Grachan

He never blamed the track. He blamed his side's gating, saying it's hard to pass on this track. Last night's meeting certainly didn't do much to prove otherwise. I only recall one decent race.

Very true. And that's half the battle in terms of improving.

I think Swindon have looked reasonable here after a bad start. You could see a real effort mid-match which led to some falls and some races being stopped with us in front, then being at the back in the re-run. A bit more luck and we could have been right in it.

To be fair, you can see the effort we're putting in. But you try to pass here and you're in trouble. Long term I think this team will do ok.

Must be time for Ulamek and Klindt to start putting in those last places soon.

There really does seem to be no way past on this track.

Team colours make teams easier to identify. Team colours make riders harder to identify.

When Swindon were in the PL, the PL was MUCH more interesting than the EL. Now Swindon are in the EL, the EL is MUCH more interesting than the PL.

Is he? I thought from everything written on here that he'd quit.

Well done Leicester on signing Aaron Summers. I think everyone would have liked him back at Swindon this year had he been able to be fitted in. May not be the top heatleader you need, but a good rider to have in the side.

There's a really obvious one that nobody has mentioned yet. Rob and Tai Woffinden.

Neil Street and Jason Crump. Technically there's a generation skipped there on the Street side.

So? They never got official averages and that was made clear from the start. So it's obvious they can't use EL averages. Because they don't have one.

Regarding Buszkowski. Did Poole sign him before or after the heatleader list was drawn up? I don't believe the rules are set up to benefit Poole. Looking at SCB's post, however, I would guess that Matt Ford comes up with sugestions, knowing that they can benefit his own club, and the others go 'duh, ok' without realising it.

I remember when Reading had a very sharp team manager who knew the rule book inside out and was able to use it to Reading's advantage - often upsetting opposing teams in the process. That doesn't mean, though, that the rule book was put together for the benefit of Reading and I suspect it is the same nowadays with Poole.

Not necessarily. Just saying that as people are saying rules have been brought in to benefit Poole it would be nice to be provided with details of the actual rules and how they benefited Poole. Then the claims would have some foundation.

Draft riders didn't get an EL average so how could they use EL averages? That was decided at the start so it wasn't done to benefit Poole. Using assets is fair enough. Encourages clubs to sign. If riders using assets get a high pick in the second stage then that, maybe, is one that would benefit clubs who use their own assets, but what's to stop all other clubs doing it?

People say that the rules are there to benefit Poole. Interested to know which rules are voted in that benefit Poole and how Poole benefit from them. Perhaps someone could list these.

Don't worry. I'm sure Matt Ford has no intention of riding in your beloved Premier League in front of 500 fans. What do you suggest? Poole deliberately picking a weak side to give the others a chance? If the promoters are daft enough to have a system that gives riders of heatleader quality an average akin to a second string then don't be surprised if the most successful side snaps them up. As for the heatleader list, my guess is he analysed the list, looked for the best rider that wasn't on it, and signed him too. Your anti-EL rants are always entertaining but invariably well wide of the mark.

Which will take us back to the days of on form reserves coming in to beat heatleaders. I really don't understand why they didn't revert to the old race formula now that reserves can move up into the side. The averages are all over the place at the moment.

According to this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_countries_by_average_wage Average monthly earning in Poland are 756 Euro Average earnings in UK are 2337 Euros. So if stuff there is 50% cheaper they are worse off. Someone posted earlier that it's about 8 quid to get into Speedway in Poland. That like paying about 24 quid here.

And don't forget you're only there for 15 minutes. The rest of the time you are in a coma.

I agree. They should have a proper scoreboard up. It's very difficult to keep track of the score without a scoresheet otherwise. I'm sure this is a ploy to make people buy a programme, but I don't approve of it. As for the online scoreboard. There is one. It's called Speedway Updates.

Swindon is £17. It depends where you go obviously. Where do you go? Leicester maybe? You should support a better side! It's easy to make up a sheet to follow the scores. I used to do that all the time, but I get a programme now because my son likes to have one and fill it in. They definitely try to make you buy a programme. At Swindon they have a big score board, but it gives mainly race times and heat line-ups and results. It rarely gives the match score. Match score should be on display at all times, like it is in Basketball and Ice Hockey. It makes it more of a "match" atmosphere. Otherwise you just get 4 blokes going round a track on motorbikes - which some people on here think that is how it should be. But I personally don't.

Yes. You do need to pay fuel. Very true. And car park. I forgot about car park. That's another £1.50 at Swindon these days. I would probably go more often if it was cheaper but that's partly because I live 25 miles away from Swindon anyway so it's a bit of an effort to go, and years of experience has taught me not to bother leaving the house if there is even a slight hint of rain. I don't think £17 is too expensive for a live sporting event, but I do think they should make more effort to make it worth the effort. So I want to see top quality riders and top quality presentation - and both are lacking these days.