tocha

Don't compare Millard to a class act that is Murray. Hope he will be part of the commentry team at the Silverstone GP now that the BEEB have it back.

Scott was so far adrift that it looked as if the meeting reserve had been drafted in. On a more general note, before each season has started recently I have been upbeat about our chances in the SWC. As things stand at the moment I am not even confident that team GB will even qualify for the play-offs.

About as poor as he has ever been. In all honesty, Scott emerged as a good rider from early on. He did all the right things, winning the British Under-21 Championship twice and then transferred to Poole whereapon he became a competent rider at heat leader status. In 2001 he returned to Ipswich and, after a quiet start, hit a rich vein of form with a string of maximums in the EL and, in all honesty, looked just about unbeatable. A collar bone injury interrupted his progress but he still went on to finishing 2nd in the EL averages behind Jason Crump then runner up to the same rider in the ELR Championship having led for much of the final race. He qualified for the SGP series in 2002 but had a fairly modest series apart form almost snatching victory in the Australian round, then qualified by right in 2003. Since then he has, by and large, gone backwards on the World stage. If his form doesn't pick up, there are two questions. Will he be given yet another wild card and will Rob Lyon be brave enough to drop him from the first SWC round at Peterborough?

After Bridger & Co have finished patting themselves on the back following yesterday's meeting at Purfleet they might reflect upon what progress they have to make to come up to this standard.

You mean tony(arthur mullard) millard, yes. At a very early stage he was beginning to croak and for a moment I thought he was going to be replaced but, no such luck!

I know. Who was this rider Nicky Peedersen?

No surprise that Scott has been selected but Bomber is there at the behest of Sky even though his performance this time was not good enough to deserve a place. However he may not have been one of their first choices. Maybe Chris Holder was offered a place but declined. Has has already admitted earlier this season that he is not ready yet, and as far as Bjarne is concerned I believe he has said that he wouldn't want to come back next year unless he qualified.

I believe it is absolutely certain that Scott will be given a wildcard. However he may be the only Brit in the series next year. With Chris Harris finishing a lowly 13th it would be awkward to nominate him without offering a place to Lindgren, or, even Bjarne or PUK who both finished the series above him. Additionally they are going to want a couple of riders from other parts of Europe to come into the mix, Safuitdinov, Pavlic or a second chance to Zagar. Overall I do not think that any rider should be offered consecutive wildcards and those selections should be on the condition that they participate in the qualifying series to earn a place for the following year.

Getting back to the subject, what was the ref's original thinking regarding heat two, in which, AJ was excluded. Scott went down after contact and, as far as I called see, our ref brought the race to a halt only after the remaining three riders were about to start their second laps. If he thought that AJ was at fault why didn't he put on the red lights as they entered the back straight and would he have stopped the race if Scott had removed his bike from the track in time?

I think Scott must have some guy who used to have some input into the tuning of the Reliant Robin.

As far as I can recall, Scott has only twice qualified on merit, once after the 2003 series and last year after he brought down Harris in the race-off and finishing behind Holta. I am afraid to say that Scott has been worst performer of any GP rider who has been in the GP series over a period of years (2002 to 2008) to date. Only dear old Andy Smith did worse but, even he qualified by right each year during the time he competed.

In other words 12.00 to 1400 BST.

I don't know how good the Danish track curators in coping with wet conditions but the forecast for tonight is not looking all that good and, possibly, worse on Saturday.

Not only that but he also conceded that Team GB (is that Team Going Backwards?) had no chance of getting straight to the final. I can't imagine Middlo making that sort of announcement. Is it possible that it created a rift between him and the riders?

Solution:- Drop the entire team from last night. Sack Jim Lynch and appoint either Jon Cook or Rosco - he should have been given the job in the first place - then put out the following team:- Woffinden Kennett King Bridger and Lawson.

Luke Bowen was a rabbit on a speedway bike when IOW were the visitors in the second leg of the KO cup in 2007. Being hunted down by Chris Holder in heat one he was so scared he broke the track record!

AJ may have been influenced by three out of the four previous heats having been won from that gate.

My feeling is it will be:- Harris Jonsson Kasprzak Saijfutdinov I think that IMG will consider that Jonsson and Holta are the reprentatives for Scandinavia after Denmark. Hampel has done very little in this series whilst KK had an excellent SWC and topped it off with a second place in Bydgoszoz.

In the end I don't think it will matter and, in fact, could be the best way of getting two Brits in for 2008. I believe Chris will be selected as a wild card for his performance at Cardiff and for the arguably unfair way he was knocked out of the race-off. I f it had been the other way round so that Nicholls finished 9th I am not so sure.

If those riders mention do return this leaves 4 places up for grabs. Harris will get one of them as will Jonsson having both won GPs this year. Also, Harris' exit from the run-off was controversial and unfair. Two places left. Dryml will be seen as the natural replacement for Zagar whilst Holta might be considered as the second Scandinavian in the series. It all depends whether or not IMG want two or three Poles next year. They will go for Kasprzak in preference to either Hampel and Jagus, who has done well but, might be considered too old. They could, however, give the final place to under 21 champion Emil Sajfutdinov.

With the position they were in this could turn out to be the best situation the two British riders could have been. Scott qualifies by right (or, possibly 'wrong') and Chris will probably will be given a wild card by winning the GP in Cardiff plus the way he was eliminated from the race-off. I am not so sure that Scott would have been invited back if he had finished 9th bearing in mind the number of occasions he has been given a wild card spot in the past.

It is just possible that he could do better than that. He is 15 points behind Hans Andersen, who has been very poor in the last 3 GPs., and collected 13 points more than Hans did last Saturday. Another solid performance and who knows.

This is an interesting suggestion put forward but you have two 2007 elite league league clubs in the first league and the remaining eight in the other. It is unlikely that elite league clubs will part with their 'assets' so I don't see how this will work. As I have stated earlier on this thread a combined premier/conference league could work because there isn't such a differential between team strengths.

The first area of coaching as far as British riders is concerned is making starts. This is something which has plagued us over numerous years. It is not just a matter of reaction to the tapes going up but getting to the first turn ahead of the opposition, driving out the second bend then completing the move at bend three which, quite often than not, is where the race is won. Just look at Nicki Pedersen. Comentators are telling you that this gate and that gate are not working but he can make every gate work. Often, he doesn't make the start from the gate but is there at the first bend and beyond.

This sort of arrangement was introduced in 1995 whereby divisions 1 and 2 were combined into one league. This didn't work as all that happened was that the former top division teams finished at the top and the lower at the bottom end. In fact Middlesborough dropped out altogether mid-season because they couldn't compete. Therefore I don't believe that combining the two leagues would work. However I can visualise a situation whereby a two-league system could operate between the Premier and Conference Leagues. At present there are 10 clubs competing in the Conference League but all, but three, are 'stand-alone' clubs. Scunthorpe have already applied to join the Premier League next year. It is clear that the clubs which are not part of promotions running in higher leagues have a different agenda form those which are. Their primary aim is to win the league etc. instead of being an outlet to train youngsters and create a feed to the parent team. The Elite League in its current format cannot support ten teams who can run at a competitive level. Oxford having to withdraw then problems experienced by Belle Vue, Ipswich and, more recently, Reading have demonstrated this. With the resources available, meaning the number of overseas riders prepared to commit themselves to a full season, our Elite League can only run to eight teams. We have been in this situation before, of course, but it doesn't provide a great deal of variety of opposition. Also, I am not sure Sty TV would be happy with this arrangement. A squad system could be considered as, I believe, that a few riders who we don't see in the UK would be prepared to ride here as long as they could restrict their meetings. I have no idea how the system works in Sweden but the top two riders in our Elite League clubs could be shared positions in some cases. For example, Ipswich could bring in both Hampel and Gollob but not both at the same time. In situations where neither was available RR would be the alternative option. In summary I realise this is all a fudge but when we are in a situation where their are too few riders and not enough money there has to be a compromise.