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Chill out Dave , championships and cups are won with on track performances , not on what peoples opinions are as Ipswich and Peterborough fans found out in the 2017 k/o cup final.

Personally any decision that effectively stops British riders from riding in a British league is fundamentally wrong, especially when these riders don’t ride abroad. it will be interesting this year to see how many Championship riders doubling up miss meetings in the UK because of riding commitments abroad. As has been said before if they don’t want riders over 6 in the Premiership riding in the Championship then they should make the rule across the board and stop everyone over that average, the fact that they haven’t just highlights the complete inconsistencies of the BSPA.

There is but people keep going on and on and on about the whole VFM thing, we've had three months of it. The promotion can't put anything right until the season starts and meetings take place, so how about a bit of positivity until then? This thread has had far too much negativity on it. And just to say I am not somebody who can't see any wrong in what the club does, if the racing is crap and meetings drag on until 10pm I won't be going much either. But the constant whinging is wearing a little thin.

I think the BSPA have actually made two very bold and correct decisions recently (Nicholls/Kennett and Byron Becker). Their problem is not properly explaining their decision-making process and logic to the public.

Probably because they were laughing so much (like the rest of us) when bringing in the ringer for the playoffs spectacularly backfired

Only in Shovlers dreams

ah but is Kurtz better than Morris

1.Leicester 2.Belle Vue 3.Somerset 4.Rye House 5.Poole 6.Wolverhampton 7.Kings Lynn 8.Swindon

Their problem is making 'knee-jerk' decisions and not communicating them to the people it directly affects - as well as the fans. Nothing wrong with the decisions - just wrong in the timing and implementation. Anything affecting a rider's livelyhood should give suitable notice.

They're there with their opinions.

I agree rider fitness and bonding is very important - the bit the promotion seem to ignor is they have major bridge building job with fans who walked away including me last season - so far they’ve done nothing to make me want to return. Probably the oppersit by the £1 increase in admission. But as you say over the first month or so of the season will see how things go .

Yep, not interested

I’ll be off to this year’s Celebration of Speedway as it is an enjoyable day out. But I do have reservations over the price that has increased to £10 per person this year. If I am correct the event was originally free if you produced a copy of the Speedway Star advert. Then I recall it became a voluntary donation, then it was £5 and now it’s up to a tenner. Prices for drinks and food aren’t exactly cheap either and I’m sure they would still make money by charging less. I fully except the admission price to walk around the Wildlife Park is considerably more but not everyone wants to walk around the park as nice as it is and especially if the weather is inclement! I’m sure there are people who take advantage of the cheap price on the day to use all the facilities on site but as I say not everyone want to use them. Surely the Speedway Star idea should still be used? I do think the event is now becoming a money earner for the park. Does money on the day go to the World Speedway Riders Association, to the park, the speedway museum [is that part of the World Speedway Riders Association?] or do they all benefit? Maybe as an olden these days on a pension I expect too much. High Beach the spiritual home of the first meeting did outgrow its self but it would have been an idea perhaps to have something there this year as after all it is speedways 90th anniversary.

Never have so few got it so wrong so often to the detriment of so many

I think he's at Polonia Pila in 2018.

Boomerang must know with his vast knowledge of the sport. More hot dinners and all that!!!

After a long wait, Stoke have a real no 1 in :Max Clegg

Surely if that was the case he would be riding here too

check your previous post! Byron is an ex Scorpion & is from South Africa.

Shanes v Shanes - 2018 would be an upgrade. Need to factor that in as well

You must keep up Dave

So if we find another potential world champion Dane like Nikki P on 5.2 we have 8.31 for a number 1. Sounds like a plan.

Rubbish. If he had wanted to return there’s no way cvs would have chosen Thorsel over Woffinden. Woffinden is not interested in supporting either the league that taught him to ride, or his country. Only interest he has is money all the way. No loyalty whatsoever to anything to do with the UK. I really hope the BSPA only conider British riders who are riding in the Premier league when making their choices for the world pairs this season.

Lindgren was 100% at fault. Take the blinkers off.

If that's the case then it's a bad decision which is at least consistent with the awful decisions that caused the situation.

Not impressed by the Poole side at all to be honest.. id actually fancy Ryes chances down there

why , what happened @ Leicester city then ?

Martin Vaculik and ANO for Slovakia

Hungary were traditionally a better team than anyone else,but not sure of their current strength.They didn't even enter the Euro pairs,so maybe have few riders or no money

I wasn't saying that you are one if the whingers, merely following on your point with one of my own. There is a difference between constructive criticism and moaning, and over this winter it's been easy to pick the moaning out as the same points have been made several times over three months. There is positive stuff going on at the club yet people would rather make the same negative points ad nauseum. Would be interesting to know if anybody has approached the club directly concerning the VFM issue.

Just need to find the cowboy and the construction worker now.....

The problem with the top 2 teams from last season (Swindon and Wolves) is that they look weak at reserve this season. Only time will tell if the teams that start the season are the ones to finish it.

I think predictions are a bit of time filling fun and nothing to get uptight about. Remember that girly sport football? Just remember Leicester City.

I switched to Virgin get Bt in the package Internet phone 2 years fixed £80 a month that includes 3 boxes and they cover any breakdown

Remember the days when riders used to have witty phrases written on their 'derriere.'. Match the rider to the phrase. Some are easy, some not so much.. 1. summer job - Mark Loram 2. slave - Joe Screen 3. see ya - Kelly Moran 4. Jay De - John Davis 5. ugly kid Joe - Joe Screen 6. Face - Craig Boyce 7. No Guts, No Glory - Tony Rickardsson 8. son of the animal - Jason Crump 10. Goal - Tomasz Gollob 10. Hi-Oh Silver - Andrew Silver 11. flick the bitch - Paul Whittaker I remember Alan Grahame having 'Big Al' on his after he beat cancer...Which he certainly was.

Trials tyres have been tubeless and run at even lower pressures for a while now. Different to speedway admittedly but they take some serious abuse

Never have so few got it so wrong so often to the detriment of so many

The classic bit about Torquay is that why on earth would Osbourne want to be a football chairman ! he has little love for any sport at all ...how times can this bloke keep pulling the same strokes at every sports venture he is involved in ..but still no matter how many times he does it you still have people believing him when he puts out yet another false statement ...I find it completely amazing . And even worst you have people high up in Swindon having a go at any supporter whe dares to doubt Osborne Clark ! and even worst is how the local media have let him off lightly when they taking him to task and start asking questions ..

Hopefully he rams it in your faces like last time

Well rightly or wrongly I have recontracted for BT sport again I am a BT phone and Broadband customer so get it for £7.50 a month to receive it on Sky. If they do show the League I may consider upgrading to HD. OK it seems a lot a month but then BT sport do at last show other motor-cycling and motor racing as well as speedway. I may consider even ditching Sky Sports as they are just ball crazy and dumped speedway last year and did not even bother to update their website and no longer even mention speedway at all http://www.skysports.com/speedway/news

DON'T agree ... better team riding under the conventional scoring system. Ridiculous to have race in which the winner is actually the loser... in my opinion.

that scoring system favours sitting in 2nd/3rd and blocking the 4th rider. BORING

Exciting news with a speedway flag only means one thing. The BSPA have buckled.

I WOULD imagine that they will be the tyres supplied free of charge, as Mitas did previously. But riders can use any homologated tyre at their own expense.

I have to agree with some others that Jason Doyle is a great marketing addition to the Benevolent Fund meeting and my admiration for him has grown over the last few years, especially to come back from the horrific injuries of 2016, when he surely would have been World Champion without them. He now reminds me, to a degree, of the great Ivan Mauger, who came to the UK as a young man and didn't make it, so he went home and practised and came back a few years later with the determination to succeed at the highest level. Doyle has shown those characteristics since his move away from Poole and the Party Scene, realising the need to put in the hard graft. What I think is very commendable is that he rode for a few months with a broken right foot, not just in the Grand Prix and World Cup but also for his league clubs in different countries, this again reminded me of Ivan Mauger, who rode for virtually a whole season with a broken scaphoid in each hand and still fulfilled all his commitments. Ask any speedway rider how hard it is to ride with one broken scaphoid, let alone two! So, Hat Off to Jason Doyle his commitment to UK speedway and hope he has a very successful year in 2018.

But if the championship had implemented 2 reserves must be English it would surely help? It’s no good teams giving riders a few meetings then getting rid of them that’s not going to help them at all. You have people like Todd Kurtz and Mason Campton have they ever averaged more than 6 in the whole time they’ve been here? Joe Jacobs his average rises every season and Ellis Perks was outstanding for the best part of last season but both don’t have clubs why is that? You can’t say it’s because there not as good as the two aussies why not give Perks & jacobs half the chance both of the aussies have had.

The situation that Jake Knight and numerous other riders find themselves in is 99% due to allowing riders to race for more than one team. Speedway has had absolutely no benefit from this and all it has done is reduce the number of team places available. Most people agree that the leading National League riders should be looking to move up to the next lever, but how can they if 30plus riders are now riding for two teams? Those riders who keep trying to convince us that they must have two teams "to make it pay" should stop for a moment and think of the riders such as Jake Knight etc, that they have deprived of one team place - because they have two! This situation will only get worse until or unless the BSPA see where it is leading us and have the courage to scrap doubling-up.

And I thought you were numerate and understood statistical distributions. A very poor attempt to justify your wildly inaccurate statement.

Newcastle, surely 29.10 with 13.40 remaining.

Hey that's me with added intelligence