waiheke1

tbf, Harris is never going to make top 3 in the GPS, or even top 8 with this year's line up. His machinery is clearly the slowest of all riders. And that's fair enough, he gets to compete in the world's premiere speedway event, anything he does achieve is a bonus, he doesn't over invest in equipment and presumably it keeps his sponsors happy. And he gets kudos from the fans for skipping practice to represent the Bees, or take place in meeting slike this one ?(which reiterate that both he and Tai should have been seeded to the final). I can't understand why people (and not picking on your post here) criticise Harris for this - end of the day he is a top 40 in the world rider, so if he scores 4 or 5 points in each GP he's doing well.

if you are going to criticise people for getting facts wrong, it would pay to get your own facts right first.. Yes, Nokia did fail to adapt and lost huge chunks of market share, but to say they are the verge of extinction is patently false. They've delivered 10+bn euro of revenue at industry leading profitability levels the last three years. "The Scotsman" points out one acquisition, but surely the major one was the $17bn acquisition of Alcatel Lucent earlier this year. As for your comment about the CEO crying at a press conference last year - Nokia sold it's handset business to Microsoft in 2013, so why on earth would CEO Rajeev Suri, who has overseen the highly successful transformation of the networks business, be crying about technological status in comparision to Apple in 2015? LAst time I looked, Apple weren't competing with Nokia as a networks company? FWIW, Nokia would have been a reasonable example to use of a company failing to adapt, but you then tried to embellish by adding "facts" which are patently untrue.

Hard to disagree with that though I'll go Steve rather than Richie in Glasgow. Certainly that meeting looks a tougher battle to qualify than scunthorpe

A missing EDR rider may be replaced by a guest rider, who must be an EDR rider with an equal or lower EL average (based on most recent published green sheets). How idiot hard would it have been to put that in the rules? And I agree there would still be some anomalies due to the heat format, but no different to those encountered by top 5 averages. Similarly r/r, why did they not just say that one ride could be taken by the none EDR rider immediately above the missing rider in averages, the others by EDR riders and any none EDR rider with a lower average than the missing rider. Seriously it's not rocket science

Out of interest, if the gate receipts didn't cover the costs, do you propose the riders pay to cover the shortfall? Or do you expect the promoter to do that, but not be entitled to profits if any are made? You say you ate happy with Pl standard, but how many Pl standard riders would be willing to race if they could only ride in one league and didn't have a guarantee per point income to rely on?

If someone rang me up and I confirmed to them I had received it, then it would make sense to me to prioritise processing that refund. If you paid on your credit card why not just dispute the charge with your bank? I presume bv will be refunding onto the card used to pay? Assuming Noone still uses cherubs in this day and age?

Tbf edr was 5-4 though.The situation with Kurtz at reserve is no different to the "good old days" when a team ended up with a strong rider at reserve (I remember Paul Thorp at bv in 87 starting season at reserve and knocking up double figures at home each week). Tbh I don't think Poole were majorly weakened by the missing reserves - can't see Ellis and Newman having added more than a couple extra each, and doubt bjarne would have scored more than rr).

Poole still clear title favorites Imo. Wolves and aces 2nd favorites some way back from Poole, but we'll ahead of the rest of the teams.

Poole by 10. Holder buzz Anderson and Brady should all hit double figures.

I had a chat and photo with briggo at the 2014 nz gp Steve, thought he was a good bloke. Maybe you caught him on a bad day?

Clearly you missed my point. Which is that it's irrelevant that Pedersen has won more world titles than tai, tai has been the better rider for the last 3 years.

Not to mention that you can see the stars racing a few times a week online or on TV. Not like the old days when you may have seen the star opposing number one only once per season.

79 world team cup final Aces v reading 1973 Reading v aces 1982 bl Any of bright and Moores world final wins Hyde Rd in the years pre and post WWII. Wembley 81

Hand Nielsen won four world titles, so did Briggs. Put them out there on the track in 2016 and i reckon tai would beat them both. Thoughts Robert?

Tbf, t Rick was 28? when he won his 2nd world title, so tai is ahead at this stage in their respective careers. Is tai the youngest ever double world champ?

The issue isn't with the race format per se , which encourages closer racing. The problem is the issues, which were patently obvious as soon as the format was announced, with impacts on rider averages were not addressed at the time, and have still not been. A relatively simple conversion depending on whether a rider has raced at hl, 2nd string or reserve would eliminate the problem.

Tbh surely it's more likely they could end up paying a hl hl rates for 7 rides ridden from reserve. I very much doubt any hl has a clause where they get reduced pay riding as reserve.

You get plenty of fans on here saying it is all about the 15 heats racing. But it's not. It's about an evenings entertainment, and that needs to be far more than just the racing to attract a modern audience.

Dont think you can blame just cook. I'd say both he and zagar scored a couple less than you'd expect, and Nicholls and Worrell a point less.Also don't understand people saying aces were strengthened by rr for richie Worrell. Essentially it meant instead if having him for 3 rides, aces had Steve for one and Jacobs for two - which surely is weaker. But wouldn't have made a difference.

In king and garritty you have the good 2nd string and reserve. You just needed a hl and to have made garritty stay at reserve for 4 meetings

Anyone with half a brain could have forseen it. Look at the top 20 of the El averages at the start of last season. It was always likely that some would jump straight to hl. Just as it would be highly unlikely that they would go to 2nd string and then to hl. No way should this heat format -introduced to protect Draft riders remember - have been retained once Draft riders were no longer protected from moving to the top 5. It's the latest in a string of staggeringly inept decisions. Edit: sorry realised I have essentially just echoed the ff/doc post above

Which proves bwitchers point

And of course the reason a rider like Lindgren can end up at 2nd string us because of the heat format which pitches "like against like" resulting in an abundance of riders averaging +/- 6pts.

You clearly don't understand the El heat formula if you are asking about reserves beating heat leaders!As for proof - look at the averages of the top riders in the El, that will show you that races are more unpredictable than ever. In fact, the majority or riders average somewhere between 5-7, which was never the case historically. If that doesn't prove that races are more evenly matched than ever then nothing will

Tbf on this occasion starman is correct