Arch Stanton

Having guests “booked” is completely irrelevant. Means absolutely nothing. Sheffield had Joe Thompson booked for the cup final but then Gilkes declared himself fit and resumed his place in the side.

Nobody from Poland had a problem with Emil riding here in last years play offs either. The circumstances this time around are somewhat different as you full well know.

I could be wrong but Sheffield wanted to use him in the Cup final before they realised they couldn’t use him so they probably booked him for Woffinden in the play offs a while ago whilst Ipswich were still hopeful of using Lindgren.

Can only guest for one team in the play offs so my guess is you’ll see him a week Monday riding for Sheffield.

The wound by all accounts was horrific, likened to him being hacked with a machete. He’s had fluid leaking and drains inserted during the early healing process. One fall could open up the wound again quite easily and he’d be back to square one. He’ll be pressured though of course, to ride the Polish play offs. He wouldn’t be pressured here and that’s right. I’m personally not convinced we’ll see him back here next year, but I could be wrong on that. We’ll have to wait and see.

It isn’t his decision.

This. You could tell from the rerun he was obviously feeling second hand to say the least. First and foremost you look after yourself.

That’s completely besides the point as you’re probably fully aware. You’re arguing for arguments sake. there is a huge disparity between the riders on the rising star list, that’s a simple fact. There are a select few that are clearly above others. There are seven members of a team, some clubs have done a far better job with their top six than others, that doesn’t mean they’re not disadvantaged at rising star due to having last pick. If a club has one of the strongest rising stars and fail to reach the play offs, all that simply means is they’ve been unlucky with injuries and/or simply made a poor job of building the rest of their side. It’s blatantly obvious to anyone with a bit of common sense why King’s Lynn or Birmingham haven’t made the play offs. You could have a situation next year where a club with the last pick (and why should they get last pick btw simply because they were successful the previous season?) are forced in to picking a rider they’ll likely have to carry. 0,0,0 against Leon Flint or Jason Edwards who could chip in with 4 or 5 points some meetings. So you’re looking at a swing of 8/10 points you’ve got to overcome through an unfair selection process. I’m not a fan and never have been. We have a points limit, let the clubs sign whichever septet they choose within the points limit.

At this stage it’s unlikely Brennan will be doing Championship Speedway. His calendar is extremely busy and he has ambitions to kick on further next year and make a big charge for the GP’s. I’d be very surprised if he rides in the second tier again but we’ll have to wait and see. Not sure you’ll see Ben Cook in the Championship again either.

I think the “terrible gater” tag with Harris gets overplayed. There’s little wrong with his gating whenever I’ve watched him, and often it’s very good!

The British under 21 is an individual event, not a team event. So you accept some clubs will gain an advantage, and some clubs will be disadvantaged through no fault of their own but just carry on with it anyway. You shouldn’t be comparing the NDL to the flagship tier in this country, the NDL is called the National Development League for a reason. Not for the first time, we’ll agree to disagree.

Everyone. So you’re probably looking at Fricke, Lawson, Masters and Becker. Wouldn’t say that’s damaging to them personally.

Rew was outstanding. He’s made great strides this year and reading Hawkins’ positive comments regarding Rew and next season it looks like he’ll almost certainly be back which is great news

Yeah I bet you do

Is that the same Kerr you sacked before the cut off? And the same Vissing you got a ringer guest for in the play off final that scored paid double figures?

Scott can’t do tonight’s meeting and the reason is nobody’s business to be honest.

Louis confirms here that the plan was to use Lindgren as they knew Birminghams season would be over, and the wheels were put in motion months ago. His Polish club eventually put the kibosh on that idea.

Contractually probably not. People would also call it a “farce” if we did that but it’s already a farce in the way they’ve pissed up the semi final draw and no more of a farce than turning up with the majority of the team made up of guests from other clubs. At least Oxford would have their own team of riders and the two semi finals would be competitive and more entertaining to watch. I honestly don’t think the majority of Ipswich supporters would be bothered at this point I really don’t.

At this point we should just wave the white flag and let a fully fit Oxford take our place in the play offs.

Kvech guesting for Emil, Brennan for Doyle.

Kvech.

Or maybe they didn’t and they were outvoted by the others?

Anyhow as I’ve said before, I think it’s time to bin it off as it’s not a level playing field. There will be two or three that are clearly far superior to the rest on the list, so some clubs through no fault of their own will be disadvantaged from the get go. At least by letting clubs build their 1-7 of their choosing, if they end up with one of the weaker teams then that’s their own fault. When you look at the whole list from this year, and with all due respect to them, there’s some on there that would be out of their depth in a Championship reserve berth let alone Premiership.

That’s why they altered the criteria to avoid the likes of the Bates situation. Going by this years rules, you had to be 23 or under by January 1st to fit the qualifying criteria.