salty

Cynics would say the reason he was left alone was because a) he was given permission by Peterborough making things a wee bit murky legally and any action in the form of a ban would have affected Poole.

Wasn't the worst meeting, despite the conditions causing the track to be very slick. Always enjoy seeing Palm Toft ride and it was also good to see Georgie Wood do well. How anyone could choose to watch West Brom play anti-football over Speedway is beyond me. As for the whole promotion/relegation farce - can it not just be binned for once and for all, certainly whilst doubling up exists. Pretty sure when the concept was introduced the time before, Terry Russell said the sport needed p/r to give it "credibility". How ironic.

No problem with the BSPA finally dealing with this issue, as long as they do it across the board and consistently. As far as I'm aware the Management Committee have invoked this rule which opens the thorny problem of vested interests.....

As a Cradley fan of a certain vintage there is no doubt who my favourite Swede was. Our Bernie. His arrival at Dudley Wood coincided with my first full season following the Heathens and to my 7 year old eyes Bernie could do no wrong. His first 5 years cemented his position as my hero as he carried the Heathens flag against the other top riders of that era, for a team who were generally near the bottom of the table. Who can forget Wembley 1972 where he so nearly won the ultimate prize. Ok so he was lucky that Olsen fell when they met and we'll gloss over the coming together with Briggo, but he had two bites of the cherry against Ivan to win the thing. Ultimately, the Kiwi maestro outwitted him twice at he gates but I'll never forget the roar as Bernie nearly pulled level coming off the second bend on the last lap. Even so we basked in the glory of his silver medal and the fact he finished ahead of the dreaded Olsen from down the road. Bernie's Heathens career may have finished with a growing plethora of missed meetings but for those of us who saw him in the early '70's he always makes any all time Heathens 1-7's regardless of the World Champions who followed. Of the other Swedes in that era who rode elsewhere the one who made the most lasting impression was Christer Lofqvist. I can't have seen him ride too often but he was so exciting to watch. Of the later crowd I thought Jan Andersson was a class act. He always appeared so introverted which was kind of refreshing compared to the self confidence of the Carter's, Penhall's and their ilk. Not to mention his loyalty to Reading and the veritable points machine that he became. Lesser known Swedes: Lars Hultberg - Bernie's protege in 1973 who looked like he was going to settle and score good points when injury finished his season and ultimately his British career. Anders Eriksson at Wimbledon looked like he could develop to something good but failed to build on his initial promise and fell foul of the points requirement to get work permit. Eastbourne's trio of Swedes in 1982 - Hammarberg, Ring and Johansson none of whom could score the points to back up the strong top half of their team.

I'm going for less than "just what the doctor ordered". He must have used that one in practically every heat on Saturday nght.

Unfortunate for Wolves with the injuries to Freddie and Jacob and hard to take that they so nearly covered for their absence. But I'm glad that the team that topped the table won the league.

But there's already fresh (ish) blood in for 2018 with Pawlicki, Laguta and Cook. A lot depends on what happens in the next 2 rounds but if Vaculik were to increase the distance between himself and Holder whilst remaining in 9th it would be a tough call to favour the Aussie over him. I fear Norbold is right, but the Monster sponsorship should not be a consideration. As it stands I would go Vaculik, NKI, Hancock and Holder with hopefully no push for a second Dane or Swede to muddy the waters.

Would have been funny if Poole had got two 5-1's in the last two and then hear Pearson mystified about the lack of golden heats!

Er no. Watch again he was rolling. 4 out of 4.Pearson not knowing the score - awfully unprofessional.

No he wasn't, he only rode for one full season. In that season his average dropped by at least a couple of points.

Medical certificate produced. Case dismissed.

Some exciting stuff up until halfway, but the second half of the meeting less so. Have to say it was exciting not because the track is good, but quite the opposite. With the racing line so wide you worry that one day somebody is going to have a really bad smash.

Couldn't give a fiddlers who won this until I came on here and saw Gater chappy having a strop about Newman guesting. Loving watching Kyle shove it up 'em. Holder coming across badly. Gesturing at the cameraman after his fall and then looking like a grumpy monkey after his win.

Could Kyle have replaced Starke? If so I'm surprised Ford didn't go for it, particularly considering how well Kyle has done in the play-off's over the past few years. The thing is, despite the end of July cut-off to stop teams being strengthened one thing you can't stop is the old injury/illness scam.

Some great names on that page... Robert Millar (as was) fantastic cycllst at 12.30. Keith Huewen in his racing days at 3.15 Alex Arguello, Aaron Pryor (fight 2) and Hit-Man Hearns at 4.00. Not to mention the St Leger at 3.05 (Sun Princess won for Willie Carson if I recall) John Noakes presenting Good Morning Britain at 6.25 - can't recall him doing that - but it was hardly a programme I watched.

Made a terrific start, but the gate positions are playing too much a of a part in this.

Explains it perfectly.

You say South East - I say East. All these suburbs named after it, yet the Bourne is nowt but a wee dribble.

Agreed. But you miss my point. Your argument was that Westbourne was so named as it was West Bournemouth. I was merely pointing out that Southbourne (being to the East of Bournemouth) was wrongly named.

So why is Southbourne the other side of Boscombe then? Makes no sense. (Not to mention where Eastbourne is) Having said that I agree Westbourne is part of Bournemouth - and from what I remember a very nice part.

100% agree. However, he has qualified by his average, so it would require some sort of move by the BSPA or SCB to stop him riding. Might be that the impending (or so we believe) disciplinary meeting regarding the promoter will impact on Holder, but it seems that the promoter is going to be the one to carry the can for this episode. Personally, I feel a 28 day ban should have been imposed regardless of his promoters consent, though I believe that the doubling up situation may have a part to play in preventing this. Wouldn't be surprised to see a tightening up of the rules in future to prevent a repeat.

Given the problems his riding for Torun have caused the club it would have been an appropriate gesture to have got back for today's meeting, But if there's a facility then I suppose you expect it to be used.

Ta for responding. I guessed it was that but when I saw Bewley was due to have ridden prior to his injury I wasn't sure.

Where was Jack Holder tonight?

As a Heathen I guess my favourite Kiwi has to be Bruce Cribb, who rode for us for 6 seasons through most of the 70's and continued in the National League in the 80's - not forgetting his Ice Racing exploits. Won the title with Poole in 1969 along with fellow Frank Shuter, who deserves special mention for his feat of winning 3 titles with 3 separate clubs (albeit 2 in the pre-Backtrack era). Wayne Brown was another rider who having made the jump up to the British League with Sheffield in 1982 had achieved a very respectable average.Never returned to the UK to ride as he stayed at home to set up his own business I believe, so we'll never know what he could have achieved before his untimely passing in the early 90's. One rider who I believe was a Kiwi not mentioned so far - Mark Lyndon who rode for Wimbledon and Rye House in the late 80's.