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I do hope we are not drifting into the cheap "snowflake generation" argument here are we? I'll give my own experience as an example... I was first taken to the sport aged 7 to Belle Vue's Hyde Road and was hooked..we then went every Saturday. Not a school night, no problem. Though I suspect it might have been a problem had it been a midweek track at that young age....less so 2-4 years later. Then, we certainly had the odd midweek trip to follow the Aces to Sheffield and Birmingham. I am now a father of six year old twins, they will be 7 by the time of the next speedway season, so the right age (I think) to have a grasp of what's going on and potentially engage with it. Bedtime at ours is 7-7:30, later at the weekend. So a midweek track is out for now. Additionally, even when they are a little older and could cope with a later midweek night, we - unlike my parent's boomer generation - are much more squeezed for time...and disposable income beyond the mortgage and bills. Like many in the 30s-40s generation, both us parents work and after the kids get back from after school club and we rush to make dinner, there's little time left for anything before bed. In contrast, as a child, I had the luxury of a stay-at-home mum who could get us kids home at a decent time, have dinner ready early for the whole family and much more time for any possible midweek outing. Society has changed. Now, this isn't all about me, speedway can draw from older and younger groups. But I do think that appealing to my (current) demographic is absolutely key for speedway now and in the future. We only really have time- and money - for weekend outings and if speedway can't cater for us, it is going to miss out on thousands of families like mine.

In short, speedway is saying to Dave and his family down the road that it cannot cater for them because it has to accommodate the wishes of some Danish bloke you've never heard of, so he can also ride in a Polish town you've never heard of either. Bonkers

Everywhere is South to us in Glasgow, looking forward to my first ever visit to Poole

Just been round our house talking about joining the Diamonds next year. Got a spare room so that's a given now.

I think it's a very good point. After all, you wouldn't expect to watch Moto X, Grass Track, Moto GP, F1 during the week. The only other mid-week stuff I can think of is TT racing and other road racing motorcycle events. If there was a mid-week Moto X event, I wonder how many fans would turn up, compared to a weekend? Years ago, when speedway was more popular and had more tracks, the bulk of the fans could probably walk to the tracks or use public transport, but now with far fewer tracks and fans thin on the ground, those fans who are interested, have to travel and that is a put off for a mid-week event. It would still work in a city, such as London, with the good public transport it has.

Too late guys

No chance we would even contemplate signing the numbers 2 or 3 in that team. Well i hope not anyway.

Would rather have the four legged Lassie collie type than the moody two legged dane that rides a speedway bike.

I find the comments about young people not being able to attend midweek meetings due to school the next day interesting as throughout my school days I went with my parents to Wimbledon Speedway every week and they used to run on a Monday evening in the early days which then changed to Thursday evenings. My parents had a strict rule that I had to finish my homework before we went to the meeting. If truth were known it was the one day in the week when I did do my homework properly as there was no way I was going to miss the racing! Are today's children really so soft that they are unable to have one or two late nights during the school week?

MASSIVE CONGRATS to Danny Ayres, 2019 Scorpion of the year, HAS to be back in 2020

I myself am in favour of radical changes which i won't repeat here because i can't take the flak atm. It does look, however that another season of 'lets pretend nothing's wrong' is ahead of us with 2/3 teams being bribed to enter the top league stripping the less disastrous (i won't say successful) CL and NL of clubs. One thing i would say again is that people talk about dilution when big names don't ride here but actually the product is well presented good racing, not necessarily star names whose names ,lets be honest, mean f. all to the general public.

The new Belle Vue is unique, it that it was built for the modern day speedway bike, and will usually deliver great racing. Unfortunately the majority of the remaining tracks are not suited to these high revving machines. Years back the bikes had more torque at low speeds, giving the rider better control. Now the bikes are high revving speed machines, as soon as riders cut the revs they lose all the power, and this results in many processional races... Looking back to the Peter Collins and Michael Lee era, there were some titanic battles, equally as good as anything today. Back then the rider was much more important than the machine was. So thinking along them lines, I'm sure these highly tuned machines add far too much costs that the sport cant afford, without adding any significant extra to the sport. When you think along the lines of the sport's retainability, these machines are slowly but surely killing it..... Rather than find ways of meeting these costs, why don't we think of ways of reducing them.....

You only have to look at Poland as to when the best time is to run Speedway.. They wouldn't dream of running at any time other than weekends.. Play offs get decent crowds over here but I would suggest it doesn't make up in any way shape or for how many don't attend during the season due to riding Monday to Thursday.. The other glaring issue is how very few teenagers go.. Meaning free admission to Kids with a paying adult simply doesn't maintain enough interest.. Letting 18 and unders in for free, if still a student, would at least possibly deliver some return when they become 19 and have to start paying.. It would also mean they could attend in groups which teenagers so love to do... And not have to stand with Mum, Dad, Gran and Grandad.. And wouldn't be any financial loss really as they are not there now. But you may make some money at the bar and burger van!

Batchelor cough, just for balance you understand.

That was funny but Pedersen was so shaken by the prospect that he had to come onto the Facebook thread it was posted on and quickly deny it. Was obviously horrified at the thought.

I would rather build a more solid team around Cook and Vissing.....

when did he buy it?

The voting was carried out during one meeting, I was certainly shocked that Rory won rider of the season but wouldn’t have given it to Bomber myself. We can only answer for ourselves as to who we think should’ve won, we all have our own opinion

It's not so much the bikes are too fast, for me, it's more the tracks are not designed to handle their speed.. The NSS proves time and time again that fast bikes on that track can deliver awesome entertainment... As does Poland, Sweden and the GP'S, SEC, SON etc.. High speed and great, close racing is the 'Holy Grail' for Speedway. It's just not delivered sadly over here at too many places. 100% spot on with points 2 to 6. Can't see too many of them ever getting overcome though to be honest, given how far away the Sport over here actually is from being able to correct each point you make..

Would think Danyon Hume must be in with a shout for reserve spot

Sorry but statistically Kyle started on an assessed average of 2 - his actual average for his first season at Workington in 2018 was 1.37. His average over the 2019 season for Glasgow was 4.54. Pretty impressive improvement I'd say.

Are there enough riders between 16 and 18? And the difference in ability could be huge

In a way a logical move as believe he lives in Midlands so less travelling in what will be a busy old 2020 for him if he is riding Prem & Champ plus his normal Longtrack meetings and anything else on the Continent he can sign up for on a qualifying or guest basis. Won't have to trek to Somerset every Wed.

The Speedway world is in turmoil !! The world is in turmoil !! one thing remains constant however- R and R Bookmakers are the worlds top Speedway Bookmaker !!! Due to the re-arranged GP series i have had to alter my plans for the 2020 competition. The spread is now under the new scoring rules 1st 20 2nd 18 3rd 16 4th 14 5th 12 6th 11 7th 10 8th 9 9th 8 10th 7 11th 6 12th 5 13th 4 14th 3 15th 2 16th 1 Positions 1 st to 4 th in the Final Meeting Classification will be according to the result of the Final (Heat 23). Positions 5th to 8th in the Final Meeting Classification will be according to the results from the Semi Finals (Heat 21 & 22). The 2 Riders who finish 3rd in each of the Semi Finals will be 5th and 6th in the Final Meeting Classification, with the higher ranked rider from Intermediate Classification 5th and the lower ranked rider 6th . This rule will apply if both riders complete, or fail to complete the Semi Final. If only one of these riders fail to complete the Semi Final for any reason, he will be placed 6th in the final meeting classification. The 2 Riders who finish 4th in each of the Semi Finals will be 7th and 8th in the Final Meeting Classification, with the higher ranked rider from FIM Speedway Grand Prix World Championship 29 Intermediate Classification 7th and the lower ranked rider 8th . This rule will apply if both riders complete, or fail to complete the Semi Final. If only one of these riders fail to complete the Semi Final for any reason, he will be placed 8th in the final meeting classification. Positions 9th to 18th will be according to the Intermediate Classification after 20 heats. I am increasing the start amount to £500 with the maximum bet per GP still set at £200.- minimum bet per GP is £50 minimum bet per rider £25 The other bookies are not going to like this initiative and will offer stupid gimmicks for your bets- so i`m getting in 1st !!! 1 On 1 occasion during the season punters will be able to use the " spread stretcher"(SS) to move the spread to their advantage by 1 whole point. 2 On 1 occasion during the season punters will be able to use the " double your money " card( DYM) ( i`m old enough to remember Hughie Green and Monica Rose) when a total bet for that GP can be up to a maximum of £400 I know it`s foolhardy but both bonuses can be used at the same time !!! Here is an example for you to get your head around Championship points Zmarzlik 15- 17 Madsen 15 - 17 Woffinden 12 - 14 Sayfutdinov 12 - 14 Janowski 10 - 12 lindgren 10 - 12 Vaculik 9 - 11 Doyle 9 - 11 Dudek 8 - 10 A Laguta 8 - 10 Zagar 6 - 8 NKI 5 - 7 lindback 3 - 5 Fricke 3 - 5 Drabik WC 3 - 5 Smolinski 2 - 4 Rules Each contestant MUST place bets in all 8 rounds -in the event of having no money left they are out of the competition All bets can be edited up to the advertised starting time of the meeting. If a rider is injured before a round starts then the bet is voided on that rider, or bets can be amended up to the meeting start time. If a rider starts a meeting but is injured and cannot continue THE BET STANDS but any points scored by the reserves count towards the injured riders score. If any rider is excluded for a starting offence the reserve points scored do not get added. To ensure fair play bets for the final round may be required to be PM`d to me instead of normal posting. If a meeting is called off at heat 16 then the spread will be adjusted to 4/5th`s of the original. If a meeting is called off at or after 20 heats the spreads stand. HOW TO PLAY One must bet on a rider to score MORE OR LESS than the spread-the HIGHER figure is taken for MORE bets and the LOWER for LESS bets-the mid between the two is what I expect them to score-and they add up to 146 which is the total points available in a GP A final message regarding the 2020 competition to you punters. M more value in 2020 U unique format from the no 1 Bookie G great bonuses S simply the best competition in world speedway

Yes for some, but not all... And if nothing else more people there will at least look like the sport has a following worthy of the word.. As we always say, get a big crowd in and the whole experience changes from the entertainment perspective, which can only begin that virtuous positive circle of 'big crowds/great atmosphere/more repeat visits to sample the same.. You only have to look at the play off finals to see that.. Two pretty average meetings, however both being played out in front of good crowds meant those who were there would have a very different perspective on those meetings than if they had been completed in front of the usual Monday or Thursdsy night die hards..

I don't do twitter either but a couple of his tweets have been shared to other forums - or should that be fora?

Which in many cases won't be to the benefit of the speedway promotion!!!

Pretty much so.. Maybe if you said to 'Dave', "You can bring you, your missus and three kids for thirty quid on a Friday evening, Saturday evening or Sunday late (ish) afternoon". He might take you up on the offer..? Ask him to spend forty quid plus for him and his family to attend, on a school night during the week, and I would suggest the likelyhood is he won't..

Bickley I think has done well on tracks he likes, at tracks he doesn't in CL and especially in NDL his scoring has barely improved. He really needs a season at an Edinburgh / Newcastle type track to improve his technical riding as no doubt he has speed. His performances last winter were pretty poor, I hope to see some improvement there in the coming weeks as he has long been rated one of the better prospects of his generation.

But do they play golf?

I would hope he would get a reduction , every little bit helps in team building

Long Track will expand in the near future. Calendar should be confirmed today.

I think in reality we will have Cook and a more solid side with Sam and Connor at reserve

He hasn’t bought the club and I expect it to remain in Chris Louis safe and capable hands.

I do wish that some fans wouldn't keep running on about keeping the same riders from year to year like the 'old days', if you're gonna do that you have to take the good with the bad, can't have it all ways!! Not you Baggy of course ....

Got to love a Rumour .

I'll admit to wanting to give Chris the chance after Poole left him on the shelf in his darkest days. I thought back to his early days with IOW when he wanted to conquer every track, have a video somewhere I took of him being interviewed at Lynn, good guy. His Lynn experience was a different kettle of fish to his heady days at Poole, shame it ended like it did ..... Not got over Adam Ellis and 2018 yet though, perhaps skued my thoughts :(((((

£20 next season then! About time the fans really backed the club, for all the hard work the current promotion and previous incumbents have put in.

Nothing wrong with bikes, it's the tracks,,, those ssme bikes will be good on good tracks and poor on poor tracks, whatever country they are in. You are more likely to get better close racing on tracks that have multi lines into corners and on tracks that you don't have to scub all your speed off going into bends. Flowing race tracks most of the time offer better racing in most motor sports.

To the F.I.M. the BSPA have nothing to do with the GP series (Financially).

Cook Sedgman Oystercard Nicol Wells Jensen Bailey

Santa's coming mmmmmmmm Nice

Cant see any Witches side containing Cook or Schlein.....

Replace Vissing with Erik Riss on 8.41 joining his old mate Cookie and i think you will be closer.

Very good attempt + + + + + ? ?

rumoured where please? think you may be dissapointed

Political move to expand the Longtrack world ?

Yep and if you take that 2.00 as a starting point (rather than the 1.37 Boothers pointed out as the true figure) he still put 1.79 on this 2.00 average which is pretty impressive to me. If all the other Glasgow riders put 1.79 on their combined averages you would have been shouting from the top of every Munro in Scotland after winning all four competitions with a combined team average of over 50.00 from the starting point of 38.00 but they didn't and as history shows Glasgow didn't win anything unfortunately... its harder than you think ask any of the 20+ riders who finished on a lower average than he did... I think the kid has done brilliant this season and will do just as well next... Regards THJ

As teams are settling on certain riders and the list of top Enders shrinks I hope Newcastle have someone in the bag like Hans Anderson already or could be faced with picking at scraps and a season as the leagues whipping boys. Not sure even the leftover hardcore would stomach that. Not exactly a good time for a third tier season either so I fear for the Diamonds. Hope behind the scenes they are well ahead and on the front foot.

Well done, that's the best team, easy going first,,,,,,,, next topic