RoundTheBoards

But Craig Cook hasn't...

Good to see that Birmingham got 7 riders for Press Day

Workington Comets Lager - The cans are 85% full, and rather weak.

If they don't have a facility, (and they shouldn't have) they can only use a rider up to 75% of the average of the missing rider.

In an attempt to rank the teams, I've compared all the No.1s, and the same for every team spot, down to the No.7s. In each category I've awarded 6 points for what I believe to be the strongest rider, down to 1 point for what I see as the weakest rider. No.1s Hagon BV (4), Coles EDI (2), Thompson LEI (6), Killeen OXF (3), Phillips RED (1), Ablitt S/S (5) No.2s Hodder BV (4), Perry EDI (6), Spencer LEI (1), Scott OXF (2), Trigger RED (3), Harrison S/S (5) No.3s Marson BV (4), McGurk EDI (5), James LEI (3), Spooner OXF (2), Freeman RED (1), Pijper S/S (6) No.4s Muff BV (3), Wood EDI (6), Butcher LEI (2), Clouting OXF (5), Halder RED (1), Simpson S/S (4) No.5s Wirtzfeld BV (4), Watson EDI (5), Foord LEI (2), Garrad OXF (3), Kelly RED (6), Davies S/S (1) No.6s McGurk BV (5), Parker EDI (1), Crang LEI (6), Summers OXF (4), Rathbone RED (3), Dicken S/S (2) No.7s Shimelt BV (3), Lyden EDI (6), Springer LEI (5), Vale OXF (4), Hojcaniuk RED (1) Pijper S/S (2) Totals Edinburgh 31 Belle Vue 27 Leicester 25 Scunthorpe/Sheff 25 Oxford 23 Redcar 16

I'd say zero chance of it not being staged, since it is Belle Vue v Edinburgh. Belle Vue always complete their fixtures at the NSS, and as BV and Edinburgh are 2 of the stronger NDL teams, there's a good chance that one of them will be in with a chance of winning the league.

The original Sky deal was £5M over 5 years. Terry Russell took 20% finders fee. So a cool £1M over the 5 years. The remaining £4M (£800k per season) was split with each team getting £55k-ish each (which basically they used to pay for their No.1 rider) and then a couple of grand for staging each match. Some went to BSPA running costs. The current TV deal is worth very little to the clubs.

It's still one of the top rated TV programmes, still pulls in the viewing figures, and gets tens of thousands of applicants to go on each series, so full respect to Paul Bowen for what he's done in getting there. But the programme is now a parody of its former self. It used to be a semi-serious attempt to find a business brain, in the days of contestants like Tim Campbell and Ruth Badger. Alas now it's purely played for laughs and scripted and edited to make the candidates look like idiots. (And clearly some are chosen because they are idiots, like the one who clapped when told they'd had to give away 52% of their turnover in refunds). But you can guarantee that when other team used crumble mix instead of breadcrumbs, it was because that had been set up by the producers. It's definitely pre-produced and played for laughs these days and not to be taken seriously.

No harm in dropping him a line and asking him to investigate the goings on at Swindon. Oliver.Holt@dailymail.co.uk

Lindgen, Kylmakorpi, Fricke etc. all lived in Andorra. Not sure how many of them still do.

Yes. Unless you're a Non-Dom.

And how many British riders do you think are on a £500k deal with a Polish club?

Why would anyone choose to be a limited company and pay 25% corporation tax when they only pay 20% income tax as a sole trader? Like I said, you'd have to be making serious profits to gain anything, and how many riders finish a season with profits way over £50k? (probably would need to be profits approaching £100k to get any worthwhile benefit)

To what benefit? How many riders end the season having made a profit seriously in excess of £50k?

Not worth the extra hassle unless you're earning big and then the benefits aren't massive. I think it's only this year that Woffinden and Bewley started limited companies.

I doubt many riders are limited companies (I know Tai Woffinden, Rob Lambert and Dan Bewley are) but that's irrelevant anyway. Even as self-employed sole-traders they can still claim 45p per mile for business miles.

I'm hearing Mickie Simpson as the next name set to be announced by Scunthorpe/Sheffield

I don't get this point. Development and winning are not mutually exclusive. To a large extent they go hand in hand. Speedway is about winning. Being the first past the chequered flag. And development is learning to win. The league is about development and the league is about winning. I bet there's no one in the Polish U-24 league who thinks it's not about winning.

Because you can only have 7 rides in a team, and since everyone expects Will Cairns to come in once he turns 15, someone would have to make way.

Curious move. Will Sonny get the boot when Will Cairns turns 15? Thought Springer might have gone somewhere with a more secure team place.

Hope he googled "Minors & Brady Estate Agents" and not "Minors & Ian Brady"

Replace Dicken with Max Perry if you're just going to ignore the points limit like that!

Harry McGurk confirmed.

There's only 5 home NDL matches, and enough Saturdays in the season for his two clubs to avoid any clashes.

J Thompson 9.08 T Spencer 5.78 M James 5.70 A Butcher 4.69 V Foord 3.81 C King 3.39 W Cairns 3.00