Grachan

He's issued it. http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/sport/speedway/10514016.I_m_not_in_the_wrong___Hans/ Down to the March 1 issue and fixture clashes apparently.

No.

And that was what caused the crash. So the ref was correct.

I think the ref was correct, but I do think that if a ref can't make a decision then he might decide in favour of a home rider. Although, with Woffinden injured, it would have possibly been the easier choice to exclude him.

Which is completely irrelevant. Decisions are based on what happened on the track, not what someone said in a previous interview or, as in your case, whether or not they are English.

Lindgren's fault totally. He rode into Woffinden's leg and caused the accident. So he was the cause of the stoppage. Take Lindgren out of the equation there and you get no crash. Nothing to do with anyone being anybody's sweetheart. That's just what happened.

I haven't seen much of the GPs lately, but I've watched bits on Youtube. The race between Penhall and Olsen in 1981 has gone down as a classic. In terms of racing, the Pedersen v Woffinden semi-final was just as good. That may well be remembered as a good race, but not in the same way as Penhall v Olsen is. Why? I guess the significnce of the 1981 race was so much greater with everything going down to what happened on the night and someone walking away as World Champion. In both cases the winner of that particular race ended up winning the meeting, but the difference is that Penhall winning that race helped him come away at the end of the night being crowned world champ. I think, in general, the standard of racing in the Grands Prix is much higher than it ever was in world finals, but becaues the whole thing is spaced out over a season the indovidual meetings themselves are not as memorable, even if the standard of the racing itself is higher. So, in conclusion, which is better? individual or Grand Prix? I'm going for... neither!! It's down to individual preference. (Edit - nothing to do with Eurosport. Sorry. Just realised I'm completely off topic. It was much better in the 1970s. Nobody went off topic then.)

Sure, people like that are close to walking away from the sport all the time. It just takes one more stupid decision for people to say they've had enough of such nonsense and stop going. I geniunely think the TR was one of the things that broke a lot of straws on a lot of camels' backs.

Yeah, and the other side lost 2 points. So a swing of 4. In the same situation with a TR you would get, maybe, 6-3 at best if you were going to get a 3-3. That's a swing of 3 points. Plus a TS could be used at 6 points down and as many times as you wanted to use it. The TS did a lot more to producing unfair results. Despite that, though, I did prefer it as it was more tactical.

THis is apparently Belle Vue in 1927 - with what looks like a speedway track already at Hyde Road. So, either there was a speedway track at Belle Vue in 1927 or they year is wrong. http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw017762?search=speedway&ref=3

My guess is 16.

Pearson and Tatum may be a bit "shouty" but they are good at what they do. The style may not appeal to some people, but for a taste of Eurosport's (presumably) own input you only have to listen to the guy doing the voice overs in the parts where previously Sky would have goner to the studion. Well meaning but very amateurish. Sounds like someone from a club DVD. Tom Woffinden? Imagine the uproar on here if one of the other two had said that?

It's nothing new. They did in in Los Angeles for the 1982 World Final. My parents went and they got moved before the start to where the cameras would pick up the crowd.

They didn't have guests in the 60s. When Barry Briggs got injured doing the outrageous thing of riding on the continent in 1967, Swindon had to use their number 8 in his place. And they still won the league. I think the pool of riders for a number one who is injured would be ok. If none are available then use R/R. If any other member of the top 3 is out then use R/R. (Sorry if this goes a bit "in my day blah blah blah"). Anyone else injured then use a number 8 or a junior. Either scrap double uppers or have 2 for each position. The guests thing is getting out of hand now. Teams are using guests already and the season only just started. When will the people realise that all they do every year is introduce things that annoy a few more people and thus make them give up on the sport while, at the same time, do nothing to attract new people in their place?

True. But if you're going to have them, then have 2 sharing instead of one who is missing half the time. If that's not forcing guests upon the sport I don't know what is.

Which is why only having one double upper in each position is a crap idea.

Yup.

Me too - plus when I got the front page once as Reading closed in on the league championship. I only ever did one "proper" interview, which was with Jeremy Doncaster for the World Final edition. Most of my quotes came from Tim Sugar or - in one case - Todd Wiltshire's dad. Other than that I relied upon what riders said over the PA and the tape recorder in my pocket!

It's true that the inclusion of Mondays results worked well for Speedway Mail, with Wolves and Reading riding on that night. I used to write the Reading articles in the early 90s. I would knock them out on a Tuesday morning on one of those old white Amstrad word processor things with the boot up disk and dot matrix printer. Then I'd fax it off to the magazine before going to work. Having Mondays even gave me a scoop over Speedway Star, even though I had no connection with Reading speedway and just started doing the articles for the fun of it because they was no regular Reading article in the magazine. I was told on the Monday that Mitch Shirra has signed for The Racers, so made that my story. When Speedway Star came out there wasn't even a hint of this happening. Reckon I should have got an "Exclusive" headline for that!

Man of the meeting and most exciting rider was always quite interesting.

Absolutely. There is a scoreboard at Swindon but it tells you sod all you need to know to keep up with what is going on. I guess the idea is to try and make profit based on selling programmes, but if ther sport was easier to follow without filling one in, I'm sure you'd get larger crowds.

It hasn't been announced on the BSPA site though, if you read it. It says "SWINDON have announced a deal has been completed with Troy Batchelor", which, though similar, isn't quite the same as saying he's definitely in the side. Silly buggers all round if you ask me - which nobody did.

Andrew silver looks more like Billy Duffy from the cult.

Living in Britain doesn't automatically make you a British Citizen.

Thought I'd post it here rather than on the other thread so it would hang around a bit longer. Perhaps we could even have a sticky for it as people often come looking and asking about it. This just popped up randomly in my recommendations. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fKZn5KzpiY