SCB

Exactly. Ban all the foreigners. For the first few weeks of the season people would refuse to go as the replacements are crap. But after the first set of GSAs then "crap" Brits would all be averaging more, some of them as high as 8 or 9 as there would be no foreigners to beat them. Suddenly the stay away fans would be arguing that them new 8 point Brits are better than the old 6 point Finns, Danes and Czechs! And in doing so, you only have to pay them slightly more than they currently get in the NL now, £10 a point is I think the rate, so double it to £20. With the draft as it is in the EL, then riders could progress up in time too. You could allow any foreigners who could average 9 to stay. I say 9 because now with the league being very nearly NL level 7 would be far too easy.

Last night watching Darcy Ward! Sorry, you said Milik, I thought you said Nigel Pearson!

Gater1 is Dak North!

The rumour is that the GRA turned the request down. I guess the GRA have nothing to be gained by helping out any more.

So are we almost agreeing now that early NL (70s and early part of 80s) was no great shakes, in part because the BL was so big so anyone any good was in that league. But as the BL shrunk in the mid-80s and the NL got bigger that the top end of the NL did become a LOT stronger but the bottom did still have some not so great riders. So basically, it depends exactly what years we're talking?

So that would be the 9 team BL of 1989? So one more team than now. Try again in a season when there were 16 teams. Try comparing him to some rider from 1984.

Ward and Kraczmar scored 13 - not really any better than Kildemand/guest and Howarth. Ward was always going to be a class act Always good to see Poole lose

Because the discussion started about how strong the NL was when Mike Lee ride in it. Did he ride NL in 1990? Or back in the 1970s? If the EL was a 16 team league like the BL was at one point, the likes of Richard Lawson would have 8 point averages and people would remember him as a great rider. But in a smaller league, he can only got 6.5 so won't be remembered the same way

You don't even get that with the NL these days, most of them have come from the MDL. Georgie Woods at Eastbourne is the only exception I can think of. Who was the last rider to go straight into he PL without the CL/NL? Danny Bird in 1998. Richie Hawkins only had about 3 meetings in the CL in 2000 before signing for Swindon in 2001 too. 15 years ago!!

The Somerset management probably found out because people on twitter were questioning it - Its entirely possible someone in the crowd mentioned it to them after looking on twitter.

So having seen Tai Woffinden lose to Billy Legg and Sam Hurst at Newport in the CL back in about 2007, I can claim that Sam Hurst and Billy Legg are of World Champion level? Reminds me of John Perrin and his "steak and chips" vs "egg and chips" comment circa-2000

I've said for a long time that far too many referees will far too often call all 4 back on any 1st bend incident - Tony Steele will do it going down the back straight! They're all basically bottling a decision and should grow a pair. Gollob caused the crash, he should go, balls to all this, "it could have been all 4 back", no, if Gollob caused a crash he should go. I'd also not stand for the rider on gate 4 coming out of the gate at a funny angle and trying to get across the other 3, colliding with the guy off 3 and going down. Thats no bunching, thats the guy off 4 riding into the guy off 3.

Weirdly, probably not. Poole only tend to get page after page of slagging off when people think they have done something wrong. When Poole fielded an illegal team against Lakeside 3 years ago nobody seemed to give a rubbish.

For a start what about the time they did nothing about Poole illegal team when they declared, from memory Sam Masters at number 2 but he wasn't fit but the rules said the facility should have been for Ludvig Lindgren? Or the time Poole called a meeting off with Lakeside and Lakeside just backed down? You're right about the other incidents. But Swindon did fight the Miedzinski one. And BV are not much better than Lakeside with their pandering to Poole.

Using the football thing, try fielding an ineligible player in football. See what the outcome is.

It's just speedway fans once again redefining the meaning of words!

Why do people think it's so offensive to call someone average or a journeyman? Neither is a bad thing to be.

Mouthing off about the FIM, promising press releases telling us about the bad stuff the FIM have done. Playing the victim.... They possibly will, and you'll never convince all people. Arrogance IMO is fine, as long as it's arrogance about his speedway abilities - because I would expect pretty much anyone with his talents to be a bit big headed about it. From a purely selfish POV I hope he does keep his head down and no mess up again, he's a great rider to watch.

I know they're all bad for letting Poole get away with it, I've said so many times. But Lakeside are worst, they just seem to roll over and take it. As for the TR, Ronnie Russell and Len Silver invented it, I'll always blame them

The amounts of money the riders at Glasgow are meant to be earning are staggering - no idea if this is rumour based on new money men taking over or has any truth in it. Maybe someone can confirm or deny it?!

Lakeside are one of, if not the worst offenders for letting Poole get away with all manner of crap. That is killing the sport. Also Lakeside speedway (under it's old promotion) invented the TR - like it or not that has kept a lot of people away.

It's not up to us to shake of Darcys reputation. It's up to Darcy. Over the years there have been many riders who have managed to change people perceptions of them. Scott Nicholls as a youngster was a hot headed ass. Crumpy made Scott Nicholls look calm but both matured into sensible, decent, yet still exciting speedway riders who the speedway World grew to love and respect. Even Tai, not exactly everyones favourite rider/personality but he changed his approach and attitude and a lot of people took to him. Darcy is still what, 23? That gives him another 20 years potentially to make us change our mind about him. I think owing to the fact he's so great on a bike he'd not have to do a lot off a bike to be liked. But at the moment between him being such a plonker and then the Sky pair banging on about how great he is all the time - it does him more harm than good. TBF to the guy he made a mistake. He had the decency to admit he may be wrong and when corrected accepted it in good grace. We all make mistakes, a lot refuse to learn form them or admit they made them,

TBF, that Poole meeting is a LOT better. I'm struggling to see your point with the 20 year old CL meeting though, it doesn't prove either side of the argument here.

I just looked for this. I found a top of the table clash between Weymouth and Middlesbrough. I haven't even finished watching heat 1 yet and I'm thinking that NL riders look more in control that this lot! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voEhlEEpvWg edit> While heat 2 is comedy It's MDL level!

A circus turns up for 5 days a year. Speedway is there for about 20. Not really a fair comparison.