Grachan

The second division won't want one big league because they wouldn't be able to sponge their heatleaders off the top league any more. Why do you think it's to accommodate Jason Doyle in the top league? They've tried their best to get him out the league for the last two years running.

The 1981 World Final WAS an amazing final. I was there. It's not just a case of looking on a sheet and counting passes. You can come away from a meeting with countless passes and not get the feeling that you got from that meeting. I was there, and you came away with the feeling you had seen something special. It had what I guess you would call the X-Factor - that undefinable quality that made it special. Penhall's races were possibly the only great races of the night, but is just had something that no other final I have been to has had (and I went to 3 at Wembley - all great events but there was just something that the Americans of that time injected into Speedway for that too brief time that gave it something extra that has been lacking since)

Pffft. Who voted for that then? He should be a 9.

I feel that you are making the mistake of thinking that because you see things on your own Facebook and Twitter that people with no interest in speedway are going to be seeing these things too. I don't know if a coffee shop is feasable (probably not in the current climate of coffee shops being dominated by major chains) but, if it was, it would make the name of the club a permanent fixture in the town centre if it was and would get the name out to a lot more people that facebook or twitter, which messages people who are signed up to receive them anyway. A club podcast would be great for fans, but I'm not sure how that would anyone other than people who are already supporters of a club.

It will be interesting to see what Jason Doyle averages next year following the tweet this year that he seems to have ridden himself out of a job.

Why would they even consider riding in a league that is doing its damnest to get rid of them anyway? Zagar had already said he was looking to ride here next year and they came up with a couple of rules that effectively put a stop to it.

With Lindgren, perhaps, but Swindon said when they released Doylebthat they had intended to use both him and Morris. Plus, if Somerset can afford to have Doyle I see no reason why Swindon couldn't have had him too. It's like Tai said in his interview, to be competitive you need Poland and Sweden. The league here is no longer competitive enough. Introducing a blanket 9.00 average on GP riders, then having a one over 8.00 rule, is going to make sure it remains that way. Maybe, in terms of survival, it has to be that way, but, as a supporter, it is very uninspiring.

The rule still led to it happening, though, which is what the post said.

If Thursday's had been approved, why change it? Sheffield and Ipswich should have had two choices if they wanted Thursdays. Ride top league or ride Thursday's but top league sides get priority on riders. Ipswich, in particular, seem to have been holding the top flight to ransom for years. I'm just fed up with speedway seeing the best way forward being to make the good clubs as crap as the poor ones.

Yeah, Swindon chose not to sign the World Champion - a decision that might yet mean I don't even bother going to any matches next year. Why should winning a league title be a means to making fans of that club feel disappointed and deflated and unhappy with the sport they follow? What was the other option? To not sign a rider who has been at Swindon his entire career and might have struggled to find a team place. It was rock and a hard place. We could not win. Why should Swindon fans be made to think like that? It's crazy. And choosing Wednesday's after Thursday's was internationally approved was ridiculous too.

Wow. You're right. So he has. This needs flagging up surely. Last year was based on Second Division averages, so he was assessed as a 7.00 rider in The Championship last year so, therefore, he MUST be one this year.

Always a possibility. I think Jason is a bit of an Anglophile anyway. I've noticed that he has an England flag on his race suit.

I would say that 5 minutes of standing around watching a tractor and listening to "Now that's what I call music volume one" has a more negative impact than any rules anyway.

Why would you need a UK visa to ride in Poland? The two are unconnected - but at least you proved the theory that a lot of people actually believe this to be the case! Incidentally, Jason recently got married and lives in the UK. Is his wife British? If so, he'd no longer need a work permit to ride in the UK as his Leave to Remain would allow him to live and work here. But he would still need a seperate visa to work in Poland. His UK visa would have no effect on this for a further 5 years. Possibly, the visa for Poland would be a Schengen visa, which might also cover Sweden, but it would not be related to the UK. UK visas do not cover anyone from outside the EU to travel or work in the rest of the EU/Schengen region.

Which is why they shouldn't have a say in what the rules are. Until that stops everyone will be voting with a vested interest for their own team building, which is wrong. Personally I have no problem with Poole getting Woryna on his average. Swindon benefitted in a similar way last year with Musielak. But they really need some hard and fast rules, and riders like Woffinden, Kildermand etc should also have been able to retain their averages if others have. I'll bet Somerset voted for the one-over-eight rules, for example, yet they've brought the World Champion in.

He didn't get his average riding in this league. He got his average riding in the Elite League, which was a stronger league than this one. It does seem strange, though, that he is not being reassessed while other riders are. Part of a pay-off to get Poole to vote for the one-over-eight rule perhaps?

Why would they be 8.00? They should either be assessed at 9 (which is the proper level when compared to other riders) or be able to retain their original average because that is their average. Assessing at 8.00 makes to sense when Morris, Thorsell and Kurtz are all over that.

What's his visa for Poland got to do with it?

I think that's a possibility, and I do feel robbed by this. It's like when you split up with your girlfriend and you are just about coping with it, but then they start going out with someone else!! Somerset is well out of reach for me, even if I did want to go, but what I always wanted to see was the World Champion riding for Swindon. Not really bothered about seeing him riding for someone else. I've watched Anders Michanek, Hans Nielsen and Per Jonsson enviously over the years and thought that one day, lad, all this could be ours. But it's not.

He's not our World Champ though, is he.

You wouldn't have been the only one.

Congratulations to Somerset fans on the signing of Jason Doyle. Enjoy welcoming the homecoming World Champion in March. This is something that I, as a Swindon fan, have been waiting for over 40 years for and I'm mighty jealous. I've looked on enviously as Oxford and Reading have welcomed the World Champ and hoped that one day - just one day - we could do this at Swindon. Not to be, yet again. The one thing I've yearned for since seeing Michanek at Reading in 1975, and it's gone. Gone, I tell ya.

Maybe they will in May, when Anders Rowe is 16.

Winning 3 consecutive World titles and finishing on the rostrum 8 years running, for starters. It's pretty well documented that he brought a new level of professionalism to the sport. Those 3 titles show, to me, that for a few years everyone was playing catch up. I don't know much about the pre-Mauger years, but it is the comment from Ove Fundin that tells the story. I reckon he would have done just that in whatever earlier era you put him in. As for what exactly he was doing, I can't help with I'm afraid. Best ask the riders who had to do the same to try and keep up with him.

Possibly, but for me Fundin's comment says it all. Put Mauger in any earlier area and, in my opinion, the same thing would have happened. He would have taken the sport to a new level and become dominant. Greatest of all time, I reckon.