Aceslider

Danny's inability to score round Brough and anywhere else for that matter at Championship level, will I am sure tell him something. It certainly will be damaging his confidence and maybe he should make the call himself to move back down a league where he can win races and make some money! I tend to agree with TG that Simon Lambert will make good, but hopefully in the near future.

Good question Andy. Not open this morning. Maybe its another last minute job. Will have another gander tomorrow morning. Just looked again (Saturday pm) and its now up and running

Just wondering if the originator of this thread intends to update final teams before season starts? No criticism intended, but I have got into the habit of using this thread each season to see the final team selections.

Danny & Lasse Bjerre would be okay

Assuming you attend all 17 home meetings, it works out at a discount of £2 per meeting based on adult ticket prices. Additional meetings at £10 per adult. Seems fair to me. Obviously if you can't attend 17 meetings it isn't so good, but then that's always been the case. Personally I reckon its good value for money.

Well done Workington !! Great to see success for a North West team and hope this achievement is properly recognised both in the media and the area generally.

Always supported George and the promotion 120%. Sorry, just no excuse for this!! Massive disrespect to the team and the supporters.

Surely Newcastle will face some sort of action from BSPA. I know its end of season.... but that really is just so unprofessional. Paying spectators short changed big style!! Sorry for Workington fans and indeed any Diamonds fans who had not given up hope of pulling off a surprise victory. Getting more angry as I write this so will shut up now!! PS Gutted for the remaining 4 Diamonds also who will no doubt try their very hardest to support the weakened 6 man team

And the next best thing is arriving home in Workington ??

I sense a general feeling of apathy amongst many Diamonds supporters at present e.g. no-one bothered to start a thread on this fixture until a few hours after the match finished and another lacklustre end to a miserable season. What a pity when a few riders in the team have made a great effort to do their very best when others have made perceivably little or none. Tero, Matty, Wilko and Robbo were tremendous last night against a very strong Scunthorpe team and at least looked as if they were genuinely trying. Heat 15 was probably the best this season at Brough. Suspect this may be Ludo's last year as a Diamond. Hope Matej makes a speedy recovery.

Here's my stupid question for the day. Assuming you have covers, where does the rain go if no sunshine or warm air to allow evaporation? I would imagine it would run off onto the track surface as soon as the covers were uplifted. Certainly don't imagine that they provide an absolute guarantee of no rain offs, but I am sure in many circumstances they would allow meetings which otherwise would have been cancelled, to go ahead. Full marks and respect to Berwick and other tracks who have the desire and resource to utilise covers. Not sure it would work at Brough mind because of the notoriously poor drainage (Tsunami might enlighten us?)

I think we have already shown in the recent past that having 2 big hitters in your team is no guarantee of winning anything (apologies to anyone who has already made this point). 2 years ago we were on the verge of winning something with Robert and Steve taking most rides in heats 13 and 15. This proved not to be enough as the likes of Richard Lawson, Craig Cook, Josh Grajonek, Ricky Wells and Kyle Howarth would more often than not take the heat wins. As Wilko says, there is something in having a balanced team and so long as we can avoid conceding two 5 1's in heats 13 and 15, home and away, you just never know we could surprise a few teams. Teams which do look stronger than us on paper may well experience the availability issues we suffered last season in particular. Hopefully our new "weakened" team should not have those problems which will be better for team spirit as well as removing a frequent frustration for fans when their favorite riders were not available.

Couldn't agree more! Roynon has in the past performed really well at Brough even though I do recall he has had at least one spill with his enthusiasm to wind it on full blast on the outside line. He would undoubtedly be a gamble, but George has in the past proved doubters wrong with his ability to take calculated risks. If it is Roynon, I'm sure his team mates and the crowd will be very supportive and give him every opportunity to shine as our Number 1

Just seen these published on SGB website. http://www.speedwaygb.co/news.php?extend.34000 Some interesting changes which I am sure could give rise to some interesting interpretations by referees - particularly "gardening" at starting tapes and time allowed between heats. Can't wait for tapes up again!

Funnily enough I was thinking just the same! But then the earlier post referring to "Dads Army" would suggest a Number 1 called Wilson maybe - can't think of any speedway riders called Mainwaring or Pike

Could be something completely out of George's control. If its anything to do with the Visa application office, they will work at their own pace and won't be pushed around by anyone in a hurry (I would guess).

Good to read the freshly published statement this morning on Diamonds website. As Winiton comments, thats all that was asked for. Excellent response from the promotion team and thats certainly a "thank you" from me!

Is that God or George?

I'm getting worried now that if funding (or lack of it) is a serious issue, it only takes a couple of rain offs early on for our season to be really scuppered. Just trying to imagine what is going on behind the scenes - frenetic emails/texts/telephone calls between promoters and potential riders and/or poring over numbers to second guess how much the promoters can afford to spend. As someone stated earlier on this thread, if a lower league is more suited to our financial cloth, then this wouldn't put me off in the slightest. I am sure that a realistic landlord would be open to negotiation for a downward assessment of stadium rent or face the prospect of receiving £zero. Even if admission prices remained as last year for Championship league racing, I do not believe that in itself would lead to crowd shrinkage - just that we would miss the local derbies against our neighbours. It would certainly give the promotion a fighting chance of stabilising the ship ready for a move up next year or the year after

Can we race with a 5 man team + 2 guests - anyone know? Or are we going with Josh Embleton + 1 guest like end of last season? Would be nice to get some sort of steer or statement of intent from the promoters if they are still not in a position to announce new signings

Fly'in Ryan coaxed out of retirement? Never forget his memorable tussle with Robbo!!

So far as I am concerned, without the few like Tsunami, Newcastle Diamonds would not be running today and could well have been consigned to the speedway scrapheap many years ago. I have yet to hear of any promoters in the UK who make a commercial financial return on their investment and my take on the part they play is that they do this for their love of the sport rather than montetary aspirations or any other aspirations for that matter. As a reader of this forum I for one always welcome Tsunami's input because I know for a fact that he has been there, he has done it and he does have the tee shirt - he has also put his money where his mouth is fair and square.

Yawn - Would have thought the announcement would have been made by now. Hope there hasn't been a last minute hitch

Fact or speculation? Whichever, I wouldn't be surprised at all if you were spot on. Personally I wouldn't have a problem with one or both of these riders. Always liked Wilkinson's combatitive style even though he's not always guaranteed to stay on for 4 laps and Lewis knows Brough Park well enough now to add to his average.

If George can build a team now that avoids the Wooden Spoon - he deserves a medal!! However, I for one live in hope because nobody is in a better position than him to produce the very best team we can get behind and support.