woofers

Not talking about the team, we’re discussing an individual. Just wonder if everyone would be so complacent if it was the opposition No 1 who was delayed for whatever reason.

Try to keep up. We aren’t discussing the reasons for the delay to the meeting, that has been covered and generally agreed that there were valid reasons. I was responding to Mmmethonals post that we shouldn’t be bothered if Lawson were to arrive ‘fashionably late’ for every meeting provided he maintained his scoring record.

I do. He's a professional sportsman. No other sport would hold up proceedings if one participant was late, why should speedway? I can't see football delaying the kick off because Messi or Bale or Kane was 'held up in traffic', F1 wouldn't wait for Hamilton, Moto GP wouldn't wait for Marquez. In golf you are disqualified and can't compete if you are late on the tee. He needs to get his act together and the management should tell him.

OK, let me put my comments into perspective. I have been supporting Eastbourne speedway through thick and thin for 15 years. I have helped the National League team financially and have always believed some speedway is better than no speedway. Most of those 15 years I have spent viewing on the start / finish straight and as most spectators, we have our ‘usual pitch’. So thanks for the advice, I’ll move down to bends 3 and 4 in future when it’s so dusty. I am well aware of all the other positives mentioned and agree, otherwise I wouldn’t part with my cash. Now, at the start of this year we were told that things were going to be different, more professional. The parade would be 15 mins before tapes up, and tapes up would be at the advertised time. No excuses. Now, the first meeting of the year against Birmingham was indeed delayed, however we were informed of the delay which was due to the number of spectators still queuing to get in. Fair enough. Last week against Somerset everything went to plan, very slickly run. Yesterday there was a delay but no announcement or reason given. I can assure you that Kevin Coombes usually has welcomes, updates and things to say before the parade time and tapes up time, but yesterday, nothing.. Mr Gould says it was again due to spectator queuing , it may have been, I don’t know as I was inside the stadium by 2.30pm, and no one from the management (Ian Jordan) mentioned the delay as they did 2 weeks ago. And it may just have been a coincidence that neither Richard Lawson or his bike were on parade at 3.10, so the delay with no reason was indeed fortiunate as he was able to partake in his first race. There are elements of the new promotion that are working really well but they need to deliver consistently, not slip back into the “that’ll do” or “be grateful” mindset. There is a saying that “you cannot gain a reputation by what you are going to do” - speedway in general needs to bear this in mind. It is judged by what it does, and that is why it has problems. To insinuate that I should be grateful for the speedway I have, or get, is the mindset of some promoters and will not generate new attendees.

Nice to win, but not an especially enjoyable afternoon. These afternoon meetings just don’t work........on a sunny day like today viewing, and probably riding, was marred by the dust. The track staff did their best but it was a losing battle, the dust won comfortably. All this talk of nostalgic, “traditional” Sunday afternoon speedway is way off the mark for today’s audience. There was a good crowd, but the conditions may deter any first timers from returning. Why the hell couldn’t it be run as an evening meeting - we could have enjoyed the sunshine all day and then the speedway in the evening. And after an impressive, professional start to the opening two meetings, today’s was late starting and it didn’t look as if any of the officials or riders were bothered. I hope this isn’t a slide back to the way things used to be done. Next up is a Sunday afternoon meeting, I hope it’s a bright but cool day, then there should be half a chance of a decent track being offered. Roll on Saturday evening racing !

One of the most boring you’ve ever seen ? Or ever been to ? I’ve seen plenty more boring than that on TV. It wasn’t the most exciting but what can you expect when the opposition perform so poorly ? For all the hype, Harris was woeful, saying “It’s a while since I’ve been here, I need get the set up and lines sorted”.....for goodness sake, he’s a professional, ex GP rider, it shouldn’t take more than one ride to sort that out ..... Schlein had no problem and he’s in the same situation experience wise. He seemed to try his heart out as usual to start with and then probably released he was a one man team so what the heck. I expect most of the crowd were disappointed with the challenge that Somerset put up, as I believe they are one of the “fancied” teams in the league.

2019 season starts and ....still nothing from the SCB on the outcome of their full investigation surrounding the cancellation of the Eastbourne v Mildenhall match last October. "The SCB are very disappointed with this outcome, and the circumstances of Mildenhall failure to raise a team for this National Development League fixture.Due to this cancellation the SCB will be making a full investigation in to this matter." Why should I bother having any faith is this organisation or belief in what they say ?

The subscribers to the new company, British Speedway Promoters Ltd, are listed below with details from their latest available financial statements on Companies House. These financials are basically the value of the company at the end of the 2017 season, the accounts for 2018 will not be filed until much later this year. Net worth Company Club Accounting date Audited Form 2017 Belle Vue Speedway 2017 Belle Vue 31.12.17 No Micro Entity (270,730) Berwick Speedway Promotions Berwick New Co Birmingham Speedway Company Birmingham New Co Edinburgh Speedway 1986 Edinburgh 31.12.17 No Micro Entity (164,226) Glasgow Tigers Speedway Glasgow 30.11.17 No Abridged 598,136 Wight Warriors Speedway IOW 31.12.17 No Abridged (54,841) Cearnsport Kent 30.6.17 No Abridged 143,509 Newspeed 2003 Newcastle 30.11.17 No Micro Entity 22,302 South West Power Promotions Plymouth 31.12.17 No Micro Entity (73,946) Poole Speedway Poole 28.2.18 No Micro Entity 76,881 Redcar Borough Bears Redcar 28.2.18 No Abridged (202,501) Somerset Speedway 2011 Somerset 28.2.18 No Micro Entity (21,831) Crewsline Stoke 30.4.18 No Micro Entity (580) Swindon Speedway 2013 Swindon 30.11.17 No Micro Entity (103,033) Slade Tipton Wolves 28.2.17 No Abridged 20,600 LJM Asset Manangement Workington 31.12.17 No Micro Entity 217,598 Scunthorpe Raceway Scunthorpe 31.12.17 No Abridged 8,110 Heathens Speedway Club Cradley 30.11.17 No Full (33,791) MFT Team Mildenhall New Co

From Gov.uk : For accounting periods beginning on or after 01/01/2016 to qualify for audit exemption, a company must qualify as small, in relation to that financial year. In other words it must meet any two of the following: annual turnover must be not more than £10.2 million the balance sheet total must be not more than £5.1 million the average number of employees must be not more than 50 So that criteria will cover many, many companies in the UK. However lenders and shareholders, if different from the directors, will usually require an annual audit.

More confusion from the Articles of Association : 4 MEMBERS 4.1 Members (whether a company or individual(s)) shall all be a club and have a promoter. Am I missing something here ? How can an individual be a club and have a promoter ? 8 COMPOSITION OF THE BOARD 8.2 The Board shall consist of not less than four (5) Directors, but shall not be more than five (5). No wonder the Speedway Regulations (rules) are difficult to understand at times and open to various interpretations. As I said the attention to detail is worrying.

True, you don't hear of many football clubs ceasing......and that is probably where the analogy with speedway ends.

Who knows? You will note that all of the accounts are unaudited. That’s not to say there is anything wrong in that or anything underhand is taking place but I’m pretty sure that there is different accounting treatment from club to club. The Micro Entity accounts show the bare minimum whilst the Abridged accounts at least show some detail of the assets. In some cases rider registrations are referred to and are being written off over a number of years.

Not signed up as a subscriber as yet. Perhaps later ? Think they are setting up a new company as there is a lot of change going on at Arlington together with the move up to the Championship.

Hmmm, wondered if anyone would pick that up. These 3 clubs haven't signed up as subscribers to British Speedway Promoters Ltd, although Mr Keith Chapman has in his own right. As each subscriber has pledged £1, that should could save him £2 if things go very wrong. A new company, Peterborough Speedway Ltd was incorporated on 16 November 2018, the same day as another one with the same directors, Poppy Sports Ltd.

The table is only a snapshot of accounts at a certain point in time. Workington had assets of £323,575 at 31.12.14 with reductions of £37k, £37k and £32k in the following 3 years, and who knows what last year looked like, you can't keep incurring loses like that each year, the funds will soon dry up, I guess they said enough is enough. The position at Glasgow is interesting (less clear) as they have transactions with another company under common control as well as their parent company. The company under common control was very generous in providing sponsorship to the tune of £350,000 as well as writing off loans of £424,439.

No problem, questions aren't stupid if you don't know the answer. It's a minus, so it's a net deficit. The company has more liabilities than assets. And they are the majority.

Just to be clear, that's minus £580.....

So the first things to notice are that most clubs are listed as subscribers in the Memorandum Of Association with the exception of Leicester, Sheffield and Eastbourne. Kings Lynn, Peterborough and Ipswich aren't listed, but Keith Duncan Chapman is, so presumably he covers these three. The company is registered as British Speedway Promoters Limited however in the interpretations of the Articles of Association, (1.1) it states the following ; BSPA: means the Company Company: means British Speedway Promoters' Association Limited you will notice, that even in setting up a legal document, the attention to detail is worryingly lacking......

Up and running now ....... https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/11808346/filing-history

Oh yes !

I see that Season Tickets are being introduced again this year. I was initially sceptical of this given the way last year ended with the non running of the final fixture, (and still waiting for the results of the ‘full investigation’ by the SCB) however having sat down and crunched some numbers it does look like a decent deal compared to previous years, where I think the saving amounted to roughly the price of one admission. This year the season ticket is priced at £199 and includes a programme. This is for 13 events, (10 League, 2 Shield and 1 KOC fixture) which at full price with a programme would be £247, (£19x13). So that’s a saving of £48, or 2.5 meetings. So it makes financial sense if you can do 11 meetings or more. The equivalent numbers for concession rates with a programme are season ticket £173, full price £221, also saving £48, or 2.8 meetings. Worth considering, I used to buy one in the Elite days, it was also nice to have a dedicated entrance, no queuing !

Does anyone know the outcome of the SCB’s full investigation of the meeting cancellation ?

Shame the team sponsor, Thomas Armstrong (Holdings), couldn't help somehow. Their accounts show that at September 2017 they had a net worth of £123m including £30m in the bank. Perhaps they have had a tough time in the last 12 months.

You can see the filed accounts for nothing at Companies House Beta, they are unaudited, abbreviated accounts. https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08976809/filing-history It's a funny old world, -the Premiership Champions are going into 2019 sponsored by a company with a net worth of minus £8k (last filed accounts March 2018). Of course this company could have had a stupendously successful 9 months and are now in a much healthier financial position. -on the other hand the Championship winners, Workington, aren't racing in 2019, although their team sponsor, Thomas Armstrong (Holdings) have a net worth of £123m (yes, that's £123 million).