Hamish McRaker

What will Leicester do, to give Craig Cook the needle?

I guess it was down to who was representing the riders' cases, and how well their case was put.

If that's correct, surely the other riders bans have to be lifted too?

On the Eastbourne website you can find a report on the league match at home v Glasgow back in May. Accidents galore, especially by the sounds of it during the first 5 or 6 heats, plus the serious injuries suffered by Brennan in heat 12, by which time the overall incidents rate looked to have dropped. Subsequent comments by Eastbourne management were putting the fault for the successive run of defeats at that time squarely down to riders' poor on track decision-making. But I bet that match and the number of incidents, especially early on, had lingered in the minds of Cook and perhaps also other riders and they arrived at Arlington with minds already on high alert.

I would go for a letter from SCB to both clubs, strong warning, keep your riders in order, otherwise in future you will be punished as a club for bringing the sport into disrepute

Suspending these riders only causes more problems than are solved. Fines have to be the right way of dealing with it, together with appropriate levels of punishment for their clubs. To begin with, fine the riders their earnings from that match, then a percentage from a set number of matches from now onwards.

That Marshal was dumb to walk in front of a 500cc bike & rider. Eastbourne should be fined by the HSE and ordered to train their Marshals properly. The riders were also dumb and beside being brought to book for being unprofessional, probably breached SCB regulations.

Maybe Harris was on a fixed match fee whereas Douglas is paid more on a points basis?

Get Glyn Taylor back. He used to be able to fix pretty much anything.

Looked to me like Cook tried to shove the steward with his beer gut but made a poor job of it because he hasn't got one.

Is that picture of Nick Morris on the SGB website a recent one? He looks a bit on the chubby side to me.

Another Australian would be no surprise. The one at Edinburgh called Josh, or maybe an English Josh? And to spice up things up a bit, what chance of Mr Garrity being let loose at the NSS?

That "fast track" scheme used by the top league a few years ago, whatever it was called then, didn't do much to improve things because it should have been done in the second tier but presumably the promoters didn't want it because they preferred to complete their teams with foreign rubbish. Now it's clear to me that it needs to be properly re-introduced to the Championship next season, with a mixture of protected heats and the riders being fenced-off from the rest of the team in the team building/averages. You just have a maximum team building average for 1-5

Not to mention Roger the Cabin Boy. So I won't. Just Captain Haddock

Bates fights his bike, he doesn't ride it. There will only be one winner, in the end. Difficult decisions coming up for Mr Dickson, don't envy him.

Read an interview in SS with Wajtkneckt a few weeks ago. Said he has problems switching from grasstrack(?) to speedway, and that it takes him a few rides to get back into the hang of things with speedway. I don't know how often he does grasstrack, but surely coming out and saying something like that isn't the best policy?

Surely if Scott Nicholls needed to skip a GP tv date because Leicester need him for a re-arranged fixture, he would be released by BT without any problem?

Please keep this level-headed, which includes not indulging in attacks of a personal nature against Craig Cook. He has seemingly left Peterborough for contractual reasons on the eve of the season and Glasgow in the CL is now his sole UK team. I do not know if he has team places in Sweden or Poland, but I'm doubtful. Does he have other income to replace his Peterborough job, will he secure a team place at another PL club, or has he burned his boats with respect to his career as a top level speedway rider?

Well I for one am looking forward to reading about Rob Godfrey's thoughts about sports broadcasters in this week's Star.

Sadly it seems the first rule of commentating is to ensure no silences, but of course this is the age of constant noise, much of it of poor quality. Barry Davies was another from the old school now consigned to obsolescence, Peter Alliss is probably the only surviving one. I am certain that Rob Godfrey would agree with this.

The number of studio and pitchside experts deployed to live sport broadcasts is becoming ludicrous. David Coleman and his like didn't need that, and what is more they wouldn't have tolerated it.

Liberal use of the record and fast forward facilities gets around that one

I think one of the problems we get when averages "collapse" as a consequence of smaller leagues, is an accompanying reduction in the "wow effect" when a lesser rider upstages one of the higher scoring ones, because having a 10-point average, in the minds of the spectator, creates more of an aura than if that same rider has a "mere" 8-point average. The achievement by the lesser rider is probably just as great, but the reaction is possibly more muted because he has "only" beaten an 8-pointer, especially if that 8-pointer is having what you would call an off-night. There just aren't any riders taking part in any league nowadays who has that sort of aura. The collapse of averages produced by smaller leagues plays a part in that, but other factors have contributed significantly to a situation where no rider in the world has that aura.

True, the less knowledgeable and experienced the spectator the more impression will be made on him by the normally lesser rider who pulls off a win in a crucial heat, against the grain. Of course the more seasoned spectator will be much less prone to such rashness, being more highly aware of the wider picture. The manner of winning also has an effect, due to the chemicals which will flow from the spectator's brain into his bloodstream as a result. The senses and human biology have a greater role than mere data.

No matter how many statistical permutations and theories are advanced, it is always people's individual perceptions of reality that ultimately have the greatest influence on their thoughts and decisions