Aces51

Garrity is another rider wasting his natural talent. He could be so much better than he is. It's such a shame. I hope he doesn't look back on his career in due course and think what might have been.

Josh G would have a converted average of at least 10.93 and Klindt 11.14 in the CL , that shows you the difference in standard of the two leagues.

I'm not against the idea in principle and sympathise. Last year BelleVue won nothing but still had to lose riders to fit within the points limit. However, on a practical level there are not sufficient riders available to enable all teams to build to 46+ points. Teams had difficulties finding suitable replacements this year because many foreign riders don't want to ride here and because the talent pool in the CL of riders of PL standard, let alone PL no.1 or even heat leader standard, had largely been used up. Most of us want to see more teams in the PL and raising the team limit by almost 4 points will make that very difficult if not impossible. In the current situation I would rather see more teams than an increased team limit that some teams might find impossible to achieve.

We all are aware of the credibility issues in speedway. The way in which rules are ignored, interpreted differently in similar situations, brought in without understanding fully the implications and then ignored or revoked etc. We all want to see the support run professionally with sensible rules applied consistently and impartially. We can see that the way that the sport is run devalues the credibility of the competitions but I do not for one minute accept that winning the play offs or even the cup is regarded by most on the terraces as worthless. I doubt there are any Swindon supporters saying this morning that their victory is worth nothing or Ipswich supporters who weren't bothered whether they won or lost. At the beginning of every season we all discuss and comment on the strengths and weaknesses of the teams. Why? Because we all want our team to win the trophies. With regard to the argument that you see basically the same riders in the CL as in the PL there can be no dispute that team strengths in the CL are significantly lower. In the PL teams have riders who do not race in the CL, Doyle, Fricke, Holder, Lambert etc., often 3 other riders who are CL no. 1's, a CL heat leader and CL second strings at reserve. The odds are that any team built to CL standards would languish adrift at the bottom of the PL.

Remember the 1.5, or is it 1.6 next year, multiplier to convert PL averages to CL for riders without a current CL average. Richie Worrall could be a ready made CL no.1 for you.

We don't know how many responses the club received so how meaningful the result is. If 70% is a true reflection off those who will attend CL meetings and the poll in the Echo may confirm that to be so, then to what extent will a 30% drop in crowd numbers, maybe paying less to get in, eat into the hoped for 25% cut in running costs?

It will be a shame if Poole do drop down. I hope they don't. They are the most successful club of recent times and because of that they do tend to attract more fans when they travel. However, the reality is that, if the PL continues, whichever team turns out to be the most successful will replace them as the team the fans will turn out in greater numbers to see when they visit. Costs may be 25% cheaper in the CL but the risk is that crowd numbers and sponsorship money may also drop and any savings may be minimised or non existent. I suspect that for many clubs life in the CL is as financially precarious as it is in the PL. I also don't buy the argument that it is basically the same riders in both leagues, if that is intended to suggest that there is no significant difference in standards. Generally, most PL teams consist of at least 4 riders who are of CL number 1 standard or better, a fifth who is of CL heat leader standard and reserves who are of CL second string standard. CL teams have a number 1who may be of PL heat leader standard, other heat leaders who are of PL second string standard, second strings who are of PL reserve standard and reserves who are NL standard.

I think I'd rather grin and Bjerre it as it is.

I'm not too sure that the Polish top flight will be beckoning after Klindt's performance in Poland today.

Not the usual standard of racing at Rybnik but I thought Dan Bewley did ok. On the pace and 5 points from the the last two races in which he started. Not a bad return in that company and better than some of his more experienced team mates.

The times for the first leg of the play offs at the NSS were generally 63 to 65 seconds. The fastest times for Colts meeting this year were generally 61 to 63 seconds, most meetings fall between those times. At best or worst, depending on how you view it, the times for the Kent meeting were a couple of seconds slower than the fastest times. The Kent meeting at the NSS didn't produce good racing but the track was nowhere near as wet as the video of heat 12 at Kent shows and the heavy rain seen in that video means that the track could only have been even wetter for the subsequent heats. The times for the second leg were generally in the 62 to 65 seconds range against the typical 57 to 59 seconds Typically about 5 seconds slower, which in speedway terms is a huge difference and which can only be related to the state of the track. My point is that speedway does itself no favours running important meetings in those type of conditions. Teams hope and expect to attract casual and new supporters to play off meetings. Witnessing races like heat 12 is unlikely to encourage them to come back. Teams used to race over 30 home meetings in a season but somehow can't now manage to organise less than half that number and get them into a season that should aim to have everything done and dusted by the end of September. October could then be held in reserve just in case of bad weather in September. As I said previously, none of this takes anything away from Kent. Whatever the conditions and whatever the rights and wrongs of running the meeting, that was down to the referee. Both teams got on with it, because there was no other choice and Kent deserved their victory.

The Colts lost, no complaints from me, the referee in his wisdom decided it was safe to continue and so that's it, the result stands and well done to Kent on getting to the final. However, if the video of heat 12 is typical of the conditions, watch it to the end and see the shots of the rain falling, then the conditions were not, as some claim, the same as the first leg, they were much worse. Riders in the first leg could race, not just ride round and the times were comparable to most of the NL meetings at the NSS not 4 to 7 seconds slower. The video clearly shows riders riding comparatively slowly and struggling to get round. As they say, it's speedway but not as we know it.

An entertaining and close meeting. The rain during the last few days meant that the track was wet and greasy, which affected the quality of the racing in the early heats. Despite that, both teams dealt well with the conditions and there was some good racing as the dirt moved out and the track dried. Both sides gave 100% and the meeting was finished in less than 90 minutes. Kemp was, as always, impressive at the NSS, Rowe is another who looks to have a good future in the sport and Ledwith had a good night and showed his track craft and experience when keeping the faster Flint at bay in heat 7. The Colts produced a solid team performance. Bickley, Palin and Bailey were perhaps expected to score more than they did but you couldn't fault their efforts. The conditions in the early heats denied them the opportunities to make their usual passing manoeuvres. Will 4 points be enough? I don't know but I think that the second leg will be just as close and that the overall result can still go either way.

If that is what a fair and sensible conversion formula produced then that wouldn't be a problem. However, I suspect that such a fair and sensible conversion factor would convert his Torun race average of 1.677 to around a UK 6.

The standard of riders in the PL has dropped year on year for many years. Generally, the average of riders returning after being absent for a number of years should be increased, not reduced because their average was attained when the standard was higher. However, as I have said many times, the most sensible way is to give them an average based on their average in whichever foreign league(s) they have most recently ridden. It would be easy to devise a formula to convert averages for each foreign league to an assessed PL average. That would, overnight, do away with those who come here when relatively inexperienced, don't ride here for a few years, improve significantly and then return on their original low average and cater for those who have not ridden here for a few years but are on a downward spiral in the twilight of their careers and realistically, wouldn't achieve their past PL average.

It's now on Twitter and facebook. Postponed until tomorrow.

I think we all realise that but many of the comments and certainly those to which I was referring, relate to that change in the sentence. Many claim it to be an unjustified change but have no idea of the arguments, mitigation or evidence that were put forward to the tribunal. That makes it impossible for any of us to make an informed judgement on whether the reduced sentence is appropriate.

Nobody on here knows the grounds of appeal, nobody knows the evidence that was adduced and yet lots of people feel qualified to express opinions about the result. Ignorance is never a good foundation on which to base an opinion.

You're probably thinking of Maurice "Slant" Payling. He rode for the Aces in the late 50's early 60's.

You have to feel for Poole. Week after week we're told about the brilliant racing and how smooth the track is and then the TV cameras arrive and again it's bumpy, follow the leader, dross. How unlucky can you get.

There were fans calling for a couple of the team to be replaced but very few were questioning keeping Lidsey, most could see his obvious talent. I don't expect us to win on Thursday but hopefully we can improve on our previous performances at the new track. Fricke has said he wants to be back next year. Bewley is now getting over his serious injuries and showing again how good he can be and is on an attractive average. Lidsey is only going to improve and Bjerre seems to have good seasons when he's at the NSS. If we can keep those 4 we should have a good start to team building for 2020.

I wasn't happy about the Bjerre situation last night but I don't think that any rules were broken. Bjerre said on Twitter on Wednesday night that he had crashed in his last 2 races in Denmark and published on Instagram the photograph of him coming off the back of his bike. I have no doubt that he would have suffered injury as a result. On Thursday his flight was delayed by more than 2 and a half hours meaning he would miss the meeting. The were therefore two reasons for his absence and unsurprisingly Belle Vue decided to use the injury, which gave them the better facility of r/r. It was bending the rules but not in the way some have done to get in a better rider. We were weaker without him. The rule book needs to be rewritten but it isn't easy to legislate sensibly for every eventuality. The persistent rain meant that the racing was processional in the first half of the meeting but improved as the track dried out with some very good races. I didn't expect us to win by 8 without Bjerre but doubt it will be enough. Bewley and Lidsey were impressive as was Musielak who fought hard for his points.

Craig's ban has been rescinded and a financial penalty imposed. https://www.scbgb.co.uk/news.php?extend.89.1

Good to see that Craig's ban has been rescinded and a financial penalty imposed. https://www.scbgb.co.uk/news.php?extend.89.1

Jensen has been an excellent signing but maybe less attractive next year on his current average of 7.70.