DaveWayne

So what we are saying is that away fans have had unpleasant experiences at most tracks, but for some reason everyone hates Sheffield for it.

A friend of mine who was a Wolverhampton fan will never go to Belle Vue again after she was verbally abused and threatened while walking out after a meeting with her 4 year old daughter. What sort of a man stoops to that level ?

About 20 minutes later ? That makes it ok then does it ? It was nothing to do with what Tai said. It was in response to a bit of light hearted booing from Tigers fans. Massive uproar on here because Tai swore and kids might have heard it, but it's fine to make offensive gestures that were far more likely to be seen by kids. I know there is a general dislike of Tai on here, but the double standards are laughable at times.

Pity you didn't lose with the same grace. I can only assume that most Ipswich fans had done what Tai requested by the time the medal presentations took place, as you are all quick to mention his comments on the mic but none of you seemed to spot Doyle giving double middle fingers to the Sheffield fans when he went up to collect his loser's medal.

And the semi 2nd leg. His last 2 meetings at Sheffield were 7+1 and 9+1. Most Tigers fans would have liked him at number 6 this season, but the numbers didn't fit.

Yeah, but on a positive note, at least you can use it as an excuse when you drop an aggregate point next month.

I'm intrigued as to where this person claims this 'announcement' was made. Buster's only involvement with stock car meetings is renting the track to the promotion, and running his burger stall. He certainly doesn't get anywhere near a mic to make any announcements, so my guess would be that someone had a dig at him while buying a burger and he gave a sarcastic response.

Comfortably ? 8 points and Doyle missed both matches.

No crying here. Beaten by the better team on the night. Ipswich last year were a 2 man team away from home (3 if King performed), but have done a good job of filling the gaps this season and look to be the strongest all round team in the league. Sheffield have taken a gamble of being top heavy with 3 big heat leaders, but still need good back up from Pickering, Howarth and Edwards. The loss of Edwards cost us 3 or 4 points, and Howarth is currently underperforming. On a different night we could have won by 6-8 points but it wasn't to be.

Just like Woffinden in 2016 that your fans cried about for the next 5 years.

So straight forward in the rules that you announced him before 1st leg of semi but he didn't race until 2nd leg, after your club got lawyers involved ? The 2 scenarios were completely different and everyone knows it.

But injury replacements are only allowed before the transfer cut off. You should have used guests from within the British league.

The difference being that Belle Vue brought Lambert in from outside of the British leagues after the transfer cut off date, whereas Sheffield used him as a guest from within the British league as he had signed for Kings Lynn for the latter part of the season.

Totally agree in terms of making 'form based' changes, and last year, despite him starting as badly as he has this year, Sheffield stuck with Howarth and he came good second half. Ellis was probably the only one to leave last season based on form, but if rumours are to be believed he actually asked for that to happen rather than the rhetoric on here that he was 'dropped'. Kerr was the loser from that one as he also went to make enough points available. With regards to 'cobbling together a team to pinch the trophy', Holder, Woffinden, Musielak, Vissing, and Gilkes all had season ending injuries. What else were they supposed to do ? Turn up for the play offs with 4 riders ? I have genuinely never seen one team have so many long term injuries in a single season. On top of the ones above, we also had 2 broken collar bones during the season. All of these injuries apart from one happened while the riders were riding in GPs, Internationals, or their other clubs. Yes the title was won with a lot of 'guest jackets' but what were the other options ? I may be wrong here, but I think Woffinden was playing devil's advocate to try and get a few riders to buck their ideas up. I genuinely can't see any imminent changes, but could be wrong.

So I should pay out an extra £7 a month to guarantee being able to watch a delayed broadcast of an event that is scheduled to be shown live on a channel included in my TV package from Virgin ?

That's the joke with the highlights programmes. Plenty of time in an hour to show every race, but instead you get 4 or 5 heats and lots of waffle.

Isn't that also a good example of team riding though ? There isn't a lot you can do to help a team mate stuck at the back with the 2 opposition riders in between, so you get a wriggle on to clinch the win to ensure you don't lose any ground. Worst case scenario is 3-3. I have said for years that Bewley will always be a better GP rider than club rider as he very rarely looks to help out. Last year, when Tai first joined Sheffield, there were several meetings where him and Kerr got out of the gate in front, Tai looked over his shoulder and let Kerr through, then sat on his back wheel for a 5-1. Had Bewley done the same here then Belle Vue would now be in the next round. Even the commentator says Mountain has "been left to his own devices, Bewley has checked out". Riders don't win titles - Teams do !!

Also a perfect example of why Belle Vue lost. Bewley GP riding and just clearing off for the win, instead of helping his team mate. This is where the supposedly 'past it' Woffinden is head and shoulders above Bewley in team racing. The work he puts in to support his fellow riders to get heat advantages is what all heat leaders should do. Picko does the same here. Once he has passed Mountain you can see him looking for Holder and then creating the space. Team riding at it's best.

About time we had some luck with refereeing against Belle Vue. Payback for decisions in both legs of the 2022 playoff final.

But where would you hold the replay ?

Not right or fair, but how do you make it fair ? All up sticks and have the super heat at a neutral venue ?

Beat me to it. 10 points from 9 rides over the 2 legs from a number 1 is not going to do a team any favours.

Interesting to see a few comments on this thread saying that Birmingham's issue was gating, as I thought that was their strength the previous week against Sheffield. The 3 5-1s in the first four races were down to getting out of the gate first and staying in front on a one line track.

I think the strength of most of the squads this season means away wins are going to be quite rare, so the final table is likely to come down to aggregate points having a big impact. The Sheffield squad is built on having a very strong top 5 at home, which should see them pick up the majority of the extra points over the season. This in theory will see them into the top 4, and barring disasters they will be capable of giving any team a battle over the 2 leg play off matches. My opinion on this might change when they finally ride at home !!

Don't plan an away trip to Oxford then