Grachan

Scored 16 for Berwick recently so must be worth a punt getting him snapped up before he gets a new average.

Strange to see a new signing appear on the BSPA website but not announced by the club. I can only think they wanted to keep everything about the Sprockets at the moment, but still a strange situation. Dont know anything about the new guy, as is pretty normal for this year, so a case of wait and see. Sad to hear about Bob Radford. I got to know him a bit when he was at Reading and was very touched when he turned up at my dad's funeral. Strange to see a new signing appear on the BSPA website but not announced by the club. I can only think they wanted to keep everything about the Sprockets at the moment, but still a strange situation. Dont know anything about the new guy, as is pretty normal for this year, so a case of wait and see. Sad to hear about Bob Radford. I got to know him a bit when he was at Reading and was very touched when he turned up at my dad's funeral.

How? It was definitely part of The World Games. I remember it being announced beforehand. They didn't even ride in countries. I think I have it somewhere on an old vhs tape too.

There's also Nick Morris, who was refused entry into a competition that would have made him a GB rider. As a result he ended up riding as an Aussie. Can you explain how Tai qualifies to ride for Australia?

There's a pretty good chance he is actually as he qualifies automatically for dual nationality - something Tai doesn't do.

It depends how big the event is I guess. If there is genuine prestige in winning then clearly we should go with the best rides. I remember a speedway event in the World games at Wimbledon and was a bit of a non event - just random pairs event with avout at much significance as an EL fixture filler. So maybe it's a lot of fuss about nothing.

Do we know for a fact that BSPA pick who rides? Is it possible the BSPA put him forward for selection but the Team GB manager opted not to select him? For me it's a no brainer to use him if he's available. Whoever decided against it is missing an opportunity to be a contender in the event and possibly get Tai back on board for Team GB.

Why can you not include Tai Woffinden? He started here in the bottom leagues as a 15 year old. Seems pretty valid to me. When Aussies come over here and ride in the UK I bet you, and many others, feel that they earned their stripes in the UK, so why can you not say the same about a British rider?

Don't know much about Warren. Adams, Sigalos and Carter had it in them I believe. Never saw it in Jessup really. People talk about the 1978 final, but his EF was in his first ride so he had no pressure. When the pressure was on to get on the rostrum he lost out to Gordon Kennett and then Scott Autrey.

Not so sure. My main memory of Scott Autrey in World Championships was surprisingly failing to get through European Championships where all but 4 qualified. I'm not convinced he had that extra edge to make him a World Champion, even if he did get a rostrum place on year. More a Phil Crump than an Ivan Mauger.

The signing of Bellego was a great one so far. I think many people were a bit baffled by it, particularly as his average was almost identical to Justin Sedgman's, but Rosco had clearly done his homework and decided he was someone he wanted for a reason. The top end strength will, unfortunately, make it very difficult to make changes lower down the order and our scores this year will probably make us pretty close to the new points limit as we've had mainly close matches.

Not so sure about that. Those houses would have been built with or without planning permission for a new stadium. Having the stadium included in the plans gives more hope of a stadium being built than not having it.

As half the stadium has apparently been built and is being stored in deepest Wales it would be nice to see a picture of it to back up the claim.

Back in my day the guy who was top of the division one averages would never ride in division two. But we were 'appy.

Nice to know you consider me a 'usual suspect' who has a go at the BSPA. I wasn't aware that I was. I wasn't having a pop at anyone either. Just commented that the relevance British speedway is different to what Darcy's was, but that perhaps it was worth inclusion anyway as it seemed newsworthy enough to on the British speedway site. Clearly you don't and that's fine.

I guess the difference is that the Australian was Swindon number one at the time of his accident. Even so, one would have thought it worthy of mention on the BSPA website bearing in mind Tomasz's status in the sport..

Does he have dual British?Australian citizenship? If so, then I see no problem with him riding as British as long as he stays British and doesn't switch back and forth whenever convenient.

I haven't seen Tungate this season, but no way would I have Bjarne Pedersen over him. He had some poor scores last year for Swindon, and I remember people calling for him to be replaced, but by the end of the year he was flying and was everyone's favourite guest.

The rule is clear. A guest is allowed for a double-up rider who is riding for his other club.

It's nothing to do with any 7 day rule. Kurtz can't ride for the reason SCB brought up. It's there in the rules in black and white.

It must be one of their "unwritten" rules then.

yes. It was me who asked it. He has, because I posted a jpeg of the relevent sections! They have all clearly agreed amongst themselves that if a rider is in a national championship then there can be a guest for a rider in positions 2 to 5 - so why keep a rule in the rule book that says you can't? Surely they must know by know how anal we all get about the rule book! I'm trying to see if there can be any ambiguity in the rule, and the only thing I can see is that what they mean is you can have a guest or rider replacement for the team positions that allow a facility in 18.10 - ie 1-5 but not 6 to 7. But if they do mean that, it takes a bit of lateral thinking for it to mean that.

No question about them being allowed a facility. The issue is what the facility should be.

Ok, so I've found the rules. Hougaard is riding in the Danish Championships. We have 18.10.1 which says that a guest or r/r is permitted for a rider appearing in their FIM Speedway Championship if permitted by Art 18.10. So 18.10 then says that for an absent number 1 - guest or r/r Absent double upper if riding for the "other" team - guest or r/r Absent 2-5 - R/R Indeed. No guest allowed for Hougaard.

Where's the rule on that? I just had a look but can't see anything.