Grachan

So we move on without Woffinden. Maybe in the future Robert Lambert or Steve Worrall becomes the top Brit. What then? Maybe the same will happen with them. This is not a new thing. We've had Lee Richardson, Scott Nicholls, Rob Lyon and now Tai all quit out of frustration. I don't know what the problem is, but it's clearly a big one.

Hancock is a freak! The true all time greats, for me, are the riders who have won 4 or more titles. If he wins this year then he falls into that category. Good to see a great name from the past there in Tony Rickardsson. Hancock is actually older than Rickardsson!

From what I've seen of him lately, Steve Worrall is way ahead of all the other original EDR riders now. He was a decent reserve at Swindon, but the way he seems to have come on lately is pretty sensational. It's great to see. Hopefully he can continue in the same vein.

It's on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED3fgjEkaOo

That's true. Would never have happened anyway.

Would have had to be in place of Jason Doyle.

My interest in speedway tends to be up and down. Recently I;ve lost interest a bit. Swindon have no fixtures for me to attend over the summer holiday and their team has been a bit rubbish. Interest was on the wane. Tai has signed for Wolves and my interest is back on the up. So it has to be a good thing - even if it does probably mean an even bigger defeat for Swindon at Monmore. I don't see why people are criticising this. If you have an opportunity to strengthen by bringing in one of your own assets you take it. Simple as that.

Premier League is just as bad. You have Newcastle having had 12 meetings and Berwick have had 20.

And while we're at it, there's the league table. You've got one side who've had 7 more matches than another side. How can you judge the league table based on that? Any other sport has all the teams having had a roughly equal amount of meetings each.

The fixture list is ridiculous. I can only really take my son to speedway on a Thursday during school holidays. I said to him we would go during the summer holidays. We've just been away and I've checked the fixtures. How many meetings on a Thursday between now and the end of the school holiday? None whatsoever. This, surely, is a period when crowds might be larger, too. I don't know who worked out the fixture list, but it's shocking.

If they really must insist on their silly Joker, they should at least make it programmed rides only. At it is, you can gain 5 points by slowing to allow someone to pass, which could allow a double point TS in place of a rider who might score 0. At least with a TS or Joker only, you are only making a maximum of 2 points so there is less to gain from dropping back.

Same. Still there. Sometimes it's on. Sometimes it's not.

There was. All the details were on the big screen, albeit not permanently. Lack of a scoreboard is a major beef for me. The lack of them is, I'm sure, a supposed cunning plan to make people get a programme, but having a big scroeboard like in Basketball or Ice Hockey would immediately add to the sense of watching a team sport and I can't understand why it isn't used. Swindon use a scoreboard and show heat line ups and heat results, but it rarely shows the match score. That, for me, should be permanently on display. I know people love their programmes, but the fact is that as soon as a race is finished half the crowd are heads down and scribbling all the details. It affect the atmosphere and adds to the sense of speedway being rather unfashionable. It's hilarious when they say on Sky that the crowd are going wild, and promptly show a small group of people filling in a programme. I used to keep my programmes religiously by the way. I'm not knocking the filling in of programmes. But keep a scoreboard up there and you'll add to the atmosphere I'm sure.

Too much can be made of how good a rider is at a certain age. Jason Doyle looked set to be little more than a journeyman double upper at 25.

Ah yeah. And Holder had already been used as a joker.

Tactically interesting, particularly the Doyle/Jonsson race that neither wanted to win. The commentators spoke of Doyle possibly being excluded, but had he been then Jonsson would have had to be too. If TS is allowed in the nominated rides (daft rule) surely Austalia, being 8 down after 16, should have had Holder and Doyle in the final 2 races, used Doyle as ts in 17 and, if still a possibility, used Holder as a ts in 18. Or is that not allowed. I don't see the problem with no joker, no ts and a full strength reserve you can use tactically.

Was it an official team practice or was the track just made available for GB riders to practice on if they wished? If two riders out of 4 weren't there I'd guess it is more likely to be the latter, but I don't know.

Quote from Hans Nielsen: "He didn’t seem to take it too well."

That was, as others have said, Kevin Holden. As we're naming people who have died, let's not forget Vic Harding too.

Leigh Lanham is a PL rider below 6, so is allowed to be used for anyone as a non-facility rider as far as I can see. This looks like what Matt Ford was on about recently regarding non-facility replacements etc. I started reading it but got confused half way through and gave up trying to work it out!

Haldry crarrification. I is maybe 10 yeals ago I go to Autolace Mista Gustix-san. It just flom memoly isn't it.

The riders all go by nicknames. None of them use a real name, so you could be right.

Speedway on shale was banned in Japan in the late 1960s because it was apparently too dangerous - which is rather ironic seeing as they are the country that invented suicide bombers. I've actually been to a couple of these meetings. They are called "Autorace" rather than speedway, and it's just gambling - pure and simple. The riders even parade round the track on their bikes before a race so you can choose who to bet on - like horses round a paddock. It was an interesting experience but it's nothing like speedway. There's no teams, no meeting winners or anything like that. Just individual races for betting on. I remember there being a nasty crash in one race and the ambulance came onto the track, bundled the rider into the back with typical Japanese efficiency, and took him away before the riders even came round for another lap.

Meeting abandoned due to Swindon being 8 points up.

Looks like Batch has thrown his toys out his pram. Swindon should come out for 5-0s!!