John Leslie

Because that's what it says it costs on the website http://www.insidespeedway.co.uk/index.php/subscribe It also says you can buy a single issue for £3.90 + P&P, but this presumably will be more than £5 altogether or else the subscription wouldn't be worthwhile

That was what I noticed. I think my Speedway Star is just over £100 for 52 issues. This proposed new magazine is £20 for just 4 issues. So for a fifth of the money I'd only getting a thirteenth of the issues. Doesn't seem good value.

Did Stanley Unwin write that press release? This was my favourite bit "in many cases current British Speedway clubs indeed rent out venues on only other than on the evenings of club meetings taking place"

I can't get over the fact that on this forum no teenie girls have posted a load of hysterical drivel because they fancy Ward, think he's "cute" and are upset that he's let them down. ...Oh wait a minute.

Maybe he was just "misquoted" I'm sure it's quite possible that Darcy said "I got caught fleeing from the police on an uninsured motorbike whilst high on pot and drink, and now the court has my passport", but he got misquoted as saying "I spilt some of my ribena on my passport, so i thought I'd better send for a nice new clean one"

Of course it's rubbish. You're claiming the comments that you like are genuine, but the comments that you don't like have been made up. They're not separate items in two separate news reports and sports reports. Both comments are in the same article which will have gone through the same sub-editor and editor. They couldn't include something in quotation marks if it wasn't said, else they would be open to libel action.

Rubbish. Matt Ford's quote is in the exact same article. Matt Ford makes very sensible comments that he doesn't condone Ward's actions, and he thinks he should get professional help before he ruins a good career. Middleditch's comments are those of a prat. He thinks all youngsters get drunk, smoke pot, ride unregistered, uninsured vehicles on the road and flee from the police. He thinks drunk druggies shouldn't be on a speedway track, but it's ok for them to endanger innocent life on the ordinary roads.

Following Darcy Ward's court appearance for fleeing police after being caught riding an uninsured motorcycle whilst drunk and on drugs Middleditch was quoted in the Bournemouth Echo saying "It is what most young people do these days isn't it? He wasn't racing or putting anyone else's life at risk on the track". So Middleditch thinks it's Ok for someone to ride a motorbike whilst drunk and on drugs, and to run from the police. Clearly this statement is not compatible with the job of managing the Team GB National team. No way can the SCB be seen to be condoning an opinion that riding a bike whilst drunk and on drugs is acceptable and "what most young people do". Middleditch's position with the national team is untenable and the SCB must act swiftly to remove him from the position.

Maybe it's not such a minority. Give me league racing over a GP any day.

And he's already written to the manufacturers complaining that there are no detailed instructions saying where the blow-up valve is.

To be fair it seems to be only one nerd rather than all supporters. As regards football, I've done some research into Panini sticker books and it seems the teams are indeed in alphabetical order..... but shockingly with no index. I'm sure football has at least one comparable nerd who has complained about this. Now looking at last year's randomly ordered Speedway Star season preview, I've run some extensive double blind tests by holding the edges of the pages and flicking through the magazine whilst looking at the team names which are written in huge letters at the top of the page. The largest league is the PL with 13 teams, so to find any particular team at random, you may have to flick through a maximum of 13 leaves. This can actually take up to 1.4 seconds!!! Clearly the Speedway Star wasting up to 1.4 seconds of everyone's time is not acceptable I therefore suggest, nay demand, that the Speedway Star season preview should be arranged in alphabetical order, with a colour coded index at the front, tabbed dividers on every page, and a 24-hour helpline phone number printed on the front cover for anyone having problems.

Is there an English language version of this post available anywhere?

It's not different. The SCB is EXACTLY the same as the F.A. (The sole National body responsible for administering the sport) The BSPA is EXACTLY the same as the Premier League & the Football League. The only bodies licenced by the above to organise competition. You can't run Speedway outside of the SCB just as you can't run football outside of the F.A., and you couldn't open a McDonalds franchise without buying one off McDonalds corporation. Don't know why people can't grasp something so simple.

No it isn't. It's exactly the same. For SCB read F.A. For BSPA read Premier League & Football League. Try and set up and England v Brazil football match and see if the FA let you.

I think when Shovvy was in the Specialist Adult Entertainment industry he either created his own specialist films, or sold that which he'd bought off the copyright owner. I doubt he sat at the back of the cinema with his video recorder stealing someone else's material.

The SCB haven't slammed any door. No one has knocked at their door, although it seems someone may have made a bungled attempt at breaking in through the window.

There's a Nigel Close in Northolt, Middlesex

Correct. in football terms the SCB is the same as the F.A. The BSPA is the same as The Premier League & the Football League. At present we only have the BSPA organising Speedway in this country under the governance of the SCB, just as (until 1992) Football only had the Football League. Of course in 1992, some Football League members resigned to form their own new Association "The Premier League". Now both the Football League and The Premier League both operate Football under the auspices of the FA. The same could happen in Speedway. A new or breakaway group could form it's own association (say) the UKSPA. They could then go to the SCB for license to organise speedway too. But obviously they'd have to pay their fees to the SCB, just the same as the BSPA do, and they'd be given representation on the SCB board just as the BSPA have. But you can't just set up a new organisation and run without first getting SCB approval and paying their fees. Just the same as i couldn't organise a GB Football match, by "borrowing" Rooney & Lampard from the Premier League and running without F.A. approval.

My Barbers is upstairs above a cafe. But I wouldn't let the waitress cut my hair on the basis that being in the same building means they are the same business

They're not the same thing.

I don't think any one-off meetings are arranged are they? I've certainly only ever been to BSPA meetings in this country. Not aware of anyone else organising any They could as long as it was all licensed and insured, but if you look at how much the BSPA have to pay to the SCB for their meetings I think it would be far too much to spread over just 6 meetings.

Only thing that surprises me is that it's taken the SCB so long to make this statement. At least now this ill-thought out idea should disappear, and we won't be running the risk of a rider getting hurt only to find out that neither he nor the amateur 'promoters' were properly insured. Motor sports are very dangerous, and as such insurance and other such legal health & safety matters don't come cheap. The BSPA have to pay tens of thousands to the SCB every year in track licences, promoters licences, officials licences etc which are used to cover the legal and insurance obligations. Did this new bunch of chancers expect to be given everything free by the SCB? Did they think they could leech of the BSPAs fees? Or were they planning on running illegally with no public liability or employers liability insurance and no insurance for the riders? I'm sure the SCB would be willing to licence an alternative set-up to the BSPA, as long as they paid the same fees as the BSPA do (£100,000+ ?) I suspect however that paying £100k or so in fees would be a bit prohibitive to someone who only intended running half a dozen PL standard mickey mouse open meetings. If these meetings ever get off the ground, I'm contemplating hiring Rooney, Gerrard, Lampard and co and putting on some GB v Rest of the World Football test matches at 6 championship gorunds. I'm sure the FA will let me have everything for free and won't charge me the kind of fees that the Football Leagues have to pay.

Apparently. And their brochure for 2013 says the same as the one for 2012 did, with the addition of the European championship.

It says highlights of GPs and SWC (which is the same as it said last year) only change this year is addition of European championships http://2013tvguide.eurosport.com/#/28 http://2012tvguide.eurosport.com/#24 I doubt this is any indication that Sky will still be covering the GPs in 2013, as I presume Eurosports could still get access to the footage to show the highlights anyway?

Don't think that tells us anything new. Even if Skysports don't show the Gps & SWC in 2013 I presume Eurosports 2 will still have access to the feeds to show the normal highlights programme?