George Dodds

Which, depending on how you view it, either makes it more difficult or easier than for someone who had just five races on one night of the year.

On riding ability yes but - as with Collins at the British Final in 1978 - engine failures, a fall, lousy track conditions or annoying a belligerent referee could see you fail to qualify from any given round. No wildcards to cover your box office appeal or guarantee of qualification for the next season by finishing in the top eight of any given season. I'm sure Tai's quality would have shone through but bad luck could have robbed him of the chance of even reaching a World Final

FWIW I personally think Peter Collins is the greatest British rider of my time - stretching back to 1968. Tai isn't far behind him and, unless he retires, will soon surpass PC so the answer to the OP is ... not yet!

not sure what your point is meant to be but surely that just underlines the fact that speedway is a sport which hires the stadium for a few weeks a year while the football and rugby are the semi-professional entities of sports which flourish at junior and amateur level around them. Bearing in mind that a majority in Cumbria voted for Brexit they might not see all the foreign riders as a good point!

I suppose what they offer is the land that their current stadiums are on which then has a value to the council, which owns them, when redeveloped

The Comets' biggest problem is that they have nothing to offer the development other than potentially renting the stadium. The club also has a chequered history and regularly (like most speedway clubs) seem on the verge of closing/seeking new owners. You can understand why the football and rugby clubs would be loathe to build a new stadium which would be unpopular with their supporters, only to find that speedway disappears a few years after it is finished. To be part of the scheme someone has to offer money on behalf of the Comets - then they might find a way to include a speedway track.

Is this a new rule because it didn't stop Rotherham from playing four seasons at Don Valley in Sheffield between leaving Millmoor and building their new stadium, mostly in the bottom division.

Is this really true? Surely West Ham has an athletics track around it.

forecast is fine on the terraces ... but it could get wet and windy in hospitality

Result should stand ... no way we would have let it slip from that position

I do actually agree about getting the product right, that has to the main aim but the history of sport is littered with examples of clubs which assumed that the fans would flock through the gates only to be left with a pile of debts. Much is being made of the role of sponsorship - surely this scheme is no more than allowing fans who wish to, and can afford to do so, to "sponsor" the club in addition to paying their admission fee. Not much different to a business owner who sponsors either out of a love of speedway, a sense of duty to his/her town or city, as a publicity tool or to take advantage of tax benefits.

All sport is propped up by something extraneous - football by TV rights, rugby and cricket by TV rights and redistribution of profits from international games, most other sports by wealthy owners or support mechanisms. No sport is run as a business - even the monster that is football features hugely indebted clubs as they fail to balance the books. But I do promise that if the bottom ever falls out of your market I'll be the first to organise a tray bake and coffee morning to make sure you're never short of beard dye

You know as well as anyone B&P that almost all modern sports clubs survive thanks to injections of cash from areas other than attendance and sponsorship. Seems perfectly reasonable to offer a conduit for those who wish to get involved over and above admission fees - one that they didn't have in Berwick.

Maybe don't fancy 25 minute parades

always has been, always will be - it's not a struggle unique to Berwick or speedway. I used to follow Newcastle United home and away, I haven't been to a game for 20 years and can't even be bothered to watch Match of the Day to be honest - they found someone to replace me, - and 20,000 more to boot. Life goes on. One of speedway's traditional problems has been the assumption that fans will keep on coming. Better to assume that you start each week from zero and try to build a crowd from scratch. While it would be nice to think that old fans could be tempted back the truth is many of them yearn for a heyday which is pure invention anyway, the era of 13 races and a second half when each race had all four riders passing and re-passing on every bend and straight from green light to chequered flag.