Paulco

It's just a new rule for this year , and only for the PL , and it only affects riders finishing third behind a team mate unless they are on a t/r

I think it's April 1st

Are the Monarchs Chatzone not doing updates for this one ?

got to love it when the know-alls are proved wrong

It is indeed a very sporting gesture , considering we're down there next Saturday .

Ipswich seem to have made their intentions public , but i'm sure other clubs are following suit and have kept it quiet for fear of upsetting the authorities .

Is it , speedway is mostly a team event . So having team mates racing each other , and potentially knocking each other off , for 2nd place is madness . The only time a third placed rider will be paid a bonus point behind a team mate , is when the team mate is wearing the black and white helmet and finishes 2nd . So obviously when making the rule it was realised that a safe 3-3 could easily become a 1-5 or worse and didn't want the double points compromised . The reasoning behind it was that too many riders were being paid bonus point money , behind a second placed team mate in three rider races , but how many times a season does that actually happen ? A seriously short sighted cost cutting measure that the promoters have come up with and one that could lead to serious injury .

From what i hear , no . They didn't dare put the tractor on the track at the press and practice day on Wednesday . And with absolutely no heat in the air to dry out the morning frosts , like our Edinburgh counterparts , another week is required to hope Spring appears . But you are correct , any new fans attracted to coming along , thanks to this week's intesive media coverage and the ice hockey presentation a couple of weeks ago , will now probably find something else to do . Any potential new fan to our sport must be totally mystified at how we are at the complete mercy of the elements .

yes indeed . Really looking forward to the play-off match v Cardiff

The Mail was pretty amateurish though , the amount of mistakes in it ( spelling and otherwise ) was unbelievable .

<sigh>

I expected to read this thread and see the usual Speedway Star bashing . So the new format must be liked as there's no bashing to be found , hardly . I think it's great and long may the magazine continue .

Hahaha . It says he's going to mingle with the fans and listen to the comments . Wonder if he'll venture up to the first bend on the 5th of April ? He'll hear some interesting comments there

Good luck to big Lee Dicken in his comeback

In the unlikely event Winter has buggered off and let Spring out of it's cage , we will all enjoy our season opener at the Velodrome . As per usual it's that mob from along the M8 who first foot us , and a pretty tasty looking side our skint friends from the East have assembled . They had a bit of a setback when Sam Masters was refused a visa after Darcy Ward swapped passports when he wasn't looking , but they have moved quickly to replace him with the talented Claus Vissing . 3 o clock starts this season remember , as folk were complaining it was after midnight when they were getting home last year . And of course it's the new era at Ashfield with the new promotion in place . So i've no idea how both teams will line up , but i'll hazard a guess and let the know alls point out where i've went wrong . Glasgow Tigers 1 Joe Screen 2 Joey Ringwood 3 James Wright 4 Henning Bager 5 James Grieves 6 Harley Horwood 7 Joe Jacobs That Edinburgh Mob 1 The Cookie Monster 2 Desperate Deek 3 The Golden Child 4 Theo the popular Monarch 5 Crazy Claus 6 The dodgy German reserve 7 Tobacco Joe So thermals at the ready and lets hope we get our 2013 season underway .

Edinburgh are asking for somebody to house Vissing as he wants to base in the area , which suggests it's more than just temporary .

To quote my sadly missed favourite Monarch poster , King Jamie , 13th yer baws

Are we keeping you up Junior Fan ? . Dont get upset guys , i just think the NL should be open to Commonwealth riders too , regardless whether they have dual nationality or not .

I would open it up even more . The NL should be open to the likes of Mitchell Davey , Jake Anderson etc , who are perhaps that wee bit below PL standard , but could benefit from NL racing . Surely they would add more to the development of young British riders in regards to competition more than having old stagers like Jon Armstrong and Tony Atkins taking the places of youngsters .

Yes of course they should

Another thread that started off interesting , but wasted by the know alls telling everyone how stupid they are . I feel for poor Sidney , everytime he adds input to a conversation , the pack converge on him .

No he's not . Who actually is , is still uncertain

There is that , but not being able to use the t/r after heat 12 has helped in that respect

Why did the 13 heat formula get binned anyway ? Because that format had a tired look about it at the time . The second halves started with a reserves race , which featured the two number sevens from both sides and two track juniors . Then you had three rider of the night heats wich the three winners plus the fastest runner up made the final . You had another reserves race before the final . If we had a southern based team up at Glasgow , they were generally keen to get on the road and few tried very hard in the rider of the night heats . You normally ended up with mainly home riders in the final . Sometimes some away riders didn't even bother hanging around for the 2nd half , which turned the whole excercise into a farce . We tried 15 , 16 and 18 heat formats since then , but i think what we have now probably works best .

He told me a couple of weeks back he was doing the Ben Fund and then taking a back seat . He'll probably fill in now and again when necessary .