The Cheese

Well done to Lambert, good achievement and shows he can handle pressure in these kinds of meetings. Bewley will no doubt learn from the experience, hope it doesn't damage his confidence.

Superb achievement, well done Craig Cook. And to do it after finishing last in his first ride makes it an even better effort. Not a fan of Dudek but lets hope he has a decent end to the season and confirms Cook's place.

Australians have that extra determination to succeed, your only getting the best of their talent coming here and they know they have to make the best of that chance or it could be all over. In Britain we don't have that, it's in the mentality to take the easier route and not embrace the challenges. Kids are brought up being told at school that it's ok to finish last, it's the taking part that counts, everyone is a winner etc. It's nonsense but we get it into our heads and in the majority it stays there. You need to have that competitiveness, to be ruthless to reach the top level, it's hard to find that when you are taught that it doesn't matter. It's not just this sport, look at how few footballers take the opportunity to move abroad, and those who do generally don't last long. Easy option of staying in this country with all the home comforts, not having to bother learning a new language, possibly being away from family etc and they take it even if it means not giving yourself the best chance of improving. Look at Jason Doyle now. I know he had so many injury problems but he was comfortable doubling-up and maybe he didn't quite have that determination. Because of the visa issues he was forced to give up riding for Somerset and had to concentrate on Leicester and make the most of the chances he got abroad. I guess it's hard for British riders to force themselves to drop the 2nd tier but the likes of Cook, Lambert, probably Steve Worrall need to do that now. Might be difficult at first if you don't get the opportunities in other countries straight away but you have to stick with it.

Hopefully he's regained the form from the start of the season just in time. Good luck to him on Saturday, needs to try to look at it as just another meeting and then maybe at the end of the night he could be a GP rider. He's won both of his qualifiers against some good opposition so there's no reason he can't do it again.

Maybe just about enough for next season then, but when we leave the EU? Will the likes of Busk Jakobsen, L Lindgren, Ostergaard, Graversen, Jonas B Andersen, Vissing, Hansen be able to get work permits? Nobody knows yet of course but there is a fair chance they will not meet the criteria.

In the 10 Championship sides I make it 32 who currently also ride in the Premiership. Just assume they all ride in the Premiership, even if you have 6 man teams then that means you still need to find 22 more to replace him in the Championship. Then you have plenty of people on another thread wanting to kick out all the Australians so that's another 8 from the Championship gone and 4 needing replacing in the Premiership. You can't just promote NL riders because then people complain that the standard isn't good enough. And the racing is poor because you have 2 NL riders miles adrift at the back.

With Kennett's scores at Swindon this year I don't think he'll need a word! Disappointing for Somerset that Lawson's had a couple of low scores recently and his average has dropped which rules out a better guest. Not much chance of picking up anything from this meeting.

Just highlights that in any future case like this you can say your wrist hurts, get a medical certificate and you get away with it. The fact that Holder didn't turn up or at least give his version of events suggests he's not too bothered though, or he thought no further action would be taken.

Bewley guests for Allen on Monday - http://somersetrebels.co/news.php?extend.2059.1 And on the subject of Perks, he guested for Wolves at the OTA earlier in the season and did a good job then with 7 from 5 rides.

Has it been said why Jonasson was missing?

Surely the riders averaging those figures are going to be the ones that will be riding in Poland? Not that any of them are likely to get that in a first season so basically it's a complete ban on all new Aussies Don't see the point in just pointing the finger at Australians. At least they hang around for a few years and generally do the whole season unlike Danes like Jepsen Jensen, Bech etc who sign up occasionally, look like they're not interested and clear off again after a few meetings. I'm sure there's plenty examples of Swedes too and how many Poles have come here to regain form/learn new tracks and been recalled again within a few months. Obviously the future is uncertain but if people want to cut down on doubling-up and there's the possibility of EU riders not getting work permits then we're going to see more Australians not less.

I'm sure he'd have something to say if Somerset weren't interested in his 'very special meeting' because they have a very important meeting at home on Wednesday.

If there was any doubt then I think events this week have proved the answer is a no. Can't argue with the decision to sack Holder and Batchelor and I'll give him credit for standing up to them but the timing of it? To have the head of the BSPA acting in such a spiteful way is concerning, and the way Gomolski seems to have been treated is shocking and suggests he's completely untrustworthy also.

Just over a mile away and hardly saw any rain all day, shows how different it can be in such a short distance. Remember 4 or 5 years ago a meeting that was abandoned when heavy rain came and flooded the track, 5 minutes down the road the sun was out and completely dry!

Completely agree, seems to have the perfect attitude. Doesn't look like he's going to start thinking he's a superstar before he's anywhere near that level or get involved in nonsense on social media, just quietly gets on with the job and does it very well.

10pm curfew

For someone who seemed to be hailed as the saviour of the sport when he got the job I think it's fair to say he hasn't exactly lived up to it. Nothing has changed, the sport is still in decline with no obvious plan to help and the same dodgy decisions are made especially in the NL where it seems there's a different rule for every day of the week. The farce at Kings Lynn this week should be properly investigated but how can it be when the head of the BSPA also owns that club? It always ends in that same old answer of needing someone independent to come in and run it. Ideally they would observe everything for a year and work on a plan to take things forward before taking over at the BSPA (if they haven't been frightened off in that time!) but there is clearly no chance of promoters happy to be told what to do by an outsider so everything will stay as it is. If it is true that certain riders refused to ride in that meeting then it is very poor that they seemingly have escaped without bans. It just sums everything up, you have a 16 year old kid in Jack Parkinson-Blackburn who was struggling in the Championship and quit Sheffield, probably in the heat of the moment, and he's given a ban for withholding his services meaning he also loses out on riding for Birmingham for a month. But here with senior riders deciding they've had enough halfway through a meeting creating another mess which will lose fans it gets pushed under the carpet and nothing will be said.

I see that Sky are changing their sports channels from next week. Premier League, other football, F1, Golf and Cricket will all have their own dedicated channel, with main event, arena and action channels as well. You can subscribe to 1 only for £18, 2 for £22, 3 for £26 or all of them for £27.50 per month

Yesterday morning: Putin: So what do you think the result of the Speedway World Cup Race-off will be? Trump: AMERICA FIRST! But it'll be proper speedway Vladimir Putin: No doubt about that Trump: Did you know Kelvin Tatum has an MBE? Putin: And he's a former World Cup winner with England too! Not forgetting a World Long Track champion Later, after heat 20; Trump: AMERICA FIRST! Putin: That's just one race Donald. We won the meeting 3 races ago Trump: FAKE NEWS

Howarth and Barker as well although a long time ago in Ben's case. Proctor probably just qualifies as an ex-Rebel also

Superb meeting yesterday, if only we could have a few more tracks like that over here.

There is no reason why GB can't reach the final by winning on Saturday, with home advantage it's certainly possible although it depends on how fit Lambert is. Australia look strong obviously but there are question marks over many of them, will Doyle be affected by injury (probably not but we can hope!), how fit is Morris after his concussion, Holder hasn't been in great form, Fricke is unpredictable. Look at the USA side, they have Ricky Wells who on his day can have a good meeting, Manzares who hasn't ridden regularly here for a few years and was no more than ok at Championship level and 3 young lads who have virtually no experience. How can anyone suggest we are competing with them? Even the Czech's only have Milik and possibly Kus could have a few good rides, Franc might make a good start in one.

Belle Vue, Swindon, Somerset, Workington, Birmingham and Kent all kept the same declared side last year.

It's pretty obvious when a sporting event is going to finish past the time it's scheduled to, so I don't see why they can't extend it before that time and save people from missing the end. In this case the time got changed to 10.30 after 10 but it was obviously too late by then.

Cricket's scheduling is very much like speedway's rules in that they change from one year to the next! This year the county schedule is more in blocks in terms of format but last year you could have some teams playing championship games whilst others had T20 etc. And then you have the England contracted players where the ECB decide when they can play for their counties. So basically it's like the BSPA owning Craig Cook's contract and saying 'sorry we don't want you riding for Belle Vue for the next 2 weeks' And that is a little worrying if it takes that long to get through to the head of the BSPA. No wonder we struggle to attract a sponsor for the league