lucifer sam

If Birmingham did re-open, could Cradley share home meetings between Wolves and Birmingham? Neither club will be running every single week of the season, and if Cradley staged double-headers, they'd only need 3 or 4 dates at each track. Good luck Heathens - you've got a fantastic fan base, I hope you can find somewhere to run. All the best Rob

As long as Wee George wasn't attacking the rooster All the best Rob

Starman, in your new celebrity status, will you be interviewed on the centre green? All the best Rob

Er...... Somerset finished third in the 2012 league table. All the best Rob

So you don't have to provide your name, address, etc. How does it work then? Just curious. As I said I think it's a terrific idea. All the best Rob

Read what I said, the standard admission price, not the discounted one. I would think most travelling fans would still pay the £16, after all it's a lot of fuss to set up an online account for one visit, plus what happens if it piddles down at noon on the day of the meeting. Not that I don't think it's a good idea - I think it's a cracking one and well done to the Edinburgh management on thinking it up. But for visiting fans, the standard price for both legs is the same price. All the best Rob

I'm sure they'll find something else instead. The funniest whinge was regarding Somerset putting their admission price up (by just a single £1) to £16, when the standard admission price for the Edinburgh leg is.... yes, you guessed it, £16. All the best Rob

R/R being used by both teams for a middle order man (fourth in the averages for one team and third in the other) - seems about the same for both teams to me. As for Sneddon riding with an injury, well aren't Olly Allen and Charles Wright as well? Scotsman, are you getting in your excuses early? All the best Rob

Sheffield in the Play-Off finals??? - Spinny, is there a play-off final for the bottom two teams? All the best Rob

Cradley edge home 52-42.... should be an interesting second leg. What happened to Nathan Greaves? Why did he only take two rides. All the best Rob

That's a standard thing for the play-off final. Both Somerset & Scunny raised their prices for the 2012 final. At the end of the day, it's still cheap. In which other sport can you see a leg of the final for £16? All the best Rob

I've enjoyed this season, like I have the last few. It's because, these days, I tend to be selective of the meetings I go to. 23 out of 53 have been at Scunthorpe, and you can't go wrong with going to meetings up there, somewhere between 8/10 or 9/10 are a good meeting. There have been things that have annoyed me: going to Coventry twice at the start of the season and seeing a grand total of 6 heats (I won't say races) thanks to balls-ups with the track, the doubling-up between the leagues getting out of hand, and the attitude of some promotions to the National (Development) League, which should be all about developing riders. But at the end of the day, it comes down whether I've seen decent racing. And I have. All the best Rob

And Sundstrom? Might as well as left Covatti as one of the reserves. After all, Covatti performed in the GP Challenge, and therefore was worthy of a reserve position. Can't understand Sundstrom's inclusion at all - Berntzon would have been a far better choice if they wanted another Swede. Are BSI/FIM going to reveal the logic behind their choices? I hope next year, they revert to taking the reserves from the challenge. This is a World Championship, not an invitational series. All the best Rob

Um, wasn't fixture congestion far worse BEFORE the advent of the play-offs? Or are your glass-tints too firmly in place to remember the ocassions in the past when the season dragged into November.... All the best Rob

Surely he'll ride for Birmingham in the PL, if they are back. All the best Rob

Yup, this season the monsoon month was August, next year it'll be a different month. You can't predict the British weather. All the best Rob

A lot of the examples so far have been two meetings rather than one; even the fours is arguably three meetings (two semis and a final) all rolled up into one. How about the longest time for a single meeting? The 2005 Conference League Pairs at Wimbledon took 4 hours and 15 minutes to stage 19 heats of speedway. Can that be beaten? All the best Rob

Not a bad selection, but Kildemand is a far better rider than THJ. All the best Rob

Didn't the 2013 Fours at Peterborough take 5 and a half hours? All the best Rob

Last weekend, Scunny ran stocks on Saturday and speedway on Sunday. The start-time on Sunday was moved back from 3pm to 5pm to give the track staff a bit more time. Thomas Jorgensen was 0.01 outside of the track record in Heat 1. All the best Rob

Hold on Phil, I'm now confused. If anyone pulls out, such as Gollob and Sayfutdinov this year, then we're not just talking about temporary replacements for one or two meetings, are we? Will any reserves for the WHOLE series (e.g. in the way Chris Harris and Troy Batchelor were for this year) come from the GP challenge or be selected by BSI/FIM? All the best Rob

Bye, bye genuine world championship. Hello invitational event. All the best Rob

Blimey, so you want teams to only have 12 or 13 home meetings a year? Some teams would finish their fixtures in July All the best Rob

There's no guarantee that any month will have nice weather. This year, August was the worst of the lot. September was nice this year, other years it's a been a washout. Yup, the weather for this week is not good, let's hope for something better next week for the two legs of the final. Late October finals are squeaky bum time in case it does rain, but the weather could be fine next week... you never know. In any case, it's the final, your team are in it, get along and support them and have a great time. All the best Rob

It was a hard-fought group, and I did wonder looking at updates around Heat 6 last night, whether there was one last little twist in the tale to come. Unlike some, I didn't see the group as a foregone conclusion, and there's absolutely no guarantee that the matches would finish the same as the league matches earlier in the season, some of which took place as long ago as April. Ippo proved this last night - they didn't go to Somerset thinking it was a hopeless case, they went to get the result and gave Somerset a match. As for Scunny vs Ipswich, you'd like to think every team would put in as much effort into each match, whether they are still in contention or not. It would be unfair on the other teams if not. Ipswich were probably kicking themselves on the result of this one, it was a great opportunity to get the draw or win they needed, but in the end, the likes of Auty and Howe pulled out some superb races towards the end of the meeting. From the 4 matches I saw, each of the three teams in this group can take credit on a closely fought group, with Somerset triumphing despite suffering from their own share of adversity. And the Edinburgh vs Somerset final is a fascinating one. In this case, the league matches weren't all that long ago, and I think they can be looked at. In which, it might be pretty close on aggregate in the PL final for a third successive season. The play-offs in the Premier League are a winner every time. All the best Rob