John Leslie

You don't make any sense. Pub football teams may still be unincorporated clubs and associations, but the league teams (and Cricket & Rugby teams) are all Limited Companies (and in some cases Plcs) just the same as Speedway teams.

I'm not so sure.

What odds on switching to the new stadium for the play-offs? They seem to be really going for it with team building this year, so if they were to reach the play-offs, what better way to enure opening the new stadium to a capacity crowd than to open with a play-off semi? Of course the downside would be no home track advantage

Plus the fact that the TR is now restricted from heat 5-12 makes it even harder to get to use the second TR unless a team is getting well beaten and/or the first TR has failed.

I agree. Have you emailed the BSPA offices to tell them?

A lot of fans have contributed very generously to the Ricky Ashworth fund, but I'd rather contribute to any number of Air fence funds than every have to contribute to another Ricky Ashworth fund again. (And yes, I'm aware that Ricky's was a freak accident at a track that had an airfence, but it doesn't alter the fact that airfences aid safety, and if every track having an airfence saves just one Ricky type accident, then let's get the money raised and the fences installed)

Not sure about a dying Industry. I think at the time they sponsored speedway local government were introducing smokeless zones all over the country, and they were the leaders in the supply of smokeless fuels. Far from a dying industry they seem to have grown in the 20 odd years since they last sponsored speedway with CPL holdings now having turnover in the region of £150M and profits of £15M+

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Richard Branson was going to be the sponsor. It was going to be the Virgin Elite League.....but with Matt Ford around it was only a matter of time until there was a cock up.

Or maybe he's hoping to piss Lee Smart off?

Ford thinking he's bigger than the sport again. But don't worry. He won't get fined.

Sounds like Matt Ford is already thinking how he can fiddle the reserve berths and dump Lee Smart. ...Robert Lambert in? From Bournemouth Echo. "However, Ford revealed the makeup of Poole's tail end could yet change, depending on Smart's availability. Ford added: 'I have yet to speak to Lee and we need to discuss the balance of his commitments. The reserve system is new to everybody and there might be some teething problems. There are one or two riders still about so we will see what the next few weeks bring.'"

It's true. Almost all sport can be watched and appreciated at spectator level with just basic knowledge of the rules. However if you want to go into the rules in depth, you'll find all sports have all manner of complexities that would be hard to explain. Who fully understands the rules of cricket? LBW isn't simple for a newcomer, and who knows the full definition of all 11 ways of being out? What exactly constitutes "hit the ball twice" or "handled the ball"? And cricket is quite simple compared to other sports. Even professional football commentators argue about Offside, which offences require a red card, when a penalty should be given etc. Formula 1 Motor Racing has a massive rule book which no one fully understands and is forever changing and easily puts Speedway's meagre rulebook to shame. But my award for the simplest sport with most complicated rules has to go to Golf. Just for one example, suppose you hit a ball and it lands by some kind of hazard. Look at all the complex rules that dictate whether you can move the hazard, or move the ball, and then how far do you move the ball? One club length? Two club lengths? In which direction? and how long is a club length? (I believe the answer to that last part is "nobody knows").

And after he got back from St James's Park, he'd still never seen football

I threw in the translation free of charge. That's why I also put "15" instead of "quinze"

They only work on continental electricity, but there's this Chinese kid down by Nelson Mandela House who's a whizz with electronics, and Terry the Tan can get him to convert it for £20.

Surely the job of a rider is to go out and win races/score points. There's enough to think about whilst hurtling round at 70mph, without adding the score up as you go. Keeping score is the manager's job, and if he needs the rider to know the score for tactical purposes, he'll make sure he knows. Are you suggesting that you don't want to a rider trying to win? You'd be happy to watch him trundle round at the back, because he's filled in his programme neatly and knows his team are winning comfortably?

Nobody is a promoter at Kent. NL teams don't have a promoter. They have two club co-chairmen, and then, I think, the NL as a whole is affiliated to the BSPA, rather than each individual club.

Blame the French! The story as I understand it is that the French used to score using a clock face, with the hands moving a quarter of the way to 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, and the game won when the hand gets back to o'clock. Then they decided to introduce "deuce" so that a player had to win by 2 points. So they moved 45 back to 40, and introduced a 50 minute mark for the advantage. Back to the original topic. Denis Compton played Cricket for both Middlesex and the MCC and football for Arsenal. Manchester United defender Arnold Sidebottom played cricket for both Yorkshire and the Orange Free State Ian Botham played cricket for Somerset and football for Scunthorpe. AP McCoy won 4,000 horse races, but they were different horses and belonged to different owners and different trainers!

Still wrong! Think you're trying to say that the guy who wins most points can still lose a set, and the guy who wins most games can still lose the match.

A friend asked if I knew a plumber who could look at his boiler. I said "Why don't you try Bob from down the road, he always does any plumbing I need". He said "Isn't that a bit silly? After all he's your plumber. Wouldn't it appear ludicrous if he's working for you and then doing another job for me in a different street" I said "No. Working for me on a Monday shouldn't stop him doing an entirely unrelated job for you on Tuesday. He's just a self employed contractor and they're his own tools" He said "Yes. you're right" He said "I'm glad we've had this conversation" I said "Ah, but have we really had this conversation? Or is it in your mind?" He said "What do you mean?" I said "Well, I've heard that sometimes that people make up pretend conversations, just to post on the internet to try to make a point that doesn't really have any substance"

He'll be abroad. He usually books a quick holiday when things go pear-shaped in Dorset

I would guess whenever they all get there. Wouldn't like to put money on us hearing the outcome tomorrow...there could easily be some squabbling afterwards before it's all settled. We might hear about the TV contract tomorrow if they put that out as some good news to deflect from anyone being unhappy with their drafted riders.

No, but it's flawed.

They don't. Poole have last pick as play-off winners.