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If your post is a pathetic attempt at taking some kind of moral high ground then its just that, pathetic. The passing of Danny Ayres is a tragedy and we as fans have paid our respects by posting messages of condolence on here and other parts of social media, of course there will be other on here closer to the Ayres family who have paid their tributes personally. My post was a perfectly reasonable answer to a perfectly reasonable question posted the other day. How ever hard, the management at both Scunthorpe and Ipswich will need to sign a rider, when that will happen of course is up to each club.

So many people in everyday life suffer from mental health.

Rusty was the reason I ever started going to speedway I spoke to him one night in town when he first arrived here and he persuaded me to go, that led to me running the track shop for many seasons and fundraising for the club. It also led to some life long friendships who now since closure sadly we may never meet up with again. Supporting the Comets has some amazing memories for me and of course our very last season brought us the trophies we had strived many years to win.

Oval track racing - Simon Wigg, top speedway. longtrack and grasstrack rider over a 23 year career must be the obvious one!

I'm sure Rob and the less bitter, normal speedway supporters, will think nothing of team building until poor Danny Ayres is finally in his resting place.

Im not against the rules to not allow an all starts team but surely Newcastle should have been informed before making any signings? The NT side will be good for riders trying to put themselves in 'the shop window' but by the same reckoning if they were offered a 'full' NL team place elsewhere they could no longer rider for the Gems? Either way rushing Wally in as a replacement (no offence to Leon he's not even close) is a crazy decision and removed any minor chances of seeing this side not get crushed all year.

I like him even more now

Many thanks for the guidance HA. You bring out some very valid points. If it was so bad to hire Schroeck why was nobody complaining? Despite the views held by some supporters not all in speedway officialdom are fools. Regarding Commonwealth v EEC riders I'd suggest that the perception was still that the Auissies and Kiwis were 'us' while the Europeans were 'foreigners'. As you say, those with direct British links had patriality, the remainder without rights. I'd say the language and cultural links with the Aussies and Kiwis helped strengthen that view, despite the law. The observation of the slump in BL numbers in the mid-80s is very valid with lot of mediocre Europeans suddenly finding places at a premium. At this point I have a confession to make. I might be to blame, not my erstwhile boss, Ron. I suppose I do have to take some of the blame. When Screen Sport approached KM Video to cover speedway on their new service in 1984 we naturally went for British League racing. However the BSPA believed that doing a deal with us for league racing would conflict with their deal with ITV for World of Sport. Faced with a golden opportunity to put league racing on TV for the first time I argued for coverage of the National League instead. My determined lobbying for my beloved NL won the argument. The NL was semi-detached from the BSPA then and they grabbed at the chance arguing that cable and satellite TV was narrowcasting rather than broadcasting! Suddenly I was in the position to put my decade and a half experience as a fan of an NL team to good use! After the first year of coverage in 1984 several BL tracks started looking at an NL, with a TV contract, that might be a better offer than the BL and we had the first mass switch. I remember Wimbledon manager Cyril Maidment telling me in an interview "We are moving ACROSS, not down". After 1985 the NL was a completely different 'beast' and now a long way from its training origins. It was only later with Rasmussen and Schroeck's signings that the gates opened but by then the places once available for up and coming EEC riders in BL tracks were much reduced and with a pool of talent looking for places the NL was under incredible pressure and temptation to hire them. The NL was changed by the influx of tracks like Wimbledon and Hackneyand the return of Eastbourne and Exeter Okay IT WAS MY FAULT I won't come quietly......

Complete freedom of movement only came with the EU in 1993, at which point the BSPA would have no legal right to restrict EU riders in its competitions. Prior to that, I believe EEC workers had the legal right to employment in another EEC country if it could be demonstrated there were no local workers available who could do the job. So I'd guess the inclusion of Rasmussen was justified on the basis of there not being a suitable local No. 1 available, and of course Rasmussen was already riding in Britain. Peter Shroeck was perhaps a more dubious justification, but it seems the government was more lax about such things in those days and if there wasn't any objection from the BSPA or SRA then perhaps it was just rubber stamped. I never really understood though, why Commonwealth riders were considered morally acceptable in the NL and not European riders. I know many would have had patriality anyway, but there were plenty of Commonwealth riders of dubious quality filling NL teams long before Rasmussen was employed. Of course, the 'opening of the floodgates' coincided with a contraction in the BL down to 9 teams whereby a number of mid-level European riders suddenly became surplus to requirements. Didn't Preben Eriksen and a few others drop down into the NL at the same time from memory? Think it was just a combination of circumstances and economics that led to the influx of Europeans - don't think Ronnie Russell can really be blamed for that, and inevitably the league would have had to fall into line with employment law anyway.

I don't think people realise how much of a divide formed between the BL and NL, although 1975/6 was early. By the mid 80s the NL had its own offices and administration and I believe the split could have gone much further. Having that application in rejected in 1975/6 may have sown the seed.

I heard that too, but with only 3 home & 3 away NT matches, it won't take up much of his time!

I really do not see a golf buggy resolving this problem . May help on entry but chaos on exit

Rob stated at the first "fan night" that Nicki had been asked (along with Bjarne and Kenneth Bjerre). It's possible that Nicki has a compulsory polish practice that weekend, since they are rather good at that.

And was that the same guy who a speedway supporter, working in his day job as a conductor on a train, caught out, not having a ticket for his journey from Rugby to Edinburgh? :-)

While they were in the same Team ,Sam Jensen rode at No 4 in all his matches Bickley never got out of reserve ,Nicol has a higher average than both of them so will have to ride at 2 or 4. Jensen is replacing Bickley at reserve is my point.On what I saw last season that is a big +.

I beg to differ.

Dave am I right in saying only the other week that dave wallinger said he was not riding this year, with work and family time?

Nicki P has a meeting at Belle Vue the following day for Sheffield which would have come into the reckoning for him I would suggest... Big shame because I woukd have paid double just to see him at Brough one more time... #Legend... Regards THJ

There's no real benefit to have wider straights IMO. The legal limit is currently 8 metres wide, which is quite adequate to accommodate 4 riders abreast at the starts. Probably the only time they will be in one line in the whole of the race. Far better to concentrate on widening the entrances/exits to the corners, and widening them to give more racing lines especially with some decent banking. There should always be banking on every track.

charging a dwindling group of loyal customers MORE, of any business to cover a lack of new customers is only going to lead one way!

The straights are narrow this combined with the adverse cambers on the bend exits are causing lots of avoidable crashes....Both need sorting with the addition of more shale..Obviously the higher standard riders will be able to cope better with the problem.if nothing is done....which looks the case..?

That's not the reason I heard Dave but putting that aside, wouldn't you have thought that it might make a little bit of sense to carry the rules through until the end of the season? Any tinkering, amendments or changes can be thought of during the season and brought in for the following season or on a specific date and, not just on a whim.

I was there...great day! Razzer was one of my favourites!

He likes pie n mash an all Chris Keef

THANKS ... will try