I love the debate that comes around guests necessary evil etc etc & what the alternative is.
Its not a necessary evil, Poland & Sweden run with out guests they use a squad system. Back in the day the old National League under the management of Stekesbury & co banned the use of guests. At the time the NL was a fair better & more professional outfit than the BL.
Guests & doubling up come about because of the absolutely ridiculous operating model that the uk have gone with.
If you go back to the 80s & early 90s every team had a junior team which meant most clubs had their regular 1-7 with them a back up of anywhere between 4-7 good junior/second half riders. If you were running in the NL basically you had a squad of 11-13 guys the juniors would be called in to the team to cover injuries.
The promotors decided to bin that off reducing the number of available riders though lack of opportunities to race remember those juniors rode in their own league match’s each week.
While every other ‘professional’ sport have invested in increasing their squad systems & opportunities to compete & train British speedway has done the opposite.
There is a route out however that will take time vision & creative thinking.
The out of control guest & doubling up system is a condition unique to British speedway brought about by the way the governing body has chosen to operate the sport. It wasn’t ever necessary!