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See where you are coming from now, probably should have re-read it before getting my back up. 1000% agree though. I think Barry, Martin & co would have proved that without shackles you can still run consistently good nights of Speedway in front of happy crowds. It could even pave the way forward for all clubs, offering the chances to run formats that suit the home track and the support rather than the one size fits all approach that is currently forced upon all and is seeing tracks close year on year.

There were lots of fun & games from my memory as a 16 year old. Here’s the 2nd half from my programme.

What on earth are you on about? Have you actually read what I said? My point was nothing at all to do with the NHS other than quoting facts about current hospital admissions. There is absolutely no ‘justice’ to the current extension of the lockdown. None whatsoever. If you work for the NHS you will know where to find the stats on admissions. Less than half a person is currently in hospitals with Covid. Hardly anyone is dying from the virus anymore, deaths remain in single figures daily. Those stats alone do not justify an extension of this ridiculous lockdown rules. Boris himself even said we need to learn to live with the virus, that time is now - backed by data. The NHS is not under pressure from Covid at all right now. Have worked for the NHS for many years, what’s your point? The data is available for all to see. The NHS isn’t under pressure from covid right now.

You're right. The method of running a weak NL team as a double header was, of course, pioneered by a certain Mr Godfrey (who was totally against low points limits when he ran a stand alone CL team). Problem is, stand alone NL clubs don't have the advantage of a Championship meeting before hand. Sings is also right. £14 for an NL match with a 34pt limit is just too much.

I am in exactly the same situation, a supporter of over 45 years, who was thinking of possibly going on Sunday but has other commitments so cannot make a decision until the last minute. I have also been a sponsor (in a very small way) for many years including this year, through my own IT company. If I didnt follow this forum, I would have no idea how to book a ticket. All that is needed is a link to trybooking from the home page of the web site, I dont understand why software needs to be uploaded to get this to work. The web site is the key to driving bookings not Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Interesting to see Eurosport trying to push their app on Farcebook. Response is fans of several sports including ours telling them to stick it where the sun doesn't shine and they're not paying more for their sub-standard and unreliable coverage. It's not just us.

No point running if your guaranteed to lose money.Delay is the sensible option.IMO.

Watched from heat 12 on Eurosport player, which I already subscribe to. It was feed only with no commentary. Not sure what happened with Lambert as he was unbeaten when I started watching. Very impressed withBewley. He was unlucky as looked set to win the final before the race was stopped. Impressed with Mikkelsen. He has something of an aura about him.

Mentioned before. I used to attend the Colts for a tenner with my 16 yr old lad who got in for free.. For that I got to watch the best "young lads" and the best "vastly experienced" old heads.. And crowds must have been circa 600 to 700 or so given the guesstimate based on a grandstand of 1700 or thereabouts.. Still.. "All" the promoters agreed to this..

Double headers are not popular for a lot of people. Forcing fans to pay extra for a product they might not want, is a recipe for disaster.

Think what may help also, is Eastbourne and Kent have just come off the back of 5 really entertaining successful years of NL racing, and although a lower points limit, both have put together 2 really good teams for the points with 2 potential future top liners in Abblit and Gilkes on show. Plus as Sings has said £14 is perhaps the big turn off for Leicester as well.

Alarming for Leicester but suffering for multiple reasons including having a good higher tier team this year along with using a lesser utilised race night doesn't help and the other team racing at the weekend. Also performances have been patchy and historically Leicester fans tend to get behind winning teams in greater numbers. Eastbourne should be on a stronger footing with the regular race night, no CL action until next week to compete with and the local rivals being the visitors. Usually there is some second half action also which might not boost ticket sales it certainly adds to the production as a whole. Maybe the most telling of all is the pricing? Eastbourne £10 Leicester £14...............

Be interesting to see the up take of the Eastbourne vs Kent local derby NL match at the weekend as Saturday looks dry after a wet Friday which makes for an ideal track, I genuinely can't go but would have, as think there will be some really good races with Knight , Abblit, Gilkes, Kinsley and the rest, if it's a poor crowd, not much hope for the NL clubs attached to a Championship one. Not sure Easties break even point, but imagine it must be around 400/500.

Sad situation that Newcastle currently find themselves as the problems aren't down to Rob Grant in any way. Hopefully they find a way to see out the season and re-group over the winter. Hopefully.

Void then - re run......

A Bengt mudegaard rode at Berwick i seem to remember.

Whoever it was it can't have been difficult to recognise him considering he had no helmet on.

This is where everyone has a different idea but if all the best parts were taken from all ideas then there could be something to look at.... For me the main event of British Speedway should be a "British Speedway Grand Prix Championship" The idea is to give British riders a reason to take up the sport as not everyone will reach the heights of World Grand Prix level or Poland. So the British Grand Prix Series take place over say 12 rounds, these are the events that should be on Eurosport. Looking for a series sponsor which would be easier to find for a British Championship as opposed to a league championship, say someone like Vanarama £50k plus a Van Overall winner could take home £30k cheque and a brand new Van 2nd place can be £15k with 3rd place taking £5k I would call it the "Super 12 Grand Prix" as its 12 rounds but also only have 12 riders in it, so from riders here and now I would say 1. Dan Bewley 2. Charles Wright 3. Steve Worrall 4. Danny King 5. Richard Lawson 6. Craig Cook 7. Chris Harris 8. Scott Nicholls 9. Adam Ellis 10. Kyle Howarth 11. Richie Worrall 12. Lewis Kerr 12 race format with riders getting a race from Gates 1-4, top 4 riders into a Final at each round, for "Medal Points" overall champion is decided by total standard race points accumulated with a bonus "medals points table" so Bewley and Wright could finish on 120 points each for their 4 programme races across 12 rounds but the "medals points" table then counts on their overall total so medal points is for each final at each round, Gold is 3 points, Silver is 2 points, Bronze is 1 point. Over the 12 rounds prize money is distributed via ticket sales say 1000 spectators at £20 so £20,000 prize per round, any ticket sales over 1000 is host venue to keep £6k winner, £4k runner up, £2k 3rd place with the £8k distributed between the other 9 riders. Riders with guaranteed 12 meetings on Eurosport LIVE should get decent sponsorship revenue. £50k of Eurosport money should go towards developing riders for the future £50k should go towards promoting the British Grand Prix Championship and other marketing As part of this you have a "Rising Stars Championship" for riders under 23 who are not racing in the top flight Polish league and not at heat leader status in the Top British League so for now you would have a field consisting of 1. Anders Rowe 2. Tom Brennan 3. Kyle Bickley 4. Leon Flint 5. Drew Kemp 6. James Shanes 7. Connor Bailey 8. Jack Smith (not sure if any are over 23) These race as part of the programme, their championship is over 8 heats top 4 into the final. so overall you get a "British Super '12' Speedway Grand Prix Series" consisting of 12 races + 1 final, incorporated into this you get a "British Super 8 Rising Star Grand Prix Series" consisting of 8 races + 1 final so 22 races. League racing should then be a 10 team British League built to Championship strength now, riding home and away once then play offs with a Cup competition, then a 12 team National League built to what Championship strength is now but you replace the top average rider with a rising star so it's a weaker league racing home and away once with play offs and a cup competition League meetings can be 15 heats as now, cup meetings can be the old 13 heat format to add variety The BSPL to set up a league channel similar to a Netflix, say £6.99 per month you get live meetings from British and National League say 6-8 meetings per month, British & National League Riders Championship, England test matches vs Germany/Sweden/Poland/Latvia etc. plus old reruns of classic matches, interviews, behind the scenes, documentaries etc. Enough content to make is a 12 month subscription and VFM if the 22 league clubs had say 200 subscribers each that's 22 × 200 x £6.99 x 12 months = £369,072 revenue I'm going with a less is more theory with the aim of ensuring clubs get bums on seats and only have the individual series on TV to benefit British riders, and to benefit clubs and promoters people will have to buy tickets to actually see it, not on TV only every now and again on the Speedway GB Channel As league racing is minimal I would even look at doing PPV extras on the channel maybe doing a 3 round Commenwealth Championship and/or a 3 round Inter-Continental Championship which rewards some of the foreign lads that are dedicated to British Speedway make the PPV £9.99 restricted to a 50mile radius from the host venue and use some of the revenue from the Channel as prize money Commonwealth Championship could consist of 1. Brady Kurtz (Australia) 2. Charles Wright (UK) 3. Dan Bewley (UK) 4. Jason Crump (Australia) 5. Danny King (UK) 6. Jake Allen (Australia) 7. Bradley Wilson-Dean (New Zealand) 8. Craig Cook (UK) 9. Troy Batchelor (Australia) 10. Jack Holder (Australia) 11. Adam Ellis (UK) 12. Rory Schlein (UK) 13. Sam Masters (Australia) 14. Chris Harris (UK) 15. Scott Nicholls (UK) 16. Nick Morris (Australia) an Inter-Continental Championship could consist of 1. Luke Becker (USA) 2. Craig Cook (UK) 3. Brady Kurtz (Australia) 4. Eric Riss (Germany) 5. Jason Crump (Australia) 6. Bjarne Pedersen (Denmark) 7. Troy Batchelor (Australia) 8. Thomas Jorgensen (Denmark) 9. Jack Holder (Australia) 10. Dan Bewley (UK) 11. Broc Nicol (USA) 12. Adam Ellis (UK) 13. Michael Palm-Toft (Denmark) 14. Sam Masters (Australia) 15. Charles Wright (UK) 16. Danny King (UK) If these meetings had a decent level of prize money on offer, its rewarding riders who commit to British Speedway, gives them an incentive to take home some good prize money at the end of the season, looking at that list where are the Swedes? should be more Danes, could tempt some riders over.

Have said it before but will say it again, it was an utterly bonkers decision to even attempt to run the season this season and this was always going to happen. Clubs going on hold, promoters begging for donations to stay afloat , riders not being able to travel freely etc. In a sport that , even before a hint of this pandemic, was on its arse with nearly all promoters struggling, what hope did it have with reduced fans? It was a crazy decision to attempt to get the season going and I cannot believe those in charge actually let it happen. I want everything to get back to normal, everyone in the world has in someway been affected by this pathetic virus and I am one of those who feel that we should just continue to get as many people vaccinated and forget about the virus and get everything back to normal . I am in Australia and cant even get a flight back home to see family without being stuck there until Australia reopens its borders and dread to imagine how many others are in the same boat. So seeing stupid decisions like restarting speedway only for clubs to start whinging about money less than a month in really is a joke.

Can fully understand Jitendras decision, if it’s affecting his mental health and personal life he has to do what’s best for him. He has been a fantastic “face” of Redcar Speedway over the last few years and the improvements to the club, both on and off the track, are a testament to all his hard work. Good luck and thank you.

It wouldn’t really be a normal challenge meeting if they managed to get all 7 Gems to come. They would’ve been there anyway so don’t they all fancy a bit of extra track time at a new track?

Decent crowd for the NDL tonight I thought.

According to the Gov Website "group of up to 6 from any number of households" https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-19-coronavirus-restrictions-what-you-can-and-cannot-do#meeting-friends-and-family-indoors-rule-of-6

Well done Dan,

No way should Michelsen go, the gap opened up for him, what is suspose to do, shut off this is the final

I’d say 100% spot on - Rory Schlien one of the best club captain we’ve ever had he spoke his mind the rest is history. At KL it’s ok to have an opinion as long it’s the same as Busters

Don’t say that on social media, they will just block you from their pages

Think top 2 to the final and the next 4 in the semi.

https://m.vk.com/video246397852_456239944?list=c80b48547bd1124e22&from=wall-53550004_32897

And by the time your lease is up at Cowley you may have been given voting rights at the AGM...

he rode a lot of races after it and did ok

Which is why so many are double headers.. If you as the business owner havent got faith in your own product then dont expect your customers to..

The rerun was awarded after Nathan Greaves Fell. No time recorded.

Want to expand on that a little more? Newcastle are cost cutting because they have a non attractive CL team on display, sadly despite reduced costs via double headers there still isn't that much backing for the NL side either. Surely this justifies IOW's decision to step out because they weren't able to have a say on what makes a saleable product and brings into question those who had a say on things and whether they really know what they are talking about.

You do know this is speedway.......

Don’t be shy.

if there was one division, they'd have twice as many meetings.

Not sure about that but I heard Rob Godfrey has been to a seance to try to get in touch with the living.

It was probably Gemini just having one last fling.

and the irony is, 38 years on Leicester are back on track and Coventry has gone.

Loans have to be paid back... In theory

My first visit to Kent (as a neutral) and what a fantastic setup it is. Reminded me a little of Stoke with the size, shape and positioning of the track. A lovely big grandstand, everybody was polite and friendly (a few tracks could learn from that) and it was a typical Len Silver production with the track being watered in the right places at the right time to keep the dust down... Only downside was the PA system was inaudible

I dunno what is goin to happen lisa but lady at council said they had lots of reports of covid breeches with the bubbles thing and that an were going to be checking or something next time? maybe at the seats? Not knowing how it can be sorted tbh. Hopefully we will get tickets anyway! Without doin it wrong and getting thrown out! I know it’s crap but people best off doing the rules, for now. Soon be over.

That at least explains why I couldn't book tickets, but it is pathetic. As a result I now have a ticket for Scunny instead.

Dave Steen was an electrician by trade. Every time there was an electrical problem at Reading (which seemed to happen quite often) he used to have to go up to the box and fix it.

You could finish in the Top Six of the Premiership

That's a fairly uninspiring field for Glasgow. When these meetings get announced you expect to see some riders that have not raced here before, but almost everyone has been a regular in the UK league at some point.

its sad state .. the worst thing is that there is no update from the club on why yet again no work has started .. surely pressure and questions should be asked and then relayed back to the fans . Rather than blaming fans for being negative , how about a statement saying we are fed up with the developers and can no longer trust in anything they say about the building of the stadium .. To me we are going down without a fight .. this just lets hope its gets built attitude is not working . As for the local mp he's been as much use as an ashtray on a speedway bike .

Sorry this is a long one everyone, but the big chief Martin and I had to respond to Mr. Godfrey from this week's speedway star. I hope you will read it thoroughly and make up your own mind as to what is going on..... All the best Barry (and Martin) I have read with interest the statement by the BSPL’s Chairman Rob Godfrey in this week’s Speedway Star, which to me reads as an attack on me as opposed to any constructive debate about why the Warriors left the BSPL. From how I read it, it seems that Mr. Godfrey wants you the reader to think I made all these decisions, that I threw the rattle out of the cot because I didn’t get my own way. Martin and I find this personalisation of myself very surprising, hurtful, and factually wrong and very disrespectful to Martin and me. Firstly, every decision, including this response, with regards to the Wightlink Warriors is jointly taken by Martin and me. Not once has a single decision been made without the approval of the other. This is because, put very simply, we are a team and have been since we embarked on bringing speedway back to the Isle of Wight: equal investors who live and die by our joint decisions. It is the only way we want to work and can work. Secondly, it is the case that, except for one or two email requests for the date on the NL AGM sent by me when Martin was ill, that every single piece of correspondence between the BSPL Office and the Warriors was sent by Martin. Of course, we had worked on every email together and reached every decision together, but each email was sent by Martin and in many cases replied directly to Martin and omitting me, and in some cases using a personal email address which is hardly used. Now to the contents, Mr. Godfrey states that it was a directive of every club to make these changes. Our response to this is. 1. We have an email from the BSPL stating these were a Board decision and the email was sent the day following a Board meeting. 2. If every promoter stated it, please prove it. We already know this is not the case from our discussions with promoters but of course they could have been giving us sympathetic flannel, but we think not. 3. If it was the case – let’s say the statement is true. Does anyone truly believe that it is right for clubs who have no interest in the league or our business to state how the National League should be run, or that clubs who do have an interest in the National League should be allowed to contribute to decisions made when 2 clubs (Mildenhall and IOW) could not. Any club intending to participate in the National League should not have been permitted to participate in any rule making whatsoever unless they were part of the 2019 NL, as is the usual way during the NL AGM. 4. Why didn’t Mr. Len Silver attend or be invited to attend any of these meetings as the NL representative to relay information to standalone clubs? Note - Clause 3 of the Articles of Constitution states the BSPL was established to protect all its members. Clearly only some. Mr. Godfrey says that we had fair warning of the NL “returning to its roots” which is a true – he did say the National League will “return to its roots” during the AGM, but just what does this statement actually mean? Does it mean the BSPL can impose rules upon the league members? Does it mean the BSPL can choose which clubs have an input to the rules it makes? No, it doesn’t. It actually means as he said during that meeting it was seen as a way to “reduce costs of riders moving up to the Championship” (which by the way we have never disagreed with, clubs must cut their cloth accordingly in our view.). And to make the league more amateur than it already was. There was an addition to that statement about returning the sport to its roots, and that was that all standalone clubs would be invited to attend a Pre or Final Championship AGM to see if it was possible to step up to the Championship – that invitation was never received by us or to the best of our knowledge, by the other then standalone clubs. In the article Mr. Godfrey continues, the BSPL fully support that Isle of Wight run amateur meetings and this is true, here is a paragraph of the email. “The BSP fully support you running amateur and practice events with Nora 92. However, if you intend to expand your events outside of the amateur status the BSP will be forced to instruct BSP Registered Riders that they will not be permitted to participate.” What the BSPL omitted to tell us in the email was that even though the National League was always referred to as amateur, always development (how they love this word) the BSPL view the National League riders as professional riders, yet we know by any definition of the word “professional”, they are not so and do not receive all the benefits other league's riders have as part of their contracts – for example different insurance cover. So, how does this statement now affect the Isle of Wight? It means that any rider who has a contract in the BSPL would be instructed that they cannot participate in Isle of Wight meetings, and if they do they risk sanctions – as many clubs have told the riders we have approached to ride. Mr Godfrey quotes Rule 6 of SCB regulations which actually have no bearing over non SCB events (ie the Isle of Wight) so participating on the Isle of Wight is like doing road racing, grass track, trials, banger racing and other motorsport. We are outside of the SCB and therefore no sanctions can be applied against the riders or officials for taking part and the BSPL know this but in the current circumstances we can understand the rider's apprehension about taking part. He goes on to say I (we) left at my (our) our own request – again this is true, but he omits to say why. The fact is, we asked if in future years the BSPL Board continue to impose rules without a voting system on clubs and the response from the BSPL Office Administrator was “this could not be guaranteed” or even no, direct reply at all. Had we received this statement to say AGMs will start in 2021 again, that’s clubs can vote on changes to rule books and averages, we may well have put our license on hold for the year and return to the BSPL in 2022. Furthermore, he says, “no one wanted Barry (and Martin) to leave”. I put this to you reader… if you didn’t want a club to leave your organisation which if they did it would have a financial impact on your company, and you knew the club expressed a wish to leave, would you at least call them, request a meeting/zoom call, email them personally, send a personal text message, because I can tell you, even to today we have received no communication directly from ANY board member of the BSPL and indeed the only time we were referred to speak to Mr. Godfrey if we wanted to, was if we would like to sell the BSPL/Mr. Godfrey the promotional rights for speedway on the Isle of Wight. This is how much the BSPL did not want the Isle of Wight to leave the NL, BSPL and SCB. (Mr. Godfrey sits on both BSPL and SCB so one assumes both bodies were aware of the situation). Of course, we never say never to a conversation with Mr. Godfrey and a recent offer to the SCB to meet up with them and the SCB has currently met with no response however we do realise that circumstances are not the best when the likes of Somerset close, Birmingham is put on hold and Wolverhampton has pushed out a warning about their future operation. What we will say is that before any meeting about us returning to the BSPL, the BSPL need to clearly understand why we left, why we believe we are vital to the future of the sport and why we also believe we can help take all that is great about the sport to the next generation. Regrettably, we are again forced to clarify what statements are made by the BSPL when in truth, we just want to put on a show for the fans, sponsors, riders and volunteers at Smallbrook Stadium. This is not nor ever has been a personal competition between the Warriors V Mr. Godfrey/BSPL – we don’t view it like this and we never want to portray speedway negatively, we promote the sport at every possibility, especially now the sport is in crisis, one fact there is no escaping from. We did have a significant programme of various events planned to start at the end of June, which included a 3 round Individual Championship with quite a large prize fund to be distributed at the end for riders completing in all three rounds, but that will have to go on hold now due to riders not coming forward to participate. As this issue will not be solved quickly in the current climate, we are now working very hastily on an alternative shortened programme of events which we hope to disclose shortly.

why develop an engine when it will not be required in the next 3 years . speedway is finished ,as are most motor sports . it may have a use tho . Briggs n Stratton may use it in their lawn mowers. it will get the grass cut in half the time .