Paulco

Hope that decision , though credit it to him for making it , doesnt come back to bite him on the arse visa wise .

But who do you keep ? Cook yes , but then bang goes your well balanced team . Harris - no , Vissing probably not , Sarjeant - no , Starke - maybe , Thomas - worth preserving with , Kerr - yes if he has fully recovered . Greaves - probably not .

THJ , your ideas have a lot of merit , but for something like that to work , the governing body ( especially the second half of your season ) has to take charge and take away the organising of fixtures from the clubs . They have to implement the fixture list to suit the competion not the clubs themselves . If riders are missing for whatever reason , too bad deal with it .

Before we start looking ahead to 2019 as we dont know the league structure or points limit we will be involved with , it's time to look back on what was a generally frustrating 2018 . Rightly or wrongly installed as title favourites , things didnt quite go to plan as well as we hoped . The championship shield section looked to be at our mercy after victory at Armadale , but the home thumping by Workington cost us qualification and served notice that we werent as good as we were beginning to think we were . We then contrived to throw away a KO Cup tie against Edinburgh which we were in complete control of , while the league campaign had it's ups and downs . Strong enough at home , but generally disappointing away from Ashfield . We did make it into the play offs only to come up just short against our Cumbrian nemesis . As for the riders - Craig Cook - easily the best rider in the league and a joy to watch . Would even say he's better round Ashfield than Shane Parker in his pomp . Chris Harris - much excitement at his signing last winter , but overall he has been a big disappointment . Claus Vissing - started the season well , but his form definitely dipped as the season progressed . Paul Starke - again started the season well before he got injured in the home meeting against Sheffield at the beginning of May , Took a long time to get over that and his scoring suffered , but he did return to sonething like his old self towards the end of the campaign . James Sarjeant - we hoped he would turn out to be the free scoring reserve every title challenger needs , but that never looked like happening . Jack Thomas - all riders stepping up from the NL can struggle , but there is definite potential there . Nathan Greaves - got injured too soon after signing to be judged fairly . Ritchie Worrall - been fantastic for us since arriving from Somerset , but this season he just didnt look the same rider . Lewis Kerr - the shining light of early season meetings , unfortunate his season was cruelly brought to an early end . A season of just coming up short when it mattered , we shall see what 2019 brings .

I've asked that question too , but it seems not . Had to be a rider from a non qualifying team , even if one of the top 4 is out . That only applies to your title play off final though

Losing to a decent Workington side in the play offs ( remember them ) is no disgrace . Your lot couldnt even defend a 29 point lead there .

Yeah no Poole racejacket tonight

Well done Workington , always painful to come up just short , but it's all there for the Comets now - good luck to them

That numptie supports Berwick and has a major chip on his shoulder about Glasgow , best leave him to his colouring in books

Track staff deserve immense credit for getting the track as good as they did , given the rain we suffered on Friday and Saturday . Was an entertaining enough meeting , but will 13 points be enough ? I'm not so sure , but we live in hope

Pouring up here still too . Track must be sodden

Yes well how many " most important ' promoters conferences are we up to now ? Mr Chapman and his total tranparency and simplifying the rule book . I fear next season will just be more of the same , only with less teams to indulge in a bit of self interest .

There you go , canny beat a good old contingency plan . Good to see two clubs getting together and co-operating .

So why was the team on Glasgow's faceache page with Wells at 1 ?

Threads with the name " Workington " in them are turning more and more like a victims support group with Totally Honest John the martyr in chief lol . Just be grateful there isnt a promotion/relegation play off to consider as well haha . With son of hurricane bawbag due to hit landfall somewhere on the west of Britain on Friday morning , if it's rained off , seriously it isn't our fault , honest , we never paid for the rain to come , swear to god .

Not at all , i've known the two ladies for a long time and they're great . Psssionate about their club - yes , but arent we all . Things can get a wee bit silly and out of hand on here , but when you meet people on here face to face , the majority are good people , and TaylorJ and Shazza fall into that category.

I totally agree with that

Panthers fans talking as if it's all over . Remember last year's top league final between Wolves and Swindon to see what can happen .

Any particular reason to buy one other than the usual reason ?

Politics again ? We're at the play offs now , look forward rather than backwards . Look upon it as your team being ultra successful despite everything , constantly dwelling on a perceived injustice only has a detrimental effect

Which bully boy antics ?

So the slagging off that has infested multiple threads over the past fortnight can now be put to bed and we can stick to this one to slag each other off . Finally we can get it on ( weather permitting of course) to decide who the northern representative in the final will be . Back in June Glasgow beat the Comets 50-40 while in Cumbria the Comets won 48.5 to 41.5 . Those two scores would do us very nicely . But those results dont tell the full story , Workington were understrength at Ashfield , with Klindt and Campton scoring 29 of the 40 points between them . Of course that was June 2018 BC ( before Cookie ) and we might well be Cookieless due to his injury . The choice of qualifying guests , should we need one , doesnt look appealing , with either of the Worrall twins the best candidates . But if Cookie makes it and is anywhere near fit enough , that just might swing it in our favour . Just as well it wasnt planned for today , even the ducks have went indoors .

Son of God is a bit hit and miss at the dump , last night was a bit of a miss while with all due respect to Wilkinson , Armadale doesnt suit his style of racing . We were truly awful when you thumped us earlier in the season , but towards the end of the campaign we began to look the part . Yes Cook has been the catalyst in that , whether he is fit enough for next weekend is up in the air and the choice of available guests isnt wonderful should he not make it . But it's a play off semi final so whoever is riding for either side will give their all . If you beat us then you will have deserved it , but it will be close and could just be a couple of classic meetings .

Our Cumbrian friends taking some solace at our just failing to win speedway's most prestigious trophy last night . That's understandable as nerves get the better of them at the prospect of facing the glorious Glasgow Tigers next weekend . Losing a run off is like getting beat on penalties at football , no disgrace in that . To reach 40 on a track Workington struggles to reach 30 shows how good a performance from an under strength Glasgow it was . This served as a perfect warm up meeting for next weekend , i look forward to it with confidence .

That was the last Newport v Glasgow meeting on the eve of Cardiff . The Pairs at Somerset started the following season