Mad Max

As does anyone who gets in his way!!!

2 points!! that would do me from the Newcastle reserves - total of 4 is a bonus!!!!

Correct - I don't know if it is lies, but then you obviously don't know what the word allegedly means, so we both have gaps in our knowledge

But you would still expect to be treated with some respect and not (allegedly) be told lies the day before you were sacked, which cost you money, would you? Don't think anyone would question the decision to replace Hall with Carr, however I do think most would question why Hall was given the role in the first place and most can also see that a trend has developed with how Peterborough dispense with a riders services!

I agree it's all hearsay, however recent history has Hall being sacked by redcar, and whilst obviously upset and disappointed, didn't seem to complain about communication, or being misled. Whilst other riders dumped by Peterborough often have issues with timings/messages/communication (or lack of!). So on balance Hall's comments do have a truthful ring to them!

If Team Gb get knocked out by finishing behind Czech Republic and USA (juniors) then all 5 Team GB members should get a ban for non trying and/or conning the public !!

No doubt Panthers spin doctor will get working on the story and it will all be perfectly acceptable behaviour by Rathbone, just like the story on Hansen's sacking - which was so full of anomalies it was laughable!

I think the Scotsman's comment may be factually accurate, the issue is whether it is appropriate in this scenario??

It will be ok - Stevie told him to withdraw on Sunday then take a rest tonight so he is ok for World Cup!!!

Once you start world Cup you can't ride anywhere else until your team is knocked out, so we are assuming USA won't beat us on Saturday!!

To be fair the standard and quality of GB squad is all very similar and on a given day anyone of them could be outstanding, or pants! Arguments for Rosco's selection would be Cook & Worrall deserve place as 1&2 in British Final, Lambert has to be in on his home track and Harris as the experienced head. Arguments against - King usually puts in a good shift at Kings Lynn Personally struggling to find an argument for R Worrall, Howarth or Nicholls, so you would have to say King is the unlucky one.

Well done to the team for pulling this back. just highlights how important points from middle order are, and the huge advantage you get if you have the best reserve. Key turning point for me was the injury to sarjeant, that guaranteed us the reserve advantage ( might have had it anyway as you never quite know what you will get with Bilko!) Still would have come down to the wire had heat 15 not degraded into farcical proportions. To be honest at that point most just wanted to get finished and get home! I think there would be a lot more vocal outrage from Diamonds fans if we had lost that and had to endure all the wasted time - I concur with a number of others 3 hours is absolutely ridiculous, when there isn't an injury and waiting for ambulance! Whilst it's good to have some success I'm personally not getting carried away, I had Workington down as potentially weakest team in championship before it began, to be fair they surprised me and others with performances, helped by best rider in league and arguably best reserve, but I think last night showed how brittle they can be and loss of best reserve just compounded the non-appearance of a number of team mates! Having said that you have to still put in performance to beat what the opposition provide and we did that. Will we do the same to Glasgow in next round, maybe we should suggest riding our home leg down at Peterborough ? Hope Robert is ok - interesting to see who we have in for us next week with both top two missing!

So he clearly states he didn't want to ride at Newcastle as it may have meant he made injury worse and would have to miss British Final !! Clarifies what most thought about the whole episode!!

Using the dodgy Panthers calculator again!! If you drop Ulrich & hall you could replace with a rider under 6.33 and a rider under 3.00 so not both Tungate & Ellis OR you could bring in two riders up to total of 6.92 (6.50 from Monday) I estimate Tungate will be 5.6 ish and Ellis 4.5 ish so just over 10 for the pair - Peterborough have already sneeked 3 points on rest of league, you are planning to sneek another 3!!

You did say he could be doubtful, which is saying he "might be missing a meeting"

Amazing how many cars broken down on way to Exeter

Tatum on several occasions quoted the warning system in use in GPs and said he thought it would be good to have it in GB speedway, so he obviously wasn't aware that it is currently in use. As soon as they mentioned McGregor was ref I knew his stance on starting procedure and thought it highly likely a rider would be excluded at some point - to be honest I guessed it would be Garrity, as he did him 3 times in a recent Redcar match. Any rider under a warning who moves (delays start) again deserves all they receive form Mr McGregor and if a few more did the same we may get more efficient starts! Now just need McGregor to get his other decisions right and stop riders constantly returning to pits!!

May be slightly mischievous bringing Glasgow riders into comparison, but I was responding to a question "..but how many fans would actually begrudge him a chance of the British Final, and allow him to have a nights rest first ?" , well unless he was not able to ride competitively, then I begrudge him having "a nights rest" and the comparison to Lambert applies, I would begrudge him a night off to prepare for individual meeting! If we want to go down the hypothetical route - yes I agree if he had ridden and pulled out early we may have got a more severe beating, but as we gained zero league points anyway it would have made no difference (other than allowing Glasgow an extra point). HOWEVER if he had ridden and scored to his average, which most would expect him to do, and even moreso having watched his performance on Monday, we would have won! - 3 league points, none to Glasgow. To me that is a satisfactory outcome, if you and others are happy to give away teams a fright up to heat 9, before getting beat, fair enough - our opinions on that will have to differ!

Good job lambert didn't qualify then, as we could have allowed him a nights rest first Wonder if Richie Worrall and Richard Lawson asked their promotion for a wee rest Can guess their answer if they did!!

That just backs up my posting even further!!

I don't know if it said who had stopped him, but they did state it was due to being of too higher standard! If you then think this logic through yet again it doesn't make sense - by stating rider is too good it implies that the powers don't want a rider who is likely to take points off the main riders - why not? Yesterday Howarth got excluded, would he have beaten one of the other three - by putting a novice in is that unfair to the other 12 riders? Also it means you are going to have an uncompetitive rider (although Smith looked good) so depriving the fans of entertainment (remember us the ones who pay!!!). You could argue meeting reserves should be the next highest qualifiers from semi finals - but if rest of field are worried about facing Bewley then don't deserve to be in the field in the first place!!

Absolutely right - teams can only beat what is in front of them As to gorgeous George being there, he wouldn't want to miss out on the limelight

So the mystery deepens - to anyone watching didn't appear to be any injury !! From reports and other postings I get the impression that IF Scaphoid is fractured, it probably causes discomfort, which could be ridden through, however it needs to treated properly to ensure complete healing otherwise "complications" can occur. To diamonds fans a number of questions are raised - has he had it diagnosed as fractured? Was he advised not to ride prior to specialist appointment? Was decision made that British Final was more important that Belle Vue/Newcastle matches? Or was it decided that British Final was less important and he wouldn't be letting anyone down? Having witnessed that performance last night I think it is likely we would have won on Sunday, and he would probably have been just as fit to take place in final. Await further news and updates with interest

I think there is a big difference between seeding better riders to a national final and then having qualifiers to fill up the meeting, as opposed to running qualifiers and then seeding some of those who didn't qualify. personally I wouldn't have an issue with seeding 4/6/8 riders and running one qualifying semi - sadly we don't really have enough quality riders to justify any more. Likewise I wouldn't have an issue with this years system and leaving two wildcard places, primarily aimed at anyone who was injured at time of semis, or who had to ride in GP qualifier, or someone who was unavoidably delayed (eg big smash on motorway, national news, queues for miles delays for hours - not I've broken down!). If no one needed wildcards give them to the highest non qualifying scorers.