BackInTheDHSS

Chris Harris has hardly set the world alight this season. He's been okay at home, but away he's been shocking. 2024 AVERAGES M R P B GSA Ave. Home 4 18 35 0 7.78 7.78 Away 4 18 19 2 4.22 4.67 Total 8 36 54 2 6.00 6.22

There are definitely better 15-year-olds out there than Wayne Hutt (no offence Wayne).

I don't think Wayne Hutt is in the team for his points-scoring ability. More for the entertainment of the crowd! Oxford must be pretty confident for the win if they're using him again. 55-35.

You could argue Ashton Boughen hasn't been the huge success we thought he would be but we have to remember he's only 16 and - more importantly - only just started his second full season. He's been riding competitive speedway 18 months only. Definitely need to give him time. Last night he was poor and he was poor against Ipswich. He's going to have bad meetings, however he's also going to have good meetings. The fact he can have good meetings means that he's more than good enough to compete at this level.

Oxford made a near six-figure profit last season.

Surely Leicester is mainly to blame for the shocking end to the NDL season. They’ve literally had months to sort these fixtures.

Don't forget Mildenhall won their KO Cup semi-final on 16th April.... Workington staged their home leg of the KO Cup semi-final against Leicester on 8th July....

Don't forget Mildenhall won their KO Cup semi-final on 16th April.... Workington staged their home leg of the KO Cup semi-final against Leicester on 8th July....

Oxford had to wait weeks for the rearranged league fixture to take place, which obviously delayed the arrangements for the final. The original staging was August 26th, but it didn't happen until September 23rd (and the Lions Cubs only raced on 8th and 9th in between those dates). Plus, what's the reason the Mildenhall Knockout Cup final wasn't staged earlier? Mildenhall won their semi-final against Kent on 16th April!

Seems to me like Leicester had ample opportunity to stage meetings earlier, but didn't. They've literally only had home NDL fixtures on FIVE days since the start of July (and one of those fixtures followed a Premiership match). But we should all wait until April to now decide the winners of the two competitions they've been racing in all season?

There seems to be a lot of posts mainly criticising the fact Emil and Artem haven't got wildcard picks. Rightly or wrongly, the FIM has always said they won't be in it in 2024, so it shouldn't really come as a surprise to anybody. There were never going to be in it. Someone even posted an interview with Viegas, confirming they won't be in.

I'd be a bit worried if I was @steve roberts with just how often you manage to shoehorn him into one your messages. So much so it wouldn't surprise me if you sent that from one of the bushes outside his house.

Poole fans have earned the right to be a bit cocky, though, haven't they? They've certainly had plenty to celebrate in the last 25 years, and - even those that are fed up of Poole fans on here must begrudgingly admit - it is probably the best run club in the country.

It could actually be both. They are not mutually exclusive!

Fearing the wrath of the Glasgow fans for this...but perhaps this is karma for Glasgow's very tame calling off of this league fixture earlier in the year!

I really don't understand why any speedway fan would post something like this. Even if you hate a club, why would you want them to disappear completely? Speedway needs every single club it can get these days. And anyway, a good rivalry makes following a specific team even better in my opinion. It's incredibly sad what's happening to the likes of Wolverhampton and Peterborough.

Okay so what should @dontforgetthefueltapsbruv have said in response to that message? “I really hope Ipswich don’t win the league now as Charles Wright has just been injured”. Give me a break.

Are you getting upset because someone posted that they are starting to think Ipswich’s name is on the trophy? And then because someone said “wouldn’t that be nice”? Good grief, neither post even mentioned Charles Wright! Let alone said anything bad about him. Let’s hope Charles makes a quick recovery, but in the meantime there’s no reason for supporters to stop wanting their team to win. I haven’t read a single post that’s revelling in his injury.

This does seem a bit of strange discussion to be having, and feel the thread would be better used to congratulate Glasgow….however… A coin toss is literally used at the start of every football game to decide which end each team gets etc. Now while this isn’t exactly groundbreaking, it’s barely any different from a coin toss to decide which semi-final Glasgow or Oxford should be in is it? It barely (if any) impacted the result, just like the coin toss at the start of a football match. Should they have a quick five a side game before kick off instead if everything should be performance based?

Yeah, I hope it's competitive, but have a feeling it will be a bit of a massacre. Plymouth fans are certainly long overdue some good luck after their last couple of visits to Oxford (Barker drugs test/Howarth injured in heat 1), though.

Looking at these arguments from a neutral point of view, Glasgow fans seem pretty quick to make quips about some of the Poole fans' intelligence, yet they are the ones that keep biting at the Poole fans' comments. Surely it's obvious they are only doing it to annoy Glasgow? Come on, ignore it and move on and the forum will soon become a much happier place. That said, some of the stuff from the likes of Pinny is just deplorable.

You can't blame the clubs. They want to win and will do what it takes to achieve that, otherwise they might as well just give up now. It may not sit right with some people (me included, to be fair), but the ones to blame are those running the sport and allowing it to happen.

You used plural in your response, not singular, so it certainly wasn't directed at that one poster. Nice try, though. And a great Oxford fan you are if you want people to vote with their feet if they are unhappy. Wouldn't it be a better idea if the promotion listened to their grievances and learned from it? Do you think all the people that are unhappy are complaining for no reason? I think most of us did accept that Jamie Courtney just made a mistake, especially after he issued an apology. But a couple of posters, such as yourself and Gtech insist on bringing it back up because they took offence at people complaining for some reason. Given your history on this forum, I'm sure you'll just want to start an argument, but perhaps just accept people weren't happy and move on. For now I'm going to let it go, it happened (twice if you count the Kent meeting) and I'm hoping it won't again. End.

As has already been pointed out, the issue is Oxford said the meeting was on AFTER it stopped raining, so it has nothing to do with the weather forecast. The forecast after 5pm ish (when it stopped raining) was actually for overcast with spells of sunshine. Oxford even tweeted a lovely picture of blue skies! A lot of people made the decision to travel once that had been confirmed, therefore presuming the meeting would be on. There was no rain between that 5pm time and 8pm when it was called off - meaning it was purely down to a wrong call by Oxford in regards to the state of the track. Jamie Courtney even stated that himself in the 'apology' post on the website, so stop going on about people making a call knowing about a bad weather forecast. It's just not true.

The whole "we've had no speedway for 15 years" argument doesn't wash with me. Just because speedway hasn't been at Oxford for a long time doesn't mean the fans should be treated badly - something I was disappointed to hear Peter Schroeck hinting at when interviewed as well. Keep taking the fanbase for granted and the sport might not survive in the city. Much better to look after them and treat them with respect. That said, it's only happened a couple of times, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. It's still a learning process for everybody involved, and I'm sure they will learn from this (fingers crossed).