Grachan

Was it 70 quid a ticket? Really? Taking that into account I'd say the crowd was pretty good.

Definitely going to miss having a strong reserve by the looks of it. Missing Tai Woffinden without a doubt. Is it worth giving Brennan a go or will Dan pick up a bit?

I agree. It's like an obsession. As soon as someone has a bad meeting people are online banging on about possible replacements. It drives me crazy sometimes.

A bit of a let down as a meeting. I arrived at the car park. The moment I got out of the car it was like opening the oven door to check on my roast potatoes, so I was sure then that it was going to be dry and dusty, and so it proved. From the opening heat, a lot of the riders looked more interested in preserving their own lives rather than racing for points - and who could blame them. The first time they came round bend 4 it looked like they were all going to hit the fence coming out of the bend. From then on a lot of riders clearly showed little effort once at the back. This carried on for many processional races, until about 3 or 4 to go where there was actually a few semi-decent races. It's a shame. I was looking forward to seeing Workington, and had told my son to watch out for Tate Zischke. "He's a star of the future," I said. "Watch him go" I said. "That means he'll be rubbish," he said. Oh, how he gloated at my rubbish speedway predictions.

Got my ticket for tomorrow - much as I resent having to buy it a day in advance. It's Championship speedway, not Taylor Swift, for God's sake! Weather forecast is dry and sunny, which is a bit of a concern as that normally means a rain-off at O*ford! C'mon the Batch!!! Go Celina Go!! Girl Power!! Good grief, that's far too much speedway enthusiasm for one day.

Didn't Sophia Floersch, the top female racer, opt out of, and speak out against, the female series saying it undermined the effort women currently make to compete against men? I'm sure I remember reading that a while back.

Personally I don't think I'm doing them a disservice. To me, I'm actually doing the opposite. They compete equal to men, so can be judged in that way. It's not the same as, say, tennis or swimming, where the physical dofferences between male and female mean they have to compete separately. If I did a disservice to the other riders by assuming they weren't at her level then, in my defence, I did say 'presumably' as I don't know much about them. Having said that, Celina was unbeaten all meeting and that is what I, for one, expected. And if you think I'm somehow having a go at her, I should point out that she's probably my favourite rider at the moment and one of the few likely to get me to part with money and actually go to a meeting

A good thing about speedway is that men and women compete equally so whether or not someone is transgender is irrelevant. Or at least it should be! So, presumably, there would be no issue with a transgender woman competing in this as they are still equal competitors.

Celina Liebmann winning this was probably even more of a sure thing than Bartosz winning the Grand Prix series. Maybe the apathy was because men and women compete together in speedway, so having a competition for women only makes it quite a low level competition and little more than a novelty. I think there must be a lot more enjoyment in watching Celina trying to take points off men in the Championship than watching her beat women who (presumably) are nowhere close to her level.

Great racing t Workington again. This track and Belle Vue have to be a blueprint for any new tracks that may be built in the future (**cough** Swindon) Heat 4 was a very strange decision by the ref. Sam McGurk clearly brought Luke Killeen off. You could see the bump when they collided and Sam was snaking afterwards. I can only think that the ref was watching Troy and Scott going at it hammer and tongs half a lap ahead at the time. Tate Zischke looks like he is going to be one hell of a rider. There's a future GP rider right there! (No pressure). They said on BSN that Celina was taken ill on her flight and is in hospital. Hope she is ok.

It's doubtful, but who knows. Someone in the Adver comments seems to be saying they have found one between Wroughton and Royal Wootton Bassett.

I vaguely remember Doug Underwood being a bit of a magician at helping to get meetings at Reading on after heavy rain.

At least those two might actually look for one though!

Interesting little schoolgirl squabble about whether or not Swindon/Oxford/Reading fans should support their local rivals when their track shuts down. My own feeling is there is no right or wrong answer. It's all down to personal feeling. As the saying goes - you can't choose who you support, they choose you. If you feel it, then support Oxford. If you don't, then don't. As a Swindon supporter, do I now support Oxford? I was, after all, born in Oxford and lived near to the city as a small child so it should make sense for me to support them as they are now my local team and a track that I have attended regularly over the years right? Nope. No chance! I just can't do it. I tried. I can't. Nothing against Oxford. I go occasionally and enjoy watching. I just don't care if they win or lose so I can't say I support them. When I saw Arnie there in his Oxford gear, it reminded me of a line in the film "Dances with Wolves": "You turned injun, din'tcha!" Had they signed a team with a few of the old Swindon team - as was mentioned - then I might feel different. Would be a bit weird though. Maybe they should bring Rosco in as team manager and sign Jason Doyle. At least they might have a chance of winning the league then!

To make a switch at reserve would be a major error. Both reserves are improving week by week and are great to watch. Workington is my favourite team right now. Two ex Swindon riders, 3 exciting new foreigners, solid number one and a raw 100% tryer at no 7. This team needs sticking with. I've already got my credit card ready for the next time they are on the telly!

This is correct. I have family in a town called Edesheim in Germany. At the airport, when visiting, I was asked where I was staying and I said "Ede-sheim", only to be told by the airport official that it was pronounced "Edes-heim". Despite this humbling experience, I was still thinking "Land-shut" in my head until you posted that. Bloody English!

Alf Busk at Swindon. He came into the team and was hopeless - barely scored a point for half the season. Then, all of a sudden, he top scored at Belle Vue. I remember it now - looking in disbelief in the newspaper to see the result and seeing "A. Busk 10" written on the results page. Not sure what happened, but from then on, he was very good for the Robins. Another one at Swindon was Bobby McNeil, who signed in 1975 and was a pretty average reserve for the whole year. Last match of the season - top scored with 14 against Hull. Then, the following year, became a heat leader. The Jason Doyle theory is another good one. I really felt that Swindon had drawn the short straw when we swapped Maciej Janowski for Jason but it turned out that we had the better deal. I never saw him as a future World Champion in his early career.

Surely that should be awarded??

I always find Moto GP interviews pretty uninteresting, possibly because the interviewer always asks "How do you feel?"

I remember his autograph was one of my favourites because he put a smiley face on it.

No action against Doyle. Common sensed prevailed in the end. (Six words you don't often see on a Speedway forum).

The first race I saw was at Weymouth v Crewe in 1974. Heat 1 - Dave Morton, Kelvin Mullarkey, Russell Foot, Ian Cartwright. As far as I know, only Kelvin Mullarkey is no longer with us.

I agree. Should be awarded 0-75 everytime there is a call off like this where the meeting could unquestionsbly gone ahead. Promoters doing this kills people's enthusiasm. Someone should have gone there yesterday to investigate it. We might have a situation where Jason Doyle misses a match through no fault of his own and gets a fine or a ban yet promoters can do this.

It's not really that difficult. They used different flights. Doyle's was delayed. Lidsey's wasn't. Could easily have been the other way round. It's not an "excuse". The flight is there to be seen on the Stanstead arrivals board. He probably gets this flight every week, and it gets him here in plenty of time for Monday meetings. Unfortunate, but there you are. RyanAir for you.

Estimated arrival time for the flight is 16:33 (scheduled arrival was 12:20). So he's not out into arrivals until at least 5pm. Even then he's not in Manchester until about 9pm without any delays.