Grachan

I remember Brian Leonard selling speedway bikes in his shop in Thatcham. It must have been the late 70s and they were about £500-£600 if I remember correctly.

I feel he came short because, for many years, just on riding ability alone Hans Nielsen was totally in a class of his own in the British League. There was nobody who came close. When you rode against Oxford it was like winning the match if anyone in your side managed to beat him. A rider of his ability should have won about 10 world titles and could have been the undisputed greatest of all time, but in world Finals he often over rode and made errors - including when he won it Poland and should have been excluded in one race for bringing off Tommy Knudsen. So on World Titles alone I feel he under achieved, but as a league rider he was possibly the greatest of all time.

Top tier - the three big ones: 1. Ivan Mauger 2. Tony Rickardsson 3. Ove Fundin (because I never saw him, so he had to come third) Second tier: 4. Barry Briggs 5. Erik Gundersen 6. Hans Nielsen (best league rider I ever saw, but individually often came short) 7. Ole Olsen Number 8. So difficult to choose 8, but I'll go with the most naturally gifted rider what I ever did see. 8. Michael Lee

He's in the side to take points off three pointers. Should be able to manage that.

Yeah. Until you look at the other sides and realise that they are all crap as well.

I don't know if this rider being assessed at 4 is right or wrong. That's because I don't know how good he is. But if he is assessed at 4 then that would be a judgement on how good he was LAST season, not how good he will be NEXT season. And it would seem he is a still improving rider. Maybe he will average over 4. I'd say that's highly likely bearing in mind the standard of reserves for next year. But his assessment of 4 would be based on how he might have performed against teams of last year's strength.

Yeah. do it. Maybe in Years Gone By.

Ha! Yes, you could well be correct about the Russians.

The one about putting British juniors in the reserve berths of top flight teams? That must be been about 25 years ago.

The incident that caused Dave Lanning to accuse the Poles is here at about 3 minutes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1eOmHuX2Lk To be fair, Dave Lanning's commentary on that World Final was nonsense. The original referee's decision (which Lanning was complaining about) seemed fine to me. Plech was leading, was brought off by the Chlynovski. The ref excluded the Russian and ordered a re-run. What's the problem with that? It was only when everyone started going crazy about it that the ref changed the decision under pressure, so it was a weak referee. The original decision seemed ok to me. And as for the Poles trying to get a champion and it being a stitch up - had that been the case, then Plech would have been awarded heat 19 to put him in the title run-off, but wasn't. He was leading at the time of incident after all. As for Szczakiel, he was definitely a bit of a surprise champion, but he had scored a maximum in a World Pairs Final previously so he certainly wasn't a no hoper. And regarding the run off. Mauger fell off. Yes, the race should have been stopped, but even if it had Szczakiel would still have won. There was some strange refereeing going on that night, but Jerzy Szczakiel won the tile fair and square and it was another Pole - Zenon Plech - who suffered most from the poor refereeing.

Sorry, but you're still coming across as someone who is determined to undermine this in any way that you can. I'm not really sure what your motivation is here. So, the BBC SPOTY programme - which is nationally known competition - proved more popular than a vote for a minority personality on a minority channel. Well, of course it did. We all know that. I just don't see what you're trying to achieve with your posts other than try to knock the fact that Tai Woffinden won a vote on a TV show. Maybe I'm just missing your point. Or are you going to try and say that you're not making a point but merely bringing up facts without opinion? (No offence, but this is a speedway forum, so if you constantly try to say how rubbish speedway is to speedway supporters you must expect some opposition.)

Considering the minimum average is 3.00 then he'd probably be right.

Really. I never knew that.

That'll be the Sheffield that ride on Thursday nights would it?

Good ol' Facebook. In response to Nick's original comment, which was shared on the Swindon Speedway group. (He didn't write "twit". This forum's filter changed that.) https://www.facebook.com/nick.morris.940?fref=ts

Quote from Neil Middleditch: "I dont want the little twit!! god he eats enough when he is here with Darcy, every week i would be broke!!"

It would appear that Nick Morris has posted the following on Facebook: "Big news coming gonna be some upset speedway fans but have to do what's best for myself." Wonder what that's about!

Does it really need that much credibility though? It's just a vote put together by a tv show. It's not really a big deal. Nevertheless, it's still nice to see that Tai won it.

Editing out the words "but you come across as" because they invalidate your comment about speculation. Sheer BSF-style selective editing on your part.

You seem determined to knock this. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but you come across as slightly peeved that a speedway rider has actually won some sort of award. It must be hard for you. And of course it's not as prestigious as the SPOTY award. Maybe there's a clue in the word "minority". It's just a small thing from a fledgeling TV channel, so I wouldn't take it too seriously. But it's still great that Tai won it, so let's at least try to be pleased about that, shall we? My guess is that this is the first of its kind, and the announcement looked slightly shambolic, but maybe it will grow in significance in future years if BT Sport gets more of a foothold. It's not a big deal, but it's great that Tai won it. Quite ironic that he wasn't there to collect his award, though, after all the stick some people gave Andy Murray on the "Tai Woffinden for SPOTY" Facebook page for not being there to collect his!

A shame for Ashley, but Swindon obviously have to go with a higher averaged rider if they can get one. I really don't understand why a rider like this can't qualify for a reserve spot though. It does seem a bit crazy. What choice do Swindon have? No team is going to go for a 3 pointer as a second string if they can fit a better rider in in his place.

Yeah. Two second strings just above the level of reserves with 3 strong heat leaders could be a good combination. They may have to back track a bit on the protection of reserves though, as it could prove difficult to come up with a race formula based on what people are saying.

They should up their averages because reserves are being "protected" by riding against reserves and second strings. consequently, second strings will have to be racing against a lot of NL standard reserves, so should be able stick a couple of points on their averages no problem! It doesn't suddenly make them better riders. Plus, because second strings and reserves are riding against each other, presumably heat leaders will be racing against each other. So some heat leaders might end up getting an average of about 6 points and get dumped. So maybe we can sign one of those to replace our much improved second strings?

So him and Gustafsson would fit. They are the type who should up their averages at this level, so bring them in and replace one of them later with Zengota.

What is Klindt's average?