Bleeds Pirate Blue

Poole are not the only club who can sign riders without a British club on an assessed average... Seems a bit over the top to say that the Poole Promotion's ability to identify and sign improving riders on "fake low averages" is anything but great management!! I can clearly remember the 1998 Ipswich Witches team that signed Tomasz Gollob on a 7.50 assessed average! That is hands down the most ridiculous "fake low average" I can remember in the British League. That year they tracked Tony Rickardsson, Tomasz Gollob, Chris Louis, Scotty Nicholls, Toni Svab and Savalas Clouting. They won the league in a canter (P36, W26, D1, L5), won the KO Cup and won the Craven Shield. Rickardsson won the World Championship (Gollob was third), and also won the ELRC. Scotty Nicholls became British U21 champ... That Ipswich side was the most dominant team I can remember in my time watching the sport. Their end of year averages were: Tony Rickardsson: 10.29 Chris Louis: 9.42 Tomasz Gollob: 9.29 Scott Nicholls: 6.74 Toni Svab: 5.02 Sal Clouting: 4.09 Signing foreigner riders on assessed averages is part and parcel of the sport. As it happens, since Ford and Golding bought the club back in the late 90s, they have capitalized on the strong supporter base at Poole, and used their financial clout to ensure that the Pirates are the club that the most talented of these unsigned riders want to ride for. A financially secure club, with plentiful sponsors, and of course the pleasant lifestyle that Poole (Dorset) offers is more a more desirable team to ride for than say a cash-strapped side that can't pay riders and has a home crowd of 500 people. Simple!

Lets see how he handles the track on Wednesday first, eh? Hahaha

I would think that Magic Janowski and Brady Kurtz would already be penciled in for next season, and wouldn't be surprised if Kacper Gomolski is also back. Not sure if Davey and Dak will return on their averages. Both were a bit inconsistent at times, and struggled as a third heat leader. It's a real tough one for Kyle, who is a fan favourite, but will have to ride in the main team next year (assuming the rules stay the same). Also, depends on what average he would be given I guess. Starkey is more than welcome to return. Gives 100% in every race, even when trailing in at the back sometimes. I'm a huge Chris Holder fan, and am not sure about his status for 2016. His average looks appealing, knowing how good he once was, but, I'm not sure he will ever get back to those heights after his injuries. Out of sheer loyalty for his service and the instramental role he has played in the Prates success in recent memories, he should really be given a place in the side to be honest, and there is room for improvement (I hope).

A few thoughts in reflection on last night: An enjoyable evening that was a lot tenser than I had expected when heading to Wimbourne Road. It goes to show why the playoffs are an excellent addition to the sport. As a long-time NFL fan, I'm quite used to the drama that a playoff system brings, and it really did add something to the end of the season. It ramped everything up a notch and you could really see it on track. Might have just been me, but it seemed like more riders than usual were off the bikes when at the start lines, doing some gardening. You could tell every race was crucial, and having a Grand Final gave us speedway fans a little bit of extra excitement at the end of the year. Poole may have been the strongest team in 2015, but a plucky, in-form Aces side nearly toppled them in the final, and it was great viewing!! I hope the Belle Vue fans enjoyed their trip down, in what was a noisy atmosphere. Congrats again on an excellent season, and good luck in your new home in 2016. Mark Lemon is a damn fine manager. All those years as a Poole asset must have rubbed off Would the meeting(s) have been better without the stupid double-points tac rule? If the traditional tac-sub rule (when six points down) was a possibility Belle Vue would have been able to use Cookie at a crucial moment last night, and potentially Zagar or Nicholls. Might have even cost Poole the title. They'd also have been able to get back in the meeting quicker at home too.... Man I hate that silly double-points rule. EUUGHH. Magic really is top draw at home, and the epitome of what a captain should be. He's a superb team rider, often looking out for his team mate and sheparding them home for 5-1s. You could also see him geeing riders up in the pits, and he was giving Dak and Kacper advice before the title-clinching heat 14. He really is becoming a Pirate legend in a relatively short time. Those complaining about Googlegate, and the use of Eddie Kennett for Dak in the semi-final need to get over it. Again, drawing on my NFL-fandom for parallels, there will always be a set of fans who hate winners and look for any excuse to besmirch another team's victory as fortuitous, or cheating. Whether it's the Snow Plow game (1982), the Tuck Rule game (2001), The Holy Roller (1978), The Music City Miracle (1999), the Fail Mary (2013) or the Immaculate Reception (1972), people can make as many accusations all they like, but it doesn't change the result. It just adds the the lore of the sport.

Too true! Now Carter v Penhall, that WAS an incident work debating!! This is all nonsense. Meeting essentially ended in Ht14.

And cue the 'Googlegate' debate that rages for another 10 pages...

Great meeting. Craig Cook... wow... incredible tonight. And on Monday. He must be gutted. Possible the two best meetings of his life. Magic lifted us over the line tonight. He rode like the captain you need to be x3 league champions on the trot. Kacper has been brilliant 2nd half of the season and it's nice to see it was his race win that clinched it. Roll on 2016. Stay strong Darcy!

Hoping for a good meeting, but fear Poole will win relatively easy. Predicting Poole by 14. Going to be a big crowd from the looks of it...

My programming says five wins from gate 1, four from gate 4... Poor

Cook has to go

No need to stoke the fires any further.

I do believe that is called justice.

Worral staying down there was a little suspect.

So... Prediction time. Slightly obvious considering my name, but I'm going with Poole by 8 points on aggregate. Despite running the Aces close in our first visit to Kirky Lane, I think Poole will go down 49-41. Would be great to be treated to a meeting without the silly double points rule. If Dak rides Poole will get within 4. Poole are bit of a juggernaught at home this year, so I'll say 55-39 (2pts in a double points ride). AJ is pretty hit and miss at Poole and will struggle to beat Magic and Holder, and Watty has been flying in the last month. I just think our top end is too strong for the Aces and they'll struggle to win enough races to get heat advantages to make it close. Whatever happens, let's hope for some great racing. A bit of drama never goes a miss either. As long as no-one gets hurt!

Still confused. Haha.

I think you are confusing me with someone else? Unless you are accusing me of being a user with multiple accounts, which I am not. Is there a way I can prove it? Happy to do so if there is a way.

You've lost me!?

Ahhh! Did you make it down on Wednesday? It was a real shame Garrity was hurt as it killed the tie. Haven't been to Coventry since Martin Dugard won the British GP!!

Sorry if I took your comment the wrong way Jacques. I'll try again. I do genuinely want to have some actual speedway conversations with like-minded fans. The soap-box esque rant is a build up from lurking over the last few months and having a limited post count as a new member and seeing a LOT of Coventry accusations. I'm looking forward to our clash in the final next week! How many points lead do you think you'll need to get on Monday night to have a fighting chance? Sounds like Zagar will be out still. AJ is inconsistent at Poole... I haven't heard anything on the North situation as to his status. Obviously he's quick around your track, so we'd probably want him to ride rather than use a guest. Of course it will cause an uproar, but I don't think Matt Ford gives a damn about public opinion, so he'll do what's best for Poole Speedway... If we can keep it within 10-12 points I fancy our chances. We've turned in two very different displays at Kirky Lane this year and I'd have thought it was the track that least suited the Pirates of the playoff teams. Hopefully Gomolski's form will carry over to a track he isn't great at...

Thanks Jacques. I can see you've got over 8,600 posts to your name, which would make you a forum regular I'd assume? And rather than engage with my concerns, you instead make a snide remark and look to exclude another potential member of the community.

Haha. Not at all. This is my only account. Feel free to check my IP address and so on. I have nothing to hide. There is a chance I had another account 4 or 5 years ago when I last engaged with this forum, but I couldn't for the life of me remember the log-in I used, so set up this account. Now I'm living in Dorset and a fully fledged Pirates fan again, I've got back involved into the online speedway community, although as my previous posts have probably shown, not sure I want to be.

I've come to the conclusion from participating in this thread (and the Darcy Ward one) that mdmc82 is a real life version of Hyacinth Bucket (ahem, Bouquet) - essentially a narcissistic fantasist, but unfortunately for us, this 'real life' version is much more malicious. I'll also add that I have never seen a forum more in need of a strong-handed moderator. The behaviour and quite blatant trolling from the likes of Game On, robert72, Gavan and orion, among others (those are the names I think of off the top of my head) is an utter joke. There are certainly some pro-Poole posters on here too who clearly wind a lot of people up (Red Panda, just please quit with the ruddy fullstops! and Starman, you do keep digging holes!), but from my own experiences of being on here I'm mainly seeing Poole-fans on the defensive against an onslaught of bitter fans clutching at straws in their tinfoil hats. This thread is over 80 pages, and I'd wager about 70+ of them are about ten to twelve posters all being aggressive and confrontational to each other. No-one's opinion has changed. It's literally just page after page after page of the same damn argument. "You cheat". "No we didn't". "You've cheated before", blah blah blah. I'm pretty confident you're all "adults" too, which makes your actions even more sad. All this talk of the sport dying and a lack of new fans. I wonder why? The speedway "fans" on this forum come across as vindictive pieces of work you'd cross the road to avoid. Bearing in mind this is the #1 speedway forum in the UK, and that the new generation of potential fans are going to be digitally savvy, do you think that on seeing the reprehensible behaviour of far FAR too many people in here is going to encourage them to start joining in the conversation, and attending meetings?

Several posts in here have suggested the antics of the Poole Promotion is one of the reasons that British Speedway is struggling. I'd like to suggest the malicious attitudes of too many fans, and the grumpy old curmudgeons with their tinfoil hats are a much bigger problem. So much for being a family sport. I joined this forum hoping to discuss speedway with like-minded enthusiasts. Instead I'm wondering what's the point, as the amount of vitriolic rubbish that is posted on this forum is overwhelming. Such a disappointment.

@tellboy If it was a thrilling race, then probably yes. I know I would have applauded. As I did when he came past after falling.

For what it's worth, the "cheer" at Harris sliding off was for the failure of the Coventry double points tactical. There was certainly no cheer when Ellis went down. In fact it went quiet. As for Heat 1, first bend bunching and tapes malfunction. I notice there was no mention of the standing ovation the grandstand gave Harris after he won Heat 10. Nice impartial reporting...