skydog

And these signings and facilities are all sanctioned by the same BSPL that berated and threatened SDL & MSDL teams for occasionally needing to use r/r, because it made the sport look bad...

It doesn't seem that the ACU will have a problem as they include Nora Moto-X updates in their weekly news.

It is sad news, way too young to be leaving us. We will all be forever grateful for the extra season and a bit that he gave us.

Todd Wiltshire in 1990 must be up there, started on 5.5 and finished over 8.7 and World no.3...

I have no idea what anyone else has seen or said, I'm just quoting what Alun R said in an interview that it isnt supposed to start until the summer so we shouldnt be surprised if theres no change at this point. As a lifelong Reading fan I'm very cynical towards anything Stadia UK say, but I guess we'll see in the summer...

Work supposed to start in the summer so nothing yet....

I read that another way... didnt he say clubs would run junior races as much as possible even if there wasnt a junior league match? That was what I thought the 3 or 4 races was referring to... I also read it as meaning that the junior league is for the lower NL riders who arent doubling up or on the rising star list. So I'm guessing this is a level in between the current Development Leagues and the NL. That wouldn't be a bad thing, its just a shame about the nomadic teams that will be missing, and the resulting reduction in team places for those trying to get in the NL.

I remember probably back in the early 90s or even late 80s a promoter (cant remember who, it was a NL club) basically saying that announcing the attendance figure at a match like they do in Football would have been like announcing bad news...

Jamie Bursill rode for Raeding in the SDL in 2017, had a run in NL with IOW in the 2nd half of 2018 and was NL with Plymouth throughout 2019. 3.16 average or thereabouts. Cant help with Josh Warren, it's not a name I remember from SDL or MSDL, maybe he's come straight from British Youth.

The official line was all over 50s to have had 1st jab by the end of May (the media keep saying "by May" which makes it sound like before May). That could be read as good news for us, or bad depending what you already think...

The fence was all yellow and red in 1990. I was hoping it was 1990 so I could say I was there but it seems not...

Thanks Gambo, cant open it though for some reason, I'll have a dig around

What were the 2019 NL averages of the twins and the other riders you have mentioned? Genuine question, I cant find them.

Dan Gilkes is surely ahead of all 4 of those?

Thanks for the replies, and there was me thinking I was cleverer than the commentator...

Changing the subject... can anyone confirm whether it was going to be 2 semi finals or 1? Updates said 1 but the commentator kept saying people were still in with a shout when they clearly werent going to make top 6?

While I have every respect for Len and his years in the sport, Dan has been a great talent since well before he joined Kent. He cleaned up in the development leagues at 16, the NL clubs were queuing up for him. His parents have made sure he takes the right steps at the right time, they deserve the credit for his management.

Well done to Dan Gilkes. People talk about Drew, the Thompsons and Jordan a lot, but Dan is right up there with them. That was certainly a good crop of talent on show today. And Dan a Racer at Development League level too!

If it's so important that we dont have a situation where spectators get close to each other, why is it ok to play football, and have players coming into close contact with each other?

Blimey can you imagine what they would want for it?! We are however still searching for a suitable site somewhere else in the area in the hope of "doing a Somerset"...

We have indeed enquired about Speedway returning to Smallmead. The land has been sold and we were assured that we'll never get back in there.

Yeah they filmed scenes at Eastbourne in 2018. It has been publicised within Speedway since, although I had forgotten about it again

Of course the fact that there are still stadiums in both Coventry and Bradford may mean their returns are seen as more viable.

We have now been told we are not allowed to use the Reading name for challenges either.

Just to respectfully clarify a few things that people have questioned... Firstly the BSPA Management Committee are in charge of the Development Leagues, not the SCB. Yes the rules about proving that you are actively looking for a track have always been there and we at Reading are and we feel we have backed that up. We obviously have to omit certain details if asked by landowners but we sent copies of emails that we feel proved what we are doing. We certainly dont feel that we abused any privileges. I havent seen what any other team sent to the BSPA. If someone else appeared and said they had the capacity to run a team in Reading we would happily step aside and we wouldn't ever think we could stop them using the Reading Racers name. But the truth is nobody else is looking. As far as calling ourselves Swindon we feel certain this would completely detach the remaining Reading fans and they would quickly lose interest. We came into this to get Speedway back in Reading, it is important to this aim to keep the name alive otherwise racing in the league doesnt help our cause. Most of the nomadic teams pay their hosts to run at their stadiums and those that dont, know they are fortunate and are very grateful. Reading have never got any fans in the back gate under the guise of a mechanic or anything else, I dont know about any other team. Swindon want us to run there, as Reading so we cant be causing them too many problems. Yes some teams have used riders in their 40s, I cant deny that. If riders lining up for different teams each week, long gaps between races and not enough riders to complete a team is making Speedway look bad, maybe the PL, CL & NDL should eliminate these things happening first? Thats where most people are looking, not at us. I find it very interesting that the PL are going to run their own junior league this year, just when they decide we cant run. Mr Pairman you know more about the inner workings of Speedway than I ever will and you are always willing to educate the rest of us so thank you for taking an interest in this thread, but at the end of the day if they wanted to stop us because they dont think we are doing it properly I would rather they said so instead of saying it's to do with the name we use.