Regarding Sam

[BILLTURNER46]

As a new member to this site and now a
confirmed Wolves supporter after many years a
Spoon, I am surprised at some of the comments
about Sam. As a speedway supporter of over forty
years , I have watched Sam from his early days to
his hey day to now. I was under the impression that
Sam was here to help the David Howes and the
Chris Neaths on in the team and not to be the number
one rider. That title is ably held by Michael Max. If he
has an off night then P.K. is more than capable of
filling in any where , any track, any time.
Sams contribution to Wolves may be a lot more than a
handful of points long term.

[Joy]

Well said ;D
I get fed up with all of the comments about Sam !
We all know he's not a number one anymore but he's still number one as far as experience in the pits is concerned.
Come on everyone lets get behind all of the team and stop giving them a hard time.

[MrwulfAndrew™]

I agree.it really annoys me when people have a go at sam.if people are going to have go at sam then they might as well have a go at max too who has been bellow par recently.as a big mikael fan i never thought id say that but stop having a go at sam.jesper crap awful for 2 years and some people were still sticking up for him

[Yozza]

I'm neither for or against Sam at present, but what does rile me is people sticking up for him, and then calling riders from other teams "Mr 6 points". Perhaps they wear rose tinted glasses, or simply can't see that we have our very own "Mr 5 points"

[BILLTURNER46]

I wear glasses but they are not rose coloured. As we
found out at Trelawny the level of equipment and rider
ability is such that no rider can go to any track today &
make any guarantees on how they will go.
Adam proved that with Rickardson on monday. The
likes of Briggs, Fundin, Moore, had time to let ability show.Mauger was in a class of his own in his day.
Nielsen and now Rickardson took the sport to higher levels & now the rest are catching up. Any rider who can
guarantee six or more points today is somethig special in my book.
BILLTURNER46.

[Tim]

I don't think many people would knock Sam on this site.

However, and it's a HUGE however, many people are disappointed with his contribution on track so far. He was brought in to do a job - score 5 to 7 points a match (he costs us nearly 7 on the green sheets), and he's averaging under 5, dropping two point on his average.

As far as I'm aware there are only 2 riders in the elite dropping points by a similar amount - Peter Ljung who has been dropped, and Mr Bunyon who can't be around for too much longer and would have gone way before now if his teammates weren't doing so well.

As posted elsewhere, Sam's last few seasons have seen a steady decline, and all his teams have finished at or near the bottom (coincidence - I think not).

He was a legend and I for one don't want to remember him pootling round as a reserve. If it wasn't for the rolling averages he would bee our number 7 after this season's first set of averages. As it stands we may still see him at reserve this year.

It's not age, it's drive and commitment - look at Jonah's exploits if you want proof, he's hungry again, Sam can get up for it once in a while, but it's getting less frequent, and to witness his decline is saddening me, as well as probably costing us a qualifying place in the play-offs. I do hope I'm wrong.

Let's admit we made a mistake, appoint him as coach, and bring in a younger man who can score 4+ points a match like Sam but could improve over the season, and perhaps give us more room for manoeuvre at reserve.

I sit here and await the flak !!!!



utw

[Cheerleader]

Sam's quite good. He's supposed to be a number 2 or 4 though. They were hoping David or Adam would get a higher average and become a heat leader.

Sam is o.k though but being quite young I have only seen him since I was about 4.

[BILLTURNER46]

I have just read Tims comments and they were well
thought out and agree with most of what he says.
When Iwrote the first message I did say I was amazed at the reception an uninformed few had given him on this site. The time has come however to get behind him and the rest of the team as up till now only my personal favourite has realy shown his true form.
Davids injury seems to have affected the whole team,apart from P.K. thank the Lord, and a second string should not have that great an impact on any team that has just won the league. My point was that Sam seems to be taking the flak for what has so far been a dismal start to the season .
As regards his commitment wasnt Pauls or Jespers
lacking in some of the matches last year. I know I seemed to sense that on several occasions as did I think
the management.
I await the flack on that one with interest.
Regardless of that the team rode around them so no one cared. The luck went with Wolves last year and a good time was had by all cept the bees.
My point was and still is dont just knock Sam. He is I am sure doing the best he can. I await his return to something like his form with interest. Should however, he go to reserve as Tim says he will be in the position to win matches for us so will that be such a bad thing. If
Sam is big enough to ride in that position should it arise
then he would earn my respect all over again.
I am also sure that Jason Lyons had a much bigger influence on Belle Vues position last year than any thing Sam did.

[Rob Knight]

While not defending his recent form (he has been disappointing), prior to the Belle Vue match, Sam was still #3 in our averages (on this season's performances). And those aren't just inflated figures from the BLC, cut the averages whichever way and he is still above all bar the Karlssons (Mike and Pete)

I believe we have also seen an improvement in the last 3-4 matches, so I'm hoping that his critics get to eat their words soon

Rob

[Scratch]

I have only been going to Speedway for approx 12 months and I think Sam is one of the best.
Micheal Max has not being doing that well and I don;t see him getting any slack from anyone but when Sam starts to struggle all and sundry is on his back.
Wolves have not done as well as expected this granted but why is every one blaming Sam when Micheal or Peter are not getting the points they should be.
What about the top riders who used to be able to go and score a 5 1 on race 15, you don't see Micheal and Peter doing that anymore.

[Lone]

I think that Sam is capable enough of finding out himself if he wants to carry on in 2004 or not

[Alex Popadynec]

Keep Sam next season and throw out Aadm Skorniki For his poor performance this season i understand about his injury but if he was unfit the n let sam be the number 4 rider he is now getting older but he is still contributing to the team well, also buy a new rider and let one of the Karlsson brothers go my choice personally would be mikael as he has not been riding at his best all year and buy someone younger but in the grand prix i.e like scott nichols or mark loram someone quicker