SCB

I'd have got with a guest and sucked up a 14 day ban. This could be a killer blow for Lynn

I said a few years ago Holder would never win a title. 8 months later he made me look stupid! But I agree, these days I think Holder has another title in him. To be where he is after his injuries as phenomenal and I honestky think given a year or two to rebuild his confidence we'll see title number 2 from him.

Maybe, hopefully, the Bees management will have signed a 6.5 rider for Robbo by then. You'd think they'd want to do well as it means the title decider will be at Brandon (assuming we win the semi)

Thats odd logic. So he'd have probably be higher place but for injury in 2013 but you're willing to say he'd have been World Champion in 2014 due to others injuries?! surely you include injuries or you don't, you can't have it both ways. Plus Hancock averaged over 2 point a GP more, as did KK and Woffy who finished 4th averaged a little more too. He wouldn't have made the podium last season. I see him having a few 3rd/4th place finishes but he'll screw up again at some point.

I didn't cast any unsubstantiated aspersions, someone made a post on here and I have correctly pointed out that if it was true and he was riding in an EUM/FIM Europe meeting them no facility should be allowed. I stand 100% by everything I have said as it's all 100% true.

No. Does he have the raw talent to win a title in the next 5 years? Yes, certainly. More chance of him copping another ban in the next 5 years IMO.

What do I have to apologise for? I was right, if he was in a FIM Europe meeting it would be no guest. If anyone owes anyone an apology its DunRobin owes me an apology for telling me to "get real" when I point this out. Maybe if Swindon had just told everyone in the first place it was a Czech League meeting then it would have avoided the whole discussion about it being dodgy and someone posting it was because he was in an FIM Europe meeting - as he was the next day.

It turns out he wasn't in a Euro meeting that night. He was riding in the Czech league, so a facility was allowed.

It's not an FIM meeting. And no facility should have been allowed. God only know how they managed to get away with it. It's even on the FIM Europe website ===> http://www.fim-europe.com/index.php/sport/track-racing Here you go..... http://www.edinburghmonarchs.co/news/article.asp?id=2154 "... Erik Riss will also miss the meeting. He is racing in the European under 21 team championship in Sweden and as this competition is not recognised by the BSPA we must bring in an NL guest..." shocking that eh?! European Championships not recognised! And Edinburgh used "NL junior" (Matt Williamson) in place of Berge at Berwick who was in an EU U21 meeting.

I think theres been son confusion. I was attempting to agree with you, I think! It took Gollob a while to master smaller tracks but he actually got there in the end to the point that he was actually pretty good at them and probably better on them than the bigger track towards the end of his time in the GPs

But it's still a cost to attend speedway. As you need the car to attend speedway. Also, £400 is very cheap for some people. I'm 30 years old and drive a Impreza and I paid £450 this year and thats only that cheap as I live in a low car crime area. Ok last year I paid nearer £350 for a 3 series. My 25 year old sister was paying about £800. Neither of us have any points. Find someone under the age of 21 who is paying less than £800 and I'd be amazed, most of paying. For every 65 year old driving a 1.4 litre Corsa and paying £120 theres an 18 year old driving a Corsa and paying £1,500! The average person will also have points on their license these days I bet! This article suggests the average is actually £648.61 not £432 which is a figure I got in an email from confused.com this morning weirdly!

I see no obvious replacement.... Should be interesting.

Unless King or Joonas have a bad couple of meetings.... edit > see I've been beaten to it!

I think it did rain at BV during the 2nd leg. Around about heat 5 or 6 just before Morten Risagers blast around bends 1 and 2.

This always amuses me from both sides of this argument. To rubbish the other rider. Both have 3 World Titles. Both are clearly exceptional speedway riders, it's hard to argue that.

I love the people having a go at Nicki for attacking the Torun team manager on the same thread they are justifying Greg hitting Nicki

You have got the cost of riders and the cost of entry the wrong way around. My boss pays me £x based on the fact I earn him £y he didn't find me, pay me and then charge the customer based on what I earn. So why the hell do you think speedway should work that way? If people only want to pay £10 then costs should be cut so the product is a £10 product, if that means riders take a 30% pay cut then thats how it has to be done.

£400 insurance is the average (actually £432 is) Also, insurance companies ask you how many miles you do, the more you drive the more you pay. The only cost that is fixed is the tax and the depreciation to some extent. But if you own a car to get to work and to socialise and go to speedway then of course it's fair to include it. It's part of the reason you own the car and it makes it worth while owning a car. If all I had to worry about was getting to work for example I'd catch a bus at a much lesser cost every year!

£130 a year tax (for 10,000 miles) => 1.3p a mile £400 a year insurance (for 10,000 miles) => 4p a mile 15p a mile fuel. Depreciation on car value (assume average car cost 15 grand and last for 15 years thats £1000 a year) = > 10p a mile Average tyres last 20,000 miles at a cost of £400 a set. => 2p mile £200 service => 2p mile. Thats over ~34p a mile already without any other costs. As DAC says, HMRC allow 45p a mile, do you think the tax man over estimates?! No chance! OK you don't have to service your car, you can buy cheap tyres, you can drive ultra efficient all the time and buy a cheaper car but the AVERAGE person doesn't. Spot on. From mid-06 to the end of 08 I missed about 5 Coventry meetings home and away and only 3 or 4 home Newport meetings. Plus went to a fair few of Newports more southern and midland based meetings. In addition to what must have been close to 70-80 neutral meetings mainly at Birmingham, Wolves and Peterborough. But even I used to get narked at the "people who don't go don't deserve an opinion" and the letters page in the speedway star that started with, "I've been a fan since 1971", well bully for them!

So Nicki Pedersen assault someone and apologises. Greg Hancock assault someone and says it been coming for a long time and make out the other guy is a psycho. Yet one is a real professional and nice guy and the other is the devil on a speedway bike. Hmmmm!

The thing is, thats the meeting I realised I loved to hate Nicki. After that we had Kennett vs Nicki in heat 13 two heats later and they they had a great race with a little more finger wagging and waving of hand bags, lots of booing and jeering. Then he come out in heat 15 and blitzed the Coventry boys by half a lap, they announced him as the winner and the crowd went back with cheers. That day, Nicki Pedersen entertained us and pretty much every one there appreciated it. For all his faults (and that list is a bloody long one!) he evokes emotion one way or the other at pretty much every meeting. Even when he's the innocent party you get arguments as people claim he deserves it etc. We'd not get that if he was boring like Greg.

Sheffield don't have a meeting so we'd be ok that day. Robson will hopefully be gone by then! But you're right, we'd have no Danny King. The thing is, this meeting is not anywhere near as important for us as it is for Swindon. We don't need the points, there no guarantee we'd get points even. So what is in it for us to rush to re-arranging it? Just thinking back to 2010 when Swindon screwed us over calling off a meeting weeks before the play-off cut-off but we unable to re-stage it until after the cut-off. Hopefully a bit of Karma comes into play here!

Youre kidding right? That's a starman level of logic so the EUROPEAN u21 Chanpionship is not a European Chanpionship?! The European championships, be it seniors, u21, pairs or team championships are not recognised by the BSPA. They are all EUM (FIM Europe) inscribed.

Weaker? North and Howarth scored 18 and Howarth was on heat 15. Can you see Ward and Eduard doing much if any better? While I expect Kylmakorpi and Batch will cancel each other out with any improvement. Hans only scored 7 last time and can potentially add 4 or 5 to that. While I do expect King to score a couple less. I don't see why Coventry can't run you close again tbh. In fact I think we can win if Sarj is back in it - and he's had a couple of better PL meetings recently. It's damn annoying we have Sunmers who will score 4ish when r/r could have scored 7 or 8.

http://www.greghancock.com/2015/08/12/team-hancock-statement/