False dawn

My goodness, some common sense. Where did that come from? Be careful, you might find yourself out on a limb, here and in the sport in general. [sarcasm smiley here]. Seriously, I have been banging on about bikes and tracks for ages. And what do I know? Well I know what I can see with my own two eyes. And when someone tells me that this unsatisfactory mix of bikes/engines and tracks is costing the average rider a small fortune, I'm beginning to wonder if anyone "up there" has an ounce of sense. We have the makings of a good sport in this country, still.

I have a suggestion, assuming you go to live speedway.... Next time you go, imagine that you'd managed to see your team maybe three times all season and that you might NEVER see them again, EVER, ANYWHERE. Then come back and discuss the nuances of track shape or the number of overtakes. I'm not trying to invoke your sympathy, but have a care. This is almost worse than if we'd shut down altogether. It's not, of course, because there is still a glimmer of hope. Call me deluded, call me naive. But this is supposed to be about keeping the spirit alive. And it was there yesterday. Fans that looked like they still go every week, with there kids (and dogs). Don't rain on our parade guys and gals.

A somewhat rather large assumption backs up this statement. That being, "No one edits their bet ahead of tapes up". I sense this was already a bit tense. Now we have an extra two days to make up our minds this is even more interesting. Game on.

A big thank you to the organising committee and to Leicester Speedway for putting this meeting on. The spirit of Coventry Speedway was very much in evidence both on and off the track. There were a fair number of Bees fans there and a goodly number of Lions supporters. Thanks to all those that turned out. We never threatened to win this one but we did keep the home side honest providing 7 of the 15 race winners. The 10 last places finally did for us.

I think you can see the cord attached to the rider's wrist as he lay on the track after the accident. The cut out didn't.

The real point is that the bike appeared to be under power for several seconds after the rider had fallen off. This cannot be if the cut out is working correctly. An interesting near miss could have been a tragic accident to those girls and the other official that was nearly collected. When I was racing you had to demonstrate that a cut out worked correctly under scrutineering.

Not at all. If a bike is found to be illegal after a meeting, a rider's points would be removed retrospectively. And that's just one example. A clear rule violation took place, no interpretation necessary. Who's fault it was that the violation took place is secondary.

Now come on Steve. Up to that point you had me on side. But people "praying" for a Poole victory? Hmmm.

Sound arguments. So it is more cost effective to 1. Piss off a vast majority of the average punter with "It's a Knockout" rules. 2. Lose meetings because you have no real opportunity to win them.

I don't sense any feeling against BWD for this. The rules were broken. He didn't do anything wrong, it was his team management and the ref for not knowing the rules.

It looks simple enough. If a rider is disqualified / excluded or any other word they dream up and he doesn't take the 15m option then this will count as a ride if he isn't replaced by a reserve and it doesn't count as a ride if he replaced. Simples

We could do both. Or is that too complicated for the average announcer? I note that Swedish TV show the aggregate score after every race in the 2nd leg so you can follow the score on the night and where we are with the bonus point. Not complicated really. However, if it's a choice between one or the other, I'd go for the current system. But we could do both. OR Maybe we should go down the GP route. Team's score points according to their total race points. Win or lose, it doesn't matter. Only your score matters. Wouldn't make a great deal of difference except that Wolves would have finished top of the league AND Rye House would have finished 4th (by 3 points). Can't see Matt going for this idea then! Oh, and Leicester would have finished 6th.

So.... Team captains toss a coin as now. Winner chooses gates in heat 1 or 15. Then teams alternate gates each race. Let the team managers choose which rider goes in which gate. If you're 8 or more behind the losing team can choose which pair of gates they want and continue to do so until they are less than 8 behind when the teams alternate again. At least with this system, the riders have to score the point according to the normal scoring system. And if one gate was a graveyard and the losing team kept choosing the other pair of gates, watch how quickly the ground staff would start to grade the offending gate.

I like the league points system. But I have always been uncomfortable with the TR idea. Preferring instead something akin to the old TR rule as well as choice of gate positions when you're behind. The choice of gate positions might get clubs to grade the gates more fairly. The advantage gained by being out of certain gates at some circuits is very noticeable.

Surely the difference is that if it's a question of interpretation, then the results stands. But if the rules were broken, black and white, the result should be subject to change.

You DO want a lot don't you?

Stox were / would be the primary source of income.

You could move the British GP back. Then have the play off final at Cardiff on Friday night followed by the GP on Saturday. That's what I call an event

Amen to that. When all hope has vanished, we can pack our bags (you can tell I'm a Bees supporter can't you? BTW one of those 10/12 in the league next year is Coventry, right?)

You don't want much, do you?

,,,,this place would be half empty !

Andreas Jonsson £100 more Vaclav Milik £200 more

That's exactly my point. Design a divisional system that doesn't result in an outright winner so that the play offs are the deciding factor. As to your point about the best two sides being in the same division. No problem. Again follow the NFL model whereby the 2 clubs (say) with the best losing record get wildcards into the playoffs and design the play offs so that clubs from the same division don't meet early on. This is possible. Once you abandon the idea that all clubs have to meet each other home and away you can make the play offs more meaningful and you can organise the fixture list to better suit the club's availability and rider availability etc.

Let's call the whole thing off

So 562 guests in 411 meetings or an average of 1.37 per meeting. Not that different from my sample (1.24) although a bit worse / bigger. Add in rider replacements and you're definitely over 2 riders "missing" on average every meeting or 1 per team. Can we agree that this is far too many?