4thbender

I agree. Perhaps some people would prefer to go back to the 1960s when all leathers were black, except Nigel Boocock (blue), Mike Broadbanks (red) and Olle Nygren's white boots.

…. And HERE he is wearing 'em

I believe Doug Wyer of Sheffield was the first rider to wear tassels when someone bought him a set of tasseled leathers to wear at the 1976 World Final at Silesian Stadium in Poland. I seem to recall reading somewhere that he was always embarrassed by the fancy tassels.

David Howe has announced his retirement from the sport: http://www.speedwaygb.co.uk/news.php?extend.35762

As someone from the steel city, I couldn't agree more. Starting out as an unfancied team you're now mopping up all the silverware. Well done Comets!

Exactly! In any team sport that takes itself seriously doubling-up and guests would be unthinkable - it runs totally contrary to the spirit of sporting competition.

Yes, but the trouble is they'll probably earn enough to buy tickets to come back next March!

They'll still be racing at Christmas. Comets' season didn't start till June, whereas Sheffield's finished in August. Is it a new policy to stagger the season so that more riders are available to fill guest bookings?

How many more ways can the promoters contrive to coq-up this joke of a season?

"Doubling up" - along with speedway's insidious fixation with using "guests" - makes speedway a laughing stock within the serious sporting community. In any other professional team sport the idea of participants representing more than one team would be a non-starter. Can you imagine the outrage if Liverpool's Mohamed Salah did a bit of moonlighting for Tranmere Rovers?

I'm beginning to wonder if the light has started to dawn on the speedway authorities at long last, 'cos I've just come across this on a lesser visited forum on this site: THE PATHFINDER REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS 2018". The report has the feel about it that suggests it may have been commissioned by someone with authority within speedway. It identifies all the major challenges facing the sport in the UK, contains a detailed analysis of speedway's current assets, and makes recommendations as to the way forward in 2019 (which all look eminently do-able.) It makes some astute observations about where UK speedway is letting itself down as a marketable product and gives some really practical signposts as to how it might improve its marketing potential. Overall it contains some radical and controversial suggestions but my view is that it reads like a breath of fresh air. If someone in the higher echelons has really started to think along these lines then our sport may yet even manage to drag itself into the 21st century. One thing's for certain: if the powers-that-be stick to the 2018 formula in 2019 (as some have suggested), we are all down the pan.

2018 has been one of the hottest, driest summers on record.... and the speedway authorities - in their wisdom - delivered the shortest speedway season in the history of the sport, with endless numbers of blank dates in the diary and many teams going weeks without a fixture. Yet here we are in the midst of October's gales and deluges trying to stage the season's most important play-offs on sodden tracks. Am I alone in seeing the irony of this? You really couldn't make it up.

Now THERE's a coincidence!... With regard to "root and branch investigations," I've just come across this on a lesser visited forum on this site: THE PATHFINDER REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS 2018". I don't know who's written this but it has the appearance of something that could have been commissioned by the sport's authorities. It identifies all the major challenges facing the sport in the UK, contains a detailed analysis of speedway's current assets, and makes recommendations as to the way forward in 2019 (which all look eminently do-able.) In short, it seems to recommend two leagues: a National League and an 18/20-team unified Premier/championship league, which it calls the British Speedway Champions League. Each of the teams in this league will sign a core of five premiership/championship riders plus a "reserve" team of 3 riders made up mainly from National League doublers-up. At the start of each match the 3 "reserve" riders from each team will compete in a 'B' team match over three heats, from which managers can then select two riders to make up the nos. 6 and 7 in the team proper. The League match will then follow over 13 heats. If I'm reading it correctly, guests and R/R will be completely outlawed! The report then goes on to make some astute observations about where UK speedway is letting itself down as a marketable product and gives some really practical signposts as to how it might improve its marketing potential. Overall it contains some radical and controversial suggestions but my view is that it reads like a breath of fresh air. If promoters have really started to think along these lines then our sport may yet even manage to drag itself into the 21st century. THERE COULD BE HOPE EVEN YET!

Now the dust has started to settle for most of us on 2018 (it settled for Sheffield nearly two months ago!) It's an opportunity for true fans to have our say on what we want/expect for 2019. With question marks hanging over Poole, Lakeside, Peterborough, Rye House, Redcar, Coventry and possibly some others, the question perhaps ought to be whether Speedway has a future at all. So, for the umpteenth year in succession, our sport faces crisis point. Perhaps 2019 could be the final make or break year. It's hard to think of many plus points from 2018 - perhaps the greatest is that we once again have a British world champion - but there's no shortage of minuses. Amongst the oddities is that after 6 months of close competition, a mid-table team has been anointed Premier League champions and the same thing may well be about to happen in the Championship (the next few days will decide). So, ahead of the November AGM, what messages do we want to send to the promoters? From my perspective, the only sensible salvation must be a single unified Championship/Premiership league - hopefully with 18/20 teams - plus a National League. Whoever thought that "rationing" Speedway was a good idea has been proved wrong, so a meaningful league competition of 18-ish matches home and away, a KO cup plus a further cup competition split into four regions of 4 or 5 teams will guarantee a season of at least 24 matches for every team, with a few more for teams putting together a good cup run. Play-offs are silly and must go. What is YOUR manifesto?

When was the last time you changed your gas supplier / car insurance / broadband provider? Did a piece of paper prevent it? As I said, any old bit of paper can be changed. It's not fraud - It's just a response to changing circumstances. All it takes is two signatures.

What it says on a piece of paper can always be changed. Where the heart lies is immutable.

Hands off Kyle - you won't get him that easily!

Will the Wooden Spoon Championship finish in 2018 be sufficient qualification for promotion to the Premiership in 2019?

Nor was there mention of Kyle winning the Bordernapolis at Berwick on Saturday, or of the fact that Kasper scored 9 points in the same meeting (having two wins, including one over Kevin Doolan and Kyle in heat 9).

There will be no transfer of football/rugby facilities to a new stadium before the project has received planning permission from the Council. If this is a serious threat, now is the time for all shale fans to get writing to their local councillors to explain that speedway is one of Workington's sporting mainstays, bringing visiting fans into the town on a weekly basis throughout the summer and providing jobs, wealth-creation and sporting entertainment for the people of the Borough. Tell them also that the Comets bring national kudos to the town, being at the very pinnacle of the sport in the UK (in the 2018 Championship play-offs - a feat unmatched by local teams in either football or rugby!) Explain that without the revenue from football and rugby, Derwent Park will be unviable as a speedway-only venue and therefore, in order to retain the sport in Workington, no planning permission should be granted for a new stadium unless it caters for speedway as well as other sports. You can start by writing to members of the Planning Committee which is chaired by Cllr Mike Rollo. The Vice Chair is Cllr Ann Bales and other members are Cllr Lillian Baldry, Cllr Michael Heaslip, Cllr Antony McGuckin, Cllr Peter McHarry, Cllr Bill Reville, Cllr Denise Rollo and Cllr Joan Wright. Write to them all at Workington Town Council, Town Hall, Oxford Street, Workington, CA14 2RS. Get cracking and good luck. I'm sure fans of Workington speedway can rely on the support of all speedway fans across the UK if we need to kick up a stink with the council. If all else fails you can set Jenga on 'em!

There seems to be a proliferation of lower-middle order riders sniffing round for a team slot next season (Shanes, Nicol, Mountain, Andersen, Kennedy) and there'll probably only be room for one of them - two at most. I'm not at all sure Kennedy is the wisest first move. I'd have preferred to see the first confirmed team slot go to Kasper who's done enough to show he can probably add 3 points to his average next season. Kennedy, on the other hand, has an assessed average of 5.2, which makes a big hole in the likely points allocation for 2019 and he might struggle to maintain that sort of average. He could turn out to be a big disappointment.

….and one side no-one expected to be where they are.....SHEFFIELD!!! (not to mention the ridiculous decision by promoters to shorten the season to just 15 league and cup matches, meaning the season was over whilst the kids were still in the middle of their summer holidays).

I'd add in Todd who's not done anything wrong this season and continues to add points to his average year-on-year.

I agree. Keep Todd and he'll improve. Bringing back Josh Bates would be a big mistake IMO. He should be asked to prove his race fitness before he's included in the team - maybe a spell in the NL. By March 2019 he won't have sat on a bike for 18 months; with that length of inactivity (and a bad back) who knows if he can still hack it? I'd say let some other team take the risk. Including him in the 2018 team was the factor that started the rot this year. We don't want to make the same mistake twice (but uncle Damian might feel differently!)

Each time Barker comes to Sheffield some poor soul ends up making a visit to the medical room. Last time it was Connor Mountain and the time before that it was major fisticuffs with Kyle Howarth after BB reportedly threated to put him on a spinal board. Don't know why the management don't ban him from the stadium.