BWitcher

Yeah damn him. I was watching Ryder cup earlier, damn those commentators mentioning the overall score. Indeed, even worse they had it on the screen. Of course he should be mentioning it and keeping folk up to date. Not everyone sits and watches the whole meeting, some will tune in and may be intrigued there is a close battle.

Irrelevant.

Darcy would like him. Drug dealers are top blokes, that's for sure.

Except it already does work.

Tommy is right Steve. There was a subsequent post later in the season indicating that Michelsen had commented he wouldn't have fitted with the Wolves management... or words similar.

It was quite clearly stated that if Tai chooses to ride in the UK it would be for Wolves.

Keep trying, still nothing to indicate he wasn't trying. Indeed the report states that both Tai and the management couldn't put the finger on why he was struggling. Maybe he preferred missing the gate, and risking injury trying to pass people.

Nothing that was said suggested that at all.

No. Poole have finished top of the league, regardless of finishing strongly. Over a 32 match season they have finished above Kings Lynn.

Correct.. but no doubt most will just moan!

Perhaps he hasn't brought them back from Lonigo yet... and he's on GP engines tonight?

Fair play to Max Clegg. He realised he'd touched the tapes, so gave Payne a 15 metre start, then caught him up and passed him.

If they were polish riders and they missed their meeting in Poland for a British one, they would get a ban. So no, nothing to do with 'we are british and more deserving'. Simply, we are deserving of the same rules. Not second fiddle. Equal footing. However, it appears that you are suggesting we should play second fiddle.

The sport is speedway. Riders get injured. They always have and they always will. I doubt there was ever a World Final where someone, somewhere in one of the rounds didn't have to pull out due to injury allowing someone else who wouldn't normally qualify to do so.

But it wasn't, so its irrelevant. Besides, you don't know if he would have been champion or not.

As per normal, you don't like it when you're shown up to be wrong. Here's a post from the meeting thread.... Brummie Kev, on 23 Sept 2013 - 11:49 PM, said: It was so good to see a huge crowd like that at Monnmore, I got there about 6.40pm and all the roads were packed, had to park right down the bottom of Hickman Avenue. Walked up to the turnstiles and the queue was only through to the overspill carpark . Its great for the sport to see crowds like that, so many Brummies fans and a great atmosphere.

To be fair, he could tootle around at the back before giving up on lap 3, and wipe the floor with Lindgren at his best in the same meeting. Granted, there was more of the former. All about attitude with KK I think. Not a rider I would want in my team and completely agree.. would not be a rider I'd want as World Champion for the sport!

Oh dear, a discussion about speedway on a speedway forum. Terrible. I accept that its not entirely Kings Lynn related, although as they are both in the playoffs and may finish top it is connected.

Your theory, as you have explained it, is that crowds are lower at meaningless matches and you've joyously highlighted a couple of end of season matches to back up your claim. However as has been pointed out to you, there are FAR more meaningless fixtures under a straight league system than a play off system. Thus, there is not even a need for 'pokc sycophants' ,as you delight in calling folk who disagree with you, to provide 'attendance figures' as you have debunked your own theory. The second part of your 'theory' is that crowds are decling due to the playoffs, which again, can easily be shown to be incorrect due to the declining crowds for the 20 years prior to playoffs being introduced. As E I Addio has correctly pointed out, playoffs work successfully in other countries and in other sports. All of this evidence points to the fact that the problems within the sport are not play off related but caused by other factors. Factors that existed before the playoffs were introduced and have continued and worsened since. Lastly, once again you've thrown something into your argument that isn't correct, namely your assertion that the 'crowds' for last years semi finals weren't any bigger than normal league meetings. You are wrong. I was at Wolverhampton v Birmingham and the crowd was a large one, far above that of a league meeting.

You're hilarious. You even defeat your own argument. By your fact that meaningless meetings produce smaller crowds, there are far more meaningless meetings in a system with no playoffs than there are with. That is a FACT. So thanks for proving yourself wrong. You're quoting a few end of season meets, I can give you fixtures involving Eastbourne, Lakeside, Swindon, Wolverhampton for much of the season. All clubs who would have known very early on they had no chance of winning the league, rendering the rest of their season 'meaningless' but had something to race for for much of the season. Once it was apparent Wolves weren't going to make the play-offs and they had nothing to race for, their crowds tumbled. As for Belle Vue, thanks for confirming what I already knew.. they had a decent team, thus the fans were interested. They remained interested until the team could no longer realistically make the playoffs and then the crowds plummeted. With no playoffs it would have been apparent by end of April they had no chance of winning the league and the crowds would have dropped off even quicker. It's a shame though, that with these alleged increased crowds, all this excitement that they don't pay their riders....

A team following the rules!

No facts there, just a load of waffle. I haven't missed any 'point' as there wasn't one. Just you concocting some wild theory to try and suit your argument. You have NO idea what the net position is down to the playoffs. Absolutely none. Just your own opinion. However these are facts. Speedways attendances were declining long before playoffs were introduced. Speedways attendances continued to decline after the playoffs were introduced. The other major speedway countries have play off systems. They, particularly Poland, are able to attract good crowds all season long. As you do every year you dig yourself a deeper and deeper hole, get more and more desperate and provide us with some jolly good amusement. Before I go though, you told us another thread that crowds are up at Belle Vue this season? How's that happened then?

Only speedway fans... Complain about riders taking the piss, picking and choosing meetings and clubs let them get away with it. Clubs take a stand... complain again its not right.

Birmingham fans realised early on their team was poor and wasn't even going to challenge for the play-offs. According to you, they'd have been more likely to show up with the even more remote possibility they would challenge for the league. Your logic is completely flawed, it doesn't matter how many times you say it. Speedway attendances are down for many reasons, the sport lost a hell of a lot more fans BEFORE the play-offs were introduced than after, so to blame it for the decline is ludicrous. One thing you can say is it hasn't reversed the decline. Your argument is also totally flawed as other countries run playoffs and don't suffer attendance issues. The question to be asked is, what do they do differently to us.. it's not play offs so the answer lies elsewhere.

Drop a Cog always digs up the 1993 Wolves V Belle Vue clash.. He reminds us what a great crowd it was, fantastic atmosphere and so nerve wracking as both sets of fans knew the league title would be decided that night. However, what he fails to realise is, he's simply promoting the virtue of the playoffs.. as rather than experience such an occasion every 20 years or so... we can now enjoy it every single season in the play off final. 1996 Wolves won the league, I went to every single meeting home and away.. it was a brilliant season. However the night we clinched the league, it was something of a let down, sure we celebrated, we enjoyed it, but it was missing any form of tension. The play off wins in 2002 and 2009 were a completely different feeling and the excitement and tension on those nights was comparable to the 1993 Wolves/Belle Vue clash. I do see his overall point in that when you have seasons such as this one, where the race to finish 1st is going down to the wire, under the old system you WOULD have had bigger crowds for those matches on the run-in. Nowhere near the Wolves/Belle Vue crowd however which was unique as the two teams clashed in the final meeting. It's balanced by Orion quite correctly pointing out that the playoffs keep the season alive for other teams for much longer. As for blaming the playoffs for declining crowds, that doesn't tally up as the crowds were declining before the play offs came along. There are far bigger reasons for the sports decline... one of them being stadia. Hopefully the new Belle Vue stadium can help arrest that decline in Manchester.