Grachan

Why can you not include Tai Woffinden? He started here in the bottom leagues as a 15 year old. Seems pretty valid to me. When Aussies come over here and ride in the UK I bet you, and many others, feel that they earned their stripes in the UK, so why can you not say the same about a British rider?

Don't know much about Warren. Adams, Sigalos and Carter had it in them I believe. Never saw it in Jessup really. People talk about the 1978 final, but his EF was in his first ride so he had no pressure. When the pressure was on to get on the rostrum he lost out to Gordon Kennett and then Scott Autrey.

Not so sure. My main memory of Scott Autrey in World Championships was surprisingly failing to get through European Championships where all but 4 qualified. I'm not convinced he had that extra edge to make him a World Champion, even if he did get a rostrum place on year. More a Phil Crump than an Ivan Mauger.

The signing of Bellego was a great one so far. I think many people were a bit baffled by it, particularly as his average was almost identical to Justin Sedgman's, but Rosco had clearly done his homework and decided he was someone he wanted for a reason. The top end strength will, unfortunately, make it very difficult to make changes lower down the order and our scores this year will probably make us pretty close to the new points limit as we've had mainly close matches.

Not so sure about that. Those houses would have been built with or without planning permission for a new stadium. Having the stadium included in the plans gives more hope of a stadium being built than not having it.

As half the stadium has apparently been built and is being stored in deepest Wales it would be nice to see a picture of it to back up the claim.

Back in my day the guy who was top of the division one averages would never ride in division two. But we were 'appy.

Nice to know you consider me a 'usual suspect' who has a go at the BSPA. I wasn't aware that I was. I wasn't having a pop at anyone either. Just commented that the relevance British speedway is different to what Darcy's was, but that perhaps it was worth inclusion anyway as it seemed newsworthy enough to on the British speedway site. Clearly you don't and that's fine.

I guess the difference is that the Australian was Swindon number one at the time of his accident. Even so, one would have thought it worthy of mention on the BSPA website bearing in mind Tomasz's status in the sport..

I haven't seen Tungate this season, but no way would I have Bjarne Pedersen over him. He had some poor scores last year for Swindon, and I remember people calling for him to be replaced, but by the end of the year he was flying and was everyone's favourite guest.

The rule is clear. A guest is allowed for a double-up rider who is riding for his other club.

It's nothing to do with any 7 day rule. Kurtz can't ride for the reason SCB brought up. It's there in the rules in black and white.

It must be one of their "unwritten" rules then.

yes. It was me who asked it. He has, because I posted a jpeg of the relevent sections! They have all clearly agreed amongst themselves that if a rider is in a national championship then there can be a guest for a rider in positions 2 to 5 - so why keep a rule in the rule book that says you can't? Surely they must know by know how anal we all get about the rule book! I'm trying to see if there can be any ambiguity in the rule, and the only thing I can see is that what they mean is you can have a guest or rider replacement for the team positions that allow a facility in 18.10 - ie 1-5 but not 6 to 7. But if they do mean that, it takes a bit of lateral thinking for it to mean that.

No question about them being allowed a facility. The issue is what the facility should be.

Ok, so I've found the rules. Hougaard is riding in the Danish Championships. We have 18.10.1 which says that a guest or r/r is permitted for a rider appearing in their FIM Speedway Championship if permitted by Art 18.10. So 18.10 then says that for an absent number 1 - guest or r/r Absent double upper if riding for the "other" team - guest or r/r Absent 2-5 - R/R Indeed. No guest allowed for Hougaard.

Where's the rule on that? I just had a look but can't see anything.

No. It's an interesting site.

No. It's only if they choose to make changes - then they would have to be below the current points limit or like-for-like changes.

While we're on the subject of riders with ridiculously false averages: Adam Ellis: 3+3 from 4, 0 from 4, 1 from 3. 11 rides. 4 points. CMA = 1.45.

Fred is the highest averaging GP rider, but it hardly ponts to average manipulation from Jason Doyle unless Lindgren is doing the same. On current form we'd have to take the 4 most recent matches as Lindgren has had 4 meeting. Doyle = 9.2, Lindgren = 9.00, and that's despite scoring a maximum. Sure, Lindgren doing well so far - although not as good as Nick Morris, so I don't see how Swindon can be manipulating averages.

You say Freddie is the only rider performing at the moment but. Sure, he got a maximum this week, but before that he was scoring less than Doyle. Doyle has scored double figures in every match bar his first one. His scores are 8+1, 12+1, 11, 12+1, 11+1. 54 points from 25 rides. 8.64. Lindgren's scores: 9+1, 11+2, 12+2 (10+2 as one was TR), 15. 45 points from 20 rides. 9.00. In fact, before this week he was on 8.00, so lower than Doyle who was on 8.60 before the most recent match against Poole.

Does KO Cup count towards CMA? I think he just missed cup matches.

Apparently so, but if Swindon have had a lot more away matches than home matches by the time they have had 4 at home then it stands to reason they will have a lower team average at that point.

Yes, Belle Vue's new track is great - but all this Belle Vue supporters going on about "our track is better than your track nur nur nur" is getting a bit tedious, particularly as they has the worst track in the league for about 20 years beforehand.