arnieg

However his other four scores in league matches this year have been pretty undistinguished:6 & 3 in the Elitserien 8 in the Allsvenskan 4 in the Bundesliga

Except this one: http://www.eastbourneeagles.co/news.php?extend.938

Yes once upon a time the Racers had a good team manager:- Bob Radford wasn't it?

Bates - nah I'd give it to the British Under 21 Champion... ... Oh! That's Josh Bates.

Nothing new here. Lakeside and Rye House did it last year with Ed Kennett, generally giving preference to home fixtures regardless of league.

May 2015 Elitserien attendances: average under 2000 from 9 matches So far this year (8 matches): average over 3000. - could just be the weather (very warm and sunny at the moment) but it will be interesting to see if it can be sustained.

Easy to see it is a typo - that is Riss's average for home guest replacement. Alarmingly it was wrong on the previous issue as well!

The Masarna Vetlanda meeting was a little underwhelming - heat 15 was the best race. The entire Vetlanda team was comprised of riders not active in the UK!

The last thing we need is one less team or one less track. Suggestions of Cov riding and Leicester have many drawbacks, but keeping Cov going would count as a positive. It is a good job not all Leicester fans are as bitter as you. (And yes I remember that day in late October 1983 well)

As I pointed out on another thread recently this is what they used to do in Poland - last twelve matches discarding the best two and worst two scores. Would not only remove scores like the ones of Glasgow riders on Sunday but would make it far more difficult for teams to depress their combined average by riding crap.

You can - it's known as the 'purposive approach' to judicial legislation. It is very common in Inland Revenue law. Pepper v Hart [1993] is the landmark judgement in this area. However that is clearly not the approach taken by the SCB/BSPA this season. We have already had two examples where the strict literal approach has been used (Jade Mudgway and Belle Vue's use of rider replacement at Swindon) so after due consideration I agree with you.

Martin Scarisbrick is the first name that comes to mind, remember his heroics in the fours final? Anders Mellgren, the only non-Dane to win the Youth Gold Trophy, is a more contemporary choice. Going back further how about Bobby McNeil?

6pm odd start time (but convenient for me). A chance to see Dan Bewley is certainly a strong draw, and looking forward to seeing Georgie Hunter back in action.

I would expect so but I can't find it in the rules!

Another new factor is money laundering. There have been several examples of football clubs being used for money laundering (most recently Blackpool), and electronic ticketing is one of the processes put in place to demonstrate compliance with the legislation. BTW I once acted for a speedway promotion that was subject to an Inland Revenue investigation - the questions seemed endless.

Fundamental problem is the reserves. Bates and Sarjeant currently have the lowest combined GSA of any EL EDR pairing. As we have seen over the last two and a bit seasons the teams with strong EDR pairings are the ones that do well. Bates and Sarjeant both look to be improving, and it is no reflection on their efforts, but basically they are both number 7s and no amount of restructuring will change that. Theoretically they could sign someone like Bachelor or Cook and that would give them a powerful top three that might just carry the long tail, but riders of that calibre are unlikely to materialise. The Polish version of Kenny Bjerre is probably the best hope. As for last night, it was more a case of Cov being poor rather than Swindon being impressive. Stand out performance that deserves a mention was Charles Wright who recovered from two iffy opening rides (including a fall) to register a win and a paid win over Chris Harris.

Correct - although you might add that Newman (or his replacement) could still take a reserve ride to replace Bjarne.

You can tell it's under new management - Len would have called this off yesterday. Good luck with the weather

Elections next week will lead to a new timetable for planning meetings, but it looks like the next one probably won't be till late May/early June

Kyle 7.24Holder 7.13 No they didn't consider it, but the issue has been tested (Swindon v Belle Vue - where Max Fricke didn't get a rider replacement ride, as the rider above Ritchie Worrall was deemed to be reserve Steve Worrall)

An extra ride for Holder but not Ellis!!

Yes, Winkfield Row! Here's what I wrote about it in my book: The village of Winkfield lies three miles north-east of Bracknell, close to Ascot racecourse and Legoland. It seems like one of the last places that one might find speedway. The Wokingham Times headline “Speedway Racing at Winkfield – New Track Opened” challenges that perception. The report of a meeting on 17 September 1939 is contained in the following week's paper. A reference to the 'newly formed Winkfield Motor Club' in the August 25 edition of the Wokingham Times indicates that plans were under way to stage an event before the war broke out. The meeting featured many of the California regulars – Sid Lewington, Billy Newell, George Bason, Jack Adams and Herbert Deacon all appeared. With his National League experience it is no surprise to find that Jim Boyd dominated the meeting by winning six races. A further meeting planned for a fortnight later failed to materialise. A clearly annoyed reporter wrote in the Wokingham Times (6 October 1939) under the headline: 'Speedway Racing at Winkfield – A Protest at its Cancellation'. He described his experience: “... on arriving at the Winkfield track on Sunday there were no officials there at all and only one rider. However there were quite 100 people there at 2.30 p.m. including dozens of cars and other conveyances ...” The big question though is – was it really speedway? In the 1930s and 1940s a number of grasstrack events were promoted as speedways. Homes of British Speedway (Tempus), the excellent reference work by Robert Bamford and John Jarvis lists over a hundred of these. The meeting report identifies the location of the Winkfield track as Crouch Lane, a road dominated by farms and farm buildings. The track was described as of similar length to California (310 yards at the time) but with straights sloping uphill and downhill. It seems almost certain that this was essentially a grasstrack circuit set up in a field.

Strangely this is something I've actually thought about! My first choices would be 17 September 1939 to see the meeting that took place at Winkfield, and a trip to California (Berkshire). I'd like to visit some of the grand old tracks of the glory days - Norwich, New Cross, Southampton etc. - and maybe some of the more obscure venues, in particular Leicester Super. Then there are riders I would like to see Vic Duggan, Bluey Wilkinson, Igor Plechanov. I think Ivan Mauger riding in the Southern Area League in 1957 would have been interesting. And of course some particularly special meetings such as the 1964 GB v USSR test at Wembley, 1956 England v Sweden at Wimbledon or the 1951 World Final.

Which would appear to answer the question in the topic heading in the affirmative. 14% of meetings called off were due to track problems at Belle Vue.

Yes, I was looking at those figures yesterday, although I think we should probably remove six of the seven Belle Vue fixtures as they weren't really weather related.