Wee Eck

Rule 11.1.27 - a rider disqualified for a starting offence can either go off 15mtr or be replaced by a reserve. It’s only if a “qualified” is withdrawn can he be replaced by another qualified rider. It’s been that way for a considerable time

Apologies - I didn’t mean to offend. Meaningless in terms of the league or the cup.and meaningless in terms of the made up opposition. But only my opinion - I prefer a season opener, if it’s to be a glorified practice session, to be en open meeting, an interleague challenge or an inter club trophy. Something that matters, even if it’s just pride.

I’ve just had a look at the forecast. Not surprised! Wet and 3C. And a meaningless fixture. Not good for an opening night so sensible to call off early as they’ve done

R/r rides: Mountain heat 1 Ellis heat 5 Worrall heat 8 Howarth heat 11 ……but only a guess

I had to look Greebo up. Apparently “assigned that title by trendies and rudes”. Sounds about right. Definition as follows: A greebo is a person who listens to rock/punk/metal music and doesn't follow fashion trends. They don't usually class themselves as being a greebo but are assigned that title by trendies/rudes. Some of them may look quite threatening but generally they are all around nice people and they resist starting fights or arguments with people who do follow trends. However, if you were to ask one if they had anything against trendies or rude boys their answer would seldom be 'no'. Almost all Greebos have some kind of disliking towards trendies mainly because they make their lives hell. Abuse is hurled at them when they walk down the street and they frequently get the crap beaten out of them for absolutely no reason other than the fact that they are different.

Many thanks.

What’s the race format for this? 20 heats like in the GPs then the top six to the final or is there some sort of pre-final race off?

It’s all getting close now with the first meeting of the year less than 5 days away. Weather forecast looks good so I hope Josh gets a decent crowd.

What are the rules now on work visas? Do riders still have to be amongst the top two or three in state or national championships and, if so, how does Pearson qualify?

Acknowledged. But, with less than a week to go, there are still only 5 riders announced. And, to paraphrase Shania Twain, three of them don’t impress me much

Has anything been confirmed about Pearson - and Ellis - yet or is this all speculation? Vissing is a great signing and one I certainly didn’t see coming. He’ll do a solid job for the Brummies for sure

Is that a hint that LR has been “let go”? ”….a lot of work put in by the new shareholders” and “….things on and off track are looking promising”

Is the 4-3-2-0 scoring not only in the Super Heat? It would be good to have an explanation why this has been done. There were only 2 drawn meetings out of 20 (?) last year so hardly a major issue I’d have thought?

There are rules about tapping up but those don’t stop a rider going where he wants. Ask Swindon about Adrian Miedinski - on Swindon’s retained list but wouldn’t ride for them.

The retained list system is a private mechanism between promoters and so, as long as it doesn’t contravene equality diversity or, indeed, modern slavery legislation, there cannot be anything illegal about it. It is designed to provide a financial framework in the case of default. It has nothing to do with “employment” partly because no riders are employed. All teams have to have a minimum value of riders on their retained list but they cannot stop any of “their” riders signing for another team so there is nothing for riders to challenge. Promoters could challenge the system if they wanted but, so far, it seems they choose to work within the existing rules.

Yeh, you’re right there. Like Poole. Or, before Kennett packed it in, erm, Plymouth. And they’re not the only ones - how about Leicester, Redcar or, arguably, Scunthorpe. if a rethink is required, it’s to cut the number of teams down to fit the riders available. When Oxford were allowed in, Birmingham should have been refused as, despite all the hot air coming out from Perry Barr, there is no way they can put together a competitive team for the budget that seems to be available. In my opinion

I must admit to wondering about this. I’m not sure about Max. I think he’s got an English partner and that was one of his reasons for coming back to UK, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Lebedevs stays in Europe now. Maybe Josh Grajczonek could be persuaded to bring his new partner over to UK for a “few” weeks?

I think Plymouth have known for a few weeks now…..

You’re getting picky now - you know he meant to write much more worser…..

I think that was what I was trying to say - Wright will start the season as third heat leader. I can’t find his average but assume it’s higher than 6.00. Then, if it is Lebedevs, the expectation is he’ll be better than Charles and so will take over the third heat leader role when he gets his first real average.

The Lebedevs rumour has been getting stronger all week and, subject to all the usual paperwork sounds like it’s going to happen. Suggestion is an average of 5.5 or 6 with maybe Jake Allen joining him. That would then tie into all the heavy hints from the “in the know brigade” of one familiar rider and an exciting new face and also that the “exciting new face” would come into the team below Charles Wright but be expected to take over as third heat leader during the season. Maybe not as strong as the Bewley/Thomson combo but should be good enough to give the Aces faithful something to cheer about

Yes

The ISLB members certainly used to be UK, Poland, Sweden and Denmark only. It worked reasonable well when Alex Harkess was both it’s chairman and the BSPA chairman as he got Sweden and Denmark to stand with UK in opposing the Poles. When Buster took over, it is alleged he didn’t attend the meetings so UK lost its say.

Enjoy it while you can. He’ll be back soon enough….

I doubt it was.