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It's by being a "snobby southerner" that by re-locating to York I've managed to introduce to them a bit of class and sophistication!

Speedway as a whole follows the same failing business model of many high street shops, namely products of differing quality but prices not reflecting. Its clear the there are plenty who will pay lower rates for a lower standard just look at Primark/Sports Direct for example. There are still those who will pay higher for better items but they are fewer transactions per year. Just look at the GP's Cardiff is packed, SON is packed but these are high level one off events. Weekly low grade showings need to reflect the prices. Speedway isn't the only area failing like this, Cinema's operate under the same model, chain restaurants are much the same but the takings and attendance in both have also been on a rapid decline (Pre Covid). If Speedway wants to continue weekly it needs to be at a weekly price, if it wants to make bigger events monthly then so be it. But don't bemoan people for asking for value for their money or choosing to spend it elsewhere. I don't bemoan clubs closing because either the product that was offered wasn't correct or the way the business was run wasn't up to scratch. Speedway will continue in this country but it will have to evolve to survive.

Surely what is most important is the quality of the racing rather than the reputation of the riders. In the past there have been teams stacked with top riders who won each week and their crowds went down. With a track like ours, the racing is at it's best when the level of the riders is similar. Who remembers the initial PC season opener? The riders were of a similar standard, no top guys, but the meeting was superb. Also, some of the Colts meetings have produced wonderful racing. This obvious leveling down could actually produce a much better product. I can't wait and given it's been so long I'd probably go and watch anything at the moment.

In fairness mate I'm protective over scunthorpe because I was born and bred there. It's the team I followed in the 70s and 80s and again since 2005. The club and its owner have been a major part in the development of my lad as a rider and for which we shall be eternally grateful. I make no secret of who I am and have said on many occasions that Luke Harrison the current 250cc champion is my son

It's not a secret riders and parents are being informed first , and no promoters have divulged the info it was sent directly from the scb at acu house. no lies been old so unfortunately there is no conspiracy and no investigation needed. Would suggest from your post you aren't a rider, parent of a rider or official of a club or the bspl so why would you need to know just yet

I would disagree with that.Batchelor is always at his best behind a strong No1 and when hes not sulking.If you want a star attraction to put bums on seats, love or loath him you would be hard pushed to top Nicki P. Still riding in Polish Elitserien whereas batch is in div1 and will never be the same class .(in my opinion)

MY VIEW.... The best we can hope for is a 4 month season July to September, the whole of U.K. should be revamped NOW but only for 2021. Teams to be made-up of U.K. based riders. Meanwhile every effort should be made for a complete relaunch of our once great sport for 2022, this to include: 1. To get Coventry, Oxford & Bradford up & running. 2. To standardise bikes for the 2 lower leagues therefore lower (overall) cost. 3. Cap pay rates in all leagues that are affordable via tracks income, 4. Stage creditable regular home fixtures @ all tracks. 5. Stop double up/down & guest other than injury cover. 6. Introduce the use of smartphones as part of the live meeting experience (to get the young involved). 7. Getting promoters heads out of the sand, take a step back & look again.

It doesn't really matter how speedway compares to other sports, or whether 20 quid is really value for money or not if people aren't coming through the turnstiles. With football you'll generally also know that the matches will be held regardless of the weather, and you're not standing around for most of the 90 minutes watching the pitch being mown...

People may laugh but most tracks in the UK are not suited to the modern super tuned laydown engines..

Someone should run a free training school for Deliveroo moped riders. If they ride in the rest of the country like they do in Oxford there's a fair few entertaining fence scrapers out there I daresay there could be a chance of a young rider possibly getting some Sponsorship from them. A nice photoshopped picture of a rider going full tilt around a bend photoshopped so his racesuit and bike covers had Deliveroo branding and colourscheme with a topbox on the rear mudguard. Throw in a nice snappy slogan about fast food delivered faster, the countries the rider could potentially be visible in. They can only say No but they might say yes. Even if it was only a couple of grand its better than a kick in the proverbials.

Seems a lot of people have seen a secret list? So which Promoters have broken the code or which forum Members are telling porkies. Hopefully the latter otherwise the Chairman might need to investigate. Whoops

Obviously not an Eastie fan, our announcements are always 100% credible and always have been

Not to mention that compared to 20-30 years ago we now all spend a considerable amount of disposable income without ever leaving the house (even if we could). Internet, mobile phones, TV subscriptions (SKY, Netflix, Disney etc etc), Spotify, Amazon Prime even Deliveroo.

How do you maintain balanced strength in depth sides? Jettison those at the top and bottom? What incentive would riders have to improve? Even with well balanced teams, some will score more and some less which then means you no longer have a balanced team. If they are watering down the league so that there are less at the top and being replaced with “rising stars” then I wouldn’t expect to fork out the same admission as previously either! I.e. if I pay to see a premier team, I expect to see premier riders.

The last time I spoke to Danyon he had a good steady full time job & young family . As much as he loves racing Speedway to race in Championship and National League he would need to give his job up so he would need to be able to guarantee a decent earning from Championship racing

I think you will find that ‘people north of watford’ will understand the language of ‘southerners’ quiet easily. It’s the snobby southerners who would struggle if it was the other way round.

Different rules in Scotland might have an impact as well.

Kent's traditional curfew call offs might be harder to stomach at £20 a time. I always felt speedway would be in trouble when the price increased to over a pound a race.

Im just glad they have stuck with stars, a couple are closer to rosette standard but try explaining that to a newbie

with a lot of the top NL riders maybe riding in the top leagues think they might drop the team ave to bring in more lower ave riders

I have a Texaco Star Rewards card. Could they be convinced to sponsor the reserves? The reserves might have to be regraded as:- 1) Unleaded 2) Leaded 3) Supreme

Why would there be a 1 star grade? I think you can only build a team of 38 plus 3 star or 39 plus 2 star Unless you can build 40 plus 1 star everyone not a 3 star or above is a 2 star. The numbers are irrelevant, they might as well have been A, B and C grades

Yep I heard that a think one is an Aries and the other is a Taurus... Regards THJ

The storey of Ronnie russell and his George medal on bbc sounds is well worth a listen, a true speedway hero.people north of watford might need subtitles, would luv to buy him a pint one day and listen to the crac .

Fair play mate nothing wrong with being passionate about your club,good luck to your lad aswell this season i will look out for him

Which one? Is it a secret lol I,m thinking a parent from your posts

Carl Wilkinson?

Evening Dave hope your well seen the list and you are correct. One or 2 slight anomalies for me but nothing you could argue with really and there one really young kid on list who has plenty of potential but not sure if he should be on it yet.

Getting a younger crowd into the stadium is paramount and you simply wont do that given the current plan of charging for them to enter.. "Ver Kidz" wouldn't be seen dead where their old man and Granddad like to go, and they "hang out" in packs... Therefore charging a 17/18/19 year old to pay to get in is pretty much folly and an expectation that simply wont be delivered.. And if there are any 17/18/19 year olds who follow the sport on their own, then them convincing their mates to pay 18 to 20 quid or so to watch it would need a miracle.. Yet this demographic could truly help the sport enormously... Their "reach" on social media within just a few 'shares' or 'tags' will often cover literally tens of thousand of people of the same or similar age, with mainly all local too, and no self respecting "yoof" will go anywhere without a 'selfie' showing everyone where they are and what they are doing.. Huge FREE advertising for the sport that targets exactly the demographic they want to attract.. How good is that? And for those clubs who own their own food areas and bars, (if nothing else), a couple of hundred 'late teens' in their stadiums would put a good few quid in the respective tills, as burger and beer are two of their favourite pastimes, and they would swell the crowd to make the event look like its popular and maybe add some atmosphere too.. And the beauty of providing free entry is that hardly any of this demographic are going now , so pretty much zero loss of income.. TV, radio, newspapers etc etc. Are all now seen as pretty much irrelevant by the younger populace, and all the various instant news outlets and social media have replaced them.. Virtually every kid has a phone, and virtually every kid has a social media group (or ten), that they share 'everything' with, so let them in for nothing and let them spread the word for you and be your advertisement... Give them say four weeks of free entrance then charge incremental increases in admission. Maybe four matches for a fiver then cap the U20's at a tenner.. Keep it free for U17's..

The same development that the BSPL has repeatedly tried to shoot down as they cannot take any credit for it? With respect to some riders that applies in much higher leagues also. Promotors are only concerned with points and not the manner of riding or safety of other competitors or themselves. Fans can be as bad with one persons dangerous is another's view of exciting.

Maybe they are introducing the use of uprights and veterans to make the numbers up - the likes of Wayne carter and Gary o'hare can still go at a fair whack .

Are we? The lowly scum general public gonna be allowed to see the lists of star ratings? Or are we gonna be kept in the dark by this exciting new rule... Kinda takes off the excitement if we are...

So there's a thing then if they are both used in the same team... one will be a one star rider and the other will have a 2 point average... Tell me that's not nuts... Regards THJ

Saw him many times in Bristol back in the day.. He was always value for money.. His first two albums including 'Universal Cleaner' were re-released last year on one CD.

Tero travels, but he has had a base/workshop in Newcastle.

Absolutely. The public will always vote with their feet, if they feel they are not getting value for their money. You will always get a minority of hardcore fans that will cough up regardless. Unfortunately their numbers are falling by the wayside.

Four... Unless it's a BOGOF deal of course...

Nailed it. Two strength in depth sides going at it on a well prepared surface and let the result speak for itself. Team building needs a cap at the top and bottom ends so riders are closer in ability. A 10 pointer and 2/3 pointer on track at the same time isn't going to offer much however a heat with 7 & 5 pointers or 6&4 and the action is likely to be closer.

If they were Gemini would that make the pair one star or two.... just a thought as I'm bored.

Oh yes. One of the finest folk singer / poet / guitar carrying comedians I've had the privelage to see. Every song I recall raises a smile. Sadly missed, but never forgotten.

Depends what his options are really. Being spiteful doesn't pay the bills!!

Dropping capacity wont work as you cannot sensibly supply enough riders from the youth classes across the league plus the majority of the teams are run midweek. I hope its a cap on the top riders averages creating more strength in depth sides as just reducing the team build averages artificially inflates the averages of riders and creates the impression they are better than they are.

Need someone who is going forwards not backwards.....

The racing was better and safer with skill on the bike being paramount rather than ‘gate and go’ !

Tungate in the SS said Denmark had 3 plans, one with no fans, one with some fans, and one with no restrictions.. The UK still have a plan built on "can't run without fans in the stadiums", which is still a distinct possibly... Cannot blame riders for following the leagues that appear to be making (as much as they can do), cast iron plans...

I think when live spectator sport does return , with the length of time it has been away there will be a huge demand. Premier League football, top level rugby, International cricket, Wimbledon, Silverstone to name a few. Sadly I don't think speedway will be one of those sports. With an alarming reliance on admission money to stay afloat, the group of people who may be more nervous to return to the fold are the over 50's, predominately speedway's demographic core fan base. Add to that another watered down league when you think it could't get watered down anymore, I dare say this will be reflected by admission prices, yes I doubt that too. I feel for Eurosport, they have jumped in with both feet and ended up with not much to work with. A 7 team top division was painful enough, try explaining to new fans a top division with only 6 teams, good luck with that. As usual after the BSPA conference, optimism is high from everybody in the sport, even at Swindon after their late withdrawal, A brand new stadium to look forward to which ironically should have been built 3 years ago while houses shoot up ten a penny around it. It beggars belief why it was not built last year when there was definitely no speedway or spectators to disrupt its build. As usual the proof of the pudding will be in the eating and for all the yearly eternal optimism nothing much will change, modern rocket ships on unsuitable, outdated British tracks. Covid and the Polish juggernaut League hasn't helped but I just can't see how the good times are ever going to roll again in this country. no matter what the promoters try to do.

A wise old store manager about 35 years ago walked his new night manager around the store early in the morning.. The new night manager was 'quite pleased with himself' at what he had achieved that night, only leaving 5 cages of stock out of 120 he and his team received... The wise old store manager asked me (I mean 'him' obviously!), why hadn't the other five been done? The answer of "no time boss" was met with a simple question.. Which was. "If I had said last evening that I will walk in this morning and give you 1000 pounds in your hand if you had completed 120 cages, would you have completed them?" The answer was an obvious "Yes", therefore he quite rightly answered.. "So it was just down to a lack of will, self pride and desire then?".. No answer did that young man have, but it did focus his mind for the rest of his career.. Now... If every promoter was guaranteed £10,000 in their hand for every meeting they ran without guests, I am pretty sure they would find the 'will and desire' to find a way to do it, and subsequently have the 'self pride' of running the sport properly.. Poland dont use guests in the UK sense but do D/U and call them guests, however the D/U riders only ride for that team, and it has only been allowed for Covid.. Betard would never plough the hundreds of thousands of euro they do into the sport if Woffy or Majic were allowed to help out their opponents to ultimately see Wroclaw fail through their actions, and the teams they help out then be successful.. If the UK wants "big sponsors" for teams then you cant really have guest riders, so why not try and find a way to do it now.. Next year should be a 'free hit' given the uncertainty going on, so when better to see what could work?

Agree with this. We have to build again from a realistic base. We can't ignore three important facts. The centre of the speedway world is in Poland. Geographically we are an island off the mainland of Europe. Politically no longer being in the EU makes travelling to and working in the UK a whole lot more difficult. We should build our leagues predominantly around UK riders and those from Australia and New Zealand who might feel the UK is a better place to be based in when Europe. RE. growth; incremental growth is always more sustainable and easier to adjust to. Much more desirable than boom and bust.

Hardly histrionics dealing with a shower of Idiots.Any fan who sees the effort they have put into the sport will appreciate why they have a grievance with the way the Sport is being run to suit certain Promotions.

Sent off my objection yesterday. To anyone feeling that they are not very articulate, be aware that there is no need to give a reason for your objection. It is enough to just say "I object to this application and urge your committee to reject it." That's what we advised people to do in respect of the planning application to get Birmingham up and running again in 2007. When the application came up for discussion all that the planning officer stated at the meeting was that x-number of objections and x-number of letters of support had been received. His written report mentioned a few of the reasons for both objections and supports - but only a few. We (Birmingham Supporters' Club) printed several hundred blanks which included just the Planning Application reference number, and asked everyone to just write in their name and address and then write in the space below "I support this application, and ask the Planning Committee to please approve it." We then placed them all in individual envelopes and delivered them to the Planning Office. (If they had all gone into the same envelope then the Planning Officer would have treated them as a petition which only counts as one supporting letter.) That's all that was needed to get it recorded.