Fourentee

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?

More freeloading jam eaters! Edit: Little West Cumbrian in joke there, apologies to anyone puzzled.

I would have thought the declared line-up would have to stay, but stand to be corrected by those with more rule book knowledge. Masters was at Belle Vue.

He must have ridden in it some time, surely? Wasn't he in the one at Leicester a couple of years ago when world champion? And certainly the 2010 at Rye House. And the first one at Sheffield? Presumably you've mentioned these somewhere in the thread.

I think basically it has to be up to the individual clubs and I wouldn't criticise them either way. I don't think it desirable or practical to give free entry to anyone who ever threw a leg over a machine and once you arrive at that stance, where can you possibly draw the line? Club legend? Stalwart? One solid season? Fan favourite? It would be a wisdom of Solomon call. Going back a year or two at Wolves, I was amused to see a visiting couple from abroad head for the pits during the open session before a match and make a bee line to their hero for an autograph and a chat, which he conducted very graciously and with evident pleasure. But that's (machine examiner) Alan Grahame for you.

Yep, would surely be the fairest way to leave things as they are.

I once picked up Billy Hamill at an airport and drove him to an Elite League meeting where he was refused admission at the car park gate, having forgotten his rider pass. He was allowed in as a 'plus one' on my press pass. Just as well, given he was riding in the match...

Good luck with that. Oxford was one of my favourite circuits to visit. Hope it goes well. On a small point of order you appear to have mistaken the circulation figure by a factor of five. http://www.abc.org.uk/Products-Services/Product-Page/?tid=20917 See above!

I'll settle for the British one on the front of his race jacket.

Mercifully for Great Britain's prospects, Mr Rossiter is unlikely to see things the same way.

Well, maybe, maybe not. The final race in the British championships has been littered with crashes and reruns, some to Tai's benefit and others not. I wouldn't have regarded it as a foregone conclusion.

Well, that's 53 pages of our lives we'll never get back...

The format should help. Garrity is not one of those riders you would imagine stringing five consistent rides together to win an old-style individual. But if he makes it to the semis -- and I rather think he will -- then it is, in effect, two one-off rides. And then....? In passing, going back a few years I used to have much the same view of Lewis Bridger in this kind of competition.