PotteringAround

You want Belle Vue and Wolves to tell Great Britain and Germany that they can't pick their riders? And Wolves to tell Becker not to be so soft as it's only a broken bone?

Best ever quiz answer was: "In his ancient Greek epic poems, Homer described Nectar as the drink of the gods. What did he say was the food of the gods?" Answer: Well I know Homer likes doughnuts. So I'll say doughnuts.

Schlein?

Yes. Same situation as Wolves. Wright hasn't ridden this season, so Birmingham only get a facility for a maximum of 28 days, and that has now expired. They're not entitled to a facility anymore. AFAIK Wright is riding on Wednesday.

No thoughts on this one? I predict a comfortable Oxford win 52-38

Nos. 3 and 4 are practically identical. Neither is easier than the other.

This has taken a lot longer than a normal British meeting... It's like watching Mildenhall

Do they always arse about at the starts like this? Unsatisfactory start and they all dump their bikes walk to the start line and start gardening. 10 minutes to restart a race after an unsatisfactory start. zzzzzzz

Maybe Tomalin offered a £20 note, and Chapman hasn't got change.

Babs Horley

The BBC Radio Cambs presenter and Ulrich Ostergaard doing a good job on the radio, but who's the other old bloke who keeps chipping in? He's awful. Hasn't got a clue.

What is it? 13 or 14 falls and exclusions so far, and 2 riders withdrawn injured and a 3rd being looked at by the medics. Has nothing improved?

No they didn't. They had their heat leader at 4 and second-string at 3. And, no they didn't either. They had their heat-leader at 3. Second-string was at 4.

No. NDL uses straight averages. A new average takes effect 7 days after completing 4 matches, regardless of whether home or away. (unless your name is Adam Roynon). An unattached rider gets an average after 4 matches regardless of which team you ride for.

Not sure what all that nonsense is. Can only assume a Berwick fan angry at seeing his team capitulate. But the pathetic attack on the Moss family's medical team is absolute nonsense. Since Stoke's closure, I get to Belle Vue a lot. You may guess from the name that Stoke, Belle Vue and Buxton were the tracks I frequented the most, so I'm pretty familiar with seeing Peak Medicare deal with crashes, and they're among the best. Friday was no exception. The Ambulance was quickly on the track and the medics spent considerable time treating Archie on the track before moving him. I'm sure he'll agree the Moss family medical team looked after him very well. A thing I notice about Belle Vue is that they don't let the riders out on the track for a heat until the 2 minute warning sounds. So no one can be on track with the tractor. And the No.7 wasn't even in the re-run of heat 1. So someone is very confused. Best wishes Archie for a speedy recovery.

What's the chances of Wolves avoiding the rain tonight?

Does seem an odd choice to get a 3.00 rider from 200 miles away when they could have had a heat leader more local. Might all be irrelevant yet. An hour after the scheduled start time the paramedic still hasn't arrived and cars are apparently stuck in mud trying to park! I knew the track was in the middle of nowhere on some dodgy tip land, but I didn't know it was that bad.

None of that has any relevance to the topic I was addressing, which is that on Tuesday the opening poster claimed that no 2023 rule changes were known because only the 2022 regulations were on the website.... whereas in actual fact the 2023 regulations had been on the site for a month. But since you've gone off in a different direction, I'm intrigued.... Which scenarios do you think exist that are going to need amendments to be made?

Think Berwick have gone the wrong way about their R/R and guests. Should have used R/R for Freeman which would have given Danny Phillips an extra R/R ride. Then gone for someone like Luke Killeen, Elliott Kelly or Luke Harrison for Watson. (Ex-Leicester rider Kai Ward is a decent choice of unattached 3-pointer to replace Embleton, and on a good day he could have the beating of the erratic Vinnie Foord). Even with a full team, Berwick would be getting another massive tonking here, as Freeman, Mason and Embleton were unlikely to score an awful lot, but an extra ride for Phillips used wisely may have got an extra couple of points, and Killeen would do at least as well as Congreve.

The re-run of Heat 1 was at 2.00pm, so there was a delay of around 45-50 minutes to treat young Archie. Personally I don't begrudge 45 minutes of treatment for a young lad with a badly broken leg, and to be fair neither did anyone sitting around me. So the person complaining seems to be out on her own here. It's only about the third time in 8 years that I can remember an ambulance being needed at the NSS at all, let alone a need for two. With 2 other Bullets riders sliding off at the back, I reckon Berwick must have set some kind of record. Very rare you see 3 fallers in a meeting at the NSS even in NDL. (Though the Archie/Connor crash was as a result of a machinery fail, not either rider falling).

The (unjustified) whinging on this thread was that the OP didn't know the rule changes for 2023, as the website only had 2022 regulations. However the fact is that at the time of his posting (and for a month previously) the Regulations were on the website. So his post was pointless. Also if someone doesn't follow the regulations, they will be punished as set out in the regulations. Touch the tapes, you'll be excluded etc etc. As it ever was. But people like to moan about nothing.

Quite the opposite. Seems I'm the only one on this thread that keeps up with what goes on. People moaning they don't know the rule changes , yet as I pointed out the rules have been available on the internet for over a month.

What do we think? Belle Vue with quite a few debutants against Berwick with quite a few ex-BV riders...

The rules have been there on the website for a month, so I don't see what the complaint is.

Think the bulk of Martin Widman's MDL involvement was actually with Long Eaton (at Leicester), but Stoke, Belle Vue, Scunthorpe and Buxton were other clubs who "gave a hoot" about MDL for many, many, years when the MDL was going strong. Sadly we won't see Stoke Spitfires again, but Belle Vue, Scunthorpe and maybe even Buxton would probably be in an MDL if there were any riders around to make it feasible.