marko

They say the camera never lies, well I've seen several heats from every home meeting and the constant trend has been processional racing around the inside. Maybe there has been the odd classic? But I can only go by what I've seen and read on the speedway updates and YouTube and that has not been enough to convince me to want to see more in person.

Having seen some clips from today's and other meetings I have to unfortunately agree, the track this season has resembled one that we have seen all too often when it's on the telly, dry, with a blue groove soon appearing and very little in the way of passing. In fact it's gone back to circa 2004/2005 under big Ron.

I have not been there so far this season and won't be there today, but this change means i will consider going in future provided i hear good reports about the race experiance offered on race days, today for example i expect passing to be a premium but only because of the weather rather than a perceived lack of track preparation.

There is a nasty band of storms coming up from France, should stay clear from the East side of the country but will be worth keeping an eye on, humid days like this, they can pop up at a moments notice.

Feel sorry for the track staff today, keeping any sort of moisture on the track will be almost impossible even if they have the big water tanker going around between heats.

I would be more concerned with the weather, its supposed to get a higher risk of storms breaking out during the humid afternoon and if the traffic is as bad as its been the last 48 hours then it wont help.

I am purely guessing Spooner is replacing Hunter directly and they will see if they can shuffle him back in at a later date.

I feel that Lakeside are determined one way or another to get Paul in even if it means releasing another rider on a temporary basis. I don't think other clubs will be able to argue with that unless their gripe is about us replacing a forty something with another forty something.

And Mason was? Hurry has far more to offer younger riders in terms of advice than career reserve Mason ever could. And Liam your spot on, its not Lakeside who decided Paul's average, its the SCB, Lakeside merely are taking advantage of shall we say a judgement of error on the control boards part and if anyone thinks others clubs would not have done the same given the chance they are deluded because promoters are all as bad as each other when it comes to putting their club first. I'm starting to understand how Poole fans feel now as every move they make is dissected under a microscope.

If his average was set at 7.44 before the season and any team could have opted to try and utilise him on that figure, no one can complain. But if i was to be neutral on this i would have to admit i would have assessed his realistic working average to be nearer the nine point mark, maybe 8.50 as a minimum.

One possible way to settle this is what was Paul's average listed as when he guested for Zach recently in a challenge fixture?

Its time to do away with averages and use a type of grading as most of the riders are not on figures that are representitive of their ability, the heat formats the leagues have been running have played a major part in that, so who is to say what is and what isn't a proper average anymore, last season Poole brought Antonio back with an assessed figure that was agreed to by the governing body, whether others agreed with it or not makes no difference, only the opinion of the board counts and it will be the same with Paul Hurry, if he can be fitted into the side he will, if he can't he won't end of. I'm still of the opinion though if this was IOW, Buxton or Kent, it wouldn't be getting even a mention, at least we know why everyone else was so keen on us having David Mason, they knew it would keep us in what they perceive to be our place.

It seems no matter what league Lakeside are in, if their team is average or poor, no one gives a crap about them, yet as soon as they look like they might be half decent side, those toys coming flying out of the prams of other clubs. I must apologise on behalf of Jon Cook for forgetting that our club is merely a Cinderella club there to make up the numbers, give other teams easy victory's and is strictly not allowed to win anything ever (apart from in 1991 when we won everything) We are now the Millwall of the speedway world, no one likes us but we don't give s--t

Since you have so much passion for David, maybe you should suggest to Len, he resigns him. I never wanted him in the team in the first place, I'm glad he is gone.

It doesn't matter, averages mean very little anymore.

And of course KT will be optimistic, you never hear any manager or promoter admit in public that they feel they think they stand no chance, it's just not the done thing to do because if they don't have faith in the team then why should the fans.

Missing David wont make any difference he wouldnt have likely done much their, i would guess its got to be a home win of around 36-40 points

Is Iwade not operating anymore? Last I heard they were going to operate on a different licence to get away from the petty red tape of the SCB.

Trouble with your top riders is most only ride rather than race when they feel like it, it doesnt matter whether they like the track or not, if it was a grand prix you can bet they would give it a good go regardless.

I meant as a downside guarantee Steve, they get paid points money so if they score a max they get paid accordingly but they might be guaranteed the equivilent of 6,7 or 8 points a meeting even if they score only two or three. It happened at Lakeside a few years ago, they let PK go because they said it was "costing them money" even though he wasn't scoring, because his contract would have seen him paid to a minimum of x points and he frequently wasn't scoring that.

Said it so many times, worst thing ever was the promoters agreeing to pay riders regardless of points on the board, now they complain when they don't give 100% For businessmen they really are terribly short sighted.

A can't blame Eddie for wanting to ride even if it wasnt in the teams best interests, the fact scored nout probably made little difference to him personally as most heat leaders and some second strings seem to be on contracts now that have a downside payment, so even when they score nothing, they are still paid for X amount of points, would Eddie have rode if no points meant no pay bar travelling expenses? I don't think so. Guaranteed points money is one of the worst things to ever happen to our sport.

There is a fine line between putting on a brave face and riding through a bit of pain and riding in no fit state to the point your no use to the team and the fans, it's a selfish attitude.

That's exactly what David's job is, to hold the fort until we can make our own heat leaders. I always recall a quote years ago from when Wembley reopened after the war and there were not a vast amount of riders around, and they wanted to have a really good team so this one guy, might have been Sir Arthur Elvin but I could be completely wrong told another to go out and "make" some good riders. That's what Lakeside I suspect are trying to do, soldier through this season but next year they might have a couple kids ready to really hit the ground running and in the meantime Hunter and Bowtell will only get better and that is hopefully the start of a conveyor belt system. They have the perfect setup their to do that, it's all in the execution as to whether it will be a hit or a miss.

Seeing the clips on YouTube looks like there was some classic races last night