Grachan

I'd put Simmons and Louis in a different category to Wilson, Ashby, Boocock as they achieved much more in World terms. Terry Betts is someone I'd put alongside the other three - which leaves one more space to replace Simmons and Louis. So who would that be? Doug Wyer perhaps? Gordon Kennett even who, although, he achieved a World final rostrum place was ever quite in the Simmons/Louis mould? For the 5 metioned I'd go Simmons/Louis/ Ashby (biased)/ Wilson (won't mention 1975)/Boocock.

Enemies - Martin Dugard and Brian Karger.

Speedway is a strange old sport. For ages Adam's average has been a bit of a bugbear, the lad gets injured and suddenly it works to our advantage. Long term it works against us, however, if we do intend to make any changes, but on tonight's showing who knows, maybe we won't need to. Good to see Swindon get an away win with riders like Grondal and BWD putting in good scores. Not totally surprised by Rye's poor performance, though. They are a team that look nice when you see the 'names' but have a top end that is past its peak so there may not be improvement in the side. Hopefully Swindon can build from this, but Rye have riders that go well at Blunsdon. We could lose the second leg, but I think we have done enough to take the tie.

BTEC lol The team averages using those scores come to 40.8 for both sides btw.

Maybe it will. Just not in the way you described.

The reason you gor it so quick is because it's not exactly correct. The fifth ride effectively 'carries over' to the next batch of 4 rides as it calculated per ride rather than based on each match. In my opinion heat 15 shouldn't even be included in the averages anyway. It's not going to come to 42 exactly but it's as near as dammit and the logical figure.

He is probably pretty secure as he is one of onlt two British rider (unless Nick Morris has a British license). What is does do is mess up Swindon's low team average as he is averaging 1.50 (2.00 presumably) in a team average of 39.1. On his old average Swindon are way over 42.

What do they think will happen? Will all the teams be below 42 or something? Team performances are irrelevant.

The 1975 team would win this league pretty much ubchallenged.

That buggers up any decent team changes then because he'll still be on his stupid average when the 42 limit comes in.

By my calculations we are on 39.1 at the moment with Emil on 5.14. He'd presumably be a whipping boy if we made a change so we could get an 8 point rider in for him as things stand. What constitutes an 8 point rider these days? Would Kildemand, for example, fit in? Or would it be a second division 8 pointer?

It never used to happen. As a kid I remember being stuck in the traffic queue for the stadium, getting out of my parents car and running across the field to get in before the start. I have clear memories of getting in, running up the steps to bend 3 just as a heat was starting.

Swindon do this too, although I'm not sure how popular it is.

That's out of order. They should be told to do it on the centre green. Is Holder getting is average down or is it just Jason Doyle that people are going to accuse of that?

Still there at the moment. Not for long though as it due to be redeveloped for housing. A new stadium is supposed to be getting built adjacent to the existing one.

Didn't go in the end. Was going to go but my wife wasn't feeling well on Saturday morning so we decided not to. She was glad Swindon lost as it meant I wouldn't be annoyed we didn't go!

If Jason scored a maximum in every match he'd still be lowering his average.

We effectively have 3 reserves but that's the price you pay for having a rider on over 13 unfortunately.

You say about the tail, but if Jason scores a max tonight then Swindon win. A lot on Jason's shoulders this year.

It's really irritating, particularly as tomorrow's weather forecast is improving lately. If practice was called off then reassurances that the track is ok are imperative. Either that or cancel it in plenty of time!

I saw a couple of Autorace meetings a few years back, at Funabashi and Kawaguchi. Kawaguchi is an amazing place. One thing you really notice is the loudness of the bikes - the old, throaty roar that we used to get with speedway in the 70s. The races are handicapped, but the riders at the back work their way through pretty quickly so I think there is quite a gap in standard. Didn't Barry Briggs once have a go at Autorace? There's a chapter on the sport in his "Speedway with Briggo" book that I won at school for getting 10 commendations!

Are you connected to the club BTFC Lion?

108.1 miles from where I live according to Google. The thing is, this being the opening meeting of the season, a Saturday night and Swindon's opening fixture there seems to be an ideal opportunity to attract away fans here going to waste.

Yeah, because the track is apparently not suitable. I began to be concerned as soon as I saw comments saying that the track was expected to be fine. Up to that point I wasn't aware that it wasn't expected to be fine. So I decided to wait and see what happened in practice before making a decision. The weather forecast might put me off anyway I the end! I lost confidence in speedway meetings actually being on many years ago, so apologies for my apparent pessimism!

I'm not rubbishing the meeting. I'm a casual attendee these days and this one appealed as it is a Saturday. I have a hotel booked and everything and that! All I ask is confirmation that the track has been tested and is ok before making my 'nothing' 200 mile round trip. I don't think that's too much to ask in light of the problens at Belle Vue and Poole.