Big Al

Think I can help you there. EL promoters agreed a contract in about 2009 which effectively handed control of track preparation to GSI for all Sky broadcast matches. This was part of the overall contract covering such matches, and has remained in effect even after the expiry of the more substantial sponsorship deal with Sky a couple of years ago. Last season the BP track for the live match was prepared in such a way that made it dangerous in my opinion - in an effort to produce incidents. This year it was probably not quite as dangerous but still doctored so as to produce incidents, which it did and it was again fortunate that no rider was seriously injured. I am sure that if Glyn Taylor had been in full control of prep, riders would not have been slithering and bouncing around looking like novices at times!

Brilliant. Thank you so much for that. Watched it with great pleasure and a tinge of sadness. I lived in Peterborough during that era and drove back along the A47 in whatever spluttering rust heaps I had at the time. The Cookmobile always cruised past me somewhere near Uppingham en route back to Suffolk - Nissan Bluebird maybe, or Merc estate? - anyway it was a privilege being regularly overtaken by Colin Cook on a Tuesday night! Will always be in my best ever Leicester select team.

Leicester tried that one with Bridger - with moderate success

Surely David Hemsley can lend out a few of his pairs of rose-tinted spectacles?

Is it me, or am I noticing a continuing decline in the performance levels of riders who occupy number one race jackets? Is this real, or do statistics show otherwise? Does it apply to heat-leaders generally, or is it limited to the "top" riders only? Is it a trend which is likely to continue? What are the reasons, and what are the implications for the present and future viability of the Elite League?

Yes, and its only been made worse by the clamping down on Aussies with the work permits. Ok there have been quite a few duffers but at least they base themselves in the UK. And maybe the Elite League, if it survives, needs to look at going to 6-man teams with the FTDR at no.6 and no.5's having to be FTDR "graduates",with a race formula that gives the no.5's a tougher programme than the no.6's?

....But I'm sure that David Hemsley was quoted as saying, not very long ago (end of last season?), that Leicester is in the "upper quartile" of clubs when it comes to finances? So have things gone seriously downhill for Leicester since then, or is this all basically just an indictment of the overall predicament of the Elite League not just Leicester in struggling to attract riders? Or is the money at Leicester being directed on to other things rather than riders? How much of a financial blow has the loss of Rapid been? (a lot of questions there!)

Would provide the perfect reason for his average to plummet and start 2016 as a second string for Poole.

So how about after each match you have rider ratings given from 1 to 5 Eg. 5. Gave it 100% each race, got to the starts without messing around, team rode when had chance, sporting attitude, took extra riders 1. Gave up trying quickly if he didnt gate, got picked off easily, didnt clear track when could have, messing about at starts The ratings could be given by the proboards texters at the meetings, and each rider would build up a running Quality Average

haha! Do away with averages. Introduce a new rating system based on points scored, consistent genuine effort made over 4 laps, sportsmanship, being at the start promptly, and condition of kevlars. Refs to produce a rating for each rider at the end of all matches, cumulative "quality ratings" to be built up over course of the season. All teams declared for matches to show current rider quality ratings, and use them as basis for pay.

Oh well......wish I'd not bothered with this now!! As someone who isn't a one-eyed supporter of a team, when i do go to see a match, one of the factors that gets me to go along is the chance to watch a "top" exponent of the art doing his stuff. I just think that it seems nowadys theres a higher chance that I'll go along, with money and time spent, and be disappointed at how whoever it is, actually performs. I know there the chance of that happening anyway, but it seems to be getting to be a higher chance. Thats what i meant by drop in quality. Didn't want to spark a stats "debate" !!!!

Anyway......I don't like this trend. It's another big drop in the quality of the product, in my view. Woffinden in 2014 started the trend, and it's spreading.

So are the top riders just not bothering making the extra effort because they're deciding that the returns on that effort are not worth it, and are deciding to cut down their costs? If that's the case - and we've had a lot of evidence to support that line of reasoning - we are heading more and more down the road towards a league where the number of outstanding riders is decreasing, and we have more mediocrity. Or is it better that the scoring levels of riders is becoming more similar? I know the days of three clear-cut heat leaders has long gone......but now we seem to be struggling to get any clearly defined heat leaders, or at least going in that direction. Is that bad or good?

I dont necessarily mean literally the number one, but the guy in the team you would call its top rider/s. Agree the format has made a difference, but is it about more than that?

Makes you wonder how the "valuation" of the business at (at the last time I looked) over £650,000 as per the companies house-held figures as submitted by Leicester Speedway Ltd, could possibly be realistic. More like a complete fantasy!! One presumes this is also the minimum figure that DH would be seeking, if he were to be wanting to sell the company. It's complete bonkers. I wouldn't even pay £1 to take it off his hands, and nor would any other sane person unless they have all of the financial support ready in place, and a lot of experience and know-how in promoting speedway to a professional level. A reasonable conclusion would be that there's been, and still is, a substantial amount of self-delusion going on. The move into Elite League has been a fiasco. Was it based on an ego-driven fantasy? If you remember, DH was championing a 36-point limit for team building last winter. Complete and utter delusion you may say. Presumably he was doing that in the belief that a string of top riders were tearing at the walls to sign for Leicester. What is the current reality? Joining the Elite League has been like a commodities trader buying into something when its value was already on a serious slide. A bad mistake. Like boarding a sinking ship in the naive hope it will miraculously float again. The only "benefit" from Leicester joining, has been to add more ballast and help it to sink more rapidly. Now it's become a case of, the sooner it disappears beneath the waves, the better. Hope the life-rafts are ready. From distance, I get the impression that DH is a bit of a "my way or no way" type. I know nothing about Mr Darcy, but I doubt he's very influential in terms of influencing DH's decision making. Is the one-man band nature of the promotion at Leicester indicative of the way things are done? Back in 2011, there were supposedly some experienced "mentors" advising DH as a rookie promoter, but they seemed to fade away quite quickly. Who else has there been as co-promoter? Ken Naylor - gone in the blink of an eye. Alan Jones - stuck around a while but stood down too soon for it to have been good for the club. IF the Elite League is still around in 5 or even 3 years' time (I hope it won't be)...and Leicester is still in it, running matches on Saturdays....I bet my house the same situation will exist, of riders coming and going like through a revolving door, that's even taking account of injuries. Is that what paying customers really want, year after year? Despite the usually boring racing, I used to go along to many PL matches. Despite the cock-ups with the reserves and the shabby treatment of some riders (e.g. Kerr, Blackbird, Charles Wright) we had a decent core of riders who did have a level of commitment missing today, and who you could identify with. The (alleged) actions of someone after a narrow home defeat to Somerset in 2013 when our No.1 rider was struggling (but still trying his best) with an injury, did a lot of damage to the good work that had been done to create a team spirit and loyalty of riders. I think that was probably a turning point.

So who will be next up in the quest to find a rider who lasts more than a match/is bothered/takes the money and runs? Will Adrian Miedzinski be resuming at Swindon - it doesn't look as if they'll be able to fit him in under the points limit rules. Will he be back to the UK at all? Would Leicester be able to fit him in, as a replacement for Bridger? Where will Mr Ward be, come end of June? Where will Mr Holder be? Not at Leicester, I'd guess.

Sounds promising......new rider and new owner??

Not 100% sure, but even though Croatia is now an EU member country, the UK may not yet allow freedom of movement for workers without a permit being obtained. (it is allowed between 2 and 7 years to continue with that requirement) Jurica Pavlic?

must be careful not to be russian into anything too quickly?

Maybe his family back in Denmark were against him going over to the UK at weekends, and he himself wasnt keen on keeping that routine going. Maybe he only signed for Leicester at a time when he wasn't anywhere near sure of what he wanted to do, and wasnt sure about other possibilities which were taking shape. Once those had been resolved, presumably satisfactorily, Leicester became a dispensable entity for him, and that probably happened at quite an early stage after signing for Leicester. His head and heart were probably just not it it from the beginning, nothing really to do with Leicester. Later in the season i'd fully expect him to link with another UK club, especially if the income from Poland/Sweden/Denmark starts to run a bit short. What I think he was careful to do, was to avoid being "sacked", that way his reputation would be preserved to some extent and of course his average will have reduced somewhat - a very useful factor indeed! I think the struggle to recruit and retain non UK-based riders has caused disruption as we have seen with Ljung, Korneliussen, Hougaard, and now Pedersen. This was very predictable and can be attributed to a large extent, to the Saturday race night. Riders generally know that Leicester struggle to recruit and retain, and so the club is vulnerable to riders using it as a short-term proposition, especially in the period before the Swedish leagues get underway. The perfect solution is of course a complete team of UK-based riders, but that will never be possible. Hopefully for Leicester the two Poles will prove the exception to this, and each complete a full season (injuries of course notwithstanding). But I don't think the problem will ever go away as long as Leicester are in the Elite and race on Saturdays.

More than one change then?

Wise choice

It probably involved David Hemsley, a toilet, and a lot of loo roll

Viagra?