Grachan

It seems that the death of Lee Richardson plus injuries to Ricky Ashworth and Rory Schlein have been the catalyst. If so, maybe the guy should be given a break.

Exactly. You beat me to it.

Why is this even being discussed? You really do have to question the sanity of people sometimes. Woffy's absence from British speedway says more about the problems in British speedway than it does Woffy.

I would agree. Glad we got that sorted. Honestly, though. The obvious thing for me is just to put King's Lynn top of the table, as that is what the ruling says. Makes no difference though. As we've now decided Swindon were champs.

He crashed in Denmark yesterday. Duh!

Before the days of doubling up you could have a good number 8. For example, if Nick morris wanted to ride in the PL he could be Swindon's number 8. In those circumstances it would work, but all the bet PL riders are also in the EL anyway in the teams, so it's not possible. I remember Andrew Silver as Swindon's number 8 while he was at Arena Essex, and used to lok forward to the times he came into the side.

So presumably you'd also have no problem with, say, Poole also being allowed a guest even if it went against what is in the rule book?

I must say I'm surprised that Swindon have a facility for Peter in this match. It certainly didn't used to be the case when a rider was riding in another league. That's the way it is now, though. Guests have become so commonplace that they seem to be available for anything regardless of the rules. It wasn't that long ago that riders missing in this way had a 6 point PL guest or, failing that, were suspended. I remember Renat Gafurov being suspended from windon's side for missing a play-off semi and Swindon needed the facility to qualify so had to sacrifice him for the resst of te season. People may argue that guests are a neccesary evil, but it seems to be a bit out of control lately. Of course, Swindon could argue that, theoretically, they are replacing Adrien Miedzinski and his injury. But even AM is back riding in Poland.

My own favourite was the Oxford v Cardley match on 3 April 1975. The meeting was held in snow, and Cradley walked out after heat 7 leaving Oxford to ride round on their own to win 58-14. I remember a couple of matches at Oxford being called off in good weather due to an over watered track. I actually gave up going to Oxford every week as a result.

Mybe the BSPA should fork out 1000 quid or so to get him British Citizenship if he's been here long enough.

So it's not as straight forward as Tai just deciding not to ride because he wanted to test some bikes then.

Can we use him in the World Cup though? (Rory that is)

What are Rory's credentials for becoming a full time British rider? I remember him riding for Sheffield's junior side and apparently he has British residency.

I don't think people are moaning. just thinking of how a great offer could be done more effectively. I see a reason given on the Robins Facebook page for selling tickets in advance was so they knew how many programmes to print.

You've missed my point. I'm not referring to myself. I'm thinking of how this could have maximum effect. I can, as you say, do that no problem. Thanks for your help. Anyway, as you say, I'm probably coming across as a bit of a whinger here and that wasn't my intention. So I'll leave it at that.

It is simple. As long as you are already a speedway fan, a member of this forum or social network groups, or a mate of Jeffster. I just think that maybe it would be a chance to bring some new fans in too, but they would not have access to any of those media.

I haven't. I think the normal admission price is reasonable enough. All I'm saying is that I don't think making it advance tickets is the bet way of doing it if they want to get the highest number of people in. It's not just about us. Yeah, it's great we can go for a fiver. If I want to, it's easy for me to get an advance ticket, as it is for all of us on here. I'm not thinking only from my own point of view of attending. I think needing advance tickets can put some people off from making the effort. This isn't done as a favour to you and me. This is done to get as many as possible in for a tv meeting, and Swindon do more than a lot of clubs do with regard to that. I just think it's easier and more effective to charge 5 quid on the day. If this was as a favour to regular fans then no problem. But that's not the reason behind it.

No, but it stops you going on the day if you were thinking of going because it costs a fiver. Which is the point. To maximise the gate.

Not sure of your logic here.

I agree. I'm not saying Swindon weren't at fault.

And it rules out people who migt decide to go on the day, which is normally my own remit. Ok, maybe I'm saying this stuff because it makes me, personally, less enthusiastic about it. But if it does that with me, then maybe it does that with others too. What they should do is have someone outside offering £5 tickets to people who are queuing, in case people don't have them. Then you won't get people turning up thinking they are getting in for a fiver and having to pay £17 instead, therefore going home feeling cheated. Still a good deal though. I'm probably sounding far more negative about it than I should do! Don't want people to think i'm a whinger, because well done to Swindon for trying something!! We often do promotions for Sky matches and I think it's a good thing.

Maybe. I don't think it's maximising the potential for getting a big crowd though.

Not such a great plan then. A lot of people wait to see what the weather is like before deciding to go, and this may affect things. Says on the website: "Tickets can be bought in advance for the meeting from the stadium and in outlets around the Swindon area." That rules out the Coventry fans then! And possibly me too.

It probably was stuck in 'drafts' or something like that. I'm not saying it wasn't Swindon's fault but is it really too much for someone to just check with Rosco what was going on. We have a league of 8 teams being overrun with guests. Why couldn't they work together? We had Doyle as a guest, so it's not as though Swindon suffered points wise. But the more guests we have, the less credibility the sport has. That's all I'm saying. I know that if I was in charge of the BSPA I'd have known Swindon were planning to use Kildermand and would have chased up their notification rather than keeping quiet until the day he was due to ride and then going 'nur nur de nur nur, you didn't send an email'.

Agree with what Rosco says, though. Sure, maybe he did something wrong in sending the email but why can't they inform him they haven't had notification instead of waiting until the actual day and saying they can't use him? These guys need to work together not against each other to keep the sport going.