Grachan

Winning the league in this sport isn't all it's cracked up to be. It just leads to a feeling of disappointment afterwards.

They aren't being assessed. It's about taking a rider without an average and putting him where he should be. My own assessment is the same as yours. Most people's would be. The only possible change might be swapping Lindgren and Vaculik round. He's a nine.

Also he was leading the World Championship at one time. He should be a nine. To anyone who thinks 8.00 is a fair assessment, put these riders in order of the standard that you think they are: Jacob Thorsell, Jason Doyle, Martin Vaculik, Freddie Lindgren, Nick Morris. I reckon there must have been some horse trading somewhere behind the scenes to get Vaculik reassessed, because there is no reason to think that the original assessment was incorrect.

They obviously used their own skill and judgment to work out that Vaculik is slightly below the standard of Nick Morris and Jacob Thorsell, so assessed him accordingly.

Incidentally, can you imagine the uproar on this forum if Poole had signed Vaculik and then had his average reduced by a point?

Precisely because of that. They got Vaculik on 8.00, so it gave them more scope. They have, effectively, been able to build to 43.50. So they are bound to have a strong line-up.

Eurosport isn't free.

Exactly. Plus, the teams in this 'Super League' would struggle to get support for their championship strength sides. So they would stop running them. And there you have it. Two leagues again.

Difference being the two leagues had different riders. The two leagues now have a lot of the same riders in them. Also, when the two leagues combined intonthe BL, it had the best riders in the world in it. That is not what is being advocated here.

One league at the strenth you advocate is, in terms of making the sport popular, rubbish. In terms of the finances available, it may be what the clubs want. From a supporter pount of view - merely in terms of the product and the appeal - it's crap. It seems, every year, that the best thing they can think of is come up with something to stuff Jason Doyle, who is showing commendable loyalty to this country at the moment. There is a certain section who seem intent on making the sport weaker every year until it snuffs itself out. I am not one of them. I miss when teams had the best riders, regardless of how feasible it is.

And even out support levels to somewhere between the Championship and the National League. Why is that always seen as the answer?

The second division won't want one big league because they wouldn't be able to sponge their heatleaders off the top league any more. Why do you think it's to accommodate Jason Doyle in the top league? They've tried their best to get him out the league for the last two years running.

The 1981 World Final WAS an amazing final. I was there. It's not just a case of looking on a sheet and counting passes. You can come away from a meeting with countless passes and not get the feeling that you got from that meeting. I was there, and you came away with the feeling you had seen something special. It had what I guess you would call the X-Factor - that undefinable quality that made it special. Penhall's races were possibly the only great races of the night, but is just had something that no other final I have been to has had (and I went to 3 at Wembley - all great events but there was just something that the Americans of that time injected into Speedway for that too brief time that gave it something extra that has been lacking since)

Pffft. Who voted for that then? He should be a 9.

I feel that you are making the mistake of thinking that because you see things on your own Facebook and Twitter that people with no interest in speedway are going to be seeing these things too. I don't know if a coffee shop is feasable (probably not in the current climate of coffee shops being dominated by major chains) but, if it was, it would make the name of the club a permanent fixture in the town centre if it was and would get the name out to a lot more people that facebook or twitter, which messages people who are signed up to receive them anyway. A club podcast would be great for fans, but I'm not sure how that would anyone other than people who are already supporters of a club.

It will be interesting to see what Jason Doyle averages next year following the tweet this year that he seems to have ridden himself out of a job.

Why would they even consider riding in a league that is doing its damnest to get rid of them anyway? Zagar had already said he was looking to ride here next year and they came up with a couple of rules that effectively put a stop to it.

With Lindgren, perhaps, but Swindon said when they released Doylebthat they had intended to use both him and Morris. Plus, if Somerset can afford to have Doyle I see no reason why Swindon couldn't have had him too. It's like Tai said in his interview, to be competitive you need Poland and Sweden. The league here is no longer competitive enough. Introducing a blanket 9.00 average on GP riders, then having a one over 8.00 rule, is going to make sure it remains that way. Maybe, in terms of survival, it has to be that way, but, as a supporter, it is very uninspiring.

The rule still led to it happening, though, which is what the post said.

If Thursday's had been approved, why change it? Sheffield and Ipswich should have had two choices if they wanted Thursdays. Ride top league or ride Thursday's but top league sides get priority on riders. Ipswich, in particular, seem to have been holding the top flight to ransom for years. I'm just fed up with speedway seeing the best way forward being to make the good clubs as crap as the poor ones.

Yeah, Swindon chose not to sign the World Champion - a decision that might yet mean I don't even bother going to any matches next year. Why should winning a league title be a means to making fans of that club feel disappointed and deflated and unhappy with the sport they follow? What was the other option? To not sign a rider who has been at Swindon his entire career and might have struggled to find a team place. It was rock and a hard place. We could not win. Why should Swindon fans be made to think like that? It's crazy. And choosing Wednesday's after Thursday's was internationally approved was ridiculous too.

Wow. You're right. So he has. This needs flagging up surely. Last year was based on Second Division averages, so he was assessed as a 7.00 rider in The Championship last year so, therefore, he MUST be one this year.

Always a possibility. I think Jason is a bit of an Anglophile anyway. I've noticed that he has an England flag on his race suit.

I would say that 5 minutes of standing around watching a tractor and listening to "Now that's what I call music volume one" has a more negative impact than any rules anyway.

Why would you need a UK visa to ride in Poland? The two are unconnected - but at least you proved the theory that a lot of people actually believe this to be the case! Incidentally, Jason recently got married and lives in the UK. Is his wife British? If so, he'd no longer need a work permit to ride in the UK as his Leave to Remain would allow him to live and work here. But he would still need a seperate visa to work in Poland. His UK visa would have no effect on this for a further 5 years. Possibly, the visa for Poland would be a Schengen visa, which might also cover Sweden, but it would not be related to the UK. UK visas do not cover anyone from outside the EU to travel or work in the rest of the EU/Schengen region.