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No brainer, they are a must in terms of a professional image nowadays.

Line 1 - team suit cost irrelevant to rider selection. Its just a tiny fraction of the total cost of putting together a team. Line 2 - if that is the reason then it is petty and short sighted Line 3 - the two shouldnt be mutually exclusive. Both should be an automatic part of a top flight team

Exactly. Except that was a long time ago, so the point stands, the racing isn't the cause. It's the gradual decline in crowds due to lost fans due to natural wastage not being replaced by new ones. As the crowd dwindles, the atmosphere dwindles, the same race seems less exciting.. any newcomer is greeted by a less good atmosphere and doesn't get hooked into it.

Team suits all day long for me Not having them now would be a big backward step Cost is a red herring too - each suit is the equivalent of a routine service for an engine

But that becomes irrelevant when there are three guests in the team with just a similar bib but different outfits.

The second sentence reeks of the usual Poole arrogance which up to now we haven't seen from poolebolton. Hopefully its a one off.

Exclusive.....Poole pioneering the way forward for all teams to be able to sign good riders.Scrap race suits. Your first sentence was fair enough.The second,a bit childish

I could just see United turning up next weekend with Rashford in a blue shirt, Lukaku in a red shirt and Sanchez in a pink one with yellow spots with Manchester United bibs on. It just reeks of absolute unprofessionalism and something else to paint speedway as a minor unprofessional sport.

That's about the right mentality of British Speedway, the sort of thing you'd expect to hear in a year 4 art class - not a professional league full of different teams. Massive marketing opportunities missed by not having team suits and a complete amateurish feel. Teamsuits are an absolute must. I think it's poor that even some National League teams have them and they aren't being considered by some teams in the Premier League.

The first sentence is also absolute nonsense if you do abit of research online. Just because Matt Ford says it, doesn't make it gospel.

Then one day they will all be surprised when no tv company wants to pay the clubs to show it.

You’ll eat and drink like a king in Warsaw and still have some money left when back home.

Let’s hope it isn’t long before Adonis gets owned like speedibee did on the Coventry thread!!No wonder he went off into hiding.Adonis seems to have the same twatty views,so I don’t think it will be long lol

The agreement is about helping to develop youngsters at both clubs not riders unlikely to ride in the UK.

Utter guff waste of time tournament to massage a few corporate ego’s. Pointless event where fans have zero affinity to any team. Would be meaningful if club or country. As it stands, unless you are an employee, who cares?

I personally liked it before team suits more colourful what do posters think

I don't like either team suits or race jackets. There's no scope for merchandise. i.e. joe public wouldn't wear either out and about as people tend to with football/rugby/cricket/ice hockey/basketball/NFL/baseball kits. The kevlars should be considered as safety kit worn under a team shirt, that supporters could buy replicas of. I seem to remember Boro Bears (and others) trying these in the 90's but the designs were awful, they were baggy and the riders used to cut the arms off to display more sponsors so they looked shabby. Designed correctly they would be relatively inexpensive and could be made available to supporters. Got to be better than those god ugly wulfsport anoraks. Guaranteed to make any new supporter run a mile.

Hope it makes them feel better

is it for fish ???

Viktor Trofimov and Grigoriy Khlinovsky are the riders of the team "Raduga" (Rovno). Rovno/Rivne is Ukraine. In the team championship of the USSR, the team performed from 1962 to 1979. Viktor Trofimov is the only rider in Rovno who has been in the team for all 18 seasons (1962-1979). Grigoriy Khlinovsky acted in a team of 13 seasons (1966, 1968-1979).

Team suits for league racing, no question.

Guests should now be a lot less with the fixture list being sorted and anybody missing should be replaced with R/R. The idea of black bottoms a few years ago was much better and team shirts are used to keep them in keeping if guests are used. How hard can it be??

Sugarray has also said about it on the Poole thread, who is usually very reliable with his information. I can't imagine Jason Doyle really cares about what other teams are wearing other than his own team.

maybe not win it but will still finish higher than you

Sounding very bitter and jealous poolebolton

For whom? For a private promoter and maybe 18 riders going through the motions in a utterly pointless event?

Pros & cons with either I think: 1. Nothing worse than having 5 suited & your other riders 2 wearing colours of another teams. 2. Suits not good when both teams look identical. 3. Suits not so good when identifying visiting riders - or even your own! 4. Suits of the same team can look completely different when made by different manufacturers. 5. Riders race numbers are often hard to see on race suits & often in different colours for the same team. 6. With no team suits this could give a riders a fantastic marketing opportunity i.e. Ray Wilson with Bostic - I still remember that after how many years?

Teaming up with Wroclaw is a good step forward for both clubs. Perhaps there could be a Colts v Wroclaw's junior side

Have that programme Steve Australia v Poland a really good line up Boulger,Airey,Curtis, Monk for the Aussies Plech,Zancarz, Mucha,Jerzy S. one ride got injured and Henryk RIP who scored 3.

Eventually the law pinned something on the serial dodgy dealer.. https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/invaro-collapse-businessman-terry-lindon-3349013

i'm doing 4 nights/5 days and don't speak Polish, did 3 last year and all fine. with regards to DECENT seats, you'll get right at the top as that is all that will be left

The Captains of Both Teams still have to sign that they have all been paid whilst they have ridden for their own Team or unpaid by other teams when they have been riding away or in Individuals

I love watching at Somerset, great shape for great racing. When I've been there, which is quite a lot, the surface complemented the shape.

Your prerogative but this defeats the purpose in enticing new fans and indeed fans who stopped going for whatever reason. I know of no long term fans who abused this last season as we all recognise the bigger picture in what is trying to be achieved , but to say why should I pay because someone new is getting in for nothing is slightly narrow minded in what we are trying to achieve.

Thanks Losthammer. I have the feeling that I will end up getting Eleven too.

Owing money is alleged to be commonplace in which case there could be several clubs 'not allowed to run' in 2018.

Yep - free channel available on everything bar Virgin (at the moment).

It was also predicatble in the 70's when England were winning in 1971-72-73-75- 77, or Denmark for that matter in the 80's Why nobody objected then that one country was winning year after year

Those were great times when International speedway teams were touring Australia One of the most amazing tours ever was in 1990-91 the visit of the USSR national speedway team. They rode mostly against Australian State sides, and with great success. Here You can find all the results of this tour http://www.internationalspeedway.co.uk/ausvsu.htm After their first seven matches in Queensland and the Northern Territory the Russians were still undefeated with six wins and a draw, when tehy came to face New South Wales at the Newcastle Motodrome. This meeting is on YouTube and You may follow the link below to watch all the action (60 minutes) of this 15 Heat International Challenge. [media] NEW SOUTH WALES v U.S.S.R. 1990 International Solo Speedway Teams Challenge Newcastle Motodrome, NSW, Australia Line-ups NEW SOUTH WALES 1 - Todd WILTSHIRE 2 - Sean WILLMOTT 3 - Mick POOLE 4 - Craig BOYCE 5 - Stephen DAVIES 6 - Chris WATSON 7 - Darren ETHERIDGE U.S.S.R. 1 - Rif SAITGAREEV 2 - Mikhail STAROSTIN 3 - Vladimir TROFIMOV 4 - Viktor GAJDYM 5 - Rene AAS 6 - Oleg KURGUZKIN 7 - Rinat MARDANSHIN I really enjoyed this historic piece of Australian speedway coverage - what a shame that we don't get to see such International tours and challenge matches any more.

Igor Plechanov - probably the best ever Rider not to have ridden in the British League.. Rune Holta Grigori Khlinovsky Victor Trofimov Valery Gordeev Honourable mention Aleksandr Pavlov. Edit: Must stop repeating myself.

1. Igor Plechanov 2. Emil Sayfutdinov 3. Gennady Kurilenko 4. Boris Samorodov 5. Grigory Khlinovsky

I really felt he could of won in 75 but the Russian Trofimov pushed him into third place in his first ride and that scuppered his chances.I think his temperment was superb a great style and the Reading side with Michanek,Lovass Curtis in it was some team.

Michanek could of won the title three times in 73 he was superb,74 he won it and in 75 after his third place behind the russian Trofimov he recovered well.

Here are some notable oldies active in 2015/16: Shawn McConnell 26-4-59 - riding regularly at Costa Mesa and Industry, including one round of AMA National Championship. 4th in US National Championship Bob Hicks 29-10-64 - regular at Auburn and Industry Charlie Venegas 12-2-67 - 11th in AMA National Championship Bart Bast 4-6-67 - Auburn track champion, 8th in AMA National Championship this year Piotr Swist 20-6-68 (1994 World Finalist, still rides regularly in Nce Speedway League - Poland's second division) Peter Karlsson 17-12-69 - EL and Elitserien (oldest active rider in both) Matias Kroger 24-5-69 (ever present for Brokstedt in Bundesliga for whom he has ridden for 26(?) seasons) Sandor Tihanyi 28-4-63 - ridden in SEC qualifyer and a couple of other meetings in Hungary this year Vladimir Trofimov 28-1-62 - rode in Ukraine last season (his father Viktor was a double world finalist and carried on riding until age 57) Alexandu Toma 10-6-68 - had a farewell meeting last season, but has continued riding in Romanian Championship this season Marian Gheorge 11-10-57 - currently second in Romanian Championship to Adrian Gheorge (his son?) and has ridden in Swedish league One a couple of times this year) Imre Fogas snr 8-9-56 - Hungarian but rides in Romania where he is currently 6th in national championship Arnt Forland 10-7-64 - Norwegian who rode in Swedish League One on a Swedish licence last year.

The seeding often compounded the unfairness in that despite gifting places to a nations riders it often denied a fair qualifying process Take 1972, GB were given 5 places at Wembley that year but back then the Aussies and Kiwi's were under the GB banner so we had Mauger, Briggs, Nigel and Eric Boocock, Terry Betts, John Louis, Ray Wilson, John Boulger, Jim Mcmillan, a young Collins and Jessup all vieing for those 5 places. Dam good riders simply had to not qualify and yet in the final we had the might of Anatolij Kuzmin, Alexander Pavlov, Gregorij Khlynovski, Viktor Trofimov, Viktor Kalmykov. And people (well only Ian and Derek) seem to think it was in some way fair.

This is a great thread everybody's comments are interesting-here is my two cents. While indeed Trofimov put Michanek in third place in the critical heat with Olsen in 1975 World Final(I wuz there ref.!!!!)-he still ended up with only 8 pts. Not knocking it , just commenting -as regards the 2 Gordeevs(also great) could never figure out who was who-god bless 'em. Great to see Kadirov's name mentioned-is he still with us?? How about somebody taking a shot at the top 5 CANADIAN riders.Are you there Tiger Tom-clearly Eric Chitty is #1-perhaps Jimmy Gibb #2. Can't think of many others-wait a minute -Shane Legault, Mike Tims(R.I.P.)- Dave Dodd- should Stan Bradbury get a mantion-after all he is now a Canuck like me........

Could well have been Trofimov, I was only about 8 years old at the time. I read somewhere that one of the Ruskies was a big badge collector, maybe a few of them were? What great names though, Tofimov, Gordeev, etc, etc, names that will stick in my mind forever.

You're right!! It's my week for getting things wrong !! Yes, 'twas Viktor. Two of his team mates at the magnificent White City that afternoon (got all their autographs in my prog!!) WERE Vladimirs..: Paznikov (who I really can't recall anything else about.. ) and one of the two famous Gordeev brothers in the team, who made several World Finals (the younger one was Valeri); plus another rider who did well in a couple of WFs (indeed flirting with winning it in '73), Grigori Khlinovsky.

Remember meeting Vladimir Trofimov at White City (WTC Final '76) and he gave me a load of Soviet Speedway (and other) badges which was very nice of him. He was IMO the top USSR rider of his day and with a bit more luck could've moved just one notch up and made a World Championship rostrum. Any news of what he's up to now..??

Does anyone else remember when that fabulous Russian international side toured the UK in the mid-sixties? I saw them ride in Edinburgh (I think it was 1964, but it could have been 1965). It was a memorable experience, largely because they looked so different to the home riders. For a start, they all rode ESO machines, at a time when the Brits were all on JAPs. They had clip-on handlebars, which we had never seen before. They wore two-piece leathers. The team included, from memory, Igor Plechanov (a man with a constant smile and enormous speedway talent), Gab Kadirov, Gennady Kurilenko, Yuri Chekranov, Viktor Trofimov and, perhaps the hardest man in speedway at that time, Boris Samorodov. At that time nobody ever went to Russia - certainly it was about fifteen years more before I did. The Russian team manager was invited to introduce his team to the crowd, which he did in a very formal way... "Mr Plechanov, Mr Samorodov etc." I suppose none of us had ever seen a Russian before, and we were all left desperately looking forward to them coming back again.