Statman

Rules don't permit use of a guest when it just one rider out of top 5 missing from team...R/R was only option available to Rebels

The number of matches are to be reduced as such; The number of RA Matches will gradually be reduced throughout the season, so that by September they will mainly reflect 2013 PL Matches (For those that have completed all 24 League matches).On the 1st of the month they will be reduced to: May: 35 meetings June: 32 meetings July: 29 meetings August: 26 meetings September: 24 meetings.

Why....is he a plumber when not racing ???

In truth though, while gate 4 'provided' it's fair share of race winners last night, many of those wins had little to do with the actual gate position. Yes in heat 1 Doyle won from gate, but then he did so from any gate he had.....heat 2 it was Stefan Nielsen who had the better start only for Simon to come past him off 2nd bend....heat 3 Morris (and Davies for that matter) were stone last out of gate, but made stunning passes to get to front...heat 4, it was Perry & Nielsen that made the better starts with Karlsson and Grajczonek passing them round first turn, Karlsson taking initial over Grajczonek until Josh passed him down back straight into bend 3.....I'll concede that Morris won from gate in heat 5....Graversen did lead out of gate 4 in 8, but only 'won' the race because he couldn't stay on bike after Newman passed him.....heat 14 Davies was out of gate 4 but took him nearly a lap of winding it on round outside line to get past Doolan.......so I think just looking at what gate eventually won race does not give true picture.

It finished Denmark 53, Australia 42, Germany 25, USA 4 Australian scorers were: Nick Morris 13 – 2, 3, 4, 2, X, 2 Todd Kurtz 12 – 3, 2, 2, 3, 2 Tyson Nelson 5 – 1, X, N, 2, 2 Alex Davies 12 – 2, 3, 2, 2, 3 Morris was a tac sub for double points for Nelson in Tyson’s 3rd ride In his heats Tyson finished: Heat 4: Nicklas Porsing (Dk), Erik Riss (Ger), Tyson Nelson (A), Rocco Scopellite Heat 7: Mikkel Bech (Dk), Michell Hoffman (Ger), Jamieson Dilkey (USA), Tyson Nelson (exc) (A) Heat 14: Mikkel Michelson (Dk), Tyson Nelson (A), Mark Riss (Ger), Gino Manzares (USA) Heat 18: Mikkel Michelson (Dk), Tyson Nelson (A), Michell Hoffman (Ger), Gino Manzares (USA)

Result of Helzold Championship held at Heusden-Zolder, Belgium, this afternoon; Piszcz Persynski Rozenberg Vad The semi-finals finished: Piszcz Persynski Newman Oldenziel (exc) Vad Rosenberg Hadek Sorensen Apologies, but this is the only information I have from friend who was at the meeting apart from fact that Argentinian rider Santiago Martinez was unbeaten in winning the National Class.

Yes, as far as I know the vast majority of the original field are available for the re-staging date

Yes, unfortunately the terms of our planning only allow Somerset to run on Friday nights or 6 'off nights' during the year but not on a Saturday or Sunday, nor a Bank Holiday.

Which it definitely won't be

Well then it's up to the other track to request to stage the meeting...if Somerset were the only promotion/club to put in such a request there's not much else you can do about it......so for this year at least it is a case of it being at the Oaktree Arena or not at all...and the latter option of the 2 will attract even less fans

But the BSPA are not holding a speedway meeting during the winter for the fans....Somerset Speedway is holding the meeting. All clubs have the opportunity to request the licence to run an out of season meeting and the BSPA then grant the licence for that meeting to be run....but the BSPA do not run the meeting, all they do is grant the licence for it to be run. As far as I am aware, though I could be wrong, I don't think any other club requested a licence to run a meeting apart from Somerset.

The actual format/price of the 2013 programme will not be confirmed until most probably late January next year as need to look into the actual layout/content/design of the programme coupled with the amount of advertising space that has been sold. One thing I can assure you of, though, is the fact that it will not be the 4-sided A4 race-card style we had in 2011. Initial thoughts are that it might well be a something along the lines of a glossy, 32 page, B4 size programme, but as I say a final decision will not be made until late January 2013.

Why not suggest that someone purchases you a ticket for the meeting as a Birthday Present? Tickets for the meeting can be bought in advance as a Christmas or Birthday Pressie by writing to the club (Speedway Office, Somerset Rebels Speedway, Oaktree Arena, Bristol Road, Edithmead, Nr Highbridge, Somerset, TA9 4HA) enclosing a cheque for £16.00 (payable to Somerset Speedway 2011Ltd) and an sae.

There will also be other attractions on the day such as a Collector's Fayre during the afternoon, the 'Men In Black' doing some heats on vintage bikes during the meeting, with the bikes on display before the meeting gets under-way, plus hopeful of arranging some pit-bike races prior to the start of meeting itself.

Queensland: 1) Josh Grajczonek, 2) Tyson Nelson, 3) Nick Morris (f.rem), 4) Ryan Douglas (dnf) New South Wales: 1) Sam Masters, 2) Rohan Tungate, 3) Todd Kurtz, 4) Kozza Smith Victoria: 1) Justin Sedgmen, 2) Dakota North, 3) Cory Gathercole, 4) Cameron Woodward

Nope, you not dreaming it, Richie is in the line up; David Howe Ricky Ashworth Simon Lambert Lewis Bridger Ben Barker Ryan Fisher Randy Oldenziel Kyle Newman James Wright Richard Hall Jacob Thorssell Richie Worrall All confirmed so far, last 4 names due to be released in next few days

It's the Danish rider Simon Nielsen that has signed for Leicester.......

The averages shown in the Star are not the official averages as they; 1) are calculated on 2012 meetings in isolation and do not take into account the rolling averages that are used to calculate the official averages. 2) include all official meetings but matches such as KO Cup ties, Play-off matches etc are not used as part of the official calculation process. 3) include bonus points that are not used in the official calculation of the averages.

Hate to tell you this but Aspregren's average is 6.40, not 6.25.............

So if you didn't know who was available or not why make comment as to choice of guest used? Stuart Robson, eh? So what if Newcastle's match at home to Ipswich on Sunday have been called off and it re-scheduled for Monday as well? What Somerset needed was someone who was definitely available on Sunday and Monday (and possibly Tuesday and Wednesday for that matter!) and Robson wasn't.

It is also interesting to note that those who criticised the booking/use of Hall and Kerr as guest replacements have yet to put forward any suggestions as to who they would have used instead, so to use a phrase we used to have where I worked - don't come to the table if you don't have an alternative! There were some Somerset supporters there last night who had driven up on Sunday for the original staging of the match only to have the match called off soon after they got there. They then endured a 6 1/2 hour drive home (due to a number of incidents and road works on ruote back), only to drive back up again yesterday to support the team and suffered just as bad a journey back as they had the previous night. They came into the pits after the meeting PROUD of what the Rebels had achieved not just in the Play-Off Final, but over the season as a whole...no criticism from them of any decisions etc that the team management may have made, just pure PRIDE in their team.

I have been in regular contact with people from Sports Dept at BBC Bristol about Rebels over past week or so, and as a result hopefully the Points West cameras will be at the Oaktree Arena tonight to do a live 'feed' from pits as part of their sports desk during the local news bulletin from 6.30pm....I'm just waiting for a call back from Sports Unit to confirm that they are coming down. Also Kyle Newman will be interviewed live on BBC Radio Bristol's Saturday Sports Show at about 1pm tomorrow afternoon.

You could argue that Scunthorpe's form at the Oaktree Arena is equally 'patchy' having suffered some heavy defeats (63-29, 56-38, 65-29, 62-32 for example) in their 8 previous visits to Somerset, whereas Somerset have only failed to hit 40 points at Scunthorpe on 2 ocassions out of their 8 visits there, albeit one of those was a 70-20 defeat!

Rain-Off re-admission tickets are valid for any future Somerset Rebels home meeting this or next season as stated in the match-day programme and on the official club website.

No we didn't, we started the meeting at 7.00pm that night, with the engines being started in order to warm up at 6.30pm, which was, and still is, within the time permitted by our planning lease.