RoundTheBoards

Reading the press release and believing the press release are very different things....

Jake Mulford replaces Archie Freeman, with Elliot Kelly kicked out to make the averages fit. Middlesbrough needing another 3.00 rider now.

Any news how Craig Cook is with his injury? Looks like Workington used IRR, so he must've been signed out of the meeting injured?

Bit dubious using a guest for a rider missing an official fixture to go to a practice day, but within the rules I guess. Anything goes these days.

Because the meeting has been postponed!!!!! They have to declare the team 72 hours before a fixture. That would have been 7pm tonight, but the meeting has been postponed. It's now a deadline of 7.30pm on 7 April

But like I said Saturday's meeting is now postponed.

Plymouth have now cancelled their first 2 meetings. They don't race until 10 April now, so at least that gives them another 10 days or so breathing space to find a new rider.

What a bizarre take.

That's OK then Are you suggesting that a drug dealer like Courtney, couriering tens of thousands of pounds worth of drugs, is not as bad as (say) Richie Worrall snorting a line of coke at a party? Seems a strange take!

Someone who has become free and will cause about 50 pages of discussion on here.

Nope.

Spot on. He had a good point, that a certain level of handbags and a bit of stage-managed fisticuffs is good for business as it causes controversy and excitement and publicity. But Woffinden's foul mouth meant that the point was lost. He just comes across as an unprofessional moron. Surely Phil Morris has something in the contracts that anyone swearing in interviews is heavily fined just as professional footballers are. Woffinden was the low point on what was otherwise a good media day.

I reckon they'll have 7 riders, and the news will fill about 50 pages on here.

The Premiership promoters of course

181 now...

But Craig Cook hasn't...

Good to see that Birmingham got 7 riders for Press Day

Workington Comets Lager - The cans are 85% full, and rather weak.

If they don't have a facility, (and they shouldn't have) they can only use a rider up to 75% of the average of the missing rider.

In an attempt to rank the teams, I've compared all the No.1s, and the same for every team spot, down to the No.7s. In each category I've awarded 6 points for what I believe to be the strongest rider, down to 1 point for what I see as the weakest rider. No.1s Hagon BV (4), Coles EDI (2), Thompson LEI (6), Killeen OXF (3), Phillips RED (1), Ablitt S/S (5) No.2s Hodder BV (4), Perry EDI (6), Spencer LEI (1), Scott OXF (2), Trigger RED (3), Harrison S/S (5) No.3s Marson BV (4), McGurk EDI (5), James LEI (3), Spooner OXF (2), Freeman RED (1), Pijper S/S (6) No.4s Muff BV (3), Wood EDI (6), Butcher LEI (2), Clouting OXF (5), Halder RED (1), Simpson S/S (4) No.5s Wirtzfeld BV (4), Watson EDI (5), Foord LEI (2), Garrad OXF (3), Kelly RED (6), Davies S/S (1) No.6s McGurk BV (5), Parker EDI (1), Crang LEI (6), Summers OXF (4), Rathbone RED (3), Dicken S/S (2) No.7s Shimelt BV (3), Lyden EDI (6), Springer LEI (5), Vale OXF (4), Hojcaniuk RED (1) Pijper S/S (2) Totals Edinburgh 31 Belle Vue 27 Leicester 25 Scunthorpe/Sheff 25 Oxford 23 Redcar 16

I'd say zero chance of it not being staged, since it is Belle Vue v Edinburgh. Belle Vue always complete their fixtures at the NSS, and as BV and Edinburgh are 2 of the stronger NDL teams, there's a good chance that one of them will be in with a chance of winning the league.

The original Sky deal was £5M over 5 years. Terry Russell took 20% finders fee. So a cool £1M over the 5 years. The remaining £4M (£800k per season) was split with each team getting £55k-ish each (which basically they used to pay for their No.1 rider) and then a couple of grand for staging each match. Some went to BSPA running costs. The current TV deal is worth very little to the clubs.

It's still one of the top rated TV programmes, still pulls in the viewing figures, and gets tens of thousands of applicants to go on each series, so full respect to Paul Bowen for what he's done in getting there. But the programme is now a parody of its former self. It used to be a semi-serious attempt to find a business brain, in the days of contestants like Tim Campbell and Ruth Badger. Alas now it's purely played for laughs and scripted and edited to make the candidates look like idiots. (And clearly some are chosen because they are idiots, like the one who clapped when told they'd had to give away 52% of their turnover in refunds). But you can guarantee that when other team used crumble mix instead of breadcrumbs, it was because that had been set up by the producers. It's definitely pre-produced and played for laughs these days and not to be taken seriously.

No harm in dropping him a line and asking him to investigate the goings on at Swindon. Oliver.Holt@dailymail.co.uk

Lindgen, Kylmakorpi, Fricke etc. all lived in Andorra. Not sure how many of them still do.