arnieg

That's the Impression I get from reading the Oxford discussion forum!

Unlikely as Dan is 20.

Just a reminder - 1971, the last time the league title was fought out between these clubs. Next week and it was back to Hyde Road for the Aces against the Leicester Lions. Leicester were good that year and were running Belle Vue close at the top of the league. They had England's top rider in Ray Wilson and were a real threat. Ivan Mauger was away in Poland with Barry Briggs preparing for the World Pairs at Rybnik, so Belle vue drafted in the experienced Ronnie Moore as a guest. The match was tight and tense, with never more than four points between the teams, and going into heat twelve the Aces held a slender two point lead. The next race turned things Leicester's way as reserve Ken Eyre came in for the poorly performing Belle Vue captain Tommy Roper, and Ronnie Moore failed to finish. Leicester heat leaders John Boulger and Graham Plant took a 5-1 to put the Lions in front. The tension steadily increased in the build up to heat thirteen. Belle Vue Aces had not been beaten at home since 14th September 1968. I had never seen them lose (other than over two legs of the Knock-Out Cup Final). Defeat was unthinkable. As the riders took the start Belle Vue's highest scoring rider of the night Dave Hemus broke the tapes and was excluded. The tension racked up another notch. Young reserve Alan Wilkinson took his place alongside Soren Sjosten, but they were up against Leicester skipper Wilson and the experienced Alan Cowland. Belle Vue needed a 4-2 just to draw, and a 5-1 to win. This was going to be tough. As Sjosten lead, Wilkinson was last, and in a do or die effort to pass Cowland round the outside he crashed in the pits bend safety fence. The race was stopped "in the interests of safety", and Alan Wilkinson excluded as the cause of the stoppage. Enraged, and clearly feeling that Cowland had pushed him out towards the fence and the point of no return, Wilkinson grabbed the Leicester man as he rode back to the pits. Before anyone knew what was happening fists were flying, speedway riders were hitting other speedway riders, mechanics were hitting other mechanics, and some spectators not wanting to be left out jumped over the fence and started hitting anyone that wasn't already being hit by someone else. The Champions Book of Speedway Number Three has a Wright Wood photo of Wilkie being held back by Leicester's Malcolm Brown while Ray Wilson wrestles Alan Cowland away. At the same time Graham Plant applies a smart left jab to someone's chin. Speedway prides itself on its all-inclusive family atmosphere. That night the speedway family all got included in a right old punch up. Needless to say it was rather distressing. We'd all gone that night, Mum, Dad, Helen and me. Not only that but we'd decided to watch from the standing area near the pits, right where the melee took place. I was shaking. I just had enough grip of my green biro to write "2 mins" against the remaining three riders' names. Such was the delay in getting the heat completed the referee excluded everyone. Things calmed down and the second half was completed as normal. Alan Wilkinson fell off in his heat, and Alan Cowland finished last in his. Maybe they'd had enough excitement for one night. From 'Speedway Ruined my Toffee Apple' by Ian Harwood on the speedwayplus website.

Just a thought - Have you considered boycotting the BSF as an alternative. I'm sure if you refrained from posting it will bring thd FIM to its knees.

Touché. I think both call offs were right but your hypocrisy in not calling out Poole the way you did Oxford is now visible for everyone to see.

How great is the improvement? Well who can forget last October's NDL Cup final v Mildenhall? 🫣

One would hope so, but with Peter one can never be sure

2024- 40 for top 6 plus 3 for RS = 43

Congratulations for the most stupid ill-informed childish post of the day

2 ft! I hope they've put up no diving signs.

It should be the refs business to confirm eligibility full stop, not just some aspects of eligibility. However the issue here was Scunny didn't declare Kemp as a guest, they declared Toft as riding and only slipped Kemp in at the last moment.

People start getting jumpy when 2-3mm are forecast, but on Monday the city had 77mm - the heaviest rainfall for 56 years. Let's just say this will be a real test of their drainage system.

And you've made your choice, but you don't get to choose the weather

Ye of little faith

And you propose a system that would have given Tomas Suchanek and David Kuwaja GP places!

Jesper's got Pawlicki qualifying, not Dudek. Edit: I see you spotted the oversight.

Apparently Slater Lightcap is in. Who's he replacing?

Poole cheat, blah blah blah This is getting boring. They are only missing one rider, several plausible replacements have been identified, they will simply book one (or two) and getting on with it.

Sounds like a day trip to me 😉

I think he's still some way behind Luke Priest and David Mason on appearances

I thought the track was financed through prudential borrowing, paid out of rental income charged to the Speedway promotion. That's why a seat near the starting gate costs £29 at the NSS versus £22 and most tracks. That extra £7 is going towards paying for the stadium.

He's been to Cowley 6 times this year. Twice with Belle Vue, once as a guest and in the Pairs for Poole, as well as the two you refer to. Although he's only scored double figures once he's always looked capable of doing so.

And that's before you consider what is the philosophical difference between the two. [Consider Ryan Douglas and his infected wound - the wound (an injury) didn't stop him riding, but the infection (an illness) did - so should his absence be regarded as through injury or illness?]

Seven days applies to illness, not injury. So had Howarth claimed to be ill on Sunday rather than injured he'd have had to miss Wednesday's match (and the two Sheffield fixtures, and Friday v Edinburgh))

19 years old, 5pt average, not made the progress hoped for. That's where Dan Thompson was 12 months ago - sure any team would have been happy to benefit from the progress he made in 2024.