waiheke1

Tai this year, Greg last year were the bext pover a season. In 2013 Hampel was arguably the best rider (statistically) across all comps. Going back to pre GP for some examples: : I would say Penhall in 81/82, Nielsen in 86,87,89 were Lee in 80 porbably not (Jessup was), Muller in 83 not, arguably Eric wasn't in 84,85 or 88 (statistically ass probably Hans every time). Mauger probably wasn't in 77 or 79, but was in 73. If Usain Bolt missed the World Champs through injury, would that mean he wasn't one of the top 10 sprinters in the world? Clearly not. World championship placings are a guide, not neccesarily an infallible indication of where a person truly ranks. SCB isn't disputing that AJ finished 10th in the world, what he is disputing is whether that is a true inidcation of where he ranks vs other riders, and at the current time results would support that there are at least 15 riders better than AJ in world speedway.

as you know, i do rankings based on performance across all major comps. Throughout the season, aJ has hovered just outside the top 20, I've yet to update final rankings based on October performances, but suspect he may scrape into the top 20. But he will certainly end up below Zmarzlik, Pawlicki, Vaculik Ward, Emil, Hampel, Koloziej and quite likely Pepe, G Laguta and Prem Pawlicki (and Dudek who I excluded from my last rankings due to having ridden under 10 meetings, which may have changed in October). He certainly wasn't in the top 15 riders in the world in 2015. He's not a horrible pick as wild card, but equally there were riders who on merit were more deserving of a wildcard. AJ is world number 10 yes. But that doesn't mean he is the 10th best rider in the world, and y more than Harris/KK/Batch's end of season fionish would prove they are of the best 15 riders in the world

is aj 100% confirmed for lakeside? yeah great news if the biggest crowd pullers wont be back...

larrry ross won the nz south island championship aged 54.

wonder if that includes sales ti agencies who purchase them to resell? seems very fast to sell, given events last year and attendance at other polish gps?

good team, but surely harris will bee at coventry

Welcome back Sid!

Speedway has always, at least in my lifetime, been frequently processional. The core product hasn't materially improved or worsened. It's the other stuff - facilities, additional entertainment, presentation, marketing - where speedway has nt changed, and consequently has a product which is 40 years out of date.

Tbh it really should be 3 Brits, one having to be under 21 (or maybe u,23) Pl should need to be 3 or 4 Brits, one under 21 and one under 23.

Be very surprised if it is not those four, and agree a real shame that Emil seems still not interested.

Do you mean the facts on the Doyle-hancock incident, and the injuries Doyle sustained due to a far more dangerous move than anything Nicki did?Or are u referring to the Masters "apology" which looks like it was written by greg, but doesn't seem to contain any verifiable facts?

That latter option doesn't quite fit. What would lindback come in on? If 7.5 you could have him and Thomsen to join cook nicholls fricke and worrallx2. Though u could only protect one worrall in the draft so may struggle to get both,?

i thought you all wanted rid of him after his drop in average this seasin? just like kl with bjerre, swindon with batch, civentry with hans etc.

surely the aces?

someone like vaculik or lindback would be the best option if tgey came on say a 7.5. othrrwise aim to get someone like freddie lindgren? would allow either a strong 2nd string alongside fricke, or both worralls perhsps at reserve, though thatcwould be harsh on stef.

id rather use a non asset likely to gain in average than a club asset whi is not. if you build to the limit with a 6+ pointer who will average 6, you arecweakening the rest of your team if u could instead have had a sub 5 pointer who will average 6. it only makes sense if u think wolves are incapabke of building a team up to or close to tge points limit, which would hsrdly be a good sign.

given auckland reportedly needed 20k to break even, melbourne must have needed a chunk more to do so. 27000 i imagine cant be a big loss nor profit. key will be to see if this represnts peak attendance or if crowd will increase - may need doyle or holder to be fighting for the title for the latter? and i agree tgere are some venues, such as teterow, which appear to offer neitger prrstige nor neccesarily good racing,though hopefully the track will br ok

ticket prices looked about right to me.demand for cardiff hotels suggests the hoteliers there have the pricing right too. how many empty rooms are going if youvtry to book a cardiff hotel at tge last minute? nothing wrong with the track in melbourne.and 40k at cardiff is a much better advertisement for the sport thsn 10k watching at a good race track in less salubrious surrounds. the series needs a mix of prestige venues along with some on "real" racetracks like torun and bydgosh.

Of course often it is in the teams interests for them to lower their average. Has happened since the 80s. Rolling averages may not fix it, but has made it tougher to do

Plenty of worse moves in every gp, including saturday, than anything Nicki did in Melbourne. Doyle has knocked off more riders than anyone this series.Masters was a tool, which overshadowed a very creditable performance

An engine failure wouldn't have caused a rerun so would have been no help to holder.I agree, I don't think he fell deliberately though Really? How many of the European GPS exceed that crowd? Could equally ask then why we have gps anywhere outside UK and polandvif that's the benchmark

yet batch has potential to improve his average, hard to see zengota improving his, given he averaged only around 5.4 as a hl last year compared to batchs 7. i can understand batch being unpopular, but he is surely a more effectuve use of points. presumably zengi wont be ckassed as a hl, but who knows that said id be aiming for a hl trii of doyle killer and morris, and 2nd srtings others have mentuoned such as michelsen.

wells may be classed as a hl?was thinking similar but swap wells thj morris for pk thomsen barker. though again pk may be classed as a hl

nicki has been on the rough end since 2012 when a dubioud call cost him the title. cant remember a 50/50 call going his way since then either

So poole would have included him ahead of gomolski? On from memory a highrr averagr? Who did they have lined up as their draft pick then?