Grachan

I know. It was quite an effort too! Someone has since pointed out that Barker IS injured, so I already retracted my earlier statement.

I can't remember the exact details, or even what the matches were now. I stopped retaining speedway information in my head once I reached my 20s for some reason. But I recall looking at the various meetings and seeing it all made sense. Perhaps you'd like to refresh my memory on what the matches were and maybe I'll make a re-assessment! Although, it seems to me that if a match doesn't need to be called off after heat 9, then it doesn't need to be called off after heat 10 either unless it's raining. So his position seems to make sense there. Just when he was asked if Barker was riding he said something about him being fit but they didn't want to bring him back into the side for such an important meeting. Something like that anyway!!

In which case fair enough. I was just going on what Gay Havelock said on the television. You know what. Maybe some people are just fed up with guests being used all the time regardless of whether they makes teams weaker or stronger, and are worried about the effect it is having on the sport. Whatever happened to using a number 8. By the great one I assume you mean Swindon's legendary team manager Alun "Mighty" Rosco-tor. In which case your comments on trying to get meetings rained-off are as misguided as many others who come up with similar, ahem, "banter" without noticing that he maintained a consistent viewpoint in each of those rain affected meetings.

Yeah. I noticed that. It was initially showing rain all day but it's showing a dryer evening now. Fingers crossed on that one, I guess.

I don't think that's the point. It's more of this guest nonsense, and if Barker is able to ride then he should. Because he is in the Coventry team.

How can Coventry have a guest for Barker? Havelock made it clear on Monday that Barker was fit but he wasn't sure about using him in the second leg. That's fine if he doesn't want to use Barker, but there is no way they should be allowed a guest. Swindon should protest about this.

I understand that only the losing side can request a track inspection. So, with rain expected on Monday, what happens if Coventry are 6 down at heat 10? Can they call for a track inspection?

I think it's you that's on this so-called other planet. Do you really think the ref would have left the race going if a fallen rider was still on the track? I see our Hans wasn't overly impressed with your track, by the way. http://www.swindonlinksport.com/swindon_sports_news/hansisbored

8 points? We can do that. Not sure how we only lost by 8 with all those mistakes. We could have been closer.

Throwing so many points away here. Surprised that we have kept it this close.

What's gong on here? Haven't these riders heard the phrase 'stay down'?

Very sporting of Simon to clear the track there. Silly Simon!!

I know what you mean. Can't help wishing we'd never had that big win against Coventry. It's given them an "underdog" status that they seem to be revelling in and also given their side a lot of motivation. I think it will turn out fairly even over the two legs, and have a nasty feeling that Chris Harris is going to go all world class on us and tip it Coventry's way. A lot depends on Bachelor and Kildermand I guess.They can both be a bit hit or miss.

Nathan Greaves. Barely scored a point all year. Borrows a bike from Simon Gustafsson. Wins heat 2 and scores paid 8 from his 3 completed rides.

What's being missed out here is that Swindon's other reserve is 16 years old and struggles to score in many matches. Worral has scored well but Swindon haven't had much advantage all year at reserve. The reason Swindon reached the play offs was through improvement in their second strings.

Well done Troy Bachelor. He's really come on a lot this year and it's great to see him in the GP top 8 and winning this. I agree it's better to have this at the start of the year. I think it would attract a bigger crowd at that time when people are hungry for speedway.

Facebook groups are what you make them. I've been loving the old pictures that have been put up lately. Anything that gets silly on there I just ignore.

I don't think the return of second halves would solve anything. Second halves weren't popular even when the sport was in it's heyday. I remember once they actually introduced some sort of competition for second halves (was it the Golden Sash or something like that?), with points being added up and so on, just to get people to hang around and watch, but most people still went home after the main match.

I like the idea of the leagues amalgamating an splitting into divisions with promotion and relegation. One problem with that might be the lack of riders to go round though. This is one reason we need double up riders, fast track riders and so on. If you were to make a league of 18 teams - as it once was - and then start putting the riders that currently ride in the UK into those teams, you are down to National League riders by the time you get to the reserves. But I say if there are enough riders to go round then amalgamate the leagues and have promotion and relegation. Have the same points limit in all leagues but have a rider average conversion between the leagues, so that if a rider drops down his average goes up or if he goes up a league his average drops. Same as now. Any rider from a relegated team can keep his higher league average if he stays with the same team so that it gives an incentive the better teams to be a "glamour" club in the higher league and give them a good chance of going back up. Not sure where the extra riders come from though! Maybe we should go back to fat old blokes with moustaches riding at reserve like we had in them there good old days.

You give up on speedway because Chris Harris qualified from the GP Challenge? Bit of a drastic decision that, isn't it?

Mads rode for them again afterwards.

Not so different to Renat Gafurov in 2006, when he was at Swindon. Gafurov failed to turn up at Reading and Swindon opted to use rider replacement - effectively sacking Gafurov in the process as it was near the end of the season. I don't know the exact situation with Pawlicki, but it's always a bit of a grey area when you get to the "did he fall or was he pushed" scenario. I guess Mads can't be seen as withholding his services because he rode again after the meeting he failed to turn up to.

Q: What's more boring than watching a tractor going round a speedway track? A: Watching 2 tractors going round a speedway track while Phil Collins is being played.

Just trying to get my head round this. We're talking of Belle Vue v Leicester here, is that correct? Mads was not in the side, and Leicester used a guest. If Leicester used a guest then either Mads was witholding his services or his absence was legitimate. If Mads was witholding his services then that's an automatic ban for 28 days. But he rode for Leicester against King's Lynn after this. Therefore he's not banned. Therefore he wasn't witholding his services. Therefore his absence was legitimate. See you in the play-offs Mads!!