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THIS week's Speedway Star is its usual 48 pages plus a 24 page section from Travel Plus. How are you losing out?

This is the uk not poland seen it all before with polish riders!!

BUT 33% of the usual 48 pages are not devoted to adverts. It is hard enough making SS viable these days without turning away what little advertising is available.

Easy to say that but I doubt anyone would have expected KK to be so pathetic. Looking at the lineups Swindon are nowhere near strong enough to retain next season. No big improvers and no big hitting reserves. Looks like last year was a blip and its back to mediocrity for the Robins. While normal service resumed for Pirates? Looking possible.

Lakeside wanted him (and Kennett) Dont feel too sorry for them though as they simply gamzumped Berwick and Sheffield for Morris and Lawson instead and have brought in 2 reserves on out of date low averages....

Time to get some long trousers then !

First of all we are discussing a CL club here and no one is advocating that the NL should allow overseas riders to participate in their league. At Edinburgh, the supporters have had very few problems with the overseas guys recruited in terms of commitment. Indeed in 2016 when we ran our final home match, due to previous postponements, on 21st October , a break of 3 weeks since our last actual race meeting, our 3 Germans traveled back to honour their commitment. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of a certain English team member who threw a sickie, but was well enough to attend a social function at his EL club on the same night! Unlike the overseas riders who are prepared to commute here, we have great difficulty in attracting decent English prospects to sign on for us, usually citing our base as being too far for them to travel. So what are we supposed to do, just employ any Brit who is willing to come, irrespective of their ability? Well current & potential local supporters up here would soon lose interest if we were compelled to track cannon fodder in the name of keeping all British riders in a job. Oh and btw, our foreign guys do socialise after the meeting and our promising Aussie, Josh Pickering, stayed within a couple hundred yards of the Stadium with a local family.

The speedway star in my opinion is excellent value look at the prices of other sporting magazines or papers the Racing post as a example for me it should be more than 3 pound.Also the 2018 teams line up edition is a terrific read great value that certainly should be a higher price.

Sadly the same can be said about everything leisure costs a fortune these days.A few years later as an apprentice my take home pay was £10.06 a week a pint of beer was 10p so I could(not that I did) buy 100 pints with my wage.Now a pint is approx £3.00 how many apprentices take home £300.00 pounds a week. Again a few years later on full money married buying a house etc I went to football on Saturday afternoon and speedway at night and could afford both no problem.As the years have passed and my money became worthless I could not afford to do both so I had to choose I picked speedway it would seem most others stayed with football. And there lies the problem people can't afford to spend as much on leisure because it and everything else cost so bloody much and your wage goes nowhere these days.As with me a lot of people cannot do everything they want to do and have to pick and choose and it would seem speedway is lower down on peoples list than other things and in my opinion is a big reason why speedway is struggling these days.

Have you finished wiping that egg off your face from last season, Steve?

What on earth are you expecting for £3 a Book! I find the SS excellent value for money!!!

Please, please, please say it's Bridger

Because if the Brits don’t come first and we lose our British riders the national team with disappear, the profile of the sport will sink even lower, the sport won’t be able to afford the extra costs of flying in riders, our league will be at the beck and call of the foreign leagues, just like last season with Poland dictating where riders should ride, there will be less interaction between riders and potential local supporters because they will rarely be in the country, there will be less interest in a sport in which only foreigners participate, all us families who support NL riders and give our time to clubs for free will be lost to the sport ....

I think they do a good job myself.

HAD Lambert signing before it was announced. SS is feature led at this time of the year. What's wrong with ADDING a 24 page travel brochure. Thousands of people use TP to go to SGPs. Am totally bemused by your comments. So, no, I don't have to admit this week's issue is poor. But you are entitled to your opinion.

More a case of DC being extremely bothered about the look of the Poole team that's so far been assembled and hoping against all hope for a chink of light for his beloved Robins. With Leicester already looking stronger than Swindon and Poole likely to match, Swindon might scrape into the playoffs with their current team. But that's about it.

Philip ..... You have to admit the contents of this Week's edition are poor, to say the least. Page's of Adverts, 4/5 pages on Exeter speedway form the 70's. Another few page's with an article on the New Zealand lad following up on 3 pages on the same guy last week. As for current up to date news. It is, IMHO very poor. Tell me where I am wrong Philip ? I know it can be difficult to get news worthy items at this time of year, but really I think your readership deserves better than this. Looks very much like a lack of effort has gone into it.....Then to add in a 24 page ( yep 24!!) advertising brochure, is really something else.

...remember talking to the late Bernard Crapper about the times he would appear to 'rant and rave' at the referee whilst on the phone at the starting gate. He explained to me that often he was just passing the time of day with the referee but felt the need to liven up proceedings just to get the crowd excitable.

Over and done with, my memories of watching almost every match at Brandon from 1973 - 1997 ( when I lived in Northampton ). I was a biker for all of that time and loved the ride there ( although there were very few other bikers ). Some fantastic racing and controversies Thank you lads, Big Names or not but I remember vividly Andy Smith's amazing on track efforts among so many others. And oddly, the first race win Peter Lloyd ever had there ( maybe the only one? ).All consigned to the archive now and never to be replaced with new on track clashes and rivalries.

How very amusing you are.

Graham - Using Swindon as an ax ample as that is your team, then Swindon would be in the one big league along with all other tracks, so hopefully 18 home and 18 away meetings from late March to mid September. As the teams would be the same strength at Swindon as it is at Redcar or Peterbourough etc then as an example only, Swindon could be a team something like Nick Morris, Tobias Musielak, Justin Sedgeman, Adam Ellis, Zach Wajtknecht, Mitchell Davey and a 2.00 NL draft. Then as they want to also compete in the Super Cup league of 6/7 home and the same away, they would name FOUR squad riders of which one must be lower ranked than the number one in the other team and these could be riders doubling up from a track not operating in the Super Cup. So Robins could name Jason Doyle, Niels K Iversen, Peter Kildemand and David Bellego and would name any two in the SC meetings while Kildemand and Bellego could cover for Morris if injured or missing and Bellego also for Tobiasz The team in the big league isn't a great deal less that what you have now and with 17/18 home meetings (should be a bit cheaper than now) I'm sure they would get the support as this is the regular action and could be one of the pace setters. Then for just 6/7 meetings through the season, you would use the top five of that team along with any two of your squad riders so it could be Doyle, Iversen, Morris, Musielak, Sedgeman, Ellis and Zach W which as its only once a month and against a top line opposition, then maybe £20 would be acceptable to many to see such a meeting and crowds should be good at both levels. If they wear a Robin are you going to turn your back on one level even though five are in the other level ?

Good stuff First meeting Cradley v Swindon 1970 Second Meeting Cradley v Hackney the following week. Heathens' fans stoning Garry Middleton's Mercedes when he tried to leave early First meeting at Perry Barr 1971 Arthur Browning's max in his first meeting for Brum in 1972 Mal Corradine riding in a plaster cast 1972 Mick Hines in 1973 The double in 1974, Just the team, fantastic bunch, brilliant times NNL champs in 75, sponsored walk (pub crawl) for Keith White 1978, Czech touring team at Stoke, utterly bonkers! First time I saw Zdenek Kudrna race. 1980, Zdenek joins Brum, fantastic. My ultimate sporting hero 1981 KOC final, ran Ipswich close with a rag tag and bobtail team Last World Final at Wembley, a great occasion, even though Penhall won (joking) 1982 Zdenek returns to Brummies. The sheer joy of watching Jason Lyons in action Bad times The debacle of Brum's debut year in GOBL 1976. Chris Morton fencing Alan Grahame. We knew. Losing Zdenek in 1982, a real low point both personally and for the club Finishing at the Ladbroke in 1983 The reality of the Wheels stadium, not good. Decent racing in 85, but in 86, well........ Seeing Joey Owen seriously injured 1985

Not a mastermind, just better than the other tosh. Every year promoters vote on new rules to save money and hinder Poole, yet every year you all complain that Matt is smart enough to make the most of it. You should be whinging about your own lazy promoters.

sounds to me like he was told he could leave but would be a full transfer as he was part of the planned team and he didnt want to risk no one offering to buy his contract.. bit like Matt Ford telling holder he could leave if someone paid for him.

Won't be anything other than an 8 or 9. Anything else is pure manipulation and bias.