Eagle77

Like most on here I reckon... injuries excepted... Ipswich, Belle Vue and Sheffield are destined for the play-offs... Kings Lynn, Leicester and Oxford to battle for the fourth play-off spot... At the moment my head says Kings Lynn... but I'd like to see Oxford take it... With both at full strength, Ipswich v Belle Vue could make a great final... favourites would have to be Ipswich although their apparent dislike of the NSS could be a real leveller.

Certainly can't argue with that!!!!

As an ex Eastbourne supporter... the seasons I enjoyed the most were either when we were challenging for a trophy... and there were a few of those seasons... or we were battling to avoid the wooden spoon and the rare victories we achieved were much celebrated... and there were probably more of those seasons! I did have a 150 mile round trip to visit Arlington... and the seasons when that became harder to endure were those when it became obvious that we were going to achieve nothing more or less than mid table mediocrity... and so results meant little. But as DaveWayne says... a supporter is a supporter and you should be so during both good and bad times... I'd love to have my track still up and running and be "suffering" those long hours on the road for each meeting...

Agree... the Dads Army thing certainly caught on... But age is just a number and if you're good enough you're old/young enough!... and Peterbro were certainly good enough! But I reckon the real key to their success revolved around Oystercard... He had a great start to the season riding at reserve so that he moved up to no.1 Then... unfortunately for him but not necessarily for the team... he got that nasty injury, putting him out for the rest of the season. That meant his average remained high and Peterbro always had a great reserve with Harris, Andersen and Pedersen all having a go down there. Of course we'll never know but I reckon that had he ridden at no.1 for any length of time his average would have dipped and in all likelihood he'd have been back at reserve by the end of the season and Peterbro probably wouldn't have been as strong. This is certainly not intended as having a dig at Peterbro who deserved their win... and had their share of bad luck and other injuries during the play-offs... I'm just saying that they were able to take advantage of the circumstances that fell their way... and good luck/congratulations to them for doing so...

Congratulation to The Panthers... certainly the better team over the two excellent legs... But if I was an Aces fan I'd be feeling mightily disappointed... Firstly by some strange decisions by your team manager... Rob Lyon sure showed Lemon how it should be done... But also... with Brennan and Etheridge beating the likes of Harris, Nicholls, Pedersen and Cook, I reckon it shows that Peterbro could have been there for the taking but the Worrall's and Charles Wright just weren't up to the task... and they let you down big time!!! Finally a word for MPT... to ride like that with his hand in the state it was... just amazing...

Not quite the whole season... they brought Marek Cieslak in for the last couple of months... I was at Wolverhampton on the Sunday afternoon that The Rebels won to clinch the title... and if I remember correctly it was Trevor Geer who scored the points to secure the win.

Really glad to see that whatever the issues with Craig Cook were, they have been resolved. This is by far the best option within the existing rules and leaves no-one open to claims of cheating or being massively under strength. Just hope the various riders riding tonight come through unscathed... and MPT will be ok after having to pull out last night (why the hell was he riding in a foregone conclusion match???) Then I hope we can all look forward to a close and exciting 2nd leg... with the best team coming out on top. Good luck to both teams...

It's a shame the season has to end this way... specially as the first leg was so good... But if Belle Vue win it will be said it was only because Peterbro were weakened by injury. And if the rules are bent to allow Peterbro a decent guest it will be said they cheated their way to victory. The only results that wouldn't be open to question is if Peterbro win it with their 5 fit(ish) riders, R/R, and a guest from Lynn or Ippo who isn't Lewis Kerr... and with Craig Cook seemingly not an option, there's not a hell of a lot to choose from... or if Peterbro are allowed a good guest but Belle Vue beat them anyway... I think it's unlikely but I hope one of those happen... just so it can't be claimed that the winners have done it by default.

How about looking at the guest situation like this... Chris Harris rides for Ipswich... who are also in the play-offs. He can have a big influence on who finishes top of the table and therefore has choice of opponents. Ipswich would probably be considered to be the weakest of the 4 play-off teams and therefore a decent possibility to be picked by the top team. Would Ipswich rather face Swindon or Poole? My guess would be that on current form... and considering that they've had a "rehearsal" at Wimmy Rd just this week... they'd rather take on Poole. So maybe Chris Harris will be doing all he can to help Poole finish top... and thus prove to be a far worse guest than Ty Proctor was... We'll see...