John Leslie

How can he do 16 hours work between 7.30pm and 9.30pm? Someone working 16 hours is more than just "racenight staff" which is what we're talking about.

You can look at it that way. The same as if the player who should have got the second booking goes on to score the winning goal. That's the impossible choice the referee has to make. Do you stick rigidly to the rules and exclude Morris/send the player off, and risk ruining the climax of meeting/match, or do you give the benefit of the doubt and allow all 4 back/allow the footballer to stay on, and run the risk of Morris/the offending footballer becoming a controversial match winner.

Wonder if the weather has improved since he's been able to post photos on a weather forecaster's forum?

Actually there's been quite a few instances in the World Cup where a player has been on a yellow card and committed a second bookable offence, and the referee has chosen not to book him because to do so would mean having to harshly send him off. The commentators usually say "that would be a booking but the referee has applied common sense to avoid a harsh sending off". McGregor made the right decision under normal circumstances, but in the situation of a 4,3,2,0 scoring system he perhaps should have applied commonsense to avoid spoiling the climax in the same way that a football referee will apply commonsense to avoid a game changing harsh sending off.

Programme production isn't a racenight job...(at least I hope no one cuts it that fine with a printing press in the speedway office), of course programme production has to be paid for. Ink and paper doesn't come free. But a presenter and gate staff??? They should be doing it for the free admission, a free programme and maybe an interval brew. They certainly shouldn't be getting paid. I even know of a top football club where Stewards aren't paid. They do it for the free admission...and there's a waiting list for the job!

"Key race-night staff taking a reduction, but some have declined"? Apart from a doctor/paramedic, and maybe a track curator working hours before the meeting, I don't understand what "key race-night staff" need to be paid. Surely all track staff/track officials should be just doing it for nothing more than a free admission? I've done plenty of racenight jobs at various tracks, but never asked or expected to be paid.

In a normal meeting the referee made the right decision. Morris was ridden out of it and beaten, so he decided to put the bike down and hope for another go with all four back... ...But considering the fact that an exclusion for anyone ends the meeting, the common-sense decision in this meeting would be all 4 back, even if the technically correct decision was to exclude Morris. Daft comment from Tatum before the final "It's good to see it come down to a last heat decider"....What other finish can you have in the pairs? I predict tomorrow's GP will also go to a last heat decider.

Nicki Pedersen and the safety fence. No one has ever managed a successful pass between those two.

These type of "best of all time" questions are always pretty much impossible to answer. How do you compare one era with another? People will be swayed by those they saw the most, or those who rode for their local club. Nostalgia or fading memories make it hard to compare riders from decades apart... ...but in this case, it's easy. Best pairing ever? Without a doubt - Peter Collins and Chris Morton.

Can you imagine the outcry on this forum if someone bought a season ticket in the middle of the grandstand by the starting gate and turned up the next week to find the start line had been moved 40 yards back to near the 4th bend? Would you also have the referees box on some kind of pulley system to line it up with the ever moving start line?

Ben Hopwood to be dropped? Who could replace him? Brendan Johnson is a Poole lad

Yes. The grading list. Has to be someone below Newman in the list, and not someone who guested at BV last week. Paul Starke or Josh Bates probably the best option.

Can't be Charles Wright. 17.7.5 A Rider may ride as a Guest (in an Official Meeting) at a Track only once in an 8-day period unless he is replacing the Home Teams #1or is a NL Rider guesting for the Home Team . Unless Poole are using their own rulebook.

So are they the same or different? What a daft thread!

With all due respect, the above proves you haven't a clue what you're talking about. Trelawny was a superb racing track with loads of racing lines. It was nothing like Plymouth which is a small, tight track and not one of my favourites at all. Buxton too small and narrow? It's one of the widest tracks there is. It's great for less experienced riders as fallers rarely hit the fence due to the track being so wide. Somerset is one of the best tracks in the country. As for Swedish and Polish tracks being far better, that's nonsense. Swedish tracks are quite similar to ours. Polish tracks on the whole tend to be bigger and faster, but not necessarily better.

They're having an astroturf centre green, so they couldn't copy Peterborough due to there being no grass to take a short cut over. I've spoken to Chris Morton a couple of times about their new stadium, and each time his main talking point has been ensuring the best possible track is the no.1 priority. And I think he knows a bit about the best racing tracks.

garden earned cash.......some people think it grows on trees! Think it's over £6.5M turnover or £3.25M assets to need an audit now

I wouldn't have thought any Speedway club was anywhere near the size of company that needs to have audited accounts. But they still have to file accounts, the same as any other small business, and yes, I've seen plenty. They're in the public domain at Companies House.

Which dwarf are you then? I could guess! Honest, the track is not 4 handlebar-widths wide. It was a Joke!!!!

To almost all Speedway promotions the VAT quarter is usually a welcome cash injection, not a bill

You do realise that the guy who said the track would be the width of 4 handlebars (about 12 ft) and narrower on the bends, was having a joke?

A newcomer buys a club, falls out with people, gets rid of experienced speedway administrators, alienates sections of the supporter-base, then puts his son in charge as promoter........nope, that's never gone wrong before has it? At least the GRA own the stadium, so the grandstand shouldn't burn down. Wish Tony Mole had been able to buy it and sort the club out properly. I really feel for the Birmingham supporters, especially Brian Buck, and all the riders and other staff. Let's hope the season can be rescued and Birmingham can survive the year and have a proper sort out for 2015.

Birmingham Brummies Ltd What I find strange is that the budget at the start of the season must have included decent salaries for Graham and Denise Drury which have not actually had to be paid. Also with all due respect, I suspect Jack Lee is not as expensive as Phil Morris as a team manager. And yet despite these cost savings, they've gone ** up. What would have happened if they hadn't fallen out with Morris and the Drurys, and had to pay these extra salaries? Would Birmingham have gone bust sooner? Or were the Drurys doing something right, which has been done horribly wrong in their absence?

Both. It will be a 6,000 capacity Elite League standard stadium for Elite League meetings, but capacity will be increased for World events. The track of course will meet FIM regulations. woooosh!

Why do people trot out this nonsense? I'll tell you what's wrong with Premier League football... Messi, Ronaldo, Iniesta, Ribery, Xavi, Ibrahamovic, Robben, Neymar, Benzema...We don't see these top stars of world football in the English Premier League. Yet nigh on 80,000 turn up at Old Trafford to watch Cleverley, Carrick, Kagawa etc.