Hamish McRaker

Must have been intimidating for the riders having a gigantic dog on the first bend terracing

So who will Santa Claus deliver to the BSPA as the new main sponsors of SGB? Costcutter? Specsavers?

If they could take the bold step of scaling back and then work to produce a credible business plan for 2019 or 2020 onwards, they could try going onto Dragons Den for investment and additional expertise. Would need somebody with appropriate expertise in pitching to be the front person, though. One wonders which Dragon would be most likely to be interested??

It would not surprise me if the Premiership league has to be scrapped at least for one year and who knows maybe longer whilst the situation is properly resolved with all parties involved including media and marketing. There will still be two leagues operating, anyway. And if the "not enough riders" cry goes out, split the bigger league into two regions with very limited doubling up and Crystal clear rules about who rides for who in playoffs, or get a load of cheaper Danes and Germans in to backfill.

I think we now have a generation of men in their 20's, 30's and 40's (maybe more) who are obsessed by betting on sport, who probably find it strange that speedway meetings don't allow on-course betting. Look at who sponsors a lot of sport nowadays......

Well they may not all actually be there in person

How different have things become with the GP era! Riders now having a whole entourage of helpers, all needing to be paid for their time and services. And I'm sure it is not confined to those who happen to be in the "current" 15 GP-ers, either. So these riders are expecting to have the same or very similar set-ups for league racing as well. Maybe they can in Poland. It's like inviting somebody to dinner and they want to bring along half their street as well. There is no way that BT will get their 7 GP riders

If Mr Hemsley sold the club to Buster Chapman as was reported, who then cleared the debts, it would make sense that he also inherited any rider assets, too. When Chapman then sold the club on to the Bates's, did the sale include rider assets, or not. If not, the rider assets would be Chapman's.

It's doomed,I tell ye. Things have got into such an unholy fankle the best way forward can only be backwards. Disband this Premier league, merge the teams into the other 11 and run for a season with a 19 team league as cheap as possible without people losing interest Then start working on drawing up the Premier league to resume again in 2019. Get some decent external consultants in and just work on the structure and rules & regs, basically start from scratch and involve the TV people in the process. Then do a proper launch. The final chance saloon.

Is BT serious? It makes you wonder if anyone doing the negotiations on their side has a clue about Speedway. So would they, for example, be happy with 7 GP riders plus 49 NL/development level riders making up the teams? Its sounding like the Brexit negotiations. If both sides can drop their silly games, and that means the BSPA stop persecuting GP riders, they could have a chance. Somebody has said it's a team sport. Well, it's now up to the BSPA to go out and win a main sponsor to bring in the finance. BT would be providing the advertising space. But it doesn't help their cause by pratting about with rules like the 1 over 8 and now this business about assessed averages.

So here's how it should work. The cunning plan. Doyle, Lindgren (?) and Bjerre, the three wise men, toddle off in a nice orderly fashion and sign for Somerset, or Kings Lynn, or Rye House. Those splendid people who now own Leicester have already sorted themselves out, so whew, chaps, no need for them to have any favours granted,which is just as well. But what's this?? The three wise men don't really fancy hanging around these isles any more, say it's not top of their Christmas list. Oh, bu**er. Having done the decent thing, Leicester now get thwocked over the head with a heavy frying pan as their reward, with Mr Vaculik being penalised for being GP rider, heinous crime that it is. And news also comes through that the planes carrying Woffinden and Zagar have been turned away from UK airspace as they are now classed as undesirables. Over at BT towers, talks are going on about the TV deal for 2018. "Is this right Mr Russell, this top league is losing three of it's top riders, and is stopping two more from coming back?" " Maybe, but there's Vaculik, Cook, Holder (maybe) and, err....well, there's Harris and Nicholls and Kasprzak, they used to be in the GP's of course." Meanwhile in the areas around The Wash and The Somerset Levels, the water levels are rising and the lifeboats are on standby.....

If the rules had allowed it, would Swindon have gone with Doyle and Morris? PS I can't believe people are really suggesting signing Batchelor

Completely close down the forum??

Unfortunately he has mislaid the used envelope it was scribbled down on

Could this possibly be the same Matt Ford who around two years ago was suggesting that if other clubs were struggling to get decent riders, then it was their fault alone and should stop bemoaning it? Why, yes, it surely is!!!

This is a desperate effort to try and save Kings Lynn's bacon because without it they would probably be up Manure Creek without a paddle. Same goes for Somerset. And even then it may not be enough. At least Leicester has gone out and got itself a no.1 without needing to rely on favours and handouts. Rye House should be ok as they have their Dad's Army to rely on and may also pull a rabbit out of the hat.

1 over 8 = Ar*e over t*t.

Time for annoying and time wasting re-runs caused by a rider jumping the start to be done away with. Just let the race continue to the finish, and the offending rider gets excluded after the finish.

I was expecting Eddie The Eagle to present it. Come to think of it, that could be a good name for it.....

I would suggest that for short-term illnesses and miracle recoveries, you cannot look much further than football, especially the expensive sector. Miracle recoveries seem to be hastened by the appearance of yellow or red cards,or the award of a penalty!!

Scenario A. Referee awards race 1-5 to the disadvantaged team afterwards. Scenario B. Rider 2 re-instated

Ok I admit I'm chucking a pebbles into the pond here. So what about a one-minute warning (or even 30 seconds), starting immediately following the red lights coming on, and riders have to be right up at the tapes.

Simple solution to that. Just remove the incentive for the "jumper" to disrupt. Referees empowered to not only retrospectively exclude the jumper if he finishes in a point scoring position, but can also change the race result to a 1-5 if the jumper has caused disruption during the race.

Strange, but I don't recall Jason Doyle criticising British speedway when he began riding here.

I think the four teams that qualify for this year's playoffs would do fine