Mike.Butler

Coventry leaving Brandon means that since I started watching in 1976 there are now none that have continuously staged top flight league speedway without a break....

Being a Coeliac I find this thread very distasteful.

how about Todd Wiltshire at Berwick? .

It seemed to start to decline when I first started going. Great!

Friends? Martin is the life and soul at Perry Barr so he must have loads all over..

one of the best ideas I've read

Stoke should not be allowed any challenge meetings until they have completed all their official fixtures. I seem to have said this before....

so what day are they staging home meets?

are we going to have to do a new one 'oldest surviving grand Prix participants' at some point.. ?

If the championship teams were serious they would have insisted on a straight promotion for their champions. How can spectators take any play-offs fixtures seriously knowing one team might not actually be trying to win. Fans aren't that stupid!

I'm glad I drove and had a look round from the outside a couple of years ago whilst working on Merseyside to see it whilst it was still standing; although I never saw a meet there unfortunately.

TAI ME DOWN WOFFINDEN

I continue to look forward to it dropping through my letter box every Thursday. I read it cover to cover (except for the grasstrack pages)

so no question that the NL will have the most clubs....seems like a race to the bottom...at this rate the 3rd tier will soon end up being bigger than the other two put together

perhaps in meantime we should have a confirmed fans thread.

I have seen 2771 different riders since I started going in 1976. None start with a Q. (first name or last name)

When Arena opened in 1984 they ran on Thursday nights..

Personally I think top flight tracks should have some spectator facilities (like seats!).. In this respect they are no loss. This is 2016....surely its not an unrealistic expectation in this day and age is it?

Arena-Essex ran 3rd tier before...

Stoke might be able to finish their fixtures if they go EL....

why don't all the leagues go back to the concept of a 'conference' to decide the top 4 (or 6!), rather than committing to a full set of league fixtures at all?....so at a cut-off date whichever clubs have the best win % go into play-offs...When 2 out of the leagues are incomplete why con us anymore into thinking league fixtures are worth staging paying for?... in this way a club can get to the play-offs without having to stage too many of those annoying qualifying matches..

at the moment there is no obvious penalty for 'bringing the sport into disrepute' which IMV is exactly what the poor promoters do.. Any better ideas to ensure only fit and proper people safeguard our sports future?

If a team from Suffolk, another from the West Country and a 3rd from Scotland were in the top flight next season it wouldn't surprise me....

as a very minimum there should be the same meeting rules for matches in all divisions.. make the job of refs a lot easier, not too much to ask is it? More optimistically, in order to get a license to run all promoters should be required to sign up to a mission statement that says they will always consider the sport in the Uk as a whole as a priority and also to treat supporters fairly at all times rather than take them for granted. Any found to be in clear breach for whatever reason should be fined and if repetaed have their license revoked. Further that all official fixtures MUST be completed. At this AGM any prospective Leicester or Stoke promoters should be made to ride at least 3 official home matches every month from 1st April to end of 31st August without fail, since they have shown themselves unable to manage left to their own devices. In the case of repeat offenders Stoke they should be paying up front a bond that is only returned once all league fixtures are complete. Until this sport is run and governed professionally there is no hope. Surely any sport that professes to be professional should expect some minimum commitments shouldn't they? makes my blood boil