Bruiser McHuge

Like Woffy, another that has learnt his riding in Perth and lived a lot of his life there......wonder if he'll be called an Aussie by everybody !

Well I'm still blushing obviously...because I have no idea what you are going on about.........have I missed something patently obvious or just being thick ??

I think at that age he is better than what Woffinden was on the world stage.....a long long way to go but Woffinden made it so there's no reason why Lambert can't with the right backing.....the only issue is that so much depends on gating to make that final push...hopefully that will get better with experience... What were they thinking of with the British final ?....Adam Roynon !.......anybody would think the authorities didn't want British speedway to progress or to entertain the public !

What's the significance of June 1st then ?.....I probably shouldn't ask as I've obviously missed something !

Out of interest can anybody remember when the old 13 heat formula was ditched and what the original reasons were for its ditching..? I must admit I thought it was a good formula....but I hasten to add I was young and I don't think anything anywhere is as good as when I was young....music, TV, radio ..so I often see things through the eyes of an old bugger who often says. " back in my day".....much to the amusement of my kids !

Half the posts on this thread have been removed !........I'm sure I commented on this as well which had gone....either that or I'm losing my marbles ! I'm not losing my marbles !.....There are 2 identical threads..it all makes sense now .....

I think it's harsh on Woffinden....he was born in England to English parents....yes he grew up in Perth but still made regular trips back to the UK as well.....of course he will "feel" Australian to a large degree as that's his upbringing...but he was still born in Britain to British parents...his dad's background was British speedway..he certainly can't be accused of using Britain as a flag of convenience....he is British !.......and as for being mates with the Aussies, so what....none of those Aussies are from Perth, they all live 3000 miles away on the other side of the country so they just became mates in England basically....maybe they were/are just better company which is how anybody chooses their mates and I'm sure he's got English mates too !......you can't judge a nationality by who they hang out with regularly !

I think it's very rose tinted glasses if people are looking back on Chris Pusey and Reg Wilson and putting them on a pedestal.....they were decent riders racing in a much easier format , plus being in the nice position of being able to take the most favoured gate position in every race if they wished..... The fact is that you cannot realistically compare the 70's with today....I personally miles preferred the 70's and I think only a fool would say the sport wasn't in a much healthier position back then ....and there were definitely miles more top quality English riders about than today........but it's too easy to say that all riders were better back then than today....sure the sport was more high profile but the race formats, the non fixed gate positions, the more evenly spread of talent over more teams all go together to make it easier for a top rider back then to get those higher averages...but like I've said before it doesn't necessarily mean the top riders back then were better than the top riders today.....it's impossible to compare....but I do know that the GP line ups of today are stronger than a lot of the old world finals from back then in my opinion....the world final was never the best 16 in the world which was always wrong.

I thought this was a real situation......just looked at the sky planner to record it and saw its a drama series !.....I've still set it to record though...

They couldn't start next season on June 1st though....so that date would be useless if they want the Aces to ride there next season... ...I've no.problems with the opening date..if the Aces are going to leave Kirky Lane and ride at the new stadium next season then it really has to be ready for March...talk of June is a waste of time.....fingers crossed for a good summer and mild winter and no delays

Selling tickets for a fixed night for its opening is certainly an incentive to get it finished on time !.......especially when lots of other stadiums have to delay their official opening.. But it's got about 9 months to go...the stands are going up....there will be a longish spell of good weather now ....I'm convinced it will be open for its advertised date...but I'm not sure I'd have been selling tickets for it just yet !

I was a big fan of both Grahame's......I would say Andy was the better gater but Alan was the better all round rider..he was very forceful at times was Alan !...a very tough rider which gives him the edge over Andy

No doubt Jason was far better than Phil.....Phil Crump was an excellent rider but Jason in my opinion is one of the best ever

11 plus average in the 70's means little when compared to the era Chris Louis rode in....there were a load of 10 plus averages in the 70's....this doesn't necessarily mean they were better riders than in Chris Louis's era....the 13 heat formula, the non fixed gate positions...I think more teams meant teams were on the whole weaker than in Chris Louis's era where there were some really solid teams ....much stronger than today and stronger than the 70's as well..... It's easy to look back at the 70's and say there were lots of mega averages so the riders were so much better....they weren't ..different era, different team strengths, different formats, no fixed gate positions.....you cannot truly compare the two eras... Having said all that.......I vote for John !

There is no way that a meeting should be called off 48 hours in advance because it MIGHT rain....I've never heard anything so ridiculous..... Although I do remember the odd meeting splashing on to heat 6 in order to avoid giving refunds....so dodgy going ones aren't new !.......although it definitely seem to take a lot more rain to actually rain off meetings back in the 70's and 80's.....I remember some shockingly wet afternoons and we still had a meeting that night if it eased off.....it would be off in a shot now.

Aye, it's not very PC but those were my first thoughts as well !

People love knocking don't they.. Craig Cook has had a fine career, even if it's peak is now.....I don't ever recall people knocking the likes of Tom Owen for sitting on 11 point National League averages with no ambition to ride British League at all....he made plenty of money though ! I can't see the obsession with riding in Poland anyway...fine if you are genuinely a world class rider or heavily sponsored to do it....fine if you are very young and ambitious...but it is honestly not the be all and end all in my opinion for a lot of riders that are not going to be GP riders .....I would sooner be the top rider in the PL and riding full time in the PL and making a good living...there is nothing wrong with Cook's career and if opportunities arise in Poland that don't actually put him out of pocket then that's good....at his age and stage of career I certainly wouldn't bankrupt myself just to ride there ....I do think that for youngsters with the potential to get to the real top then they should try and get Polish clubs though as it is required to be a top internatinal star these days, but they could do with doing it early on

To be honest I haven't seen the meeting so I've no idea who was at fault in this instance.....but it did make me smile when I checked the result before coming on here and saw it abandoned .......after 10 heats !.........what a farce.......why is it always deemed un rideable after 10 heats........why is it never un rideable after 8 or 9 .....they surely don't always have to splash on to heat 10 and an independent decision with backbone should be made and not just listen to the losers wanting it off and the leaders wanting a couple more races which always seems to happen... Last thing though, having seen Havvy in close quarters as a rider for a few years I admire him as a rider totally but I was surprised he became a manager and I'm yet to be convinced that he's that cut out for it to be fair.

I agree with graded riders...it would be much fairer I think.... I always found it odd and unfair that a rider could be out of a job or a team because his average was 0.1 of a point too high....averages are open to mis use anyway.....there has to be some sort of team strength control but I think it has to be something a bit more flexible than averages... Under the old system a good rider who spent a couple of months at reserve in a strong team always had an inflated average anyway and quite often this jeopardised his spot in the team ..and sometimes the sport altogether....Paul Smith rode at reserve for Hull all season once , usually taking 3 rides and finished up with a 7 plus average....nobody anywhere would take him the following season....how unfair is that...how unfair when improvement is punished and part way through a season a rider knows he may be riding himself out of a job by scoring too well ! I think the race formats now are the main reason for the drop in consistency of top riders...the heats they are in are tougher so it stands to reason they will drop more points...maybe this season they have also known the format is tough , after it was introduced late last season, and adjusted their contracts accordingly to receive more guarantee per meeting rather than just out and out points money..who knows ?....maybe they don't take the same risks if they miss the start as there is another meeting in another country coming up..could be a combination of all these !

Not really...I would say that in football this season the Championship has been far more entertaining than the Premier League but nobody would ever claim that its actually the top league in football.... I would still much rather see the world stars of speedway ride and always have done...going back to when I went to Ellesmere Port on Friday nights and Belle Vue on Saturday nights...the entetainment at Ellesmere was great and I appreciated John Jackson and Steve Finch scoring their maximums but I always much preferred seeing the stars the following night , even if the entertainment wasn't always as good even back then.....I still feel the same and would definitely prefer to watch the world stars live any day of the week even though the Rlite League is a mere shadow now of its past

I'm sure he wouldn't be allowed to publicly broadcast bits of it for his own gain though without the prior permission of BSI..so it amounts to the same thing really I'd say.

The Elite League has so many flaws these days but there is still no way the Premier League is the top league.....entertaining maybe but definitely not in terms of rider quality......of course rider quality doesn't always equate to entertainment but in terms of quality the Elite League is still superior by far than the Premier League. Of course teams have to make the decision of whether the sheer increased costs of paying EL riders will bring enough extra people through the gate to justify the move up from PL......I think that years ago it would have been a reasobably easy decision...the top league had every world star in it, there were plenty of teams so much more variety of opposition to see, riders didn't ride in all the leagues so they seemed to be available more often and teams definitely didn't have 4 guests in a meeting very often....there was less attractions outside speedway as well but the top league product had a lot to attract fans over the second division.....I'm not sure it's the same now even though the rider quality itself is still higher I'm not sure the extra expense justifies the risk of teams moving up.

Well it's nowhere near the same situation is it.......Janowski rode and then declared himself unfit for a meeting which was scheduled after one he fully intended to , and did, ride in.....totally different in all aspects......anybody can get injured and kiss their next meeting..

The speedwayGP website says he was on borrowed equipment....so I assume that's true.........I think he said beforehand that he had no bikes over here so would need to sort something out.....well he obviously didn't think it worthwhile to actually bring his own bikes across and I suppose you can't blame him...he was always going to make the cut whatever bike he rode and even if he didn't then they were never going to not give him a wildcard were they !...he probably thought it wasn't worth the expense.

On the face of it though the title is correct.....I just don't think it's right for a rider to race, and then say he is unfit to ride at Belle Vue, and then ride in Poland...the excuse that Belle Vue is too tight and technical for an injury whereas a big Polish track isn't is just ridiculous.....you are either fit to ride speedway or you are not...track sizes are part and parcel of the sport......it opens cans of worms this in that riders could start pulling out of meetings that they don't like the track and be replaced by a track specialist and then miraculously return for a more favoured track the next day.....it just looks dodgy regardless of circumstances.