Grachan

Any team suggestions with Jason? I just had a bit of a go. I came up with this, which doesn't look too weak from 2-7 bearing in mind what other sides will look like too. Doyle 13.41 Harris 9.21 Wright 6.59 (hmmm, Charles as third heatleader looks a bit dodgy) T. Kurtz 5.76 (random last rider who fitted in) Klindt 5.42 Nielsen 5.53 Ayers 3.70 That comes to 49.62. Doyle and Harris would be a damn good spearhead.

Maybe, but if Doyle rides at least he'll presumably get a new average and will be useful in the future. Holder will still be stuck on 13. Plus having Doyle will hopefully push crowd numbers into 4 figures.

How could he sign a 3 year deal with Leicester when he wasn't even your asset. Surely an asset's parent club has first dibs.

Why are you banging on about Ellis? Every team had 2 young Brits last year. They're not all going to be back at the same club this year. Teams have to looks at the points limit, look at the average and then try to put together the best possible team within those constraints. And that's it. I'm not so sure. I would say being winners is what gets the crowd in. If a team is losing people go home disruntled and don't always come back until the team starts winning again.

If he doesn't get a team then he has been forced out because of his stupid average. This is forcing decent riders out of the league. It's depressing how British speedway has downgraded itself in the last 10 years, and crowd numbers have gone with that. If the weaker teams attracted crowds and a good atmosphere then it would be fine, but they won't.

Me too. If Doyle is not in the team I reckon we'll be down to crowds of about 500 next year. (Sorry. Just noticed this is a Poole topic!)

Very sad to see Holder effectively pushed out the league. I wonder if Swindon will be forced to do the same with Doyle when they sit down and try to put a team together. I think there will be a lot of fans who give up on the sport when they see the teams being put together.

The points limit is very low. Painfully so. It's pretty much Premier league across the board and it will cost the clubs in terms of crowd numbers. I'm not sure how many times I'll make the effort to go to Swindon to watch a Jason Doyle solo display (providing he still decides it's worth riding here now). It's catch 22 though, unfortunately. With Lakeside dropping out more teams were needed in the top flight and this was probably the only way to tempt them. For me the one team who will really flourish as a result of this is Somerset, who can look attractive next year to their supporters. Another thing one can't help but wonder is if Sky will continue to cover speedway. Presumably their contract was to show Elite League, and there no longer is an Elite League.

Even so, Doyle's average will drop by about 4 points so Swindon should have scope to improve once the averages come in. Despite having the best rider in the World, they will be very weak from 2-7, so will be low I suspect.

I don't see why it would be 14+ once he attains a proper average. He should drop from 14 to around 10 with the first set of averages, which would give Swindon some points to play with. We will have a very weak bottom end, but we need Jason for crowd levels to be sustained from the off.

Good news for Swindon with Doyle on 13.69. When the first set of averages come out he'll be on about 10, giving us a chance to strengthen by about 4 points. Plus the team average will drop too. Big signings early on could decide things later.

Boxing - Harry Carpenter Horse Racing - Peter O'Sullivan Cricket - Brian Johnston Formula One - Murray Walker Speedway? - Well, who else?

Apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order... what have the Romans done for us?

And I recall there being quite a debate on here at the time that it should have happened.

People are referring to Hancock pulling out of the meeting, not engineering the race positions.

Maybe not, I don't know. I don't see how that is relevent though. It still could.

Not neccesarily. He might just not turn up. Suppose, for example, Darcy Ward had realised he might be over the alcohol limit so just decided not to ride the next day. He would still have been refusing to ride even if he hadn't given prior notice.

Greg Hancock refused to take part. You are actually proving the argument go are trying to disprove. Maybe they mean the rule to stop riders picking and chosing meeting, and preventing them from taking part in future GPs if refusing to ride in one. Maybe the intent of the rule is that riders cannot take further rides in the future once pulling out of a meeting. But that is not what the rule says. The rule uses the word "ineligible" without stating from further rides. It says from the Championship. The rule does, if taken literally, mean Greg Hancock should not be world champion. If you don't believe it, look up the word "ineligible".

Yeah. Nielsen just finishes first. (EDit - Have to laugh at both Nielsen and Gundersen looking down at their engines afterwards.)

If you use the Shawn Moran case as a parallel, Tai would not be World Champion. There would be no World Champion.

Great to see Emil in it. That should liven things up a bit.

Why would the referee give it to Nielsen? Gundersen was also clearly sitting behind deliberately so would have been just as guilty.

Nah. Congratulations Peter Kildemand. 2015 World Speedway champion. (The top scorer who wasn't in the first round)

Let's not forget that the entire field pulled out of a meeting last year. So there should be no World Champion for 2015.

It's not crystal clear at all. As always it's open to interpretation - in particular the interpretation of the work "ineligible". So, being a bit of a smarty pant, I decided to come here and debunk Bwitcher's theory. However, if you google "ineligible" you get this: ineligible ɪnˈɛlɪdʒɪb(ə)l/ adjective adjective: ineligible legally or officially unable to be considered for a position or benefit. "they were ineligible for jury service" synonyms: unqualified, ruled out, disqualified, legally disqualified, disentitled; incompetent "students are ineligible for housing benefit" antonyms: eligible dated not suitable or desirable, especially as a marriage partner. "as a son-in-law he was quite ineligible" So the main reason of ineligible is that he is officially unable to be considered for a position. So he can't be World Champion. So, against my better judgement I have to agree - Tai should be the World Champion. Either that or speedway should make its rules to say what they mean. Congratulations Tai - 3 times World Champ!