Sotonian

Really? Surely 15 4-2 heats is the cheapest outcome, with 8 in favour of the home team to clinch the win.

Yes. Use that as bait to lure them and with luck they'll find other reasons to keep them interested.

Ditto. In my youth, Seery's Statistics was always my favourite page in Speedway Star. I used to try and add my own stats too such as which rider or team suffered the most number of exclusions or breakdowns. Now, I couldn't care less.

Not so. You need a Freeview HD receiver even though it's a non-HD channel.

Pretty much everything from the 1970s onwards is next to worthless. I ended up recycling my entire collection of magazines (every copy of the Star and Mail since 1977) and every Poole prog from the same date to 2000.

I guess that depends on whether British pioneers in the thread title means British riders only!

In terms of start and finish dates (1929-63), Phil Bishop would be a candidate. However, his appearances post-1949 were sporadic to say the least.

These problems were hardly a surprise based on the last couple of seasons. Not being able to deal with, or at least accept, them suggests that the promotion were ill-equipped for the PL.

That's nothing like the same thing at all since it is only decisive after full-time. Now, if the losing team could suddenly declare that the next goal they scored would count double then that would be the same thing.

No-one owes them a living. They will have to get a job and work around that as countless riders before have managed to do.

Those scrap metal trophies are only slightly more appealing than the xylophones from previous rounds. Whatever happened to proper trophies?

Wales, 1950.

You agreed with my rebuttal of your original point then proceeded to restate it! I cannot find any 'unquestionable' case of any football goal scored being worth double at the point it was scored.

Chalk and cheese frankly. Now, if a team could declare that the next goal scored will count as two then you'd have a point.

Those revivals wouldn't be so easy now though. They were possible due to a raft of suitable venues, either previously dormant or e.g existing greyhound stadia, being available.

Awful ploughed field of a track. The racing was good in spite of it, not because of it.

And the equally oft misused loose to lose.

James Shanes today won his third British Masters title in a row. Mark Cossar won the sidecar title.

Norden was the nadir of the old one-off finals. Watching that dross tonight one could be forgiven for thinking that the sport has not progressed one iota from then.

Watch it on the Youtube HD channel. No ad breaks or back to the studio tedium.

Yes, they make Nigel Pearson seem positively taciturn.

Thought it was the year before that.

For years, the complaint was that the best 16 riders were not in the final. The current system goes a long way to addressing that but you would rather select on entertainment than ability. For me, it has to be the best riders at the top table regardless of persona/gating ability/sponsor.

Thanks for the updates, a great win for James Shanes.

This is completely at odds with the oft-mooted move to a fixed race night though. Without the option to run NL matches what else would fill the void on away match weeks? Individual events and challenges are no longer attractive and/or cost-effective.