NeilWatson

The cut-off for team changes is 28th August effective 31st August, Batchelor’s current average of 7.39 remains in place until 1st September.

How did Anders Rowe take advantage? He’s on the RS list as a 4* rider, as is Josh Bates.

Zach Cook also rode for Poole then Plymouth yesterday

Only once the referee is at the stadium, prior to that the Promoter makes the decision. (In rare circumstances when there has been an unjustified postponement by a Promoter previously the SCB might insist on having a representative present before a postponement is authorised).

So he is, didn't spot that - watching the GP and the GSAs from the BSPA website aren't in numerical order! In which case whoever guests for him will take the RR ride.

Fair enough, but the guest still takes the missing rider's average 1. Nikolaj B Jakobsen 2. Leon Flint R/R 3. Tom Brennan 4. Ricky Wells 5. Aaron Summers 6. Kasper Andersen 7. Kyle Bickley 8. Greg Blair The Berwick line-up doesn't state who's guesting for who - I presume Wells for Etheridge and Brennan for Gappmaier, in which case Brennan can take an RR ride.

The RR rule hasn't changed for years; Flint being the first RS rider into the top five adds an extra dimension.

That's not correct Flint sits at 5th in the averages, Gappmaier is 4th, so RR is Gappmaier, Andersen and Bickley. A guest takes the average of the rider he replaces.

Gappmaier, Andersen, Bickley

That couldn’t be further from the truth :-)

Not in the UK, that's the whole point of fixed race-nights and the only realistic way doubling-up can work at all.....

Not in normal circumstances, but possibly if there'd been a contentious postponement before.

Play-offs don’t count to averages

It always used to be the Promoter’s decision until the referee arrived. In blatant cases future postponements were forbidden without an SCB official’s confirmation. That may well have changed of course

I'll watch again with the sound on!

That’s decent racing Dave but it’s not at the Peterborough level of excitement :-)

Certainly not, but I accept that certain aspects of the sport can't be changed immediately and need to be worked around to try and save the sport in the hope/expectation of better times ahead. For example (not exhaustive): availability of riders, especially top riders; availability of rented stadiums; rider costs hence pay demands; club owners subsidising clubs rather than making a handsome living from them (anyone remember Danny Dunton's gold Rolls Royce?). Ultimately it all comes down to the (lack of) money in the sport, which precludes a lot of initiatives that might make the sport more viable.; such as cheaper admission, more races, better facilities, better merchandise, maybe even a practical way of covering the track to ensure an advertised meeting goes ahead.

That's cheerful...... Remind me just why you follow this forum?

I think this sums the situation up very well: https://www.eastbourne-speedway.com/eagles-v-brummies-postponed/ Eastbourne HG Aerospace Eagles Speedway have taken an early decision to cancel the planned fixture against The Birmingham Brummies on Saturday 7th August. With the sport generally encountering a very difficult time following the almost complete loss of the 2020 season and a truncated start to the 2021 season, which has been exacerbated by an unusually high number of rained off Meetings already, Club Director Ian Jordan explained the logic and reasoning behind a decision, that he accepts won’t be universally popular. Jordan said This is an incredibly tough call to make but as always, I think it’s most important to be transparent and to try to explain the decisions we make. Some will agree, some will understand, some won’t agree, but at least by outlining the facts, everyone can make their own mind up. The weather forecast for the end of the week and the weekend is particularly poor. We do have our own weather expert and she has been incredibly accurate. Only last Saturday, she was confident it would not rain at Arlington and save for a few spots it didn’t. Everyone who lives locally will know that there was torrential rain and flash downpours almost everywhere within a few miles of the track and many who did come, commented on that fact. The latest forecast for this Saturday is that a stronger belt of rain will develop early on Saturday morning through the night into Saturday with a 70-80% probability. This will continue through the day easing only by Saturday evening to around 50%. There is a likelihood of the showers being more thundery and heavy in nature with a risk of lightning from around 11am to 5pm. Given the accuracy of past forecasts we simply cannot ignore that prediction. Our crowd last Saturday was the lowest we have had since the current Promotion took over in 2019. The underlying explanations are not hard to find, the weather in the vicinity, the fact that we clashed with a 2 day Speedway GP Round and the ongoing issue of a significant number of people still isolating due to being pinged by the Dido Harding Covid App. We sustained a significant loss on the meeting and with all of the mitigating factors again in play this coming weekend, it simply comes down to a choice between what the heart says and what the head says. With regards to the Speedway GP series, I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, as entertaining and exciting as it is, I believe for weekend tracks like ours; who lose 100-200 people every time we go up against it, it poses the greatest existential threat to British Speedway in general and to Eastbourne Speedway specifically. Whilst our floating supporter base chooses to sit in front of the TV and watch it, the viability and probability of being able to watch raw, exciting LIVE Speedway in the flesh recedes and diminishes and it really does become a choice between pressing the record button or hearing the Arlington turnstiles continue to click. We can try to avoid it, but it has the power to move fixtures at will and random, a luxury we don’t have. The heart will always want to get a Speedway meeting on if at all possible; and hates letting down our loyal hardcore of supporters. The head says, that if in any other form of Business, you were opening knowing you were going to suffer a significant loss of income, you would be barmy to do so. It is a well-known and generational trait in Speedway Promoters and Directors that in 99% of circumstances the heart rules the head, we get pilloried for a lot that goes wrong and some things that don’t go wrong, but right now every team is battling for survival and for once the head has to rule the heart.

I know you have strong views on this but, with respect, you have never run speedway at the Showground. I have, three times, and understand the fixture issues as well as most. Put simply there is only one option for Peterborough. Accept gratefully the dates offered, or don't run. I confess to being surprised by today's decisions, I just spoke to my parents and it's glorious in Alwalton; but I also trust the Peterborough promotion to have done their research and to be doing the right thing based the info in front of them. If the rain doesn't come that's unfortunate and will give you the opportunity to explain how poor the decion was - but it's not your (significant) money on the line. As i've said before, fixtures at the Showground are'nt cancelled without a compelling reason to do so. I have no idea when the playoffs are.

That is a slightly different issue. In 2018 when we ran on a Sunday afternoon we had a reasonable fixture list but still with significant gaps.

Far from ideal but not unusual given the other events at the showground.

To be fair Premiership Clubs are generally closer to Poole and race mid-week, the Championship clubs are predominately northern and mainly race at the weekend.

Yes, what a dumb cluck I am! The 1st August GSAs are: Rory Schlein 8.62 Steve Worrall 7.96 Danny King 7.92 Ondrej Smetana 5.00 (assessed) Stefan Nielsen 4.29 Ben Cook 4.00 (assessed) Danyon Hume *** (Rising Star) http://www.speedwaygb.co.uk/championshipteamissues21