lucifer sam

I don't quite see that. There's not tons of fixtures this season. No way the League Cup shouldn't be have done and dusted months ago, for example. That's down to all clubs really, just not the finalists, because they were reserved dates for the semi-finals and they should have been stuck to. League Cup Final should be in June. Maybe the PLRC needs to be in early September as well. Leave the deck clear for the play-off matches to take place as soon as possible. All the best Rob

I just hope there's no rain offs, because the final in the last week of the season is cutting things just too fine. All the best Rob

I do feel for any teams caught like this. My team (Oxford) were the first-ever victims in 2002 - it was a Peterborough v Oxford match not held in time, and by not holding the meeting, Peterborough progressed to the play-offs! Last season was slightly different in that Scunthorpe got on and held all their meetings, didn’t turn down any dates, put themselves in a strong position, but were then left twiddling their thumbs waiting for the other two clubs to complete the group. Scunthorpe were rained off at Edinburgh on September 28th, and rather surprised to find October 5th free for the re-staging, as it was assumed Workington would be at Armadale that Friday. It wasn’t ideal for Scunny but they took it. I really don’t know why the Edinburgh v Workington meeting was left so late, it was almost tempting fate. October 5th was originally free, not sure why the Comets weren’t booked in that night; I think Edinburgh wanted them there. It wasn’t nice for the Comets’ riders and fans to see their season end like that. Previous form at Armadale suggests the Comets would not have done it, but in speedway, anything can happen. This year’s new and fresh Workington promotion are very different – they seem really keen to get on with their matches in the same way that Scunny were last season. I’m just slightly concerned to see a Newcastle v Somerset match earmarked for October 13th – just a little too late in my opinion. But I hope we have a fine October and the PL play-offs are completed in good time. All the best Rob

How about American Football? And baseball? And British Rugby? And a host of other sports? In fact, these days more sports have play-offs to decide the championship, than those who do not. And Championship Football is slightly different in that (due to the sheer amount of cash on offer), promotion to the Premier League is a bigger deal than winning the league. So the biggest game of the Championship season is the play-off final to decide the 20th and final Premier League place. The game has even replaced the FA Cup Final as the final game of the season. Play-offs are big occasions; if anything speedway has been too late in coming to the party. All the best Rob

The Championship is football’s second tier. It has play-offs. The Premier League is speedway’s second tier. It has play-offs. Massive American sports have almost always had play-offs to decide the league winners. I was in two minds about play-offs, until seeing both legs of last year’s final, which were the best two meetings I saw last year – the excitement running throughout the final just grew and grew. I was then a convert and realised that these days, with so many counter-attractions, why play-offs are necessary. It’s exciting, it’s dramatic and it creates media interest. Also it means most teams still have something to strive for until August or September. If finishing top of the league decided who became champions, the season is over for half of the teams by the end of April. And to those who say the PL only has play-offs because of Sky’s involvement, I think they’ll living in a different world to me, because I can’t remember Sky ever televising a PL play-off match. The PL play-offs are there because it’s the best thing for the Premier League. I do have a slight concern that a Newcastle v Somerset play-off match is not being held until Sunday, October 13 (just a little too late in my opinion, and partially caused by the fact that the League Cup – the start of the season competition – has not yet been concluded), but I hope the weather doesn’t intervene and we have a cracking conclusion to the Premier League for a second season in succession. Maybe with an exciting final played out in front of TWK’s eyes – so he can, like I did last year, cast aside any scepticism about play-offs and learn to embrace them as the way forward for speedway. All the best Rob

I thought Newcastle could run on Mondays. Didn't they run this Monday? Last years's play-offs were nearly screwed up due to the Edinburgh v Workington match not being attempted to be held until October 19th (and was then rained off). It was far too late. It not only led to Workington's slight hope of qualifying being ended by an off-track decision, but it also pushed the final back a week until the very final weekend of the season. If the Scunthorpe track staff had not performed something of a miracle (they'd had heavy rain in the afternoon; the pits were flooded) to stage their leg on Monday October 29th (it had already been rained off on October 28th), the whole season could have ended in farce. I would hope there's a cut-off point in place this year for the group matches to avoid a similiar near disaster; Monday, October 7th would make a lot of sense. All the best Rob

Best wishes Bryn. Don't worry - the IOW have called off tonight's meeting for you! All the best Rob

Nice to see Workington scheduling all their matches by end of September (weather permitting). Let's hope the other teams follow and the last group match is on October 5th at the latest, and we end up with the final being staged in the second week of October, rather than struggling to get it in, in the final week of October. All the best Rob

Meeting off - due to a very adverse weather forecast To be restaged Sunday, September 29th at 3pm

Haven't read through the whole thread, but the most notable example was Ivan Mauger. A "failure" at 17 and 18 (actually he was a little unlucky regarding the limited league structure at that point - no proper second division in which to home his skills). I guess he wasn't THAT old when he came back over in 1963, but he wasn't World Champion unitl not far from his 29th birthday. Mauger's peak was from the ages of 28 to 39. All the best Rob

SCORPIONS IN FINAL FLING FOR 2013 HENDERSON INSURANCE Scunthorpe Scorpions will take part in their last regular team meeting of the season at the Eddie Wright Raceway on Sunday afternoon (September 15, 3pm), as they take on local rivals Sheffield Tigers in the first leg of the Retro Cup. It’s not quite the final speedway action of the year at the Eddie Wright Raceway, as there will be a special meeting on Friday, October 11 (further details to follow) which promoter Rob Godfrey promises will be a night “not to be missed”. Sunday’s Retro Cup clash is a meeting styled on how speedway was run on the sixties, seventies and eighties, thought by many to be a Golden Age for British Speedway. It sees the reintroduction of: • The old 13-heat format that that was used in British Speedway between 1969 and 1987 and coined the phrase that “happiness is 40-38”. The 1-5 in each team have four programmed rides, while the 6 & 7 (reserves) have three programmed rides. • Tactical substitutes, where one rider can replace another (or indeed two riders can replace two others!), once a team is six points or more in arrears at any stage after Heat 4. The tactical substitute served speedway from 1955 to 2003, but was replaced by the somewhat controversial tactical ride (programmed riders going for double points) in 2004. Tactical substitutes are for regular points. • The Champion Of The Afternoon competition in the second half, sponsored by Peacock & Binnington (one of the premier agricultural machinery dealers in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, with branches at Brigg, Louth, Corringham and Selby). Such second halves were the norm in British Speedway from the early days of the sport to around 1984. Sunday’s second half sees three qualifying heats, with the winner of each race progressing to the final, along with the fastest second-placed rider, so times are all-important! Scunthorpe promoter Rob Godfrey said: “It’s a challenge match, but one with an interesting twist that will interest a lot of people. “A lot of the longer-term fans are always saying we should go back to the way we used to run meetings, so for one meeting, we are! We’ll see how it goes. “There’s been a lot of recent discussion of how speedway can move itself forward. I started some of it myself with a request to hear the views of supporters in the ‘Speedway Star’, speedway’s top weekly magazine. “Sometimes it’s necessary to look how you used to do things, and work out if some of those things were actually better. So it will be interesting to see how everything goes on Sunday afternoon. “It’ll be a great afternoon for the fans who went to Scunthorpe Speedway at Quibell Park and Ashby Ville in the 70s and 80s, who pine for the days of 13 heats, tactical subs and second halves. And, for newer supporters, it’s a chance to see how we used to do things.” “I never tire of beating Sheffield”, Godfrey added. “We’ve already beaten them home and away in the Premier League, and I also want to beat them in the Retro Cup. The plan on Sunday is to make Sheffield use plenty of tactical subs! “The second half will be interesting, because it’s not often our riders race each other at the Eddie Wright Raceway. “It’ll be interesting to see comes out on top and becomes Champion Of The Afternoon. Will it be Josh (Auty), Ash (Birks), Nicolai (Klindt) or Tommy The Gun (Thomas Jørgensen), or maybe one of our reserves - Ryan (Douglas) or Lewis (Blackbird) – will scoop the prize, or will one of the Sheffield lads end up winning it? “In the second half, we’re also planning to have some mechanics’ races and stuff like that, because this will be our last regular home meeting this season. We’ve missed out on this kind of stuff over the last couple of years, because when you’re in play-offs, you’re never quite sure when the season is over. The pressure is off and we can have a fun end to the season this year. “We will have one more meeting here, on Friday, October 11. Our full plans for that night will be announced in due course, but it will be a meeting not to be missed. People need to keep their diaries free for that night”, Godfrey concluded. The second leg of the Retro Cup takes place at Sheffield on Thursday, September 26. Admission Prices for Sunday: Adult: £14.00 Student/OAP: £12.00 Child (10 - 16): £5.00 Child (0 - 9) Free (accompanied by paying adult) Family Ticket £33 (2 adults, 2 Children 10-16) Match Programme: £1.00 Expected teams for Sunday: Henderson Insurance Scunthorpe Scorpions: 1. Josh Auty, 2. David Howe R/R, 3. Nicolai Klindt (Denmark), 4. Ashley Birks, 5. Thomas Jørgensen (Denmark), 6. Ryan Douglas (Australia), 7. Lewis Blackbird. Sheffield Tigers (provisional): 1. To be confirmed, 2. Andre Compton, 3. Ricky Wells (United States), 4. Danny Maassen (Germany), 5. Adam Roynon, 6. Damien Koppe (Australia), 7. Facundo Albin (Argentina).

Erm, I was kinda going for the angle that you have a bit of fun BEFORE the meeting, but the actual racing is fair. All the best Rob

What the Edinburgh promotion need to do is to bring both around on the parade truck together, to the accompaniment of the Rocky theme tune. They both get off the parade truck, shake hands and get on with the meeting. It's recevied a lot of publicity, so build on that and promote it. All the best Rob

I can open it at work, but not on either PC at home. A PDF version would be useful. All the best Rob

After Mike left Oxford, he always seemed to give the Oxford fans a hard time whether we were. Then, at Wimbledon around 1991 (where we were stood partially under the main complex), there was a massive echo that amplified any noise made by the fans. It was revenge time, as we took the mickey out of Mike Bennett between every race. By Heat 15, he was stood as far as possible away from us, in the opposite corner of centre green, almost toppling onto the speedway track. We had fun that night. All the best Rob

In cycling, the level of technology is far greater than it is in speedway. All the best Rob

1. Chris Harris 2. Craig Cook 3. Ben Barker 4. Josh Auty All the best Rob

The presenter. I think. Who's the one at Leicester who waffles on forever about rubbish. I switched off very quickly to listening to him last time at Leicester, which is why I'm a bit vague. I much preferred the tractor driver who was going around at around 0.05mph, at which point Glyn Taylor jumped into the tractor and pushed the other guy aside! That was much more entertaining!! All the best Rob Nonsense. Yorkie got the whole crowd buzzing at Oxford in the 1980s. Actually those days, we were buzzing even before he started. But he got us going even more. As general manager at Birmingham, a co-promoter at Oxford, and manager of the BSPA, he's probably the most knowledgeable mic man there's ever been. We never gave Yorkie any stick. We treated his sucessor at Cowley, Mike Bennett, slighlty less kindly (I think poor old Mike, who isn't that bad to be fair, lists his time at Oxford as one of the low points of his time in speedway). All the best Rob

Yorkie is a legend - stop talking rot. One presenter who truly knows masses about the sport. Knows his speedway inside out, does Yorkie! Worst announcer has to be that guy at Leicester, he's awful. All the best Rob

Date now confirmed as Sunday, September 15th (3pm) - Scunthorpe vs Sheffield. All the best Rob

I liked the fanfare, simply because the effect it had on that chap. All the best Rob

Shadders, Josh was carrying a shoulder injury after Jason Bunyan caused him to fall in Heat 5. It's why Josh didn't come out in Heat 15.. All the best Rob

Who? All the best Rob

The "nickname" I've heard most fans on the terraces call Ryan Fisher is not repeatable on here. All the best Rob

Well Ryan Douglas certainly is "Flyin" But it IS his nickname - Flyin' Ryan Douglas All the best Rob