Roger Jacobs

There's no mention of August in the 2022 Regulations. It simply says: "A Premiership Transfer Window opens after 25% of the League fixtures are complete and closes when 75% of League fixtures are complete. This permits changes to the team on 2 occasions, except for proven long term injury."

Don't forget, Sheffield v Ipswich is another match that won't happen - neither of these can go ahead simply because of the Green Sheet problem. Reducing to 10 matches was a ridiculous decision.

Ipswich had very little misfortune last Thursday.

They have kept to the rules.

Is Kwarteng in charge of the BSPA?

Kylmakorpi was struggling after a knee injury (0 in his return) and Wolves signed Woffinden on his official Green Sheet. He rode 6 league matches before the play-offs. When they tried to do the same again (a year later?) just for the play-offs, they weren’t allowed.

SCB Regulations: 013.6.1 Guest Rider ... f) no rider, whose team is in the play offs may appear as a guest in the play offs, in that league Hope that's good enough for you - you have obviously been relying on hearsay

No, only from teams not in the play-offs.

I still don't understand where misfortune contributed any significant difference to a comfortable home defeat? Edit: just saw your list of "reasons". Tungate fell under pressure, but I don't think Zagar was at fault (neither did Nicholls). King was awful, and failed completely twice on the third/fourth bend - that's not misfortune, that's poor riding. Summers *might* have done a bit better in Heat 8 - maybe the ref should have stopped the race and excluded Rowe - so no better than a 3-3. Heat 9 - no idea if the red lights came on or not - there didn't seem to be any protests. It was a strong performance by Belle Vue who learned quickly, and outfought, and outthought the Witches, winning heats 2 to 15 by a score of 29-49 ...

From a 6 point lead to behind after Heat 8, and none of that was to do with bad luck.

No TS in two-legged ties.

That will be a necessity for the Witches to build any sort of lead.

The point is, that Cook at Ipswich could be a very different rider. It's a track he knows and rides well - so a fired-up Cook can do an excellent job. Despite being a good team, they haven't dominated at home - a ten point win against BV was their biggest victory. Also, the Witches don't have a recent record of being able to rise to the occasion - it will be terrific tonight if they can come out and perform collectively the way Poole did last night, which put me in mind of the great John Berry Witches from many years ago. I'll be hoping for a Witches victory as a minimum but, as you say, BV must be favourites to take the tie on aggregate. The Witches are joint top on points, but have three "additional" league points, thanks to the Stupid Heat - an opportunity that Belle Vue have been denied because they haven't experienced the one result that apparently isn't good enough after 15 heats to call a result.

He will be riding at Ipswich against the Witches ...

I don't think they are allowed to change the advertised start time - certainly would be an unwelcome thing to do on the day of the meeting. Edit: just checked the Regulations - the Meeting Steward has to be present 2 hours before, and riders 1 hour before (other officials at different times). Changing the start would have an impact on so many people - mostly volunteers, who have other jobs, as well as riders and, most importantly, paying customers.

I don't recall a six week break - maybe I'm getting too forgetful!

The October Green Sheets are in: https://britishspeedway.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/p22_issue_19.pdf

The October Green Sheets are in: https://britishspeedway.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/p22_issue_19.pdf

Which shows how far down the pecking order speedway has fallen.

That was the point I was making … indeed, what’s the point of fixed race nights if they’re not going to race regularly, as in Poland? There was a time that people claimed the clubs couldn’t survive without home meeting every week - Poland has them every other week, while the Prem teams often go two or three weeks between home fixtures. It’s bizarre that the BSPA* can’t schedule a consistent fixture list. * I don’t like to use BSPL, even though they clearly are (very) limited

Can't see where it was that "low"? Don't forget that averages were also affected by the reduction in numbers of matches month-on-month. Even so, not every rider is suited to the #1 position - the rule that forces the top average to be #1 is unnecessary and pointless.

And it would be an even bigger defeat than usual

Interestingly of course, Poland just have one home/away league meeting between clubs, so although they've got 8 teams in the Ekstraliga, they only have to squeeze in 56 matches, as opposed to the Premiership's 60 ... ahh ... blimey, if only the Premiership had two fixed race nights per week and more than 20 weeks to stage the matches ...

You don't really believe the Witches could win there?!

Erik Riss?!