Hamish McRaker

Yes, and the fence was considered to be a job requiring specialist expertise (quite rightly) and therefore not done by the contractors. Those installing the fence, whenever it was done, were also "experts" about tracks I think, and therefore you would think they would have had a very good opportunity to raise their concerns! It would be interesting to know if the contractors (aka "Paddy Murphy") themselves used the services of experienced track curators in doing the job. I can hardly believe they would not have done. And if so, what was the nature of their relationship with those people, and how good were they? Presumably the nature of the contract with the contractors precluded Belle Vue from having direct input until very late-on in proceedings. And left them in a terrible dilemma, and produced a disastrous outcome. So it looks as if this may end up being dealt with in court, meanwhile the poor sods who spent money on travel, accommodation and tickets are left dangling.

Using my quality formula based on 4 categories; 1. Number one rider 2. Reserves 3. Riders 2-5 4. X-factor (ability of management to make effective changes, motivate, exploiting loopholes in the rules) 1. Poole 85% 2. Swindon 70% 3. Belle Vue 65% 4. Lakeside 65% 5. Coventry 55% 6. Wolves 50% 7. K.Lynn 40% 8. Leicester 40%

And then you can show up and pay to get in every Saturday, sit and admire the track for a couple of hours, and go home happy without seeing any speedway because there isn't a team.

Your team for 2016; 1 K.Bjerre 2 G.Walasek 3 S.Wozniak 4 A.Summers/L.Bjerre (d-up job share) 5 N.Klindt 6 J.Auty 7 P.Starke How much would you pay to get in? (Presuming the track changes work)

Sounds like he was very successful

Rip it all up and start again. Get someone with a brain and the hide of a rhino to oversee it. (Not a past or present promoter) I don't mean the brain of a rhino!

Maybe its being done to cut down on the number of nights the foreign riders will have to spend over here, what with the press and practice day being on Friday, they may be able to fly home on Saturday. Might also save a few pennies on electricity and generally keep people from freezing their najjers off.

You could equally ask the question why was it not done a few years ago and the main reasons could be similar. As for this winter, there were some weekend training schools taking place and maybe availability of plant and labour to factor in as well.

A consequence of the format - necessary in 2014 & 2015, but should not be retained in 2016

Belle Vue, Lakeside, Swindon, Wolves, Leicester, Coventry, and Kings Lynn have been disadvantaged. This is because an error was made in the compilation of the list, and one club was smart and quick to take advantage.

Have it rumoured from Instafacetwit contacts that the legendary Norwegian, Red Herring, is coming out from retirement to spearhead the Lions

Purely hypothetical question: Is there a current Premier League club, which would want and/or be able to join the Elite League for 2016 season, or maybe 2017, should a vacancy arise?

The past two years have the appearances of things being made up as they go along with inability to think or plan ahead. This appearance is further enforced by the poor communication and apparent unwillingness to be transparent with the customers. When things do get disclosed, it seems to re-inforce the negative impressions. If forward planning has actually been going on, they have chosen to keep it confidential but it would have been better to have been more open. But I agree with Kester it would seem very little forward thinking has been happening. For the organisation in question to refer to some of its customers as "thick", is beyond thick!

Mr Hemsley only said he could "envisage" completing the team by Christmas. If you look up the definition of that word, it only means a possibility, at the most!

Hill Street Blues. Mick Belker......"you're under arrest, douchebag"

Call me thick, but I am still not 100% sure who this Jon Cook is. Is he that lanky fella with the big beak down in Essex? Don't mind being called thick because there's an element of truth there, but BIASED??? Nobody calls me that and gets away with it! Would like to have a frank conversation with him in person but there's a few hundred miles between me and Essex. Anyway, SCB did you offer to let BSPA use your rational and logical method/program for producing a set of realistic rider averages? And if you did, what was the response? And I am presuming that Mr Cock is speaking on behalf of the BSPA in his description of those who have dared to question their potty list (even more potty, now the truth about the method used is out!). Highly embarrassing for them. And finally....when all is said and done, has this list really made any difference to team building, so far?

Who is Jon Cook?

Excellent! Well enjoy the hol, forget about speedway for while, and hope you arn't going anywhere you might bump into Matt Ford soaking up the sun and drinking his pina coladas!

Relax GRW, chill out dude! Everything's going exactly to plan. Poole will win the league. KL will be at the tapes come March time with a team of 7. What's to get in a state about when all the main stuff''s decided already.

What with all of the pitfalls of double-uppers as Flagrag has highlighted, has Leicester decided to abandon that as a possible route, especially as they appear reluctant to purchase any riders and prefer to hire them from other teams. Building a 1-5 composed of young Poles plus "older" ones like Protasciwicz or Holta, and of course Walasek (who might not be under such pressure from clubs/sponsors/polish authorities) seems to be the only way forward?? They just need to locate a regular cargo flight operating between Warsaw and East Midlands to give them all a lift as additional "crew". Worth keeping in mind that Leicester has a strong pair of reserves who between them should pile up big points at home, especially if the heats format is retained. That's not something that's been a factor in the past. Just would need them to be competitive enough in heats 13 and 15 - at home anyway and Walasek provides half of that requirement, providing he's free of injuries of course. Away matches....well..... Can't help thinking that some other promoters are expecting (hoping?) that Leicester won't be able to take their place in the league......could explain one or two vacant team places still existing elsewhere??

That's a Clownist remark. Clowns have a well established and recognised training and apprenticeship, and are competent and skilfull.

......as Sir Humphrey would say to Jim Hacker

As has already been pointed out, the origins of this farce is the race format from the past two years. OK - it may have been necessary in the first year of the ELDR scheme, but last year its relevance was highly dubious, and to retain it for a third year is complete madness, especially now that the "draft" is no longer a real draft, and numbers 6 and 7 will have averages with the no.6 able to move into the 1-5. Unless the race format reverts back to the previous one, this ludicrous situation with averages not being "real" is going to be perpetuated, and these idiotic and ham-fisted attempts to give riders a notional status based on cranky non-criteria will just recur each year. I wonder how the 2017 season's HL list will be compiled? The 40 nicest set of kevlars, i wouldn't be surprised.

Agree fully about Buczkowski.However, as regards Poole I think it's more a case of their sitting back, watching closely and waiting for a cock- up to be made (which is inevitable) and then moving very quicklyquickly to take advantage when they spot one

.....or he could have decided to stick two fingers up to the bunch of muppets in the BSPA and go ahead with a team which doesn't include any riders from the HL list and carry on operating on Saturdays in some kind of renegade mission. If that's the case it' ll mean no Kenneth Bjerre or Greg Hancock for Leicester:-)