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You can be sure when the fixtures come out they will have their meeting v Glasgow after WC signs

Championship result 1st Kurtz 53 2nd Jack Holder 42 3rd Chris Holder 38 4th Rew 37 5th Tungate 35

It's been a long, complicated and difficult process fitting lots of blank dates into a blank calendar

Stockport town centre is 15 mins away in a taxi, or 30 mins by Bus, and have lots of hotel rooms, and plenty of bars post meetings... South Manchester eg Didsbury, Chorlton, Stretford all have tram links to Manchester and hotels, with the Curry Mile about a mile from the track... Oldham not too far further, and you can get a tram into Manchester from there..... Plenty of hotel rooms available at places not too far from the NSS, but far enough to not be hiked in price... And, also, plenty of AirBnB's..

That is interesting, because that is just four days after both Tella and Killmeyer rode in the unofficial World Championship of 1933 in Paris. Killmeyer finished fourth in that meeting, behind the new world champion Fernand Meynier of France. Two Australians, Bluey Wilkinson and Billy Lamont were second and third, Twelve international riders competed for that 3rd Dirt-Track Championship of the World, staged at the Stade Velodrome Buffalo, Montrouge, Paris, on Sunday, October 8, 1933: line-up: Bluey Wilkinson (Australia, world champion of 1932), Billy Lamont (Australia), Fernand Meynier (France), Leopold Killmeyer (Austria), Walter Ryle (Denmark), Ejnar Knudsen (Denmark), Juan Vinals (Spain), Mac Sillick (New Zealand), Walter Butler (Germany), John van Hulzen (Holland), Mohammed Tella (Abyssinia), Emile Beranger (France). Final result: Fernand Meynier (France) 1st, Bluey Wilkinson (Australia) 2nd, Billy Lamont (Australia) 3rd, Leopold Killmeyer (Austria) 4th.

The legendary Polish former National speedway team coach, Marek Cieslak, commented in sportowefakty.pl results of Poland’s sport Personality 2024 plebiscite announced yesterday. When mentioning fifth placed achieved by the 5-times world champion, Bartosz Zmarzlik, and problems with speedway, Marek Cieslak said this: It is a complex issue. We need the successes of our national teams, which we do not have. We have achieved the best league in the world, which has great viewership. The problem is that the Grand Prix series cannot keep up with this at all, and it is folding down. This is visible, for example, in the locations. There are no new ones, and in addition, large stadiums are slowly disappearing. The FIM and the promoter Discovery are responsible for this. In addition, the best riders in the world do not ride in the series. The recent nominations for wild cards and their translation into geographical terms are a joke. All this means that the Grand Prix arouses interest in fewer and fewer countries. I have the impression that even here (i.e. in Poland) it does not generate the same emotions as it used to. If it were, the successes and the phenomenon of Zmarzlik would have a much greater echo in the country. Do you think that it is time for Artiom Łaguta and Emil Sajfutdinov to return to the series? Initially I was against them, but now I think they should be in the series. Zmarzlik would also benefit from the presence of Artiom Łaguta or Emil Sayfutdinov. I have no doubt that he would still win, but then his successes, this rivalry with the Russians would arouse much more emotions. In this way, the audience would be larger. Please remember what rivals Tomasz Gollob had. He had to compete with Tony Rickardsson, Greg Hancock, Billy Hamill, Jason Crump, Mark Loram, Hans Nielsen, Leigh Adams, Ryan Sullivan and many other great stars. Each of them had papers for the title. Now the series lacks such figures.

good experience for the youngsters no surprise really that woffinden & lambert are enjoying their off season instead

Shame......but it is a good side and a few that would like to impress......looking forward to this.

Probably a delay due to poole wanting season to start at end of June, while all other teams want to face Poole before the end of June

Greg & Wilbur Hancock

Yep, the temporary signing of a no.7 speedway rider will be front page news. Don't understand your emoji 🙃

Will has been training with Hancock stateside. There are some Instagram reels......! Ps. I gather there has been a change to the original No.7 target, but all sorted now. I'm sure the announcement will be made to get the maximum local media coverage ie, when AFC Bournemouth are not the main sports story!!😉

Hopefully most people (who experience similar delivery problems and frustration with other mail) understand that the people at Speedway Star are not to blame and have no control over the delivery process.

No, we've not covered Newport yet and hopefully will do so in the future. Next up after Reading is Wimbledon. Thanks for your interest.

Don't you mean Marson although I don't mind a pint of Marstons!

Opole is still quite big compared to most of the UK tracks, Marcin rode quite well for Lodz and almost had a heart attack when he entered turn 1 at Edinburgh for the first time and you could argue he is the better rider. If he can work out the track though he will be a very good signing

I'd get one if they signed someone who can win Heat 15!

Just saw the news yeah, flash floods over there! looks like it's maybe going to be ran on 1st Feb

Not a case of panicking. If the deal is done why not announce it. They were happy to release the post 1st July team before Xmas so why not announce this guy ?. It is interesting though that many on the Poole Forum (and from other teams) knew most if not all the post 1st July team well ahead of the Ford's announcing, but with this one temp guy nobody seems to have worked out who it is yet. I'm sure we will find out eventually. But if as you say deal done then why not put it out there.

After last season and becoming a fans favourite I very much doubt ditching Toby would be an option, he is better than his current average now and likely to improve his average as the season progresses.

Round 4 in North Brisbane on Saturday is CANCELLED( bad weather forecast) and that means today’s round in Albury is now the 3rd and final round.

Fell in his first ride and injured an ankle I'm told, although that's second hand information. Max hasn't said on Facebook or Instagram what the injury is Fricke was following Rew when Keynan had a slight out of control moment and Max had to take evasive action but didn't manage to stay upright and hit the track hard. At first I had wondered if it was a shoulder, but I guess we will find out soon enough.

If they stay on a 2.00 average & impress, then yes they'll be putting themselves in the shop window. However if they do a Foord & get a 4.00 average, all of a sudden made themselves hard to sign.

More chance of getting paid riding on these shores it would seem.

There, that's corrected it! 😇

“Out the box” signing,fair play too them ,hope it works out another new face can’t be bad,if he does the business it might encourage others to give GB a go.

Absolutely spot on in Everything he said. I hope they listen.

More Likely to be murder Polis around the dump 🤣. Maybe he can book in a few stag do's for Friday nights...

Probably the best description for it. Bit of a loose cannon as a character. Good pedigree in Poland and If he can perform close to that then he’ll probably put a point on that average, but with a lot of Poles they do struggle over here so it’s a risk. However good to see us trying something a bit different this year for a change. Freshen up which was much needed.

That's interesting. When did he ride at Wembley, what date was that? More on Mohammed Tella aka Gene Tella, even a picture of him, can be found here on the BSF https://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/topic/87534-10-favorite-abyssinian-riders/

If that is what it takes to get a level and FAIR playing field - then YES, I agree with Gambo95.

Teams will race and not make excuses? What other sports have 4 months between rounds of a competition?

Should be set dates for competitions like other sports. BSN - April, May (semi final), June (final). KOC - round each month (May, June, July etc). This would leave the build up to the league play offs free. Teams shouldn't be able to hold up competitions. When looking at premiership KOC the dates are in the fixtures already. If I go to the football or rugby cup competitions, the dates are set.

I think they will be soon but I’m Poole have asked for all fixtures to start in July this year due to a certain riders birthday 😜

I get my issue at midnight on a Wednesday every Wednesday without fail. It’s the online edition. No more going to collect it and find it’s not in yet. Would suggest to give this version a try if you’re able to.

I post here about late editions but never blame the star just the delivery companies which put the star in a bad light

Spreaking as I find: to be fair it was printed in the week afore's ish that current mag, w/e 28-12-24, would be on sale from Friday onwards, 'subbed' issues delivered 24 hours later. Sadly I've had the odd 'Star go missing myself, but whenever I've phoned Dave Fairbrother (a man of few words who gets things done) at Pinegen, 'Star Distibution dept., he has always posted me a replacement asap. During one 'Dude, where's my Star ?' (see what I did) chat he was also frustrated over copies going missing, and revealed the problem is much less prevelant than at one time. Speedway Star remains a top quality publication covering our great sport and, as I've alluded to before, it's important we support the magazine, and our teams / tracks, as without drawing pictures, speedway needs all the support it can get. And, no, Dave didn't ask me to say that, though I promised I would....

Totally agree with your post. Especially regarding phone contact with Dave F. I always share a laugh with him when I ring to renew my loft insulation for another 12 months!

Think they are just informing others that’s they are in the same boat.Think we all know the problems are not with the publishers.It certainly doesn’t show the publishers or magazine in bad light.IMO.Dave at Pinigen does a great job sorting out everybody’s issues with the greatest of ease and pleasant manor.

IronScorpion gonna be fuming...

There were always cheaper options for Cardiff too. I used Premier inn as a comparison to the rates in Cardiff, because it's like for like. I was making the point that it's standard practice for hotels to hike prices around events. Manchester is no exception as the prices I stated show. 'Travelling out a bit' was an option at Cardiff too. There were plenty of cheaper options along the valley lines, with easy access to the stadium or city. We always stayed in Caerphilly and took the train. I accept that the GP alone, won't impact prices in Manchester in the same way as Cardiff, but that's because it's not a big stadium event in the city centre.

You've left Robert Lambert out. I'd probably have Charles Wright ahead of King and/or Ellis. And I think Harris has retired from Team GB. 6 man teams, 18 heats, none of this 15 heat nonsense.

Leicester always has at this level, they always put a very young team out on track.

That's not true, if they are say on a 42 point average & the double change drops them down to 41, that's not allowed. I'm not saying Nicholls won't come back, but it's not as simple as some seem to think.

There’s more chance of Long Eaton finishing in the top four than Plymouth.

Maybe Plymouth should be a bit higher 😁🤣

1. Glasgow 2. Redcar 3. Poole 4. Workington 5. Oxford 6. Berwick 7. Scunthorpe 8. Edinburgh 9. Plymouth

League predictions for 2025 season 1. Poole Pirates 2. Redcar Bears 3. Oxford Cheetahs 4. Workington Comets 5. Glasgow Tigers 6. Scunthorpe Scorpions 7. Berwick Bandits 8. Edinburgh Monarchs 9. Plymouth Gladiators

1. GLASGOW (Weak reserve pairing but the top 5 is brilliant, Expect Boughen to kick on riding at No.2 with Harris at No.1) 2. POOLE (Assuming they sign Cairns when eligible to ride) 3. REDCAR (Brilliant top 5 see's them comfortably finish in the top 4 imo) 4. OXFORD (Based on Nicholls signing once he's recovered from surgery) 5. WORKINGTON (Young team with lots of improvement in them imo) 6. SCUNTHORPE (Strong Home Form will see them finish in mid-table imo) 7. BERWICK (Schlein will be going through the motions and if the replacement is Nick Morris then he might take a while to get going) 8. EDINBURGH (Sedgmen and Castagna at No.1 & No.5 isn't going to cut it in 2025 imo) 9. PLYMOUTH (They won't pose a threat to anyone in 2025 no matter who the final signings are imo)

100%... Part of its appeal to me was that it was four contracted riders from each team... Leaving another second string and at least one "decent" reserve to cover where needed should anyone be missing... I seem to remember hardly any "cry offs" too, with each team being at full strength... Plenty of "Heat 15's" on show...