old bob at herne bay

He would put bums on seats, and probably a few riders bums on the track at Arlington.

What would Nicki Pedersens average be in the Championship

No real surprises other than Kerr. Maybe promoter Cook will rename the side the Eastbourne Hammers to try and lure some of the ex Hammers fans down to support the opposisiton They shoudl be nigh on invincible on their tricky little track at Arlington.

Only Scunthorpe can race on Fridays. That was the rule imposed last season.

Promoter elect Cook can dust off his old Blue and Yellow scarf

........being dropped after a handful of meetings ?

From what I remember Morris not a great lover of the Swindon Track preparation ........mind you Poole isnt much better ......

Always enjoy the winter editions.....especially the historical speedway articles. Much better IMO than the over reported SGP’s in the summer, when we have a series of “what xxx said” articles telling us all about the struggle to get “dialled in” or “set ups” correct , and how wonderful their “team” were. All a bit repetitive. As for the content, the Star can only report the news available. If the promoters want to behave like a secret society , then the Star will have little to report. This weeks edition with info from the AGM and interviews with Jon Cook was much more interesting. Sadly our UK “promoters” seem unable to use the media, whether online or offline, to promote their businesses.

Whilst the AGM allowed BSPA Ltd to cover their backsides when speedway fails in the UK, I haven’t seen one shred of information regarding improving the ENTERTAINMENT value of the sport. We still have endless delays due to start procedures- gardening , anticipating starts, tractor racing. Sloppy presentation is driving fans away from the sport. Meanwhile Buster is buying up speedway clubs. He must be mad.

If Cook is confirmed as your new promoter, Bowtell will be in your team.....he’s one of Cook’s favourites. Not sure about Alf on the smaller tracks - he’s done well at IOW in the National , but only time will tell how he copes with Arlington at Championship level. Adam Ellis would be useful....but people tell me he’s riding in Poland in 2019?? Not useful for a Saturday track ?

Certain that Buster can come to a mutually acceptable loan deal with Matt. ;-)

Odds on favourite NKI back to Peterborough “ on loan” imo

With so few teams (6?) putting together a worthwhile fixture list for each club. Season could be very short if it’s just 6 league matches and a KO cup

Probable hold up reading the Speedway Star article is whether Cook has a promoters licence. So whether its M Dugard and T Geer or AN Other promoting a Championship side is thei probable issue. Cook madea pretty good pitch for the job in the Sater this week and its a good read throughout with lots of interesting articles around the promotoers Xmas bash ( AGM ) Cooks promotoers licence allegedly hangs on Lakeside's ability to clear debts primarliy caused, I have to say IMO by Mr Rob Godfrey and the cancellation of Friday fixtures. (Restraint of trade claim surely could be brought against he BSPA? )

Things were very different then......... and yes they were each rider had ONE bike in the pits. If that failed he would pay to use the "track spare" . riders would have their bike loaded onto a bike rack on the rear of their car, others had a bike trailer. riders would use the same bike season after season , not sell off all their gear every season and buy new. riders owned one crash helmet and put a different colour cover RED BLUE WHITE or YELLOW/BLACK riders owned one set of leathers and kept them for years. You can see why the riders costs have increased...... IMO things began to change when the late great Ivan Mauger came onto the scene with bikes located in every speedway country. "professionalism " came into speedway. Now it seems every rider from a National League reserve appears on a brand new bike with glitter guards and all the trimmings. They all expect speedway to provide them with full time employment.

Official attendances at Speedway Meetings in the UK are classified as Top Secret under the official secrets act. Nobody knows. Not even HMRC. So how anybody can talk about attendances being up down or anywhere is purely guesswork. My take is that "promoters" only reveal attendances it supports ther argemnet, and even then I frankly do not believe them. As for Rye House... I thought all clubs had to pay a bond to the league upon entering the league - surely this should be used to settle outstanding debts ??

Skidder1 , thank you - I guess Monday’s will be speedway on BT day

Any news of potential buyers for the Poole Pirates ? Or is Matt Ford happy to carry on running on a Monday evening? (Surely Swindon will have prefernece on the Thursday)

Sounds like Buster is bringing in some cash ££ to keep the P ship off the rocks and Ipswich are a convenient choice for Buster. MAybe KL will loan some of their riders to give Witches a chance of some success.

Good Luck Peterborough fans .... with ou , KL and Ippo all in the Premiership and only 2 fixed race nights how does Monday night racing sit with you all ? Ipswich surely are not going to be giving up theri "regular" race night ?

Oh and TM Cook

Morris Ellis Lawson Brennan Wood Edwards Powell Bowtell

Well I do not get the private mails from Len Silver, but do get letters from Swale Council advising me of planning applications from the Speedway, having previously written to the council supporting Kent Speedway planning application. There has been a further planning application to allow speedway on Fridays. At present they they can only race on Mondays , with a curfew I believe at 8.30pm. Without the ability to race on a Friday Kent cannot run in the Championship. With the planning application still to be heard, surely Roger Cearns would not pre empt the councils decision by declaring to race in the Championship?

Got to agree with Cliv Clav. I can see the now unemployed Jon Cook doing a deal with his good friends at Eastbourne as Team Manager and bringing the nucleus of the now defunct Lakeside team to bring the Eagles up to Championship standard. All of Eastbourne’s assets were signed over to Lakeside for “safe keeping” after the NL banned clubs holing rider assets so Eastbourne would appear to have a competitive side at least at Arlington. As a TM Cook used to be OK, but IMO out of his depth as a “ co promoter” at Lakeside. Maybe a return to the Sussex coast away from the traffic jams of the Dartford Crosing will do him good.

Great news that Blunsdon will be available for speedway racing in 2019.