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Probably as much chance of Jon Cook turning up for an away meeting as Stan Kroenke watching the Arsenal in person but I don't suppose it matters, they only own the club.

Not so much speedways problems but "British Speedway" problems. Speedway is a great sport, just not in this country anymore thanks to those that attempt to run it. Fortunately we have the grand prix's which continue to be good viewing most of the time and the Swedish and Polish league's make good viewing too. Stuff the BSPA I don't need you to get my speedway fix anymore but without me and others your businesses will die! who needs who more?

Well that's wrong for a start, only last season a meeting against Poole was massively affected by a problem with the M25 and the promotion openly admitted afterwards the crowd was well below what would normally have been expected for a match against the Pirates, I am sure there were others but that one springs to mind. I may not have been to any meetings this season but in the last two seasons I was there most weeks, the M25 (Essex side included) has been an issue more than a few times. Not going to argue about the decision to call a halt to precedings after the crash, that was common sense.

Not so easy when you don't get all afternoon to practice on the track your racing on in the evening

Erm I disagree strongly, nobody but Jon Cook made the decision to continue using Friday nights, the worst day of the week traffic wise and the more traffic there is the greater chance of things going wrong/accidents etc because people start taking risks to avoid being late to wherever they are trying to get too.

Andy Galvin, Alan Mogridge, Troy Pratt, Colin White and Paul Hurry.

Sounds like the ref is a vegaterian, no Bacon rolls tonight!

Be a late finish tonight then, providing those from Kent made it, they won't have to pay the toll on the way home. After all these years, you would have thought a lesson would have been learnt?

Still plenty of time before tapes up but the early signs do not look good, M25 is doing what it does best on a Friday, standing room only.

Firstly the positives = its a lovely day with zero chance of rain, On paper the Fen Tigers should give the Hammers a very close match. Negatives = The track could be on the dry and dusty side, its bank holiday so the traffic is expected to be heavy with the M25 in full on disruption mode, Hammers are decimated and guests are not going to attract fans.

Swindon are the top team this season but in the overall scheme of things i think even 2nd division Arena Essex from 1991 could take them over two legs, The Hammers sent both top flight Eastbourne and Coventry packing that season in the British League cup. But they don't need to be the best team ever to win the league this season, just being better than the rest will be enough, it still counts as a league title.

You will sleep just fine until it happens to you in a fixture that does matter, say a cup final or a league decider, then you might feel slightly different, challenge match or not, it's the thin edge of the wedge.

Would love to know how you can do that as we have all seen in the past riders being dragged into the tapes because of a slipping clutch. I guess he could be using a warming of the tyre technique? One thing is for sure though, if any ref's read this they will be looking out for it more, its not something you see very often at all. I do remember seeing it in the past at Arena where a rider done it in every heat he rode and the wheel rear spoiler was pattened in a way which made it easy to spot (not for the ref though) Don't ask me who it was, it was a long time ago, I am thinking early to mid 90's when i stood on the home straight more to left of the tapes, so i had a really clear view of the rear part of the bikes.

Taken from the BBC news site If your intending to go to Lakeside Friday better allow plenty of time for your journey. When will be busiest?According to the RAC, Friday afternoon from about 15:00 to 19:00 is likely to be the busiest as drivers heading off for the weekend mix with the normal commuting traffic.

This is what i said back in February "The key for this team will be the presence of Ben and Zach, the latter could have clashes when riding with Swindon and there was a rumour going around at the COS (celebration of speedway) yesterday that Ben is lined up to be a Rye House rider once the first set of averages are produced"

That's a massive miss for the Hammers, you simply cannot replace that sort of scoring power at home, will need the bottom three to really step up and I personally don't think the have the ability to do that. Could be an interesting meeting though if Boxall's clutch continues to effectively give him "rolling starts" and I believe Tom Bacon has a reputation for jumping too?

15.2.9 When the Green Start Light is illuminated, no movement of the motorcycle is permitted, nor any additional time allowance or outside assistance can be given.

Your happy to condone cheating then?

This clip is on youtube, shows quite blatently that Boxalls rear wheel was spinning (slipping clutch) prior to the tapes going up and should have been stopped as the bike was moving before the tapes went up and this gave him a clear advantage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81uwlzja3MQ

Welcome to British Speedway

Durno has always been a idiot of a ref, end of. As soon as Nige and Kevin said this should be all four back, i said yeah but this is Chris Durno!

How can promoters expect fans to turn up when they won't even turn up themselves?

Tonight could be the night where BT sport ask themselves what on earth are we doing covering this shambles that is British Speedway.

I know i joke about Cook not travelling further North than Watford but Mildenhall, really?

Heat 13 is on YouTube and no blue groove in sight so hopefully they are going in the right direction with the track. The Hammers tail end is killing them sometimes and from what I have heard I am pretty surprised there has not been a greater turnover of riders at the tail end, at this level giving different riders a chance to show what they could do can only be a good thing.