Tapeworm

There's now a term in golf called a "Nicola". It's used to describe a putt which is 'an awkward five footer leaning to the left'.

I'd rather be a turnip than a swede! It's poor Victor I feel sorry for. Seemed like a nice bloke. At Glasgow in 2014, he was given an assessed average of 7.00 so had to be run at No 1 when, whilst a competent rider, he had patently not reached that level. I am unaware of his having complained about this despite, possibly, losing a fair income from points money as well as the ignomony of always competing against other teams' star riders. Since then, he's been the victim of the numbers game at both Newcastle and Edinburgh this season.......... and now, apparently, the loser in a twit-for-tat historical tiff between Glasgow and Leicester. Perhaps he should change his name to Victim Palovaara? Or abandon all aspirations to ride in our crazy league set-ups?

Why R/R for James?

After 41 of the 110 scheduled matches (20 for each team):- M H A +/- 1 Leicester 10 4 6 +12 2 Glasgow 6 3 3 +10 3 Redcar 6 2 4 +3 4 Somerset 7 4 3 +2 ---------------------------------------------- 5 Berwick 5 1 4 +1 6 Sheffield 10 6 4 -1 7 Scunthorpe 8 4 4 -2 8= Birmingham 6 4 2 -3 8= Newcastle 7 4 3 -3 8= Edinburgh 7 3 4 -3 11 Eastbourne 10 6 4 -6 E&OE

That ruling would not relieve the problem of curtailed meetings, merely letting the public know the restriction. How about making clubs with curfews have a start time at least 3 hours earlier than the cut-off giving more chance, in the event of a delay, of providing the paying public with the 15 heats they've expected to see when paying their entry monies?

Early days yet but possible trend discernable? 1. Leicester M7 H3 A4 +8 2. Somerset M2 H1 A1 +4 3. Glasgow M2 H1 A1 +3 4. Sheffield M7 H4 A3 +2 5. Berwick M3 H1 A2 +1 6=Birmingham M4 H2 A2 0 6=Edinburgh M2 H1 A1 0 6=Redcar M0 H0 A0 0 9. Scunthorpe M2 H1 A1 -2 10.Newcastle M4 H2 A2 -3 11.Eastbourne M7 H4 A3 -6 E&OE

Need to wait until 27th July then...................

Because a 1-5 or 2-4 would have given us a 4 point away win instead of a 3 point one. According to R&R's post, it didn't have to be a reserve. Of course, I don't know whether or not Craig (and his bike) was prepared to have a go off 15 m in a re-run.

When Craig Cook was excluded from Heat 15 for a tapes offence, he was replaced by a reserve.... and a guest at that. With the best will in the world, it seemed to me that there were at least 3 other Glasgow team membes who might have stood a better chance of beating the Eastbourne pair and, possibly, securing a 4 point away win. Was the replacement by a reserve the only available option? Could not Craig Cook have started from 15 metres? Or couldn't Rasmus, Claus or Kyle been used?

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Can we please keep this thread and forum free from football except, perhaps, where directly relevant to speedway. It is, after all, a Speedway forum. There must be some sort of Football forum for such discussions. Football, a sport which in my opinion is predominantly played by vastly-overpaid cheating peacocks (nearly used a banned word there!), already pollutes around 99% of the sports pages in all newspapers, precludes a quiet drink in my local as 17 large screen TVs blare out some obscure foreign match, and was responsible for the major disruption to the 2018 speedway calendar resulting in the farcical fixtures fiasco in September/October. Its persistant claim to be our "National Sport", whatever that means, only serves to demean a wide range of other sports and activities. Don't let it take over this forum too. Please.

If you're right, maybe those clubs need to pay more to encourage some riders to travel regularly to the geographical outposts of the Championship, especially Glasgow given the dearth of Scottish-based riders?

What did Glasgow do to offend you ?

Well, when someone does, the first signing must be that delightful young lassie who parades with the "heat boards" at the tapes. She has the most radiant smile in UK speedway !

Sarj ?

Anyone now want to buy my B&B booking in Workington for Saturday night? And after my correctly guessing which night would eventually be agreed between the clubs too. Lucky white heather!

Sook is the opposite of blaw when yer playing the moothie.

Tennents lager.............. but you'll struggle to drink it with your head buried in the sand! Is "Barking !!" the most positive contribution you can make in this unsatisfacory situation? Do you not acknowledge that the current "socialist" system of penalising, rather than rewarding, success is flawed? This is unparalleled in any other sport I can think of. I was prompted to write my original post after reading on other threads that some contributors considered that Coty Garcia had reached such a level this year that they wouldn't pick him in their team for next year. That would be a terrible slap in the face of a rider who has ridden his heart out for his team. My premise is based on the generally followed career path whereby a rider's performance improves as he ages and gains experience, budget, physical strength and racecraft. My categories are simply illustrative and would, of course, be refined following detailed analysis of the current pool of available riders........ I have no aspiration to throw some over 30s on the scrapheap on an ageist agenda. My suggestion may not be perfect. It does not currently cater for a rider switching to speedway in his mid-twenties. But has no-one got any better ideas?

Thank you for your well reasoned and smartly presented response. Your positive ideas are so important.

Okay, I confess that I haven’t thought this right through. But I would welcome the input of any other radical free-thinkers who think that this aspect of British speedway needs a major review. I can understand that the current system leads to an evening out of strengths during the annual team-building but in which other sport are participants penalised for improving their performance (average) by becoming less attractive for re-selection? Can you imagine a top football team being forced to let go a striker because he scored too many goals in the previous season? Or “Sorry, I can’t select you for the Ryder Cup team as you’ve won too much money!” This is plainly ridiculous. The current system also lends itself to manipulation. Who has not harboured suspicions at the tail end of a season when certain riders suddenly under-perform against expectations, or experience sudden illnesses, or are the victims of an unusually high level of mechanical failures, or ride across centre greens, or engage in gardening with the bike facing the wrong way, or fail to make the 2 minutes, or blatantly crash through the tapes? And who doesn’t feel gutted for the rider who is sacked because his average is too high to fit within a team change? And what about assets on loan to rival teams unexpectedly experiencing a significant loss of form only to return to their home team next year with a lowered average? It all stinks. So, what other system could we employ? I wouldn’t advocate an unrestricted free-for-all or speedway might eventually follow football by being owned by absentee millionaires or foreign oligarchs. Some sort of control would be beneficial for the common good. An American “draft” system would not work as riders might not be willing to ride for the team which picks them for geographical, historical, financial or personality reasons. My suggestion, therefore, is to invoke a system based on riders’ ages. I haven’t analysed the spectrum of current riders’ ages but would envisage a possible format such that each team must comprise:- One rider younger than 18 at January 1st One rider younger than 21 at January 1st Two riders younger than 24 at January 1st Two riders younger than 30 at January 1st One rider older than 30 at January 1st Someone within our governing body could refine this outline but it should continue the aspiration to introduce younger riders to the higher leagues. With the abandonment of averages, more thought may have to be given to possible restrictions on riding order but why not simply make this a free choice for team managers? And, yes, I realise that each team ages by 7 years every season but all riders would not necessarily move up an age category so it might be possible to retain a winning line up for a couple of seasons………… in theory a team could comprise six 17 year olds and one 40 year old but managers would have to specify into which category each rider is nominated. Guests would have to fit the same category as the rider being replaced. Until Brexit is resolved, riders of any nationality could be allowed subject to obtaining a work permit, if required. This would dispense with debatable claims of a British licence/wife/granny. What does anyone else think?

THJ, I'm intrigued by your 'TotallyHonestJohn' handle. What does 'Totally' add to 'HonestJohn'? Or is there a 'PartiallyHonestJohn' down there with whom you do not wish to be confused? Are you making the point that you are the honestest of all the Johns who post on here? More honest than 'SeldomHonestJohn'? It's a bit like the word 'Strictly' used on signage. What difference is there between 'No ball games' and 'Strictly no ball games' or 'No parking' and 'Strictly no parking'? I reckon it's just a scam perpetrated by signwriters to make more money. Anyway, I think the current fixtures debacle is, Strictly, TotallyC*ckedUp.

I think the problem is that there is little evidence of them doing anything. Comets, enjoying great success this year, have 7 known outstanding fixtures (home and away in the League, KO Cup, and Diddy Shield plus a league match against Lakeside). Of these 7, only 2 are currently included under "Fixtures" on their website and there have been, so far as I am aware, no public statements concerning this situation. This hardly reflects a promotion doing everything in their power to "do what they can do". Do they not understand other teams' fans' frustration at not being able to plan to follow their team? And do they not want to give as much forward information in order to maximise income from visiting fans?

Not the BSPA. That would raise the thorny question of vested interests influencing decisions. Better to be an independent arbiter or, at least, a trio of promoters from a different league.

Apparently not !

What's wrong with Friday 12th at Ashfield and Saturday 13th at Derwent Park ? Leaves time for final before the end of October.