Grachan

Thank God for that. I was beginning to think it was all a dream.

Where did I say that?

I reckon it was around that, yes, although guessing crowd numbers isn't easy. It certainly wasn't a poor crowd. I thought it was a good crowd for these times - and nice to see lots of kids and younger adults there. Good weather, school holidays and opposition that haven't just been there in the last 2 weeks, and the crowd was decent. I took a wander round, and there were a lot of people on the bank towards the third bend.

There was more than 1100 there last night. I reckon it was more like 2,000 - a pretty decent crowd for a speedway meeting these days. I don't know if you took a wander down the back straight, but it was pretty packed from the end of the stand down to bend 3. The home straight was pretty busy too. It's difficult to judge properly, though. Nobody really stands on bends 1/2 any more because the track is so far away, and the straights are also more compact. But it seemed pretty busy to me last night.

"He went for the dirt up by the burrrrrgerrrrrrr vaaaaan..."

That's two leagues.

The biggest thrashing I ever saw was a Swindon v Halifax meeting. I think it was 1976 (but could have been 77) and ended up 62-15. David Ashby was the only Swindon rider beaten by a Halifax rider, I think, and Swindon even had a 5-0 early on in the meeting.

Ah yes. The title. In a year where there seem to be World Cups going on in many sports and gaining them a degree of popularity in the process we get something called "Speedway of Nations". Is it a World Championship? Is it an open meeting? How can we tell?

We'd be hopeless, as would many other countries without their top rider. The World Cup was a better event though, although it did tend to end up with the same few countries all the time in the final. In terms of GB? Yes, we have a much greater chance under this format. That doesn't make it a better competition though.

I'm not a great fan of this competition. I think it has many flaws. On it's own, it's fine, but as a replacement for the World Cup it's a disaster. I remember some epic World Cups, with some amazing races. This just doesn't live up to it, and it's pretty clear it's been done to stop Poland dominating. Could they not, at least, revert to the World Cup every 4 years? I hope that happens but I won't hold my breath.

I was a bit uncomfortable watching Tai say those things after Rosco's interview. It's not good to have one of the riders undermining the manager on TV and I think he could have made his points in a more subtle way without saying he didn't like his manager's interview. The thing is, though, who do GB need more? Rosco or Tai? This competition proved that without Woffinden around GB just fall apart, and he knows it.

At the end of the day, Harris (or whoever else might have been selected) was just there to be replaced. In theory it was fine, with GB's best rider (Lambert) at reserve we would not have had to track a weakened pair in one heat, and Harris's big meeting experience and patriotism would work well for team spirit. It all fell apart in our first heat, but you can't blame the manager for that. After Woffinden, Lambert and Cook we have nobody who can compete at this level, although Harris at least has experience of top level competition. It's all debateable really. Harris probably wouldn't have even ridden if Cook and Lambert hadn't crashed.

I think the commentator just went to the toilet. He's back now.

Radio coverage here. Not great. Lots of periods of silence or just background noise, but keeps you up to date. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/motorsport/48958914?fbclid=IwAR3hqs-9nLFYoEViD3AXBtYAhobq4gMSeg6luZa8qKXHPRWTun7ootsR26c

Dunno. That's just the figure on the BSPA website. Maybe not then.

5.84. Identical to Nick Morris, interestingly.

Musielak back in the side now. https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/sport/speedway/17772552.swindon-robins-set-welcome-back-tobiasz-musielak-return-injury/?fbclid=IwAR2F0k4DU7xMBMZicQjKY7Ly2iV3aBXD3sOjfBlGZsdsunS0Qn7pKevdZMM

If Doyle can ride on Thursday then why should Ipswich have a guest?

Not sure how well Charles has been going, but I would also think that it might have been better to go with someone of that ilk - such as Wright or Ellis. Harris is, to all intents and purposes, reserve anyway. Lambert will get the rides. So it might have been an opportunity to give someone some top level experience.

Is this true or are you making stuff up again? Doyle is riding for Swindon, apparently, so no reason for Bomber not to be riding.

And this information comes from where?

Swindon sign Claus Vissing. Looks like he is a temporary signing and the intention would probably be to have Stefan and Toby back when fit. Presumably this gives us a bit of a higher averaged reserve than having guests.

In 96 it was set at EL standard. If the league was set at CL standard then the teams would be the strength of CL teams, so the same as now.

If the league was set at Championship level - perfectly feasable bearing in mind rider ability - why could they not afford it?