Paulco

They are now more self employed speedway riders rather than a member of a particular team .

not a capacity crowd there tonight

He , along with Joe Thurley , opened and ran Paisley for the two seasons they ran in the mid seventies . And he was Glasgow promoter at Shawfield in the early nineties . Neil must be in his mid seventies at least , but was looking fit and tanned when he visited Glasgow early in this season . Jimmy Mac was the Templeton's nephew , don't think Neil was a member of that family tree .

Neil has had his time in speedway , and now should be enjoying his retirement playing golf in Spain . Why would he get involved in something like this ?

They should adopt the Peter Waite approach . Few years back Berwick were due to race at Glasgow and Adam Pietrasko and Piotr Dym were down to ride in Poland . Waite gave them the option , ride in Poland - then don't bother coming back . Pietrasko turned up at Glasgow , Dym rode in Poland , Dym never rode for Berwick again . Now Poland says jump and our lot says " how high ? "

That was my view ( from the Charlie Monk stand ) as well . Jack went for his usual outside blast round the second bend and Pickering moved out slightly and there was a bit of contact , but just a racing incident . After we all finished losing the will to live , the racing was pretty average . The Tigers were never under any real pressure , three heat leaders superb as usual and well backed up by Nike especially . Dan had an average night by his standards and Tom had a busy night trying to coax a sick looking bike round for 7 races . For them , Wells was good , Riss started well before fading , Lindgren was never going to adequately replace Masters and scored roughly what we expected him to score , Pickering has improved a lot , Davey was pretty much as expected and Clegg was rubbish . Got really chilly once the sun went down , Autumn is fast approaching .

Would be a surprise because even a mediocre Edinburgh side don't lose that many at home , such is the nature of their home circuit . Can't deny those two are a potent spearhead , but can they ( especially Holder ) be as effective round the confines of Armadale .

No point moving up when you're watching most of the same riders in both leagues anyway .

Bar closed , remember we're down next weekend

Hibs at Ibrox and the Monarchs at Ashfield , think Blobby will stop in bed tomorrow

Even if Peterborough can pull off a surprise tonight , I still think they're too far back to really challenge for the play offs . However if Edinburgh slip up again at home , their position will look very vulnerable

So it's the glorious 12th and hopefully it's a glorious night for the Tigers in this latest of speedway's long running soap opera . Hopefully Saturday's weather god on duty isn't a closet Monarch and scared of what might happen , and we get one of the few decent dry days we're allowed in summer time . For us the only doubt is whether Richie has recovered from his crash in Poland that prevented him riding in the fours . For the forces of darkness - Ludvig Lindgren for smirking Sam !!!!!!!!!!!!! seriously ? One can only assume they offered him the guesting gig for both meetings this weekend to get him to ride on Friday against Peterborough , cause if the Lindgren that turned out for Newcastle earlier on in the season rolls up on Saturday , this could get embarrassing . So i'm going for a cautious prediction of 55-35 on Saturday and another three points closer to the play offs .

Trouble is , speedway nowadays is geared to keep the riders happy . Doubling up , the way tracks are set up , calling meetings off as soon as one has a whinge , that's all to appease them . Fans are just supposed to turn up and accept it . Well as tracks empty at an alarming rate , maybe it's time that changed .

Unfortunately it's just the way modern day speedway is in this country . There always have been and always will be injuries , so a certain amount of guesting and r/r is unavoidable . But with doubling up completely out of control , and riders riding all over the place , that has resulted in those stats that you highlighted . Speedway isn't the same as we enjoyed it in the 70's and 80's ( i'm same age as you ) , we either accept it for what it is now , or until a radical overhaul takes place , or we find something else to go and watch .

We heard at Peterborough yesterday that was intending to ride tonight , hope he doesn't aggravate his injury in doing so , cause he has a much more important meeting on Saturday night against Edinburgh .

As we have seen before , Swindon holding the 2007 PLRC immediately springs to mind . The top riders ride most tracks well , Sheffield is a proper speedway track , not a wee technical trick track , so I don't see a problem holding meetings like this there .

Puts our capitulation at Derwent Park last week into perspective

Riding for Belle Vue at Somerset tonight

Your team seems to be peaking as the other three members of the top 4 are wobbling a bit .

Sheffield now title favourites after that humbling of the Monarchs . Is that the first time Sheffield have ever won at Armadale ?

Wash your mouth out lady haha , or you'll get dry pieces on Sunday

No getting away from the fact , we are suffering a bit of a dip in form just now .

Would love for someone at BSPA towers to come out and explain why a club , who has suffered a horrendous season with injuries , when they try to sign yet another injury replacement - it isn't in the best interests of the sport . More chance of me waking up beside Kylie Minogue tomorrow morning than that happening right enough . You wonder how they manage to dress themselves in the morning , never mind run the sport .

Who knows these days But this is a re-arranged fixture which muddies the waters somewhat . It's a nonsense though .

I wouldn't be so sure . It's unlikely we'd agreed on that date for an important meeting knowing both those riders would be missing .