spin king

I think we need to be a bit careful about claiming riders staying down and get the race stopped, although I did get the feeling on Thursday that some of the Scunthorpe riders were doing it quite often. But only the riders themselves know whether they can clear the track and I sometimes think as fans we expect riders to do this when they might not be able to do for one reason or another and they do tend to balance themselves out over the season. Over the two meetings I guess Scunthorpe fans will try and claim the bragging rights, but I really think that they need to take a look in the mirror . They were very poor at Sheffield, Auty and Howe were poor and had to use 2 tactical's where as Sheffield because they kept the meeting tight throughout the meeting never used a tactical, and went into the last race with a chance of taking something from the meeting not something that Scunthorpe can claim. End of the day I am happy with my teams performance over the two meeting, and I think we can surprise a few teams this season on how competitive the Sheffield team will be. .

Your not very good at this predicting the scores lark.

Oh yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssss.

Same goes to for the Premier League, sentiment won't come into it.

Tough one to call, could well go either way by no more than 6.

I don't think anyone should look too much into this meeting. The Birmingham team had 5 Premier League number one's in their top 5 (Danny King would be classed as a number 1). I prefer to give the team 8 to 12 meetings to see how they go. Lets give it a bit more time rather than one meeting where we riding a standard of team that we won't face in the league.

okay then lets have a go Martin Guest aka Spin King. (1) Somerset (2) Newcastle (3) Edinburgh (4) Scunthorpe (5) Workington (6) Leicester (7) Ipswich (8) Berwick (9) Plymouth (10) Redcar (11) Sheffield (12) Rye House (13) Glasgow

Some very interesting predictions in this week Speedway Star this week. None more so than the Ipswich correspondent, who seems to have a totally different outlook to the rest for next seasons Premier League.. Sheffield 4th Somerset 8th Scunthorpe 13th To be fair I hope he is correct with the Sheffield prediction. But somebody please get me glass of what Elvin King has been drinking.

Done it.

Have to agree with SCB regarding attracting younger fans and the old guard standing firm and not wanting change The fact is that the sport does need to be marketed a lot better and needs to target the younger people, because there are far few younger people attending speedway than when I was in my teens. These I stand on the terraces at Sheffield worrying 50% of the crowd may not be alive in 10 years time let alone attending speedway meetings.

Well according to his Facebook page he is no his way over. Lets hope he brings his thermals as it freezing here.

Remember the Lucky Shorts.

Very good mate, but you have taken me a long way round to get the Barrack Tavern, its about a 25 minute walk from my home. No the special effort is down to the fact that I have to be at work for 4.30am the next morning. So there won't be so many. Otherwise I will be the next morning.

I am going to try and make a special effort to go to this gathering.

Sad Day, but definitely the best decision. Will go down as one British greats,, and surely they can find him a job in the Team GB setup. All the best Havvy.

Mine Done.

Am I Halifax Tiger's Dad. Well if I am that some milk round that I had at about 3 years old. (Don't be fooled by the name Halifax is Southern lad) And remember Halifax if I am your Dad SKJ is your little brother. And the cheque is in the post.

I am impressed you read it all the way through Pat. Shame you nort a Berwick fan would not have to wade through the rest of it.

Would not say that we are whingers. The thing about us at Sheffield we have been used to having teams over the last 14 years been in or around the mix for silverware, so last season hit us really hard and the worrying factor for the die hard's like myself the crowd levels were down and like a lot I felt it was down to the team collectively that the Promotion put together last season (Although there was a few plus points for me Joe Haines been a definite one) but generally from the start fans felt that the team was not good enough. The Promotion promise to make sweeping changes and too be fair they have made quite a few, but the worrying problem for is that the Promotion have brought in 3 riders on assessed averages, and the big problem is that the fans don't have any form or have not seen any of the riders on assessed averages (Jake Knight apart). They simply don't have anything to judge these riders on, and it is rare that assessed rider achieve their assessed average or better it. But on a positive note I don't think that you find a Sheffield who has not applauded the signing of both Joe Haines and Simon Stead and they have been universally accepted by the Sheffield fans as two very good signings. Ricky Wells, has the fans split, some of the Sheffield fans were perplexed that Ricky could go out one night and beat Darcy Ward for Wolves and the next night come to Sheffield and get beat of the opposition's reserves. Richard Hall is another one that has us split, superb and exciting to watch around Sheffield but his away performance are and have more often than not been poor and the Promotion spin the same line every year that Richard is working hard and is determined to improve those away performances which is starting to wear a bit thin. The Team Managers has been a big issue at Sheffield, over a number of years for the fans. They seem to miss tactical decisions when they are obvious to everyone else and don't tend to mix the riding orders to suit different tracks. For me and the rest of the die hard's we still go week in week out, but like quite a few I worry whether or not the team will be attractive enough to bring back the stay away fans. The team has a feel of a bit of a gamble by the club and of course gamble's do pay off sometimes, but I do think that with 3 assessed riders coming into the team it means that the some if not all of the lads will have hit the ground running to attract back the stay away fans.

I think that Steady will play a big part in the team spirit, as captain and I think that he will.

He was captain last season, but he ain't this season, if he did refuse to ride number 5 last season then the management need to get tough with him and tell him what position he riding not him telling them.

I would have Hall at number for home meetings and stick Wells in to ride with either Koppe or Albin at 3 and 4.

For me there is only one rider that can be successful riding the difficult number 2 race jacket. If you think of the Sheffield riders who have done well in the past riding that position Ben Wilson and Hugh Skidmore spring to mind, both quick out of the gate and both won their fair share of heat 1 riding at that position. For me Joe Haines fits the bill nicely quick out of the gate and fast when he hits the front...

Would have preferred to have seen a New Team Manager in for next season, much prefer to see Dave Hoggart take on the centre green duties.