E I Addio

Well the moral of the story is don't believe everything Roscoe says. Did you believe him last year when he said Swindon had Eddie Kennet on a bargain average ? Did you believe him this year when he said he thought Klindt was going to do the business at Swindon ? His tweet yesterday was that the track was as bald as Ronnie's head and they had been practising all the afternoon. Since there had been absolutely no practice at all in the afternoon One has to ask why he made that comment other than as a wind up. Admittedly the track was rubbish for last weeks Eastbourne meeting and not much better on Swindon A fixture visit in March but quite honestly it was pretty good for the Brum Meeting and again last night. Having been a track raker myself, starting at Hackney when I was 15 I always look to see what track work is going on. Last night there were I think four track grades by the tractor all evening which in itself suggests the track was holding up pretty well. The track was a probably a bit slippery for the first couple of races then started making dirt and by the mid-point the track rakers were pulling dirt back from the fence after almost every race. At the Eastbourne meeting last week when the track was slick there was a massive blue groove at the end of the meeting , definitely no blue groove last night. Roscoe is a plonker who has never really grown up.. He would be better off spending his time getting his senior riders to help his draft reserves to get their set-ups sorted and explain racing lines, as Dave Watt does at Lakeside.

People commenting on the presentation at meetings they are not even at typifies everything that is bad about the BSF. The thing that makes the above post even more stupid is that the pair that do the music at Lakeside also do it at Swindon. Some people just will find any excuse for a moan. Another expert whom knows how much dirt was on the track without even being there. TBF Ben Morley is not far off the bottom of the draft list and had just got a paid maximum. He has achieved week on week progress with a lot of help from Dave Watt and some of the others,. That is what the draft is all about. If, as seems to be the case Swindon's top men more or less leave the reserves to fend for themselves then they won't improve.

KKS is back in his 12th incarnation. More changes of identity than Dr Who (and no taste in music apparently )

I checked the SCB website for the answer to that one. The Home page sets out the basic rules of the sport then adds "Any further questions, ask the person next to you". So there is your answer. Don't ask the bloke in the pub or the old lady at the bus stop, or even the referee, its the person next to you that will have the answer. Pretty obvious I suppose when you think about it.

True but by the time Scott was Cooks age he already done Cardiff two or three times and already had a couple of GP podium finishes to his name. He wasn't doing it not talking about it. about it. That's what a mean about riders staking their claim on the track. Of course part of the problem is that potential Team GP riders are now so thin on the ground that even people with a decent PL record are being spoken of as potential Team GB riders before they have even cut the mustard in the EL. Of the potential Team GB riders only 3 are not doubling up in the PL and one of those doesn't want to ride in the national team. Thus we have D/U riders who at best are not really more than decent EL second strings, seemingly believing they should be shoe-horned into Cardiff.

I don't think most people are jealous of Cook but he chose to spout off in Speedway Star a few weeks ago about how he thinks he should be at Cardiff, then added "Not just as a reserve that's a waste of time" as if a Grand Prix reserve is beneath him. If rider tells us he virtually has a God-given right to be at Cardiff and then rides as he did last night people are bound to pick up on it. If he staked his claim to Cardiff by what he did on track he would get more support. Compare his attitude to Scotty last night, Scott's been there , done it , got the T-shirt, always good when interviewed, not always blowing his own trumpet and slipping gracefully into the role of elder statesman of British speedway and therefore gets a lot fan support wherever he goes.

As recall his best was 23, but its certainly something very exceptional. He has looked a bit naff at Lakeside for the last few years but he rode well for the Eagles on Good Friday and delivered the goods when he came out on a t/r, so bearing in mind Batch rarely goes at his best at Lakeside I would say that if Bjarne rides as he did on Good Friday he makes the Robins a little stronger. Kildemand's gating was very good in the last 3 rides of his last visit so paired with Bjarne at 1&5 I think they will be a formidable paring, especially as the Peter Karlsson seems to have been lacking his usual sharpness from the gate so far this year. Swindon's overall record at Lakeside in recent years than probably any other club, and its nearly always a good meeting when they are down The Robins desperately need points if they are to be in the frame at the end and Lakeside can't afford to drop another one at home. Likely to be a closely fought match I would say.

The gates have never alternated race to race and there has always been one rider finished by heat 10. I don't understand the problem with the away No 4 not riding till heat 5. There would almost always have been a track grade since the home 1&5 were last out and the away N04 goes out in heat 5 on a brand new tyre while the home 1&5 have a part worn tyre (given that modern tyres barely last 4 races).

Depends what is meant by the "same engines" . I am sure that Peter Johns said in Speedway Star a while back that Chris Holder had been using one of his engines for about 3 or 4 years, which may be technically true of the cylinder head and barrel but I have no doubt Peter Johns had breathed on it a bit in the meantime. I don't think using a previous years engines is a problem in itself , its more of a problem when riders /tuners try to squeeze a bit more out of them and it doesn't always pay off.The trouble with modern engines is that they are so sensitive that even a slight bit of tweaking in the wrong direction can mess them up. That apparently was Peter Karlssons problem when he only scored 2 points in Lakesides first meeting of the season, he had something done to an engine in the winter that totally messed the power characteristics up. Sometimes the smallest adjustment can make a big difference, sometimes better sometimes worse, the problem is finding it. It was noticeable that at the New Zealand GP the riders on Peter Johns engines weren't generally going as well as one might expect, while NP who seemed to be struggling for speed last year seemed to be flying.

As a neutral I thought Wolves were unlucky. Beats me how "Roller Boy " Cook gets away with it race after race and poor Proctor gets pulled back for a genuine good start. As Bagpuss said Cook getting exposed by the new format, yet he is still being touted as a Team GB rider.

There is no mid point of truth in this case. Either the correct procedures were followed and the correct forms were completed or they were not. It is as simple as that.. The Clerk of Course and medical officer are required to be familiar with the Aide Memoire issued by the SCB which gives guidance on how their jobs must be done. The Aide Memoir to Clerks of the Course makes it clear that they have a proper supply of Injured Riders Certificates in the pits, and that they receive a copy when a rider is withdrawn from the meeting. The Aide Memoire also gives the Clerk of the Course the specific responsibility to ensure that the Medical Officer is experienced in dealing with motor cycle injuries. The Aide Memoir to Medical Officers gives clear guidance on the medical code to be followed and contains a copy of the injured riders certificate so he knows what he has to fill in. There has been mention of the fact that the medic said he knew nothing about speedway, if that is correct and if no Injured riders certificate was completed then the buck stops with the Clerk of the Course and IF there is no Injured riders Certificate then ultimately it is incompetence on his part. On the other hand if there was an examination of Adam Ellis and an Injured riders certificate was completed then its difficult to see where Lakeside can go with this. My guess that Jon Cook would have asked to see an Injured Riders Certificate before lodging his complaint and Adam Ellis must know whether the medic examined him or not.. I doubt that the SCB will alter the result but if the proper procedures were not followed the Clerk of The Course has some serious questions to answer if he is going to keep his job.

We can expect stellar performances from Barker and Kennett then.

Usual twaddle from the troll Speedway is a team sport and the way to nick league points is to avoid last places and pack in for bonus points. PK's "pitiful effort" as you call it was paid 22 over the two matches. Only Bjarne Pedalson did better and he needed a double points win to get his total up to 25. PK had one last place in 10 races over the two meetings, which is pretty good by any standards. At Eastbourne PK only scored one less bonus point on his own than the whole Eastbourne team scored between them. The texter commented on how well PK did to protect Rich Lawson in heat 1. That's the way league points are accumulated, not by flying off and leave your partner struggling. PK is the consummate team man. I doubt that you'll find another person in speedway that says otherwise. Dave Watt's so called "pitiful effort" was to score more over the two meetings than Eastbourne's second or third heatleaders, so he did his job. You should try going to a few speedway meetings. Then you might have an idea what you are talking about.

You must be the only one on the forum that doesn't get it. Have you stopped taking the tablets again ?

I guess you must be as bad a the medic then, making diagnosis without speaking to the person concerned.

Bizarre twist to all this according to speedway Star. Neil Vatcher is quoted as saying that the medic declared Adam was unfit to race before he had even examined him. As Ales would say, "Curiouser and curiouser "

Maybe that's the case at Swindon but as I said before a lot depends on who the reserves are. In three meetings at Lakeside I would say there have been two good crowds and one average crowd (against Brum). My guess is that it is Adam Ellis ((together with Mikkel Bech ) that is bringing them in. Ellis beating Klindt and Ben Morely beating Adam Skornicki were much more exciting for the crowd than last years standard of reserve racing. From what people have posted on here it seems Swindon fans have been drifting away for some time, not just this year. Looking at the posts on this thread a it seems the majority of fans seem to like the draft riders so you can't judge the whole scheme by whats going on at Swindon.

That's just the point. we don't know and we won't know until well into the season. People can have a view on whether they personally like it or not but its ridiculous for people to pre-judge whether it will be an economic success or not. What we do know is that last year some clubs were making eye-watering losses and it couldn't carry on like that.

You don't know if less fans are attending and won't know that until we see the pattern over a season. Swindon have been struggling with attendances for a long time hence not being able to pay their riders last year, but not all clubs are in that situation.

Work it out. The league is subsidised by the Sky money. That is a fixed sum irrespective of the number of league fixtures. Kings Lynn and Eastbourne said they could only afford 14 home league meetings on the Sky money available. The only way to increase the number of meetings on the same amount of subsidy is to is to cut the cost per meeting. Not difficult to work out.

Nobody has ever denied the fact that it was designed to save money. Arguably it requires fine tuning and orion is right about some of the selection process, but if you go to this time last year the thing most fans were complaining about was not enough meetings and long gaps of sometimes 3-4 weeks between home meetings. The bottom line is we now get more regular home meetings and each team meets all the others twice instead of meeting some twice and others once. The new format has therefore addressed the main problem . Of, course it is not perfect but most would agree it is a step in the right direction. If you don't think it is an improvement on what we had last year then you are in a very small minority.

Has your hernia been fixed now then ?

Bit of a rough diamond but also a bit of a character who, at the end of the day has been a good servant to British Speedway. I wish him well

I think it depend who your reserves are, but personally I like it a lot better than I thought I would. I have seen some decent reserve races plus the added excitement when a reserve beats a second string. Early days yet but in the teams where senior riders are prepared to spend time with the draft riders and the draft riders are prepared to listen to advice, I think we will see quite big improvement over the season. Considering that the money saved by the draft scheme means we now get more regular meetings and each team meets the others twice instead of the old scheme of meeting some teams twice and others once I think it has been a good move I don't think I like the new race format as much as the old one but that's not a major issue I I'll probably get used to it.

Always difficult to win at Eastie when they have Dugard riding at No8