Tsunami

Great news to hear that the Monarchs are coming to the tapes in 2013. Whilst this is great for next year, I just wondered what holds after that. I think in the earlier communications it did mention that the real problem is knowing the situation in 2014 and presumably a new venue. I hope this next year provides them with an alternative venue which is stable for many years to come.

I heard that other Aussies couldn't believe he got a WP in the first case, but not at liberty to say why.

Just ignore both of them TWK. Obviously nowt to fight with in the EL section at the mo, so they try to have a go at a subject they are not quite clued up on. Tssh, invasion of EL snobs.

David McCallum.

It's only a few years ago that GRT Media, Rerun Video's and Mike Bennett tried to combine together to produce a magazine programme for just the PL using their own footage which, if anybody buys their products, all are in great HD with excellent graphics for results. I think GoSpeed dictated the terms which were not acceptable but the exercise proved that there is quality imput into the footage and that would be the necessary base requirements to transmit to whoever would take the feed.

Already do. I attended the youth training day at Buxton last year, and the mentors for the riders were Havelock and Simon Stead.

Whilst I support your sentiments :- 1. the EL is superior to the PL in the 3 league structure 2. The sports you mention, you only see the best of those sports, not junior leagues or club events. In the case of Ice Hockey, we see their EL which, like Speedway, has about 10 teams and shares most of Speedway faults. I think only in Football do you have dedicated programmes in lower leagues such as the Championship League.

Whilst the DMU agreement has nominated Championship meetings only for the UK clubs to pay the riders airfares, SVEMO has a high top figure for the UK club to pay for any meeting within their agreement. A Swede is more expensive than a Dane. Once the upper limit in the SVEMO agreement has been reached, the rider is then responsible for his own fares.

WAS, but not now.

No, actually.

Unfortunately there is always gullible fans to believe it, and folks that want to start rumours. BTW What would your definition be for 'paying on time'.

Probably not true, but what the hell.

Interestingly , the present team has a combined average of 41.82. Rene is on 7.93 and therefore could be included if one existing rider above 7.25 is swapped. I don't think it will be as straight as that, but it is an interesting alternative. That's assuming no deductions and team total of 42.50 of course.

No. The idea of using a road engine with a gearbox that could not be removed, meant you were riding around with a big lump of heavy metal doing nothing, and with the 650 being on petrol there was no high energy explosion to get rapid acceleration. It was OK for riding around in a big curve but there would not have been cutbacks and slipping up the inside because you couldn't change direction that quickly. Talking about obsolete equipment, the riders had a similar dilemma when laydowns came on the scene about the same time. It was not too bad then because you could get a conversion kit to keep the engine running until you bought a proper factory made laydown engine.

Bollocks. It was Honda in 1998 and it was a total fiasco. 650cc engines with gearboxes, too heavy and not enough power, the riders did not like them and speedway would have been finished in a couple of years.

No he didn't. Newcastle could not fit Robbo, Lemon and Rene in, and as Rene was the risk with the injury, they went with the other two. Don't make stories up.

SC. Home teams only pay away team travel if the meeting is called off and they have set off. The away team submits their mileage and of course most folks know where they started out from, and not from their home track location. As Chewwie says only 4 in a team with 1 reserve, so 20 riders in total to pay for.

With the comments in the Programme saying that the club had made big losses, along with practically all other PL promotions, every possible outcome has to be considered. A lot of clubs are in trouble and it would surprise me if everyone ran next year.

I for one, as a Newcastle Diamonds supporter, agree with the playoffs system and applaud Scunny on their slim win against Somerset. The fact they won by one point doesn't make it jammy, it just shows how close the playoff system can be between two very good teams in the final. Disappointed that Newcastle, who led the league practically all year, weren't in the final and then winners, but that's the excitement that is kept to the end when it is up to every club to do the best they can. Newcastle were worst hit than anybody by losing Britain's highest rising star Richie, and then his twin with the same injuries. With the rolling averages, which I also agree with, our 8.50 man could only be replaced with someone upto about 5.50. Steve was on the rise and was starting to hit higher scores. Alas, the rules decreed he be replaced by a NL rider which was a further weakening. So the best and strongest team were penalised in both cases but still finished the league top from a team which had got stronger in the runnin to the end. That's just the rub of the green and I remember the team was was winning the EL title years ago by a mile, lost KB before the playoffs and that was their chance gone that year. Best of luck to Scunny, you did what you had to do, following this years rules to win the PL.

As others have already said Drew, Gary refused the TR withdrawal offer, and he picked Hall both as a guest and then heat 15.

Congrats to Scunny for winning the PL with their late burst in the season. I can sympathize with their fans and riders, but the Somerset management lost this title for you in a couple of ways. Best club won.

It's nice to receive all the best wishes from so many other teams in this league. I think this is where and why our league is superior to the EL. The hard work of course, was done last night and when we had 4-2's in the first two heats, the feeling changed as it we had defeated the Witches already. Poor returns from Tungate and young Taylor, was just too much to cover to try and also overcome our existing lead. So we lost two items of silverware but at least we got this one, the KO CUP final. Would have preferred the PL title but then again, a lot of teams would have liked to have the KO Cup on their mantlepiece. Massive effort from Jonny Swales and the track staff to get this one. I was told the track was frozen yesterday, so no work could have been done on it. Jonny was there at 7.00am this morning, working through the day in a desperate attempt to squeeze the remainder of the water out to make it raceable. Continuous tyre packing continued right up to the start time with concentration on the inside/mid track racing lines. Tricky but it was raceable and there was some excellent passing and racing from say Dak and Leigh L. Risager also had his moments. At the presentation of medals by Dave Wood, friend of the Diamonds and local councillor, Leigh was the gentleman he always is, praising the efforts of the Diamonds riders and the professionalism of the Newcastle Promotion during his previous visits to Brough with Arena, Newport and now Ippy. True gent is our Leigh and many thanks for your comments. The victorious Diamonds were then presented with their trophy's, and of course Mark accepted the KO Cup comp Trophy which was no stranger to us. Nice sentiments from Paul Starke who received his riders trophy, having being released by IOW today to ride for us, and then they had the poor missfortune of a rainoff at Stoke. Both Worralls joined the party and Steve said he would like to be back at Brough next year. Of course there needs to be major changes because of the financial aspect of the sport, and one can hope that all of the current PL teams come to the 2013 tapes, especially as Plymouth is possibly going NL with no new deal for change of ownership. On a lighter note, following the item on BBC Look North on young Archie Freeman, the 7 year old Diamonds mascot, SKY was in TOON to record a quite lengthy feature on him, which should be shown on SKY Sports News Channel 405 during Monday throughout the day. Good publicity for all and some stunning interviews.

Although it is grey sky, there does not seem like any major rain. about. Forecast for this afternoon was light rain which has nor appeared. I am due to go to Brough for SKY to film an piece on Young Archie at 4.30pm, so I will be in a better position to see what it's like and to hear what the feeling is. If it's definately on I won't post, but if it does get called off I will post that. My own feeling is that the meeting is ON unless we have fairly heavy rain. It's our last meeting, and like Ippy yesterday, the promotion will do everything to get this meeting on. Se ya all there.

Think he was missing in action. Nearest I got to a Snakette was the cafe.

After a long long journey down we never thought that this was really going ahead. Massive downpours in surrounding areas past Cambridge and I was waiting for the call from home to say it's OFF. Got there to find that, although it was wet, it did seem even and after a meeting with all the riders and Chris Gay, it was game on and the track staff then adding a lot of sawdust to the key areas on the track. Apparently the weather instead of being cold and dry was cold and bloody wet, especially at the crucial time of 5.00pm which had put the tie in doubt. NO proper parade except a run round the stox track and then on with the meeting. Chris, with the riders cooperation, really did knock on and the racing was almost continuous except for extra time for consecutive rides for Matt T. 4 falls by home riders, usually in scoring positions, cost them dearly and, with some determined overtaking usually around the outside 3/4 th bend and also snucking uo a tight second bend, the DIamond's started to take a grip on the meeting quite early. In heat 6, LL used the inside second bend to take Morten first lap, but then surprisingly did exactly the same mistake as Morten which resulted in a conceded home 5 - 1. Bit of a shock in heat 14 when Dak and Matt T outgated both Christian and Matt W and the meeting result was back in doubt. Stuey, with massive engine probs was omitted from the heat 15 lineup, and a strange combination of Lemo and Ned rompted to an early lead which the maintained despite the probing by an impressive Leigh L. So a win away at 42-48, well pleased with that and also the fact that the meeting even took place. Praise was lavished on the home promotion, and especially the track staff, to get the track fit and even raceable, a sterling effort. It did look at the end heat 9 that it had all been a waste of effort when a massive 2 minute hailstorm had everyone scaddling to the bars but Chris G got the riders out and the meeting was on. Like going to Ippy, nice setting, nice track, decent eateries, and a friendly crowd even if they thought that the weather was always like this in the North East so we felt at home. Yes, but only in the summer. Had a reintroduction with London Witches and also Badge from my last visit. Lovely to see you and have a crack again. Met Sue again who does such a cracking job, marshaling the live Updates Service. Talked to Mr Sackers who was stood in front of us in front of the Garden. What a nice guy, and family, and we had a good crack about speedway and the continuing links between Ipswich and the Geordie nation. Of course Bobby R was mention, it would have been rude not to. Met em1500uk for the first time, and yes you are. A thoroughly enjoyable away trip even though it was 2.00am(really 3.00) when we got home. But as Max Boyce would say "I woz there".