barrow boy

But it is not all in 2 minutes . It sometimes seems to take forever.

Riders who hold back until the others have moved up also is a time waster and when more than one rider wants to line up last it seems to take forever to get them away. I would suggest that in all races the riders should be made to line up in grid order from 1 to 4.

Messing about at the starting gate has now become very silly and is causing a lot of wasted time and aggravation all around. What can be done about it?

My top 10 riders on current form are now as follows:- 01-Craig Cook-Edinburgh 02-Ben Barker-Plymouth 03-Josh Grajzonek-Workington 04-Nicolai Klindt-Scunthorpe 05-Edward Kennett-Rye House 06-Simon Stead-Sheffield 07-Danny King-Newcastle 08-Olllie Allen-Somerset 09-Richard Lawson-Redcar 10-Nick Morris-Somerset

On current form my top 10 riders are now as follows 01-Craig Cook-Edinburgh 02-Ben Barker-Plymouth 03-Josh Grajzonek-Workington 04-Nicolai Klindt-Scunthorpe 05-Edward Kennett-Rye House 06-Danny King-Newcastle 07-Lasse Bjerre-Peterborough 08-Simon Stead-Sheffield 09-Claus Vissing-Berwick 10-Ulrich Ostergaard-Peterborough

01-Craig Cook-Edinburgh 02-Simon Stead-Sheffield 03-Ben Barker-Plymouth 04-Josh Grajzonek-Workington 05-Edward Kennett-Rye House 06-Richard Lawson-Redcar 07-Ulric Ostergaard-Peterborough 08-Stuart Robson-Newcastle 09-Lasse Bjerre-Peterborough 10-Claus Vissing-Berwick

Interesting. I have always thought that the track that owns a rider should always have first claim when there is a fixtures clash. Is this now the case then CR or does it only apply to this case?

Brilliant news. Best track in Britain.

I did not imply that such a rider should be prevented from riding. I just think that if he keeps winning races too easily in a lower standard of racing he should want to commit himself to a higher standard for the advancement of his career. Obviously if he feels he cannot afford to change then, that is the fault of the way the sport is run, but that is another matter.

But Craig Cook's real average, not rolling average, in last season's Premier was 11.55 and he has publically said that he has no intention of becoming a full time Elite rider and is quite happy to continue doubling up. Should this be allowed to happen if say he continues to find riding at an easier level just that, too easy?

But what about the following season. If a rider finishes with say a 7+ BEL average is he still allowed to ride in the PEL?

Is there a rule that covers when a Premier League rider's Doubling up Elite League average reaches a level which then prevents him from continuing in the Premier League. I think there is something in place which covers a similar situation between National and Premier but I just wondered if there is a something in place between Premier And Elite.

I've always advocated this. Totally agree with you Trees. I see on Edinburgh's Website that the BSPA chairman has pre meeting stated categorically that they will not be any merger between the Elite and any other league. Somewhat dictatorial isn't it?

Rob at Leicester provides quite a good information service.

Hi there Bradford Hawk. I see that 50 members have read this before me and not one has found it necessary to comment so I will. Most of what you say is valid and I agree that to call the way that speedway is run amateurish is wrong for your reasons stated. I would perhaps substitute Mickey Mouse. It seems however that the powers that be are considering implementing some changes for the better from what I have read and heard elsewhere so perhaps things will soon be a little less Mickey Mouseish in future. Regards BB

He did actually Craig Cook was the best rider all season as he was top in every list I issued but I must again point out that such lists are based purely on all rider's last 10 matches only. To work out the whole season I needed to retain every match which I have not done. When week 11 came along it replaced week 1 and so on. Perhaps I will do the whole season next year.

The riders that qualified for the PLRC were each of the 13 team's top average rider plus the next 3 highest averages so on that basis not all of the actual best riders can be selected. Richie Worrall was ranked number 5 on September 5th and on ability ought to have finished much higher than he did but in his last 10 matches he obviously did not do as well as he had been doing previously hence him slipping down.

Here is my final list of the best BPL riders based on their most recent 10 matches. 01-Craig Cook-Edinburgh 02-Jason Doyle-Somerset 03-Magnus Karlsson-Leicester 04-Ricky Wells-Sheffield 05-Mikkel Bech Jensen-Plymouth 06-Richard Lawson-Workington 07-Ludvig Lindgren-Newcastle 08-Anton Rosen-Newcastle 09-Nick Morris-Somerset 10-Anders Mellgren-Rye House 11-Rene Bach-Workington 12-Kevin Doolan-Leicester 13-Aaron Summers-Redcar 14-Richie Worrall-Newcastle 15-Josh Grajczonek-Somerset 16-Ben Barker-Ipswich 17-Lasse Bjerre-Leicester 18-Cory Gathercole-Plymouth 19-Nicolai Klindt-Scunthorpe 20-Olly Allen-Rye House

Yes I know that officially it is only the top 8 who stay in but most times the 9 & 10 usually get back in. Whether they should doesn't matter, what I said is a fact. I agree that they might just as well keep the top 10 and be done with it.

If Gollob, Holder, Sayfutdinov & Ward had all competed in all 11 GPs and had maintained their averages the overall result may have been something like this:- 01- Tai Woffinden 151 02- Darcy Ward 146 03- Jarek Hampel 142 04- Emile Sayfutdinov 139 05- Neils Kristian Iversen 132 06- Chris Holder 129 06- Greg Hancock 129 08- Niki Pedersen 121 09- Matej Zagar 110 10- Tomasz Gollob 98 My conclusion is therefore that as it is usually the real top 10 who are retained the above riders would seem to be justifiably selected. I would however have liked to have seen all those who had won at least one GP given a ticket to ride which would have seen Adrian Miedzinski also chosen. I can understand that at least one Swede needed to be included which on last season's performances would be Freddie Lindgren. This then leaves the 3 places available from the Challenge. My wild cards are therefore Gollob, Holder, Lindgren & Miedzinski. If Gollob, Holder, Sayfutdinov & Ward had all competed in all 11 GPs and had maintained their averages the overall result may have been something like this:- 01- Tai Woffinden 151 02- Darcy Ward 146 03- Jarek Hampel 142 04- Emile Sayfutdinov 139 05- Neils Kristian Iversen 132 06- Chris Holder 129 06- Greg Hancock 129 08- Niki Pedersen 121 09- Matej Zagar 110 10- Tomasz Gollob 98 My conclusion is therefore that as it is usually the real top 10 who are retained the above riders would seem to be justifiably selected. I would however have liked to have seen all those who had won at least one GP given a ticket to ride which would have seen Adrian Miedzinski also chosen. I can understand that at least one Swede needed to be included which on last season's performances would be Freddie Lindgren. This then leaves the 3 places available from the Challenge. My wild cards are therefore Gollob, Holder, Lindgren & Miedzinski.

I was just telling you how it was. I agree that Leicester's track needs making more racing friendly but having said that Speedflash is correct in that many times have I seen very little in the way of genuine racing passes at many meetings, not just at Leicester but it can still be a good race with no passes. What I hate to see mostly is the continuous amount of races that are too much strung out and are not interesting let alone entertaining. Incidentally there were 5 genuine racing passes in the Poole v Birmingham match on Monday. About the same as at Leicester on Sunday but with the track bends being more racing friendly it was a bit more entertaining.

And still on starting gate matters I would like to see any rider who is deemed to have caused a false start for whatever reason, including going too soon, made to go from 15 metres. No reserve replacements.

5 single one off passes. All in the later races. None at all in the first 9. Many were very strung out follow the leader affairs as well. It is a shame that we do not see better fare but who knows perhaps things will be improved in time for next season. You are wrong about the poor attendance though. I thought that in the circumstances there was quite a decent crowd. Certainly one which a lot of other tracks wouldn't mind having.

On a similar theme i.e. messing around at the starts. Yesterday at Leicester a rider was disqualified for not being ready to race by the time the 2 minute warning had expired. After this happened I timed the last minute after the announcer said that all riders now had less than 60 seconds to be ready to race and guess what every race got away on time. Simple isn't it. Why oh why cannot all referees apply this same logic? It would certainly cut out a lot of gardening delays and stop certain irritating starting marshalls from constantly finding it necessary to keep approaching riders to line up when he wants and not when they are ready to.

If it was thin enough it might be worth trying.