Glasgow 2018

[Pinny]

4 minutes ago, Gazc said:

Wrong City based in Edinburgh it was easier to get extras through there with minimum make up required.

“Although set in Edinburgh, almost all of the film was shot in Glasgow, apart from the opening scenes, which were shot in Edinburgh, and the final scenes which were shot in London“

[Pinny]

8 minutes ago, Gazc said:

Yes some scenes were shot in Glasgow but is solely based on the Edinburgh drug scene.

To be fair though out and about in Glasgow it is also a major issue there as you say.

Think its a major problem in all UK citys to be honest.

[Gazc]

24 minutes ago, Pinny said:

Think its a major problem in all UK citys to be honest.

It is a scourge on society unfortunately but not enough is being done to remedy it.

[screm]

Bit of a blow to Glasgow on their play off hopes as Craig Cook has crashed in the SGP suffering a suspected broken wrist.

[sparks123]

16 hours ago, screm said:

Bit of a blow to Glasgow on their play off hopes as Craig Cook has crashed in the SGP suffering a suspected broken wrist.

 

16 hours ago, screm said:

Bit of a blow to Glasgow on their play off hopes as Craig Cook has crashed in the SGP suffering a suspected broken wrist.

Thought I saw last night that Craig was hoping to ride on Monday so hopefully not as bad as feared"

[Gazc]

2 minutes ago, sparks123 said:

 

Thought I saw last night that Craig was hoping to ride on Monday so hopefully not as bad as feared"

He can move both his hand and wrist and has good strength in both, but they are waiting on a final diagnosis.

[jenga]

we want to see cookie @ workington in the play offs . superb guy and everyone loves him .

[jenga]

workington pushing for a date wid Glasgow. rumoured to be the weekend of the FP or sooner !  a wee bit of spiel for ya  . (tic)

[Taylorj]

11 minutes ago, jenga said:

workington pushing for a date wid Glasgow. rumoured to be the weekend of the FP or sooner !  a wee bit of spiel for ya  . (tic)

Whats FP jenga ?

[jenga]

 the F in P is the letter that has been pressed that is next to the G.  so should be G.P.  silly fingers . as you can see , its  t.i.c. 

[Gazc]

24 minutes ago, jenga said:

 the F in P is the letter that has been pressed that is next to the G.  so should be G.P.  silly fingers . as you can see , its  t.i.c. 

The last bit in bold should be t.i.t.

Edited September 25, 2018 by Gazc

[jenga]

no , it should be L.F.C. 

[Paulco]

Before we start looking ahead to 2019 as we dont know the league structure or points limit we will be involved with , it's time to look back on what was a generally frustrating 2018 . 

Rightly or wrongly installed as title favourites , things didnt quite go to plan as well as we hoped . The championship shield section looked to be at our mercy after victory at Armadale , but the home thumping by Workington cost us qualification and served notice that we werent as good as we were beginning to think we were . 

We then contrived to throw away a KO Cup tie against Edinburgh which we were in complete control of , while the league campaign had it's ups and downs . Strong enough at home , but generally disappointing away from Ashfield . We did make it into the play offs only to come up just short against our Cumbrian nemesis . 

As for the riders - 

Craig Cook - easily the best rider in the league and a joy to watch . Would even say he's better round Ashfield than Shane Parker in his pomp . 

Chris Harris - much excitement at his signing last winter , but overall he has been a big disappointment . 

Claus Vissing - started the season well , but his form definitely dipped as the season progressed . 

Paul Starke - again started the season well before he got injured in the home meeting against Sheffield at the beginning of May , Took a long time to get over that and his scoring suffered , but he did return to sonething like his old self towards the end of the campaign . 

James Sarjeant - we hoped he would turn out to be the free scoring reserve every title challenger needs , but that never looked like happening . 

Jack Thomas - all riders stepping up from the NL can struggle , but there is definite potential there . 

Nathan Greaves - got injured too soon after signing to be judged fairly .

Ritchie Worrall - been fantastic for us since arriving from Somerset , but this season he just didnt look the same rider . 

Lewis Kerr - the shining light of early season meetings , unfortunate his season was cruelly brought to an early end . 

A season of just coming up short when it mattered , we shall see what 2019 brings . 

[Thischarmingman]

For all of speedway's (many) faults, the one constant positive is that throwing money at riders is no guarantee of success.

Glasgow have proven that once again. There is no rule to say they are not allowed to do that, but a points limit of some sort remains vital to keep a relatively level playing field.

Edited October 16, 2018 by Thischarmingman

[MD]

12 minutes ago, Thischarmingman said:

For all of speedway's (many) faults, the one constant positive is that throwing money at riders is no guarantee of success.

Throwing money at the wrong riders even less so. I dont think the throwing money at riders really applies outside the top two. We allegedly said no to Lunna for this season as he asked for more money to cover his increased flight costs as we were changing race days to Fridays.

The problems for this season were there from day one when the manager chucked it after the first meeting. That unsettled Worrall who went on a woeful run of form, in part at being under constant pressure in 13 & 15 to make up for the shortfall in points from Harris. Lewis Kerr and Vissing thankfully covered our arse in the early meetings but both started to tail off in early June. As well as yielding little points at the top of the team, the same was true at the bottom as Jack Thomas struggled with the big step up from NL and Sarjeant often could have got the same points sitting in the house, particularly at home.

The home thrashing by Workington and unforgiveable defeat to an average Edinburgh in May underlined the fragility of the 1-7, but wasnt a surprise if you attended the home meetings to that point. It was widely speculated we tried to replace Harris in May and June to no avail. He was embarrassing at points, with unreliable machinery and perhaps worst of all, a lack of fight. 

An already poor season got worse when Paul Starke tried to ride through injury in May & June, and Kerr got injured at the end of June. It meant r/r required Sarjeant to take at least two of his rides, and he couldnt even cover his own rides. The team had no chance of making the playoffs until Kerr and Worrall made way for Cook and Nathan Greaves in mid July. Despite only riding 8 meetings Cook had an immediate impact and Harris finally started scoring. It was enough for us to scrape into the playoffs with that holy grail of away wins but ultimately not enough to make the final.

Stewart Dickson wont be there next year so the mental policy of having a stellar top five and whoever will fit for the reserves hopefully cant happen again. Its never worked for us previously. The marquee signing of Harris promised much but delivered little and can only be described a spectacular failure, as Sarjeant too.

Whatever the league structure for 2019, we know what hasnt worked, its time to learn from it and not make those same signing mistakes again. A bit of continuity may also serve us better than another sweep out.

[Paulco]

33 minutes ago, MD said:

Throwing money at the wrong riders even less so. I dont think the throwing money at riders really applies outside the top two. We allegedly said no to Lunna for this season as he asked for more money to cover his increased flight costs as we were changing race days to Fridays.

The problems for this season were there from day one when the manager chucked it after the first meeting. That unsettled Worrall who went on a woeful run of form, in part at being under constant pressure in 13 & 15 to make up for the shortfall in points from Harris. Lewis Kerr and Vissing thankfully covered our arse in the early meetings but both started to tail off in early June. As well as yielding little points at the top of the team, the same was true at the bottom as Jack Thomas struggled with the big step up from NL and Sarjeant often could have got the same points sitting in the house, particularly at home.

The home thrashing by Workington and unforgiveable defeat to an average Edinburgh in May underlined the fragility of the 1-7, but wasnt a surprise if you attended the home meetings to that point. It was widely speculated we tried to replace Harris in May and June to no avail. He was embarrassing at points, with unreliable machinery and perhaps worst of all, a lack of fight. 

An already poor season got worse when Paul Starke tried to ride through injury in May & June, and Kerr got injured at the end of June. It meant r/r required Sarjeant to take at least two of his rides, and he couldnt even cover his own rides. The team had no chance of making the playoffs until Kerr and Worrall made way for Cook and Nathan Greaves in mid July. Despite only riding 8 meetings Cook had an immediate impact and Harris finally started scoring. It was enough for us to scrape into the playoffs with that holy grail of away wins but ultimately not enough to make the final.

Stewart Dickson wont be there next year so the mental policy of having a stellar top five and whoever will fit for the reserves hopefully cant happen again. Its never worked for us previously. The marquee signing of Harris promised much but delivered little and can only be described a spectacular failure, as Sarjeant too.

Whatever the league structure for 2019, we know what hasnt worked, its time to learn from it and not make those same signing mistakes again. A bit of continuity may also serve us better than another sweep out.

But who do you keep ? Cook yes , but then bang goes your well balanced team . Harris - no , Vissing probably not , Sarjeant - no , Starke - maybe , Thomas - worth preserving with , Kerr - yes if he has fully recovered . Greaves - probably not . 

[MD]

27 minutes ago, Paulco said:

But who do you keep ? Cook yes , but then bang goes your well balanced team . Harris - no , Vissing probably not , Sarjeant - no , Starke - maybe , Thomas - worth preserving with , Kerr - yes if he has fully recovered . Greaves - probably not . 

Depends on the league structure and points limit. If its one league Cook wont be back. If its a vastly reduced points limit in the Championship he also wont be back. No easy answers here.

I would already have asked Harris and Sarjeant for their Kevlars back.

[GS550]

12 hours ago, MD said:

the mental policy of having a stellar top five and whoever will fit for the reserves hopefully cant happen again. Its never worked for us previously.

Tell that to Arena Essex's all-conquering 1991 team, and Newcastle's all-conquering 1982 team and 1983 team.  They were all "top heavy" and totally dominated.   

It is a fallacy that people criticise so called "top-heavy" teams.  If you look at the facts, the one single factor in any winning team is improving averages over the previous year and in fact it makes little difference where the spread of power is.  You can't tell me that four 10 point men will not steamroller most teams in the league as that is exactly what would happen for a team that had that kind of fire power.  Far too much is made of criticising so called "top heavy" teams when invariably they are missing the point that there is some other factor involved and the acid test of "whether the averages have improved over or gone down over the whole team" is the true acid test as invariably when the averages do improve significantly over the whole team and improved by more than improvement on averages in the rest of the league, that is what has always determined which team ends up top and certainly in the points limit era.  Arena Essex are a case in point, some say it was a bit controversial that they changed the make-up of their team part way through the season and strengthened, riders on false averages etc and by whichever means they as a team did markedly improve on their overall team averages, with an ultra strong top five - oh how they struggled (not!!).  It was their ultra strong top 5 that did the damage and scored the vast majority of their points, the opposing teams tended to get points back from their reserves but not enough to offset their ultra strong top five.

[Fromafar]

57 minutes ago, BigBoaby said:

Tell that to Arena Essex's all-conquering 1991 team, and Newcastle's all-conquering 1982 team and 1983 team.  They were all "top heavy" and totally dominated.   

It is a fallacy that people criticise so called "top-heavy" teams.  If you look at the facts, the one single factor in any winning team is improving averages over the previous year and in fact it makes little difference where the spread of power is.  You can't tell me that four 10 point men will not steamroller most teams in the league as that is exactly what would happen for a team that had that kind of fire power.  Far too much is made of criticising so called "top heavy" teams when invariably they are missing the point that there is some other factor involved and the acid test of "whether the averages have improved over or gone down over the whole team" is the true acid test as invariably when the averages do improve significantly over the whole team and improved by more than improvement on averages in the rest of the league, that is what has always determined which team ends up top and certainly in the points limit era.  Arena Essex are a case in point, some say it was a bit controversial that they changed the make-up of their team part way through the season and strengthened, riders on false averages etc and by whichever means they as a team did markedly improve on their overall team averages, with an ultra strong top five - oh how they struggled (not!!).  It was their ultra strong top 5 that did the damage and scored the vast majority of their points, the opposing teams tended to get points back from their reserves but not enough to offset their ultra strong top five.

The trouble nowadays is experienced riders are " looking after" their average these to keep them in a job the next season.That usually means an up and coming rider who has a good seaon can struggle to  find a Team because he will  value himself a bit more.Think we need grading system as opposed to strict average to help the situation.Anyone signing Cook on a10 + average will struggle to balance the Team,Although if Glasgow do they could probably keep the same Team if they want to( I doubt it though).

[jenga]

workington are only slightly over and could poss keep the 6 out of the 7.  big hitters are out of the reach of the promotion now. we , if we run would like the same type of build up with the team that has done so well in 2018 . we may never see this again, but a great season it has been .