MattK

His average has already been issued. 5.51 effective 26/07.

What happened to Lambert? He won his first two rides easily and then when I looked at the updates he'd had three last places.

What about a proper "elite" league, fixed race night, home meetings every fortnight. The alternative weeks each club tracks a National League team in order to provide weekly racing?

I think you'd draw the line at any rider with an average above 8 in the Premiership. Don't forget, in order for there to be enough riders, you'd have to bring in more juniors to fill the lower orders of team. Of course, the alternative is smaller teams (say 6 or even 5) and a completely revamped race format. The other advantage of removing the "top" riders is that several Championship teams race on Saturday's and Sunday's which mean more clashes with individual and Polish meetings.

You'd never get buy in from the lower Championship teams if they had to line up against opposition fielding the likes of Lindgren and Holder. There is no way Redcar, Berwick or Workington (for example) would be able to afford a competitive team if you allowed riders of that strength.

I think that's the challenge though. The more you try to force things together, the less competitive and entertaining it becomes. For me, the draft ruined the Elite League. There was simply too much of a chasm between the top riders and the draft riders. Now it is even worse, with National League riders filling reserve berths against GP heatleaders. The racing is simply no longer competitive. The SWC was a perfect example of how having four relatively equal riders produces great racing.

If there was one big league, it would have to be at Championship standard, otherwise it would be unaffordable for the bulk of teams to compete. This therefore should prevent youngsters from moving up from NL to Championship. It would of course have an impact on the top British riders, as they would be lightyears behind our foreign counterparts.

Look at the evidence. When clubs run second halves, how many people stick around to watch? At Swindon, 90% of the crowd would leave after heat 15, suggesting there is very little interest in watching youngsters.

Wouldn't that cause more team changes, not fewer?

Nigel Pearson and Chris Van Straaten own a company called Heathens Speedway Club Limited. I think they would have a good case against Heathens Speedway Supporters Trust for passing off, as I am sure the trust rely on people's goodwill towards the speedway club to raise money. How many people know that the Heathens Speedway Supporters Trust have no association with Heathens Speedway Club Limited which run the actual team?

This week is probably the worst possible preparation for Doyle while carrying an injury, riding in Sweden on Tuesday, Poland yesterday, here tonight and tomorrow, Poland on Sunday, here Monday, Sweden on Tuesday and here on Wednesday and Thursday.

If you look at the number of Polish and Swedish league meetings each of the SWC final competitors have ridden in, it isn't difficult to spot a pattern. Even taking into account the benefit of Poland and Sweden riders having a "home" league, all the Polish riders race full time in Sweden and all the Swedish riders in the Ekstraliga. No British rider races in the top flight in Poland and only Robert Lambert has appears in the Swedish league this year.

Half right. Zengota has reverted back to his 2015 Elite League average and Watt is listed with his 2016 Elite League average. Musislak has come in on his 2015 Elite League average. However, Kasprazak is listed on the current averages as 9.23, which is neither his 2016 average (7.91), his 2017 teambuilding average (1.4x his 2016 average) (11.08) or his current 2017 average (6.44). It seems as if Kasprazak's average has been calculated by dividing his 2017 teambuilding average by 1.2. Go figure that one out!

I noticed that BT Sport were heavily promoting Monday's speedway during UFC on Saturday night.

The council are fairly pro in my opinion. They, and the local MP, make all the right noises, but at the end of the day, they cannot make a developer do something they don't want to do and there is a tremendous demand for housing in Swindon. No tin hat required at all. You are on exactly the same wavelength as me. Using my example above, building houses on this land would return £20m in profits to the developers. Why not agree to back their change of plans for housing instead of a new stadium, in exchange for a small contribution towards a new track elsewhere. Say 20% of the profits? I know some may say that the speedway club have no leverage to conduct such a deal, but I disagree. Take Oxford as an example. Risk Capital Partners/GRA/Cowley Property Investment Ltd have a multi-million pound white elephant on their hands which they cannot develop into housing (their preferred choice), cannot sell (without a significant loss) and don't want to run as a going concern. All thanks to fan power. I'm sure the developers at Swindon don't want to find themselves in a similar situation.

Not a few hundred thousand, a few million. 200 houses on the site of the "new" stadium, £100k profit per house, makes £20,000,000 profit. Anyone who thinks they'll build a new stadium is living in cloud cuckoo land.

Our biggest problem is that we effectively have four reserve riders. Replacing Gappmaier with another 4-pointer won't solve that. The only way to improve the situation is to jettison one of the reserves, which allows everyone to move down a slot and then replace one of the heatleaders with two slightly weaker (on paper) riders. I don't understand the obsession with replacing Gappmaier. He's only ridden a handful of meetings so hasn't really had a fair crack, there's no obviously stronger replacement and out of our four reserve I'd rate them in order of potential as Ellis, Gapp, BWD, Wajtknecht - so we'd effectively be dropping the rider with the second best potential.

Apparently not. Zengota and Watt are both listed in the new averages using their old Elite League averages from 2015 and 2016 respectively.

Depnds how ruthless we want to be. What about Korneliussen and Musielak for Bellego and Wajtknecht? Gives us a much better balance if you ask me. Doyle (9.66) Morris (9.18) Korneliussen (6.04) Musielak (4.53) Wilson-Dean (4.34) Gappmaier (4.00) Ellis (4.17) 41.92

Another example of how insular British speedway is, two Championship meetings were held last night and both suffered from riders missing due to SWC duties, in Newcastle's case two riders.

The Final Poland Pawlicki Zmarzlik GB Cook Lambert Sweden Lindgren Lindback Russia Sayfutdinov Tarasenko

Tarasenko for me please, if Laguta is out

It is interesting comparing the two SWC meetings this week. One which had a clear disparity in the quality of riders and produced dreadful racing, while the other had very evenly matched riders and produced exceptional racing. Anyone who thinks amalgamating the leagues and putting international standard Premiership regulars up against riders who are currently averaging 6s and 7s in the National League would produce anything other than the most processional borefest, is bonkers.

I've never had any problems driving into and parking in Cardiff. Over the years we've used the park and ride (probably the worst option), parking at Cardiff station and in the various pay and displays. The only benefit of getting the train is if you're staying over.