Big Al

I'd be interested to see stats for last places, or third places only beating a team-mate for a those riders and compare with KB. The 40% for Hans winning races seems a bit high because lately I keep seeing the number 2 on his scores, maybe that figure comes from early season scores?

The track was set out by David Hemsley and he went ahead despite many good and knowledgeable people imploring him to change his mind and pointing out the errors. He then spent 4 years trying to fool people into believing that it was producing top class racing. To cut a long story short he eventually gave into pressure and agreed to some limited changes which had very little effect, and later to more significant changes but only what was possible within the scope of the arena's footprint. He presented the BSPA with an open goal to ban him as a Promoter, and thank goodness they took their chance although I think he was also becoming a thorn in their side by having the cheek to suggest better ways to run the sport, many of which seemed to make sense. What I'd suggest is that if you can come up with realistic proposals as to how the track and the arena could be changed, preferably based on calculated and researched Engineering & Design, and which is affordable within a very, very (i.e. nowt) budget, give Damien Bates a call. I live in hope (not the place near Sheffield)

Fair cop but the trend everywhere you look is towards shorter formats, not just sports but in most things. In common with a sizeable percentage of speedway folk I am in my 7th decade and so 4-day cricket, endless tennis sets, FA cup replays etc etc are my sporting heritage. A 20/20 match does indeed last for three hours, but a county championship match lasts (sometimes!) for four days!!

Absolutely right. Younger people like things in shorter formats, and it's a trend which is intensifying. I suspect that speedway has left it far too late in getting around to keeping in step with these significant changes.

You are correct, as is Observer. A few crazy seconds at Swindon have caused havoc, along with Bates's wintersports accident. As well as those responsible for the running of that match, you also have to question the competence of Leicester's team manager and captain and ask if they took their eyes off the ball in circumstances when track conditions were likely to deteriorate very quickly. It also no doubt did serious damage to UK/Polish relations at a very inopportune time. I can see King and Newman occupying the 6 and 7 positions by the time July comes around. And Kurtz and Sarjeant gone.

Per 7 heat match I'm thinking maybe league 2 points for a win, one apiece for a draw, although with the away team getting a point if they finish within 3 match points (but still only 1 point for a draw). The "grand finale heat" would be a straight 1 league point, but only if there is a heat win otherwise no league point is earned. So the overall league points could for example end up as 4 for the home team, and 3 for the away team - if the results were 22-20, 22-20, and 2-4. Or 5-0 for a clean sweep by the home team. Keeps the interest going right through to the end. You just have to look at cricket and how the 20/20 format has worked to see that people like the shorter versions now, especially younger people who seem to have much shorter attention spans.

Two 7 - heat matches. League points up for grabs in each match. Topped off by a heat 15 for nominated riders where a league point is up for grabs. Main interval after the first match, shorter interval prior to heat 15.

Well there were often wins by a small margin. And although Les and sometimes another would score a 12 max or 10 or 11 (from 4 rides), the reserves chipped in with race wins and second places. But there were also quite a lot of last places dotted around the scorechart, as well as being plenty of heat wins.

We have a squad system in the UK, too.

Unless there was a very compelling reason, I'd challenge Stead's decision to put both guests into heat 15 and not Kenny Bjerre. After all, Bjerre is the number one rider and even though he'd had an inconsistent match, he still needs to be put into those situations, not excused from them. The guests had done a good job, but with the match won I'm not sure they would be 100% committed to ensuring the opposition didn't get a point. The Leiicester score chart was remeniscent of the Martin Rogers era!!

Not sure Leicester reserves can be relied on to produce a double figure return between them, which usually ensures a win. So for me Newman and KP have to produce the engine room points if Lions are going to win this. And I think they'll have their work cut out.

Beam me up Scotty

But there are now so many who have squad places with Polish second and third division sides, who even if not selected in the team regularly, would prefer not to jeopardise that and are reluctant to ride for UK teams on Saturdays and Sundays. There just wouldn't be enough riders. How many CL teams now have Sat or Sun as the main race night? The future for Saturday's and Sundays is NL

Doubling up. In practice few if any would initially run on Sunday except probably Newcastle, nobody would do Tuesday, and if a club wanted to run on a Wednesday such as Poole they would avoid employing Danes or at least only have one or two. Saturdays & Sundays seems to be falling out of favour anyway except for NL clubs. So it would probably over time become one Mondays&Wednesdays league, and one Thursdays&Fridays league. I think it would help the NL too. On second thoughts though, playoff matches involving crossovers between the leagues wouldn't work, it would have to be the two league winners in a grand final although playoffs could be used to determine the two league winners.

So maybe two leagues are needed, each with identical team building rules. A Thursdays - Saturdays league. A Sundays - Wednesdays league. Playoffs along same lines as the Pro14 Rugby Union.

....and one or two others looked the other way?

Geoffrey Howe's resignation speech comes to mind. Something along the lines of an opening batsman discovering that his captain (Thatcher) had broken his bats just before the start of an innings. Kings Lynn produced a heroic performance at Leicester, so this is the reward? But I still think the other 6 will save Buster's bacon.

In June 1978, Hackney released Bent Rasmussen (Danish) and signed Billy Spiers (English) as his replacement. The riders actually swopped clubs, with Spiers having been released by Kings Lynn as chance would have it. Explaining the decision, Len Silver said "while we all loved Bent and thoroughly enjoyed having him with us, we also appreciated the growth of Speedway in Denmark and the possible dangers to us with almost half of our team committed to fixtures over there." Hackney's other Danes were Finn Thomsen and Bo Petersen. On August 15th, Hackney rode a league fixture at Leicester, and Thomsen was absent due to a committment in Denmark. So old Len was aware of the issue 40 years ago and acted accordingly! By the way, in the programme for that Leicester match, Vic White was criticising the BSPA for poor fixture planning by not having previously set aside a back-up date for the recently rained-off British final! Plus ca change.....

If Ryanair is having operational problems the flights to so called minor UK airports are the first to be sacrificed.

Maybe the other 22 would have had a plan B?

You are spot on there. The more you live, the more you wise up!

Sun delay??

While it's admittedly still early, I'm seeing Krystian Pieszczek as the third heat leader now. He will have a poor match at BP sooner or later of course but at the moment seems to be producing the goods. Hopefully he can step fully into the role without DK around for a while.

The photo of the King/Hartel crash is pretty spine chilling when you see where the footrest could have made contact had Danny King not turned his head away.

If a change is needed, does Ricky Wells average fit? I see Sheffield have scrapped using r/r for Josh Bates. Does this mean his return is not going to be immediate?