TheScotsman

Well my garden is still sodden and there's no breeze today, so with more heavy rain expected this evening and overnight I fear it could be a mud bath tomorrow.

I get grief when I say that on here!!

Might have been a good thing at some tracks - might have cut their losses!! My point was that there were ways in which the scheduling could have been done differently to avoid the late October rush for the play off finals. If nothing else, the league fixtures could have been run ahead of the League Cup ones. But I will definitely say the extra pairs of fixtures were a farce. How can there be credibility when teams can choose who they want to ride an extra couple of pairs of matches against? That makes the double points joker look like a sensible rule!!

Yes it can be helped. Could have cut out the Stupid 2 additional home & away fixtures each team had. Could have cut out the crazy League Cup which started the season but only finished last week. Could have scheduled the cup finals to be after the play offs or at least after the play off finals. Could have had 4 teams in the play offs, not 6, thus avoiding dead fixtures that nobody wants to watch. Even just some of those would have got the play off finals in September. At least then there would have been contingencies available in the event of rain offs. Weather Looks iffy this week so fixtures might be affected. How is the forecast for Poole on Wednesday? Looking like some heavy train on the BBC chart. That's my point. Why schedule such important matches for the last couple of weeks of the season when there's very little contingency for rescheduling and the weather is likely to be getting colder and wetter and the tracks are getting iffy? Anyway I aim to be at Ippo on Thursday as long as the rain due on Wednesday night/ Thursday hasn't created havoc! My old bones will suffer No doubt!

Really? You don't think play off crowds would be higher in September? Have you seen the weather last week and the forecast this week?

Just my opinion!

It's in the Edinburgh postcode area.

I thought both had ridden for big tracks in the past?

If they are all about the money then late September is likely to do better than late October. Cup finals can take their chances with the weather in October. Given that speedway is mainly watched by OAPs nowadays the meetings need to be held when the cold and damp is not getting into the bones!!

Everyone likes to feel wanted.

Not the way of everyone's world. Some people have a better sense of timing. I don't see equivalent threads about Somerset or Monarchs, even though everyone knows they will have to be changed heavily for next season. But they still have trophies to contest this season.

All seems a bit harsh to be talking about dropping riders on the eve of a Cup Final!!

Ridiculously late in the season to be holding such important fixtures. Only the diehards will be turning up when it's cold & wet. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

Not great. But you won't get Sneddon.

19 away wins & 2 away draws so far the Edinburgh site says.

Yes but having Justin and/or Stevie rattling up Mega points for a few months gave us a great buffer and helped the team as a whole build confidence. Remember that Max, Stevie & Justin have increased their averages by a huge amount and Sam has now upped his too and is challenging Cookie for the number 1 position. (Well on scores over the past couple of months anyway!)

But Monarchs started the season with Sedgmen & Worrall at reserve. And Stevie stayed there till end June I think. But we have got weaker there month by month since then.

Congrats to the super smugs!

Well the 28th September anyway!!!

Barrett now injured.

Summers instead of Lawson.

Crowds would probably be bigger in September.

Important matches should not be scheduled for October.

Well said that man.

How the riders tackle this will say a lot about who should be back next year.