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Just seen Mitchell Davey has signed. What a waste of a signing. Just about any 16 year old Brit would have been better simply because in the short term they can be no worse and at least they're not 28(?) year old and as good as they're ever going to get. The 16 year old might one day make it, Mitchell Davey is a NL level rider and has been since he first rode in this country.

Didn’t bail out? They sacked him because he walked out of a meeting feigning injury after causing rubbish in the pits. But yeah, whatever.

Kennett was signed on 10 and got 10 at home so he wasn’t a bonus or a perk. Signing him on a little over 6 to get 10 at home is a huge advantage. And without the pressure of riding at 1 (, 3 or 5) he’ll get more than 4 away too. Kennett is a smashing signing for Rye House. He should get his average up towards 8 at Rye in this league. The rest of the (suggested) team is frankly bleugh.

If you mean Poole half-arsed attempt you're wrong. It's not good enough. The text scrolls, the result should be on the board 100% of the time.

It's utterly weird. I just don't get it. This obsession speedway has with filling in a programme doesn't help it's reputation - and I run a site dedicated to the stats of the sport!

I just hope that doesn't mean no more snazzy, 21 century style graphics on their twitter account because I'm loving them at the moment!

Thats actually not true at all. KK is in fact quite cheap so I've been told

1. Because it's the second division, second division are by their nature second rate. If you want first rate you aspire to the top division. 2. How is it better exactly? It has exactly the same issues and apart from a dozen or so of the very top riders its the bloody same! Why do Championship fans always think their league is better? Weirdly while wanting the top rider who in fact, cause a lot of the problems. I don't believe it was the Premiership that Robert Lambert missed on a whim in 2017, or the Premiership that Jack Holder fecked off from a few weekends.

Foot and mouth was 16 years ago! Yes I believe it made Lee Complin take up speedway but not any of those mentioned in this thread. I would imagine the lure was that they paid £50 each weekend to race a motocross bike or got paid £20 a point in the NL to ride a bike!

The other thing I've noticed with riders that come from motorcross is they can usual gate well! I guess leaving the start with 30 other focuses the mind a little more to get out in front and avoid a melee than it does leaving the start with only 3 others!

@barrybishop - How refreshing to actually read a promotion actually listens to his customers and doesn't just tell them what they want. And how great that it's working. More power to you and Martin and I hope crowds continue to improve, maybe the rest of the BSPA will start to listen to you and act on your advice based on your experience. As HT says, also how great of you to come on here and treat us as customers and not something you trod in, that alone I think is worth a few fans and will be appreciated. I know when Pete Toogood used to wander around chatting to the fans I always liked him for it.

And then they'll say if its going well at Leicester why change things? Best bet is to let it fail but support a single meeting in huge numbers to show the support is there but they won't be fobbed off riding Nl at a rivals track.

Hearing that the excrement is about to meet the oscillating device with regards to averages used by a number of teams. Let’s just says nobody actually knows what’s going on. It’s entirely possible that Lakeside are the only ones to have got it right. Hearing more than one team is being forced into changes though.

2 riders rather than 4 is going to cut costs quite a lot! If it’s not then BSI and the FIM have messed up badly!

Exactly. They can and do happen. Bewley as mentioned and a few others in the earlier years of the PL. It’s rare and they have often come from a motor cross or grasstrack. Who knows, this lad being mentioned might be the next big thing. Didnt the Worralls sort of appear from nowhere?

Another Havvy master class in how not to build teams. He's worse than his father!

Exactly, because the sport is promoted to your nan. They play music for you nan. They interview dull ex-riders with no charisma from your nans era, the presenter is the same age as your nan and they incentive your nan to attend by letting her in for less. But if you dare suggest these thing are wrong you may are treated as if you have just said, “all old people should be rounded up and shot”. They do nothing for young people but you suggest this has to change and the old people come out with their pitch forks. They’re being selfish, the sport is going to die with them but they don’t care because obviously they’ll be dead so why would they care that the sport doesn’t exist in the U.K. any more when they’re gone? Cue more pitch forks because I’ve dared to suggest again that old people is not a good target audience. Other than Saga what company targets old people? Speedway does it, speedway obviously knows best.

I only had 6 points so kept to generic things. I’d also like a rule that said every returning rider had an x% discount on their average each season. 3% a year. Maybe not a huge amount in year 1 but by year 3 that’s quite a bit, someone like Freddie Lindgren had he not missed a season would be on a 39% reduction now. regarding my old people comments, maybe they were a bit harsh but they’re not untrue are they? Why try and keep old people who will die, statistically in the next 10 years? And you’re not going to attract young people while you insentivise old people. I honestly think the best thing for speedway will be in 10-15 years time when the currently fan base is dead. It will need to start again with a bottom up approach. It can go for loud, dirty, horrible, tattoos like Woffys that you ban wouldn’t like. Rather than this “it’s really lovely” approach is takes now.

With his continued improvement and 5 or 6 of the guys above him in the averages not riding here it's not unfeasible

Maybe he realises that next season he'll probably be in the top 5 of the averages, thus one of the leagues star men. Why shouldn't he be paid for that?

Luckily football has millions of customers and is selling out stadiums, it can treat the fans however it likes.

OK. So number 1 is NOT, absolutely NOT to promote the sport. That will just get more people in short term to see a rubbish show and never return. If your restaurant was giving everyone food poisoning would you solution be to put a full page advert in the local paper or would it be to clean up your restaurant, get good feed back and THEN advertise in the local paper? So please, don't advertise just yet. I honestly don't think the sport is as broke as some people would have you believe. I say that as someone who has probably only attended as many meetings since August 2011 as I attended in each season from about 2003 when I learnt to drive until August 2011. It doesn't need all out changes, it doesn't need a totally new sport. 4 riders doing 4 laps 15 times is damn exciting and I'll sell that concept to anyone and argue how great it is with anyone. Even on the most dull of tracks it's a wonderous spectacle, on the right tracks it's not possible to beat it in any other sport IMO. So, my 6 things. 1. Stop the corruption and ignorance of the rule book. This idea that it needs re-writing is wrong, the actual rule book itself is only about 8-10 long from memory (tech spec and people jobs specs just don't matter to any fan). Just make sure what rules we have are adhered to consistently and with fairness. That means employing someone full time on 25-30k a year to make sure that is the case. It's not a lot of money shared between the 30-ish speedway teams in the UK right now. 2. It's 2018 this coming season. Not 1975. ARGH! Seriously. Do away with the "Smashy & Nicey" presentation duo, do away with the granddad jokes and borderline racists comments from the announcers because it was funny when they were a lad in the 60. Play some music that actually fits with the night, that probably means paying £1-200 a night for a proper DJ with a planned set list for when certain events take place. Not 60-year old John pressing play on the newest edition of his "hit of the 60s" CD regardless. 3. Stop pandering to old people. They're going to die soon. Letting them in cheap to clutter the place up with their flasks and fold up chairs is hardly going to entice a group of young lads along is it? Plus Maud, Joan and Derek who have sat on the 3rd bend the last 50 years are unlikely to add much to the atmosphere are they? They're not going to be jumping up and down when the team get a 5-1, they seem to politely clap ever result regardless of if it home or away. 4. Build rivalries, slag each other off in the press. Get a bit of agro going. This idea that speedway has to be "nice" and you have to clap the away riders after a race win is sickly. You don't get it in any other sport. How great is it when Nicki Pedersen turns up and you spend the night booing him? Soap operas have bad guys as well as good because people enjoy seeing them fail and speedway should be the same. More bag guys. 5. The score. What is the score? No bugger knows. There no scoreboard at most tracks and some of them that have them are a waste of time showing wrong numbers (you used to have to translate have the numbers at Brandon while Swindons is too small to show the info needed without it rotating) and you can't hear the score when it is read out because the PA system is crap. There should be a huge drive to get all fans to download the BSPA app. This app lets you select push notifactions for a meeting of you choice so the current score is sent to you after each heat 10-15 seconds after its been announced. You currently have to fill in a programme and people do that rather than cheer and celebrate. Also clubs should have a decent scoreboard with 5 rows able to fit. Row 1 is the current score and the next 4 rows is the result of the last heat. 6. Stop postponing meetings. Especially once they have started. Is it any wonder fans don't turn up when the weather looks a little dodgy. The first sign of rain and the meeting is off and the fans are short changed, again. This never used to happen. Even worse when you see a great race with passing in the rain and they refuse to run the next heat. TRs, R/R, guests, averages etc I don't think they really matter. People don't care what the rules are, they just want to be able to understand the rules that do exist.

You can't say that. Here on the BSF it's akin to suggesting you round up old people and kill them! And whatever you do, you CANNOT upset the old people who go to speedway, they come at you with their pitchforks!

Just seen this. All the best starman! Hope you feeling well soon. For all the names we've called each other over the years I wouldn't wish this on anyone and look forward to plenty more name calling with you when you felling better.

You're all looking at this the wrong way. IMO anyone with a Premiership average of 6+ should be blocked from the Championship. It's the second division FFS, it shouldn't have top riders (Cook as a GP rider IS a top rider) eligible. The fact that Morris, Cook, Masters, Schlein, Harris, Lambert, Worrall, King, Wright, Howarth, Lawson and Bjerre is wrong. If clubs want them riders? Go Premiership. For me, a far bigger issue is that Lakeside have signed Zach Wajtknecht and Ben Morley who rode in the 2017 Premiership on their 2016 Championship (PL) averages, yet Kennett cannot drop back down on him 2016 Championship (PL) average, despite the fact the whole purpose of the rule when first introduced in 2001/2002 was to prevent riders moving up, achievement too high and average and being forced out of the sport.