4thbender

Will the Wooden Spoon Championship finish in 2018 be sufficient qualification for promotion to the Premiership in 2019?

Nor was there mention of Kyle winning the Bordernapolis at Berwick on Saturday, or of the fact that Kasper scored 9 points in the same meeting (having two wins, including one over Kevin Doolan and Kyle in heat 9).

There will be no transfer of football/rugby facilities to a new stadium before the project has received planning permission from the Council. If this is a serious threat, now is the time for all shale fans to get writing to their local councillors to explain that speedway is one of Workington's sporting mainstays, bringing visiting fans into the town on a weekly basis throughout the summer and providing jobs, wealth-creation and sporting entertainment for the people of the Borough. Tell them also that the Comets bring national kudos to the town, being at the very pinnacle of the sport in the UK (in the 2018 Championship play-offs - a feat unmatched by local teams in either football or rugby!) Explain that without the revenue from football and rugby, Derwent Park will be unviable as a speedway-only venue and therefore, in order to retain the sport in Workington, no planning permission should be granted for a new stadium unless it caters for speedway as well as other sports. You can start by writing to members of the Planning Committee which is chaired by Cllr Mike Rollo. The Vice Chair is Cllr Ann Bales and other members are Cllr Lillian Baldry, Cllr Michael Heaslip, Cllr Antony McGuckin, Cllr Peter McHarry, Cllr Bill Reville, Cllr Denise Rollo and Cllr Joan Wright. Write to them all at Workington Town Council, Town Hall, Oxford Street, Workington, CA14 2RS. Get cracking and good luck. I'm sure fans of Workington speedway can rely on the support of all speedway fans across the UK if we need to kick up a stink with the council. If all else fails you can set Jenga on 'em!

There seems to be a proliferation of lower-middle order riders sniffing round for a team slot next season (Shanes, Nicol, Mountain, Andersen, Kennedy) and there'll probably only be room for one of them - two at most. I'm not at all sure Kennedy is the wisest first move. I'd have preferred to see the first confirmed team slot go to Kasper who's done enough to show he can probably add 3 points to his average next season. Kennedy, on the other hand, has an assessed average of 5.2, which makes a big hole in the likely points allocation for 2019 and he might struggle to maintain that sort of average. He could turn out to be a big disappointment.

….and one side no-one expected to be where they are.....SHEFFIELD!!! (not to mention the ridiculous decision by promoters to shorten the season to just 15 league and cup matches, meaning the season was over whilst the kids were still in the middle of their summer holidays).

I'd add in Todd who's not done anything wrong this season and continues to add points to his average year-on-year.

I agree. Keep Todd and he'll improve. Bringing back Josh Bates would be a big mistake IMO. He should be asked to prove his race fitness before he's included in the team - maybe a spell in the NL. By March 2019 he won't have sat on a bike for 18 months; with that length of inactivity (and a bad back) who knows if he can still hack it? I'd say let some other team take the risk. Including him in the 2018 team was the factor that started the rot this year. We don't want to make the same mistake twice (but uncle Damian might feel differently!)

Each time Barker comes to Sheffield some poor soul ends up making a visit to the medical room. Last time it was Connor Mountain and the time before that it was major fisticuffs with Kyle Howarth after BB reportedly threated to put him on a spinal board. Don't know why the management don't ban him from the stadium.

So glad that someone mentioned the "bend 2 sling-shot," which I have made reference to in previous postings. This is a high-speed manoeuvre which involves a death-or-glory drive round the bend 2 air-fence, carrying momentum into the back straight. It is heart-stopping to watch and is invariably a devastating overtaking tactic. The move was perfected three or four years ago by Simon Stead when he was at the height of his pomp around Owlerton. I suspect he taught it to other Sheffield riders because, throughout the 2017 season and the first half of 2018, it was deployed by others, notably Josh Bates, Kyle Howarth and Lasse Bjerre. In 2018 the "sling-shot club" was joined by Charles Wright and latterly Todd Kurtz. However, for some reason which I cannot explain, the manoeuvre became absent from Sheffield's track-craft half way through the 2018 season and immediately Sheffield went into the pattern of losing matches at home (failing to win any of the final 5 home matches). Maybe it was a result of a slicker track, less dirt or whatever, but the sling-shot manoeuvre was noticeably absent after June.... until yesterday, when it was used to good effect by several riders. I can't help but believe it was the demise of the sling-shot that led to Sheffield's loss of home form. Faster-gating opponents were able to hang onto their leads in situations where previously the likes of Howarth, Bjerre and Wright would have been past them on the second bend like a rat up a drainpipe. I hope that whatever factors have done away with the sling-shot will be put right before March 2019.

Yes, but as I said: "of all the Sheffield riders who've represented the team for the past two seasons..." James wasn't a Tiger in 2017.

No, you are being absolutely UNfactual. Todd has spent most of his Sheffield career riding at no.2 to Josh G (in 2017) and Kyle (in 2018). His greatest strength has been turning their race wins into 5 - 1 scores by securing second places. You cannot therefore assess his performances by comparing the GSA average, which excludes the 49 bonus points he has scored (more than any other rider in the team) which, when taken into account, give a more accurate account of his team performance. Hence his averages are 6.11 in 2017 and 6.78 so far in 2018. Incidentally, of all the Sheffield riders who've represented the team for the past two seasons, he is the only one to improve on his 2017 average in 2018!

Not quite factual. His averages for the last three seasons have been 5.76 / 6.11 / 6.49. If he keeps up that same rate of progress he'll pass the 8 point mark during 2021 at the age of 29 (when most riders reach their peak).

Todd is a slow-burner who will develop into an 8-points rider (but it may take him a couple of years yet). Definitely worth hanging onto. For me, Kasper is the rising star who, in the space of three matches, has shown that he has great potential. He professes to prefer the smaller tracks, as his 13 points at Armadale demonstrates. But 6 +2 last night in only his second Owlerton outing shows he's no slouch at home either. I would be very disappointed if they let him slip through their grasp. Of all the riders that have come through the revolving door at Owlerton this season he is by far the best prospect. It's a shame they didn't find him earlier. A lot of fuss is being made about the Zaine Kennedy signing but on a 5.2 assessed average he's a big risk. Although he only finished sixth in the Top Gun scorers list, I'm prepared to go with the razzmatazz notion that he's a star of the future. But as things stand nothing is proven. We now seem to be "blessed" with three riders in Nicol, Kennedy and Andersen all vying for the same lower-middle order position in the 2019 line-up and I figure they'll only be able to accommodate one of them. It seems Kennedy is the current favoured option but if it means losing Andersen I think that would be a big mistake.

Only the Sheffield and Edinburgh ones. I suspect the idiotic solution was none of their doing.

Ephraim Zimbalist Jr. was an American actor known for his starring roles in the television series 77 Sunset Strip and The F.B.I. He is also known as recurring character "Dandy Jim Buckley" in the series Maverick and as the voice behind the character Alfred Pennyworth in Batman: The Animated Series and associated spin-offs. Meanwhile, Ben Hur (1959) starred Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins and Haya Harareet. was directed by William Wyler and produced by SAM ZIMBALIST (I knew there was a Zimbalist connection).

Ooooh! So we did. Just two left then.

He does still have matches at Redcar, Scunny and Peterborough to prove himself. If he can manage to get close to matching his Edinburgh performance in one or two of those he should be nailed on for another go next year. Daft as it sounds, he could turn out to be this season's greatest "find".

Didn't he produce Ben Hur?

I'm puzzled as to whether to perceive you as a gifted amateur psycho-analyst or a proficient barrack-room lawyer. Either way, I sense the truest perception has you down as a glove-puppet with the hand of the BSPA up you. So from now on I'll call you Patsy, the Promoters' Performing Puppet, going around like a deranged Mr. Punch, bonking everyone on the head with your policeman's truncheon if they dare to speak a word of dissent. Later on when I’ve got a bit more time I’m planning on having a serious go at the promoters’ unhinged idea that the answer to speedway’s ills is to ration its exposure to the paying public. I may put a few noses out of joint – best be ready with your truncheon!

The one that's slipped in under the radar is last week's "desperation" signing Kasper Andersen. He might turn out to be Sheffield's "find" of the season and well worth a spot at no.6 for 2019. After his 13 at Edinburgh, he's shown he could prove to be the one who gives Sheffield some firepower at reserve on some of the dodgier away tracks. The irony is that he's the diagonal opposite of the one he was brought in to replace. Lasse was dynamite at home but couldn't score away. This lad is may be the one who'll score mightily away but be hopeless around Owlerton…. but he's still learning and who knows what he might grow into?

Or Boris?

Anyone taking bets against a Monarchs 4-point win on Thursday?

Didn't stop him from scoring 13 on his first visit to Edinburgh on Friday.

Good point... but the same trio scored 24 points between them at Armadale 24 hours later. And the two longer-established ones each have highest scores of 11 points, recorded as recently as July. It's not that they can't score points... it's that they can't score points right now AT OWLERTON! Very odd, don't you think? What's more, the Owlerton malady doesn't only infect Sheffield's own riders. Jason Garrity - who was absolutely unstoppable in winning the British Semi-Final at Sheffield in May, and scored 12 here for Scunny only a fortnight ago - could only muster 3 points on Thursday riding as guest for Charles Wright. I'm not a conspiracy theorist (I never believed the riders not being paid scenario), but the nosedive off the cliff in the team's home performances belies any explanation of random coincidence.

The article in question was published in the matchday programme, which is a Sheffield Speedway publication. Although it comes with the usual disclaimers, it would be hard to dispute the fact that it expresses the bona fide views of the promotion. It is an accepted fact - and a well-tried strategy - that any failing organisation attempts to deflect attention from its failure by blaming the "media." It's called "shooting the messenger" (we see it on here all the time - if in doubt, just ask certain Workington contributors about recent events for further evidence of this in practice.) On this occasion, the writer not only attempted to deflect attention from the team's abysmal performances but did so by insulting the intelligence of the online commentators. Calling us "clowns" and "abusers" and intimating that we don't know what we're talking about. As a commercial provider of sporting entertainment, the promotion's responsibility is to provide competitive sport which entertains. For the past four weeks they have failed on both counts; bad enough to be charged £16 to support a team which fails to compete, but then to be charged a further £3 for a programme which insults fans' intelligence and challenges the integrity of those with the temerity to voice dissent is a double calumny. Like you, I devote a very important aspect of my life to watching competitive sport (and pay dearly in the process). But what we've witnessed in the past four weeks is not competitive sport, it's a total capitulation by the team that claims to be the existing league champion... and it's demeaning and humiliating. When Newcastle arrive at Owlerton with three riders in Aarnio, Kus and Wethers with a combined average of 15.77 who manage to score 36 points between them and Sheffield, meanwhile, put out a team with three riders in Anderson, Broc and Shanes with a combined average of 15.32 who manage the grand total of 6 points, you just know beyond all doubt that there is something the promotion is not telling us. But they call US clowns "with half-baked conspiracy theories" engaged in a "deluge of misinformed rantings". Which part of 36 v 6 is "misinformed"?