Grachan

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.

At the end of the day, Harris (or whoever else might have been selected) was just there to be replaced. In theory it was fine, with GB's best rider (Lambert) at reserve we would not have had to track a weakened pair in one heat, and Harris's big meeting experience and patriotism would work well for team spirit. It all fell apart in our first heat, but you can't blame the manager for that. After Woffinden, Lambert and Cook we have nobody who can compete at this level, although Harris at least has experience of top level competition. It's all debateable really. Harris probably wouldn't have even ridden if Cook and Lambert hadn't crashed.

I think the commentator just went to the toilet. He's back now.

Radio coverage here. Not great. Lots of periods of silence or just background noise, but keeps you up to date. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/motorsport/48958914?fbclid=IwAR3hqs-9nLFYoEViD3AXBtYAhobq4gMSeg6luZa8qKXHPRWTun7ootsR26c

Dunno. That's just the figure on the BSPA website. Maybe not then.

5.84. Identical to Nick Morris, interestingly.

Musielak back in the side now. https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/sport/speedway/17772552.swindon-robins-set-welcome-back-tobiasz-musielak-return-injury/?fbclid=IwAR2F0k4DU7xMBMZicQjKY7Ly2iV3aBXD3sOjfBlGZsdsunS0Qn7pKevdZMM

If Doyle can ride on Thursday then why should Ipswich have a guest?

Not sure how well Charles has been going, but I would also think that it might have been better to go with someone of that ilk - such as Wright or Ellis. Harris is, to all intents and purposes, reserve anyway. Lambert will get the rides. So it might have been an opportunity to give someone some top level experience.

Is this true or are you making stuff up again? Doyle is riding for Swindon, apparently, so no reason for Bomber not to be riding.

And this information comes from where?

Swindon sign Claus Vissing. Looks like he is a temporary signing and the intention would probably be to have Stefan and Toby back when fit. Presumably this gives us a bit of a higher averaged reserve than having guests.

In 96 it was set at EL standard. If the league was set at CL standard then the teams would be the strength of CL teams, so the same as now.

If the league was set at Championship level - perfectly feasable bearing in mind rider ability - why could they not afford it?

They showed 1983 too (as did ITV). I remember it being very "bitty", showing it in 3 or 4 separate sections throughout the afternoon.

Well, obviously. They're in the Premiership, not the Championship.

Which is why we need someone at reserve who can win reserve races. It's useful to have a good reserve. For me, though, Rasmus is too good to be at reserve. A lot of his rides would be wasted on weaker opposition.

I still don't see the point of having Rasmus at reserve while having someone in the top 5 who struggles to score. So, Rasmus can replace him in one of his rides. What about the other 3 rides? If Rasmus was in the top 5 he could have all of those rides and the rider who struggles in the top 5 could score decently at reserve.

I think that for this level of racing to be a success at Swindon they need to have their own riders and not just be a NL Select side. Apart from Anders Rowe there's no real association with Swindon from the side, and even he was a guest who actually rides for the opposition in the NL. I think if a batch of riders came through that were proper Swindon juniors like we had before - Chessells, Smarts, Broadbank and so on - it would catch on a lot more because the crowd could get more behind them.

I'm sure your ideas are well intentioned, but you seem to be coming up with theories that will make crowds even lower. Why would you want the sport to only attract 600-800 spectators at the top level?