waiheke1

Thing with Starnan is he gets ideas into his head that he thinks are funny and repeats them over and over. At the moment it's Brum and sleep. Before that it was Orion and walking to Poole. Before that SCB and sheep (I think). Then his random comments about The Doctor and a Chris Holdef shirt. And for a while the line was "don't dance to anybody else's tune.End of the day the bloke is a moron.

But also look at the quality of racing produced by these riders. Can you name even one world final where the racing was as good as at Mallila on the weekend? I've watched every world final that is available on DVD or YouTube and would suggest none come close.

I guess the difference was that the "number 8" would only be called up a handful of times a season, not riding full time on both leagues.I'd also suggest that the proportion of overseas riders, at least in the top flight, has not significantly changed since the 80s. In fact I'd say there are far fewer sub standard foreigners - I recall the likes of j verner ondrasik noer hdriniak righetto and Eastbourne alone one season (83?) used at least half a dozen rubbish foreign riders

May actually help his chances of getting a wildcard for next year assuming no pole gets through from the challenge?

Could you explain why age is an issue, given that he has won three world championships while in his 40s? Not a stand out individual, though you could argue on form this season that the likes of milik lebedebs a laguta and a few others are better than say holder and pederssnBut I can definitely see a scenario where the 4 wild cards are given to riders in the series this year. In fact it would be possible to have the exact same line up next year if the likes of pawlicki zagar and vaculik took top 3 in the challenge, though I'd say that's unlikely.

Simple answer is no they don't warrant two picks. Maybe they will get two, of lindback for example makes top 8 then maybe they would give them to Greg holder and two Danes? But would be rough on zagar/vaculik if they finished top 10 and didn't get one. Has a rider ever finished top10 in recent times and not been given a wildcard?

The main issue for Poole is KK scoring basically half of what he was expected to. The next biggest issue was injury to Kurtz, with his replacement averaging over 2 points less (before factoring in the impact on ht15 as well). The loss of Klindt has been an issue as Lahti has proved a poor replacement, a couple of points less than Klindt would have done. New mans injury meant he was scoring a couple of points less than you would expect, I don't think Kerr quite matched the level Poole fans would have hoped for, but starke probably has. I'd say this one has had minimal impact on pooles season.

Can't disagree with that, with dudek already almost certain of a top 8 gp finish I can see the extra spot goingv to one of zagar/vaculik/pawlicki.

I'd say if the series finished with standings as they are, 3 Monster riders (Hancock holder lindback) would likely get wild cards along with a dane. But I don't see that as being influenced by the sponsor.

Tbf with Newman they replaced a rider averaging 3.5 with one who has averaged 6, albeit from the easier reserve berth. kK being rubbish all season plus the injury to Kurtz are the 2 big issues

Puk. Struggling in the gps but there isn't a weak rider in that field. Milder an is struggling more, Madsen is doing no better in the vastly weaker SEC, MJJ hasn't done anything to deserve it, Bjerre like Madsen Nor setting SEC alight. Maybe Nicki but didn't he get one for this year? And hard to see him come back now as a real force even if injury recovery allows it.

No suggestion? Cook himself tweeted that an official had punched him?!?

It depends what you consider media. If we are talking print or free to air coverage, certainly far less.But the amount of meetings you can watch has increased exponentially, each week there are minimum a dozen meetings you can watch online. Results of any meeting are available online, and there is more information available online than was ever published on the media. So id say people's are far more aware of injuries etc than in prior years. as Iris has mentioned I'm pretty sure someone has done the analysis and concluded that injuries are no more prevalent now than historically. So I think it's z perception thing, not a reality

It sure they could as the contract was between the council and the contractors? So only the council could have sued or withheld payment.

Isn't it illegal to remove goggles during the race?

Super speedway. Speedway out of the top drawer. Big night for the top 4 and a terrible one for Doyle and dudek. Really sets up the title battle now and even the other medals look up for grabs. Woffy still unable to convert into a really big score but did look much better tonight

Anyone think Emils bikes just not quick enough? Whereas in previous seasons he has always seemed to have bikes as quick or quicker than anyone else in the world?

Especially when at the interval 8th place already had 6 pointsSome idiot at that stage thought 8 wouldn't be enough to make the semis 😂

Disagree think the racing was good from heat one, progressing to excellent in the latter part

Some top racing the last couple of heats

Agree entirely on the first part, been good clean starts tonight generallly.Disagree on the second ppint, correct decision for smoli to go imo PAawlicki to go this time though surely Awful decision. Zagar had the lead and pawlicki turns into him

Steve if you look back I've said on multiple threads that it is ridiculous Musielak came on on the average he did.Re woryna this is not an anti Poole thing, my view is ANY rider who didn't ride in Britain this year should be re assessed for 2018 based on averages achieved in Europe. And these averages should be published for every rider so there is full transparency.

Hard to see 8 bring enough to make the semis, so Doyle highly unlikely to make it. Looking like a good night for Janowski as well as the pack chasing the top 3.

Often the racing can take a while to warm up, but there's been passing on most races so far, hard to find fault with it imo

Obsessed much?