Grachan

I think Sedgeman's average was too high.

Really enjoying it so far. Bringing back some good speedway memories of the Carter v Penhall rivalries. I've already been over to Youtube to watch the 1981 Overseas Final. Carter's interviews with Gary Newbold really were tv gold.

Okay. You persuaded me! I just bought it.

Thing is, if the stadium is built and people have a nightmare with parking, they ain't going to come so often.

Oh give over. You're no more Polish than Gater1 is a Poole fan.

So was mine.....

Did you complain about Wimbledon using the Vietnam flag? All Somerset have done is do what other teams, such as Reading and Lakeside, have done in the past. Reading adopted the old Harringay nickname and emblem. Lakeside did the same with West Ham. Somerset have taken over the "Rebels" from Oxford and White City.

It was interesting to see a programme on Channel 4 last night, called "Inside the Klu Klux Klan". The conferderate flag was very prominent in the organisation. They were all flying it outside their homes, had sew on patches on their clothes. One member even wore Confederate Flag trousers!

Hey, what's this? Another Swindon topic being hijacked by Poole fans?

I think you've missed the point of what people were talking about. It wasn't about EL being better than PL, or about how good a league the lower league is. It was about whether or not the PL is a stronger league now than the NNL was in 1975 in terms of the ability of the riders in it.

So does that mean that Iwade and Mildenhall juniors were better than todays PL teams because Michael Lee was riding?

In 1974 it was the Second Division In 1975 it was the New National League In 1976 it was the National League. I know this is correct. I'm a genius on 1974 to 1975 speedway.

Not sure exactly. I remember watching Lee Complin and thinking he was so good, then went to Reading to watch him. I expected him to be brilliant, but he just struggled at the back all night. By the way, wasn't Michael Lee NNL, not NL?

I don't think its as simple as low admission price. I think it's a dual effect of low admission plus promoting that too and publicising the event. It does seem that, without these, people don't bother to go and stay at home. So it's quite surprising how this can turn things around completely and result in some of the best crowds of the season. Some people say it proves that admission should be cheaper, but just doing that along would, I reckon, not make enough impact long term t ocover lost revenue. But promoting Sky matches as one off events with low admission means people like myself who tend to pick and choose are likely to choose those matches. I see Lakeside are doing a £5 admission too. Be interesting to see how it compares to Swindon's matches and Lakeside's own "Free Admission" match a few years back.

This is one thing we have in our favour. The council have said that the current stadim cannot be demolished until the new one is built. Without that being put in place, Swindon would probably have closed down in 2007, never to be seen again. Like Poole, Speedway has quite a high profile locally, which is a good thing in situations like this. But it's still all a bit 'fingers crossed'.

I used to watch PL speedway regularly at Sheffield. Watching it, you form your own ideas of who are brilliant riders and who are not so good. It was a shock to see how different the levels are, when riders at that time I thought were brilliant would ride in the EL and suddenyl be completely outclassed. EL was a lot stronger in those days, mind.

12 from 6 at Leicester 11 from 5 at Swindon 23/11 x 4 = 8.36 To be honest, if riders are prepared to do it, I'd get them to drop their averages every time once a match was won if I was a manager.

I think it's fine because it gives you a more constant view of the race to the first bend. Better than switching view in my opinion. Any moves and so on can be seen clearly in replay.

Swindon were crap in 1975. That's probably the real reason if they didn't want to ride against Boston.

I went to a few at Bristol. I seem to remember that Bernie Leigh was brilliant there.

Yes. Smallmead opened in 1975.

If you lot really want to avoid discussing Darcy Ward, may I recommend the Darcy Ward topic in the Speedway Grand Prix and Speedway World Cup section. He barely gets a mention in there!

A discussion on Darcy Ward populated by people who are fed up with people discussing Darcy Ward. Great stuff.

If we had a 16 team EL and the same riders that are riding here now, then, by default, every rider in the current EL would immediately be a heatleader. Number ones would be the current top twos. Second heatleaders become the current 3s and 4s Third heatleaders become the current numbers 5s plus 8 from the PL. Put that lot through the old race format and you get 10 point riders aplenty.

I did answer it. Riders of NL standard today would have been NL then, too. Plus riders slightly above them in standard too. I said, somewhere between the current NL and the current PL in standard. The top PL riders of today would have been riding in the top league. It's not a yes/no answer because I feel it needs more than that. But, yes, todays NL riders would have been in the old NL too.