The Cheese

You must have missed the 500 million IPL viewers turning away from cricket because opposition players sometimes have a laugh with each other. Darts rapidly increasing in popularity? Fake news. Nobody's interested because the players are too friendly during matches. And as for PL football. A sharp decrease in interest because of all the hugging before and after matches, discussions on the pitch, subs from opposition sides having conversations whilst warming up, managers sharing a joke etc. Or maybe they just take no notice because it happens everywhere.

I was thinking that yesterday as well. Lebedevs is showing enough to suggest he can stick around for a while, and if the likes of Kvech and Huckenbeck are already in the series then there's no point to wild cards anymore. There's no country without a rider hosting a GP and I can't imagine ticket sales are going to increase in Latvia, Germany and the Czech Republic because they have 2 riders for that round. Just scrap them and have a 16th permanent rider. Aside from the obvious two of Laguta and Sayfutdinov, Madsen should be in there or even someone like Dudek would offer a lot more.

Holder £100 less

Harris and Ellis named as reserves for the GPs so they've clearly gone for the next 2 highest finishers.

I expect there's some relief that Summers gets his opportunity after the error in the qualifier.

Lindgren £100 less

That was an excellent meeting even before the final which was just unbelievable, I think you'll be waiting a long time to see another race like that. Credit to all 4 riders, it's a shame that one of them had to miss out on the podium. Really disappointed for Harris, I didn't realise it had been so long since he made the top 3 until they mentioned it. Would love to see him win one more before he finally calls it a day. Not a fan of losing Cardiff but can't deny that the prospect of having 2 GPs on this track is very exciting.

The same Kerr that rode in the semi-final, even going as far as making sure he qualified through the run-off. And the one that is in this week's Speedway Star speaking about how he believes he's capable of winning on his day. Common sense tells you that it's obviously another reason.

A shame that TNT's coverage ended before the presentation, I was hoping we might get a glimpse of this Elsie Cue that they kept mentioning.

Grosvenor Casinos also have odds up for the GP, some different rider match-ups to bet365.

Zmarzlik £50 more Lindgren £50 less Michelsen £100 more

Draw: 1 Drew Kemp, 2 Alfie Bowtell, 3 Craig Cook, 4 Lewis Kerr, 5 Vinnie Foord, 6 Dan Gilkes, 7 Jason Edwards, 8 Ashton Boughen, 9 Connor Mountain, 10 Leon Flint, 11 Simon Lambert, 12 Danyon Hume, 13 Nathan Ablitt, 14 Dan Thompson, 15 Joe Thompson, 16 Sam Hagon. Reserves: Freddy Hodder, Matt Marson. Hagon and Foord replace Barker and Jenkins from the last update. Foord seems to have jumped ahead of Harrison and Mulford from the standby list unless they're both unavailable.

Jeppesen had one visit there in 2018 for Ipswich in the Championship. https://speedwayupdates.proboards.com/thread/18012/ipswich-championship-05-07-2018

It's poor that the Poles keep releasing information when they've been asked to not make everything public yet. I'm sure most people would like to know but ultimately it's none of our business really, his family should be able to do that when they're ready. Best wishes to Tai for a full recovery.

Schroeck: “It was the Bomber (Harris) show. He wanted to make a statement, which is what we expected. When you take him away, it was pretty level between the two teams.” That's an idea for next season. The losing team can request that the opposition's top scorer has their points taken away.

That's a result that will worry the rest of the league. To go to Belle Vue and win by 10 without either Doyle or Sayfutdinov at their best is a huge statement. Pretty clear that if this side stays fit and available that they'll cruise to the title, I'd be surprised if they lose more than a handful of meetings. Fair play to their management for putting it together.

https://www.curtis-sport.com/belle-vue-aces

Freeview channel 39 Sky 159

https://britishspeedway.co.uk/rowe-motor-oil-premiership/tnt-sports-becomes-the-new-home-of-bikes-in-uk-and-ireland/ DMAX will show the free-to-air highlights from every round of the SGP and Premiership. Hopefully that won't affect people's viewing of Naked and Afraid and the series on Bigfoot and Aliens.

Freddie Lindgren and Lewis Kerr confirmed.

Ipswich Belle Vue Sheffield King's Lynn Leicester Birmingham Oxford You can basically split them into 3 groups. Ipswich are clearly the best side and you have to believe they'll comfortably finish top and win the play-offs as long as they avoid injuries. The next two should also easily make the top 4, Belle Vue's strength in depth gives them the edge over Sheffield and I think they'll end up beating them in the semi-final. Then you have 2 sides competing for that 4th spot. Both look decent teams but Leicester will miss Lawson and so King's Lynn will just make it ahead of them. Birmingham are stronger than last season at least and possibly not that far off a team that could challenge the two above. They'll have a few nights where they're all on form but also take some hammerings as it looks a team that will suffer from not being consistent enough. I didn't particularly rate Oxford's side last year but it was one that was capable of finishing 4th until they kept weakening it, can only hope for their supporters sake that they don't do that again as they already look unconvincing.

Blown away by this signing.

Danny King and Sam Masters announced.

For those querying the time, it was mentioned a couple of weeks ago in the Speedway Star that the Premiership media day is being held at Oxford in the morning so they're hoping that more of the top riders will be available as they should already be there.