SPEEDY69

I agree, am considering Lakeside on 20th and KT makes it more attractive. It's about time we had another golden greats or such like. How about tatum, ermolenko, louis, andersen, loram, lemon, boyce, crump, hamill, hollingworth, o'hare, mountain, les collins, andy smith, screen & peter carr. Would you go along - i would!

Richie Worrall - or would this be too many double uppers?

Kasper gomolski has tweeted he's riding in the uk - perhaps i missed it but who for?

As with all motor sports, machinery plays a big part but I don't think that Greg's riding ability can be questioned. He has the tremendous ability to be able to perform at a consistently high level no matter what tracks conditions are like, whether big or small and very rarely gets out of control - that is pure motorcycling ability.

You can never please everyone, nor should we! Some riders do better in slick "full throttle" type surfaces, others where it's grippy or deep, others in the wet but whatever one of those, I think they all like the track to be consistent and not have patches of these variations within the bends.

The answer to your question is yes but why does it matter if it was only he that consumed too much alcohol?

What's legal got to do with it - this is not a test which falls under the law, merely one to evidence compliance with the rules of the sport. He's admitted he had a few the night before and initially accepted the verdict so for me whether it was Joe, Fred or Mary holding the tester is irrelevant - it's the reading which is relevant.

So, business as usual for Poole then!

Yes. At the Southern Track Riders 20th Anniversary meeting a few years ago there was a photographer and there are big selection of photos. See here for thread: http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=74902

That was a misunderstanding then, I was merely comparing his away average with that of an FTR rider. I accept away averages are often lower but rarely does a quality rider have such a big gulf between home and away (less than 5 away).

Not quite sure why that's a reason to be inconsistent - wasn't he racing the same heat leaders and second strings at home as he was away?

Not sure if Cook would be a good move, barely better than an FTR away from Belle Vue in 2014 and missed a lot of fixtures as well. A rider who can be consistent home and away would be a better bet in my view - who knows what they'll decide.

The confusion is being caused simply because it wasn't an open and fair draft - as soon as they had agreed teams could 'protect' riders it made the draft unworkable from a fairness point of view. And I agree with earlier posters that EL averages should have been used where available.

Riders are self employed so it's his choice where he works. I am disappointed he's chosen not to support British speedway by riding for a team here, especially given the schedule changes but from his message it seems he cannot cope with as many meetings as other riders. On the positive side, it opens a place up for another rider and as a supporter of speedway in this country I like to see committment from the riders and if they aren't, there's the door! Wonder if he'll be interested in all the practice opportunities avaliable in the UK early in the season or to help out a team near the end on a short-term basis, if it suits?

1st bold section: Not quite true though is it - he was only a reserve for the challenge final and only by luck did one of the qualifiers not take their place which then promoted him in to the final. 2nd bold section: Again not true though. Not all riders get the opportunity as those in the qualifiers are there only due to being selected by their country in the first place. No issues with him being in the series next year though because he took advantage of that chance and I wish him the best of luck - the more Brits in there the better.

The weather in March/April can be worse than October (definitely can be much colder!) - whatever months are used the weather plays its part and always has.

Don't agree with all those moaning that this is in October - speedway has always been run well into October and I've even seen meetings in November! We get rain at any time of year here - lots of meetings called off earlier in the year as well. I actually prefer to see the racing under floodlights than in daylight in any case. Just a shame for me that Swindon went ahead on Monday as it was an awful meeting.

I wonder if Havvy will have a word with Harris & Garrity to advise them who Coventry would rather face in the final I agree with others that it's unfortunate that the rules allow these changes in guests, on both sides. Batchelor for Cook makes Poole way stronger - more difficult to predict the affect of the Lynn changes. If Lynn go through I suppose it's perfectly possible that Batchelor can then guest for Lynn in the final?

It's ashame for them because of the 'racing' that was served up and the vast majority of those fans who stumped up the money to watch it live would be home team fans, thought that would be obvious. British speedway needs all the paying fans it can get to survive and for some that may have been one of the few meetings they'd been to - will they go again? Any fan of speedway should be able to realise that the meeting was dire and would not attract casual fans to watch again on TV either. Thanks also for the rather childish correction when I wrote 'cancelled' instead of 'postponed' - and actually it's p.s. as in postscript, not PS: as in whatever.......

What a dull meeting, devoid of racing - should've been called off

Swindon got their meeting on but it was a gate and go bore fest with zero actual racing and such a shame for the home crowd - how many will return. Shame because it's meant to be the pinnacle of the season. On that basis I'm glad poole was cancelled.

Swindon got their meeting on but it was a gate and go bore fest with zero actual racing and such a shame for the home crowd - how many will return. Shame because it's meant to be the pinnacle of the season.

Qualification, whether through the top 8 or the qualifiers does not result in the top 15 riders in the world being in the series - merely those who have 'qualified' to be in the GP series. The 'top 15' would be difficult to agree if juts selected, howvere that was done. The point I'm making is why should current GP riders have two ways of qualifying.

I think they should change the qualification rules - the wild cards may then become even more of a talking point. The permanent 15 riders in the series that year should not be allowed to compete in the qualifiers, thereby giving as many riders as possible the chance to qualify (from those picked by each country in the first place of course). Those 15 already have their qualification series over the year whereby the top 8 qualify and the rest don't - why should they get two chances? Imagine if all 15 choose to go through the qualifiers, as they could under the existing system, the challenge could simply be another GP!!

I agree with this in respect of those riders 'lucky' to get in that you identify. Difficult one though because there are always those who get promoted in the standings due to other riders being injured/withdrawing/suspended, as you know