Grachan

Another form of team riding that I always enjoyed was a rider in front forcing the opposition to slow down so he could get his partner to overtake them. Andrew Silver and John Cook come to mind as riders who would do this. I also remember Rory Schlein doing it for Coventry against Swindon. Didn't go down too well, that one.

Enjoyable meeting. I was up on my feet when Rosie won his ride. That was the difference between having a big number one and not having one. Anyone else notice Kildemand had no 43 on his race suit. Not sure if it was a tribute or maybe it was Darcy's suit.

Swindon look a lot weaker to me without the almost guaranteed wins of Darcy Ward at number one. Peter is a decent replacement, but with him riding on a second string leaves us slightly vulnerable at the top. I think Coventry might win this time, but I reckon we're still pretty solid and good for a point. Maybe even a draw.

Teams aren't doing reduced admission as a favour. They are doing it to try and get people in. It's a business decision. This is particularly relevant on a Monday as is not clubs' normal night. For Wolves this is a normal race night, so I can understand them not reducing admission. I doubt Swindon, for example, would do reduced admission if Sky were there on a Thursday.

I see the Ben Fund collection last night raised 3412.41. Not bad for a crowd of about 1500.

Last meeting already? And Leicester a Saturday track too. Shows it can be done.

If he's got a possible spinal injury why was he lifted onto a stretcher?

Great result for Swindon, although Bees were very much weakened. Even so, they showed little fight other than Chris Harris. Darcy Ward was so good again. Oh if only he was a Swindon asset. He was already team riding Summers before they reached the first bend, and in heat 13 was pulling wheelies down the back straight while winning by half the straight. Shades of Michael Lee there! All the top 5 were good value. A shame Wrighty no 2 faded after a good first race. I remember when he was a bright England prospect. Not sure why he's now at this level. Looking good for a play off place now.

The problem then, though, is that their average isn't actually their average. The race format certainly throws up strange figures, just as everyone predicted it would.

What's going on with this weather forecast?? First it says a bit of rain in the morning. Then it says a bit of rain in the afternoon. This morning it showed no rain at all all day. Now it's got it raining in the evening!!!

I think it should be used for team building too. Rather than having "two riders over 7" have "2 heatleaders", but still use the averages for total team strangths. It's only because the heat formula causes a big imbalance with the averages. If this was the same as the good old days, Lindgren would probably be averaging about 9.

The argument doesn't fall down at all, although my assessment of who would be classed as a heatleader at King's Lynn might not be correct as I don't follow the side. Not convinced Milik would be a heatleader anyway, as he was fifth in Poole's averages last year, so got his average as a second string rider. I guess that's where you get problems with grading. At what point does a high scoring second string become classed as a heatleader?

So who is guesting for whom here? North for Lambert seems a fair enough like-for-like guest. Is Lindgren in for Milik? This is why, I think, there should really be a grading system for guests because of the racing system. (I've said this before in case people think I'm points grubbing here). There should be a heat leader and second string grading (which should also be used for team building, rater than the "over 7.00" rule). Lindgren would be classed as a heatleader and Milik as second string. So a guest for Milik would have to be a second string up to his guest average of 6.74. (I don't see why you can have a guest with a higher average than the rider he is replacing either btw). This would rule out people like Lindgren as a guest for a rider like Milik (and, possibly, Harris for Morris too, as Morris would have been graded a second string at the start of the year). King's Lynn's heatleader are, presumably, Iversen and Bjerre. So another heatleader could only guest for one of those two. Eligible guests for Milik would then be people like Craig Cook or Ricky Wells, who actually has a higher average than Lindgren but wouldn't be classed as a heatleader.

Flipping heck! We could lose to that lot. How come nobody is complaining but everyone made a big fuss when we had Chris Harris for Nick?

The ref caused the accident. Red lights should have been put on before they got to the first bend. Garrity is innocent!

Absolutely. Even though he didn't.

Well isn't that just typical. Trying to find a good guest and R/R to help you win. Cheating Bees.

Because they're our new best friend.

Yes he was. His mission was to deter all the silly cheating accusations by scoring less than Nick Morris would have.

Not sure guests at reserve will make a difference either way. We just need to swallow up the reserve points and send agent Andersen out on a mission. No Hans? Why not?

The weather forecast keeps changing, but is staying just about acceptable so I may well go to this if all goes to plan. Going in the top 5, Swindon are more than a match for them there Bees, but it's those reserves again. It's those reserves! Top scorer in the British final verses our own honest, hard trying FTR pair doesn't auger well. Bees should win due to their bottom end strength, but our top end strength should hopefully get us a point. I predict a decent crowd, because Bees fans love our Darcy.

How would Belle Vue miss out?

Or maybe Poole just has the courtesy of getting touch with Sky and giving notice that the meeting was likely to be cancelled due to weather forecast when other teams haven't done so and ended up racing 10 heats infront of a crowd of 6.

He'd already been taken out of the race, replaced, and the riders had made a start. I don't really see how he could have been put back in again. I don't know how thi stands with regards to rules, but it seems a very strange decision. Belle Vue were at fault by replacing him, and the ref should have pointed it out before the restart. What's the betting it was a fan somewhere who pointed it out, and knew better than the team manager and the ref!

It only counts as a ride on averages. Not in the context of the match unless the rider isn't replaced. Common sense says Cook should have been excluded and Belle Vue should have had to go with one rider only in that race. No they didn't. You've taken the scores from before they were Zagarless. Belle Vue were Zagarless for the last 3 races, and Swindon won those 7-11. Being in a race and taking out your team mate counts as a ride.