Fourentee

And more ads would drive greater pagination with consequent extra editorial, of course. Will be interesting to see how they fare. Back in the 80s, the general Sportsweek magazine was well-received, with good features and some superb photography. Not sufficiently well-received to survive, alas!

Exactly. It's like the old rule of thumb for buying clothes: £1 per wear. If you spend £200 on a jacket (not that I ever do), love it and wear it incessantly then it's good value. Likewise with the £2 T-shirt you stick on when painting the house and only put on a few times. I've bought my share of duff games (usually speculative cheap purchases in charity shops) but have had many, many hours of pleasure from the ones I like. Perhaps we need a BSPA rule: "In the event of a rain-off, the referee will produce his official copy of MCS and invite the two captains to step forward..." Actually not as daft as some of the rules already in there...

In pure economic terms, I suppose the answer to that would be the cost involved in research and development. For a regular games player (and I'm assuming you wouldn't count yourself in that group) it's the concept and the gameplay. My personal favourite card games -- Battleline, Condottiere, Red November, Caesar and Cleopatra -- are all in the £15-20 group. There's certainly not much to them in terms of equipment, but they're the ones with depth of gameplay that draws me back again and again. I'd cheerfully part with the £18 if MCS proves to be in their league, though I accept that in a speedway forum I would be in the minority. Edit: As MCS said that Arcana (not a game with which I'm familiar) is produced by the same manufacturer, I followed the link. The manufacturer turns out to be Fantasy Flight Games, whose reputation is first-rate; they are particularly strong in the card game area. For what it's worth, two of the four favourite games I listed are from their stable.

Without any details of how the game plays, it's hard to assess. I'm assuming it to be a light strategy/hand management mechanic, so I don't think the Top Trumps comparison is really valid. Production values look good. I think the major problem will be falling between two markets. Board/card players would certainly part with £18 for the right game (it's not a cheap market) but are hardly likely to be attracted by a speedway theme. Speedway fans, I suspect, will just think the price is too high. MCS, is it possible to give a brief rundown on how it works?

Closer. http://www.abc.org.uk/Products-Services/Product-Page/?tid=20871

A good publication, IMHO, but for the record your figure is way too high.

Oh no he wasn't...

Well, one post was quoted by another poster so obviously becomes visible. And, equally, the last post on a topic at any given time will show up from the forum list regardless of ignore preferences.

I did wonder if someone might be tempted!

Copy received and enjoyed, many thanks.

I rather suspect that you are due a whooosh here, my friend.

Very pointy elbows in the first turn, mind.

I've always regarded the 'old man' comments as admiring rather than otherwise. 'The old man continues to show the youngsters' -- that kind of thing. Tremendous rider and top bloke. Great deadpan sense of humour, too, topped off with that Sweden-meets-Gornal accent.

He's been called worse.

Thanks very much. Fair play, your spelling has improved.

If you were a Lakeside fan, they'd just be worried full stop.

No chance, I've gone back to five-a-side football on Mondays!

Oi, less of the 'we'!

Fair observation, IMHO, and I take your point on Wells. In passing, I don't think 'comfortable' is a word you could ever associate with such a self-critical rider as Proctor. Perhaps 'settled' might fit the bill?

Yeeeeesssss, kind of. But when the average has been artificially inflated, as is the case when the starting team figure from the previous season is lower than the natural 42pt line, then of course it requires a better performance to achieve parity. And, of course, all the other teams could make the same claim about making the play-offs just by riders maintaining their average. However, I should probably leave this one to the mathematicians out there.

Good point, well made. Or it would have been were this February 2012 when Proctor had indeed maintained his average of a smidgeon over five for two successive seasons. Last year it went up to over five and a half in one of the club's few success stories for the campaign. That may or may not be as far as he gets. He could certainly do with pushing on. But I don't understand this current criticism of Proctor for failing to improve thus far. Wolves' problems last year lay elsewhere.

That would be a Wolf cub, then? Just for the record Billy Hamill was, of course, a heat leader loan signing.

Freddie Lindgren gives his views on the forthcoming season in this video interview today: http://www.expressan...on-testimonial/

Bit of a hint on more riders to be announced soon, says Fred in this video interview today: http://www.expressandstar.com/picture-galleries/news-video/2013/02/06/wolves-speedway-star-freddie-lindgren-on-testimonial/

Workington fan in exile near Wolverhampton, so Monmore more often than not.