The Third Man

He looked good at Sheffield in the under 21 match last season, dont think its the track, think it is equipment

What ever is the rule on the day he wants to return will be put into place

Hi s problem to me at Sheffield at least was that he didn't seem to have to the power he needed. if he got to the third bend in a good position he usually scored points, but he didn't seem to have the power to gate consistently and to have power coming out the second bend to stop others passing him. hopefully he will be back soon and with some help to get a more competitive engine for Sheffield. it would be a big shame to lose him to the sport, and a big shame for Sheffield to lose him as a rider

He looked way down on power at Sheffield, hopefully comes back soon with a sponser to help get the best out of him

It will depend on whether JPB, Branford and Kurtz have some power this week, they seemed to be very slow last week

Well the beautiful sunny day bit is right anyway, not bad a 50% sucees rate, or a 50% failure rate depending on how you look at it

Hopefully the superior tigers will get a track they can race on and win the meeting Then we can have an entertaining night

To be honest I think they are a necessary evil, as I have stated they have been around for the 50 years I have going to speedway and I cant see another way of doing it. But how can a guest ride for both teams in a cup final as quoted above, and this season you could have a guest riding for one of their teams and against their other team in a relegation play off, now I cant wait for that farce to happen

But they didnt double up in the same was as today, there were no guests or rr if your rider was riding for their normal team. An out of form rider could only be replaced 6 times in a season if my memory if correct. Sheffield used their own riders who they had loaned out to BL2 teams or riders they signed on a short term basis to cover injured riders. they didn't us a different rider every week or use riders from the same league to cover injured reserves, and the riders used the experience to gain confidence to move up a league the next season on the whole

There have always been guests since I started going 50 years ago. However what was originally for a number 1 rider either injured or on international duty has now turned into an epidemic of guests for any reason. Also if each team had a guest or RR then they cancelled each other out and a number 8 came in, what happened to the number 8 (although now three teams could have the same number 8 I suppose) teams tried to make sure that they did not ride on a night where clashes occurred, now it doesn't seem to matter, just ride and have guests and or rr the one I cant get my head around is a guest for a rider who is riding for another team on the same night and having guests for a reserve when they are injured. same with rider replacement, used to be for an injured heat leader (by definition anyone of the top three in the averages) now again its for anyone except reserves, one of those is covered by a guest so isn't needed I want to pay to see seven man teams of riders affiliated to my team, again, what happened to a number 8 replacing a reserve, not a 6 man championship select team against another 6 man championship select team

Its at least a year that the track has been bad, with a few exceptions, so thats a lot of five week delivery times missed, how come scunthorpe get theirs and we dont?

Said the same at Sheffield last night, both teams basically had to chose two riders from three, Sheffield should have known their two after heat 13, peterboro maybe waiting for Starke in heat 14, but then two minutes after the end of the race should have done it

Much better racing wise tonight, thought Peterboro got it wrong from heat 1, with the choice of RR and then BWD with just too many rides near the end well done Sheffield, Branford unlucky in heat 14, just got the lead as the race was stopped

We have had good racing since the air fence went up, so not sure it can be blamed think its more basic, either not enough shale or the wrong preparation, but that shouldn't matter because as I said, we have had good racing recently, well last season anyway

Rob Branford at reserve. the guest was because it was Ryes turn to use him on Thursday

The proper race track is what has gone missing Ipswich lost the gating competition last night that's all there were three races in which there was passing in one, all the excitement was down to Heeps last night this track is awful, I will give it a couple more weeks to see if there is any improvement, even going back to last week wouldn't be so bad, and then we will take our money and find something better to do with it. this is my 50th season watching speedway, with a few breaks, and with the team we have I thought it was going to a great season, but my worries about the track are being realised, shame but I am not paying to watch 14 half lap races and one with passing

Couldnt agree more, how come we had priority on Saturday and Rye had last night? also what about Branford, he has ridden in two away matches and missed his teams two home matches, how much has this cost him?

Didnt have a problem with a race card at Sheffield before the new promotion took over. it did what you wanted it to do, so maybe an option of either might work and might even make some money

last seasons match in the league cup against Newcastle was one of the best matches anywhere last season, on the Sheffield track which was the same as it was for the rest of the season its not the shape it is how it is prepared, Sheffield has the potential to be one of if not the best racing track in the country, if it is prepared correctly, sadly that is rare these days what other sport in the country does anything like this? it would mean a track with a 1000 supporters would get the same share as a track with 500 supporters, with varying running costs. Scunthorpe pay no rent and keep all food / drink and parking revenue Sheffield pay rent and keep nothing for the parking or the food / drink outlets there is not a level playing field unfortunately

And although it was free on Thursday at Sheffield, some people seemed to think even that was not good value for money

Well Sheffield was free this week and I found a reason not to go, think the team looks good so could be a good season results wise, but the majority said that the track was the same as last year. if that stays the same I am not going to watch 15 processions just because we will do well, so I will see what happens before I commit to paying out £50 just to have a chat and moan about the lack of racing

if i remember that was on the first bend, so from a standing start to there

But for some reason we used the tigers head for at least some away matches if my memory serves me correctly

Yes on current tracks Ricky Ashworth is the fastest man in speedway, long may he remain so.

Very nice of the promotion to offer free admission to the first match celebrating my 50th season watching speedway Thank You PS very good gesture