rabbit

Good call Hector...sounds excellent. Hope we'll see a few Diamonds fans make the trip south.

Haven't seen the riding order announced yet Phil. That lot is purely alphabetical.

Is there an echo?

Lukasz Jankowski latest name to be added. One to go by my reckoning...

Good news...I like Mads and klindt, despite a quietish season is still a talent. Really looking forward to this meeting.

No real surprise to be honest - I'm sure NYC at Newport was £15 last time I went (although I do suffer from brainfade these days ) so I'd say this was comparable.

Was that an intentional typo Shazzy?

Thank you. One thing I would add is that I'm sure that absolutely no disrespect has ever been intended at any time in this 'situation'. I've known Matt for many years, and whilst he often is accused of many things, I'd certainly not think of him intentionally going out to upset anyone over this. Whilst I wasn't at our supporters' get-together on Weds, the subject of the meeting was apparently raised and I did see the following post on our forum today - someone posted 'He also said that if the public opinion was that it shouldnt be in Tim Stones memory, he would withdraw that from the title. Its a shame its got to this point as he mentioned he was helping the new promotion at Newport with 2-3 riders for next season and speaks to them on a daily basis. ' I do know from previous conversations that he was friendly with Tim, so perhaps the cynicism that has met the name change might not be wholly justified. I'm sure that more will be forthcoming, if not before, then on the day of the meeting, in the programme notes.

To be honest, I think the only person you are going to get the answer from is Matt himself. I'd suggest calling the speedway office as others have done - he's an approachable chap and I'm sure if asked in the right way, he'd be more than happy to tell you what's behind the plans. With all due respect, asking on here isn't going to get you anything other than second hand info or hearsay, either from a forum member or via the papers.

Well, welcome to the madhouse

Tidgy! You've posted on here!! You'll get a nosebleed being up this high!

There was an element of abuse in there Sandie, trust me. Some of the comments were out of order, particularly in the early day - I know because I replied to some of them. I think perhaps the paper may have misconstrued the 'forum' as being the Poole one rather than this one, as only one person I think on the Poole forum (who's a bit of a miserable old anyway) has been negative about the meeting.

And that comment says more about you than anything else.

I know a few of my fellow Poolites aren't overly impressed at the moment, but so far there's a good smattering of young, exciting Brits who ride Poole well. As long as the standard remains equal with this lot, it has the potential to be an entertaining afternoon.

I think we're at slightly crossed purposes here - I was responding to your comment 'I love the way the Newport fans have been made out to be the bad guys in all of the threads regarding this meeting which was just short sightedness by the Poole fans in my opinion'. It seemed a very sweeping generalisation and not something I had thought in my reading of the threads. I agree with you in part - I can see exactly why it all kicked off - small club in unfortunate current circumstances has their prestige event whipped from under their noses by the big bad rich club - that's human nature and demonstated on here virtually every month when something happens for those who love a bit of indignation to go off on one until the next saga occurs, even if they're not even vaguely concerned about the incident other than for some good scandal value or to stick the boot into a club/team/rider they don't like. And I'm sure I've been just as guilty in the past too. Where I don't agree is that the Shovvy effect is supposedly enough to get everyone going to such an extent to justify some of the comments that were made, some of which were well out of order, regardless of the circumstances. As I said earlier, I don't think it should be called the New Year classic either, nor do I think it should be specifically promoted as in memory of Tim - I think it raises all sorts of questions (some of which have been asked on here already) and which, if not answered satisfactorily in the eyes of some posters are likely to generate further negative comments before the meeting is done. It would have been (in my opinion) 'safer' to have gone for a neutral name - like the Blue Riband and be done with it and let any association with meetings past be left for Newport to pick up again should they wish to. Perhaps details will be released which will keep everyone happy, but we shall see.

I don't think that's the case at all about the Newport fans or your comment about the Poole fans either to be honest. There was always going to be a lot of emotion attached to a meeting that the Newport fans felt was 'theirs', particularly with everything else surrounding the club. As Poole fans, on our part, we've had to sit and read some pretty nasty postings about our club in respect of this meeting, so I don't think you can blame some of our number of fans for not wanting to sit back and take all the crap thrown, however much we might have empathised with the bare bones of the Newport fans' case. Personally I wish we didn't have the damn meeting, and Newport could have it back with pleasure. It seems to have caused nothing but bad feeling since the day it was announced. Having said that, we are lumbered with it and FWIW, it doesn't sit easily with me that it's called the NYC. That should have been left well alone and a totally unrelated title used. I knew the moment I saw the name change that it would cause just as many negative comments as the original decision for us to stage the meeting did, if not moreso

I see the season of goodwill is upon us early this year.

Just think the logistics and probably the wage demands of some of those who were on the invite list probably had something to do with it. IMO it was never going to be that realistic an idea when you started listing 'champions' and aligning it with those who'd actually want a mid-season meeting in the first place.

Here we go again

Fun? For whom? Seems like just an attempt to stir up further bad feeling. I'm delighted that Newport are back, I truly am, but this constant niggling isn't doing anyone any favours.

Trelawney - always meant to go but kept putting it off...and then they closed.

To be fair to Bjarne, he did miss two GPs through injury - had he ridden in those, I think he could have been top 8, or even in the position where Nicholls finished. All irrelevant anyway as he effectively ruled himself out of the series for 2009 where wildcards were concerned even before the end of the series.

I'd be interested to know whether Holder was approached with a view to a wildcard place - he's made it known that he was uncertain about going into the GPs yet, and certainly seems to march the beat of his own drum rather than being led - I wonder if he decided to give it a further year?

Whilst I'd ordinarily agree with you about supporting our own, I don't see any reason why people can't objectively discuss his inclusion. The GP after all, is supposed to be about the world's top 16 riders battling out...

Sorry Spooks - I meant with 4 Poles (if you include Holta as pseudo-Pole that is) in 2009, you'd have thought 4 Danes wouldn't be a problem. This decision has to be purely based on politics - nothing else.