oldtimer

Brady an off night, but if it had been Play Off Somerset would still have won by 6 on aggregate

Edinburgh disappointing, especially Cook, Monarchs lost some points with Cook's bike failing at the start and Masters breaking the tapes, and Cook and Masters not coming out in heat 15, but Rebels would have won easily and never looked in danger of defeat. Brady's heat 15 last lap around the boards performance was the best I can remember seeing at Oak Tree. Chilli and chips very good.

I seem to have caused some confusion as my friend Mr T is Tony from Bristol not Richard (Mr T). Should be a good match with Rebels stronger at reserve.

Just another example of speedway shooting itself in the foot and putting two fingers up to the fans.

Will be watching the Swedish match as I don't feel the need to pay extra for SKY Sports when plenty of better racing on Eurosport.

If no riders missing, myself and Mr T will be attending this match, should be close if Cookie back to form.

The question was "The future of the Elite League"? The answer is, it has no future, save your money and watch the Swedish League on TV, Zorro and Harris both riding at reserve, that's what you call an Elite League.

Why didn't he phone 6 riders or 10 riders or?????

Chris Harris at reserve, just shows how poor our Elite League is!

Watched Swedish League match last night, Chris Harris riding at reserve and failed to win either of the reserve races, think we need to try the young riders.

Deleting the 4 extra matches against two teams of your choice, from the fixture list would help, it was a stupid decision to increase the fixture list and took no account of the great British weather.

Good pics as usual, strictly speaking it was not Sheffield who put up a good fight but guests from other clubs.

Surprised not a thread started on this match yet 4pm on the Tuesday. Perhaps everyone is watching the Commonwealth Games or watching the World cup this evening. The reason Simon Stead did not ride last night and will be absent tonight has been covered on the Sheffield post, seems a crazy rule to me when Brits are not flying out until tomorrow. The alternative would have been to swap matches with Rye House who are due at Oak Tree on 8th August, then the fans could see Kennett tonight riding for Rye House and Sheffield match moved to the August 8th and fans could see Stead. Having a quick look I cannot see any clashes with that solution, although it would mean 3 matches in 3 days for Rye. I have not looked but there are also other fixtures yet to be run that could be swapped. If clubs are not willing to change fixtures, the powers that be should force them to do so. I continually get the impression that clubs don't give a monkeys about their customers and forget they are in the entertainment business, one wonders there reasons why they bother to run a speedway team in the first place. Good news both riders who crashed last night are not too badly hurt. Tonight's match should be an expensive pay day for Deb. A real shame Oak Tree have stopped serving their excellent Sunday Lunch.

Who made that rule? Stead will miss Somerset V Sheffield 29/7, Plymouth V Sheffield 1/8 and King misses Redcar V Newcastle 31/7, and Worrall misses Somerset v Ipswich 1/8. If Saturday's final is rained off and run on the Sunday, as has happened before, riders will miss the 4's on Sunday, as happened to Somerset when Doyle was missing. Obviously it must be impossible (WHY?) to re arrange fixtures to avoid riders absences, as otherwise it would have been done.

Even more strange is if a rider is riding in another country and consequently misses a match for his British club, he is not classed as withholding his services and his home club can only use a National League rider to replace him. A rule obviously designed to bring the crowds back to speedway.

Why is Stead not riding? The World Cup match was in this country on Saturday, he is not racing again until the final next Saturday, even if he has to be at practice on Friday it still leaves 4 days to get there or 3 days if he wants to watch the race off in Poland. Riders manage to ride in 3 different Leagues and countries during the season, so why can't Stead make it to Sheffield. It means both the Tigers and any visiting Rebels fans miss out on the chance of seeing him race. Just read on BSPA web site that Alan Rossiter said the riders will fly out as a team on WEDNESDAY, that's WEDNESDAY!

This was a great match, if we had the star riders and close racing like this in this country the crowds would come back.

Did they check your bags? Camera's show red lights and there are often announcements to turn of your flash. The obvious solution is to have a race stop light in any colour but red! You obviously havn't been watching the Swedish League on TV, all the top riders on well prepared tracks, loads of close racing and passing, why everyone seems to say Kings Lynn is a great track beats me! For those new to the sport, I thought someone should have asked Scott why when he said "any rider is proud to ride for their country", he himself couldn't be bothered. When rules explained at start of programme they forgot to say home nation automatically in the final, any newbie must have thought there was only 3 teams in the final.

The riders that belong to the advertised home and away side actually turning up! During the season I read in Speedway Star comments from promoters saying they hate the double points rule, and doubling up and riders missing and now Neil says fast track doesn't work, it makes you wonder who voted for all these things at the AGM

yes

I already boycott meetings, I don't go anymore.

Nothing on 5 August, check BSPA web site in case any changes.

Somerset and Plymouth have met 4 times already this season, however in three of those matches riders have been missing due to other commitments, , Morris twice and Barker twice. My friend and I have only attended 3 matches this season, having become disillusioned with the way the sport is run. However we both attended last weeks match against Newcastle and there was some great racing, so with the prospect of Plymouth and Somerset both having their full teams for a change we decided to go again this Friday. Then I read that Josef Franc is missing due to a Czech League match, and as the rules stand Plymouth can only have a National League rider to take the place of a 6-95 heat leader. You may say it's not the fault of either club, and that Franc had this commitment before he was signed. That may be true, but did the Plymouth or Somerset representative at the AGM vote against this rule? At the very least the facility for R/R would make more sense than the current ruling which deprives the paying public of what, could on paper, have been a close match. With attendances dropping how does this rule get more people to attend. Speedway continues to shoot itself in the foot and insults the paying public and for that reason there will be two potential customers absent this Friday.

Tai said, "he knows for a fact that 20 of the top riders they have had here this year are thinking about stopping because they are just too busy, there are too many meetings here." If that's true then great, let them go and we can have one big, cheaper to run, Premier League.

The score line definitely did reflect the quality of the racing, you would have thought it was a play off final the way the two teams were having a go at each other on the track. Danny King very impressive and he was the only Diamond who realised the fastest way around the Oak Tree was the wide outside, The Diamonds often made the gate but hugged the inside and were continually getting passed on the outside coming out of the second bend.