spin king

So Palm Toft was dropped after Friday's meeting. Re-instated on Sunday Dropped again on Tuesday. I await to see when he will be re-instated.

Some really interesting points coming out, and the future of the sport is something that I have given some serious thought.this season, and I have to say that the sport is on its arse at the moment. For as many seasons that care to remember Promoter have tinkered with rules and regulations of the sports to the point where even the Promoters themselves don't understand the rules for instance Sheffield, Glasgow and Scunthorpe been caught up in the assessed riders problems where they have been forced to wait to make changes to their teams. So if the people that are running the show don't understand the rules what chance have the present fans or any new fans going to understand it. The League scoring system is a sporting joke, sport is a contest where you aim is to win, so why do we reward a team that has lost (1 point to an away team that loses by 6 or less), make it simple 3 points for a win, 2 points for an away draw, 1 point for a home draw, then if Promoters want to keep a meeting alive then bring back the bonus point for the aggregate score. And if you want be revolutionary then what about this idea, have further heat 16 where by you have a nominated rider from each race off for a further bonus point, would give extra value to supporters and not much more cost to Promoters. If the meeting is cancelled before heat 16 both teams share the point. All simple and easy for anyone to understand, and at not much cost to the Promoters. The tactical ride is all wrong, how can you award more points to a rider for 2nd than one that comes 1st,is not sport about been rewarded for winning , bring back the tactical substitute rule whereby you can bring in a replacement rider when you are 6 or more points behind. The rolling averages are a nightmare, fans have no way of been able to follow them, why does it have to be 38 matches, who wants to know what sort of form a rider had over two seasons ago, revert back to the old style averages which was more about current form.. Forums and social networking, most Promoters hate them, but it is a way of keeping in touch with there supporters who are their customers, if you have a view that is different to theirs and you are viewed as an enemy rather than someone who is passionate about your team at Sheffield we have been called Keyboard Warriors sometimes, and I have seen it happen at other clubs as well. Too many Promoters are quick to accept praise but don't ;like criticism no matter how constructive you are, they really need to listen to fans. Why not have an elected supporters representative for each club that pass onto clubs what the fans think and their views and what the fans really want. maybe invite them to talk at the Annual Conference, and find out what the fans really want. The next time you are at a speedway meeting, take a look around and count how many fans are under the age of under 21, I bet you won't need to use you any more than the fingers on your hands. The sport needs some serious marketing to attract younger fans, a speedway crowd feels like a Old Folks outing the coast, Speedway is a sport that is as exciting as it can get go out Promote the sport in schools.a few years ago Glasgow got involved in educational centre with schools, why not try that again. End of the day, the sport has over complicated its self and basically needs to dumb itself down and make it easy to understand, and some Promoters need to stop trying to bend the rules, but more importantly they need to listen to their customers. . .

Maybe with the pressure off, we might just put in a decent performance, no one is going to give us a cat in hells chance, you never know.

I don't rate our chance really, we not had a very good record around Brough Park for sometime, mainly looking for us to give a good account of ourselves, and see some of the lads get a few points.

Some interesting comments about Ricky Wells. But lets look at the facts. Lets look at the current form averages, not the rolling averages, but current form averages for meetings this season for Sheffield for League Cup, KOC and Premier League matches Take Adam Roynon equation and look at the riders who have been the three heatleaders for Sheffield this season. This is what the riders have averaged this season minus bonus points, home, away and overall. Simon Stead; home 10.21, away 7.76, overall 8.90 Richard Hall; home 7.68, away 5.39, overall 6.80 Ricky Wells; home;7.26, away 8.47, overall 7.79 Personally I don't give a rats arse about what Ricky Wells does Guesting for Berwick Devils against Plymouth Bandits, I am interested in what he does for Sheffield speedway. And if he he is using Sheffield simply to test engines and practice for his Elite club, then he must be some bloody good rider, because if you were to look at the Premier League there cannot be many that are averaging nearly 8.50 away from home on current form. The problem with Ricky is that I don't think the Sheffield track suits him and I think he finds it very much a challenge, but away from home he is our top performer and those figures would suggest that he is one of the top performers away from home in the Premier League And for that reason I am at a lost as to why Sheffield Team Management don't alternate the number 5 riding position with Richard Hall riding it for home matches and Ricky Wells away.

They did wonders for Josh Auty, and Joe Haines seems to be getting his career back on track albeit very gradually. The thing with the Sheffield Promotion is they will always give a rider plenty of time to settle. Take a look at the Sheffield teams over the last 10 years or so and they rarely make changes to their team unless they have injuries, there are some Promotions who have made more changes in one season than Sheffield have made in 10 seasons.

Berwick have stated that Edward Kennett is a temporary replacement for Ricky, and when Ricky is ready to return his place is open to him. Ricky is as far as I am aware is very happy happy at Berwick. I would be very surprised if he was fit and to be an option, but never say never. But I think if he was fit Berwick is where he would be riding.

I would say rumour.

Jake has not retired, he is taking time out.

I very much doubt that Sheffield have a replacement line up just yet. I think they will want to take their time over a replacement and as already stated they will have luxury of the pick of virtually any rider from the league. I think that you can rule out it been a Swedish rider as they ride in Sweden on Thursdays. But it is a hammer blow for the club as Steady is not only the number 1 but our captain and the heart beat of the team. Get Well Soon Skipper.

Start of the season most Sheffield fans would have told you that the team put out was a gamble. But that gamble at the start of the season appear to be paying off as we qualified for the League Cup Semi Final's, both reserves looked suspect but the top 5 were more or less holding the team together. The side seemed to go backwards when we had injuries to both Simon Stead and Richard Hall, and it was not just the two reserves that were having some poor meetings that was where we started to lose our way a bit and put more pressure on the two reserves. Both were still not scoring many points, but of the two Jake was outscoring Damien and it is fair to say that most probably thought that Damien could be the one for the chop if we were to make changes. But out of the blue Damien's form appeared to change over night two or three weeks ago. Both lads have put in a tremendous effort to get things right and for me are a credit to the club, hope this clears things up, I don't think for one second that Jake lacks the ambition. He has probably taken the right decision in taking a break, why take a position of another rider if you are a little uncertain of whether you really want to do it anymore. Hopefully Jake can come back next year fresh and ready for another crack at riding for the Tigers as he did on occasions show us what he can do.

Who knows why Jake has taken the decision, it could be finance problems. I doubt it is down to attitude problems, Jake quit his National League position at Kings Lynn to concentrate on his Sheffield commitments..

Who are about to announce a change to the team that could change the fortunes of the club.

Well if it is true lets hope that things can get sorted out and riders get back to riding for their club.

Someone has posted on Facebook, that whole Leicester team have quit the club, if its true what the hell is that all about.

I hope its Adam as well, I am a big fan of his. Sheffield and Adam are made for each other at the moment.

Well that saved me getting wet, I giving it 10 minutes and going to set off.

Its raining pretty steadily for around three quarters of hour, I am leaving it till the last minute before I set off.

Well I am still hankering on him lining up for Sheffield.

Seen him riding around Sheffield after the meeting for the last two weeks, and looked really good. Looks like he has got some of the old spark back, but the problem I always had with Andre, was that sometimes he looked totally disinterested and when he was like that he could be very poor, speedway been more of hobby so to speak. But if he is up for it he could well be a potentially cracking signing for Glasgow..

I would leave out Bomber.I would not beg Scott Nicholls back. Lets do what the Danes did last season and drop most of the old guard. For me has to be Tai Craig Cook Richie Worrall and ny one from these three King/ Barker/ Kennett. Certainly would not go with Auty, his inability to gate will find him wanting at that level.

Well been one the Team Managements biggest critics I suppose I will be in line for the Richard of the Week. I tell you what I will come onto the cetntre green and accept my reward providing they tell everyone what I have said. This is what I said on here after the Leicester match and have been saying for weeks before that. Had time to sleep on the result and feel I can put down my views. I said at the start of the season that the team was a gamble and that gamble has not paid off, we need to make changes to the team, but to make any decent changes we need to wait now till mid June when our riders on assessed riders gain proper averages. Okay but what do the Team Management done to change things or try and get the best of the team? Nothing.. At home we should be at least trying to win all meetings and cannot understand why they don't mix the riding orders up.. Anyone can see that Joe Haines is not suited riding at number 3 Joe is a rider who relies on his gating and is known to have a fragile confidence level, why stick him at 3 where his first race is either off gates 3 and 4 which at Sheffield is a bit of a graveyard gates. For me its killing his confidence. Stick Joe at number 2 where he will be off either gates 1 or 2, where he has consistently beat some very good riders already this season, and a winning start will give him more confidence as the meeting goes along. Richard Hall, is a match for Simon Stead around Sheffield, where have the Sheffield Management place him, at number 4 That means our 2nd best rider in the team has his last programme ride in heat 14, by which time its too late to make any difference to the scoreline in a team that is struggling, either stick him at 5. Ricky Wells is our top man away, but can be a bit indifferent at home, so why not for home matches give him the number 3 race jacket. The reserves are what they are and we have to live with that. If we replace anyone before mid June it would be basically cosmetic and I don't think that anything would change results wise, but come mid June we should have some serious amount of points to play with to make some drastic changes, where we will have a choice of with the possibility of either dropping one reserve and bringing in a rider of around 6.50 to 7.50, or dropping both reserves and bringing in a two riders with a combined average of around 11. By that time, the Play offs will be out of reach, but still have the League cup to go at so all is not lost. But the Team Management has to do something, for me a change in the riding order as a temporary fix, and then Mid June lets make some changes that could just turn the season around and have us making some serious challengers for some sliverware, even though at the moment it seems unlikely. If that makes me a turkey then what does that say about the Team Management. Over to you Dave.

But your original line up had only three.

To be fair to the Sheffield team started the season, with 4 Brits. If Adam Roynon was to replace Jake Knight they would still have 4 Brits in their team. Not many of teams in the top two leagues who can beat that.

If he is prepared to wait until this Saturday then Sheffield would then be able to fit him in. He did have after the meeting rides at Sheffield this Thursday, but I don't look too much into that as we have quite few riders who come for after meeting spins. But I would welcome Adam with open arms even with his injury history, quality rider who fit nicely into the Sheffield team. .