Daniel Smith

Jeremy Heaver, Avtar Sandhu, Mick Horton, Neil Watson Thanks for all your from everyone in British Speedway Best wishes to all the Coventry supporters that will be lost to the sport

No, Neils had already signed for a new Swedish team

It's all going to be very confusing, one promoter has said (think it was Louis) it will be 4 home 4 away league fixtures (exc KOC) to gain an average. In the Premiership if a rider needs replacing prior to the 4x4 then the PL or EL x1.4 remains. once the 4x4 is completed it's 'then as you were', the Premiership will use EL averages. We could (although not likely at all) have a situation where Somerset's Tungate hits a 9 average and he gets replaced by Sayfutdinov. What hasn't been mentioned is if a Premiership club signs a Championship rider after the 4x4 and visa versa will there be a conversion required. There should be because after the 4x4 the 2 leagues are then running different sets of averages.

BAILIFFS CALLED IN AT KUMLA http://www.speedwaygp.com/news/article/5471/bailiffs-called-in-at-kumla

Just for you King's Lynn finished 3rd in that season missing out on top spot by 8 points but won the Spring Gold Cup heading local rivals Ipswich by 2 points. Malcolm Simmons was the Stars leading rider in 1973 with an average of 10.26 Terry Betts achieved a very respectable 9.95 Bob Humphreys had a very respectful 6.13 & Ian 'Tiddler' Turner 6.11 Terry Betts & Malcolm Simmons were part of the winning World Team Cup team with Betts scoring 9 points only headed in the scoring charts by Peter Collins (12) & Anders Michanek (11). Simmons scored 8 points All googled

Thanks again Ash, brilliant reading. So appreciated. I wasn't chasing prices but seeing as you'd added them it certainly added to the discussion. So, when putting your 2 main posts together you'd be confident that the £4300 AshTech with limiter (extra cost?) would be competitive with the GTR over longevity, plus your service parts / charges would be cheaper than the GTR?

I didn't know that so thanks. In a roundabout way he's admitting Coventry's dead & buried? Not an ideal way to confirm it

With you on that & that's why I think King's Lynn are taking their time over the No7 position. Whoever it is will have done their job if they can maintain or add ½ a point on their average. Think it will be the same for the majority of the teams that if they wish to change a No7 rider they'll end up having to replace 2 riders to do that.

Correct, but at the same time you could have signed Sedgmen, finished up at reserve & Bellego ended up as heatleader elsewhere & knock you out the Play-Off's. Far to many if's & but's to worry about. Last seasons Wolves team is a good example of that, at the start of the season not many predicted them to make the Play-Off let alone win the League.

I don't disagree with most of that, except the knowledge of the sport part as a requirement. Someone who's never been very easily pick up the basics i.e. 7 per team, 4 riders per heat, 15 heats etc etc. Would the man in the middle hold a crowd at King's Lynn v Belle Vue and starts blabbering on about Glasgow's history? Or standing there reciting the rule book etc? For me, what's important is the man in the middle does basic research on a meeting by meeting basis, talk to & about the both teams current riders rather than what that team did in 1973. If what happened in 1973 with King's Lynn or the away side is important, well I couldn't tell you but a couple of taps into Google and you'd believe I have a vast knowledge. Knowledge is unimportant, research is important, they're not the same thing.

Absolutely, a riders form in Australia should be taken with a pinch of salt. Bellego does deserve a chance to prove himself before he gets battered. He may just end up being the Robins rider of the year, 2nd Heatleader or No7. Nobody knows.

That just about covers it. There just isn't no right or wrong way to answer this question. Take as an example home riders from each track, i.e. King's Lynn - Lakeside, just because one track is big & the other is small not all the home riders run identical set-up's. There's just to many differences from rider to rider

That is an excellent piece Ash and sure to be fully appreciated by everybody, thank you for that Just a couple of questions regarding your service costs as highlighted in your post. The BSPA GTR's are open to all riders to purchase but really their market is to try and entice the riders that don't earn the high end bucks because of it's (supposed) longevity before service. Are your engines tuned / serviced / priced differently compared to the standard of the rider? Would the engines of a National League rider run longer than a rider chasing the special faster parts etc? Or regardless of service / parts costs the longevity of the GM is the same?

See what you did there, take a small snippet of my post to suit your argument. Do you need knowledge of the sport to be a Speedway presenter? NO If you'd copied my whole post you would have seen "A good modern sense of humour is also a requirement and being able to hold a crowd." The guy that Buster brought in as a replacement failed on those points rather than a lack of knowledge. He just got on everybody's t!ts with his shouting & every week dragged the same 2 supporters on the track for score predictions. I don't think there's one presenter out tnere who doesn't get riders names wrong. Speedway experts on the TV fluff that up quite regularly.

I don't think knowledge of the sport is all that important at all. Knowledge about the here & now of King's Lynn's current set up is all that's required. A good modern sense of humour is also a requirement and being able to hold a crowd. Thing is, as good as micman was half the time he couldn't be heard because of the tractors & or failing sound system. personally it's something I'd love to have a go at myself but I think I'd just panic & freeze standing out there in the middle

I need to start thinking of how I can get some of that money for nothing. In fact, a 5th of that money would have been better spend on the Brandon Stadium than a nothing project that has no long term benefit at all. Thankfully the government have put a stop to it due to the outcry.

Which one? Official or unofficial, fans group etc?

Your views are very important Gordon. You and your consortium may have been the best option but others see different. When the others get put in place and if Belle Vue go right up the s#!+er people will ask "why wasn't someone like Pairman who understands how to work within this sport not given a shot?". Speedway is different from many other sports in that the fans have an interest in every other team. Mainly because it's a minority sport and we all feel connected in some way. A failing at any club has such a huge knock on affect everywhere else.

I think Robert Lambert should be "The Ruthless Binman". The rubbish is always out front first but he's quick to collect them all up

Just so you're aware, Manchester City Council are still the owners of Manchester City FC's Etihad Stadium I believe but if not they were up to 2013. So they should know a thing or two about running stadiums and Belle Vue may be a good overflow alternative to any Manchester City FC business.

And once again because it's Steve Shovlar people go mad. He's done something honest in not knowing his left from right and actually went out of his way to check out the stadium for himself. All he'd done is said what he'd seen. The only people not adding to the thread are the posters reacting wrongly (yet again) to Shovlar's visual update.

Nang bruv Datz sick blud foshizzle

Buster has already answered that question. At the AGM Rob Lyon and Buster wanted the double points scrapped for the Tactical Substitute but wasn't agreed by the majority of promoters.

7 hours a week is more than plenty to have an academy running. Today's Speedway is about more than just track time. Like the Poultec training there's engineering & maintenance, rules & regulations, health & safety, nutrition & fitness. 2 hours track time 3x per week Plus the Aces & Colts meetings will take up 1 day every week, occasionally 2

To right that makes no sense. Can only imagine what Brandon could have been like if Sandhu hadn't sold up and spent the £2.8m on the existing stadium Just had a thought, some seem to think Sandhu is involved with Brandon Estates. Is it possible that part of the Brandon agreement of sale is Sandhu gets a percentage from the properties sold if planning permission is ever granted? £2.2m seems cheap for the size of the land available?