RoundTheBoards

Could put an advert in McDonalds window?

Feel free to give us your Sheffield prediction, or your prediction of who will be down the M1. It's all guesswork and speculation at the moment. Join the fun and give us your thoughts.

There's also a whisper that Jack Holder likes to live in the UK and travel to the continent from here, and without a job in the UK, he might not be able to live here. This time of year believe whichever rumours you prefer.

J Holder J Pickering C Holder N Morris J Sedgmen J Etheridge L Killeen Team Sheffield Australia, job done

Awww don't cry, Mr Osborne.

LOL

Northampton Knights. Try to rekindle interest in the nearby Milton Keynes area.

This will fit... J Doyle T Brennan D King K Rew D Thompson D Hume J Edwards

I thought the latest story was that there had been quite a few parties interested in taking over Sheffield, such that the Bates's have now had a change of heart and have decided to stay.

R Douglas 8.12 S Masters 7.28 L Becker 6.88 K Howarth 5.00 D Kemp 4.72 New foreigner 4.00 D Gilkes R/S

Whatever league structure we see next Easter, he should be nailed on for a place.

A tense, close, dramatic tie. And once again Poole prove themselves the 8th best team in Britain, just behind Birmingham.

Exactly. Oxford have pulled the plug on the Premiership (Spires). They will operate the Championship side (Cheetahs) and hopefully NDL (Chargers) in 2026. It's no secret, however much people try to twist the words.

Why? What do you think the limit is going to be? You could be under the limit, but may still have to release a rider...

I'd say it would be a major surprise if Oxford reversed their decision and stayed in the top flight.

You're contradicting yourself. If it's OK to rank a football team higher in a 3-3 draw because the team who are about to miss out will hypothetically play harder at the end to get a goal and make more entertainment, then the same thing applies in Speedway. If the riders are about to tie on 9 points, then the guy who hasn't had a race win will ride harder to get an extra point, and create more entertainment. You defeated your own point. The fairest result for any drawn contest is always a draw. But when we need an actual winner we have to invent a tie-break to split two competetors who by all other standards are exactly equal. It's the same whether it's football away goals, speedway race wins, or Shirley Ballas getting an extra vote. What was more unfair than Italy winning football's Euros after only being in the final by virtue of winning a dressing room coin toss with Russia?

Were your work colleagues ever bothered when in Champions League football a team won 2-0 at home and lost 3-1 away, and went through to the final even though the aggregate scores were 3-3?

I can understand Oxford wanting to drop out of a league rather than doing all three, but I'm wondering, do Oxford fans approve of dropping out of Premiership and just doing Chmapionship, or would you have prefered to drop out of Championship and just entered Premiership?

Of course they're of equal points value. That's why we need a tie-breaker. It's very simple that 2 heat advantages are numerically more than one heat advantage, and this ranks teams with a tied score. Just as simple as an individual meeting where 1,2,2,1,3 =9 is ranked better than 2,2,2,2,1 = 9 even though they're equal value. Just as simple as in football where until recently a team winning 2-0 and losing 1-3 were ranked better even though they're equal goals.

Anyone else hearing that Northampton will be joining the 2026 Premiership with owners new to promoting speedway?

Absolutely spot on. I found the Speedway Star recent edition which claimed something like "70% of fans want one big league" to be totally irresponsible. It seemed to be 70% of people responding to a dishonest question The question they were responding to was "Would you support one big league if it had 14 strong teams with good quality riders, and equally competitive teams?" But get that thought out of your head. A "yes" answer to that question is irrelevant. That's not an option. One big league, running on any racenight, would automatically rule out anyone who races in the Polish leagues. Gone would be: Max Fricke, Jack Holder, Brady Kurtz, Dan Bewley, Emil Sayfutdinov, Jaimon Lidsey, Josh Pickering, Ryan Douglas, Jason Doyle, Michael Jepsen-Jensen, Chris Holder, Tom Brennan, Luke Becker, Jan Kvech, Tobias Musielak, Nicolai Klindt, Matej Zagar, Keynan Rew, Ben Cook, Maciej Janowski, Rohan Tungate, Norick Blodorn, Francis Gusts. So that's 23 riders gone from Britain. So what will the Premiership bring to a new combined league? JUST ADAM ELLIS ! Every other rider who ride in the Premiership in 2025 (apart from Adam Ellis) doubled up into the Championship. We can't count them twice. So, the 5 teams joining the "One Big League" (Belle Vue, King's Lynn, Ipswich, Leicester, Sheffield) are bringing Adam Ellis to the party, but they need 5 x 7 = 35 riders. So these big 5 need to take 34 of the doubling up riders.... The remaining 9 championship clubs need 9 x 7 = 63 riders..... but 34 of them are not availsble because they can no longer double up. So suddenly we need a further 34 riders. Where are they coming from? We could look to the National League, but many of the NDL riders already double-up into the Championship, others are still only 15 years old, so even if we take every NDL rider right down to the lowest 3.00 newcomer, we still can't get close to filling 14 "One Big League" teams. Then of course, with no one able to double up, will riders be happy to have their income reduced by so much? Or will they quit the sport? What happens when someone gets injured? Where will replacement riders come from? ONE BIG LEAGUE CANNOT POSSIBLY WORK.

Well, David Rodwell is a "business consultant" with a motorsport background. His current company https://www.extratime.app/ has an app that "Gives sports fans VIP access to their favourite sports stars behind the scenes" Jamie Dobb is an ex-motocross 125cc World Champion from 25 years ago. Why do you ask?

Starting with your English teacher?

Ipswich's bottle?