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Let’s be honest, ‘Speedway Star’ is probably the most credible thing associated with the sport in the UK. A superb publication doing its best to make the sport appear to be more professional than it actually is!

You do have to seriously question the sanity of anyone who tries to open up a Speedway team at Northampton, don't you? Established, historical, top league tracks often dont even get just 1500 a week, so what type of crowd number would a new venture get? Especially one, "outside of town"..... It cannot be a realistic option surely to open a new track, and go straight into the top league with all the costs involved of trying to be competitive at that level?

I find it absolutely astonishing that people think this piece of dirt should be allowed back into speedway. There are lines between crimes and getting pissed and jumping on a bike, whilst completely irresponsible, is not in the same league as smoking crack and holding up an old woman at gunpoint. He is the lowest of the low. People need to hang their heads in shame comparing him to a rider who has failed a booze or drug test. It is crazy how he didn't get banned before he completely and utterly ballsed his life up. Have heard many stories about his behavior and drugs etc from well before he got banged up.

But only if they know what’s going on and I beginning to have my doubts

The Leicester info is for 2025. It’s just not been removed/updated for 2026 yet.

Ffs this is getting like The Prisoner. Who is Number 5? Who is Number 6? Ipswich is Number 5! No! Ipswich is Number 6! Who is Patrick McGoohan? Who is the all-seeing Controller? Round the Boards? The Top Drawer? (or they actually the same person)? And what is the giant white bubble that comes out of the sea? Why - of course - it's Northampton, complete with Brady Kurtz at Number 1!!

Gotta admit all this cryptic nonsense does my head in as well. If you’ve got something to say, spit it out. Otherwise, don’t bother saying anything at all!

Remind me never to go to a casino with you 😂

So he has equipment & backing/guidance from Havelock & Sean Wilson. Let's hope he gets the opportunity to get on track somewhere & finally takes the opportunity he is being presented with. Nobody wins with the alternative.

Dean Barker? Cos if it's Ben that would give an even weaker number six than Kemp.

In summary seems Minimum of £100k needs to be chucked at any potential venue whether or not its a former speedway venue to satisfy the BSPL. Our AGM is on the 6th January, so get your skates on please. No late payments of membership fees will be accepted. On the granting of our licence , then you are guaranteeed a season of 8 maybe 10, or 12 maybe 15 home meetings in a league for 5 or 6 teams. We havent yet decided the number of teams allowed in our league , nor the exact fixture format. Fixures may be erratic and not run in some months at all , please bear that in mind when negotiating rental deals with your track owners. Please bear with us. Please don't try and run any other speedway meetings on your track without our permission or you will be expelled. We usually run meetings on Mondays or Thursdays, but as you are the last track to join the league you will have to fit in around either day to suit the existing tracks. Previous seasons have shown no clubs have turned a profit in this league, even with generous TV sponsorship which is not forthcoming this season. There are still some riders available to hire that have not been employed by the other clubs in the league. You will ahve to haggle with them to agree terms and as you are the last team to join the league you wll have to take what's available.

Stop being pedantic. Don't need to look that far above to find 'I'm happy with that team posts'.

Could you provide a list of who 'slagged him off' and those who are happy he's in the team so that we can cross reference please?

He does look class act on the bike.

Surely if there are only five teams you could only do either of the two options, run the league as a championship so the final standing are the results and scrap play offs. Or if they are hell bent on some kind of play offs at least lessen it so for example 1st position gets automatically placed into the final and gets to choose where to have the first/second leg, and only 2nd vs 3rd races for a chance to play the winners of the league. I see no point in 1st-4th being placed in a play offs, personal opinion which may be an unpopular one, I don’t know everyone else’s feeling.

Yep I think thats thr crux of it, Lawson or NKI would have meant a very long tail. Personally I think an injury free season for Cook and he can improve on 6.whatever he is on but we shall see.

Maybe because he is better than most on his average and with more chance of improvement.

Prison is there to punish and rehabilitate. He's done his time, now we've got to hope the rehabilitation works. He has experience in two things - Speedway and crime. If we don't want him to return to crime, we need to push him down the path of an honest future. Sadly it seems the "Holier Than Thou" brigade want to push him down a path of crime, so they can say "I was right".

He’s not the only rider to have known *sniff substance issues

We’d better get some decent rider development going then. Tracks first though

Yup check out google earth IainB ....... amazed that the GoKart track remains in place tbh. Maybe Lewis Hamilton practised there as well as Rye House 🙂

It's got to get to January the 7th first!

Not strictly Poole related, but glad to see Ben Cook still in British speedway with him back at Kingslynn next year. If Poole were to ever move back up would certainly hope he’d be one of the first names on the team sheet

The Premiership needs some teams for any new/returning faces to ride for...

Both Plymouth and Berwick have ‘bad boys’ with reputations in their team ( both riders have been banned by the SCB ) so some do get another chance.

MD is your Eastbourne man

Someone else who made a mistake in his youth, but was given a second chance and went on to become a world champion. Sounds like a good mentor.

I'm getting muddled in my old age Bagpuss so the Jubilee cup is still as big a myth as bigfoot and ufo's ?

The made up BS and lies on this thread are now reaching Starmer levels... 🙄

"The Northampton Nomads" could be the sixth team... With, (and here is the best bit, hence the name).. They never ride in Northampton, therefore no start up costs... They ride "home meetings" at the other five tracks by just renting the track off the owner... Eg. They could ride against BV, at "home", on one of the Monday's the Aces are not riding, or even use a Thursday... More revenue for existing promoters/landlords in rent, no start up costs for the "Nomads" promoters, and more meetings for the fans with the "Away fans" attending in numbers at their own track, to watch their own team, ride, but "away"... Just put together seven unattached riders... In fact you could put several "Nomad" teams together, as long as, like Northampton, it uses alliteration, (as that is important).. Eg The Newport Nomads? The Nottingham Nomads? Or? Maybe the Rochdale Rideaways? Or. The Romford Rideaways? Places that once had Speedway tracks could now have their own team again.. You could have a ten team league in no time riding at the five tracks... Think of the opportunities... OK then.... Arm Wrestling with Chas n Dave...? Youth Hostelling with Chris Eubank? Monkey Tennis?!!!!

Would love it to happen Iain but M.D has said many times its not going to happen and he should know better than 99.9% of the population.

You also missed off the jubilee cup where from memory leg 1 was staged at kings lynn and leg 2 is awaited in the same breath as "the godfather part 4" and 'the long good friday part 2"

I think being taken seriously isn't a measure that those who run the sport ever chase.. In the recent past we have had a plan to swap guests after the first leg of the top league play off final, meaning they ride for both teams, (eventually called off in the days leading up to the final)... Last season a seven team league couldn't get completed on time so the play offs took place using a cut off date, only for the league to be completed, with the result rendering the play off semis being "wrong" when aligned to the rules of them... And who can forget the play offs being changed for "commercial reasons" with the qualification positions being rode roughshod over, even after a full season of matches being completed with paying customers attending the qualifiers, "in good faith"... Div Two last year saw three guests in a PO Semi and this is a sport that allows teams to swap and change divisions on a "whim" to suit their own agenda, rather than being down to any actual attainment level, or size of club... And there will be a myriad of other examples where those in charge have made decisions which suggest it isn't taken too seriously... To be honest though, I get why being "taken seriously" isn't something high on the agenda given the lack of rewards for being successful, and, given the sport is now pretty much down to the "die hards", (who show that "Any Speedway" served up is good enough for them), regardless of the credibility of the actual offering.. Therefore, you can see why promoters run the sport the way they do.. Many now attend with their priority being watching the entertainment on offer, and also to see a variety of teams turning up, unfortunately, "small leagues" take away one of the "few pulls" to keep them interested..

All KL fans slagging off Cook last season now reading in this thread all seem happy he's in the team. Would say you couldn't make it up but with speedway fans makes perfect sense....

I think hausl will go well

Yes they have, you would assume the £150,000 is the cost of getting the track fit for speedway

They will indeed. If Belle Vue retain Kurtz, Lidsey will be squeezed out. Lawson seems another, as does Becker. That’s without picking the bones out of Oxford and Birmingham although not many stand out granted. Musielak, Rew, Janowski maybe. So even a team that hasn’t even started to team build yet whether that be Ipswich or a mythical team that nobody knows about, could still build a competitive team almost by default.

Think everyone would take Lawson over Cook, but that would have taken Lynn over the limit if my maths isn’t off (usually is tbf). A few will be squeezed out due to a 37 limit instead of 40 for top 6.

Glasgow will be top 4 with their seven. Hagon will soften the blow of losing Nagel. Big improvement in Flint's average and top two will be tough to dethrone around Ashfield.

It's been explained a million times 🙄

Neither Pollestad or Rushen were ever signing with Ipswich. Some of the stuff on here is so fanciful.

Well done to Workington if they signed him,everyone deserves a second chance.

Anyway we have 9 days to wait to find out what shambles is being presented to us to part with our money, I’d like to say I can’t wait but that isn’t the truth

Not doing UK even though he did have offers including from Poole. Riding in European leagues including for a Polish Extraliga club apparently. Probably a sensible decision as he has just turned 16.

Cooper loves his speedway. Shows when he is racing and with interviews during meetings. Good luck and can’t wait to see you in action again. if it is Paco - I don’t know much about him but he seems to want to entertain. That ticks a big box for me. I like to go home talking about the racing. That’s what is important.

It isn’t unfounded though is it? He’s threatening to close a viable Speedway club because he’s gotten the hump over something he “can’t talk about”! Of course none of us know the figures involved, but if Ipswich are losing money then so is every single club up and down the Country! And if that’s the case, close it all down now. Somehow, I don’t think that’s the case. The fact is, clubs in the top flight who are not as well backed both via sponsorship or via gate receipts, are all coming to tapes in March. The man who is lucky enough to be backed by Thousands of loyal supporters, more than any other club in the top flight, is threatening to end Speedway for those very supporters. Nobody is suggesting he stays where he is forever, but if he can’t find a buyer before January the 6th, why can’t he do just one more year to keep Speedway going in Ipswich that has been running since the 50’s? That will give him plenty of time to find someone to take over for 2027 (if there is one). Just shutting up shop and closing Ipswich Speedway, should NOT under any circumstances be defended or accepted.

Let's try another way. See if mods actually look at this thread: Bum titty bum

The alternative in not allowing him to do what he plainly has a skill for is to assign him to the scrapheap, which only increases the chances he'll relapse & end up back on drugs & no doubt crime to support that habit. Better to give him the opportunity to redeem himself, become a useful & contributing member of society & if that means he gets the opportunity to race speedway again, that is the right thing to do, IMHO.

Yes they are the owners as well as Sunderland greyhounds and Gosforth park racecourse and regeneration in the Newcastle City.

Absolute lying scumbag. Vile piece of sh*t. Any team taking him on deserves all they will inevitably get.