, SCB - but I think the EL has seriously lost its way at the moment. Although the very best riders competing in the UK ride here exclusively in the EL, I don't think the EL has the best overall package and race format. It should have and it should be what clubs in lower leagues aspire to. I think the Swedes and the Poles have got better league set-ups than we have in the UK and that would fit fit clubs and fans being able to feel aspirational for the right reasons, so I can understand the misgivings that Sittingbourne supporters may have.

I'm still behind TMW in the number of posts on this thread, Griffo, so, no, I can't claim the title of main contender - and my longest post pales into insignificance compared to Vog's main contribution, so I am well short of taking up two pages on my own. However, the part of your post that hits the nail on the head is that fact that I posted 'replies'. If I am challenged on something I wrote or been asked to explain or justify something then I feel I owe that poster the courtesy of that explanation. Whether we subsequently agree or simply agree to disagree is another matter. Has the thread meandered away from its original title? Yes, it has ... but that is simply the nature of conversation and would be true of the vast majority of threads. I recall quite recently on a thread entitled "Stoke's 5-Year Plan" that someone posted on there talking about how the shape of the Stoke track had been used by Ole Olsen as the basis for Vojens ... completely off topic! I forget now who it was ... oh yes ... it was Griffo! Not having a dig ... just illustrating my point that in responding to others in the course of a thread's conversation it is almost inevitable that the subject matter will move outside the immediate parameters of the original title of the thread.

We will have to agree to disagree on that point, Rob, as you clearly have a different take on the history of the country than I have. However, surely not even you could argue that Northern Ireland is not a political entity, so the earlier point I made is still valid.

You've lost me there, Griffo. I have just read back through the whole thread and I can't see 'two pages' full of 'one person' "narking" on about his / her dislikes.

Rob, I think you missed the point. I was merely illustrating the inconsistency and lack of logic, as SCB rightly noted. The term "Great Britain" is no less of a political entity than "United Kingdom" as it refers to the composite of the three geographical regions of England, Scotland and Wales.

Which is really weird, given that the name for Great Britain & Northern Ireland combined is the United Kingdom.