Wee Eck

Thank you. At 5.7, so quickly, he certainly hit the ground running. Huge potential but will 2023 be his last year in UK?

The assessed average was a red herring though as he’d just failed to get an official average. Does anyone know what was his true, not official, average at the beginning of 2022?

With the exception of Berwick, I’d say that every team in Championship has money, but some spend it better than others. Do you think that Douglas, Allen and MPT are significantly cheaper than, say, Stevie, Lawson and Ben Cook? Or Howarth, Richie and Barker? It’s not what you’ve got, it’s what you do with it that counts.

Cracking GP from the first heat. I’m not a Holder fan but he must feel robbed, and rightly so. The referee had two decision to make, both involving Zmarzlik, and my view is he got both right. The first one was cut and dried, the second one seems to be controversial. If you watch a rerun and keep your eye on BZ from when he drew level with Doyle as they came off bend 2, then you’ll see he didn’t deviate from his line. After he was ahead of Doyle, Doyle turned into him and Doyle did the Chris Harris jump off (something Doyle criticised Harris for doing!) Doyle is usually the master of histrionics but he seemed to take his disqualification more calmly. No pushing cameras away or flouncing into his pit bay. That suggests to me he knew the disqualification was fair.

A few, but only a few SCB fines are publicised, like for Basso and Kerr, but hearing about BSPL fines just doesn’t seem to happen. Perhaps because BSPL fines are only levied on teams not individuals? And this would have been a BSPL penalty. I don’t know if Glasgow were fined any more than anyone knows that they weren’t!

Do you know for sure that Glasgow weren’t punished for their withdrawal? Very few penalties are publicised. Indeed, it was unusual that the fines on Basso and Kerr were announced recently.

I think you miss the point. Old Git of Misery Way was calling Leicester the Hunters, probably because they were called that when he last went. Trying to be clever but showing himself to simply be a curmudgeon. IMO! I was just calling out his attempt at smart assery.

So were the Leicester Hunters which he was wittering on about!

According to Wikipedia it was last used in 1962. Is that the last time Old Bob went to the speedway. Next he’ll be calling Glasgow the Giants (last used for a mainstream team in 1953!)

I am aware of that - but I could only find one other home Birmingham meeting in which he rode in 2022 (which ended after heat 10, so Josh only had 3 rides). I was querying why he was being called “dreadful” on the back of such limited activity.

I have no idea who the “Hunters” are. Or have I missed something. And, pray tell, when did you last see Neil Middleditch’s face after a loss?

How many meetings did he do? I could only find one

Barry Briggs would still ride if they let him. Still regularly rides his off road bike

I don’t know about away meetings but he only managed one official home meeting in 2022 before he was injured so not much to go by to suggest he was “dreadful”. Birmingham need to rip the team up and start again. The core is Morris and Sedgmen. Pearson should kick on for his second season and Bowtell is trying hard. Add in Tintin’s mates, Thompson and Thompson (I know they were Thomson and Thompson) and that leaves one place. I don’t know what that leaves in averages but there must be room for someone decent. And available.

Or Josh Auty? He said he was looking for a team place

He’d might be ok on the straightaways.

Shame Edinburgh are at Birmingham on the 17th otherwise I’m sure the Poole faithful would have given a guesting Craig Cook their usual warm welcome!

Well done Berwick. Once more, they do what they need to do

How far did you get before Scunthorpe was called off too?

My thinking is that Clegg, Lambert and Mountain are all likely to have a stint at reserve, whilst Nathan Ablitt is likely to stay at reserve as long as he had a team place. Max and Simon are 5 pointers because of good home performances. Two out of these three will, at some point have to ride as second strings, but they are reserve level riders. IMO

IMO these are excellent changes - if you’re an Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oxford, Plymouth, Poole or Redcar fan. Should guarantee these teams a top six position. I’ll probably be proved wrong but two heat leaders, one second string and four reserves looks weak to me.

Ah right. So not in any way relevant to the discussion?

Who did he ride for?

And Oxford were a better team than Plymouth at Poole. Which would suggest that, of the three, Oxford are best, Poole second and Plymouth are the worst. I’m not convinced.

I don’t think I said anything about having a disastrous start to the season. I said I’d hoped he’d get back to his pre-2020 form. Or even his 2020 form when he ended the season with a 10+ average. He has the ability, in my opinion, over the last couple of years, something seems to have got in the way. Bike preparation? Illness? Temperament? Who knows? But, in this weakened league, I think he should be better. His spat with Basso was unnecessary - not knocking him off the bike, but the ill judged Twitter comments.