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With the end of the season just around the corner I would like to thank Sue and her very special team for the magnificent service that they provide. For many many years we've maybe taken the updates site for granted, but believe me each and every texter and updater, and Sue's right hand people are really appreciated. Thank you guys

Everyone knows we were fortunate, if thats the right way to put it,' with the injuries to the other teams riders at critical times. All credit must go to both Somerset and KIngs Lynn for taking the semi and Final to the last races. I am in no doubt we almost quite literally rode our luck.

Agreed. It was a point made very eloquently several months ago in the Speedway Star by GP race director Phil Morris. One of the real positives speedway has over other motorsports is that there is general parity over the equipment used...and so rider skill is paramount. I've no doubt Tai Woffinden has the very best gear, so too will all the rest of the top riders. As they have done throughout speedway history. It isn't the case that Woffinden has a Ferrari, whilst the rest have Saubers (or whatever the current crappy F1 team is?!). Even if it were the case, he has earned the right to have the best equipment by being the best rider. Does anyone think Jawa, GM or the top tuners were falling over themselves to help him ahead of his first title in 2013 when he was a rank outsider going in? No chance. He's dedicated, he backed himself and he's reaping the rewards. One of the aspects of him that I admire most is that he has the ability to really be as one with the machine. In contrast to say, a Nicki Pedersen, who really has to fight with the bike, at his best Tai Woffinden really flows with his machine as if they are one and the same.

What was most annoying about that meeting was that after all the efforts to return the track back a decent condition, it was the actions of a few riders... namely Palm Toft (Scun) and Ostergaard (Peterboro) that put an end to the meeting. Rider power at its best.. my biggest gripe about the sport.

How dare you!!!!! - mentioning Cami brown in the same post as all those Tigers' greats

Are we gonna have to put up with this carp until next March! and they wonder why people get sick of (some) Poole fans.

An argument that makes absolutely no sense at all. Equipment is irrelevant as they have the same access as their rivals in whatever era they were in... in terms of speedway anyway. In fact it could easily be argued that far more riders have top notch equipment these days than in the past.

Regarding the comets fixture pile up, how about this, comets were the 1st to qualify for the shield then had to wait to see who it is against, the comets were the 1st to qualify for the KO cup and had to wait to see who we were against, and finally the comets are the 1st to qualify for the playoffs and we are still waiting to see who we ride against, Who are in the wrong now ps what happens if the weekend of the 27 + 28th and the following few days are wet ??

I would suggest that if you don't enjoy watching Woffy, Zmarzlik,Emil or the likes of Bewley and Lambert, then the issue isnt that the riders are not as exvitimg as they used to be but that you no longer enjoy the sport. Which then baffles me as to why you would spend time on a speedway forum. My favourite riders will always be Ross, Mort, PC, Smudger and the Moran brothers. But it doesn't stop me from enjoying the riders of today. I'm sure Bewitcher would argue that Ermolenko is the most exciting rider of all time. But he's not going to argue that that makes modern riders dull, or that Ronnie Correy was better than Greg Hancock

Matt Ford will stay unless a buyer can be found.

I didn't think the SoN averages were particularly valuable, especially as they don't include bonus points but some were using them to justify a riders inclusion. Had Poland used Zmarzlik rather than Dudek, they may have won. I don't particularly like him as a rider nor do I think that he'll ever make a World Championship podium again, but Hampel was 2nd in the rankings in 2015 when he got injured after 3 GP's. He finished higher in the SEC in 2018 than Sayfutdinov & Lindback. Only being Polish has meant he hasn't got a permanent WC pick.

Welcome back THJ..........you make good reading....or there again it's scary stuff for us Comets devotees. Three finals with no time to arrange them all.....with important team members not going to be available? It should never be like this............but speedway is in a league of it's own when it comes to self destruction.

Main talking point has to be the removal of Chapman and Godfrey

This is the point, nobody is criticising it. The point is though, if the league was split up more back in those days, lets say with an 8 team top league and the other teams in lower leagues it wouldn't be remembered as being anywhere near as strong.

Woah Woah Woah, steady on here! All modern riders are dull compared to Sudden Sam.. and as for Hancock being compared to Rocket Ronnie, Greg isn't fit to clean his boots

Throwing money at the wrong riders even less so. I dont think the throwing money at riders really applies outside the top two. We allegedly said no to Lunna for this season as he asked for more money to cover his increased flight costs as we were changing race days to Fridays. The problems for this season were there from day one when the manager chucked it after the first meeting. That unsettled Worrall who went on a woeful run of form, in part at being under constant pressure in 13 & 15 to make up for the shortfall in points from Harris. Lewis Kerr and Vissing thankfully covered our arse in the early meetings but both started to tail off in early June. As well as yielding little points at the top of the team, the same was true at the bottom as Jack Thomas struggled with the big step up from NL and Sarjeant often could have got the same points sitting in the house, particularly at home. The home thrashing by Workington and unforgiveable defeat to an average Edinburgh in May underlined the fragility of the 1-7, but wasnt a surprise if you attended the home meetings to that point. It was widely speculated we tried to replace Harris in May and June to no avail. He was embarrassing at points, with unreliable machinery and perhaps worst of all, a lack of fight. An already poor season got worse when Paul Starke tried to ride through injury in May & June, and Kerr got injured at the end of June. It meant r/r required Sarjeant to take at least two of his rides, and he couldnt even cover his own rides. The team had no chance of making the playoffs until Kerr and Worrall made way for Cook and Nathan Greaves in mid July. Despite only riding 8 meetings Cook had an immediate impact and Harris finally started scoring. It was enough for us to scrape into the playoffs with that holy grail of away wins but ultimately not enough to make the final. Stewart Dickson wont be there next year so the mental policy of having a stellar top five and whoever will fit for the reserves hopefully cant happen again. Its never worked for us previously. The marquee signing of Harris promised much but delivered little and can only be described a spectacular failure, as Sarjeant too. Whatever the league structure for 2019, we know what hasnt worked, its time to learn from it and not make those same signing mistakes again. A bit of continuity may also serve us better than another sweep out.

You want 10+ riders? Simple. Merge the two leagues and use exactly the same ridrrs as rode in the UK this year and have a race format where the number ones meet only once. All of a sudden, the likes of Josh Bates and Stefan Nielsen become third heatleaders. So most number ones are nailed on 10 point riders. It doesn't make the league any stronger. It would actually be weaker teams than we have now.

THJ , your ideas have a lot of merit , but for something like that to work , the governing body ( especially the second half of your season ) has to take charge and take away the organising of fixtures from the clubs . They have to implement the fixture list to suit the competion not the clubs themselves . If riders are missing for whatever reason , too bad deal with it .

Before we start looking ahead to 2019 as we dont know the league structure or points limit we will be involved with , it's time to look back on what was a generally frustrating 2018 . Rightly or wrongly installed as title favourites , things didnt quite go to plan as well as we hoped . The championship shield section looked to be at our mercy after victory at Armadale , but the home thumping by Workington cost us qualification and served notice that we werent as good as we were beginning to think we were . We then contrived to throw away a KO Cup tie against Edinburgh which we were in complete control of , while the league campaign had it's ups and downs . Strong enough at home , but generally disappointing away from Ashfield . We did make it into the play offs only to come up just short against our Cumbrian nemesis . As for the riders - Craig Cook - easily the best rider in the league and a joy to watch . Would even say he's better round Ashfield than Shane Parker in his pomp . Chris Harris - much excitement at his signing last winter , but overall he has been a big disappointment . Claus Vissing - started the season well , but his form definitely dipped as the season progressed . Paul Starke - again started the season well before he got injured in the home meeting against Sheffield at the beginning of May , Took a long time to get over that and his scoring suffered , but he did return to sonething like his old self towards the end of the campaign . James Sarjeant - we hoped he would turn out to be the free scoring reserve every title challenger needs , but that never looked like happening . Jack Thomas - all riders stepping up from the NL can struggle , but there is definite potential there . Nathan Greaves - got injured too soon after signing to be judged fairly . Ritchie Worrall - been fantastic for us since arriving from Somerset , but this season he just didnt look the same rider . Lewis Kerr - the shining light of early season meetings , unfortunate his season was cruelly brought to an early end . A season of just coming up short when it mattered , we shall see what 2019 brings .

You could be right, Poole had no Holder all season!!....

Here's some (all within my 50+ years of spectating)! Brian Brett, Peter Craven, Nigel Boocock, Eric Boocock, Ray Wilson, Terry Betts, Kenny Carter, Simon Wigg, Malcolm Simmons, John Louis, Dave Jessup, Les Collins, Kelvin Tatum And before you ask, by gold medals I meant World Individual Speedway titles, those things which Tai has more of (3) than the others It was common place for riders to maintain their bikes themselves, or with the help of a mechanic - a far cry from what Tai has at his disposal

Very happy Robert Lambert steps up, more invaluable experience for the guy.

oooops, i was very wrong, Lambert is staying in Lublin and will ride in Ekstraliga in 2019 confirmation -

To the victor go the spoils, and that includes bragging rights

Let's just hope his recovery goes well, and he is in good shape come tapes up in 2019 ....

There should be a mandate for all clubs to finish there league season by the end of august leaving all of September for play offs and any cup action when normally you would expect the weather to be a little more helpful and October should only be used as an emergency fall back period it makes sense to try and draw fans in with prospects of warmer weather and daylight travelling. Yes you are correct it is a shambles but when have the BSPA done anything to improve the sport regarding fixtures which after accepting they then want to get them cancelled because it suits there individual needs as opposed to doing what is right and proper thing to do

At least the Wucky fans knew what Tosh was trying to say in the Workington have meetings on Friday & Saturday but just got them wrong way round. Probably thought Workington would get their way & ride on their "main" "alternative" night first. Now awaiting replies or likes from the "sister witches" or "scarra". See you soon, weather permitting, on the 26th, 27th or 28th.

Woffinden is certainly the best rider since his first title. But in a room of ugly people, there has to be the prettiest one.

Think you are right however there looked to be more fans in total at the Workington meeting than the Glasgow one. From where I was in the pits it didn't look like there was over 600 fans in at Ashfield and they seemed somewhat subdued, but appreciate it is deceiving, and there must have been double the fans travelled to Derwent Park than went the other way. It needs to be said both clubs have a good away following and it does make for a better meeting when you have fans from both sides cheering their side on Regards THJ

Well some plans for 2019 must already be in place as some riders are already being contacted!!!

Horse and Cart, Cart and Horse - If Harris had put in proper commitment at Rye House then maybe just maybe the club would have kept the number of fans from the previous year and then the club would not have closed and then he would have earned more. But without tracks there is NO earnings for riders so promote your sport lads or get a part-time job to support your hobby. NO RIDER HAS A DIVINE RIGHT TO RIDE FULL TIME UNLESS THE SPORT MAKES ENOUGH MONEY TO SUPPORT THEM TO DO SO (i.e Grasstrack)

As it stands at present if Ty doesn't reach the number of points required in the Lakeside league match to take his average above 7 then he will potentially need to go home to race in the Australian championships and if he does need to go home along with Mason then both will be deemed to be with-holing their services and Workington will receive a facility as per the rule book. So rider average or average + 5% at home for each rider. However the added problem to this is most riders have packed up for the season so the choice of guest is severely limited and of course next year the two returning Aussie riders (should they qualify) will receive 28 day bans for the start of next season. However there will be (sorry Jenga) ""more to follow" on this as I can see it developing further and the league match has to run no matter how meaningless people perceive this meeting to be. Eh!!! considering the Scottish Cup was a "meaningless match" on Friday the 5th of October and then Glasgow flatly refused to come to Workington on Saturday the 6th of October "surely" it would have made more sense to have the Play Off matches that weekend, especially when it was warm and sunny allowing Workington another weekend to fit their fixtures in, or at least the 6th at Derwent Park and the one meeting on Sunday the 14th at Ashfield rather than Glasgow prevaricating and procrastinating trying to "buy time" for an injured rider, on an ever diminishing time scale, but alas time stops for no man and certainly cant be bought. Isn't Karma a bitch!!!. Pity the match wasn't run the previous week in the sunshine without the track pre-soaking and who knows the result may have been totally different as the weather had a major bearing on both meetings in my opinion. However on a glorious late Autumn day up at Ashfield which was more like a "Tatty Field" with deep wet shale on a heavily rutted surface, that at one point, this wet shale built up and stuck so fast behind Rasser's spark plug that it pushed the cap off causing his engine failure, and caused most of the riders no amount of problems with the "grippy" surface. Then back to Derwent Park that due to its clay make up meant that the surface was really slick and resulted in a "gater's" paradise with all the riders chasing the same line which definitely impacted on the result But then again as this only happens in British speedway LOL here's an daft idea!!! Due to Glasgow not accepting any of the dates proposed by Workington and they will potentially be the main reason "the actual league match didn't go ahead" and "Worky who would undoubtedly face sanctions for not finishing their matches in a competition in which they reached the final without having to have completed all their league matches" Glasgow can meet any sanctions or fines levied eh? now that's fair isn't it? Regards THJ

Tbh i thought it read like an essay someone had churned out for a school project. I sincerely hope noone paid for it. It reccomended a marketing strategy imo at least a decade out of date, albeit that representing an improvement on status quo. And contradicted itself by stressing the importance of improving skills by racing atvthe highest level, then recommending further dilution of the top flight strength. How that would help the likes of Lambert and Bewley I have no idea. And the idea of removing both guest and r/r facilities in case of injuries. Going to be great for crowds when a visiting number 1 Is replaced by a NL reserve...

I've asked that question too , but it seems not . Had to be a rider from a non qualifying team , even if one of the top 4 is out . That only applies to your title play off final though

I am surprised you would want Iversen back after the playoff farce. The most important night in the history of KL and he accepts a meeting in Poland !! Cost you the championship.

No qualms about your above comment MPT was the main reason we are out of k/o cup for his performance at Scunthorpe as much the same reason for Ostergaard in the home meeting they both had shockers but congratulations on reaching the final as you proved to be the better side over the two legs and deserve to be there.

Danny has just tweeted that he's had his operation, all went well, surgeons happy.

Selling any Speedway track as a going concern will be like selling a shop currently sat in any one of hundreds of dilapidated high streets, precincts and parades around the country... You will be selling that business surrounded by dusty window fronted shops displaying signs saying 'closed', 'for rent' or 'for sale'.. With several more, who are still open, displaying 'everything must go' and 'closing down' signs. With the actual building itself, in line with virtually every other building adjacent, having an interior and exterior that's hardly changed in the past fifty years.. And if you do consider purchasing the business, your planned opening hours, a fundamental part of your business plan, have to be agreed to by the businesses adjacent and by your employees who will tell you when they are available... Hardly going to inspire you to invest in a location or business like that is it..?

More to follow

If the promoters do feel like that and they don't relish the competition then they don't deserve to be in the competition

Seriously, though, and this isn't a criticism of Tai, but to say he is the best British rider simply because he has won more world titles is like saying Shaddup Your Face, Joe Dolce, is a better record than Ultavox's Vienna because it kept it off the number one spot for weeks in 1981. You can't really compare how many titles a rider has to him being better than another rider. You have to look at it more broadly. Tai is very good. But... and it's just my opinion, there isn't that much out there to beat.

That’s something that never crossed my mind but I did get some real grief off 1 Carmarthen fan when I rode for England in a 4tt Against Wales lol

Honestly Tried to make this as easy as possible to read but stick with it (the worlds longest post) The key points for me; and this is my personal opinion; the following is only the idea to try find a consensus. You need a structure that everyone can see and build teams to compete in. No one wants to go into the top league so there is that issue for a start and there is the perceived imbalance in the second tier, also I haven't even looked at any other suggestions such as rule changes and limitations as I believe taking out rules rather than adding them in, you cant cheat if there isn't a rule there to break. To me there are 3 Team Options to discuss if we need to propose a change from 7 man teams 5 man format 15 heat rigid 6 man format 15 heat rigid 6 man format 12 heat rigid + last 3 heat multiple choice rider selections to give 15 heats This is pretty straight forward I would suggest Once there has been a decision on the team/race format you need a league structure For the League Structure in my humble opinion there are 3 Options 1 big league (Simple enough however I believe the weaker teams crowds will crash if in the bottom 3 or 4 of the league but riders averages will level out) 2 leagues on a who fancies going up basis with riders on differing averages between leagues and the possibility of doubling up/down (So no change really)(and no real volunteers to go into the top league) 2 leagues on a single league format (eh!) no doubling up or down no average off sets or formulas (The cream will rise to the top but something to keep weaker teams viable) The meat of the proposal is as follows for Option 3 above for two leagues; which sounds complicated but it’s not it’s just one big league split in two. TWO DIVISIONS NORTH AND SOUTH - BASED ON 9 TEAMS IN EACH REGIONAL DIVISION NORTHERN DIVISION SOUTHERN DIVISION 1 Belle Vue Aces King's Lynn Stars 2 Berwick Bandits Somerset Rebels 3 Workington Comets Swindon Robins 4 Glasgow Tigers Poole Pirates 5 Edinburgh Monarchs Wolverhampton Wolves 6 Scunthorpe Scorpions Leicester Lions 7 Newcastle Diamonds Lakeside Hammers 8 Sheffield Tigers Peterborough Panthers 9 Redcar Bears Ipswich Witches Above as an exercise is based loosely on final league positions and this forms the first part of the season to get us to the serious competition stages (and of course if we believe all that we read this may not be the list of teams starting next year) Two leagues form up as Regional Divisions so the money spinner local derbies should encourage fans to travel and the meetings are as follows (Note: This does not include any local challenge matches and only the base line of competitive fixtures) (No end-of or pre-season friendlies included) GUARANTEED FIXTURES (FOR TWO REGIONAL DIVISIONS OF 9); TWO DIVISIONS OF 9 = 16 DIVISIONAL MEETINGS; 8 HOME 8 AWAY THE SEASON STARTS 22ND MARCH AND ENDS 30TH JUNE FOR ALL REGIONAL DIVISION FIXTURES (Final Divisional places dictate which League you go into for the second part of the season) After the first half of the season the better teams will obviously rise to the top positions in each Division as above and the split takes place as follows TOP FOUR FROM EACH REGIONAL DIVISION GO INTO PREMIERSHIP LEAGUE 1 THE REMAINDER INTO CHAMPIONSHIP LEAGUE 2 PREMIERSHIP League 1 1 Belle Vue Aces 2 King's Lynn Stars 3 Berwick Bandits 4 Somerset Rebels 5 Workington Comets 6 Swindon Robins 7 Glasgow Tigers 8 Poole Pirates CHAMPIONSHIP League 2 1 Edinburgh Monarchs 2 Wolverhampton Wolves 3 Lakeside Hammers 4 Ipswich Witches 5 Scunthorpe Scorpions 6 Newcastle Diamonds 7 Leicester Lions 8 Peterborough Panthers 9 Sheffield Tigers 10 Redcar Bears So the second part of the season pans out to end up with the play off teams in both leagues with competition and interest for maximum periods. The theory being meetings should be closer as the strong teams will have split out into the top league and play each other. No doubling up or down or across as you don’t know where you will end up for the second half of the season. Everything is geared to competitiveness and keeping matches as close as possible. It also ensures that the perceived top riders/teams are meeting in the Premiership over the season. It should take the fear factor out of the clubs (northern clubs especially) to go up as travel is minimised (still retaining the regional money generators first half of the season and only 7 away fixtures (4 potential big travels) in the top league to reach a potential play-off position) (Ippo, Boro and Lakeside had 8 big away days this season) GUARANTEED FIXTURES (FOR LEAGUE 1 OF 8 TEAMS); = 14 PREMIERSHIP MEETINGS; 7 HOME 7 AWAY GUARANTEED FIXTURES (FOR LEAGUE 2 OF 10 TEAMS); = 18 CHAMPIONSHIP MEETINGS; 9 HOME 9 AWAY TOP FOUR IN EACH LEAGUE TO PLAY OF FOR LEAGUE CHAMPIONS STRAIGHT KNOCK OUT (or top 2 in League 2 to reduce fixtures) (if required) THE LEAGUE SEASON STARTS NO LATER THAN 1ST JULY AND ENDS 30TH SEPTEMBER PLAY OFFS CONCLUDED BY 31ST OCTOBER KNOCK OUT CUP PRELIMINARY MATCH 1 HOME 1 AWAY (1st Draw North & South in region then last 8 teams pot luck) KNOCK OUT CUP REGIONS START EARLY IN THE SEASON COMPLETED BY 30TH JUNE QUARTER, SEMI FINAL & FINAL BEFORE 1ST OCTOBER GUARANTEED MINIMUM NUMBER OF 32 MEETINGS 16 HOME 16 AWAY FOR EVERY CLUB The figure of 32 assumes a team gets in to League 1 but misses the play offs and goes out of the cup at the first stage (League 2 team 36 meetings) The potential maximum number of competitive fixtures for a successful team could be For a Division 1 team winning the Cup from a preliminary round and the League play-off is 42 (21 Home 21 Away) For a Division 2 team winning the Cup from a preliminary round and the League play-off is 48 (24 Home 24 Away) This is one big league just split into two and and set to a region and it then allows the stronger teams to have a go at each other for the second half of the season and pick your own preferred race day/night. Everyone meets once in the Regional Division and once in the League and the stronger teams will rise to the top With this scenario weaker teams will be able to minimise the impact of being in the bottom two or three of a big league and shouldn’t experience many home losses Riders averages will not need any adjustment as no doubling up/down required and team ability should be closer Following season you are back in your regional group and going for the top slot in that division again so no promotion or relegation This Division/League format gives every club in the country a chance to be the top team in the country if they want to and it is purely performance and success driven The bottom two/three teams in the premiership must feel the impact of being bottom of that league with nothing to play for My only view/fear on the format would be some teams will potentially ride/build (deliberately) to be 5th in the regional table to really have a go at Division 2 (Maybe that’s me being a little bit cynical however it would/could/should be difficult to do!) (possibly) Also the bottom three (should be 4) this year in the Premiership; would they be happy if they were in that position at the midway point of the season and then have to drop into the Championship for the second half of the season as that would be the scenario if they were in those positions in their Regional League. Although they would then have the opportunity to win that 2nd league of course You are dealing with Marmite some will love it and others I suspect will hate it however it is all about finding a common position that everyone can work to and with, also to give the opportunity to maximise the local fixtures and the returns from these meetings in the first half of the season and again the benefit to Belle Vue should be clearly measurable racing against their nearest promotions in the first half of the season. Once the decision is made on 5 or 6 man teams (or staying at 7) and the meeting format over the 15 heats, the set-up of the teams is the next critical factor and what exactly can be achieved from the rider pool of available riders and what the rider averages will settle at in the preferred league structure. The options above dictate as to how the leagues will be set-up for future seasons going forward. In this and previous seasons the rider pool has been 2016 season 150 riders were used by the 21 Teams in two leagues 8 teams Div. 1 and 13 teams Div. 2 2017 season 125 riders were used by the 18 Teams in two leagues 8 teams Div. 1 and 10 teams Div. 2 2018 season 119 riders have been used by the 18/19 Teams in two leagues 7/8 teams Div. 1 and 11 teams Div. 2 With no Doubling up/down the following number of riders are required 18 x 7 man teams = 126 Riders 19 x 7 man teams = 133 Riders 20 x 7 man teams = 140 Riders 18 x 6 man teams = 108 Riders 19 x 6 man teams = 114 Riders 20 x 6 man teams = 120 Riders 18 x 5 man teams = 90 Riders 19 x 5 man teams = 95 Riders 20 x 5 man teams = 100 Riders How many riders will retire, leave, not come back or just commit to other leagues reducing the rider pool? Also how many riders will come up from the national league and how much will the quality be diluted and will the step up be too great for NL riders. Depending on how many riders are in the team and what the leagues are like the team build options and benefits I believe are as follows One big league or two smaller leagues that come together later will mean there is no need for complicated offsets or multipliers the rider will find their own average Smaller teams mean Higher averages potentially so instead of continually setting a lower build figure a team build to 45 points or more could be achieved Potential to band riders so everyone gets a chance of picking up signings (however this can prove to be complicated when you start applying restrictions) 5/6 man teams could have been achieved this year without the need to double up or down If many of the top riders or foreign riders walk the bottom end of the rider pool will need strengthened with a larger pool and the build average slightly lowered possibly. There is a great deal to take in here with much to discuss however the time is right to get the whole thing out in the open and formulate a plan for the next 5 to 7 years and possibly beyond this so continuity and consistency can prevail and the fans/public can see what the BSPA are trying to achieve. I believe there is a need for an independent chairperson at least to throw things around and stimulate debate and hopefully reach a positive outcome. However I honestly believe it will be a hard slog and sell to pull everyone roughly together as I can imagine there will be a fair bit of resistance and ultimately I don't hold out much confidence that anything will change any time soon due to self interest. Right get your guns out and start shooting its open season Regards THJ

British Speedway will be a much poorer place without Harris riding in it. Chris wants to do with gp qualifers and so on next season, so be very surprised if he suddenly quits!

A bit off topic but.... Comets face Lakeside in a double header on Saturday and it still leaves two other finals they have to ride for. Whats the situation and the potential facility on offer to Workington, should time run out and they are unavailable, due to having to go home and try to qualify for another season back in British Speedway 2019. (Please don't say NL guest, as that will make an absolute mockery to British Speedway)...

yep , exactly same , but only different .

Trouble with that idea is there probably wouldn't be many 'meaningful' matches up to the end of September as the league winner could have been decided much earlier. At least with the play offs a few clubs are usually in with a chance of reaching them so the battle goes on. Challenges are a bad idea too as the majority of fans aren't interested, especially on cold dark nights in October.

The Championship fixture struggle was down to Rob Godfrey's selfishness and bitterness. Cancelling weeks of team fixtures so he could use their rider's as guests. Chapman and Godfrey are a disaster partnership for British Speedway. They need to be removed come the BSPA AGM.

There’s only one way to become a millionaire as a speedway club owner, and that’s to start off as a multi millionaire!!!!

There will be no change next year the ones that want a "premier league" will get their wish and the championship will stay the same along with the national league. there are likely to be less teams in the top two leagues and doubling up will be back causing more guests and RR as the saviour of fixed race nights has failed So basically we will be back to 2017 with a reduced number of teams and a reduced number of supporters with even less teams in 2020. the only good news for me this year was that the lack of fixtures saved me about £500 compared to last year