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Being thats it's free we can't complain really but with bet365 there can be problems, namely- Belle Vue you can't hear the announcer Poole the camera position is poor Kings Lynn and Leicester, reception is so poor the stream is often unwatchable

Won't be the last time Agent Watt makes an appearance this season, still I expect he was on a fixed priced wage as a guest tonight so no skin off his nose.

Agent Watt will ensure Eagles win in order to make sure Hammers make the play offs so he can be Agent Watt all over again and help smooth Pirates path to the final.

They may have saved money on one hand but if they are now having to supplement the highest earning riders of the team then it will be for nothing. Once again i have no problem with any rider earning a living from speedway but once you go down the route of paying riders regardless of what they score that is a very dangerous road as they will want it the following seasons regardless of the format and use it as a bargaining tool, not too mention it will affect the racing as why should a rider put himself at anymore risk trying to get 1st when he will get paid anyway. Riders should be paid to score, not paid to simply poodle around at the back then give up after three laps. In defense of the top riders though i don't know if they are paid extra for tac rides, if they are not they should be, if you get six points you should be paid it, i am also an advocate of the old tac sub system which rewarded heat leaders for winning extra races, again no problem with that, it was money earned, if you score a hat full you deserve to be well paid.

And that is the big problem! next time you see a genuine heat leader have a poor meeting no one will truly know whether its just a bad night or whether the guy has turned up and simply could not be bothered to put himself out because he knows he will get paid a set amount anyway. One thing which has always gone against the theory of average manipulation etc is the fact that if a rider does not score, he does not earn, this potentially blows that out of the water and next time a Davey Watt or a Bjarne Pedersen fails to do well against the Pirates it will just be more ammo for those like me who label those riders with the "Agent" tag You can see this is open to so much abuse by riders and promoters and once again it will be the fans who suffer.

Something which has been on my mind for a few weeks now is the issue of the Elite League's viability. This is my case, Peter Karlsson was dropped from Lakeside because of financial reasons! not because he was not scoring any points! I could understand the latter but a rider who does not score points surely is not costing the club more money, Unless they are being paid huge amounts of start money! Woffy is struggling, riders like Batchelor have had a few meetings where they don't really seem interested and only score three or four points, Bomber last night guests at Leicester knowing full well if he don't gate his earning power will be heavily restricted, he scores two points and on paper probably came away with barely enough to cover his costs. With the new format i would be expecting some riders to be complaining about how they can't earn enough money whilst their second string team mates are raking it in, but we have not heard anything. The top riders are entitled to good pay but if the sport is now paying them huge amounts of start money so it no longer matters if they don't score on the track we are in even more deep stuff than we thought. Am i putting 2 and 2 together and making 5? you tell me?

As cunning as Matt Ford maybe is, he cant control the weather, speaking of which going by the large amount of rain this evening covering most of the country even if it had not rained this afternoon i doubt this match would have been able to start yet alone get ten heats through, the BBC were not wrong, rain, rain and more rain is the story of the day.

As i said earlier this morning, the weather was always going to be the winner, hence the weather warnings issued!

To be fair its probably nothing to do with the speedway promotion but the printers, i know Lakeside have had a lot of problems in the past with printing errors in the program which has been outside their control. Blimey, i have just stuck up for promoters, i better go and have a lay down!

Only going to be one winner here and that is the weather, an official weather warning has been issued for potentially heavy thunderstorms with risk of local flooding. Big rain system already moving up from the south, with more to follow i expect.

Lakeside do have priority over the services of Ellis but they have told him "don't worry about turning up for this one, we are missing Kim so don't stand a chance of getting a point anyway" Never mind about what effect it might have on another promoters business, should not be surprised really, they often treat their own fans with contempt so they are not likely to hesitate doing it to fans of other clubs.

Why you say that GRW? last time Hammers were supposed to ride at the NA they showed no interest in battling for every point, they were prepared to give Ellis the night off and replace a heat leader with a junior, its more or less the same thing they are doing this week.

Naturally this will be seen as anti Leicester but their bloke is pretty bad, i will also say though one of my pet hates any presenter who talks over races or the finish of races, Let the riders do the talking on the track then you can chat about it afterwards, by talking over the action you are taking some of the attention away from the riders and its them people pay to see, no one goes to hear a presenter talk! On the flip side can only agree with others regarding Kevin Long, very charismatic and intelligent and another worth a mention is Craig Saul, some complain he speaks to fast but i never have a problem hearing what he says.

Well you say that Steve but Kim was brought back in to the team because of his form in Sweden, so it has to work both ways.

Pathetic performance so far tonight from Mr Watt for his Smederna team, replaced already in his third ride having been off the pace in his opening two and giving up! Would expect them to drop him shortly if they make the Swedish play offs. Not expecting anything from him at Swindon nor at home to Poole on Friday when he will be back in full Agent mode i suspect. Bit like the meeting at Kings Lynn which got rained off, you can tell once again Lakeside are throwing this one under the proverbial bus.

Sad to see how PK is riding at the moment, i thought the other week when he was on fire in Sweden he must have cracked it and it would be business as normal again but yet that now seems a blip. I dare say confidence is an issue but i also can't help feel that skill on a bike counts for so little now because it seems if you don't have a good engine or set up you will not score any points no matter how hard you try or how clever you ride. Another reason for having standardized bikes, then you will see who the best riders are.

Indeed, how some can compare Pk to the likes of Agent Watt i do not know. I will say this though, Peter will score more at home against the Pirates tonight than Davey will score at home to them on Friday for Lakeside!

Leicester could and should be a better track but its not all down to the size and shape of it, the modern day bikes do have to take a certain proportion of the blame for the standard not only at BP but at every other track too because i have seen a lot of EL meetings this season one way or another and the racing is generally as poor as its ever been and no track is exempt. The modern day laydowns are a lot more forgiving to ride due to a lower center of gravity but they have no ability to handle anything other than a moderately slick surface, we all see what the effect is when riders try and blast around the boards in deeper shale, the bike can't handle it and they end up in the air fence! Back in the 80's apart from the very biggest tracks you could not simply ring its neck and hang on like you can now even around the smaller tracks, for sure some of the skill element of riding has gone.

I am sure there was more to PK being dropped by Lakeside than meets the eye, after all they cited it was for financial reasons yet even if Peter was on great money he was not scoring points so therefore it stands to reason he was not costing as much.

Good move by Wolves who need to sort their home form out as that is where the fans see them the most and have certain expectations. Shame for Ricky, i think he is a good rider but with the FTR system clubs are so tied down on what they can do to make themselves stronger.

Stadiums are rubbish but if we were honest with ourselves we would stand knee deep in mud if the racing was really that good, fact is the product has gone down hill through bike design changing and poor track preparation as well as other things. What the sport needs is to be a better spectacle and to have some credibility about it by doing away with the silly rules and formats that promote unfairness and manipulation.

Track was not great but scoreline kept things more than interesting, i think it was probably the hot weather on the day baking the track plus with practice earlier it would have been near impossible to work a track you would normally see, it can only take so much punishment plus you keep on top of the watering whilst practice is on. Never expected Australia to come third although i did find it amusing because they are such bad losers and we always seem to take extra pride as a nation when getting one over them. Keep tactical sub but lose the joker, you don't need both especially with teams of only four riders and it should also be for when your eight behind the leaders not six.

Leigh Adams & Josh Larsen 1993 for Arena Essex, those two were paired together at least three times a night under the 18 heat format and team rode to countless maximum 5-1's that season, best pairing i have ever seen in a Hammers race jacket from 1988 to present.

All i am saying is a little bit of common sense would not have gone amiss, its a one off event and you want to encourage people to come and watch, the pricing structure should be realistic, i have researched what other clubs charge and if you add in the standard £3 for a program that would make it the most expensive entry cost for a meeting of this standard and in some cases it would be up to £3 more than what other NL clubs charge all in and this is only a challenge match! I know they have costs to cover etc and i am sure this will be well attended and good luck to them but i can't help feel they are taking the loyal fans for granted a little by charging what they are. If you feel its a fair price then fair play to you, we all have the freedom to choose how we spend our money.

So not content with already being the joint most expensive Elite League track to attend (adult with program) they have now set their stool out to be the most expensive National League track in the country and this is not even a proper official fixture, just a challenge match. Even more so unjustified when so many of the support likely to be attracted to this meeting will be South of the river and therefore having to pay toll charges before they even get in the stadium.