Pinny

He was charged with two offences. He fled the scene where he knew police would be on there way, that is running from the police no matter how you try and paint it.

Mellgren is superb... is he still under Rickardssons wing? Wont be long before he is EL bound for sure, and he will do well there with his gating although these days he can pass as well. Will be Ryes number one this year without fail and in the top 5 PL aves.

Well obviously I would but I like many sports and plenty of sportsmen have done far more serious things... as I stated before Mike Tyson ranks as one of my favorite boxers yet he got jailed for rape and has been done for many other things including drugs and driving offences, still doesnt stop me from watching his past fights. There could be quite an innocent explanation to this incident just like there could be more to it, he may of been pissed and thats why he drove from the scene (not stating this is what happened - just a possibility) , I just dont like the fact people think Wards offence was more serious. Its only a few riders who do get caught in situations like this, christ I remember in about 2001/2002 two riders (not naming names but people who attended Newport in these years will know who!) were in the bar for a good 2 hours on the razzle after a meeting and then both climbed into their vans and raced eachother out of the stadium... like it or not speedway riders are quite loose in the head as we all know and you can bet so much law breaking goes on that we never know of or becomes public knowledge. Ward and Barker are idiots for what they have done but people turn up to see them in action on the track.

Why? Both have been incredibly silly, both broken the law and both brought a bad name upon the sport however I fail to see how Barkers crime is no less serious than Wards? Crashing a car, knowing youve done wrong and leaving the scene without leaving any details whatsoever is a very serious offence hence his ban from driving and a fine. Both have been careless, silly and inappropriate but saying Barkers crime isnt as bad as Wards is wrong.

He crashed his vehicle into another and failed to leave details or report the incident... You can bet the police were called so in theory, yes he did run from the police. But just like the Ward incident, he is young and makes mistakes and quite frankly, as long as they entertain on track I couldnt careless what they do off it.

Wouldnt expect much from Doolan, hes been on the slide for years now.

Redcar always seem to put together a decent looking side yet things dont go to plan. Kus has been a massive let down since his arrival on the whole . Ostergaard just isnt the number one he once was and Summers seems to of stalled somewhat.

This weakens worky a bit , had campton down as a big improver

If that stadium cost 6m quid id be stunned in all honesty. Not a chance in hell unless he buried 4/5 million of it in cash under the track!! When i attended BP in 2011 i was impressed with the stadium, quite smart. The track wasnt awful and have seen worse meetings, although some of the lower standard of riders in the teams (graversen, wright, jones, kurtz, sedgmen) were struggling to get round the third and fourth bend

In fairness it can be tricky - in 2009 the Newport track was done by Colin Meredith who produced a billiard table most weeks to the liking of Lemon and Werner but the likes of Kerr, Frampton and to a lesser extent Fryer struggled because of their not so good gating and the lack of grip to pass on. But the main factor in sport is the fans because without them the riders dont get paid so a lot of thought does need to go into it.

He looked a good prospect in his younger days, albeit not as good as his brother James although he has lost it hugely, but thats for a different thread.

Well I was proved wrong but still, hes been around a long time, had a lot of clubs and none seem to stick with him. Must be a reason

How many teams and chances has he had? Is his average over 4? I doubt it and doubt it ever will be

Name a young brit who hasnt been signed and would average what Makinen was signed on?

Three and a half hours to get a meeting finished? Shambolic. Ipswich need to get shot of Makinen, total garbage and hasnt beaten an opponent yet. Mellgren, Garrity and Nelson looking quality for the Rockets whilst Allen is capable of a lot more.

What happened with bjerre mont?

I think the riders from the NL that are ready have made the step up already, theres no-one in the NL that hasnt gone a PL place that would do a job IMO, apart from Boxall who apparently interested in PL racing. Shame. Josh Bates, Adam Ellis, Stefan Nielsen, Lewis Kerr, Joe Jacobs, Ben Reade, Jake Knight have all been signed up for the PL this year by clubs, thats seven new Brits in one season which is pretty good, it remains to be seen if they are good enough yet to handle the PL. If they are scoring 0 and 1 every meeting, the promoter is obviously going to look elsewhere for a signing that can score 3 or 4 points a meeting especially if those are the points between winning and losing a meeting. As I said, the PL and EL clubs are businesses... their not charity cases. Whats the average price of a PL meeting now? £16? Whos going to pay that to watch the likes of Brendan Johnson and Luke Priest? If you make it compulsory that two young brits have to ride at reserve, then those are the type of riders that are going to be signed by PL clubs and no offence to those named but they will never ever be anything more than NL second strings at best. You can give them Chris Holders bikes and they still wouldnt be any better. How many times have Glasgow offered deals to young Brits only for them to turn them down due to travel? No wonder theyve turned to young Aussies.

Id say six pl number ones... Smolinski would quite easily be one of the big guns in the PL.

How many foreigners do you see retained for a second season after failing to average 3.00 in their first seasons though? A foreigner is usually given the boot if his average dips below 3.00... I remember mark jones at newport was struggling yet still averaging over 3 and people were calling for a young brit from the nl to take his place yet there were none out there that could of provided the scores he was posting even from reserve The el and pl clubs are essentially businesses you cant expect them to employ sub standard brits . If you take out every foreigner who has failed to hit 5.00/7.00 assessed figures and replace them with the list of riders tnt posted plus other young brits you will end up with a piss poor standard premier league and crowds will drop even further The majority of these foreign boys who come have been riding at least a decade on all sorts of bikes not just speedway bikes, they are competiting against eachother week in week out from the age of about ten maybe even younger i recall kim nilsson was racing a speedway bike in sweden at the age of about 5. Thats just one example i know as a fact, its all well and good these club mascots at the age of 6 or 7 doing a few laps on their own before a meeting on a mini bike but what they should be doing is racing other kids there age on smaller tracks regular which leads to the point that a few mini circuits should be set up for these kids, until there is a production line of young kids ready for pl racing from the uk then the calls for the pl to be flooded with sub standard nl riders should stop

How many if those riders have tried and failed pl on more than one occasion?! Your telling me the likes of brendan johnson are pl standard?! Lol! The el and pl are fine as i said its far lower fown the production line where the issues are

I dont know the ins and outs with sam and billy but do know that too many young brits get put into the pl too early and this has disastrous effects on their career. I think sam and billy were signed because of some decent scores in the nl... However i believe another year or two, maybe three before stepping up would of seen them make decent careers. But they were 6 pt cl riders with far higher scoring riders in the league at the time. You need to dominate the nl before making the move up imo. I think the 80cc league is very relevent... Its funny how all these other top countries have them (sweden poland denmark aussie) yet the countrys that dont have them (russia czech slovakia slovenia croatia etc) only produce a star rider once in a blue moon, those countries are a lot worse off speedway wise than gb. More needs to be looked into getting kids from a young age into speedway on smaller machines, it happens abroad as said and look at some of the talents we see on these shores from abroad. It may not be the sole reason but its one of the biggest.

Better attitudes towards progressing riders from a very young age in their own countrys, its as simple as that really. Until the bspa or scb or whatever put an 80cc junior structure together or something similar then always expect us to be trailing behind the foreign riders. As good as cook and worrall are, compare them with riders of similar or younger age i.e janowski, jepsen jensen, bech jensen, ward, etc. I also find it no coincidence that our brightest star at the mo, tai woffiden, spent the bulk of his life living in aussie and riding with all the young aussie boys. The lack of young brits in the pl and el is nothing to do with it, you know yourself vince what putting the likes of Sam and Billy legg into the pl done to their careers. They should of been ready in the nl before making the step up.. And they werent. The nl nowadays virtually contains all brits , we shall see how well the likes of jacobs and nielsen get on this season, but if they struggle and get booted out and are replaced by a foreigner who can consistently score 3/4/5 points a meeting who can blame the pl promoter? The foreigners taking up places excuse is wearing thin now the lack of young british talent goes a lot further down the line than too many foreigners taking up places

Brum piping up after one round. Hardly surprising.

Also all three poles wearing their swc kevs

What a rider Sullivan was in his prime... Still a class act on the continent now although finds the small tracks a bit tricky. One of my favorite riders. Good luck in your retirement Ryan