cyclone

What a pity that the four other riders racing tonight (Bewley @ Redcar, Lambert @ Ipswich, and Bates & Pickering @ Sheffield) who are also at the U-21 at Pocking on Saturday, were able to make arrangements to do so, but Redcar and Perks could not do likewise. Was it a case that Glasgow, Newcastle, Sheffield & Edinburgh were prepared to offer financial and logistical support to their riders and Redcar were not? I would imagine that Andersen's absence was known in advance, so you would expect the Bears would have explored all avenues for their on form reserve to ride today. Even with a full Bears side, it would have been no surprise if Glasgow were to win. Now with a depleted home side, it will be a surprise if Glasgow do not win.

Have you evidence that the initial draft fixture list only allocated home fixtures on 6 of the 10 weekends from the start of the season? In reality, Glasgow have actually had 7 weekend fixtures from the start of the season, (5 in April, including 1 postponed, 2 in May) As has been previously stated, the draft list is subject to consultation and amendment. As the consultation and amendment would also involve the visiting teams, could it be that either the home side and/or the visitors have vetoed proposed dates for specific reasons that are not in the public domain? IMO the problem of clubs agreeing suitable dates has been exacerbated by rider priority with regards to doubling up, FIM & Overseas commitments etc. As an example, Glasgow have a blank date on Saturday 17th June, but as BV are at Leicester that night, would the Tigers be prepared to track two guests in place of Bewley & Smith?. Even when dates have been agreed, original team lineups can be disrupted by other events (FIM/Overseas Domestic League) where participating riders are confirmed afterwards. There are also the short notice withdrawals for injury, illness, funerals, etc., which in the case of Edinburgh, has resulted in Berwick & Glasgow being the only visitors tracking their full sides, so far.

Is your eyesight failing and the reason you missed edmon's post immediately above?

According to the 16.3 of the Speedway Regulations:- "Changes must be made at least 72 hours before the start Time of the Meeting at which it is intended to be used." If Peterborough track Chris Harris today, then Glasgow should have been advised of this by Wednesday. If so, surprised that they had not publicised this in advance, given that the presence of CH might attract additional punters. If Kenneth Hansen's version that he was only texted of his sacking when in transit after leaving Armadale last night, then this smacks of cowardly deceit by Rathbone & Co. Maybe pressure was put on the Glasgow Promotion not to advertise the Panthers lineup for Saturday until Hansen was advised, but I would reckon that they did not expect to be drawn into such a shabby process.

Taken from the Official Newcastle website: "Notice to all Newcastle Speedway supporters that due to a decision made by the Speedway Control Bureau Manager Mr Neil Vatcher on the afternoon of Thursday 18th May, Steve Worrall will not be appearing for Newcastle at Edinburgh on Friday 19th May." According to the above, Vatcher made the decision himself. If the original BSPA agreement had been subsequently overruled by the SCB, can you find it on the SCB website, as I can't. The Newcastle statement adds:_ "It is believed Mr Vatcher has been in contact with the management of Belle Vue Speedway regarding making his decision but has at no time made any contact with representatives of Newcastle Speedway. " If this is correct, Vatcher's treatment of Newcastle verges on being arrogantly disrespectful to George English. So instead of having a sly dig at Alex, make sure you gets facts right in the first place.

Thank you for wishing that this would further damage Edinburgh's business through a situation that was not of their making Some numpty who cannot even spell Alex Harkess's surname correctly, has previously implied on here that AH was probably involved in preventing Stevie Worrall riding at Armadale today . Given Stevie is a popular ex Monarch, and also home fans wish to see visiting sides track their own riders, to suggest that Edinburgh would scupper SW's appearance at such short notice beggars belief, given the press releases previously issued. I'd be very surprised if George English was blaming Edinburgh for this fiasco, but why not ask him on Sunday and let us all know his response. As far as I am aware, Swindon do not own BWD either, who remains a Somerset asset, so SCB 's might be correct that Newcastle are being treated the same way as Peterborough by the Official SCB.

I was hoping Monarchs would have considered moving Josh from riding in the opening heat away from home, in order that he could see how others were riding the track in the first two heats. They could have kept the previous pairings for the majority of races, albeit in a different riding order , if they had lined up as Wells, Mark Riss, Masters, Pickering, Eric Riss, Clegg, Davey. Not sure we will restrict the Diamonds to a six point win, given the impressive displays by Worrall & Lambert at Peterborough on Saturday. If Clegg cannot improve at reserve today, imo we should be looking at the likes of Liam Carr as an alternative option.

Dear justqueer, pity you had not examined the Monarchs away results in the aggregate competitions that they won in 2014/ 2015. To remind you, here they are, plus the home results in the PL Finals:- 19-06-14 Sheffield v Edinburgh LC SF 40-50 20-09-14 Berwick v Edinburgh PL PO 45-48 27-09-14 Workington v Edinburgh PL PO 40-50 05-10-14 Peterborough v Edinburgh LC F 44-46 12-10-14 Newcastle v Edinburgh PL KOC SF 44-46 16-10-14 Ipswich v Edinburgh PL KO F 37-53 24-10-14 Somerset v Edinburgh PL Final 54-42 25-10-14 Edinburgh v Somerset PL Final 54-41 27-09-15 Glasgow v Edinburgh LC F 45-45 04-10-15 Peterborough v Edinburgh PLPOSF 46-44 16-10-15 Glasgow v Edinburgh PLPOF 48-41 17-10-15 Edinburgh v Glasgow PLPOF 58-32 That's six away wins, 1 away draw, and 2pt, 7pt, & 12pt away defeats. So if you think the home scores gave a skewed advantage in the aggregate results, you certainly have a "queer" interpretation of the facts

Was told it was "someone from Kent" (not Mr Trump) who paid in cash at the time!

Don't know why some folk reckon Monarchs will run Tigs close or even win The reality is they have defeated home & away, the two teams who were, result wise, the poorest in the League, when they met them (i.e. Berwick & Scunny). Although Pickering has made an encouraging start, sterner tests lie ahead for him, starting on Saturday. Clegg has shown signs of slight improvement from his poor start, but is still suspect at scoring points away from home. Likewise Davey has struggled to beat opponents in the two away matches run. Tigers probably have the best heat leader trio in the League and Lunna & Bewley are capable of beating any visitor. IMO Monarchs will be doing well to restrict Glasgow to a ten point home win.

Source?

Berge scored 8 + 1 from 4 and 9 + 2 from 5 for Sheffield at the EWR last year, so he has a decent record there. Though his current form at Shielfield in particular has been indifferent, perhaps he will be more comfortable at Scunny today.

If this is correct, would be interesting to see if anyone reverts to the 2016 versions. There was a rumour that Clegg was unhappy with the new hard compound tyres, so will he be using the softer tyre instead, if permitted, tonight?

Not true, myself & friends in Edinburgh generally take delivery of Fridays, and occasionally Thursday, or Saturday/Monday. This week's arrived on Thursday. I believe the Post Office are the culprits for late delivery and I now accept that Friday is the norm for our area. I suspect that although the envelopes are marked First Class, they never carry a date stamp, and the Sorting Office use this as way to process them as lower priority mail.

The Reg is : "15.5.2 Where a Referee stops a heat, and the leading Rider has completed at least 2 laps, then s/he has the sole discretion to either order a re-run or award the heat based upon the positions when it was caused to be stopped; Riders, other than the one disqualified being advanced one place" Bridger had completed 2 laps before the red lights came on. Same thing happened at Armadale on Friday when ht2 was awarded.

If you post on a Forum, you should accept that others will reply to your comments. None of us can dictate who can or cannot reply to our comments - if you don't like it, then you can either stop posting or become less sensitive to feedback you take exception too. P.S. your response to a post by me earlier on this thread could also be described as "smartass" & "dumb", but I didn't respond with blubbering indignation.

Dave Dodd, Poole & Liverpool 1960 Clune Johnstone Marine Gardens 1939

Well done to Scunny - nice one

Not as confident, given that our 2,3, & 4 are in uncharted territory. Erik Riss's early form is impressive, so he looks ready to take the third heat leader role. However Clegg was poor in the Scottish Open and his displays for Wolves have been very mediocre, so he will have to improve rapidly, given he is now in the main body of the team. Pickering's debut reminded me of how Jason Lyons first started out, namely determined and fast but prone to overcook things at times. Also riding at no. 2 means he will not have the benefit of observing how others ride the track before he appears.

You are meant to join up the 6 Cardiff Picture jigsaw tokens printed in previous issues, and yes, they do display 3 riders

This topic would be more credible if the reality was that Australian newcomers were flooding the UK and depriving able British youngsters of similar ability of team places. So how many Australian newcomers have been signed on for 2017? - answer one, namely Josh Pickering at Edinburgh. IIRC in 2016, there were two rookies from OZ, namely Jake Allen & Jye Etheridge.( Bradley Dean Wilson is a Kiwi, who appeared in the NL in 2015 btw) Remember that such riders are already restricted by the employment visa criteria, as well as the 5 pt minimum assessed average in place for all new overseas newcomers. Is not more effective to do as already suggested, that all riders, including British, are contractually obliged to honour their UK scheduled fixtures, the exception being clashes with their own national calendar. If they break this commitment, then they are immediately barred from UK domestic Speedway. So where is the impending crisis that Shovlar is bleating on about? Just because a couple of his Poole side (Jack Holder & Brady Kurtz) have signaled their intentions to head to Poland asap, the drawbridge should be shut to all future talent from the Antipodes? The same scenario applies to Danes, Swedes, Germans, etc. and come Brexit, we can no doubt bar them as well, to be replaced by the flood of super talented British youngsters ready to take their places. Aye, Right .

If as you claim, the Poles continually fail to pay the full amount to the non Polish riders, can you explain why the likes of Chris Holder, Doyle, Woffinden, Lindgren,Pedersen, Iversen, etc. keep returning there? It's not as if the same stories of riders experiencing problems getting fully paid by their UK promotions are unknown and I'm sure you being a Belle Vue fan, will be aware of this

The early sixties Monarchs white crown on yellow & blue halves was naturally my favourite. The black Maltese Cross on an orange background of New Cross was a distinctive simple design.

Re Ronnie Rolfe, he had the distinction of winning the first ever meeting held at Estadio Bello Monte, Venezuela on 27th November, 1959 (I have the programme for this).

Re Fred Priest, I remember hearing the anecdote about the time he appeared for a short handed Edinburgh team at Cradley. Apparently after the match, Ian Hoskins commented "that they (Cradley) gave us a Priest but we would have preferred a Monk"