E I Addio

It doesn't need many. A few here and a few there is still reducing clubs income, even if it only adds up to a few hundred pounds a year I.e. The value of one season ticket per club it is still a few hundred pounds a year that hard pressed clubs can't afford, especially on top of fans drifting away for othe reasons and not being replaced.

Sort out the EDR system so we don't have the farce of the teams that finish top getting the best resrves the following year and the team that finish bottom getting the weakest reserve pairings.

A "high pain freshold "? Good ol' Starman, always ready to expand the English language ! You must be great to play scrabble with. As for level of pain freehold/threshold a lot must be governed by what Matt tells them to do ,

Ed Kennett has knee damage, that is bad enough to need an operation but he still rode in the Play off semi. Loads of riders get knee damage and still see the season out. Can Bjarne not wear a knee brace like most of the others ? We had all this in the past with Joe Screens shoulder. Unfit to ride when it suited Ford then scored a 15 point maximum the following night. Loads of riders from Ove Fundin to Tai Woffinden have won world titles with far worse injuries that that, and of course we all remember Kenny Carter having to be physically lifted onto his bike to race with a broken leg. #prayforbjarne

Or it gives him another 48hrs to injure it again, falling off his lawn mower or something, depending how you look at it.

Nutters or not, the sport cannot afford to,lose any more support. For every fan that walks away it's another few hundred quid that's lost through the turnstiles in a sport that's struggling to pay the bills already. Whichever way you break it down it's always Poole at the bottom of it. Joe Screens dodgy shoulder injury that stopped him getting a new average so they coukd get Hans Andersen in, then he comes back the next night and gets a 15 point maximum, the dodgy abandoned meetings after 10 heats, THJ, Dakota North, Hans Andersen again, and all the rest, round and round and round it goes, one thing after another year after year, always with Poole at the centre of it.

There is a sort of precedent for that . A couple of seasons ago Lakeside against Birmingham or Kings Lynn, can't remember which, Kevin Doolan turned up not knowing who he was riding for , having apparently been booked, unbooked then re-booked by both teams or something like that. Lakeside eventually had him and the others had r/r. S Sorry to hear about Bjarnes knee injury. Let's hope it's nothing long term and he makes a speedy recovery

Playing devils advocate, is there any specific definition of what "long term injury " means in Speedwáy terms? In normal English I would say perhaps a couple of months at least but knowing the way these things work in Speedwáy is there room for Ford to argue that it can be interpreted as a couple of weeks ? In other words, could this be another case of Ford finding a loophole in a poorly drafted rule?

Just seen the website now updated. Hardly surrendering, he is about the most expensive rider to get in, so hardly first choice. They must be scraping the bottom of the barrel though. No explanation on the website of course of why KK is suddenly not coming. A lot of Lakeside fans now complaining they can't rely on anything Jon Cook says and this isn't helping. Maybe Lakeside is where Bomber is heading next year and they are giving him a try out now (yes I was joking ). What a shambles.

According to the website it is still KK. Where do you get Harris from ?

Its not in dispute that Jon Cook has said several things over the years that have not come to fruition, and some of those things would have been better left unsaid. However , I don't think its in dispute either that Old Bob at Herne Bay is always over-egging the pudding when it comes to jumping in with his attempts at sarcasm. That's why among a lot of Lakeside fans he is known as Old Knob at Herne Bay . The point is that when you go round criticising others you need to be accurate yourself. As Bryn has already pointed out nothing was said about AJ making a "rapid" recovery. That was something O.B. made up himself. Criticism is fine but it needs to be fair. I think what people are choosing to ignore is that yesterday was effectively AJ's home GP and he would have all his sponsors there and would naturally want to put on a good show for them especially with next year in mind, so of course he would be moving heaven and earth to try to get fit, but as we now know he didn't make it . Nothing was ever said by Cook or anyone else about a rapid recovery though.. I agree he said something about a complete revamp though, but I wouldn't stake my life on it happening, and if it did I am not sure it would necessarily be for the better. Hope it doesn't mean Paul Hurry coming in as team manager after last Wednesdays shambles. Kelvin needs to stay IMO.

I was there and as Stevebrum says it was Steve Worrall

Brain dead at the Appollo would be more like it

I don't know about couldn't make it up but you have done a pretty good job of twisting the facts by throwing in some half truths and exaggerations as usual.

Crowd patterns are very likely different at Lakeside to Belle Vue. At Lakeside Sky broadcasts always seem to knock the crowds down a bit. Apart from the obvious attraction of sitting indoors watching it, the move from a Friday race night has an effect but mostly I think it's people unable to make the 7.30 start. On normal Friday race night with 8 pm start the crowd seems to almost double in size between 7.45 and 8 pm. When Sky come this late influx doesn't seem to happen. I don't know why but I assume it is because a lot coming up from Kent don't have time to get home from work and que up to get across Dartford Crossing in time. Conversely the Saturday meetings against Coventry start at 7.30 or 7.45 and are always well supported irrespective of the P.O. situation. Jon Cook said that he wants to try to get more Saturday meetings next year because crowds are better, assuming it can be fitted around the Stock cars.

Not sure on what basis you think the Lakeside crowd was poor. I have heard some say it was good and some say it was poor, but I was there I don't know how people think they can tell. It's dark soon after 7 o clock these days and once the track lights come on at around 7 it's very difficult to see anything off track. Historically Lakeside crowds, and presumably mist others drop when Sky are there especially when it's not normal race night. However for some time now the Lakeside promotion have been pushing the "must win " aspect as the play offs draw closer and attendances have generally been quite good, except when a patched up Kings Lynn side came and people stayed away. Personally I woukd say attendances have more to do with the quality of the visiting team. rather than the play offs. Certainly that seems to be the case at Lakeside.

Exactly what I have been hearing re Rye and Glasgow. Take everything you hear in Speedwáy with a pinch of salt of course but it's interesting that although 150 miles apart we have heard the same things, although I have heard the possibility of Ippo as well, and it was from a fairly good source, not the proverbial bloke in a pub.

If you could turn the clock back 30 or 40 years you would find plenty of older fans in the crowd moaning because in their opinion it was better 30 or 40 years before that.

No different toPoole getting a ringer in on a false average to cover the second heatleader role and he finishes up scoring less than r/r would have done. I am amazed that after all the years you have followed Speedwáy you still haven't grasped that you can't just bring a Continental Johnny in and expect him to hit the ground running. Not only are track surfaces different to when Lindback last rode here but crucially- and this is the point that those with no mechanical knowledge can't grasp -the silencers are different. If Linback, a GP rider and therefore amongst the best in the world can only manage 5 points from 5 rides on his home track what reason is there to believe that any Tom, Dick, or Bartosz would score any more than the six points R/R scored at Lakeside ? Obviously a like for like replacement for AJ would be ideal but in reality there are only a tiny handful of riders that coukd do a serious job and none were available. And still those who say a No 1 should have been brought in can't tell us who was available and prepared to come.

A choice of t wo possibilities there. Either Gerald has a twin brother driving the tractor at Lakeside on Wedbesday, or else it was Gerald himself driving the tractor and you are telling porkies about him being at Poole. Hmm.... Anybody ever seen or heard of Gerald having a twin brother? No, thought not. Caught out telling porkies it is then.

On the old Lakeside website just before it was closed down, and apparently your abuse and insults were part of the reason why it was closed. I note you don't deny abuse and insults towards Neil. I never said it didn't. All I said, if you bother to read the post properly was that you are the only one to ever describe him as the Motivational Coach " , and that the programme describes him as team manager. He has never been described as "Motivational Coach " That is just an adjective you put in to mislead people (a lie in other words) to add a bit of force to your carping criticism.

Would that be the same Chris Van Straaten who had just signed the Workd Champion on a bargain average ? Wow what a coincidence that would be !

TBF I think in his mind he had every intention of going through, it's just that he is getting the way Len Silver went years ago. It reminded me of a meeting against Coventry few years ago when the track was done and ready to race and Cook came out and for reasons best known to himself picked up a hose and started watering the start area and n messed it all up. Lakeside then lost a meeting they should have one. I still like the atmosphere, I like the riders, and I like most of the fans but Cookie has got to get his act together.

The blame lays firmly at Jon Cooks door. At the fans forum in February, Kelvin said he wanted the track to be prepared the same way for every meeting, as far as the weather allows, at not to keep changing things, that's the way riders get used to a track and learn how to ride it with confidence. Jon Cook was sitting next to him when he said it. That's what has been done most of the season and we have seen some great racing this year. Then we get to the most meeting of the season, in front of a TV audience and the local MP , Kelvin is missing, Cook is in charge and we get that pile of sludge, because the tried and tested method that worked so well all season has not been followed. As a result we saw, for example Kennett and Bridger not being able to pull off those sweeps round the outside that have brought so many points this year. I support Jon Cook on most things, most of the time but he is the man in charge, the buck stops with him, and he has fouled up big time. Personally I am furious. I need the winter to calm down. As I feel at the moment I might consider the Rye House option next year, but we'll see what the winter brings. Cook is not my favourite person right now though. KK would likely have hit double figures but he was apparently booked to ride in Poland. King was asked but wanted to take up Sky's offer. The others mention probably couldn't be guaranteed to score more than six between them. Based on past performances Hougaard might have done, Morris might have done but no guarantee , far from it.

The EDR is a shambles from start to finish. I accept it is necessary to save costs, and it has had some resounding successes notably Steve Worrall, but overall it has not been properly thought through and some promoters acknowledge that, others are quite happy because it has been stitched up to their advantage. I thought it highlighted the ill thought out system when PK went to reserve, but at least PK wasn't there long and has otherwise managed to do the bona fide second string role he was brought in to do. By contrast Bjarne spending such a long time not only brought into focus the glaring inadequacies of the system, which amongst other things allowed Poole to retain Newman as an EDR rider, but it also meant that Bjarne himself was content to wobble around using his experience to get out of the gate ahead of relatively inexperienced youngsters, with very little desire or incentive to get into the 1-5. We can have a whole separate discussion about the inadequacies of the EDR scheme, but basically I think the public woukd get behind riders like Max Clegg and other British youngsters doing a job at reserve but we don't pay good money to see the likes of Pedersen in that role for an extended period gradually knocking up a six point average the easy way. The bottom line is that it's cheating the paying public.