Diamonds Ram

Not alot of mention of the 2 or 3 great races last night... Lindgren in 3, Kerr in 8 and Tully in 12! The TR was a big blow and again I agree it may have merit in a league of 20+ matches but in a Play Off or Knock Out situation it is a bit of a mockery and as has been said punishes good performance. Taking 3 pts against Somerset is no mean feat, but it's a shame the Diamonds lost it in the 2 away matches where we should have been taking a point or 2. Also as a novice I couldn't understand all four riders re-starting a couple of heats, Newcastle were on to a 5-1 already in heat 1, Doyle seemed to go down under no opposition pressure whatsoever, ditto Worrall later on. All in all a good night I thought, doubt we'll see half the excitement on Sky tonight.

Looking forward to this, will be only my 2nd match and 1st one for my 4 year old son

Travertine - don't worry I don't want to open another can of worms Chewbacca - too true, I'm only 30 and I've pretty much resigned to the fact that I'll never see NUFC win a trophy! Hopeful of seeing 2 in my maiden season as a Diamonds fan though (I missed the Premier Shield). Millen - Thanks, it appears that most of you are! Although a Diamonds fan, I do spend a few weekends up the Northumberland coast so will try to make a few trips to Shielfield as well

BWitcher.... I'm sure most Speedway fans could have easily explained promotion/relegation etc, problem is when you don't know any in real life, hence me asking fans on here. I'm sure in many smaller towns with good Speedway teams, you can probably just go down the pub and talk to people about the sport. That's not the case in Newcastle, or at least not round my parts. I went to my first match 2 weeks ago with my father in law. He's big into motorsport, but mostly stock cars and Moto GP. Was his first speedway meet too. All we needed to understand was how many points each rider scored, and which ones were Edinburgh/Newcastle to have a thoroughly enjoyable night. It's only since that I've decided I want to get more into it so trying to learn more about it. British Speedway and Sky Sports websites don't have much info. Wikipedia has been the most useful but hasn't been updated since 2011 in most cases. Sounds like alot of people have an issue with the guest rider thing. For what it's worth, although I don't understand it 100%, I have read some older threads on this forum and I can see why it may be neccessary in some cases. I suppose my next question would be how someone like Craig Cook, who even to my untrained eye was awesome (and I also understand has just been called up to GB squad), can have a low enough average to be allowed to guest for others.

Thanks Catseyes. I must admit, I will be giving serious consideration to which Newcastle club gets my season ticket money next year, NUFC who've had it for the last 10 years or the Diamonds. Must say the noise was one of the things that really stood out from my first time going the other week. Looking forward to taking my 4 year old son once the school holidays are here... I'm pretty sure I know which of the two sports he'll be wanting me to take him to in future!

Cheers fellas, much appreciated

Alright folks. Disillusioned football fan here, just starting to get into speedway. Although I'm starting to get my head round most rules, there are a couple of things I haven't been able to get explained, wonder if you could help me out... 1) Promotion / Relegation - Is there an automatic promotion and relegation system in place between the EL/PL/NL and if so, how many teams go up and down? Also, am I right in saying the leagues have a play-off system to decide champions, promoted/relegated teams etc, more like that of Rugby League than Football? 2) Guest riders - recently went to my first race meet to watch the 2nd Leg of Diamonds v Monarchs in the PLKOC. Craig Cook absolutely dominated the night, comfortably winning 5 from 5. Then the next week I read he was due to guest for Plymouth against the Diamonds. How does this work? As someone who's spent most my life following football, this would be like watching Robin Van Persie score a hatrick for Man Utd against my beloved Newcastle, then turning out the next week against us for Wigan. Many thanks in advance!