Grachan

I agree. That just wouldn't work. Remember the Eastbourne Dons?

I would still have the top 3 in the final as the top 3 on the rostrum. I'd give 20 points for winning the final and go on race points for all the others. that way every race still matters, but you still get the big points for winning the final.

Batch is always better without the pressure of being expected to be the top scorer. Putting him at number two was a good move by Stead.

I always liked Bobby. I remember he really struggled at reserve in his first year at Swindon and then top scored with 14 in the final match of the season. He then went on to be a heatleader from there. Was never the same after his coccxyx injury though. I read somewhere he decided to retire after Vic Harding's crash.

I remember that match. It was the first time I ever went to Oxford. I had no idea who Alan Johns or Gordon Kennett were so it meant nothing to me. I even wrote A.Jones in my programme as the replacement. Martin Ashby had an ef in his first ride and gifted Henk Steman a point. The same thing then happened in the return match at Blunsdon, when Oxford got a pretty hefty revenge.

In 1974 it would have been.

Didn't Charles Wright opt out last year? Yet he was still invited this year.

Something occurred to me last night while watching the telly. I'm not sure why it occurred last night, but it did. Remember when all the house lights used to go off when a race was on, so the stadium was in darkness and only the track was lit up? When did that stop? Probably about 30 years ago, but it just came to me last night!

He has now tweeted to say it's a shame he wasn't involved and to congratulate Adam. So maybe he would have.

It's also easy to forget, of course, that Robert Lambert is actually younger than Adam Ellis.

It will, but can Tai and Robert match the might of either Russia or Poland in this anyway? I agree, they probably have a greater chance than Adam and Dan would, but I still can't see it. Tai isn't quite the rider he was before. At what point do we consider moving Dan and Adam up. The SON format gives them little chance of representing us at World level now that both are over 21. It's a shame they have butchered the World Cup really. It would be nice to have a team of all 4 as I think they would be a match for most countries.

I have no problem with having Woffinden and Lambert in the SON, and they probably give us the best chance of winning it. Having said that, picking Bewley and Ellis would definitely have a long-term benefit and might also give riders an incentive to keep riding in the UK once they hit World Class. I wouldn't normally consider going without the two GP riders, but I think we now have a couple of really useful riders and would be happy to see them represent us. I think the crowd might feel a greater attachment to them too. It would be a bold decision, but one I feel might get a lot of support.

I wonder what the reaction would be if we went with Ellis and Bewley in the SON. They might not win it, but they'd have a damn good go. Normally, I would go with Woffinden and Lambert but, in Adam and Dan, there are now a couple of riders who would benefit a great deal from riding in it and I'm sure they'd be competitive.

Did you even know he was supposed to be in it until today?

I was kind of thinking the same thing, but it would be useful to hear from all sides involved here rather than just one before being able to form a proper opinion on it.

What threat?

I think the point being made is what is the reasoning behind this? At the moment all we have is a half-explanation from one side and mass hysteria is taking hold.

Was he ever supposed to be riding?

Ivan had 3 world titles in 1970. He doesn't appear in the top 3 of the New Zealand Championship in 1970, 1971, 1972 or 1973 - or indeed in any before that. I'm sure he would have at least once had ridden. Maybe he was based in another country?

West Ham & New Cross - two old classics that closed down before I started going Reading (Tilehurst) & Swindon Autodrome - the original versions of two that I regularly attended. Bristol (Knowle) - with my mum. In the forties.

I thought he opposite actually. I thought the way Zmarzlik turned it all round was great and I saw that as a positive. I think I prefer the old scoring system, but I did like the turnaround in tonight's meeting.

I saw someone talking about the Hundred on tv the other day and they said it was brilliant having the teams known by their nicknames - yet Speedway has been doing this for nearly a century. Speedway is a team sport. It needs to come across as a team sport and not just four blokes riding bikes round a track To many people that is all it is. There's not a lot wrong with the actual product, it just needs consistent teams (something that has been wrecked by Doubling up and low points limits) and to be presented in a way that makes you feel that you are watching a team sport. Instead, we just get "...and the winner in heat one, in red, in a time of blah blah blah..." while everyone fills in a programme. I know people don't all agree with me, but have a big scoreboard above the pits with the score on constant display. And show replays on it. It can't be that hard. Swindon used to show regular replays on televisions around the stadium a few years back. Then they had the great idea of stopping it. Make it feel like you are watching a sport between two teams. And encourage riders to have a bit of a barny, rather than banning them if they do. On a side note, I was speaking to a work colleague on Monday and mentioned that I'd watched the Speedway GP over the weekend. "I didn't think they had speedway any more" was his response. So clearly some marketing is needed too! Every cost cutting move they make takes more people off the gate. It has been doing so for years. Yet they keep doing it. We now have a top league of 6 teams with the same riders as in the lower tier. Mental.

They might attract a few remaining hardcore supporters, but I can't see many people coming from far afield the way speedway is at the moment. They might get a few if they go into the top league, but to say they would be sitting pretty is a bit optimistic. Having said that, I'd probably go a few times, but then I live as near to Oxford as I do Swindon and only went to Swindon a few times a year in recent seasons so it wouldn't be a regular thing.

I felt they should have done that years ago. The one thing Swindon has in its favour, I feel, is a proactive promotion who will probably do that if they cannot re-open, but it would have been better to have it all ready to go now. Maybe there is the possibility of making a speedway track by Foxhill Motocross track? Is it financially viable to build speedway stadium these days though? I do wonder how many people will go to Oxford, too, if they re-open.

I don't particularly remember Per Jonsson being a team rider at Reading, but one way I would never describe him is "gate and go". My best memories of Per Jonsson are watching him stalk a race leader for three and a half laps and then going past them on the final bend. He even did this to Jimmy Nilsen in a World Final. Dave Mullet's big partnership at Reading, from memory, was with Jeremy Doncaster. Those two became something of a 5-1 pairing for the racers - at Smallmead at least. John Davis was a brilliant team man at Swindon, but maybe he was amore mature then than he was at Reading.