Fourentee

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.

Just for info, Star Lady, I'm not playing 'good cop, bad cop' here with BWitcher!

Sure, no problem. In his Wolves days some of his team riding can be quite below the radar in the way he controlled the first/second bend to usher a teammate through or block a rival's run.

FWIW I can recall plenty of team riding examples at Wolves, including one (failed) attempt to nurture Joe Haines round against Chris Harris (if memory serves). It was put to him afterwards that he could have cleared off and left Haines to his fate and he replied: "But I'm the captain."

Welcome to my world.

All the easier to take a week off and recharge.

You wouldn't regard his willingness to ride for Team GB as being supportive of British speedway?

Any particular reason for that? Just the merest hint of a contradiction on the old internal logic front, is there not?

Me neither. And this isn't one of them.

Can I not just tease Steve a bit without you going all factual on me?

Au contraire, the young Briton Bates elevated out of the reserve berths points to the system's success!

Steve, given that they currently have five Britons in the side (of varying ages, admittedly), that's perhaps a path down which you should not stroll.

How many, then, and of that number how many potential finalists?

Tai was on the British Final rostrum at Swindon and Poole when still in his teens and as has been pointed out numerous times -- and by numerous people -- has never been dominant at Monmore. Would you care to name these "several riders" who feel "cheated"?

Too obvious. Try harder.

You really struggle with this answering a question thing, don't you?

Presumably if he hadn't beaten them you would have posted more quickly...

Just to bring a little clarity here, Robert72, do you regard your proposed team (whichever one you're settling on for the moment) without Woffinden as "far better" from the standpoint of: Not in the British final then shouldn't have World Cup place; or: Will score more points?

Not arguing with that, but in the long term (if one can debate in such terms given the current worries over Coventry) Woryna could be something hot for the Bees. I quite accept that the focus of Coventry fans is naturally a lot shorter than that this season.

Once more in English?

True enough. The other joke is allowing them to build inflated averages which catapult them into a heat leader role for which they are wholly unprepared, thus undoing at a stroke any previously established gains in confidence. A poster on another thread, apologies for forgetting his/her name, suggested that such riders should be pegged at second string berths for now, a suggestion which seems IMHO to have merit although not without its own complications.

Yep, daft system, but hardly the fault of (as it happens 46-year-old) Karlsson.

Which format would you use for Team A v Team B when one side's reserve has moved up and the other's hasn't? Could be interesting!

Bjarne Pedersen? Sorry, just teasing.

Yeah, should have told Howarth to ride more slowly.