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THIS week's Speedway Star is its usual 48 pages plus a 24 page section from Travel Plus. How are you losing out?

I think BT coverage is far better especially with the after meeting interviews and chit chat much better than the rushed finishes with sky . Natalie is quality and whilst I admit Nigel and Kevin are too shouty, you can’t knock the enthusiasm. we should start a petition to get Floppy back I thought he was really good.

Phil you have nothing that needs defending , like you state you need the extra revenue these days to exist every publication does really can’t see where Semion is coming from as like you say the 24 page ad is an extra that doesn’t cost the customer any more! I actually find the brochure quite good toilet material once I’ve read the actual magazine content lol Despite social media and the internet in general I still enjoy my fix of my speedway star as does my son...as you know! Keep it going more of us appreciate it than those that do not

Bit of a generalisation SCB, there's plenty of pensioners on basic pension and maybe a small personal pension .....

...trouble is SCB has a fixation about ageism and raises the issue over and over again. Gets a bit tiresome after awhile.

This is the uk not poland seen it all before with polish riders!!

BUT 33% of the usual 48 pages are not devoted to adverts. It is hard enough making SS viable these days without turning away what little advertising is available.

Easy to say that but I doubt anyone would have expected KK to be so pathetic. Looking at the lineups Swindon are nowhere near strong enough to retain next season. No big improvers and no big hitting reserves. Looks like last year was a blip and its back to mediocrity for the Robins. While normal service resumed for Pirates? Looking possible.

Lakeside wanted him (and Kennett) Dont feel too sorry for them though as they simply gamzumped Berwick and Sheffield for Morris and Lawson instead and have brought in 2 reserves on out of date low averages....

I doubt that there are many rich pensioners that include speedway as an interest.. The OAP concession should remain

Here you go again SCB. You really must be a very bitter person. You are right when you say that a hell of a lot of Pensioners are well of, some of them very well off. However the obverse is also true. There are also a hell of a lot of Pensioners who are not very well off, are indeed very, very poor. Some can afford Speedway every week, but others will inevitably not be able to, and it seems that you want to make them even worse off. I doubt if there are many very well off Pensioners who attend Speedway that often so you are actually having a go at the poorer ones. Shame on you!!! You are either very bitter, very jealous or very selfish or maybe a combination of all three. Shame on you!!!

Below are Brady's scores in the Aussie Championship you claim he should be dominating, while insinuating he isn't... r1 = 3 3 DNF 3 3 FEX r2 = 3 3 3 3 3 FEX r3 = 3 3 3 3 3 2 So, he's only been beaten once in three rounds when he has completed the race. Your post on this subject is EXACTLY why people hate you on here Gavan. You are a troll and t*sser.

It's free for him to watch the Colts. A good way to get him and his mates interested.

Time to get some long trousers then !

First of all we are discussing a CL club here and no one is advocating that the NL should allow overseas riders to participate in their league. At Edinburgh, the supporters have had very few problems with the overseas guys recruited in terms of commitment. Indeed in 2016 when we ran our final home match, due to previous postponements, on 21st October , a break of 3 weeks since our last actual race meeting, our 3 Germans traveled back to honour their commitment. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of a certain English team member who threw a sickie, but was well enough to attend a social function at his EL club on the same night! Unlike the overseas riders who are prepared to commute here, we have great difficulty in attracting decent English prospects to sign on for us, usually citing our base as being too far for them to travel. So what are we supposed to do, just employ any Brit who is willing to come, irrespective of their ability? Well current & potential local supporters up here would soon lose interest if we were compelled to track cannon fodder in the name of keeping all British riders in a job. Oh and btw, our foreign guys do socialise after the meeting and our promising Aussie, Josh Pickering, stayed within a couple hundred yards of the Stadium with a local family.

A very sad and touching film that many of us ex fans of defunct clubs can relate to.

This thread is ok until gavan comes back on it then it goes into lets dig at every poole rider,you don't see any poole fans go on the Ipswich thread bleating on about how he's got beatan by him,he shudnt be beat by him hes a no1 and the other guy is a 2nd string blah blah blah why dont you focus ur attention on how ipswich are going to massive chumps again next season and win nothing again LMAO

Makes a change from you being reported eh Gavan. Considering all the abusive language and name calling you have used in the past, you really don't have a leg to stand on.

Along with his sons runs a very successful electrical business despite the awful injuries he suffered during his brilliant career which very nearly crippled him.

but he usually doesn't come back to you.

I don't think parents would be shocked at that for a one off night out. Getting them to pay it every week, however, is a different matter. But if my son was taken somewhere by his friends' parents and I was told it was 20 quid to see a live sporting event I'd pretty much expect it. I don't see why people factor food into the cost though. Just eat before you go. What's the issue? And you don't need to get a programme for every one either.

As many said, a tad dear for families, else nail hit on head. Put on more races, juniors, anything, after main 15ht match....

I see that Brady went through the card again in the latest round of the Aussie Championship. He really is a cut above the opposition in this event. Got pipped by a fast gating Holder in the final but virtually unbeatable. In fact Holder is the first rider to beat him over 4 laps this championship. The only points Brady has dropped is for an exclusion and EF. Let’s hope he comes into the speedway season over here in similar devastating form and battles to retain his number one berth.

The speedway star in my opinion is excellent value look at the prices of other sporting magazines or papers the Racing post as a example for me it should be more than 3 pound.Also the 2018 teams line up edition is a terrific read great value that certainly should be a higher price.

Sadly the same can be said about everything leisure costs a fortune these days.A few years later as an apprentice my take home pay was £10.06 a week a pint of beer was 10p so I could(not that I did) buy 100 pints with my wage.Now a pint is approx £3.00 how many apprentices take home £300.00 pounds a week. Again a few years later on full money married buying a house etc I went to football on Saturday afternoon and speedway at night and could afford both no problem.As the years have passed and my money became worthless I could not afford to do both so I had to choose I picked speedway it would seem most others stayed with football. And there lies the problem people can't afford to spend as much on leisure because it and everything else cost so bloody much and your wage goes nowhere these days.As with me a lot of people cannot do everything they want to do and have to pick and choose and it would seem speedway is lower down on peoples list than other things and in my opinion is a big reason why speedway is struggling these days.

Have you finished wiping that egg off your face from last season, Steve?

What on earth are you expecting for £3 a Book! I find the SS excellent value for money!!!

Please, please, please say it's Bridger

Because if the Brits don’t come first and we lose our British riders the national team with disappear, the profile of the sport will sink even lower, the sport won’t be able to afford the extra costs of flying in riders, our league will be at the beck and call of the foreign leagues, just like last season with Poland dictating where riders should ride, there will be less interaction between riders and potential local supporters because they will rarely be in the country, there will be less interest in a sport in which only foreigners participate, all us families who support NL riders and give our time to clubs for free will be lost to the sport ....

I think they do a good job myself.

Thing is, Pirates Bleeding Blue called Gavan out for slagging off Kurtz in the Aussie Championship. Gavan denies he did but it was clear he was having a dig at Kurtz. We all read it on here. But he had to back track and deny he was slagging Kurtz off and ‘we all read it wrong’, after Kurtz has hardly dropped a point all championship. Gavan wasn’t slagging him off after all, even though it looked to everyone else that he was, and that being beaten by a second string etc should never happen, even though it happens in virtually every meeting with any top rider. Pirate Bleeds Blue smack on the money.

Many forget how far Fricke has come in the sport for one of only 21. He has won the Aussie U21 a few times - was World U21 Champ and has also been in teams that won their respective leagues in DK/SWE & POL (Nice1), the season before last. For me just as with Brady Kurtz, people expect big things so early in their Speedway careers, sometimes using Dacy Ward as the example which for me is completely unfair as Darcy was a rare talent we many never see the likes of again. Speedway riders develop at different rates. You had one extreme with young Darcy and at the other extreme was a late developing Jason Doyle. Would anyone say 5/6/7 years ago have thought this guy would ever really be a WC (should have been twice but for injury cruelly robbing him in 2016). It doesn't mean that just because you arrive on the scene and hit the big time so young that you will in those early years be a World beater. Some riders take time to mature, and with Fricke having achieved so much at such a young age, he needs to find consistency now riding regular against the Worlds top riders. That will surely come as he rides more against them in the major leagues i.e POL/SWE/UK. Similar situation with Brady. He is kind or thrown in at the deep end at 21 as number one and personally I wish he had been just short of 8 points and a recognised heat leader like a Pawlicki (himself only 23) had been number one. The new one over 8 rule put paid to that so he is there due to circumstances. I don't expect Brady to put too much on his av this year with the addl pressures of now being regular in POL and his new venture into SWE. This is a year of hopeful improvement but more about consolidating himself against the top riders in Europe. He now has to get used to a situ like POL SUN - Poss UK meeting MON - SWE Tue - Poole,or another UK meeting WED. That in itself brings pressure so for me from a Poole perspective it is up to the other riders in 2018 to pull their weight so it doesn't all fall on his head when he has those odd difficult/bad rides which all young riders have now and then.

I can't wait to quote all these posts back to you in the future. Anybody (well... clearly not quite) can see that Kurtz has heaps of talent under his belt, he's just developing his groove. Darcy Ward was another rider who was very up and down, and he went on to be the best rider to grace a speedway bike in decades. Stop slagging the lad off and just wait and see. So boring to see you determined to bring everybody down a peg. Does your wife wear the trousers or something?

Or run a junior meeting like the Northern Junior League, and the MDL meeting, after the main meeting in meaningful matches with 4 junior riders in 6 extra heats.

I can splash some paint about on canvas. My work starts at £5million if you want to make an investment. Perhaps after we have both gone your family will see a return. They say all artist die poor lol

It’s the Aus championship! Means jack all really!! Kurtz won Aus Championship and was pretty poor that season. So doesn’t really matter

Jason yes, Morris no.

not sure he had any interest in speedway poole or other until recently

Not sure that's the fairest of comparisons, as Bartosz was riding from a very early age. His older brother also rode speedway, so probably Bartosz had a lot of help and guidance as a youngster. Also, I seem to recall hearing his father owned a speedway track (although I may be getting my Polish riders mixed up), which would have given Bartosz unlimited access to a track to ride on while he was developing. However, no doubt Zmarzlik is an exceptional talent and there are not too many of those about. I would not be unhappy to see Cuppitt return for 2018. He upped his average last year and I would be satisfied if he could do that again, even if he did not reach the 6.00 point average you suggest is his limit. Maybe, Layne is already aware of how far he feels capable of going in speedway; not every rider is going to be a grand prix star or even make the premiership. I wonder how many fans said Jason Doyle would never make a world champion when he was partying as a youngster and developing slowly in the lower leagues. I seem to recall Jason admitting it took him a while before he became totally focused on speedway and less on partying. I am sure David Mason will make his own mind up about Layne Cuppitt, having rode with him last year. If David has any doubts about his ability and commitment then we probably won't see him in the red B again.

Pretty key point, though, don't you think? If it wasn't for that I'd agree that BT is better, but that can completely wreck it. I find myself getting frustrated sometimes watching BT because of that. I never had that with Sky.

Well chuffed Stevie is back, hopefully he will put at least 0.5 points on to his average, something he is well capable of doing.

You wouldn't need to replace Hans because he wouldn't underperform, Sundstrom is much more of a risk and starts on a lower average so would have less to play with to replace on a one for one basis.

Horton did say selling assets and loan fees will help pay for riding at Leicester.

stevie deserves his place in the team and is making good progress... riding regularly in Poland will further benefit his move up the Speedway ladder. i am well pleased with his signing.

And of course following Chapmans utter condemnation of his actions Rathbone then committed an even worse sin in the eyes of the BSPA MC by winning the Fours without Jack Holder, what a kick in the nether regions that was. I am just pleased that the ACU saw through the BSPA MC and the SCB and reacted accordingly, it just remains to be seen what happens now.

Zdenek did they used to call him Kermit? he was one exciting rider i can remember on a cold i think it was a November? night at the Abbey 1979 the track was dodgy but he gave it everything he was great value.

Godfrey should have stood down, having brought the sport into disrepute ( by the standards of other sports ). But in speedway, no, you are a True Blazer Gent.

How very amusing you are.

sounds to me like he was told he could leave but would be a full transfer as he was part of the planned team and he didnt want to risk no one offering to buy his contract.. bit like Matt Ford telling holder he could leave if someone paid for him.

Skidder, are you just trying to wind Stevebrum up??? Cos it has worked!!