Fourentee

Having just watched the footage, tremendous ride from Clegg. As an aside, that was a cunning old dog corner from Karlsson to stop Fricke coming back round him.

Money aside, I agree. The legacy of the history books calls. It's clearly a tough ask to get up to the Mauger/Rickardsson half-dozen, but obviously Tai has two in the bag already and looks a genuine contender, at worst, for a third this year. And at 25, injury and willingness permitting, time is on his side. Fingers crossed.

I take the point, but if the thrust of the argument for some posters is that the importance/PR success of the event is diminished by the absence of certain riders, then presumably it makes sense to do what one can, within reason, to give those riders the chance to appear. As to the second issue, all riders have the opportunity to earn abroad or in GPs. Not all have the ability to do so. And, yes, before anyone points it out, Woffinden had the benefit of wildcard selections initially but that is surely more of an indictment of the level of British talent.

Perhaps not everyone is in agreement with your opinion that Tai decided in the winter not to ride the final.

What, in Manchester?!

Bit of a two-edged sword there, Rob me old mate!

He is a Wolves asset (and speedway's asset system is, to apply a clunky metaphor, a whole different ball game), but as per the posts of waihekeaces1 and Danny Smith is not currently contracted to ride for them or any EL club. Danny, as to your answer on the second point, I'd be by no means sure that the authorities could compel anyone to ride with any confidence that their actions could survive a legal challenge, despite the actions of other federations.

I'd be the last one to ask but I would have thought an AI system could work well there. But I suspect, as per the running theme through this thread, that cost vs market would be the issue.

Wozniak has signed for both a Polish club and a British one. His Polish club have evidently pulled rank. Woffinden has not signed for a British club, despite your proclaimed willingness to force him to do so. There is, therefore, no relevance in your comparison. Tai is doing what's best for British speedway, winning world championships and leading his country's team with great distinction. I'm not aware of any regulation which states that a rider must take part in the country's domestic championship. Such a statute, particularly one with an implied or explicit threat to withdraw a competition licence, would surely have no chance of being stood up in a court of law. It has long been evident from the thrust of your argument, if I can distinguish it by such a term, that the rule of law would hold little sway under your doubtless benign dictatorship. What a bitter pill that must be.

Not the same, of course, and no solo variant as far as I know, but MCS is an excellent speedway card game for two or four players. There's a video run through here. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/139728/mcs Edit: The highly-rated football card game Hat-Trick is from the same stable.

You're still struggling with the whole concept of contracts, are you not? You cannot force a rider to return to Britain and sign a contract with a club, despite your expressed wishes to the contrary. Similarly, once a rider has put his name on the dotted line, then the contractual obligations contained therein are in force. You've ridden for clubs; you must have signed, presumably, and been aware that you had to turn up as required at the allotted time. Is it really so difficult to understand?

I frequently go off with some kind of internal combustion at Gavan's posts but IMHO that's a very fair analysis of the situation even if one disagrees with the conclusions.

There isn't one. robert72 has already admitted on post 783 "I can't see Tai being dropped". He will, however, continue to reiterate ad infinitum, ad nauseum, that he should be. Attempts have been made (on both sides) to instigate debate but, hey, robert72 has ridden several matches at some kind of competitive level (and, genuinely, well done to him for so doing) which appear, in his mind, to lend his utterances some kind of Delphic certainty before which we mere mortals must bow the knee. For me, FWIW, scheduling the semis close to the GPs was a pretty daft move. Had Tai been seeded to the final (and I don't know whether any discussions took place along those lines and, if so, any of the detail) then I believe it would have been a fine gesture on his part to ride. Equally, I don't blame him for not doing so with a bigger goal in mind. It would be remiss of me at this point not to offer congratulations to Danny King, a fine rider and one I personally have never seen approach the job in hand with anything less than total enthusiasm and professionalism. A night of nights for him. And now on to the next 59 pages, for which I'm probably as much to blame as anyone. Edited for grammar.

Merely trying, somewhat against my natural inclination, to be fair. As to your point on hypocrisy, couldn't agree more. And less of the 'tad'.

I merely stated the fact. Posters may draw such conclusions as they see fit...

You've got me worried now and I bet I'm not the only one... Edit: Now I'm worried that by liking the post you're double-bluffing me...

No problem. I knew you'd been on the thread in its 2015 incarnation but suspected you hadn't returned since its new wave of postings this year. Well, it's time they started! Perhaps Robert72 could start a thread on my behalf??!!

Yes please! And surely I qualify on your bracketed criterion also!

The references now appear on my previous post. I mention this only because, certainly on my computer, that post appears on the previous page.

Indeed there was, but not on this thread, which is why you may be unaware of them. Will be back shortly with the references. Edit: They appear on the 'Should Tai Woffinden ride for Team GB' thread. The 'forgotten more about speedway' post is No. 399. Subsequent references to riding career appear in 479, 497, 502, 506, 518 and 525. Second edit: Also 844, 856!

To be fair to Robert72 (not, admittedly, a phrase tripping easily off my keyboard), the original suggestion of £50 for a free pass came from another poster, diamond ernie. Robert72 is an enthusiastic supporter of the idea.

Assuming you meant 'your', there wasn't one, so it doesn't. But I'm not the one claiming to have forgotten more about speedway than others have known and handing down judgements from an Olympian height based on my riding career.

Solid progression year on year, then.

Of course they are. But a forum is also supposed to be a medium for debate. Some posters on both sides of the argument have attempted to engage with that idea. One declares that he has forgotten more about the sport than others know, calls for Woffinden to be 'recalled' to Britain in flagrant violation of the rule of law, decides for himself what the rider's late father would think of the subject and proclaims the result to be fact, demands that he do something for the Ben Fund while conveniently ignoring that he has already ridden in the meeting three times, repeatedly parrots that he is badly advised and in general displays the kind of dogmatic attention to the subject which, in my humble opinion, is already seriously unhealthy and certainly bordering on the obsessive. I thought Gresham's post was, if anything, understated.

He has ridden the Ben Fund meeting three times, has he not? I didn't imagine that? Seriously, did you know that or are you ignoring it because it doesn't fit your narrative?