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I’ll say it again, it is beggars belief a good idea that should have been so simple to implement has turned into an absolute car crash already. Wait until 2022 when the grades are revised and promotors try and shoe horn in certain riders then. What a mess.

Track will suit bjarne, still a good gater and equipment second to none.

Suppose I really meant injury free, certainly Scott looks fitter than ever. Joe Screen was a legend at Eastie especially before his bad leg break, but his idea of being fit I think was eating 1 pie instead of 2.

I heard that . I didn't buy my first bike until the age off 44 and spent thousands trying to make it to NL standard in a short space of time which maybe was a bit crazy. Unlike Ledworth I hadn't ever ridden before so was at a huge disadvantage. I got so close with a no 7 offered for a meeting at Stoke only to be rained off ( surprise surprise ) and at the end of 2019 I decided to sell my laydowns and concentrate on upright racing. With the only competitive upright stuff at Scunny, I had a bit of a fall out over the social distancing aspect etc last season so ended up racing against the laydowns at Redcar which I was well on the pace with on a 30 year old JAWA. So over the winter Ive purchased another laydown rolling chasis and at the ripe old age of 49 Im looking forward to racing at a amateur level next season and see what happens. For me the National League in a minority sport like Speedway should be purely amateur league with riders only being paid travelling expenses and maybe £5 a point as pocket money. If you have the ambition to make it in to the paid sport then like other motor sports you have to have the money behind you to make that dream a reality. If it did go back to this I believe it would become a good mix of older lads enjoying the sport which in turn could bring on the new lads and catapult them on to the next level.

Some years ago, I drove a new rider around to the training sessions; nobody taught him how to lay it down (mind you, nobody taught anyone anything). However, when he was in about his last MDL match, a rider fell in front of him, and he laid it down in a flash. I don't know how he knew how to do this, though; probably having slid off onto his backside plenty of times!

Far too young.

How long until the begging bowl is out again? "Ive spent X thousand on new kit for this season and its blown to bits in weeks/ive put in loads of investment but i have no speed...." No Chris you have no idea on setups or how to get the engines/bikes to perform. The reason he is exciting to watch at times is that he has to wring the life out of the bike to get it to do what he wants and occasionally gets lucky. For someone who has been around the sport for so long knowing how to get the bike to work is what has badly held Bomber back.

That's exactly what I stated!!

Think the only barrier is keeping fit, their experience helps keep them out of trouble normally, but at their age the last thing you want is a wild more inexperienced rider clattering into you, bodies don't bounce aswell at 40 than at 18/20. Having said that still be good to see them at Arlington hopefully this year, Bjarne Pedersen and especially Scott have great race craft there.

That alone will pay for itself.. certainly planning on visiting again myself if we get the chance... love the place, nice scenery near the track too

The main thing is bjarne signing has been well received by the Plymouth public and is already creating a buzz around the city with alot of supporters rekindling an interest in speedway a returning to support it

Laurence Rogers has posted on the Brummies forum that the list issued is incomplete snd that there are several riders who are on the list but have not been included on the press release for some reason. Laurence had confirmed jack Thomas is on the list snd is the Brummies rising star rider

I think that's right. Poole 2016.

This was mandatory in Aussie

Am a big fan of Tom Bacon. Very professional and immaculate in the way he presents himself, his setup , and how he talks to people - definitely a CVS type of rider. That said, I would say his chance of kicking on to a higher level has probably passed now.

To be fair to the Peterborough promoters it isn't a bad idea... It means that their team will be the first one in the country whereby all their riders have received the vaccine...

A different scenario but seeing the demise of a young Martin Hewlett in 1982 it was a huge shock totally out of the blue really shook me up.For me yes a dirty rider seemed a clear view but some of these posts have made me maybe think about things differently.

Maybe a situation the other way round? I saw Brett Alderton tragically killed at King's Lynn back in '82 and my memory of that was he had a very young and speedway wise inexperienced Jeremy Doncaster fall in front of him entering the third bend and Brett, though not miles behind but also not overly close just ploughed into the stricken machine , there appeared to be no attempt to lay the bike down, and ended up hitting the fence head first. I'm sure most of us have seen riders drop on a sixpence to avoid fallen riders, to me sometimes it happens so fast it must be an instant natural reaction as there'd be no time to think and then react.

Someone will be waking up with a horse's head for company soon...

In fairness riders do have until the 15th respond to whether they want to be included so no need to panic just yet it's only the 11th

Oi,,,,

I saw the Ivor Brown Ove Fundin incident at Wimbledon. 6 of one half a dozen of the other in my opinion. Brown had a reputation as a "hard rider" in the Provincial League but unfortunately came up against an even harder rider in Fundin. My memory is that Brown on the outside gate tried to move across onto Fundin, expecting Ove to give way .... Ove was never going to shut off ... and hit Ivor hard who was catapulted into the safety fence. Sadly, it effectively ended Ivor's career. Back to the present day .... my vote has to be firmly with Mr N. Pedersen who quite honestly, is lucky to be still riding , given the number of riders he has managed to knock off. Bad tempered , hot headed, lacking judgement or just plain dirty ..... to Mr N. Pedersen its always the other guy's fault. My lasting memory of Mr N. Pedersen is when one evening at Eastbourne he rode into Adam Shields and sent him flying on the the 3rd bend at Arlington. Pedersen just looked on and nonchalantly rode back into the pits adjusting his gloves as though nothing had happened. Only problem ...... Adam Shields was his Eastbourne race partner. I am not/never will be an Eastbourne supporter, but how Mr N Pedersen continued riding for Eastbourne after that dreadful incident amazes me. So many of these dirty riders listed are not "dirty" at all , just bad tempered and usually lacking machine control. e.g. Sean Wilson, Andre Compton.

I have the same experiences One rider I know has run over the same rider twice now, but it won't happen again as the fallen rider has now retired. He's feeling rundown (only joking)

Any names been mooted about on the South Bank . Really looking forward to the season after watching all the amateur / young guns speedway at the back end of last season at the EWR

I bet he has!

Age shouldn't be a barrier should it? there have been some good riders still plying there trade into their late 30's and early 40's Scott Nichols is 43 in May and Chris Harris will be 40 next year... Certainly in the Championship Bjarne should be able to do a job and hold his own to return good figures... I would have certainly liked to have seen him in our team and will look forward to watching him (Covid permitting) on his return... Just saying like... Regards THJ

He won it in 2008

Oooh the burn... been storing that one up mind tyretrax.... good to get it off ya chest was it... you can go and knock a quick one out now to really round the day off... Regards THJ

Takes one to know one as you would say.

In all honesty if the snobbery was taken away i believe that graded amateur meetings would provide a good level of entertainment for many. Sadly only really Scunny offer this with a few other meetings held at Redcar, Iwade etc. With the opportunity to do more racing locally you might see more riders picking up the sport whatever age. The cream would naturally rise to the top and attract the attention of the "professional" leagues. Grasstrack doesn't really even grade the riders yet often offers a full afternoon of entertainment, if the ability levels were grouped closer then the racing and entertainment would be provided.

The problem is when they don't drop it, but freeze and continue to hit the fallen rider.

Yup and that counts for nothing as 4 star only counts for the Prem. So either Thomas has opted out and will feature in the team on his own merits and make his own deal but Brum will need another 1/2/3 star rider depending on team building or the list is wrong and the BSPL have made a fist of the press release.....both equally as likely but i hope for Jack its the former.

His commitment should never be questioned, but whilst he doesn't mind getting hurt, the other three riders in the race might have something to say about that! He will always be a risk until Dickson puts some glue on his a*se!

The difference being that Poland clubs take an interest in the development of the riders that will fill the junior positions much earlier. They help them along with team places in the lower divisions, make them feel part of the club and have an active role in their development. Barring the twins who else has received that level of assistance in the UK over the past 10 years? Many promotors won't know who half the riders are on the list and yet we will soon be reading all the press releases about how they cannot wait to help continue their development.

Spot on regarding Lamberts nickname

I have a progamme with the scorers, but the heat results are not entered. Birmingham George Major 1, Arthur Browning 10, Rob Homer 6, Derek Timms 4, Chris Harrison 9, Andy Hunt 3, Phil Corin 3 The Rest Arthur Price 9, Peter Jarman 5, James Bond 10, Alan Harvey 4, Howard Cole 9, Dave Harvey 1, Tony Darby 4

I don't think we can apply these gradings to anything other than 2021. Surely, for example, Jordan Palin doesn't remain a 1* for the next 5 years!!!!! By 2026 he could be in the SGP FFS

With the amount of fixtures in the Premiership, he isn’t going to be riding Monday and Thursday every week for starters!

I know the rain man well and he would have taken my post in the context it was meant

some riders have still to be added my son contacted them weeks ago but still not on the list so called today and girl said there’s still a few to he added and will be updated soon as there only in the office a couple of times a week

Hey you Makem clown do you not fully read the other posts on here and if these kids don't respond to the BSPL email by default they opt out FFS what a half witted clown you are... keep modelling those cherry lips you dickwad... Phil posted on the 2nd of Feb and I trust his information before owt you might say... if ya said it was raining I would go outside to check you buffoon... Regards THJ

I’m sure Bees fans will never forget the night at Blackbird Road when John Boulger somehow managed to lay his bike down behind a stricken Nigel Boocock. Booey suffered a hairline skull fracture from his mishap, what the outcome would have been without Boulger’s reaction doesn’t bear thinking about.

That's because they were Olle's bikes plus with two riders half a lap apart it shouldn't be necessary. Those schools of his must have been the start of many a Speedway career.

so with the 'Rising Stars' list, I assume Tom Bacon (aged 28) will be the rising star for the Panthers. How apt really, the oldest 'Rising Star' signing for 'Dads Army'.

With the greatest of respect its just a tombola of names ranging from those not old enough to retired riders and just about everything in between. My only hope is that PL is restricted to 3&4 star graded riders and once it kicks properly next season CL sides have to add up to 4 stars in total ( so 2+2 or 3+1) otherwise the gap in standard is going to be huge. Not knocking but some riders haven't even completed a decent season in the NDL yet (and some have had several seasons at trying to) so the fact that there is even a chance of them heading into the "professional" leagues is more than a bit concerning.

It’s still “ pie in the sky” whether there will be speedway at Osdal, never mind a FIM standard spec.

Looking forward to the next edition...great read!

When the top flight goes down to four teams, we can do away with the majority of the season.

Steve Boxall, sometimes he doesn't clean his kevlars or bikes between meetings.

Not really as it passes the Winter away and this one seems interesting enough. The only genuine intentional dirty move I can remember is Mick McKeon and Mike Lohmann at a Belle Vue v Halifax match back in the 80's (I think) when both riders ended up in hospital. I can't recall now which rider started it off on one bend but the other one retaliated on the next one.