TheReturn

Agreed. I am not sure who said it, maybe someone on here or maybe it was Kelvin on Sky but I agree with what they suggested the answer is to plan a league around riders who are committed to riding a full season in the UK, even if that means most of the top names are not part of the picture.

Well done to Philip Rising for his article in today's Star about Hancock's no show at Belle Vue. Very eloquently writing about how the vast majority of fans felt about his no show and the questionable reasons given to explain his no show.

How ironic, Hancock in this week's Star comments he might consider riding in the UK if there was a squad system and meant he only needed to do about 10 meetings a year. He could not be bothered to come to the UK for the SWC, so I hope the BSPA don't give this mans opinion any credence. He used British Speedway early in his career when other options were limited, but now the grass is greener in Poland and Sweden he basically seems not to care less about British speedway.

This was so frustrating on Monday. I don't know if Kelvin can't speak out or not, he mentioned he had some technical ideas for improving the sport but that co-commentator person failed to ask him to expand on this between other heats. Something that would have been so interesting to hear. Does anybody know if Kelvin as ever spoken about this before and what his thoughts are?

50% of that commentary team is ok. On one hand you have Kelvin Tatum, his mechanical and riding insight is fantastic, he is elequent in explaining the technical stuff and generally calls most racing incidents spot on. Then on the other hand you have a commentator who calls every win a 'big three points', every faller is immediately suffering with a broken collarbone and over pronounces his P's.....

Surprised the Star didn't make more of the Hancock sudden 'no-show' at the Race off.

The interesting thing is, he was interviewed on TV in Sweden and never gave any impression then that he was not riding at Belle Vue.

I was away for the weekend and just caught up with the final last night... wow, what fantastic and amazing racing, only spoiled by Pearson shouting 'woooh' every other race. Well done Team GB, they looked out of it mid way, then by the last four races they were in with a real chance of taking it. Hopefully this will be the start of Team GB moving forward.

I agree, they didn't seem totally out of place, but could they learn that much racing around at the back like that? I think everyone is off the same mind, if Greg really wanted them to learn why was he not there advising them in the pits.

Ok... so there seems to be some contradictory information going out here.... on TV Pearson claimed Lance King said it was the plan all along, yet at 6:04pm on Twitter the man himself said it was his late decision - https://twitter.com/GregHancock45/status/759072041345572864

Depends if you believe that or not!

There you go... he's sticking to the 'giving youngsters a chance' party line. Anyone heard if Hancock is there in the pits helping his team?

Based off what I have read so far, I would buy this reason over the 'giving youngsters a chance' reason more credence.

Nothing online to suggest he is not riding. If he isn't then that makes this comment attributed to him on the SWC site to be rather redundant calling on his team mates to show heart, if heart not in it to ride tonight. But like I say, nothing online so far to suggest he is not riding?

The best practice should have been the semi-final. I really don't like the hosts being seeded straight to the final, if they have to be seeded anywhere it should be to the semi only so they earn their right to be in the final.

Then the rule is an ass. The joker rule is a joke and favours teams with a 'superstar'. Case in point, lets be honest, without it chances are Team USA would be on their way home right now.

I agree with Kelvin Tatum, I thought she made good calls all night. It's about time we had a ref (excuse the pun) with the balls to make tough decisions on first bends. Too many refs bottle it and call all four back rather than make a decision.

Then if he qualifies he is most welcome. Not sure I would say he would be 1st or 2nd on his return but would be fun to find out.

He is a great rider and I would love to see him back.. but... why should he be given a free entry to the SGP after he previously walked away from it? I feel the same about the SWC final, I say it every year and I will say it again this year, Team GB should not be seeded to the final just because they're a host. They should be made to earn their right to compete for the top prize, the same with Emil.

And which you are contributing to with your usual argumentative style.

The performance suggests something to hinder performance. But like others have said, why NKI?

They can be big personalities on track without being idiot twats off it. Clearly the forum doesn't like the word either, it 'filtered' the word out.

Not on this forum no, it's not allowed, well it is, but only if your forum face fits.

You don't need to deliberately swear on live TV in front of a thousands of fans to be a character. I am pretty sure he could have got the crowd going without swearing and still retained the status of 'character'.

Not at all, if you read back I have already said that someone simply needs to have a quiet word with him.