woofers

All well and good, but it’s a bit daft for the governing body to say on the 14th January : BRITISH Speedway clubs have today agreed a start date of early May for the 2021 season. Fixtures will be published next week for both the Premiership and Championship. And not deliver. Surely they knew all about the ‘rising stars’ then and the impact this could have. There appears to be a lack of joined up thinking...

Yep, those ones..... Perhaps they’ll be available at the weekend.....and you wonder why there’s so much cynicism about the speedway authorities

Looking forward to putting the fixtures into my diary later this afternoon

Are the terms ‘rising stars’ and ‘youngsters’ defined anywhere? Who determines the ‘rising stars’ grading, is it fixed at the start the year, or can it change throughout the year ? What happens if said rider is unavailable for whatever reason, presumably a similarly graded replacement ?

Where are the points averages which are used for team building published please ?

In respect of which bit?

My posts and observations of January 15th......

From the 2020 Regulations : "012.2 TEAM COMPOSITION A Premiership team’s initial declaration must not exceed 42.50 with a minimum average permitted being 3.00. Riders declared in a Premiership 1-7 are ineligible to compete in the NDL. A Championship team’s initial declaration must not exceed 41.00 with the minimum average permitted being 2.00. A Premiership declaration must not exceed 42.50 points in any declaration following the issue of established MA’s for 2020, except where the MA of the introduced rider is equal to, or lower than the rider being replaced. A Premiership Transfer Window opens after 25% of the League fixtures are complete and closes when 75% of League fixtures are complete. This permits changes to the team on 2 occasions, except for proven long term injury." Looks like nothing came of our reservations (you can't tell me none of the authorities don't read this forum ). Plenty of room for confusion and manoeuvre there !!

I think you’ll find Ian Jordan has reinvigorated Eastbourne, has many ideas and can see the bigger picture. The website is well worth a visit. https://www.eastbourne-speedway.com/

And when did Sky (the thread title) last have anything to do with speedway......

Curious as to why this is in the Premiership section.

Got it. As usual masses of info, reasons and logistics from Ian Jordan. I am one of the small number of fans that detest the hot, dusty, drawn out Sunday afternoon meetings, (and told him), hence my relief that there will be some 5 -5.30 starts.

6 Sunday afternoon fixtures, hope they’re 5pm or later starts. No doubt get the picture on the Eastbourne website later.

Well, there's always going to be a some bad eggs, and it seems there is cheating of one form or another in every sport. Possible sanctions: Pawel Polski is seen to be a proven liar and has his licence to ride in British speedway revoked (or something like that) His replacement signing no longer has a team place and the club have to run r/r for the remainder of the season. Very tough on the replacement but would make clubs and riders think twice before signing and/or pulling these stunts.

Is this what they meant: Signings can only be made after a team has completed 6 league matches. No signings will be allowed after a team has completed 18 league matches. During the period between 6 and 18 league matches being completed, only 2 riders may be signed. These restrictions do not apply to the replacement of an injured rider unable to compete in any remaining league fixtures. (If I can come up with that in 20 minutes....)

I agree, it's crap isn't it. Let's look at it : "Signings can now only be made, apart from proven injury, after 25 per cent of Premiership fixtures and before 75 per cent are complete.In addition, only two team changes are permitted during this time." As already pointed out, does the first bit mean after a team has completed 6 fixtures and before 18, or does it mean 25% of all Premiership fixtures, which i think would be 42 ? (24 * 7 / 4). Then, there are the words "In addition..." why are they there? If only 2 team changes can be made in this period why have the words "in addition" ? Read it without "In addition" does it make any difference ? Define "team changes". Wouldn't it be simpler to say "only two riders may be changed" if that is the intent, otherwise teams could be open to change, for example, 2 riders in May and 3 in June, that's 2 "team changes". It beggars belief that something like this can be issued when surely most in the management structure must be aware that the rule book is both complex and ambiguous and in dire need of being rewritten in plain English. It wouldn't have been difficult to run this past someone with a grasp of good English would it?

So where should they be in that list then ? Which also means one other club is out of place ?

Which is why for some years there has been a call for the rules to be rewritten from scratch, and preferably by an independent body. The constant poorly worded amendments and addendums give rise to loopholes. It’s interesting to see that people think rules are always ‘bad things’ whereas the intention is just to set out the terms and restrictions under which the sport is to be run. The rules aren’t there to punish you, they are (meant to be) there to assist you by setting out what is mandatory and what is allowable.

Woofers Members 326 528 posts Location:West Sussex Team:Eastbourne

Let's just see how many riders are doubling up in both leagues before we get into anymore Premiership / Championship, better / worse discussions. Having witnessed first hand over the last 15 years my clubs involvement in all 3 leagues, and the televised Premiership meetings last year, I can honestly say the best racing has been in the Championship where the riders seem to be more evenly balanced in terms of average assessments. I think it was something like 55% of Premiership riders last year also had a place in the Championship. Having said that, I may be tempted to pop along to to the Abbey when Sheffield visit. Yes, a 4 hour round trip to see the one rider who put's bums on seats.

Although he is a director of Arlington Stadium Ltd, along with Martin Dugard. The company was incorporated in January 2019. Hope it’s not ‘more’ as he has been a breath of fresh air at Eastbourne. The latest article on the website giving the thoughts of the team building strategy for 2020 are an example.

Well I’ll admit that I was guessing, and for some reason you are laughing, so maybe you can quote the numbers? But from the official Poole website - "The response was immense and overall very supportive towards moving to the lower league.“

There are some that do. Eastbourne have been very proactive in seeking opinions throughout the year and I have always been able to speak to Ian Jordan after a meeting. They have recently concluded a 21 question survey on their website, with over 300 responses. I guess it can also be argued that the Poole promotion have listened to the majority of their supporters in making the move to the Championship league.

That would be good. For us Eastbourne supporters it would be weekend speedway at Arlington and mid week away to Kent and Poole.

Which race night will Kent be using ?