MattK

It was a good meeting in terms of being very close, but it was hardly a classic in terms of racing. The World Cup format always throws up these very close results. Last year was decided on the final turn of the final heat and the year before was a last heat decider.

What on earth is going on with Sweden? I have them under 24 and they're on 11 already!

Doing a Woofy tonight?

I can only assume Mark Lemon is confused by their foreign sounding names?

Would Zmarzlik be any better or worse than Miedzinski? Two sides of the same coin if you ask me, especially with Zmarzlik having all the usual U21 commitments.

I believe so. A better rule for me would be each team having four riders with five programmed rides each and then one "wild" rider who can take any five rides throughout the meeting. This allows for injuries, but also introduces a bit of team management into the mix.

There's plenty to see in the Fan Zone, but last year it was crammed into far too small a space for the number of people trying to walk around it.

My nominations are... Jaroslaw Hampel Maciej Janowski Antonio Lindback Linus Sundstorm Vaclav Milik Eduard Krcmar Artem Laguta Renat Gafurov Chris Harris Tai Woffinden Greg Hancock Ryan Fisher Chris Holder Jason Doyle Maksims Bogdanovs Andzejs Lebedevs

I don't think Ward plus a 6-pointer would actually make us stronger overall, especially given the 6-point rider would have to ride as a heatleader. Plus of course, Ward will be looking to get his average down in order to fit in at Poole next season. I agree with you that there is a huge question mark over Miedzinski.

You can have more than two riders over 7 - as long as you replace them on a like-for-like basis. "A Teams combined MA for the top 5 positions must not exceed 34.00 points nor include more than 2 x Riders, whose MA exceeds 7.00 or 2 Doubling-Up Riders (satisfying the same conditions as for the initial Team Declaration) when re-declared, either permanently or temporarily, except where the MA of the introduced Rider is equal to, or lower than the Rider being replaced." Unless we drop Miedzinski AND Batchelor and bring in Ward and a six-pointer.

Money?

PL to EL is 0.6

That makes no sense. We need Batchelor's average to go up. Currently, if we replace Miedzinski an Bachelor for Ward, it leaves up 6.12 for another rider. The higher Batchelor's average, the more points we have to play with.

It's not rocket science though, is it? From a quick skim through the teams, Coventry, Leicester and Poole all had no riders in the U21s qualifiers, so wouldn't they have been better opponents for Lakeside, rather than Belle Vue who had two riders competing? Then taking into account the PL fixtures on the same night, both Coventry's draft riders and double-uppers were free, so wouldn't Coventry have made the best opponent for Lakeside? Obviously there are always going to be clashes, but arranging a fixture where four riders in the same team all have higher priority arrangements in bonkers.

Are meetings like the U21s and GP qualifiers done on a share of gate revenue between the host stadium and the organisation or do the hosts pay a fee and keep all the gate receipts?

How do they determine how many riders from each country get a place? Seems strange GB have four riders, but Australia only seem to have two.

Did he give an example of a specific area where he was outvoted?

Fricke won the Aus U21s, so it wouldn't take a massive leap to realise he'd be in the World U21 qualifiers. As for Lakeside having no meetings due to the GPs, that's fair enough, but is an away team with four guests really going to bring in the crowds?

It's not about using a computer programme, it's about taking the right meetings into account. Belle Vue had two riders missing last night due to World U21 commitments. Clearly World U21 meetings weren't taken into account when producing the fixtures because Lakeside hadn't had a home meeting for three weeks and Belle Vue had no other Friday fixtures in May so there were plenty of opportunities to hold this meeting when riders were available.

Lakeside have one of the best web sites, but there still doesn't seem to be any feature that allows for a two-way communication with the promoters.

No stadium?

If Swindon and/or Lakeside drop out of the Elite League next season, then there may be no choice.

It has to be at current PL level. That's a no brainer.

I think one big Premier League is inevitable. The Elite League has been on borrowed time for several years now and with Birmingham and Eastbourne closing last season it is surely only one club folding away from collapse.

Cost may well have played a part, I have no idea geographically where he lives and how the Aus championships planned out. Of course his SWC call-up is fantastic and he should be able to give some of the more "experienced" riders a run for their money. This is a huge opportunity to put himself in the shop window for foreign clubs.