The Cheese

Just over a mile away and hardly saw any rain all day, shows how different it can be in such a short distance. Remember 4 or 5 years ago a meeting that was abandoned when heavy rain came and flooded the track, 5 minutes down the road the sun was out and completely dry!

Completely agree, seems to have the perfect attitude. Doesn't look like he's going to start thinking he's a superstar before he's anywhere near that level or get involved in nonsense on social media, just quietly gets on with the job and does it very well.

10pm curfew

For someone who seemed to be hailed as the saviour of the sport when he got the job I think it's fair to say he hasn't exactly lived up to it. Nothing has changed, the sport is still in decline with no obvious plan to help and the same dodgy decisions are made especially in the NL where it seems there's a different rule for every day of the week. The farce at Kings Lynn this week should be properly investigated but how can it be when the head of the BSPA also owns that club? It always ends in that same old answer of needing someone independent to come in and run it. Ideally they would observe everything for a year and work on a plan to take things forward before taking over at the BSPA (if they haven't been frightened off in that time!) but there is clearly no chance of promoters happy to be told what to do by an outsider so everything will stay as it is. If it is true that certain riders refused to ride in that meeting then it is very poor that they seemingly have escaped without bans. It just sums everything up, you have a 16 year old kid in Jack Parkinson-Blackburn who was struggling in the Championship and quit Sheffield, probably in the heat of the moment, and he's given a ban for withholding his services meaning he also loses out on riding for Birmingham for a month. But here with senior riders deciding they've had enough halfway through a meeting creating another mess which will lose fans it gets pushed under the carpet and nothing will be said.

I see that Sky are changing their sports channels from next week. Premier League, other football, F1, Golf and Cricket will all have their own dedicated channel, with main event, arena and action channels as well. You can subscribe to 1 only for £18, 2 for £22, 3 for £26 or all of them for £27.50 per month

Yesterday morning: Putin: So what do you think the result of the Speedway World Cup Race-off will be? Trump: AMERICA FIRST! But it'll be proper speedway Vladimir Putin: No doubt about that Trump: Did you know Kelvin Tatum has an MBE? Putin: And he's a former World Cup winner with England too! Not forgetting a World Long Track champion Later, after heat 20; Trump: AMERICA FIRST! Putin: That's just one race Donald. We won the meeting 3 races ago Trump: FAKE NEWS

Howarth and Barker as well although a long time ago in Ben's case. Proctor probably just qualifies as an ex-Rebel also

Superb meeting yesterday, if only we could have a few more tracks like that over here.

There is no reason why GB can't reach the final by winning on Saturday, with home advantage it's certainly possible although it depends on how fit Lambert is. Australia look strong obviously but there are question marks over many of them, will Doyle be affected by injury (probably not but we can hope!), how fit is Morris after his concussion, Holder hasn't been in great form, Fricke is unpredictable. Look at the USA side, they have Ricky Wells who on his day can have a good meeting, Manzares who hasn't ridden regularly here for a few years and was no more than ok at Championship level and 3 young lads who have virtually no experience. How can anyone suggest we are competing with them? Even the Czech's only have Milik and possibly Kus could have a few good rides, Franc might make a good start in one.

Belle Vue, Swindon, Somerset, Workington, Birmingham and Kent all kept the same declared side last year.

It's pretty obvious when a sporting event is going to finish past the time it's scheduled to, so I don't see why they can't extend it before that time and save people from missing the end. In this case the time got changed to 10.30 after 10 but it was obviously too late by then.

Well done to Cook, no reason now why he can't go that next step and become a GP rider. He has the quality to do it, maybe not pushing for the title but certainly to compete at that level. I'm sure it was only a few years ago when they stopped seeding riders to the final, which I guess was partly down to allowing the opportunity for supporters to see the top riders at different tracks. Now we have the best not riding and pretty much everyone else doubling-up it's not needed so much. And at least 1 wildcard is needed just in case, it's possible that next year Cook for example could have 6 points from 2 rides in the semi-final and then gets injured through no fault of his own and has to miss the rest of that meeting. And the decision to not allow Bewley to ride as reserve is a complete joke. How can he be too good? Does that mean the reserves are there but have to be poor enough to not take points off anyone?

Did a quick search to see if anything is mentioning this meeting and it has made the list of Monday's best TV from the guardian "Speedway: British Final Manchester’s National Speedway Stadium is the venue for a star-studded lineup. 7.30pm, BT Sport 1" A slight exaggeration maybe to call it star-studded but I'm sure nobody will realise Hoping for a Harris or Cook win but there are quite a few that you could make a case for.

Cricket's scheduling is very much like speedway's rules in that they change from one year to the next! This year the county schedule is more in blocks in terms of format but last year you could have some teams playing championship games whilst others had T20 etc. And then you have the England contracted players where the ECB decide when they can play for their counties. So basically it's like the BSPA owning Craig Cook's contract and saying 'sorry we don't want you riding for Belle Vue for the next 2 weeks' And that is a little worrying if it takes that long to get through to the head of the BSPA. No wonder we struggle to attract a sponsor for the league

Rugby Union and League have players who are dual-registered and can play for both sides, in Cricket you occasionally have players on loan at a club in one format and playing for their parent club in another. May not be as common as in speedway but it happens in other sports.

And how would clubs already in the NL such as Buxton, IOW, Mildenhall be able to compete financially with them? I'm certainly not suggesting all is rosy and nothing needs to change, but I just don't see doubling up as the issue when there is an obvious solution to it with fixed race nights. It's still not ideal obviously but at least it solves the problem of riders missing because they're racing for their other club and it should be limited to British riders only.

Doubling up/down is fine as long as you avoid the fixture clashes and I can't see why anyone would have an issue if you could solve that with fixed race nights. Who cares if it wouldn't happen in football because it's a completely different sport. You wouldn't see a top footballer miss important games because he got injured playing rugby last week but we have speedway riders also riding in grasstrack, motocross etc so lets ban them all from that as well. Suggesting we just have 8 professional teams in the country is easily the best idea of killing the sport completely that I've heard. You have a dwindling support now so lets alienate more than half of those left by getting rid of their teams?!

Great win for Cook, hope he can finish the job in Russia.

Kerr's scores so far have been a little disappointing considering his form in the Championship and for Poole earlier in the season.

That is completely ridiculous but sadly it is probably true. It's a real shame that other promotions at all levels appear to have taken no notice of the IOW's success and tried to implement some of their ideas. This forum obviously only represents a small minority of fans but it's clear that virtually everyone here is full of praise for the work they are doing, if I was in charge at another club I would certainly be making contact with the IOW promotion for some tips and advice. Unfortunately I doubt that many in that role think like that, preferring to carry on their way because they know best, oblivious to the crowds falling before them.

Lets not forget that Kyle Newman was originally left out of the semi-finals but was given a place when Charles Wright pulled out ahead of the reserves already named. When Steve Boxall withdrew from the Newcastle semi, were Bewley, Morley and Perry (named as next in line) given the opportunity ahead of Danny Phillips who replaced him? No point in going on about it because clearly Lambert isn't getting a place but it just seems stupid to not have one of the top riders there when we have so few anyway. Likely to put off a few fans from attending and I'm sure BT would rather have him there.

Woffinden announced in March he wouldn't be taking part because he couldn't "afford a repeat of what happened to me in 2014 when I became burnt out mentally and physically." http://speedwaygp.com/news/article/4768/tai-out-of-british-championship Nothing mentions the fact it was on the same weekend as a GP as a reason and clearly the BSPA would have wanted him at the British Final so I'm sure he would have been offered the chance to be seeded through. Or he could have just ridden in the semi-final at Glasgow the day after the GP, but of course that would mean missing a meeting in Poland.. And Chris Harris would have been in the same position but still took part in the semi-finals. Quite simply he didn't want to ride in it last year, I have no problem with that, it's his decision. No need to 'do my research' because I didn't say Josh Bates hadn't been in a semi-final, just that he was given a wildcard which is fact. As you say, 7 went through and Bates finished 8th in the qualifier. Whether he was given the wildcard as the next rider down (that reason alone would defeat the whole point of having wildcards), as the U21 champion or the combination of both only the BSPA will know. King was riding in a GP qualifier on the Monday so withdrew from the semi-final on Sunday. The criticism of Lambert here is that he should have had plenty of time to get back for the semi-final after riding abroad the day before so it's only fair to say that King should have been able to manage it the other way around last year.

If Woffinden wanted to race last year he could have been given a wildcard as there were 2 on offer. One went to the U21 champion in Josh Bates and the other to Danny King who didn't race in either semi-final. Given that, it appears perfectly fair to allow Robert Lambert a place in this year's final now that there is space following Auty's decision to quit.

The meeting in Sweden is the U21 World Championship qualifier which is an FIM meeting so takes priority. Then again Adam Ellis is also in that meeting but is at Belle Vue for Swindon tonight..

If someone says they are going to run training schools and then doesn't then clearly they are going to get criticised for it, whether that happens to be Woffinden, an average rider or a terrible rider it makes no difference. I'm not a Tai hater, as a British rider I want him to do well in the GP's and whilst I don't agree with it I don't have a problem with him not riding in this country and missing the British Final and World Cup if that's his choice. But it's utterly ridiculous to then want to ride for GB in some tinpot World Games that nobody has ever heard of and will just be a Testimonial type meeting. To be fair the BSPA are also to blame for asking him in the first place and then saying he's not in the squad, but when he starts dictating about who he wants to be paired with him you can see why. What's the point in having Rossiter as manager if he wants to take over everything and do things his way? I'm guessing he doesn't think much of Rossiter given the thinly veiled dig at him in the kebab article a few months ago but lets not forget that one of the reasons he got the job over Phil Morris was because Tai recommended him..