MrMungo

Honestly? I'm probably not in the best position to comment as I don't know all of the facts. However, Benji Compton was signed as a replacement for John Oliver, aswell as to cover any of the PL riders' unavailability, I am guessing. During the season, there's been nearly someone riding elsewhere. On this occasion though, there's no other PL meetings scheduled, so Sheffield/Scunthorpe effectively had an 8 man team, so they had to leave someone out. I am assuming that NL line-ups need to be declared 3 days before the meeting, but I am not totally sure of that. Later it turns out that Benji Compton can't ride(for whatever reason), so they probably only had the choice of sticking Stefan Nielsen (who I assume is the inexperienced rider you are referring to) at number 8. Either way, I'm sure it will be a cracking meeting tonight. Hopefully there won't be as many falls as there were in March (and a narrow away win would be nice! ). I'll be looking forward to the return leg at Sheffield next week.

Why would I have issues where Mildenhall are concerned? Some very unsavoury scenes I'd say. I don't think I have ever never seen such an over-reaction to a first bend incident. No doubt it was hard and Lambert should count himself lucky to be in the re-run, but even so... Maybe hooligan was not the greatest of terms but people like that don't deserve to be placed in the same category as the decent minded Mildenhall fans. Some fine races towards the end, agreed. Several spread out races towards the middle of the meeting and riders struggling with the track at the start of the meeting, which appears to be the norm when I have visited Mildenhall. Certainly a lively meeting though!

Disgraceful behaviour by some Mildenhall hooligans. I know all clubs have some people like that, but Mildenhall always seem to have far more than most. People like that need to be kicked out of the sport asap. Great back against the wall performance by Stoke. The injuries to Atkin and Nobes (Isherwood looked competitive too in the reserves heat before his bike conked out) obviously stretched them to the limit but to come out of the meeting with only an 8 point deficit is a great effort. Special mention to Simon Lambert, who was immense. To compose himself after the mayhem after the first staging of heat 13 was quite an achievement. Sarjeant also looked good, and Pickard deserved more than his points tally. Next weekend should be interesting!

The track is always like that. Generally it has far too much dirt for a small track.

The Belle Vue home leg has now been changed to the 28th September.

I seemed to recall that he impressed on the P&P day, and was announced as the number 8 then. As the season got going, they seemed to realise there were availability issues, with the side having 4 PL riders, along with Paul Cooper's availability issues. They then signed Greg Blair. Stefan Nielsen was booted down to number 8, and Oliver Greenwood was the number "9" I suppose you could say. Back to the thread, got to feel some sympathy for Ben Reade. Not paid that much attention to his scores, but he's seemed to have done a solid job at reserve. He's perhaps a victim of being in a successful side! Sometimes people grow from adversity, and hopefully Mr. Reade is one of those. It's a tough sport sometimes.

Scunthorpe/Sheffield named Oliver Greenwood as number 8. Whether he was officially listed (on the BSPA site) as number 8, I can't remember.

I think they key element here is that it is a joint venture, so if they do make it all the way (to the final), then in the interest of fairness, the semi should be staged at one track, then the final at the other. It's still the same team - they just don't have just the one "home"! I agree the name element needs to be looked at for next year though.

I'll take number 3, Paul As it is a joint venture, I think they are staging this one at Sheffield, and then if they qualify for the final, it will be staged at Scunthorpe, and the team will be known as Scunthorpe Saints. The team name seemed to be based on where the home leg will be staged. It's a bit confusing. A good idea, but probably needs a bit of tweaking for next season.

It's a shame that Buster sold Ward and Batchelor when he did. They have had the riders who could have spearheaded an EL outfit, but at the moment they just don't have the assets (to the best of my knowledge). Off the top of my head only Topinka, Sitera and Smith are anywhere near EL standard. Out of those 3, Topinka struggled all year, Sitera needs to ride more often at this stage of his career, so think he might be PL bound next year. Smith could be worth a shot at a reserve berth next year. EL speedway (racing wise) has been great this year, but with the team-building, I think they hit gold this year. Might be a different story next year, and the year after (etc) until they build up a stronger asset base.

The news is also on the "Hackney experiment" thread, and your comment is still on there.

I don't know Shadders, but it's possible that they are having a tough time putting out a competitive side. Or maybe the forecast was bad? If they are going to have a double-header, then surely 2nd October would be the best option?

Oh dear. Ole Olsen's slick tracks don't seem too bad now! Dissapointing stuff so far. Was quite looking forward to this one aswell. Hopefully the injury is not too bad.

I think Greyhoundp was referring to Thomas Jørgensen, who, I think (but not sure), has toured with Team Viking in the past. Stefan Nielsen has not.

IIRC, Oliver was 5th in the averages, so it was only really R Worrall, (Smethills if not at reserve) and the reserves who were eligible to take on an extra ride. Besides, strengthened or weakened, R/R should only be a last resort at this level. I don't know how much Compton has ridden lately, so he may well be a bit rusty, but from what I remember, he was a capable rider on his day.

Looks like Scunthorpe have signed Benji Compton to replace the unfortunate John Oliver. Should be a decent second string, I'd imagine.

He already has an average, which was in the Sheffield programme 2 weeks ago. So no, you are wrong

I respectfully disagree, Neil3065. Mildenhall really should have got at least a point from this match. It's a poor showing on their behalf that they didn't. Scunthorpe are really struggling with injury problems lately. Stefan Nielsen wasn't even down to ride today after his crash last week. Adam Wrathall has a badly damaged shoulder and was about to pull out of the meeting before JLo crashed. Add that to the injuries to Birks, Irving, plus now JLO, and it was quite an impressive achievement for Scunthorpe to get all 3 points from this match. Helped of course by the dopey Mildenhall Team Manager. On the bright side, it was good to see Daniel Halsey apologising to Stefan Nielsen. Credit where it's due. Best wishes to JLo (and his family) on his recovery. It was a horrible looking crash. The poor guy has no luck whatsoever. Not for the first time he has been the victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time

Pretty sure he'll be at Scunthorpe tomorrow, "Superstar1". Scunthorpe will be REALLY short of riders otherwise. I hear Irving went to hospital today aswell. Hopefully it's nothing serious. Hopefully Adam Kirby will have a speedy recovery & hoping to see him on a bike soon. Congrats to Buxton on their fine win.

I know he was looking forward to riding at Birmingham again, but he won't be riding tomorrow night due to the injuries sustained at Mildenhall on Sunday.

Hope the injuries to Franklin and Stoneman are not serious & that they recover quickly. Congrats to Stoke on a very, very fine win.

Blair has retired, and Cooper, I am not sure about. Think he's taking a break from the sport or something similar. I don't think there's a great deal of difference with the team changes. It just gives Scunthorpe/Sheffield a full side again, which is good to see. Not a huge fan of R/R at this level, but it's occured quite often with some many riders having PL commitments.

It's been the case for a while, Vog. Nothing ridiculous about it, just an awesome NL team, IMO. Scunthorpe/Sheffield have just been using a reserve instead of Cooper (on most occasions) for a while now. It's made them seem "weaker" than they actually are.

That may be a reason for the new signing then? With lots of extra PL meetings being slotted in at this time of the year, there may be a few occasions when the Worralls, Birks or Irving may be unavailable.

He's healing well. I honestly had never seen so many cuts, bruises and general redness on a human body before as I saw on Sunday. Just taking it one day at a time.. The foot and wrist injury is worst at the moment. The 7 rule will probably (not 100% sure) rule him out at Buxton even if he did want to ride, anyway. Bank Holiday Monday at home looks more likely.