crescent girl

Oh yes he did! Try Friday, October 28th.

There's no eight day rule for a guest at No 1. You can use the same rider every week, home and away, if you want. That doesn't mean there isn't a shortage of suitable riders, of course. But both teams can use virtually any available rider (in either league) at No 1 on Friday night, provided their averages are under Cookie or Screenie's.

Yes. Were you?

Oh, it happened all right.

Well, so much for your estimations! John Anderson's notes in programme said Edinburgh match (the first £10 offer) was biggest attendance of the season (this would be outwith the FIM event, obviously) and I was told by a good and reliable source in the Black & Gold after the match that last night's attendance was actually just a little better than the week before. From the back straight, I did comment the stand did look a little less-full. But my palswho sit in the stand told me the back straight crowd (drawn by the sunshine there, maybe?) was much bigger than for Edinburgh. So the two biggest crowds of the year are enticed by the £10 deal, and it is on again next Saturday for Ipswich. But without a large visiting support this time, it will be locals who make or break the promotion's promise to keep prices down if crowds stay up. For us regulars, it make sound commercial sence to try and spread the word around the area during the coming week. So far, it seems to be working!

Disagree on change. While there will always be a case to moan "it ain't fair to us" in any system, rolling averages are the single best thing to arrive in UK speedway for years. At a stroke, they have ensured the abysmal malpractice of June 4th, 2010 will not be repeated.

Plus Nicky Barrett is back too, and they have in Nick Morris a hopefully dependable guest at No 1. Seven riders! As far as I can tell, rider-replacement for Ricky Ashworth didn't score a single point last night!

And might not the Swedish League play-offs not be considered a "National (team) Championship"? However,I am not suggesting I support Premier League riders being pulled away to ride in leagues overseas. Having successfully achieved a ban on Polish licence-holders, it would be good if the PL could extend the premise to others. Remember the great days of having only UK and Commonweath riders in the old National League?

No sir, if it were a question it would have a question mark. Also, to form such a question, the comma after "guest" would have been a full stop.

Just get a more-accurate poster than you had at Redcar last night, Sue.

I wasn't there, but from what I've been texted last night and today, Bandits were collectively awful. Speedway Updates equally bad, I had text from track about Micky Dyer crashing in a black-and-white hat (not mentioned) in Heat 8 and being withdrawn. At the same time, Updates had him in second place, but without extra points! Scores, and maybe results, on Updates most certainly wrong in that instance -- don't know if any other races were affected. Maybe we really won?

Unless Micky Dyer is ruled out after his crash and withdrawal last nite at Redcar, Berwick will only have one guest, who is Nick Morris.

Bring all your friends!

Let's get this clear. You are a Newcastle fan?

The one with the broken wrist?

Joe Haines?

As was evident on Saturday past, Berwick's success or failure might lie in their choice of available guest. Club website says he will be named today - more likely late tonight, when updates are usually posted - and that will allow us to make better forecasts of the end result But with good weather promised, the £10 offer continued for another week, the burgers sizzling and a confident glitter of Diamonds coming up the road, I am hopeful of a bumper crowd rolling in to see the meeting. It is really important we urge our friends (on Tyneside as well as Tweedside) to come out and support the sport on Saturday.

Instead of starting 2011 with sixteen teams - Ipswich, Plymouth (swapping leagues with Stoke) and Leicester arriving - the PL was cut to 14, and decimated further going into 2012 by Newport's suicide. It is plain to anyone that Belle Vue would benefit from "doing an Ipswich" - if only until their much-publicised new stadium comes into being -- as even any hand-out from Sky cannot under any circumstances defray their turnstile losses and EL rider-payments. The most-successful 'lower league' was the old National League of the late 'eighties, run indepedently of Rugby and able to retain the money generated by their own, always-financially-successful shared events. Let us collectively sigh for a return to those simpler, happier days.

Very good summary of the situation. Well set down. PL is in a better place this year than last, as the end-of-term competitions (play-offs, Young Shield) at least have targets set up to aim for over the final fixtures. Weather (mainly) and the compression of fixtures into the four-day schedule to which you refer haven't made it a perfect scenario just yet. Where the PL is still suffering is from losing two clubs when Birmingham and King's Lynn were force-fed into the EL to save the situation caused by Coventry and Peterborough's toys-out-the-pram idiocy in the winter of 2010/11. Ipswich have proved that it is far from suicidal to move leagues -- let's hope, from a PL perspective, at least one EL club follows them during the coming-all-too-soon winter months.

Actually, a newcomer wouldn't care. They would see motorbikes going sideways -- the names, and true affiliations, of the riders would mean nothing. It would be great, because they would see what we sometimes don't -- short, sharp four-lap dashes between four crazy men. Ignorance can be bliss.

I love the Ippo thread! Jeff Scott will probably do his next book, just quoting your incredible statements. As a bible, it would be right up there among the top two.

Sounds like you Diamonds are full of confidence just now. C'mon up to Berwick on Saturday (£10 to get in, children free) and we'll find out how good you are!

As you are including the currently-injured Cookie and Roynon in your ten, where is Ricky Ashworth's name?

Thankfully, Poles (or to be pedantic, PZM licensed riders) are not permitted in the Premier League.

Aw c'mon! Surely you think the injuries, the silencers and everything else is purely the fault of John and Chris Louis?