scotchopper

yes back on topic......... I could only be a maybe as I wouldn't know until the day before how many I have in my car and what the plans are. If it's possible I am happy to oblige although guessing from above Gazc may be your man. If you still need a lift get back to me a couple of days before. Can't help getting there as I tend to arrive at 7.29 and I'm sure you'll want to be there in plenty time.

Brilliant new feature from Edinburgh Monarchs and EMTV a meeting preview for the visit of Scunthorpe on Friday and sounds like there will be a meeting review as well. https://www.facebook.com/edinburghmonarchs/videos/1381096725259761/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED Well done to all involved. Will be an interesting match on Friday, Monarchs should have enough but you never really know for sure in the first match and as the Scorpions have a few more meetings under their belt could be dangerous Now on Monarchs website as well for the non facebookers http://www.edinburghmonarchs.co/emtv/video/2017-04-07/match-2:-scunthorpe

Looking on http://www.elitspeedway.com/matcher/ I see the dates are in for the final Final 1 - 26 september Final 2 - 27 september (Reservdag 28 september) Does anyone know if this has a chance of moving or if these dates are set in stone. Always wanted to do these 2 nights and this sounds appealing. 2 nights in Sweden then down to Pardubice for the Golden Helmet/U21s sounds like a great week of speedway

Sorry didn't mean to be harsh just didn't want speedball to get the impression that walking was a good option. It is possible but over 3.5 miles (google maps predicts a 70 minute walk) and not a walk I would do or recommend especially after the meeting in the dark. Walk would be through the town but driving would go around Bathgate hence the difference in distance. Hope you have a good time speedball and if you have any other questions or thoughts just ping me and i'll try my best to answer. Can't help with the old firm match though, not something on my bucket list.

sounds like a great plan and you probably have it sussed now but here is more info that may (or may not) help To be honest unless you are really keen to have a night out in Edinburgh (and you won't be back until well after 10pm) you are better just staying local to the track, there are always a good few in the bar at the stadium after a meeting if you want a beer. The Premier Inn or the Cairn are decent options but they are NOT walking distance to the track and not in Bathgate town centre. The Fairway and the Kaim park are walking distance to Bathgate town centre but again not walking distance to the track. There are local buses from Bathgate to Armadale that go right by the hotels and the track if you want to save a taxi however if there are at least 3 of you it will be just as sheap to get a taxi. There aren't any options in Armadale. Quickest way from airport is the tram to Edinburgh Park (you don't need to head to city centre) where you can then get the train to Bathgate or Armadale, as said above there will be more taxi options at Bathgate. Tram/bus from the airport is a bit of rip off but the alternative is a taxi. You can go direct from Bathgate or Armadale to Glasgow on the train these days, it is a slight slower train than the main Edinburgh-Glasgow train but saves you going back into Edinburgh. If you did want to stay in the city Edinburgh Speedway run a bus to/from the Edinburgh city centre to the track, leaves waterloo place (very close to Waveley station) at 6.15 and returns 15 mins after the last race. If you are arriving in Edinburgh early and want to explore the city then that could be an option as there isn't much to do or see in Bathgate or Armadale except the speedway and a few pubs.

That's what football thought and then we had Bosman, sports are no different to any other employers and have to meet employment law. speedway is a little different in terms of the riders essentially being self employed but if someone was willing to take the bspa to court for these restrictions on averages and number of british riders etc I am pretty sure they would win, very unlikely as it would be too expensive. Some will change when we come out of EU but not that much. Might actually make it easier for aussies as they are currently screwed compared to Europeans.

That is completely irrelevant he has dual nationality and now qualifies to ride for both countries. In the same way they may choose to move back to Australia in the future and Donna could apply for an Aussie passport. It really is quite simple. Then the old "only in speedway" jibe, clueless. Its strange people call themselves speedway supporters then talk down the sport at every opportunity they get. Every sport has people apply for a new nationality in order to play for a national side: athletics, football and rugby have far more than speedway ever will. I agree when people start qualifying because of residency it starts to push the boundaries of what is acceptable but ultimately it is up to the civil service who gets citizenship and no sports body has the right to change that.

what absolute utter tosh I am reading on here, he has a british passport therefore he is british - end of discussion! He rode in the national league last season so the bspa have accepted that so it is time for everyone else to accept it and move on. You don't have to like it but that won't change it. He didn't get married to a Scots lass to be able to ride speedway in this country they have been together for a number of years and Edinburgh haven't pulled off some major coup bending rules to sign a world class rider, apart from cookie he is probably their only british asset so he had to be considered for one of the 2 british slots they are forced to have in the team this year. I was there when Mitch had his big off at Sheffield, it was one of the worst accidents I have seen. just glad to see he is back able to ride it's been a long hard slog and I hope he makes a good go of it. With an injury free season I definitely think he can improve his starting average given the level of the league this year,

where did you hear that?

Everyone in the league would be desperate to sign bewley and if Edinburgh achieve that it will shape the rest of the team. But unlikely doesn't mean it is not possible to have both and it also doesn't mean that if Edinburgh fail to sign Dan they will try to sign Max, just poor stirring on your part. Neither are Edinburgh assets so ultimately it isn't just up to their promotion, Max won't be sitting around waiting on Edinburgh to phone and will get offers and Edinburgh know that. It is the silly season but you are just looking for a negative angle or something to criticise. Due to the nature of the average system in our sport teams will often have to go to their 2nd, 3rd or 4th choice yes you don't want to advertise it but sometimes it is pretty hard. e.g. Dan Bewley clearly wasn't Edinburgh's first choice for 2016 and I don't think either party was unhappy with the result when they got together.

To be fair I would expect the crowning of the world champion to be the main headline in the speedway star no matter what else was happening. Gordon Bennett speedway supporters will moan about anything. We are the most denigrating about the sport we are supposed to love and the worst advertisement. I am sure there will be features on Glasgow and their story in the next few weeks/months.

well done glasgow, you probably just about to deserved to win something this year. What happened to palovarra

The guest system is one of the flaws of speedway, not arguing against that but difficult to find an alternative and you certainly can't just change it for the play offs.

As I said though CB football is the only sport that doesn't use them to decide the champions but they compete to finish in the top 6 meaning a more meaningful games up to the end of the season. In the premiership there is the battle for European spots. In the spfl they have the league split so all sports are trying to bring in measures to make it meaningful. Even in international football they are bringing in the new UEFA nations league to get more competitive matches rather than friendlies I'm not claiming play offs are perfect but anyone who says speedway is a laughing stock because of the play offs doesn't know what they are talking about. It has many problems but play offs isn't one of them.

This is just nonsense play offs are the norm in every sport. In fact football is the only major sport that doesn't use them to decide the champions and it does use them for promotion and has had some unbelievable matches in the play offs. Everyone knows the rules at the start of the season so it is an even playing field. An example is that Edinburgh had to rebuild this season losing 3 key riders after 2 brilliant seasons. They took a chance on 2 novices with the plan that by august/September these guys would be up to speed and we would be competitive in the play offs with a chance of the title. For Dan Bewley this was better than the plan and if he had stayed fit we would have been a lot closer. Let's be honest if there were no play offs 10 team's season would have been over in July with a number of meaningless fixtures, only Somerset, Glasgow and Newcastle were capable of top spot. Play offs meant that 8 or 9 teams were still in with a chance until mid September. I have been lucky enough to be at a number of play off matches and they have been huge crowds, great experiences and atmospheres and the Somerset match where we won with a 5-1 in the last race will rate as one of the top moments in my life forever. Even the season we lost we took 3 buses and over 100 fans to Somerset on a Tuesday or Wednesday night. We had a great night and whilst disappointed wouldn't have missed it. I was planning on going to the semi if we had made it this year but unfortunately we didn't turn up at Ipswich. Good luck to both teams in thr final and may the best team win.

I suspect that it has been doing that already so no real changr. The speedway basically allowed the owners to run the dogs but the suggestion is that they cannot find enough greyhounds to run a meeting now. Shame for them as they have been trying hard to make it work. As Henry states though I think it is only a matter of time but should be OK for at least 1 more season

Whilst it is an incredible low for Edinburgh and a real suckered punch at the end of a terrible season it is not the first speedway match to be abandoned due to a floodlight failure and won't be the last. I can understand folk in attendance being annoyed and feeling ripped off but you could clearly see that every effort was being made to find a solution. I feel really sorry for the track staff that worked their behinds off trying to fix it only to be let down by a temporary light that has worked well all season. And as said above timing was terrible with Scott Wilson not there and Gordon Campbell trying to fix the issue so limited information was forthcoming and as said nothing filled the time. Absolutely gutted about this and I hope the genuine speedway fans understood it was an unfortunate series of events and the club will lose a fortune as a result of this at the worst possible timing. I for one won't be claiming my refund and hope they manage to get something rearranged as a fine on top of that would be un just.

Only difference on Friday was his gating wasn't great. the speed he was building would have been enough to pass most visiting riders but difficult to pass home heat leaders. Ghosted past fisher as if he wasn't there in ht1 and did the same to wolbert in ht13. as shown in ht5 once he was in clear air he equaled fastest time of the season. So whilst he isn't on top form he's not that far away

Well done ipswich. We have looked vulnerable all season but to get your biggest loss in the playoffs is very disappointing, especially in the first match. Would be the comeback of the century if we turn it around but not overly optimistic. now I know how others have felt the last few years. Never say never

Utterly pathetic, the reason you didn't make the playoffs was your home form and had nothing to do with the Edinburgh match. Given cookie and ostergaards score tonight if you had turned up with a full team you would have got closer but still went home with zero points. Blaming monarchs and the bspa is just smoke and mirrors to deflect from a disaster of a season. If the reason Panthers turned up with a below strength team was revenge for the fixture not being run then your promotion have no place in the sport. I enjoyed tonight a couple of good races and always a pleasure watching Craig ride, never really a contest but some confidence boosts for mark and erik. Cookie's interview was class would have him back in a heartbeat but would much prefer he got a decent chance abroad, he just needs a bit of a break.

As Blobby says they can apply for exemptions, they had it for the whole season when they had the dale devils but apart from that i think they have done it twice in the 20 years, the occasion you mention which i think was a disastrous attendance and when sky tv were at the dale.

Bottom line is monarchs have only planning permission for 1 night a week. Race night is Friday and alternate is Saturday. Peterborough apparently offered Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or next Monday. On 2 of those nights the greyhounds so even if they did have permission next Monday would have been most likely and that wouldn't be an attractive option for supporters.They have lost a fortune this year with the 9 rain offs and running on a Monday night would have brought a smaller crowd and another loss they simply cannot afford. Peterborough should have bitten the bullet and raced on Friday, even with a weakened team it would have been better to give yourself a chance than hope others would lose. You never know what might happen on the night as whilst we are improving and unbeaten apart from opening night we have looked far from invincible at home this year. Why is Bjerre missing? if they were allowed a facility giving cookie an extra ride wouldn't be a bad thing. I guess Holub would be missing as well for the U21s Looking like Ipswich are going to pick up the win they need tonight and it does seem unsatisfactory not to complete fixtures but if you pick up riders that are riding on the continent ultimately that is the chances you take.

what by allowing us to race against the team that won at Glasgow? seems a bit backwards Don't need to win on Friday now after captain Sam helped Rye stop Sheffield from getting any points last night. I hope Stead is ok after his fall which was probably just as big a factor to the result. Good to prove the doubters wrong with Monarchs making the play offs with 3 home matches to spare. Arguably the team have still not peaked this season with Clegg and Bewley showing improved signs recently it would be a good time to peak, just need more track time for Mark. Virtually guaranteed 4th or 5th which means if we can win the QF it'll be somerset again in the SF so maybe not a bad thing half their team are missing a warm up match on Friday.

Monarchs are in the play offs, brilliant

they asked all 3 teams to come on Friday and only 1 of them said yes so not sure how they run a double header? As for Saturday half of Peterborough's team (Holub, Bjerre and Thomsen) are in Pardubice so I couldn't see them doing that even if Edinburgh offered it, it's a very strange situation if the Peterborough match does not take place before the cut off then Edinburgh are definitely in the play offs and they seemed to want to race the meeting and Peterborough who desperately need points didn't want to come up. Glasgow are probably assuming Newcastle won't win at Ipswich and are safe in 2nd place without running the last match. I imagine they will be straight on the phone to try and get something arranged if Newcastle do win. From an Edinburgh perspective if Sheffield get nothing tonight then they are in the play offs, so no pressure to arrange anything.