StevePark

Joe Haines guests for Richie. Don't know who replaces Steve.

Christian was going to ride on Sunday gone, so must be OK. Robbo misses the Pairs, so I don't know if he is going to be fit for Monday. Claes, as far as I understand, is hoping to be back Monday.

Yes, indeed, it may have rained all afternoon, but 'Pablo' in his/her post said it had rained 'all day'. I was mearly pointing out that it hadn't rained 'all day' as 'all day' includes the morning (at least it does in my eyes!). We interviewed Ludvig for the DVD at about 5.45pm and he said that that track was 'fantastic' and should be fine 'providing it stops raining'. The trouble being of course it didn't look like it was going to stop raining, which is the main bug-bear in all of this.

PL Fixtures due that day are: Rye House vs Leicester and Scunthorpe vs Somerset. NL Fixtures are: Scunthorpe vs Isle of Wight and Mildenhall vs Stoke. Rye House due at Brough the week after the BH Monday, but Rye already riding on the BH Monday! Workington were due to meet Berwick but I believe that has been switched, so we could have Robin Aspegren again, providing he isn't needed in the EL.

Rain all day? From lunchtime on and off until a big downpour at 6.15ish which put the meeting off. As far as 'we may have lost', the Monarchs were to have a patched up Theo Pijper and Luke Chessell and Steven Jones at reserve (and with all due respect to them) Edinburgh were 'there for the taking' as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah, terrible choice of guest in Wells. He only scored 9 from 5 rides in the PLKOC visit a few weeks ago (when the whole team cobbled 28 in total)

http://www.speedwaygb.co/news.php?extend.17277 Hope the above helps.

Guests tomorrow are Paul Starke and Joe Haines (source 'The Chronicle').

Nope. Rode for Redcar last week.

The action they should have taken was back in November 2011, by not issuing Bowden a promoters licence. Hopefully they have learned their lesson and 2012 will be different, if no one else takes over, of course.

Mainstream TV are not interested as (as you have already pointed out with the Sky TV situation) only speedway followers will watch. TV stations won't show it as it is a 'minority sport' (like it or not) along with the likes of Ice Hockey and Basketball etc., and will therefore not attract many (extra) viewers. In fact you already said we won't get it! Advertising costs (a lot of) money. Something there is little of within the sport, due to the falling crowds etc. Newspapers aren't interested unless it sells copies. (see point 1). It's sad, but that is the position the sport (along with a whole host of other things) finds itself in at this moment in time.

Perhaps they didn't want anyone to know that they were going to sign him (for whatever reason)?

Nah - I've watched all 33 episodes of Inspector Morse (many times!) - nothing throws me off the scent

Yes - you missed off Kake Nieminen who is above Pijper in the list you've taken from the 'Speedway Star'.

I think I've been around speedway long enough to say whether (in my opinion) a 40+ rider (nearer 50+ I believe) will or will not ever be "good enough", which was the point I was trying to make. Yes, for every "Ricky Anderson", there will be a "Max Clegg". My argument is, the likes of Ricky Anderson should have no place in the Junior/Development Leagues. Amateur Meetings and 'open' second halves, yes. After all, we are supposed to be debating the future of British speedway. I'm not (and never have) knocked anyone for "wanting to have a go", good on them, but the idea of some of them in the Junior/Development Leagues just doesn't lie well with me. That is my opinion and if you don't like it, well, sorry, but tough.

Wrong. It's called a 'Junior' League... as Backless has already quite plainly stated "this is what Amateur meetings are for." Agreed, let them spend their money on whatever they like, if that is a speedway bike, fine, I haven't got a problem with that. What I do have a problem with is, a league called a 'Junior' League and having 40+ (or however old, certainly over 'Junior' age) 'riders' in it, when, quite clearly, they aren't and never will be good enough, even for NL level.

40+ Ricky Anderson, 20+ (and been around awhile) John McPhail, already been mentioned the likes of Loof (Ex-PL), Sike etc. So which part of 'Junior' do we not understand? By all means, give 20+ or 40+ riders a go, but for the Love of God, the 'Development' part of the name should be at least adhered to as well. In the likes of Anderson it clearly isn't. If riders "have to be brought in to make up the numbers" then that, surely, must tell you something?

Isn't that what the Amateur Meetings are for?

If he does that around Derwent Park, imagine what he's going to be like round Plymouth!

Might be

There are now two threads running on this topic!!!! Other thread here: http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=67890&st=0&gopid=2036739entry2036739 Mods please delete one or combine them! Thanks

There is now two threads running on this topic!!! Other thread here: http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=67921 Mods please combine or delete one of them! Thanks!

Why start another thread when there is already a Newcastle 2012 thread??

Yes, I realise you said could! The thing is though, Richie scored 10+1 from 6 rides at Plymouth for us back on 9th September, so I doubt a 3 point 'rookie' would get anything like that (please note I said "doubt" LOL). Joe (for the record) scored 4 from 4 from the number 3 position.

I refer you back to my original post:- re devaluing the (PL) product. There are 3 other PL matches that night, plus an individual meeting at Leicester, so getting a PL reserve guest in in the first place is greatly reduced! And how would bringing in an NL guest for Richie (3.74 ave) make us stronger??