waiheke1

Kenny bjerre isn't any strong my than r/r IMO, and has a reputation for choking in the play offs. Home win by 6-8 I reckon.

The last few years have seen no material change to format. Final I thought always got good crowds. It is generally some of the best speedway of the season. Just wondering why you think they would like rid?

It's a good post arnieg. But worrall and bacon for example are both 23. When you look at the poles that age, there is no comparison. Will we catch up to the danes and aussies. If you measure on swc, who knows, there you need 4 good riders but with a spread of up to 20 years in age. GP series is really just for the exceptional talents, and too early to tell if any will make it, though Im confident lambert will. Not sure any of the brits so far through the edr will. But I think the edr has worked to bring brits on, the NL set up seems good, what I'd suggest is needed is something at pl level. And obviously would be ideal if the EL were strengthened so our riders don't need to be reliant on picking up team places in sweden and Poland to really make it. Is Sweden the new Britain of days gone by? Strong domestic league with lots of foreign talent, but struggling to develop their own. Though I recall in the 80s they had only Jan Anderson of real calibre, then nilsen and Jonsson led a wave of new talent. Maybe Swedish speedway is just very cyclical?

Nasty crash, reminiscent of both the gundersen and ward crashes in the way he hit the ground. With a bsck injury should the track staff have rolled him from front to bsck the way they did? Hope he recovers well, the last few meetings have shown him back to his best, looks like his bikes have been sorted as looking a lot quicker. Look fwd to seeing him back in GPS next year.

Why alternate? They aren't going to ditch the Swc being annual. The pairs could be run over three consecutive days, if you have semis, or just one Saturday if you seed the nations to a final. Or a Friday Saturday if you have only ten teams you could run both semis as one meeting.

Pretty sure SCB for one said he stopped attending after the Kildemand "text-gate"A number of other posters have cited the above reasons as driving them away from the sport

Tbh the grand prix and swc have it right, that's speedway as it should be. What you need to do is take that and apply it to sport at elite league level - the issue is that it would cost money to do so, anfmd typically the approach has been to cut costs rather than work out how to grow revenue.

Exactly right. That's why speedway is the only sport to have play offs...

Ate you one of the rob/Roberts that rode with middlo for poole in the 80s?

Agree with that last part. But would be much better that it was an authorised, official world chsmpionship.

I would have thought so, as per my query to him above. But his post, to which I responded, didn't seem to indicate they were going to try to find out.

Tbf I liked the old tac sub rule. I guess because it's what I grew up with. And the aces won the 83 premiership with a 2nd leg, heat 13, 5-1 with my all time favourite rider Larry Ross coming in as tac sub to (in conjunction with PC) win through meeting for the Aces. But what speedway really needs to do is run meetings in 90 minutes, provide decent entertainment between heats, market itself, a well planned fixture list, produce a simple and transparent set of rules, and that would be a solid starting point. The racing is as good as it ever was (imho) but that in itself is not enough these days.

I think most of us prefer the old tac sub rule tbh. But it was - in most circumstances - more advantageous to the trailing team than the double points. Either way, I'd suggest it's way down the list of things wrong with speedway.

Tbh it could be possible to add more detail where needed and still shorten the rule book. The issue is do much of it is horribly written and ambiguous. Clear and concise doesn't rule out explicit detail where needed.

Yes and by having the first leg at home you are guaranteed a good crowd. Win the first leg away, or cop a hiding, and crowd is likely to be reduced for a second leg match.

That was what I suggested the speedway star should be doing, if you recall my previous post...

Not disputing that. It would be good to understand the reasoning though, especially in the new Chapman era of transparency.

Yes bit that would still mean not in gp til 2018. much better to seed him into the series IMHO.

Surely the team building limit will only increase to 42.5 if edr come in on their 2016 average? If assessed at 4 (which makes no sense to standardise them when they have real averages) then surely the limit stays at 40.5? Yes and no. Many edr have spent quite a chunk of time in the top 5. If you are adjusting reserve averages, you should do the same for 2nd strings. Which tbh is what I would do. 75% and 50% multipliers for points scored in 2nd string and reserve respectively. And build to something like a 35 point limit.

Are we sure about that?

So does that mean the Star won't be investigating this ludicrous decision? Surely this move, which could materially affect the outcome of the play offs, is worthy of at least getting a statement explaining the decision. Fans want to know. Does anyone have any straw going spare, I think I've found a use for it!

I find it interesting that someone bemoans the use of two golden doubles, which could give that team a 6 point advantage over two heats. Whereas the old tac sub rule could produce a swing of 8 points per heat, so 16 points in two heats.

Right. And what do you do these days? Retired on your huge career earnings? Furniture business? Always good hearing what the stars of yesteryear get up to once their racing days are over.

Tbh having a rider who is no good at home can be a good thing. So long as he can ride close to his average you rely on team mates to win the home meetings. Then you have a rider who should score well away from home, but whose average doesn't get inflated by big home scores.Downside is, it's not great for the rider!

If you were to use a sandwich as an analogy..the filling would be two obese blue whales and a herd of hippopotami. Wrapped in Greece and Turkey.