iainb

any news from the meeting last night?

I think he said he's eligible for a ban didn't he? That's the way I heard it... doesn't mean he's going to get one

Seeing as the aim of British Speedway is for the top 2 leagues to be closer in team strengths, can we expect a further watering down of the top league next year? If people thought that was dull... they should have been at the Pairs the day before, a total borefest Comedy moment of the night for me was when Josh Bates mentioned in his interview that he also rode for Leicester, he obviously hadn't read the script... he mentioned it once, but he think he got away with it, I half expected to see a tumbleweed blow across the screen

Wow! I must admit that I did not see that coming. So I hold my hands up and eat mass helpings of humble pie! I'm just sorry that Speedway has made me this cynical

He'll probably be replaced by Pav next year Probably wasn't even asked to come over

It's absolutely outrageous and a total sham! 2 teams against each other, both run by the same promotion, using some of the same riders! No Pav because he's "unavailable", it's obvious that this is a done deal especially with the 1st division being run on Monday/Thursday next year... what night do Sheffield run on? Lions should not be allowed any facility for Pav, there's absolutely nothing wrong with him!! He should ride or receive a ban, meaning he'll miss the first month of next season when he signs for Sheffield. You've got both promotions giving almost identical press releases and all of a sudden somebody called Marc Bates (who he?) appears claiming to be a co-promoter! Any fan that attends either of these 2 meetings is a mug and is being taken for one. Where's the transparency? I now see that the Leicester leg has been put back to next Monday... perhaps Pav will now be availalble! There really needs to be an SCB investigation into this meeting, it stinks! Can I get decent odds on Sheffield anywhere? this is easy money

are you saying it's fixed? Call the Sunday People!

Unavailable means... We're trying to cover up the real reason

Pav is "unavailable"... Which seems to be a cause of absence for many riders these days

dunno, I must admit I don't know the rules. Can lions have r/r for him then? Is he "withholding his services" would/should he get a ban?

Why does everybody keep saying r/r for Przedpelski? Surely he's riding!

why no Pawel?

Is Przedpelski not riding for Leicester then? He's wild card in the GP this weekend. Or can he still "not fly". If he doesn't ride for the Lions I think we can read a lot into how much they want to stay in the 1st division

Surely there is some kind of EU law that prevents the Polish league putting restrictions on riders and where they can earn their money?

seems simple to me... you set the points limit at 45, maybe 46, that's what it takes to draw/win a match. Why over-complicate it? unless you are deliberately trying to weaken the league and drive riders away

A couple of things spring to mind here... 1) Mick was already given 3 years notice and did nothing, so what difference another 2? The other thing is why Brandon stadium site? It's not as if it's in the middle of a built up area and is prime building land, it looks like green belt all the way down to the by-pass, so why not just build down that end, near the Rugby club? Why are they allowing buildings to be knocked down to be built on instead of using virgin ground first? Simplistic I know... and yes I do know the answer to these questions, it's still annoying though

Just a thought... I read that Lakeside want to ride in the top league again next year, could this be allowed to happen? or should they have to win the 3rd division and then the 2nd division and any playoffs to do so? If you're going to have promotion and relegation surely the days of electing which league you want to ride in are over? Speedway really does make it difficult for itself sometimes!

wasn't singling him out... even though I singled him out but you gotta admit it's a bit of a come down after watching all of the others over the years. You could substitute Rob Shuttleworth's name with many others

No, I mean like: Zmarzlik, Sundstrum, Pawlicki x2, Kolodziej, Zengota, Sayfutdinov, Kildemand, Hancock, N Pedersen, B Pedersen, Hampel, Protasiewicz, Woffinden, Janowski, Millik, Wozniak, MJJ, Walasek, Zagar, Michelsen, Lindback, Jonsson, Ljung, Korneliussen, Bech, Buczkowski, Bach, Madsen, Iversen, Davidsson, Miedzinski, Balinski, Miskowiak, Jedrzejak, Ulamek, Woryna, Smolinski... There's probably more, I've got bored of trying to spell them now! All of these have at some point ridden in the BL and no longer do so. And there are also loads that have never ridden in the BL, we've never even seen them... Still we've always got Rob Shuttleworh to watch!

the constant reduction in the points limit year on year squeezing the top riders out of the BL

was interesting to read in this weeks SS that Lakeside are looking to come back into the top league next year. John Cook says his crowds are down by a half. Proving, I think, that lesser quality means fans stop going. I wonder if this lesson will be learnt once and for all and rules are changed to allow the top riders back into the BL?

Didn't Colin Meredith have some kind of jet engine? or was that an April fool?

And I bet he came round in all his personalised clobber too. His jacket saying and cap saying "Unknown Speedway Rider Racing - USRR" with some flash logo printed all over it Thanks for the reply

I've always wondered and perhaps you can answer this as an ex-rider and that is why, unless your are at the very top level, spend all the money on the bells and whistles? Surely the riders of, let's be polite, lesser quality can be faster by being better riders first and foremost. Surely perfecting your style, going into the bends faster before shutting off will gain you more time and make you faster on the track than spending silly on shiny bits. An extreme example but I always remember watching Tony Rick at his heights powering into the bends where other riders were still shutting off, only Jason Crump was anywhere close to being as fast, then watching after the meeting juniors shutting off halfway down the straight to enter the bends. Like I said an extreme example but there's a lot of time to be made there and no doubt the junior riders would soon be thinking about spending money on kit that probably isn't going to make them go any faster. I know nothing though, I've never sat on a bike. Can you enlighten me?

Personally I've not lost interest, far from it, just not interested enough to attend much anymore. Recently I got into a YouTube link clicking session and was watching some of video from the early 80's, which is the era of the sport that first got me really hooked and I have to say it was no where near as good as I remembered it to be. I think part of the problem is that the GP's are so entertaining these days the BL looks so poor in comparison when you see what it could be