manchesterpaul

OMG! i wasn't aware i was under interrogation - Spanish inquisition style It wasn't me who decreed Speedway follow other sports in their Americanization. I admit to nothing......i done nothing! Only thing i would admit to is i love sport being undertaken in sporting ways when it comes to awarding the season long efforts of a champion team. Have the play-offs as a separate end of season trophy for the top teams, but please don't call the winners of it the LEAGUE champions. They are more a knock-out cup winner. Be a good chap and make those involved in organizing the sport 'admit' not me lol.

Excellent point regarding the non-effect on quality and of determining a true World Champion each season. Unfortunately in this day and age every sport engineers their competitions and leagues so as to ensure that the stars and star teams don't get knocked out, and also that there is local representation in events. You see how even at the height of international Football continental championship games are played out in sparsely populated stadiums when there is no local representation. Speedway, and many other sports, can't afford to stage meetings and tournaments without local involvement if they wish to make them pay. Practically every sport in the world has followed the truly awful American idea of play-offs to decide champions. Ok it brings in the fans for those specific meetings but devalues the whole of the preceding season. By all means have a big money post regular season event with a play-off format. However, let's make sure that those who top the league after a long arduous season and prove themselves not mere one or two meeting wonders are crowned the LEAGUE Champions and receive a trophy. The play-off matches can be a separate competition to qualify for in it's own right.

Barrow Boy i so hate to pour cold water on or criticize something when someone has gone to an effort of presenting information for others. But the plus/minus system can be awfully misleading, and in the way it's presented above quite disinformative. Even if you had shown the matches ridden, and also importantly the varying number of home and away fixtures for each team, without extrapolating the stats to an equal measurement for all teams it tells you very little at all. Furthermore, even with the matches listed including home and away that system still leaves one having to do mental arithmetic for each and every team instead of being to glance at the standings. Your table is laid out as only needing a glance but it's misleading in it's rankings. Rather than prattle away here* have a glance at the example of the different systems in the sticky for the MiniMax tables and see how it's 'projected points' feature lays the others to waste lol. *Ok now i about to prattle away here anyway lol.... Certainly at the moment the plus/minus system isn't portraying Stoke still holding on to a larger gap between themselves and the others which they have had for a little while now in the MiniMax projected points. Being sixth in the traditional tables and a mere two points ahead in the plus/minus does not accurately portray their good form up to the present date. I'm referring to actual results and points gained, irrespective of whether their season ends with them up at the top reaches of the league or not. Bad run of form, harder fixtures, whatever lies ahead, the fact is they have done very well indeed so far. Point being......better than the traditional table or plus/minus shows. Also, i don't think King's Lynn should be deemed to be equal with the Isle of Wight and Newport on their performances so far. As detailed elsewhere the MiniMax's projected points, like plus/minus, isn't going in for predictions. But it does extrapolate the actual results so far and if the other two teams have a big boost in their form it will duly reflect it as they go along. However on the season up to now the standings of the three teams are NOT equal as the plus/minus indicates they are. As an example compare the MiniMax system which currently has a gap between King's Lynn and the Isle of Wight when the plus/minus has them equal. The MiniMax is reflecting the facts from the teams actual performances so far such as, Isle of Wight have around only 58% of their home points in the bag and gained only 4% of available away points. King's Lynn's away form isn't much better but IOW's average match score of losing 36-56 would seem to indicate they aren't going to be improving ther plus/minus rating much at all. King's Lynn's home form is much better at the moment too. Maybe that's why they absolutely hammered the Isle of Wight at home the other week 61-31 and narrowly lost by a mere two points away to them. Neither result too indicative of equal teams. Of course there will be shock results during the season for many reasons be it due to weather, injuries on the night or just sheer bad luck for a team. However, enough matches have passed by now to balance such things out and any system should be able to reflect a bit more accurately on standings than the plus/minus one seems too right now. Then again in a league of so few matches any angle can be hard to get a grasp of and lot's can change. But, if King's Lynn have a run of bad form and the other two teams have a good run the MiniMax system will reflect that match by match and at all times you'll only ever need a quick glance to take in the standings, no multiple acts of mental arithmetic needed. Anyways, take absolutely zero notice of me lol lol. Have a nice day etc.

I've said it before and i'll say it again in big bold letters WHAT A SPORT! Been excellent entertainment once again. Take care all and have a good evening/day.

I was going to preempt my comment by asking if it was likely injury related.

Lol you and your picnic tables. I'm wondering now if i should ask Belle Vue to include them in their new stadium design.

What an unexpected turnaround from mid-meeting and exciting end coming up.

Why did Larsson come in for Pavlic?

Heat 12 was very nice from the meeting scoreline angle. I thought it might have been too much to hope for pre-race even though it was a surefire 5-1 line-up! Talking of surefire 5-1's looks like a potential one in the opposite direction next heat. Unless Ruud can take a reserve ride?.

I'm not getting involved in the 'Harrisgate' discussions lol. I'm fine thank you and trust you are too. Nice too have the speedway live again. Great too see a good crowd in attendance once again. Also glad the racing has been good as i feared the worst with the fixture possibly likely to be a runaway win, and the first tv shots showing a wet track.

Been some good racing but Jonsson's Heat 10 win was superb riding. Oooops got ougated by Brandonbee on that comment lol

Yeah i mentioned it towards the start of the meeting. I still reckon that they overprice the tickets. Although, obviously across the world sporting events have suffered massively from a drop in attendances for even the major sports and events.

Talking of which, Emil seems to be putting the same physical effort and agression as the previous years but doesn't seem to be able to power past once he has engineered an opening for himself as frequently this year.

Pity about the previous 55 losses at those odds of 22/1 though Joking!

In what way do you find him bland??? If we're talking personalities, well whatever! lol, only i usually leave that sort of discussion to my little sister and her girly friends. Being a bloke i prefer to use a speedway forum for racing talk. I sincerely hope the GP isn't in the bag now. A 22 point lead averages out to under 5 points a meeting to overhaul with five meetings left. So presuming you are indeed talking of racing......whilst i respect Greg Hancock for his performances at his age, which i never saw coming this season at all, i would have thought Andreas Jonsson is the more exciting racer??? Maybe i'm wrong in thinking this and correct me by all means, but even allowing for recent races in the last few meetings i always thought that Jonsson is far more willing to race aggressively regards overtaking attempts than Hancock is?

Lol perfect description. I so used to smack my tv screen when kids on Tiswas did that, plus i was only about 9 months old when it was on lol. Mind you, it's better to have someone smiling than a miserable fizzog on show to the world. I do strongly cheer Holder on as a rider though. He's definitely an all time favourite on that score.

Chris Harris some 20 points out of the top 8 now eeeek! Was a fairly enjoyable GP in one way or another and as with most speedway meetings the racing improved dramatically on the early heats.

Presumably because of what i mentioned.....nobody ever turned up to watch lol. Wow and Hampel out too now

With Emil yet another one of the chasing bunch falling by the wayside, i bet Greg is glad he didn't pack up his bags and head home after his one point return from his first two races.

Wow! i'll check the link later. Although i suppose to get 15,000 in we'd need around 14,900 non-norwegians to attend! lol

This GP will have one of or the lowest attendance of the series. According to the official site it holds 4,000 spectators and i see a fair few gaps in the seats. I'll check the link later but is Oslo another super-low capacity? I, know the indoor one that ended one or two of the series in the past was pitiful attendance wise.

Zagar's hand gesture was funny but so was Pedersen yanking Zagar's cut-out out as the tv close-up showed.

lol.....and thanks for the thanks, yourself and all are welcome. Wondered why you hadn't popped up yet. Although, if old man Greg Hancock can lead the GP standings, i knew you'd eventually make it to the forums. Let's hope we get a good GP.

OK put them online so AVAILABLE as of NOW! You can directly download them from the top of the following page. MiniMax Racecard 2011 Italian Grand Prix Basic Version MiniMax Racecard 2011 Italian Grand Prix I could have had these ready much earlier if the official website could only figure out the time! I went to the draw page at 12:50 BST and, as yesterday, it had emblazoned at the top of the draw sheet "Draw Live at 1:00pm BST".......needless to say the draw was already done and dusted, presumably an hour earlier?

Thank you indeed. Good news too, not only have they done a successful installation but they arrived early lol. So all systems go cards available as per usual tomorrow.