PHILIPRISING

THE Etihad stadium in Melbourne was only available in October. Hence finishing the series there but that doesn't apply to Ipswich (or other possible venues) so hopefully any Australian SGP will kick-off the season not finish it.

YOU are assuming that the Friday meetings are the night before an SGP round in Poland. Bradford is a lot closer to Manchester than Torun is to Krsko for example. And these aren't extra meetings ... just being staged on a Friday rather than a Saturday or Sunday.

NO Australian SGP this year. Which thankfully means that the 2019 World Champion will be crowned in Torun ... a far more suitable venue and option than Ipswich in Australia. Hopefully the powers-that-be can get their ducks in a row for an Oz SGP to start the 2020 campaign.

FOR many years Jim was the FIM's chief machine examiner and Kelvin is still heavily involved with the technical side of the sport and has a sophisticated workshop complete with a dyno. Also, the FIM and BSI are working closely together to try and find ways to reduce the cost of speedway to riders including a new engine that would cost around 3,000 euros, about 2,000 less than the current models, and would also be much cheaper to run.

An easier solution is not to have Friday meetings. It's the World Championship we are talking about not some Mickey Mouse meeting.

PROBABLY because neither KL nor Ipswich also have Andersen and Cook on their books. Have no idea of what sort of money is involved but, leaving personalities aside, better for Peterborough to cut their cloth accordingly and run in 2020 than go bust during 2019.

WOULD agree that it is necessary to reduce costs for riders and, as a consequence of that, to promoters. Rye House brought their own house down by providing ridiculous guarantees to three riders. When Chris Harris went to Poole he took a massive pay cut. Workington simply couldn't cope with a surfeit of home meetings and extensive payments to riders at the end of the season. There are moves afoot to help both riders and promoters to reduce their costs and ensure the viability of their business. Like all of us, income has to match expenditure.

PAIR of football boots costs a lot less than all the equipment a speedway rider needs.Plus they only play one day a week so having another job is relatively easy. A speedway rider needs to have a job which allows him considerable number of days off to accommodate various fixtures. No comparison.

TOO often on here, in my opinion, riders are accused of milking the honeypot and making a fortune. Extortionate demands, etc, etc. But, surely, it is worth remembering that speedway riders have a short (often prematurely short) and potentially dangerous career. And also that costs have risen massively since the "old days." even without expensive tuning. Looking at the CL this season ... a rider travelling from Eastbourne to Glasgow has a round journey of almost 1,000 miles. Conservatively that is likely to cost him £200 in fuel alone. Okay, that is an extreme but while I agree with much of what Tony Mac has to say (and Speedway Star is suffering massively from the mass exodus of fans from the sport) continual watering down of the product is not the answer. Many moons ago a wise man said of speedway in the UK: You cannot keep cutting costs until there is nothing left. Sooner or later you have to increase revenue. What remains infuriating is that the actual product can still be exciting, spectacular, enthralling, etc. But roughly 15 minutes of entertainment over a two--hour plus span is not enough for the current price of admission. Filling in the gaps doesn't have to be costly.

NOTHING in Denmark is cheap!

If there is such a thing not worth the paper but is written on. Legally riders are free to ride for whoever they wish.

NO one "owns" him ... speedway riders aren't slaves

I USED to sit around during CCP meetings and one of the few things that kept me awake was the horse-trading that went on ... which riders went where, which event went where and so on. Doubt whether much if anything has changed except, as you say, BSI now have a voice at the SGP/SWC Bureau meetings.

CANNOT remember it ever being any different ... lots of logistics come into play

INTERESTING views by Jim McMillan, who nobody could accuse of not knowing what he is talking about, in SS this week.