cyclone

No he is NOT according to current GSAs - Castagna (home) 5.44, Jenkins 5.33

Bowtell/Jenkins/Gilkes for Castagna & r/r for Thomson.

Who do you think we should have tried to get if available?

Brennan is with Lodz in Poland, so I would expect he has bikes available on mainland Europe in addtion to his UK based kit.

On BSN website now advising meeting postponed due to track waterlogged. Appears Glasgow were justified in early postponement, thereby saving all intending to attend of a wasted journey.

Serious question, have you ever personally asked David McAllan if he thought Morris intentionally fenced him?

As it was filmed by those producing Glasgow home match videos at that time, who IIRC had a fixed filming location, you would expect them to have been aware of "dodgy camera angles" ? From personal experience having been at live football matches, I've been convinced that the ref made a wrong decision. When I've later seen the same incident replayed on tv, it has been confirmed that the ref's view was correct. Given that the Morris incident happened in a split second , perhaps you and the other eye witnesses imagined what they saw, given the serious consequences of the incident. As they say, "the camera doesn't lie".

Suggest you look at youtube video of the incident ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvIm7EiRYu8 ) and freeze on 1:02 - 1:04, and it does not appear that Morris is allegedly looking over his shoulder. FWIW a friend of David's told me that David did not think that Morris intentionally meant to fence him.

As an aside IIRC, when I went to the 1977 World Final @ Gothenburg, the track was wet & the 3rd & 4th bends particularly. The Swedes brought in a jet car to blast exhaust flames over the area, followed by a helicopter hovering over with its down draught aiding further drying. It certainly helped!

Just a word of caution, this is not yet a done deal. It would appear some have missed the following from the release on the Official Edinburgh website:- "Since then, informal discussions have continued and have now reached an agreement in principle for the Monarchs to remain at Armadale Stadium for 2023. "This is still subject to the formalisation of this agreement and confirmation of final details which we will continue to work on in the days ahead. However, we have an excellent relationship with the Cochrane Family and believe that this will conclude positively."

Are the Thompson twins really going to ride in the double header @ Mildenhall today, given the number of major crashes that have occurred there recently, often being attributed to difficult track conditions?

As it has already been announced that Leicester are moving to the PL, this does not apply. Whether they can prise Morris away from Wolves, Worrall from KL & Howarth from Sheffield, is a different matter. Howarth might be on Tigers wish list, always assuming the Facennas' have not been sufficiently scunnered by the BSPL, to continue running next year?

Cookie came up tonight to Armadale, did an interview of his time with the Monarchs, which was appreciated by the home crowd who gave him a round of applause. Pity some of the pond life on here can only gloat on the negatives.

In the Championship if you have one of your 1 - 5 missing due to injury, etc. you are only permitted a guest if his GSA places him in your top 3, if he is 4 or 5, then it's R/R instead. Are the rules different for the Premiership? Even if they are, your choice of guest would be restricted to King's Lynn & Peterborough riders or eligible Championship riders not declared in the Premiership.

With Edinburgh unlikely to run in 2023, expect the BSPL to try to exploit this & coerce Tigers to join the Premiership. If the Facennas agree, don't expect them to be offered any assistance in assembling a competitive side from the current PL members who will prioritise their own self interest.

Good to hear WLC are still helping, despite the numpties alleging "brown envelopes" & "corruption" of them, without producing a shred of evidence to back this up. Apparently one house builder reviewed the site and considered the land unviable for developing for housing. I believe there was suggestions of historical ground contamination of the site due to the dumping of waste slag earlier from a then nearby foundry.

Agree you have no idea, and suggest you actually go to a Devils match to appreciate that it would be unrealistic to expect running @ Ashfield to be anything other than loss maker.

You do not necessarily need to restrict the name as "Edinburgh" to a location within the boundary of CEC. When we ran at Powderhall, there was significant home support from the surrounding Lothians. When we moved to Shawfield, I would suggest we lost big chunk of our support because the increased travelling & also those whose exclusive affinity was with a team called Edinburgh Monarchs. Would you still follow Hearts if they moved to Dalkeith & rebadged as "The Harps" ?

Have you been to any actual Devils meetings @ Armadale this year? If you had, you would be aware that they have been sparsely attended. So, to expect the Edinburgh Promotion to run a team @ Ashfield next Season imo would be financial suicide. When the Edinburgh Promotion ran as the Scottish Monarchs from Shawfield in 1996, as the only Speedway track in Scotland that year, it was admitted that it nearly bankrupted them. If there is to be a NDL team competing @ Ashfield in 2023, then surely it will be run by Glasgow themselves, and it ain't going to be called the Dale Devils! For the Monarchs to return at some future date as "Edinburgh Monarchs" I reckon it would have to be at a location nearer the Capital, not further away, to attract viable attendances to support its existence.

If correct, what other income has it been generating for the owner, other than rental from the Monarchs, car parking, bar & catering? The only other possible "benefit" I can imagine is that a reduction in rates paid for an unoccupied stadium, outweighs tenant occupancy & use, during the Speedway season?

Will it now be appropriate to still run the 3-legged Jubilee Final, given the sad circumstances?

Well done Redcar, best team over the 2 legs. Even with a normal Masters performance, imo we would still have lost on aggregate. Re the play offs & Bears limited choice of guests, hopefully they can up with those who can perform up to the standard that Erik Riss would be expected to, home & away.

Hope that Fjelsted don't have a match in Denmark on 7/9, or Plymouth might need a further guest to replace Hans Andersen @ Poole also.

"Following tonight’s result at Plymouth, it is now confirmed that What The Fork Monarchs will face Redcar in the Championship Play Off Quarter Final. Dates to be confirmed very soon!"

Superb from Sam. All the more praiseworthy considering the injuries he is carrying and then being able to recover from the nasty crash in the first running of the final (courtesy of a nudge by Kerr), to win the re-run.