DaveWayne

Not much better if you tried to record it in Eurosport on Virgin as the scheduled programme changed to Olympics at 8pm so mine stopped recording. Luckily I had only started watching a few minutes behind actual time and this bit coincided with Picko arguing about the red flag so I didn't miss any races !!

I'm pretty sure we are in agreement as your reply mirrors a lot of what I said. Yes, the promoters need to gamble. The fans want to see the world class riders and a league match containing Doyle, Sayfutdinov, Woffinden, and the Holder brothers is something we could have only dreamed of a few years ago. Sadly, it hasn't worked out for either team this season due to injuries, although so far we haven't suffered quite as badly as last season. As you say, when the gamble fails there is no sympathy from others as everyone wants to see their team win, irrespective of the circumstances.

Isn't that just a case of a gamble taken by the management though ? Your last line sums it up, that your team 100% relied on the top 2 firing on all cylinders. It was the same last year, especially away from home, where the bulk of the points always came from Doyle and Emil. Bringing in Ellis strengthened the 1-5 this season, as has Thompson's performance, but it was a huge gamble to put all your eggs in 2 baskets so to speak. Sheffield in a similar situation in that they chose to run with 2 rising stars this season in order to have a stronger 1-5. Losing Tai has had a massive impact due to the way the team was built and running R/R away from home has been a struggle at times, but what can you do when 6 out of 7 are riding on the same night ? Both managers took a chance with their team structures this season, and both have suffered for it, but without the injuries they would have been way ahead of everyone else.

Completely irrelevant. As per the link, the decision was made several weeks ago and was due to the agreed terms of the contract.

Contractual obligation.... https://britishspeedway.co.uk/rowe-motor-oil-premiership/premiership-fixture-update-5/

Different maybe, but nowhere does he suggest it was dangerous.

No superfan stuff at all. Just don't see the point in walking out on your team when they need you most.

https://www.fimspeedway.com/news/doyle-set-for-four-to-six-months-on-sidelines I would say 4-6 months took him to at least October. 😉

As a lower league football fan I have plenty of experience of being at matches where the result was sorted way before the end of the match. A true supporter stays there and gets behind the team, not walk out in a huff because their team are losing.

Doyle himself issued a statement at the beginning of June saying the specialist had told him he would be put for 4-6 months. There was no way he was coming back this season, he made that quite clear. Not replacing him was a massive gamble by the club, and Emil's injury has now made it the wrong decision. To now expect sympathy for a situation that the club has had nearly 3 months to resolve is laughable.

People leaving before heat 8 ? I wouldn't call them supporters. Is Doyle not turning up to matches then to help inspire the team ? Isn't he still a registered rider ? Surely that is part of his duties ? Tai was at all the Sheffield matches when injured last year, helping, supporting, and advising his team mates.

Maybe so, but the fact still remains that we lost both our 1 and 5 (one of them technically twice) during the season, and went into the play offs without them. If memory serves me right, we had 6 riders with serious injuries last season and only 1 actually happened while riding for Sheffield. The bit I don't understand is why Ipswich have not brought in a replacement when Doyle himself announced his season was done over 2 months ago ? I appreciate that maybe a rider of the same quality couldn't be found, but surely a rider settled into the team is better than constantly changing guests or running rider replacement ? Maybe they have a master plan involving the top riders from the teams that don't make the playoffs and have already tapped up the likes of Lindgren, Janowski, Kvech, Harris ?

The same sympathy that Sheffield got last year when they lost Holder, Woffinden, and then Musielak ?

Tai's 2024 average is around 9, his home average around 10. The rider replacements for him last night scored 8. In my view the choice to use R/R was the weaker option compared to bringing in a guest of the same calibre as Tai.

If you think it's narrow for bikes, you should try it in a car. 😉

So you didn't know the facts bit decided to slag off the Sheffield track preparation on 2 different threads ? Did you even watch the match or just jump on the bandwagon ?

Lots of comments on here last week about the track conditions, lack of rakers, etc. so I assumed my eyes had been playing tricks on me all season. I made sure I paid attention tonight, and sure enough, 4 rakers on each bend, just like I had seen at every previous match this season. The track curator did the same job he always does, and many riders ran the outside line but no crashes. Can we all now accept that the accident last week was as much down to rider error as the track conditions, or are we going to continue to vilify the Sheffield track and it's preparation ? I have no doubt that Sayfutdinov is the best rider in the UK leagues at the moment, but he is not infallible, and I believe there was also something posted to say his footrest snapped off in the back straight incident so I am sure that would also have been a contributory factor. He did exactly what we want to see the top riders do and gave it his all to win the race, but sadly it didn't come off and he ended up hitting the fence, but let's blame the track instead.

Glad it wasn't just me that saw this. Didn't post last night as I didn't want to wake up to a 'pile on' this morning. It seems that some on here can't wait for an excuse to atttack the Sheffield track, riders, and fans, even without the full facts.

Enlighten me then, oh wise one.

Because it was after the specified cut off date for new signings.

That would be when Sheffield used guests from within the British league ? Unlike the previous year when Belle Vue brought a rider in from Poland for the play offs.

And yet the stockcar promoters don't seem to have any major issues in working with him.

Unless Sheffield already have

Probably because if they stopped for an hour now they wouldn't be able to get to the end of the match due to noise restrictions. I would imagine most tracks now have a curfew included in their planning permission.

Would that be the fading star who finished second yesterday ? Did you listen to his interview mid-meeting ? The reason his 2nd and 3rd heats were not so good is that he used the same tyre, unturned, for the first 3 races. He then turned it and won his 4th (beating Bewley) before slipping back in his 5th. This left him a brand new tyre for the semi and the final, giving him a brand new leading edge for both races. Admittedly, he has lost some speed, but tactically he is still very astute. His influence on Team GB has been immense to get us to the position where we won the SON in 2021. He is also still a very talented team rider. Look at some of his rides alongside Kerr for Sheffield last season.