uk_martin

Maybe all the injured riders will have recovered in time for the restaging of the fixture then. And maybe, just maybe, the Brummies will have signed a new #1 and will actually field a 7-man team. It's a funny old world innit? Anything can happen. Like tonight's rain preventing this fixture appearing in the annals of #SpeedwayShambles for the way it was turning out.

That's a sad state of affairs but surely the fans want a 7-man team of their own, don't they? Something that they've only experienced two or three times in a 2-year period.

I see that Glasgow have just signed Vadim Tarasenko on an assessed 5.00 average. Would it have been beyond Birmingham's wit or imagination (or finances) to have made that signing first? Morris and Nielsen need replacing or are we just happy to plod along with guests to the end of the season?

This has all the hallmarks of a @SpeedwayShambles Special

Maybe, who knows? My point about the 8-day rule was in response to the suggestion that the Brummies could use a Poole rider as a guest in the second half of a double header where Poole are the first half team.

Have they scrapped the 8-day rule for guest bookings now?

Yep - it's the stuff that pays the bills. The stuff no doubt you and I work for as well. This is business, and Pickwickering has got his business head on. None of your Mills & Boone romance novels here. And good on him for it.

Should make Friday's away match at Edinburgh's trick track interesting then

A question I asked a few weeks ago. Is there a time limit on these "facilities"? Can the Brummies do what they've done for the past year and a half, just run with a guest til the end of the season? I'd have thought that they'd have had enough time to find an alternative permanent signing by now, but maybe guests are cheaper? I dunno. But then again with only 4 meetings until their season is over, is it worth signing someone just for those? No properly satisfactory solution, I fear.

As discussed on Facebook It's one thing suspecting or "knowing" that these fires are "insurance jobs" but it's quite another to prove it. I just hope that the insurance companies aren't conned because it's your premiums and mine that fund the pay-outs. It's US that are getting conned at the end of the day.

Or maybe Nigel Tolley could make an offer that can't be refused for the ownership of the existing stadium?

I read somewhere that the current lease expires in 2026. So what Corbally are basically saying is that what they want to do after 2026 is to build houses. And they want to start the planning process now so that the pieces of the jigsaw are ready to put together when the lease runs out. And on their heads be it. Planning permission still needs to be granted. They can submit all the lovely plans that they want, but if permission isn't granted, then the plans go nowhere. There are 8 or 9 huge plots of land in that area (e.g. Wellhead Lane) ready to build on right now, that require no demolition at all, and my feeling is that the Planners would want these to be used up before any other land is repurposed. Let's hope that the planners take inspiration from Rugby Borough Council in standing up to property speculators. But as with all things political, I'm not holding my breath.

Judging by the plans and the artists impressions in those plans they are not aiming at your average Lib-Dem voter. There are no detached or semi-detached houses with gardens in the plan, rather, a dense package of apartments, for rent, or which are "affordable" and "social" housing. A modern day "Council Estate", if you will. That tends to attract people who tend to vote Labour. And it needs less than 200 votes for one of the Lib Dem councillors to lose her majority, and about 600 votes for the "legendary" Jon Hunt to lose his. Jon Hunt being the legendary opponent to every change to happen in Perry Barr. He opposed the reintroduction of speedway in 2006 and now he's effectively opposing the removal of it. Don't you just love politicians? The only problem is, that whatever he opposes, happens anyway, so don't hold your breath.

Are you sure that's who the lease was agreed with? From memory, the original lease was with the GRA, and has been sold on perhaps several times. No different to buying / selling leasehold houses. Be interesting to see what happens when the lease expires. The local ward councillors oppose the plans for housing. That said, Perry Barr is a Lib-Dem ward in Labour controlled city, and adding hundreds more potential Labour voters could turn Perry Barr into a Labour ward at the next election. It's a dirty and murky old world, that of politics. Nothing would surprise me.

Will there be security checks to ensure nobody brings in anything flammable, combustible or incendiary, I wonder?

What are Bluey and Marshall like on a bike?

Assuming normal accountancy rules apply. Get Donald Trump's accountants in, and you'll end up with HMRC owing the Brummies money.

It makes you wonder. How much of that £200K is a tax write-off from other business interests (a la the Dougards at Eastbourne)? So, if that money has gone down the speedway drain instead of into His Majesties Revenues & Customs pot, then it could be the Chancellor of the Exchequer that could be £200K down.

It'd need to be either Gandalf the Grey or Gandalf the White, together with his war chest of wonderous wizardry. To give an idea of the scale of the problem that this one signing would have to solve, a quick reminder of today's score...Scunthorpe 51, Brummies 25 + Guest 14.

http://www.birmingham-speedway.com/news.php?extend.3329 So, the Brummies have a "facility" until the hearing date of 16th August. What happens after that? Assuming that his defence is no better than anyone else's defence for not complying with testing procedure, and he gets a ban off the SCB, then what? More facilities until the end of the year? Is there a record for the fewest number of meetings a team has ever appeared with a full complement of 7 "own" riders, in a 2-season period? Ironically one of the few wins this year was when they actually did field their own 7-man team.

It will be interesting to see what the feedback is at Sky at their broadcasting of "F1Juniors" on their Sky Showcase channel at the end of the F1 season. Bearing in mind Speedway's dire need to do something to attract a younger audience, maybe this "Juniors" format is an option for the future of speedway on TV, if the feedback is generally positive? Quick disclaimer - it's NOT my cup of tea and I only watched it long enough to gain a general flavour of it, BUT IF it gets kids watching, and it's in a format that they are used to from their games consoles etc, then maybe it serves a purpose. Gotta love the innocence of the kid interviewing Nico Rosberg live whilst the race was in progress and calling him a liar to his face! If only adult interviewers had the guts to do that.

Someone' may have been distracted by the women's football that's on telly atm :-D

Was he riding on it or under the influence of it?

Damn, so no chance of producing an "alternatively positive" result then?

How long indeed. GiveusaB had cause to enquire, not half an hour before the start but a whole day ago.