Grachan

I didn't say that. Gavan said it. I just quoted his post. Personally I've no idea what was said over the mic so have no opinion on it.

I'm sure the Glasgow number 6 is laughing under his helmet when he turns to camera while everyone else is piling on top of each other.

Oh those Dugards! It was always them in the thick of it when Swindon and Oxford used to have barneys, although I don't remember Paul getting involved back then - more Martin and Bob. Paul always seemed the more sensible one. I'm just surprised that Paul Dugard isn't still 16 years old!

Is that Paul Dugard who confronts Cook full on after the shove with the flag marshall? In my opinion, that is the person who was really responsible for this all kicking off. The flag marshall was in the wrong, in my opinion, alnd walked in Cook's way, but he sensibly walked away after Cook shoved him, so deserves some credit for that. It could have all ended at that point were it not for the confrontation of Cook.

Excellent point. No sign of red lights being on in the video I saw.

Just seen a video of this incident on Twitter. I would say the Marshall was at fault here. He is walking towards Cook. Cook then looks to be going to his left - possibly to go into the pits? - and the marshall steps in front of him causing the collision between himself and the rider. Cook was wrong to react the way he did, though, but you can understand him being annoyed. Last time I looked at this topic I think it had 2 pages! Let's have a bit of a barny more often I say!

How good is Pavlic these days? Could he still be a contender at Gorican?

Surely if the points limit was 38 at the start of the year then the would have evened out to around 42 once the season started. So, if the limit is now at 40 for changes, that is weaker than at the start of the year.

Add 60 odd freeloaders and hangers on and call it middle for diddle!

I don't think the fixture list helps. Last week we had Wolves. Our next opponents? Wolves again. The same thing happened with King's Lynn. People don't all go every week. A lot of people probably look at the opponents and make a decision based on that. Attractive opponents, good weather and school holidays probably boosted the crowd last night.

I wasn't trying to big up anything. I just wandered about and thought to myself that it was a pretty decent crowd compared to other meetings. I guessed at around 2000 - which is what you get at Basingstoke Ice Hockey. It was not stated as fact. Please accept my forgiveness if I over estimated the size of the crowd. I wasn't being deliberately positive. It was a mistake. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me. I know how annoying that can be. All I know is that I went to the back straight for a bit of peace and quiet only to find it infested with humans. Disgruntled, I returned back to the home straight, muttering about all those damn interlopers being in a place that is normally kept for quiet contemplation. The crowd last night was better than normal. Let's just leave it at that.

If it was 1489 it was lower than my estimate - which will obviously delight the Speedway doomsters and the gloomsters - but it was a good crowd last night compared to normal. Sidney under estimated it at 1100. Go pick on him.

You're quoting on the wrong thing. It was about the home straight being packed, not the 2000 assessment.

Thank God for that. I was beginning to think it was all a dream.

Where did I say that?

I reckon it was around that, yes, although guessing crowd numbers isn't easy. It certainly wasn't a poor crowd. I thought it was a good crowd for these times - and nice to see lots of kids and younger adults there. Good weather, school holidays and opposition that haven't just been there in the last 2 weeks, and the crowd was decent. I took a wander round, and there were a lot of people on the bank towards the third bend.

There was more than 1100 there last night. I reckon it was more like 2,000 - a pretty decent crowd for a speedway meeting these days. I don't know if you took a wander down the back straight, but it was pretty packed from the end of the stand down to bend 3. The home straight was pretty busy too. It's difficult to judge properly, though. Nobody really stands on bends 1/2 any more because the track is so far away, and the straights are also more compact. But it seemed pretty busy to me last night.

"He went for the dirt up by the burrrrrgerrrrrrr vaaaaan..."

That's two leagues.

The biggest thrashing I ever saw was a Swindon v Halifax meeting. I think it was 1976 (but could have been 77) and ended up 62-15. David Ashby was the only Swindon rider beaten by a Halifax rider, I think, and Swindon even had a 5-0 early on in the meeting.

Ah yes. The title. In a year where there seem to be World Cups going on in many sports and gaining them a degree of popularity in the process we get something called "Speedway of Nations". Is it a World Championship? Is it an open meeting? How can we tell?

We'd be hopeless, as would many other countries without their top rider. The World Cup was a better event though, although it did tend to end up with the same few countries all the time in the final. In terms of GB? Yes, we have a much greater chance under this format. That doesn't make it a better competition though.

I'm not a great fan of this competition. I think it has many flaws. On it's own, it's fine, but as a replacement for the World Cup it's a disaster. I remember some epic World Cups, with some amazing races. This just doesn't live up to it, and it's pretty clear it's been done to stop Poland dominating. Could they not, at least, revert to the World Cup every 4 years? I hope that happens but I won't hold my breath.

I was a bit uncomfortable watching Tai say those things after Rosco's interview. It's not good to have one of the riders undermining the manager on TV and I think he could have made his points in a more subtle way without saying he didn't like his manager's interview. The thing is, though, who do GB need more? Rosco or Tai? This competition proved that without Woffinden around GB just fall apart, and he knows it.