Humphrey Appleby

You do have to ask who's advising them on their communications. Surely the main point is also the risk of spectators spreading it around?

The question possibly needs to be framed better. Yes, a track reserve can make the Semi-Finals with enough points. I believe 5 points is the theoretical minimum needed under normal circumstances to make the top 8 (assuming there aren’t multiple exclusions in some heats), whilst 8 points will guarantee it. 6 or 7 points is probably the realistic minimum required, although it’s possibly conceivable with 4 points on a tiebreak (they would also have had to have won a race in this scenario). A track reserve can obviously only take a maximum of 5 rides, but that could be anywhere in the programme so they could theoretically ride against another rider 5 times, and could certainly ride against one rider more than once. So yes, it’s very unlikely that a track reserve would ever ride against every other rider. However, this has to be traded against the fact that opportunities for track reserves to ride during a meeting are relatively rare, and they have to alternate rides with the other track reserve (unless that reserve was promoted to a qualified rider pre-meeting). It’s somewhat unlikely, unless there was an early injury that they’d get a full complement of rides, and the law of averages would suggest they’d get a mixture of opposition. One rule I would add is to make the 9th to 16th placed riders after Heat 20, reserves for the Semi-Finals. And similarly the 3rd and 4th placed riders in the Semi-Finals, the reserves for the Final.

Just tradition, for the same reason as there's no No. 8 or 16 (there once was).

The seeds of Reading's demise were sown before BSI got involved, by the previous promoters not fulfilling terms of the lease for whatever reason. Maybe the money was just never there, but I think Reading was ultimately doomed anyway once the location and its surrounds was earmarked for re-development - inevitable in a growing Thames Corridor town. Even a long lease wouldn't have protected it, although might have been a bit of leverage for finding an alternative site and funding a new stadium. Didn't think the Rubbish Tip was too bad in the 1980s and the site had a lot of potential. I quite liked going there, but it did get rundown towards the end and the crowds seemed to be woeful much of the time.

Didn't mind the 3TT over an Easter weekend, although the format was a bit incongruous. But if you thought that was strange, you should see the 3TT they've devised for cricket in South Africa - where three teams takes turns to bat and bowl against each other for 6 overs at a time; much like the speedway version.

It is easy. If there's any significant uncertainty about an event scheduled in a couple of months going ahead, then it needs to be cancelled. People will have/will be booking transport and hotels, but can usually get refunds or re-arrange up to a month or so in advance. On the other points, regardless of who actually runs individual GPs or collects, IMG/BSI is the championship organiser which should mean ensuring some sort of standards for the customer. It also means that dealing with the FIM and FIA comes with the territory - it's a necessary part of the job. I think it's also a stretch to claim that IMG 'run about 700 events in a normal year'. Their own website actually says they 'own or represent 800 events' which is different to actually running them. Indeed, as you're happy to point out most of the time, IMG don't run most of the Speedway GPs. I don't doubt that IMG have been badly hit by this whole thing, just as the FIM and FIA will have difficulties with loss of income and staff, and having to deal with multiple different jurisdictions in trying to work out how to restart things. But they're hardly in a unique situation, and with respect, the importance of their industry and contribution to the world economy is relatively insignificant. Airlines and tour companies for example, have to deal with refunding huge amounts of money. I'm also intrigued to know why Pinegen needs to furlough staff as the Star is still being published as far as I know. Genuine question?

Because it's lazy journalism harking back to the era when it was more difficult to check such claims. Even a cursory understanding of the geography of the area would reveal that the Olympic Stadium can't be on the site of the Hackney or London Stadium.

Yes, only 11 teams in the league that year, riding home and away once (preceded by a League Cup, also riding home and away). So that would have been a maximum of 20 matches, although Oxford were unable to ride their remaining two home matches as they ran out of time. It's also not really fair to compare different eras with different heat formulas and different gate selection rules. Oxford were also so dominant in 1986 that Nielsen was probably rarely used - if at all - as a tactical sub, so would have only ridden against the other No. 1s a limited number of times. Nevertheless, Nielsen only dropped 12 points (all at home) during that league campaign.

Fixed gate positions were introduced in the BL in 1988, although were trialled in the Knockout Cup the previous year I believe. I seem to recall the NL using fixed gate positions before that - maybe 1986 or even earlier.

The various Speedway World Championship should be run by an international association of professional leagues, whether under the umbrella of the FIM or not. The events should be run for the benefit of the sport with the majority of (any) profits being shared amongst the tracks running professional speedway, perhaps with an agreed percentage going to develop grass roots speedway. With respect to Poland, whilst I'd generally say that the sport in any one country shouldn't just run in isolation without consideration to anyone else, I think there's little choice in the current circumstances if any speedway is to be run. Borders are closed, or at least quarantine measures are being imposed, so it's simply not going to be practical for international competitions to be run in 2020, and certainly not have riders travel back-and-forth from league-to-league. So it's pretty obvious that riders are going to focus on the most lucrative league, and if Poland can get going and can still afford to run behind closed doors, then you have to be fair and let the riders try to earn some money this year. The SGP isn't going to be paying the bills, and frankly should be amongst the lowest priorities at the moment.

BSI are still selling tickets though.

An article today suggesting that the Millennium Stadium won't be available for the foreseeable future as it's designated as an emergency hospital. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/wales-preparing-lose-principality-stadium-18176109

Just not a big enough market to justify the investment needed to make a professional quality game these days. Would have to be a real labour of love, and even then I suspect licensing the team and rider names etc.. which would needed for it to stand any chance of success, would rule it out. Whilst speedway does come with ready made stats and somewhat lends itself to this genre, in fact the multiple and ever changing formats are a bit of a nightmare to deal with. Football is pretty much 11-men-against-11 at whatever level and whatever country, and makes for an easier starting point. Of course it could be done if the will were there, but the fanbase and visibility of the sport just isn't there to justify the end product unfortunately.

Would think the odds of the British GP going ahead are low. Motorsport UK has banned events until 30 June, and whilst the ACU is yet to follow suit, other countries have already stopped motorsport well into July. The problem is the uncertainty of committing to a large event with all the logistical arrangements and staffing that will be necessary, plus getting the track prepared. Organisers need to cut their losses well in advance.

I would much prefer electronic versions these days as I'm rarely in one place and I usually end-up with a pile of Backtracks when I do eventually get back to where they're delivered. But perhaps more pertinently for Retro Speedway, my subscription may expire in the meantime without me remembering, so there's a possible loss of cashflow because of that

That is sad to hear. Mark was one of the very first people on the Internet, way back in 1994 when Marcin Babnis set up the first mailing list. And I recall also built a very good Wolves website.

You don't go to the Russian Embassy these days - you go through an agency and it's pretty quick and easy once you've filled in the multi-page application, got your invitation letter and passport photo that can't be the same as the one in your passport, and then paid the outrageous fee. I think the agency has centres in Manchester and Edinburgh as well as London.

Even found an anthem to go with the new look Spar... I remember the Pastels, but had completely forgotten about this. Didn't they have something to Berwick and maybe even sponsored a rider (David Walsh?)

Complete freedom of movement only came with the EU in 1993, at which point the BSPA would have no legal right to restrict EU riders in its competitions. Prior to that, I believe EEC workers had the legal right to employment in another EEC country if it could be demonstrated there were no local workers available who could do the job. So I'd guess the inclusion of Rasmussen was justified on the basis of there not being a suitable local No. 1 available, and of course Rasmussen was already riding in Britain. Peter Shroeck was perhaps a more dubious justification, but it seems the government was more lax about such things in those days and if there wasn't any objection from the BSPA or SRA then perhaps it was just rubber stamped. I never really understood though, why Commonwealth riders were considered morally acceptable in the NL and not European riders. I know many would have had patriality anyway, but there were plenty of Commonwealth riders of dubious quality filling NL teams long before Rasmussen was employed. Of course, the 'opening of the floodgates' coincided with a contraction in the BL down to 9 teams whereby a number of mid-level European riders suddenly became surplus to requirements. Didn't Preben Eriksen and a few others drop down into the NL at the same time from memory? Think it was just a combination of circumstances and economics that led to the influx of Europeans - don't think Ronnie Russell can really be blamed for that, and inevitably the league would have had to fall into line with employment law anyway.

For once we can agree. Whilst it's not a exact comparison as baseball plays so many games, MLS has an average attendance of 22,000 compared with an average MLB attendance of 28,000. It also has a higher average attendance than the NBA and NHL, although they're admittedly played in smaller indoor arenas. What's for certain, is that speedway would kill for 21,000 crowds as a 'minor sport'.

I don't know about on the past decade, but the North American Final ran a 20-rider, 4-riders-per-heat format at one point. But you could actually adapt the Speedway World Cup format from around 2004 that had 4 teams with 5 riders (no reserves) for an individual competition. It isn't possible to have every rider meet every other rider an equal number of times under any formula (unless you run an impractically large number of heats), so you need to settle for 20 heats (4 rides, 12 opponents), 25 heats (5 rides, 15 opponents) or 30 heats (6 rides, 18 opponents).

The answer is to subscribe the electronic version which doesn't require printing or delivery, or storage. Far more environmental and you don't need to wait until the Royal Mail decides to deliver it either.

Not sure I'd agree with that. At the end of the day, the venues are much the same as they were during the pre-BSI SGP with the exception of maybe Cardiff and Warsaw - the others all proved to be non-sustainable, and some GPs are still being held in fields in the middle of nowhere. Even towards the end of the World Final era, it was still possible to draw good crowds at the bigger venues and if venues like Cardiff had been around at the time, it might have been a different story. I think almost any half-competent company could have leveraged the television opportunities that existed towards the end of the late-1990s and early-2000s - satellite and cable companies needing to fill many hours with cheap content. But the transition to new forms of broadcasting such as streaming media seems to have been a bit more painful, and sponsorship development has probably been fairly weak over the years. On balance, I'd say things are slightly better since BSI came along, but it's no great shakes and really the SGP is still focused on pretty much the same markets as when they started. After 20 years, it's time for someone else to have a go even if speedway is a difficult sell nowadays.

Isn't a Clerk of the Course essentially supposed to be a local official anyway (i.e. someone familiar with the circuit)?

I suppose it depends on how you define 'high profitable'. A profit of 5-10% on turnover is probably an average return business-wise, although maybe okay in a sports environment; especially for a fairly niche sport. I'd have thought BSI makes most of its money through television, sponsorship and licence fees from the Polish GPs, but in order to do so, it needs to put on certain number of GPs which will come with a certain overhead. I think it's fairly clear that the Cardiff GP has historically been something of a showcase - being held in a subsidised stadium, bringing in additional money from the Welsh government and being used to court sponsors and the like. But equally, BSI runs that event and is responsible for its costs, whereas for some of the other GPs these costs are borne by the host promoter.