Najjer

Even he isn’t a patch on Charles Wright for entertainment value. Wright is the most entertaining rider in the whole league.

....and that is why we should of been paying Charles Wright whatever he wanted to be no.1 for us! Congratulations to him.

I was talking about Somerset, who have albeit made like for like changes - not a reflection on the whole league. Of course with rolling averages and lack of matches it takes longer for the full effect of the 42.00ish to take full effect thus meaning rolling averages don't keep a true reflection of the inflation involved.

The 40.00 points limit that is in place currently though, is the same points limit it was at the start of the season though just with inflated numbers. The standard hasn't gone up since the start of the season, it is in fact exactly the same.

These are supposed to be grown men competing for a sports team where the ultimate goal is to win. If the German can't hack getting a telling off from the manager every now and then, then he is in the wrong line of work if that makes him, and I quote you, "feel uncomfortable". Somerset have had since last Wednesday night to, and I quote again, "throw a team together". A whole 4/5 days depending how you look at it. There is no rocket science needed for speedway so it probably could take a single day, yes. For what it's worth, I would of sacked Schlein after the Sheffield away match if I had been team boss. When you throw in the Berwick one aswell that should of without doubt been the final straw if it was 50/50 after the Sheffield meeting.

Seems abit cynical that point of view - Why would he need to make them feel uncomfortable? Gary May could of just replaced them whenever he wanted to. The signing of Nick Morris isn't actually that much of a gamble. The combination of the bottom 4 has been very little away from home so Nick Morris along with the odd point from Rowe and Stoneman should more than better that. Mind you, Nick Morris has been pretty average at best for Wolves so he will need to up his game considerably if he is to return to his best. Not surprised to see Kurtz go. He should of been pushing a 6.50 average easily this year but has gone backwards.

It’d be like Man City loaning one of their players to Liverpool mid season - can’t see that happening so can’t see the issue personally. Cough up or go for someone else.

Bless him.

Surprised it hasn’t been mentioned but Grobauer has quit riding for Somerset meaning R/R comes into operation for him. Ben Barker guests for Covatti too.

The points limit should never be that high. It should be 42.00 - 42.50 but at the start of the year, not with the inflated averages we now have.

Making it even more baffling why we signed him in the first place. We should of had Harris at no.1 and used the extra points for better reserves.

A lot like me stopped going when we signed him during the winter, knowing full well what we was going to get.

Maybe Gary is going soft - he used to be pretty ruthless but Rory is taking the pee out of him and Somerset with his away performances.

Pity they have to endure another shocking away performance from Rory Schlein. It was mentioned in earlier posts he wouldn’t fancy it tonight and it looks like a repeat of the Sheffield performance.

There used to be banking around the 1st and 2nd bends which was always reasonably well filled. However when the air fence came back the viewing was blocked slightly and this area was cleared to create a decent parking area for the OTA clubhouse for when it is used for private functions - which no doubt provides much needed funds to help top up and fund the speedway.

We hit 70 one year against one of Lawrence's Mildenhall teams! From memory we had 6 paid maximums that night! Edit - http://speedwayupdates.proboards.com/thread/4028/somerset-mildenhall-19-08-30pm They were the days!!

Somerset could hit 60 tonight. Ellis apart, that's a pretty woeful Birmingham side.

Before thinking about away meetings, winning home matches is an absolute must for every speedway team in this country. 99% of fans don’t travel away to support their team so watching them win at home is all that matters to most. Winning away is an added bonus. For years teams have signed riders who are great at their home track but rubbish at most other tracks for that same reason. Josh Auty is one example of that nowadays. I can think of Simon Walker and Stephan Katt for Somerset in years gone by. Absolute world beaters at the OTA and knew every inch of the track but pretty useless away from home. Didn’t stop them becoming fan favourites though, purely because of their home exploits.

Great gesture. Did he comment on what good condition the motorway was in?

I'm sure some tracks have restrictions on not only when they must finish, but when they can start too. Somerset always had a policy in the past of no bikes running before 7pm and then no bikes running after 10pm.

That's an interesting and valid point - It's a bizarre one in that Todd Kurtz had his best meeting of the season by a long distance on a track that was 'terrible' according to the Somerset team manager and promotor. It's a sad sign of the times when you only have to look at IDH's picture of the Oak Tree Arena last week to see it resembling the M5 by half way through the meeting to see who is dictating track prep there and calling the shots. No wonder he doesn't fancy it with some dirt down on the track. I said at the time and I stand by it, signing Schlein was a mistake and the most untypical Somerset signing you will ever see.

Typical Schlein. Embarrassment.

I've had the pleasure of watching both James and Charles plenty of times at Somerset. On their day, both of them could be absolutely brilliant. We signed James mid way through a season after he was released by Workington (I think) and he was fantastic. He scored double figures most weeks at home and was a real racer. This is when the OTA was a superb track and James would often fly round the boards passing people for fun. He started the next season for us in the same year we had Vissing and Jesper Monberg come in. He became so frustrating though - He would go out and beat the opposition no.1 and then crawl round at the back in his next race in heat 14 behind some hopeless reserve. As said above, he could be so good and yet so frustrating/bad all within a few minutes of eachother. Charles Wright was superb from the moment we signed him. He'd been scoring hatfuls for Buxton and then to some peoples annoyance signed him to replace Stefan Nielsen. Wrighty nearly won us the league that year and became the best rider to ever watch in my opnion at the OTA after that. Somerset is a worse place without him.

Thanks for that - Literally staggering really. No wonder they get such big crowds.

Yeah absolutely - From the matches I've watched I certainly haven't seen many 70 year old with speedway badges on his hat waving his programme board around. Much more of a football type atmosphere which only adds to the spectacle.