BWitcher

You have to understand Sidney. He doesn't base how good a rider is by how many races they win. He can just tell. He could watch 4 riders race 50 times.. but the results of those races wouldn't influence him in the slightest. Never mind if Rider 1 ends up with an 11pt average at the end of it.. FORGET AVERAGES he likes to say, they're meaningless. Rider 4 who averaged 0.50 is better. I think the speedway rules have been devised by muppets personally. The team scoring the most pts winning matches..FORGET THE PTS! Let's have Sidney judge each race and award style pts to who he thinks is best.

Well there is one...

Of course top 5's are a different issue altogether.

Phil Crump returned in 1990. Some reserves were literally half a lap behind in those days. You had riders such as Bryan Larner, Phil Disney, Max Schofield, Mike Lewthwaite, Andy Meredith, Lee Coleman, Mark Robinson, David Haynes, John Bostin, Paul Dugard, Nathan Murray, David Steen to give a few examples. They weren't quality and far far lower than current reserves are.

Why not? That's his wife, married not long ago. Good to see them doing something that clearly means a lot to them.. and enjoying life.

Fair play, many would dream of making such a video with their loved one. Great memories for them to look back on. I hardly think they were expecting 'critical acclaim'. In a world full of doom and gloom and negativity, nice to see something positive.

Indeed, I was surprised at that given the posts on this forum. That does make it all the more positive for Ipswich I believe and it isn't just a 'working holiday' so to speak.

The reserves back then weren't quality at all.

Did he mention a time? He said a stopped clock.

If he has stayed active and been on a bike regularly I think he will be fine. Sam Ermolenko stayed fairly active and in a few meetings here and there, years after retirement, showed he was still competitive, mixing it with Lindgren and beating Darcy Ward in one race. He was much older, far more battered through injuries etc than Crump. As said, as long as he gets some decent equipment together I think he'll go well enough to maintain his average at least.

Good, glad you are offended. It's offensive you should use the name of Danny Ayres for such a selfish post.

Don't talk such absolute BS. Are you suggesting people are incapable of doing two things? A very sad post from a Hancock hater. His retirement had absolutely zero impact on any celebration of Danny Ayres life or any respects paid to him. And no, I'm far from a Hancock fan boy given he is, was and always will be a Spoon

Steve Rees states he'd prefer shale in the article.

Try reading the post again.

Who isn't behind it? For what it's worth I still think they'll reach the playoffs too.

It's not a question of what if's.. it's a case of building the strongest side you can within the limits, the stronger you are, the more chance of dealing with the 'what ifs' that will crop up. With a side built to the limit you can cope with a 'What if' going wrong, if a few of the other 'What ifs go right'. With one built two pts short, it only needs a 'what if' going wrong and you're in trouble already.

Forget averages when building a side to a limit dictated by averages? What is wrong with it is that it could have been 2pts stronger. Or if you want to forget averages.. it could have been a stronger team, significantly so. You don't have to be an expert, you don't have to even have knowledge of speedway to understand. Its very simple maths. It's not an opinion either, so there is no case of saying 'I don't agree'. It is a factual situation. Next you'll be telling us it doesn't matter if you lose a match by 2pts.. it's the same as winning.

I've seen some ridiculous comments on here.. but this one is up there.

Wow, that's shocking. RIP

Which again shows what a ridiculous decision it was. They had the opportunity to track a team that would dominate.. and bring in the crowds as a result.

Don't go ruining the 'excuse'!

I already have. Are you seriously claiming Man Utd is the ONLY club who have sellout crowds every match? I haven't been rude. Simply corrected you. If you want to act the fool and continue to perpetuate your made up nonsense, go ahead.

And I've told you that Wolves, Norwich, West Ham, Man Utd, Liverpool, Brighton, Leicester, Chelsea, Aston Villa, Man City, Tottenham and Everton have all sold out for every home match. Crystal Palace have sold out for most of theirs, Watford for most of theirs. The other teams have all sold out for many of their games. So just taking the 14 that sell out every game, thats approx 14 x 8.. gives you 112 matches.. you've got quite a few fingers there. Your statement was utterly wrong, accept it and move on.

100%!

He was a 4.00 average. Never ever going to be a 6.00. The bigger picture was very simple. The promotion tried to make it look like we were going to sign a number one in an effort to sell a few more season tickets. There was never ever any possibility of Lindgren, Woffinden or Hancock coming, but following the signing of Pedersen they needed to make it look like they'd tried. It then came down to cost, the cheapest possible option with an eye for the 'future'. You can always make signings for the future, indeed the promotion have done that multiple times over the past 30 years or so... however they have also NEVER started the season over 2pts below the points limit. That is utterly, utterly inane and there isn't ONE plausible argument that can defend it.