marko

There is rain on the radar but i looks like it will miss, fingers crossed it will. Lakeside vs Poole historically has always been a good fixture, i know at the end of last season when we played them it was one of the best meetings of the season. Slight concern being a Monday the track wont be like normal, hopefully some good racing though, regardless of the rights and wrongs of it, Darcy will be missed.

Looking at the radar they may or may not have had a couple of showers but certainly nothing too bad i would think and its expected to drying up by the evening anyway, the ambient temp at this time of year is still good enough to help any drying if needed.

No different to what has gone on before really, 2014 will forever be known infamously as the season of the guest rider. I doubt much of a crowd for this one, maybe 500 tops and that could be pushing it, Poole twice in five days with no incentive for patrons to make an effort and come out on a sky night is poor in my opinion, especially as Hammers are all but out of the play off picture. If you want to go to watch live then fair play to you, personally i will settle for the sky option Monday and on the Friday watch via bet365 as that meeting will be the only EL match that night so if they are going to steam a meeting it will be that one.

Never been keen on grading but it might be the only way forward, the problems i see are: We will have riders this season with artificially high and low averages from riding either as heat leaders or second strings, some have done a bit of both so how do you calculate what their average should be for next season? is this something that the powers have even gave any consideration to when they had their winter conference in 2013? If you add the rolling averages part then it becomes even more complicated. To grade riders would be a easier as it would be possible to take into account of number factors outside of pure points scoring, it would certainly cut out any thoughts of average manipulation, it would make it very difficult to do at least, even a Tai Woffinden would still be graded as a "A" regardless of his EL form. But the key to grading will be who does it! its no good leaving it to the BSPA, that will just lead to manipulation and arguments, neither of which the sport needs anymore of. If a independent body completely neutral and no links to any club whatsoever were to do the gradings i think it would be fine, once a grade is set there can be no appeal, you like it or lump it.

I doubted Craig Cook but he turned out to be Hammers rider of the night, scored far more than the rider he replaced would ever have done.

Eagles by about 15-16

Cook is a strange choice of guest being that he rode for Edinburgh Friday night so has to spend his whole Saturday travelling. Would not bet on Ellis being there as Ipswich are playing at home tonight. This is likely to be on bet365 as its the only elite league meeting today.

Any news on the future of Iwade? Not been down there for a couple of years but always great fun and Graham and Co were always so very welcoming and helpful, it would be a travesty if this establishment had to close.

Doubling up is a bitter sweet scenario, we all want to see less guest riders and teams to be formed with as many regulars as possible but for the younger brigade the only way they will get better is to ride, there have been British riders in the Elite who choose not to double up and it clearly affected them because they simply were not able to ride enough to maintain race fitness or sharpness. Some sort of squad system might help but even going back to the shared doubling positions would help, so if rider "A" was not available maybe rider "B" would be, either way they are both riders who the fans can align with as their own. Also with the fast track system i would like it to be scaled down to one rider per team who's position would also be shared or maybe go back to the 8 man 18 heat heat format where riders 7 & 8 were always protected but the remainder in the main rode against each other quite equally. The problem with that format though would be it would cost more as you have eight riders to pay out on both in terms of travelling and points money. Regardless of the amount of fixtures, a squad system of some sort really needs to be looked at because currently within the EL you have some riders riding in three or four countries and others who maybe only riding here on a semi regular basis.

Oh don't get me started on proggys! they are nearly all as bad as each other but to use my local track as an example, Lakeside charge £3 for theirs and you get 32 odd pages, my local non league football team produce a proggy that is twice the size and content but only costs £2.50 and their crowds are often less than Lakesides so its not like they are getting revenue elsewhere. Speedway always marks itself up to be needlessly expensive.

So Jon Cook has fallen out with yet another rider! a rider that he choose to bring to Lakeside knowing the full well the issues of having riders of that age and caliber can bring. What an excellent idea, get rid if the only youngster we have that has any real promise! Cook is nothing but an egotistical jerk, its always all about him! the sooner Stuart Douglas wakes up and realize what the guy is doing to his club the better. PLEASE SAVE US STUART

Are the home fans leaving already? is there a fire drill?

Why did Watt come back? because he is selfish! if he does not ride he does not get paid, he came back so he could pick up his minimum guaranteed meeting wage which is no doubt a lot more than the measly points total he managed, never mind costing the club match points, or ripping the fans off, how much longer do we have to put up with this?

is there anyone going to this meeting full stop?

The best thing that can happen to the sport in general is for everyone to stop attending, the promoters work out they can no longer keep their little toy going without the fans and either start listening too them or give it up in which case the fans on mass can club together and run the operation themselves similar to what was done on the Isle of Wright, and what has also been repeated at some clubs in non league football, it does not have to have the top expensive riders, speedway is speedway, credibility and legitimacy is far more important and frankly this is what the sport has had driven out of it by the current crop of idiots who run it, yes i called you idiots, what you going to do? ban me from attending your track? i could not give a watsit, i stopped attending months ago but i am buggered if i am going sit back, keep quiet and let you ruin something i once loved to the point i eat, drank and slept speedway and would drive my car in all weathers in the faintest of hopes i might see some racing. The clubs don't belong to the promoters, they belong to us the fans, and we as fans deserve a whole lot better! Some promoters were indeed once fans themselves or at least claimed to be but they seemed to have forgotten about that and now treat people once their equals with utter contempt. People will say how can this work? well every track has at least 500 really really skin deep hardcore fans, if 500 can donate £100 as a sort of shareholding stake per year then that's 50k a season, surely enough to run something no matter how basic.

If i was sky i would tell the bspa to go F themselves, when you have sorted yourselves out came back to us and we will talk about screening your sport again, this lot as an organisation do NOT deserve their product to be covered nor any financial help as a result.

You really could not make it up could you, r/r and two guests which also mean effectively the same reserve pairing will ride for both Hammers and Eagles, I'm sure Adam and Dan will get to know each other pretty well over the course of the evening.

Great rider but they need to make an example of him and ban him from all racing for the rest of 2014, it won't affect Poole because i am sure they could get KK or Holder back in his place.

just said on bet365 its off, they should have gone to Lakeside instead

Oh sorry mate you too late, Matt Ford has already taken the precaution of signing him up in case the thing with Benji Compton does not work out

Well if Lakeside did complain about the strength of the Aces side which I don't think is the case they would not have much of a leg to stand on having already been prepared to throw certain away fixtures under the bus themselves. Three guests is pretty par for the course this season which is the main reason crowds are down and not because one club is playing hot potatoe with one of their fast track positions. Well if Lakeside did complain about the strength of the Aces side which I don't think is the case they would not have much of a leg to stand on having already been prepared to throw certain away fixtures under the bus themselves. Three guests is pretty par for the course this season which is the main reason crowds are down and not because one club is playing hot potatoe with one of their fast track positions.

The telling thing is the only people who stick up for Davey Watt are Poole fans who are clever enough to know he is worth more to them as an away rider than riding for the Pirates themselves. Even the most partisan Hammers fans are now starting to see through this whole charade.

The whole thing about riders now being paid regardless of what they score completely undermines any past arguments of if riders do not score they don't get paid, if PK was on a large fixed wage then you can bet Watt is too. On your second point yes a lot of fans have never even sat on a bike, i have raced speedway bikes a few years ago in the amateur scene and still own two bikes not that it matters because some team managers have never been on any motorbike yet alone a speedway bike but still hold their position. If this was football which it clearly is not, there might even be accusations of match fixing flying around.

Agree most strongly enough is enough, fed up with him taking the p**s out of the fans, if we let Pk go then Watt should be shown equal treatment.

If Watt scores less than eight tonight from five rides he should be sacked with immediate effect because if he won't do it now he sure as wont when it really counts.