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You sure your cut out for this , sit down have a beer light a cigar and watch some re-runs of only fools and horses. High blood pressure should start to drop quickly I would have thought.

Surly now this league is weaker than the championship, so the prices will reflect this,

Why is it always so difficult? How about saying... ”It is our intention to get the fixtures released as soon as possible. Due to rider availability and potential team changes within certain teams this might not be able to be confirmed right away. As soon as these are confirmed we will keep you updated right away.” Why are they so incompetent at just the most basic of basic communication? Don’t make broken promises and treat your paying customers like absolute morons.

The realisation will be when the fans quit.

Is he really a future star though? Been knocking around for years without progressing an awful lot. The rides being suggested are Kemp, Flint, Palin, the Thompson twins, Brennan and Rowe. These are teenagers who could progress nicely with the right development path. Some of them have Polish contracts already.

If I understand the new rules correctly there are one or two clubs that will need to make a change or two before the new season. For example Edinburgh, they currently have William Lawson and James Sargeant at reserve, and will no disrespect to them part of the new rules is to create a clear pathway for young British riders and I don't see how that applies to either Sargeant or Lawson.

The press release about the 16:00 start time definitely mentioned double headers with National League matches. And there's been a load of press releases about Freeman and Smith signing to ride for the Gems in the National League so I'm sure there's an intention to run the Gems in the NL.

Unless this is supposed to be funny, which it isn’t, then your coming across as a right bell end .

with both being club assets would benefit both club and riders but that’s common sense

Plus it's approximately 1775 years before his birth

Must admit has much as I've missed my speedway fix spending £18+ every week has got me thinking is it worth it. Certainly not vfm for the standard were getting

what price $#!t creek?

Possibly!! All will become clearer in the next week or so. Even though Danny has (a) tough decision(s) to make.

I enjoyed reading the five part Rhodesia Speedway History by Brian Burford in the Speedway Star over the past five weeks. That was an excellent read, absolutely fascinating stuff.

Coming from Sunderland, I expect you're familiar with the technique of playing the man and not the ball. So, given that I'm a bell end, let's get back to playing the ball. Which bit of my contribution do you disagree with and why?

And around another 58 contributors also went at exactly the same time....

Last year's messiah got banned off apparently...

Must admit that the so called Premiership doesn't look worth £18. Can't see Bluster dropping admission prices, so will probably not bother.

BWD 8.75 or Rory 8.69 would just fit but would leave us with just over 2 for the 2nd reserve, it would have made sense to keep Joe Lawler if that was going to happen. So I cannot see them as options with the promotion.

I think for the good (or maybe even survival) of the sport, the fans in this country will have to go along with 'whatever' is served up this season.. And lets face it if you are still a regular, it means you are pretty much immune to the many years of nonsense that has passed and are therefore willing to accept what you are given, so hopefully will be relied upon to back the promoters.. A possible free pass maybe this season for the promoters, where some slack is given as they try and deliver the sport (and the Eurosport contract)...

Clearly the new owners and particularly manager prefer Joe because they've nurtured him back at Stoke... Can they not have a shared role? If logistics is hard for Josh, he can do most home and Joe away?

Re the comments about team strengths.. I read this post at the time and thought "that looks a good team, no wonder Glasgow were fighting to keep their side together".. It was when I came out of the thread I realised I was in the Kings Lynn one... Not any criticism by the way, but just an observation as to how team strengths are now unrecognisable from just 5 years ago, never mind 10, never mind 20... For me though, as long as the leagues have credibility and integrity, and each team are allowed to build a competitive team, then it is 100% the right thing to do.. I would suggest though if any price increases are planned, then maybe they should leave it for this year...

One new initiative that I have never heard mentioned by the BSPA is the appointment of a Press and Publicity Officer. Perhaps now would be a good time!

All well and good, but it’s a bit daft for the governing body to say on the 14th January : BRITISH Speedway clubs have today agreed a start date of early May for the 2021 season. Fixtures will be published next week for both the Premiership and Championship. And not deliver. Surely they knew all about the ‘rising stars’ then and the impact this could have. There appears to be a lack of joined up thinking...

Surely their priority is not to treat riders like mushrooms, then to let the fans know. Nothing worse than issuing a fixture list and then having to make wholesale changes if riders have fixture clashes. Its not as if fixtures are starting next week is it? Take a chill pill my friend.

No it wont Phil... its someting like under 23 or 24 and/or no more than three years in the Championship or other proper league which would allow a new over age rider from say Motor Cross to come in... apparently the rules will be quite strict but until they officially come out I'm only getting snippets and educated guesses back of folk... Regards THJ

Perhaps you can explain then, why the promoters said, in last weeks press release, that the fixtures for the top two leagues would be published this week? Surely they must have known there might be problems with rider availability! Perhaps it's another case of treating fans like mushrooms. Keep them in the dark and feed them manure!

Rugby pitch looks nice, but how will it look after a wet Stox meeting?

Impressive work and commitment by Startrax so far. It will be interesting to see if there is anyone interested in promoting speedway at Odsal, and what level of support they would achieve. A couple of questions : Are the straights narrower than they were before ? What impact will the hospitality stand on the 3rd / 4th bend have on a speedway track? How far away is it from the fence and would that require the fence to be brought in a bit for speedway? There are some very big posts that support that stand

There would be no clashes between PL and CL due to race days so they would have to ride for their NL team as and when fixtures allowed. I feel they are going to learn more and progress quicker in the top two leagues.

Ah man Dot for Christ sake man work with as here... the asterisk on the last one ment that matey boy had applied his 2.5% already ffs... Craig's average was 10.17 and with his 2.5% off he comes down to 9.92... ok... Oh and I think the Asterix you are refering to was a Gaul... could be wrong mind... Lots of Love John xxx

I'm not ruling him anything all I done was pulled all of the last years names straight accross and if I had left him out it would have been "why have you dropped James" he was at 7 on their team from last year and now at 7 on my spread sheet and until Edinburgh do something with their team he's got the lowest average so he's at 7... like Newcastle there will be an enforced change in that team but it might not be James who gets cut... if it's giving you that much consternation would you like me to take him out all together? FFS the details of the Rising Star thing only came out yesterday and Edinburgh still have a declared team from last year... so will I wipe him or them all or just leave it till someone tells us what's happening... or will I put a number 8 on that one with RS against it... James Sarjeant will not be the RS rider ok... happy now... but he may not be the rider who makes way for a Rising Star... Jesus... no wonder these promoters get pee'd off... Regards THJ

Looking good...

I totally agree with this. In fact, there have been many fascinating pieces in the Star since lockdown. I'd love to see more such articles. How about a piece on Hevingham the track that staged one meeting in the mid 70s and then got 'buried' apparently. Or something about the Mike Parker attempt to get speedway going near Rimini in Italy in the mid to late 60s. On an entirely personal note, I'd love to hear the story of the Melville/Rycroft promotion at Oxford in1964. Lasted a year and I think a lot happened. Keep up the good work.

As long as the suits still fit, could have been a few pounds put on during lockdowns, especially the slightly older ones.

Eh?

Winners and losers I just don't get this any more we will end up with some super stars riding in possibly 3 league's and some with no team place

More like Rising Damp

And he'll be first to the white line

He was in 2002 when he rode in my Gems team at Newcastle.

Well you have to admit Skidder, the Poole Forum has been a pretty dull place the last ??? months. At least it cultivates some thought provoking ideas . Would you be privvy then to some inside info on an agreement on the stadium and in the know on Adam returning then ?? Being involved as a regular sponsor you normally have your ear close to the ground on these things By the way its a large glass (or several) of Pinot Grigio. One way of keeping sane (or is it insane) in this pandemic

Not sure you should be so harsh on Rosco and Colin Pratt

Amen to that. In fact, we should all be happy if the sport can see a way forward and not disappear altogether.

With all the problems surrounding Brexit and the current travel restrictions which are likely to continue for a while, I think that to use British riders was the right move. While I don't study team make ups normally, being a bit bored in lockdown, I saw the figures on this forum which made interesting reading. It looks like Eastbourne, who chose Brits for 2020, and able to keep them all under the new rules ( which I have not had the chance to get to know and/or understand) have the strongest team in the league. Almost everyone else, who had listed foreigners originally (like Covatti at Kent) is now playing catch up. No one's fault, just the extreme circumstances that have hit us. For myself I will not worry about winning or losing this year, just happy if I can see some action.

Another 5 year plan how many 5 year plans has that been in the last few years now, couldn’t make it up. Riders who were promised a team spot now out of work, which is ridiculous. Championship watered down again with now having to bring in wobblers who aren’t ready for this level.

Exactly my point.

Let's be honest the main reason for fixed race nights was simply to ensure plenty of guests for both leagues would be available and provide plenty of Double Up/Down opportunities for riders who need to ride in two or more leagues to make it pay... A quite incredible operating model to devise, nail your mast to, and expect it to deliver a successful business..

You’ve partially answered your own question. Godfrey WILL do what he wants. He CAN run any day he likes as it’s his stadium with little in the way of restrictions, the simple answer is he makes good money off hiring the track out at weekends ( amateur meetings , stocks etc ) so he’s not going to financially penalise himself by going back to Sunday’s. He is also the chairman of the mafia and so will do what he wants and others will do as they are told, Peterborough and Workington being recent examples who were dictated to by him and Buster and forget the ‘ benefit of the sport ‘. Your ‘ dream ‘ is just that, a dream, sadly.

Yes you give the criteria, i will just throw an hypothetical example, If Cradley said they wanted to ride at Monmore in the Premiership in 2021 what would the response from the BSPL be ?, Its totally hypothetical as it wont happen.. but i think most of us know what would happen to the Ghost team situation, it would turn into "its for the good of the sport" or some other reason to allow it..

But they are, Premier League allowed 3 subs from 9 on the bench, EL five subs from the bench, however this doesnt alter the fact that the BSPL like to put its spoke in the National League wheel, a wheel which it has little idea about how its run and tries to ride rougshod over whenever it doesnt like whats happening, such as not allowing so called ghost teams, a Ghost team will always attract a few more supporters than the Junior team of a senior team, those supporters simply will simply stay away. As an example Wolverhampton rode in the Conference League watched by one man and his dog, they changed the name to Dudley Heathens and we all know what happened then.. If a promotion wants to ride its junior team under a historic name whats the harm it it ?, BSPL answers on a post card please.