Hamish McRaker

Ah, the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few? Was it Mr Spock who said that? A noble sacrifice, as I recall

Clarke Osbourne?

Who is the guy on the right? Alun Rossiter? Terry Russell?

British League north Glasgow, Edinburgh, Berwick, Workington, Redcar, Belle Vue, Sheffield British League south Scunthorpe, Kings Lynn, Leicester, Ipswich, Oxford, Poole, Plymouth No GP riders, doubling up allowed, low points limit to begin with. 5 or maybe 6 per team Each League has separate champions decided by playoffs, or even just a 1st v 2nd final. Grand Champions decided by number of heat wins throughout the season NDL consisting of BL "second teams" plus stand-alone clubs. Minimum of two over-35 riders per club

Would need liberal use of words like "exciting" and for Harry Redknapp to give it his seal of approval! Maybe a few of the 14 existing clubs will prefer to run in a league at NDL+ level, either in addition to being in the "British Super League" or in some cases instead of?

It all reminds me of the great Dead Parrot sketch by Monty Python.

The Premier League has been heading along a dead-end, one-way street for many years, and it might have finally hit the buffers at the end of it. And maybe it hasn't just yet, and unbeknown to us a rabbit might have been pulled out of the hat, about to be revealed. If not, a very creative, out of the box solution will be needed, otherwise where will those 5 surviving clubs go, presuming they wish to continue. Would be very strange for two GP rounds to be staged at a venue no longer home to league racing

History has a habit of coming around again

Go on.....how (both of those statements above)??. I'm fascinated

So, what measures are available to be used, to "force" or incentivise a Championship club to walk the plank? I cant currently bring any to mind? What i can see happening, is for the existing Championship clubs to break away from the BSPL and form their own organisation. Maybe this is already happening

Appalling silence from BSPL so far. Hopefully they are taking due care and time over producing a statement. On the other hand, they could be either doing headless chicken or ostrich impersonations.

I did think that having two "conferences" of 7 teams with strict points limits and limited doubling up, could be a solution. Then, after riding 12 matches, go to mini-leagues of 4, 5 and 5 teams to sort out a final league table and have division 1, 2 and 3 champions, and maybe also a grand final playoff between the top two. But then I realised the potential for chaos created by doubling up, in the second part of that cunning plan

Oxford Spires are gone. But not Oxford Cheetahs

A new club in Wales? Could be Wrexham

In woodlands management some of the larger trees need to be chopped down now and again in order to let the sunlight get through and the saplings to grow

Hope they dump the rising star scheme in the present form and replace it with something else, such as a lower points limit per team combined with bigger discounts for British under-25 riders

Stewart Dickson is a good "Sports Psychologist" i hear

The loss of Dan Gilkes to a season ending injury, so soon after being signed, proved to be a terrible blow to the Lions. Since the re-birth of the Lions in 2011, it is almost like the number 7 position has had a curse over it, regardless of the league being competed in. Like Leicester Tigers rugby team did with the dressing room they used to use for matches they played at Leicester City football stadium, maybe the Lions owners need to hire the services of a Shamen to lift the curse of No.7

50-40 to Lions for me. The track could either be a bit on the heavy side or go slippery later as the base will have absorbed a lot of water on Friday

I was amazed that Sam Masters didn't bale out in heat 13 when Pickering (or maybe it was Jack?) gave him a huge shoulder charge

He carries on holding the flag from the finest tradition recently continued by Kasprzak and Zagar

Leicester to dish out a good old tonking. The real challenge will be for Tatum, Nicholls and Abbie to sustain the attention of the TV audience

Max Fricke has developed a more ruthless approach this season, for Leicester (and I'm not referring to the heat 1 exclusion, that was a standard Sheffield bend 3 move!). He's now up with the best, and that gives his team a huge confidence boost to have a consistently dominant no.1. It's what he was badly lacking last season, and if there's a wet track in the final he'll hopefully show that he's got that monkey off his back

Yes

It's very fortunate for Leicester, that Becker can use his Polish club as a way to make his return to riding, and they will also take responsibility for any additional rehabilitation needs arising therefrom. Leicester therefore have protection from any adverse consequences, whilst this remains the case. Back in days of yore, it would be a run-out in the second half of a meeting, and if he could complete 4 laps, back in the team, often with bad consequences