tocha

About as poor as he has ever been. In all honesty, Scott emerged as a good rider from early on. He did all the right things, winning the British Under-21 Championship twice and then transferred to Poole whereapon he became a competent rider at heat leader status. In 2001 he returned to Ipswich and, after a quiet start, hit a rich vein of form with a string of maximums in the EL and, in all honesty, looked just about unbeatable. A collar bone injury interrupted his progress but he still went on to finishing 2nd in the EL averages behind Jason Crump then runner up to the same rider in the ELR Championship having led for much of the final race. He qualified for the SGP series in 2002 but had a fairly modest series apart form almost snatching victory in the Australian round, then qualified by right in 2003. Since then he has, by and large, gone backwards on the World stage. If his form doesn't pick up, there are two questions. Will he be given yet another wild card and will Rob Lyon be brave enough to drop him from the first SWC round at Peterborough?

After Bridger & Co have finished patting themselves on the back following yesterday's meeting at Purfleet they might reflect upon what progress they have to make to come up to this standard.

You mean tony(arthur mullard) millard, yes. At a very early stage he was beginning to croak and for a moment I thought he was going to be replaced but, no such luck!

I know. Who was this rider Nicky Peedersen?

No surprise that Scott has been selected but Bomber is there at the behest of Sky even though his performance this time was not good enough to deserve a place. However he may not have been one of their first choices. Maybe Chris Holder was offered a place but declined. Has has already admitted earlier this season that he is not ready yet, and as far as Bjarne is concerned I believe he has said that he wouldn't want to come back next year unless he qualified.

I believe it is absolutely certain that Scott will be given a wildcard. However he may be the only Brit in the series next year. With Chris Harris finishing a lowly 13th it would be awkward to nominate him without offering a place to Lindgren, or, even Bjarne or PUK who both finished the series above him. Additionally they are going to want a couple of riders from other parts of Europe to come into the mix, Safuitdinov, Pavlic or a second chance to Zagar. Overall I do not think that any rider should be offered consecutive wildcards and those selections should be on the condition that they participate in the qualifying series to earn a place for the following year.

Do you happen to know that he is not ill or are you merely auditioning for the part of Jim in 'The Royle Family' should Ricky Tomlinson stand down. On a more serious note I enjoyed tonight's final, despite the wind and rain, and was particularly impressed by Rory and the new guy, David Stachyra. Should be a good signing for Ipswich next season. Well done, Scot - you deserve a bit of luck - and bad luck to Rory in packing up when in a leading position.

I'm surprised that Robert and Daniel are riding in this event as I thought they would have been competing for the Cobras in the CL Fours today. Still there must be a reason I suppose.

And Leigh Lanham I expect.

No only has Kauko done the Comets proud but Lakeside as well.

Getting back to the subject, what was the ref's original thinking regarding heat two, in which, AJ was excluded. Scott went down after contact and, as far as I called see, our ref brought the race to a halt only after the remaining three riders were about to start their second laps. If he thought that AJ was at fault why didn't he put on the red lights as they entered the back straight and would he have stopped the race if Scott had removed his bike from the track in time?

Following your post I booked tickets via the ticket hotline last Monday and was informed that they would be put in the post the same day. I have just returned home from a week's holiday to find a letter stating that due to circumstances beyond their control they will not be available until the day of event from 19.30 hours onwards - that's when it starts! They provide a tel. no. to phone but so far I have been 'greeted' by a message stating no-one is available whereapon the call is terminated. Anybody else had a similar communication?

I think Scott must have some guy who used to have some input into the tuning of the Reliant Robin.

Chris Holder has, twice, at least. He rode as a guest for Tai Woffinden when Rye House were the visitors early on last season. Scored a maximum as far as I can remember

Had a reply now confirming tickets will be on sale at turnstiles and plenty of spectator capacity.

To try and settle this I have emailed the stadium office today asking that they confirm that there will be tickets available on the day and an idea of spectator capacity. I'll post details when I get a reply.

Brandon would have been an ideal choice but I think the idea is that no-one would have home track advantage.

I have just phoned the ticket hotline to discover all tickets for this event have been sold. However I don't know if it is just their allocation meaning there may be tickets for sale at the turnstyles. Are you sure about the capacity. I remember reading about the turn-out for their very first meeting in 2007 'Alan Hunt Memorial Trophy' It mentioned a bumper crowd of 6000+.

And so it goes on. Now that Peterborough have signed Ryan Sullivan it seems inevitable that Rory will line up for Ipswich. He will also be back at reserve now that Piotr (pronounced PETER) Swiderski is injured and unlikely to be fit in time. Depending upon Ryan's assessed average Peterborough could have two riders in the main event provided it is higher than Mads Korneliussen and if Chris Harris' average remains at the 2007 figure having not completed 6h 6a as at 1st August But if it is his current average, 3h 3a. he will join Rory at reserve.

As far as I can recall, Scott has only twice qualified on merit, once after the 2003 series and last year after he brought down Harris in the race-off and finishing behind Holta. I am afraid to say that Scott has been worst performer of any GP rider who has been in the GP series over a period of years (2002 to 2008) to date. Only dear old Andy Smith did worse but, even he qualified by right each year during the time he competed.

No, not according to the Sky Sports magazine for August.

If Rory goes to Peterborough he will remain at reserve.

I suppose that Hans will represent Coventry assuming the criteria surrounding his signing have been sorted out in time. In that case Kenneth Bjerre will now be Peterborough's representative which means another rider will have to be dropped to reserve to accomodate him but who? At present it appears that each club has one rider in the final then another seven added plus two reserves but no club can have more than two. On this basis one of the reserves will be Daniel King. Who the second will be depends on whether the qualifying average is 6h 6a or 3h 3a. If it is the former Chris Harris' final average for 2007 (7.98) will keep him in the top 16 with Mads Korneliussen relegated to reserve. If it is his current average (7.10), however, Hans will be Coventry's sole rider in the main event with Harris at reserve. Schlein loses his place at reserve even if he goes to Ipswich as they already have two representatives on a higher average.

I think they must have. Rye House top 4 comes out as 29.48 whilst Scunthorpe are only 27.01.

In other words 12.00 to 1400 BST.