szkocjasid

Happens in football with play-offs. Probably many other sports too. I don't agree with it, but it's not a Speedway only rule.

Yeah, didn't understand that decision by the ref.

I think it's a stupid rule, but no difference than a 4th place team winning the Premiership, 6th place team winning the Polish Extraliga or the 10th placed rider winning a GP! Nowadays an "exciting" ending is more important than a deserving winner / qualifier (sadly)!

Why? All matches should have to be raced. I can understand the argument, finish all the semi finals first. The only reason to prioritise the play-offs, would be in case the BSPL were worried all matches wouldn't be completed, that should never be an option imo.

If that was the reason Monarchs lost, I'd keep that to myself. I'd rather say "we were beaten by the better team, than "we didn't pay attention to track grading" 🤭

Simple answer would be the complete the BSN series sooner, especially as it was the season starting competition.

I agree league matches should be completed before the play-offs. But it would be daft to not allow a KOC fixture to be raced between 2 clubs who have finished their fixtures because others still have to finish theirs.

If I was being pedantic I'd say they don't race in the Premier League, they race in the Premiership. Aside from that, I agree the points for draws is daft, I see no reason why both teams can't just score a point without a superheat. But the aggregate points is a good rule. Even removing the extra points from draws Sheffield would still finish first. After all that, finishing top doesn't make you the league winners, as much as I think it should do.

Personally I think the BSN series should be completed first because it was an early season competition. Then the KOC, cause there's no reason that should have run so long either. Finish up with the play-offs. I would think that would get a big crowd whenever it is raced. Whereas the BSN may get a smaller crowd of fans have already just watched the play-off & KOC finals. I can certainly see the logic in finishing semi finals before racing finals, means the other finalists can plan dates without having to wait though. The BSN series should have been completed months ago, no excuse for it going on so long. Of course clubs tend to ignore it as they want to get their league fixtures over & done with, I don't really know why, the cut-off date doesn't need to be so early it'll cause havoc with fixtures. I also think it would have made sense for the Redcar vs Poole match to be a double header, that seems very logical, save on travel expenses & get competitions completed sooner. Oh I forgot, another reason to race the KOC finals first is to get bigger crowds. Poole & Redcar fans can't be sure they'll be in any more finals, so they may turn up in greater numbers for these matches? If it was just one out of 3 guaranteed finals, would they get the same attendance?

I agree with that. But wouldn't have fitted in the current team in place of a reserve. One of the top 5 wouldn't have been signed. In hindsight you'd say Boughen, but pre-season he could've been the next big thing.

That last paragraph is a great point. Part of what makes pre-season so interesting. For the comments saying Glasgow should have gone with a stronger reserve, I've not seen any suggestions of which top rider they should have gone without to fit a better reserve in.

I 100% agree some of the things I read in Bowes' statement were out of order & no rider should be subjected to them. Had he said he was sitting out if the rest of the season due to mental health issues, I'd be full of sympathy. But as he said he was still willing to ride at Poole, but apparently can't be bothered to turn up for Workington, I'd say good riddance to him if I were a Comets fan & we don't need riders like that over as a British Speedway fan.

While you do make fair points about the play-offs. This year in the Prem, the top 4 clubs were known for a long time, have they been racing to lower crowds half the season with people waiting for the play-offs to start. The Ipswich vs Sheffield matches had nothing riding on them, if they were for the title would've got mammoth crowds. For Speedway to be successful we want the Glasgow crowds you mentioned at every match, how do we convince fans that every match deserves their attendance not just play-offs? If every match had a "play-off crowd", there would be no need for them! Obviously I'm in a minority but if Redcar & Poole meet in 3 finals, why will they get bigger crowds in one over the others? Same 14 riders (unless using guests), same tracks, same rules, only difference is the name of the competition!

But your plan had 7 teams in each section, so 6 home meetings, plus one guaranteed match in the league cup. 7 matches across the season is far too little, even the clubs making the finals would only get 12 home matches. I could understand a North / South split for a league cup, then everyone races each other in the league = minimum of 14 home matches each.

To make the racing closer, you want the gap between the top & bottom riders to be lessened. There will always be new inexperienced NL riders stepping up, but if the league on the whole was weaker, shouldn't be such a task for them to achieve the minimum 2.00 average. I'm sure no fans of these riders at their clubs would want to lose them, but if he likes of Lawson, Masters & Harris can race in the Prem as heat leaders, should they really be in the second tier? If we can get to the stage where Prem heat leaders / top second strings race, Prem & Poland / Sweden only, then lesser Prem riders double up in the Champ, there would a lot less guests needed in the Champ, a lot less hassle rearranging fixtures around foreign matches, a lot more youngsters realising a Champ place is a bigger possibility. Riders won't like it, some fans won't like it, maybe the likes of Poole & Glasgow would step up rather than run a Champ at second string & reserve standard (I've no issue with that). But something needs to be done to secure the future of the sport, carrying on as it is now, obviously isn't working.

This makes an interesting point. Riders want more matches but clubs apparently don't, this means riders having to work another job (nothing wrong with that) which means they may not always be available if a guest is needed

I don't know why Poole would want him after this episode, if Bowes leaves Workington because he's in a huff, why would Poole assume he wouldn't do the same to them? It's not like Poole don't have options.

How did Oxford lose, I thought having the second leg at home was an advantage?

While it's never ideal to have such a long delay, surely starting 90 mins late, rather than calling it off at 5pm is the better option? However, they should have announced the delay sooner, not had a parade & done away with the interval.

Agree with BluPanther, I much prefer individuals decided by the top scorer after 20 heats

I didn't see a lot of potential in them (apart from 1 good guest appearance) but if Glasgow wanted 4 heat leaders, 2 x 2.00 reserves was their only option. But I've been impressed with both of them this season. Scored more than I expected, well done to them. If I was Glasgow I'd start with both again*, expect the team to have to weaken (if the Champ stays the same) would would mean they can keep more of their top 5. *Unless Rushen could be signed that is.

Boughen's starting average was over 3 points above Perry's. So for Boughen to start at reserve, would have meant replacing Harris with a 6 point rider (roughly guessing averages). Any alternative for another top 5 rider would have been starting at reserve, not Boughen. Naturally fans will want to improve on a weak part of the team, Monarchs fans want a stronger top end (but that means no Grahn at reserve) but with a low points limit, it's not easy to do.

Heat 13 & 15 didn't surprise me, Edinburgh couldn't afford Glasgow's reserves to score the points they did, that's the decisive factor for me.

If Bowes has indeed "spat his dummy out" & refusing to ride for Workington, then should get a 28 day ban. Of course that's pointless at this stage of the season, so what's to stop any rider disappearing before the end of the season? Maybe ban could carry over to next season?

Fan of the sport, with money to burn? Probably more wise to treat it as a hobby, than expected to make money from it.