Travertine

That statement is correct - The Poles will not licence any of their own nationals to ride in the Premier League, meaning they won't get any representative call-up at any level. Any young Pole can still ride PL on a UK licence, if he's happy to go down this route. This is nothing to do with EU legislation, and happens widely across sport, even in this country - Toby Flood has chosen to pursue his Rugby Union career in France, and as a consequence, will no longer get selected for England.

................... and referred constantly to the Witches 'Director of Speedway' by surname only - Methinks you're right, Bash!

You're living in the past, wonderkid. Promotions are always having to plan for the future and its no different at the OTA. Rebels fans on here are only doing their bit to help the promotion as they see it. Most (maybe all!) teams have had 2014 threads for some time now, generally because their season finished a while ago, but many of those were started up before their teams last match. Besides, if you want to start up a 'lets glorify the Rebels 2013 season' thread, go ahead and do so, but leave this one to those who genuinely are interested in what the future holds.

Does anyone know the breakdown of what happens at certain scores ............ The Diamonds want a big win from the Bears, to prevent Somerset getting the extra point they need, and to diminish the Rebels race points to the level that its worse than that of Newcastle - hence some Diamonds Fans heading for the STMP. However, this would also bring the bears onto the same match point total as the other two, and if they do score enough themselves, it would be Redcar that qualify! However, I don't have the wherewithall to work out the permutations, are there any of the stats nerds on here who might be a bit more adept at number-crunching?

Perhaps because the thread was started much too early. Nearly two weeks before the fixture is excessive, even a week in not usual for PL threads. A friday night match should have a thread appearing on the monday or tuesday, unless its a final - and this one ain't!

Poor show, Dan, blaming the tech! You know what they say, a bad workman blames his tools!!!

Ritchie might give him a run for his money - I've a lot of respect for what he's acheived this season.

Might be a few Comets fans there, at least in spirit!

The two Thursday night failures scrapping for a third rate trophy - what do you expect!

Obviuosly some people did just that! Lord A mentions that the crowds were well up on usual, so there most be some truth in the statement that some people do save their hard-earned for the play-offs.

There's been a lot of twaddle spoken on here about other sports using play-offs to determine their champions - almost every sport does this, to a lesser or greater degree. Football is probably the most conservative in that it only uses them for the lesser positions, but it still recognizes their value, as does Speedway across all its three leagues. American sports prefer much bigger top level leagues, split into conferences and reginal divisions, however in all of these, every team plays against teams from all the other divisions before going into play-offs. Aussie Sports all prefer the convulted qualfying and elimination type of play-offs that we see in Rugby League in this country (which might work in Speedway to a lesser degree), whilst most European sports prefer a single league leading to their own play-offs. Most interestingly, the two major baseball leagues that make up the top level of their sport have differing rules (designated hitter rule) which, in inter-league games, is utilised when the home team uses that rule, and the away team adjusts - could you imagine that happening in Speedway? Perhaps it already does at Poole What lets Speedway down is the poor governance and the lack of communication from the top. Some of the recent difficulties with teams making the cut-off could have been avoided if the BSPA had been more forthcoming with clarifying cut-off dates and stating the implications, as Leicester found to their cost. I think many in the sport would find the play-offs much more agreeable if they were managed properly, and that goes back to the orginal point that the governing body is poorly run - like those American sports, perhaps we should bring in an all-powerful commissioner, as was mooted all those years ago.

As Super Blue says, all to play for in the second leg. I think both teams will be content with a 12 point difference - good enough lead to defend, but not too much that it can't be attacked robustly. Too big a lead will demoralise many opponents, but that's definitely not the case here. I suspect it will still be the Witches to lose though - their form on the road this year has been consistently strong, and swings this tie in their favour. Roll on the 29th - let's hope the current decent weather holds out until then!

Well, It's gone 5pm - has the rain gone too? Are we a go for tonight?

As has been pointed out, that's what Newport and others before them have done, and look where it got them. As Big Eddie says, you have to get the finances right in every area of the business. If you splash out on stars, you will need more income to balance the books, and that just isn't viable in a place like Berwick. The promotion have a sound financial model which manages to keep speedway in the town - well may it continue.

Clearly, Somerset's first pick would've been Redcar, with Ipswich then selecting Workington for their group. For the last pick, there was only Edinburgh and Newcastle in the hat, so who would you honestly expect Somerset to pick? I suspect Ipswich would've done the same if they'd had first pick.

Too much scrumpy, methinks!

The perfect man to show Cookie how to do it properly, then!

This just demonstrates a wilful ignorance to accept the facts - there have been enough statements to substantiate what happened up to and during heat 15 for anyone to understand what happened, whether they were at the meeting or not. Enough has been posted that you don't need to have been there (especially Mr Scotsman!). To not understand is not the same as agreeing with what has been stated - many disagree with the decisions made, but the effect it had on the final result cannot be argued. Let the arguments continue, and keep this forum stoked up and a haven of comment, but don't try to feign ignorance by not understanding.

Super Blue, you'd better take it easy on the wacky baccy, it's starting to show in your posts!

Oh, dear, gus is right - just had a look athe old beeb weather map, and it looks dreadful. Not a hope of getting it run, I would've thought - guess the promoters will have to start scouring around for guests on Monday!

Now that Ben is back in the saddle, is he not able to take his rightful place in the PLRC?

He wouldn't have at Somerset, unless he was VERY good mates with .........................

Makes you wonder how folk survived before the advent of the information superhighway!

Off , Tuesday 10th September for the re-run - perhaps, with better availability, the Witches can book a better class of guest!

Not quite so clear-cut as just these two - Workington must be looking down at these two below them with a little trepidation. The comets have two difficult fixtures and, although they've got a healthy average, a couple of hefty defeats with just one of the other two pickking up points could see the Comets miss out.