Grachan

The averages are in a right state at the moment. THey have no bearing on the quality of the rider. The ace format needs to go back to one that gives riders proper averages. If that involves a second reseves race and a nomnated riders heat, I'd even be inclined not to include those in the averages so that heatleaders have a proper hight figure and reserves have a proper low figure. Also, there seems unneccesary complication of what a rider's average is when riding in a different league. For me it should be this: EL - use EL average. PL - use PL average. Whatever their average was, that's their average. Seems logical to me. If they only rode in one league in the previous season then use that one with an assessed average for the other league.

Not such a big call really. Not if you look back through the heats at who Tungate and Sedgeman had beaten and been beaten by. Another very good result by Swindon, who continue to surprise.

What needs doing? I haven't seen the article so I don't know what he suggests.

Depends what new rules they come out with really. It's all very well suggesting tearing up the rule book but they need a viable alternative first.

I can't find the link unfortunately, but there was an article where he said it was ridiculous that he had to ride in the semi final of the British Championships on the day of the GP practice and that he totally supported Tai's decision not to do it.

They already did that this year - to both Mr Woffinden and Mr Harris. Whoever decided that Chris Harris should ride in a semi final on the day of the GP practice is obviously trying to make some kind of point. I doubt Chris will be in the GP next year, but if he were and they did the same I suspect he, too, would pull out going on the comments he made afterwards.

Give the starting marshall red and yellow cards. Yellow card for Cook - cheers from the crowd. Good fun, and no doubt about the situation.

There would be no point Wright replacing one of the Aussies if he was down at reserve, Just because the rider at reserve can suddenly find points a lot easier to come by, doesn't mean they are suddenly better than the riders in the main team. I just wish they would put the race formula back to how it was so we can have proper averages where there best riders have the highest average rather than nearly a whole league of riders between 5 and 7 that tells us nothing.

Some people are making a lot of Swindon's current big scoring reserves, but in reality it doesn't make such a difference. Take last night as an example, and looking at how the team rode. Last night we had the following: Wright: 0, 1, 2 = 3 Tungate: 0, 0, F = 0 Sedgman: 3, 3, 3, 2, 3, 3 = 17 Morris: 3, 2, 3, 2, 2 = 12 Total = 32 One would expect, if the teams were as they should be, you'd have Wright at 6, Tungate at 2, Sedge at 4 and Morris at 5. If you swap the team round to that order and look at the scores, those people might be surprised at the "difference" in expected points. Assuming the following from last night's form - that Wright beats all reserves, Tungate beats all reserves, Sedge beats all reserves and second strings and Morris beats everyone but Iversen. Also assuming they all do the Hucklebuck, this is what you get (with possible errors on my part - but this is how it came out when I quickly went through!) Wright: 3, 1, 2, 3 = 9 Tungate: 0, 1, 2, 0 = 3 Sedgman: 3, 1, 2, 2 = 8 Morris: 3, 2, 3, 2, 2 = 12 Total = 32. So, in other words, the same. I didn't go through the scores so don't know if it would have affected the TR.

Read Rob Lyon's comments. It's bad when King's Lynn lose too! The only Swindon are "relying on their reserves" is because the riders who should be scoring elsewhere are in the wrong positions. Swindon would be at their strongest with Wright at reserve beating other reserves and with Sedgeman and Tungate as second strings.

If he did, as you say, see the error of his ways then surely that's a positive thing. Hancock? He was doing exactly the same thing - laughing and joking during his own national anthem - after winning a gp last year. If you think Tai was in the wrong last year for doing that then fair enough. But it doesn't mean he isn't British. And, this time, he showed the anthem full respect.

It's just people trying to find a stick to beat a successful Brit. It's always been the same. Tai took his hat off and was respectful throughout our ghastly national anthem, and fair play to him. There's nothing to criticise.

Why should he? He is there by right. You have to question his commitment, though, after opting out of practice.

Absolutely. And it's pretty obvious what the priorities of any rider who wants to be World Champion should be.

Holta never claimed to be Polish? He was in their World Cup team for Heaven's sake! I'm not convinced you are really Polish though. Great win from Woffy. Can't believe Harris missed the practice to ride in the British semi. No wonder Tai pulled out. What a crazy decision from the BSPA, or whoever organises the British finals. Harris rides in the semi and comes last. Tai opts out and comes top. So who made the right decision there?

The thing is, I remember reading in Speedway Star back in the 1980s that while Nielsen/Gundersen was a good rivally it lacked the interest of Carter/Penhall. Coverage of the sport dropped considerably during that time. Hans Neilsen's World Final win in Poland wasn't even on tv and I had to get the video just to watch it. I also have speedway stars from 1967, and there is an article in one of those bemoaning that speedway isn't as interesting as it used to be as it lacks the characters it used to have. I reckon the answer is 1930.

As I pointed out earlier. It's an illusion that the strong reserve is winning the matches, because the rider who should be there is struggling in the top 5 and can only be replaced once. Wright could have picked up plenty of points at reserve, and Tungate would have outscored what Wright scored in the top 5. It's wrong that these riders are at reserve. Pedersen at reserve for Poole is ridiculous. But it's not neccesarily making teams stronger. Pedersen beating reserves by half a lap doesn't score any more than Wright, Ellis or Howarth beating reserves by a small amount, but Ellis or Wright scoring 1 or 2 in the top 5 scores less than the likes of Pedersen and Tungate scoring 6 or 7. It needs sorting, but, in the end, it's still the same 7 riders. Swindon didn't win just because they had Tungate at reserve.

It looks unbalanced, seeing Tungate getting 15 at reserve, but is it that influential on the win? While Tungate is scoring big down there, Wrighty is struggling for points in the top 5. Excluding the nominated heat (which is an extra heat and he would probably stlll have been in it), Tungate scored 13. Wright scored just 2. That's 15. On the form he was on Tungate would probably have scored at least 9 in the top 5 from his programmed rides, and Wright could have probably scored more than 6 at reserve to make more than 15 points. It's unbalanced the sides, but I'm not sure it had a major influence on the final result. In fact we might have won by more with Wright at reserve.

Great win by Swindon feat. Chris Harris. Swindon may not have looked the strongest on paper, but Rosco had a good plan here to put together a team of riders who want Swindon to win and have a strong team spirit. This is an impressive result, particularly without Doyle.

Just shows the impact Jason has had this year, as suddenly I've pretty much lost interest in the match!

I remember gettting very excited about a rider who was once called "the next Peter Collins" in an article - Gerald Short.

Not sure where you looked, but I just checked 3 sites. BBC & Met Office had no rain at all and the Accuweather said "a couple of showers". I've seen worse forecasts.

Saw some of the online footage from the NL meeting, and the track looks good now it's been sorted. I think it might suit Swindon's Aussies and the 'never say die' attitude of Wrighty. Belle Vue have a good side, but this is their first meeting there and Swindon will never have a better opportunity to pick up at least one away point at the home of the Aces.

Not seen him ride, but reading about him he sounds a very useful prospect. The last rider I saw dominating races at this level the way he seems to be was Darcy Ward.

When I saw the title I did think of Andrew Silver, although in his first few seasons at Swindon he was brilliant but seemed to see it ad a bit of a hobby. Thinking of others, Mike Ferreira was more of a disappointment than Andrew.