waiheke1

He is excluding the El shield, the swindle meeting kk scored 6 from his scheduled rides, excluding double points and the extra heat 15 ride. And saying that 6 is no better than 5+1. Either way, if kk scores double figures half the time and 5 on the other occassions, a guest scoring 5 is worse than you would expect kk to score.

OK I misounted the home meetings, and i included the el shield, but surely the point is kk averaged a lot more at Brandon this season than Freddie scored last night. And clearly the loss of bates weakened them, even if he was only likely to score a couple of points in the main body of the team.

In 6 of 8 meetings at home kk has scored double figures, admittedly one would have been 9 without a trip ride. I'm an aces fan, but agree bees were weakened People complaining about woryna being excluded, pretty sure you can't be excluded for dangerous riding against your own team mate. Aces loSt 6 pts to ef, but if that crash was caused by garritys chain that cost bees 5 points, and the lost two in the first heat I believe due to garritys engine issues. Any aces fans know why zagar wasn't in 15 and why Jacobs got rides?

Tbf slightly odd choices in ht 15 from both teams, but king over Freddie less arrange than cook over zagar IMHO. Harris the difference between the two teams, given the edr were evenly matched (Steve Worralls worst score of season, albeit with 3 lost due to ef?), and bv second strings outscored woryna/ga rritty. Ef really cost the aces. Remind me where Freddie finished in the world champs last year...

It's hardly a tough thing to explain surely. No different to say a tennis player winning Wimbledon but dropping their overall ranking.There are some things in speedway that care rltricky to explain, but rolling averages are surely not one of them.

It is,if he is passionate about representing his country, which ironically is what Robert claims he is not.Seems Robert is unaware of the paradox between what he states about tai and his proposed "punishment."

I can't believe we are back on the tail missing British final again. If it has been announced he would be seeded direct I could sympathise. But with the scheduling of the semis as they were, it made zero sense for him to ride in them. Surely it is better to have him focus on becoming a British world champ,than have him riding in a domestic semi final in front of a couple of thousand fans?

I don't think he had an issue with people moaning about the racing, there were some pretty hard core Robins fans amongst them, do I assume that aspect was as bad as people are saying. What it does show is how well this heat format worked to keep racing close when edr were protected, and highlight how foolish it was to retain it when edr became free to move into the top 5.

would add that in an international pairs/tea, meeting, i would always back NZ then England, but would still want my favoured riders to do well. Same when Larry Ross got moved to Halifax, when Aces met the Dukes I would want Aces to win but with Ross scoring a maximum for the opposition.

Lambert to my knowldge has been given one wildcard, to the GP semi finals. Given that he missed qualifying by a point in the hardest quart final, and that after he lost 3 points to an engine failure while miles clear, as well as the fact that he is just 18, surely meant it as a well deserved wild card. As for this time: he was 1 place outside the qualifying spots, in arguably the roughest qualifier, was carrying an injury, and the meeting was halted at a point when he was yet to have a heat of the inside gate - had the meeting gone the full duration i'm confident hw would have finished top four. Add to that the fact that he is clearly one of half a dozen riders good enough to finish top 3, its surely a no brainer to give him one of the wildcards. It would be harsh if he missed out due to the fact that two other brits had qualified as ,with all due respect to Ellis and Bates, they are older and clearly a chunk back in terms of ability at this stage of their careers. the hype is rapidly disappearing? He's 18, he had plenty of time still on his side to live up to the hype.What exactly do you expect him to have achieved by now? HE's already established himself as a heat leader in the EL, made a good showing in the world cup last year. I think any KL fans saying he would end the seasona s their number 1 did it before Puk came back - certainly not beyond the realms of possiblity that he could sinish ahead of Batch, Schlein or Mads in the averages (though tbh i cant recall seeing KL fans stating he would do this). Plenty of Poole fans going on about Ellis this season (and he has been impressive), but in meetings riding as a HL I believe Lambert averages roughly double what Ellis does (this is NOT a dig at Ellis). You cant blame the rain, but when a meeting goes to only 12 heats, its going to be somewhat of a lottery who qualifies, and i think that is evidenced by the calibre of rider going out. On merit, the wildcard surely should go to Lambert, a Pole and Kurtz (probably in that order).

looks great value, and with the track sorted, should be an excellent couple of day speedway, hopefully with a good effort from the British boys in the final, and the Russians making a full strength appearance - to see Emil in full flight around the new BV would be an excellent sight. Sadly too far for me to make the trip, and no business trips scheduled for June anywhere near the UK, but looking forward to watching online.

I would have supported the morans over say Carter in a world final, and they didn't even ride (at that time) for my favorite team! You can't compare speedway with football, as speedway is both a team and individual event. As a dual narionality fan, in the 80s I would always cheer Larry Ross first, then mort/smith/pc, then the morans, then typically other aces riders, then other kiwis and brits. Today in the gp i support tai, then zagar and bomber. If emil was in the series I'd support him ahead of all bar tai. Plenty of brits who would support someone other than Hamilton in grand prix? Surely it's all personal preference,can't believe gavan is getting so wound up on this.

No you are right steve. I think this list didn't take that into account

He will be officially 15th in the world. I agree that doesn't make him 15th best rider in the world. From memory last year he placed top 40 on my rankings, which I think is about right. Still no disgrace in that.

Harris has never truly been world class. He's a good international quality rider, who has never been likely to challenge for top 3 over a season. If he can average 5 pts a go that is a good effort, as it means he beats a world class rider (I would argue all the others in this year's field are world class or close to it) one in three times, which is a solid ratio. Therefore I don't see how finishing bottom in anyway undermines his reputation. If anything it confirms what has been the case throughout his career, his gating and equipment are not good enough at world champ level and he is a little too "nice" on the track. So why not just enjoy whatever success he does manage to achieve - I think most expected him to finish 15th this year, so to me the odd semi final would be a bonus.

Lambert Kurtz and przedpelski for the wc? Though will they want a swede in the line up? Or piecszek ahead of prez, as he would surely have qualified but for a 2cmin exclusion

Ffs there were rumors of holder average fixing last year too. Far more likely it's a combination of the heat format and not having his best bikes over here. What's the betting that now he is at second string he'll miraculously be "back in form" and banging in good scores?

To quote wilde in full it is also the highest form of intelligence..

If king was given a wildcard, then surely bomber should have been elegible for one. Tai and Bomber should both have been seeded through to the British final. But if harris was told he had to ride, that's another example of failing to support Britain's own riders.

Wolves are on form at the moment, fancy them to win by 4.

People complaining about this meeting being decided by reserves are off the mark. Edr swindon outscored kl online 9-6. Sedelgeman scored a six ride max yes, but only two of those were "protected" heats. He rode 3 heats that included 2nd strings, and one heat as a heat leader. So gad he been riding as second string it's likely he would have returned 9 or 10 points, Wright would likely have scored at least 7 as reserve, so we are talking maybe 3 pts difference. Swindon team riding well, but still think they are a hl short when it comes to the business end of the season.

You don't think bring on 6 pts after 2 rides instead of 3 would have made any difference to performance in subsequent heats?!?

It would be ridiculous for a sportsman to give up their place in a world championship just because they started the season badly! Let's face it, looking at this season's field Harris was online ever likely to finish 14th-16th. But there is no disgrace in being 15th in the world at something!

Being posted out before Christmas.

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