Hamish McRaker

Rob Hollingworth still got it

So, who is on Rob Godfrey's list of 16 riders who should be first in line to be offered Championship team places, should vacancies arise this winter?

I was surprised at the time, it took so long for the TV commentators to realise that Lindgren was nowhere near his bike, when I, with my decrepit eyesight and generally failing faculties, spotted where he went straight away!

Poor reporting in the SS of the accident in heat 15. Nobody "piled into" Lindgren when he fell. Lindgren was thrown well clear and the only thing near to "piling in" was Wozniak clipping Lindgren's machine. Ridiculous so-called journalism

I can see it being done like a temporary private club membership for each meeting. Only a limited number of memberships are issued, by advance purchase, and you have to provide name and address. This would also be to meet local authority requirements in case any subsequent tracking and tracing is needed. I don't think the membership charge will necessarily be cheap, either.

"Strictly" amateur status matches/meetings, no league set-up, run with local authority permission. Online booking for limited tickets. Will be interested to see prices being charged.

Has to be done by representatives of promoters and riders coming to an agreement on how it could be run. The riders would have to accept no financial guarantees, so their representatives would have to in turn contact all riders and sound them out as to how many would be prepared to go ahead on such a basis. Only when such data has been established, could clubs/promoters make plans on an operating model to run a league or leagues. Hopefully this has already taken place, because if not, there won't be much chance of anything going ahead except possible just NL level.

Life-sized replicas of Gary Lineker. It explains why he seems to be ubiquitous.

You read in each issue of Speedway Star about this and that rider who is earning income from a job and although in some cases it is stop-gap or at least planned to be, how many will want or be able to keep that going if the leagues re-start? How many riders are in a position to, or maybe choose to race with it in mind they won't make any overall income from speedway this year or even make a loss, because they have reasons to race which maybe supercede immediate financial ones? For example to keep up development as a rider (and may also have job income to help)? I think it will be an unknown gamble for clubs and therefore for riders as to how many will attend if it does try to start. In that case the riders will probably have no choice but to go into it without clear expectations about payment. Some may be prepared to do this, but some won't be.

More elephants than they have in Whipsnade Zoo, by the sounds of things

Whilst it's good to possibly welcome back past iconic venues like Odsal, Oxford, and who knows, eventually Coventry, isn't there a large elephant in the room? And I don't mean Corovavirus, either. I mean the supply of riders of a suitable standard, to create teams the public will be interested in coming along to see.

Or maybe both of them in?

Fear not - I hear the Monks down at Buckfast Abbey are still pushing out tankerloads of their elixir, and Iron Bru is in full production.

Exactly - if he'd said something like "well we've given it a right old go, came up a bit short, but no worries we'll have it cracked in a couple of days" it wouldn't have caused any problem I'm sure ......but sadly they're just programmed to talk official-ese.

I hear from contacts in the transport business that a large number of home testing kits were delivered to the home of a Mr M Hancock on Thursday afternoon......

Saw something on the news earlier, but I'm sure the reporter said the Scottish government had "advised" to not go ahead if 500+. Even if mandatory, with speedways well-known aversion to making attendance figures known, it will likely be the case that, remarkably, all fixtures will have an attendance figure of 499.

I think he often produces good, informed output. It's just the lapses into narky self-importance which spoils it, which is a shame.

As an octagenerian, it is good to see Peterborough giving two young, under-30 riders the chance to prove themselves and gain experience. I hope they both progress and draw benefit from being in this team and go on to be cornerstones of the team for many years.

He probably wants to hang out with Mark Webber

Has Gollob made a miraculous recovery?

Awful. What stunningly sad news. RIP

This sort of situation is where second halves used to be so good. They would give the likes of Bowtell and Hume that chance to take on the Aussie newcomers and lay claim to the team places (and vice versa). So would opening up the NDL to first-time Australians provide such an opportunity for the Brits to prove their mettle by beating them and prove they are worth putting into the CL teams at the expense of the incumbent Aussies?

Can Stef Nielsen still be considered to be "young" ?

If Wolves are keen to avoid upsetting, or developing Nicol, presumably as they see him figuring in future years, isn't there a bit of a snag with that? I'm presuming that Nicol is an "asset" of Sheffield, and so in future seasons he could be included in their team, regardless of any "investment" Wolves have made in developing him. Unless Wolves have or are about to pay a transfer fee to Sheffield?

I certainly wouldn't advocate signing the both of them!