Bagpuss

As well as Somerset and the Championship clubs who didnt bother.

Indeed, Mr Wagstaff started it at Lynn in 2000 when the riders all have silver bike covers to go with the black race suits.

Good piece on Look East, kevlars and bike covers look awesome. Refreshing to see speedway as the local sports news, makes a change from boring people with yet another Norwich win

Didn’t think for a moment I’d get a sensible answer but for what it’s worth that’s a very negative way of looking at it. How about trying to look as professional as possible to gain more sponsorship? Speculating a bit to accumulate? Even some National League teams have them. Why would a team want their collective photo in the paper on online with everyone in different gear? Looks so amateurish. Unfortunately too many people in speedway are like you and have a can’t do attitude rather than trying to drive the sport forward.

Exactly, there are a million and one things for people to do with their leisure time and money nowadays, and unfortunately speedway hasn’t moved with the times to make people want to come. Add to that the way the sport is run and the often dreadful customer experience and it’s little wonder crowds are so poor.

The crowd levels have a lot to do with it too....if you watch an average meeting as one of a few hundred spectators you wouldn’t enjoy it anywhere near as much as being among five thousand fans watching it for example. Speedway back in the day seemed so much better due to the bigger crowds, better atmosphere and sense of occasion even though the racing itself was very similar.

Not really the point is it.....for a sport struggling to attract sponsors and punters and drag itself into the twenty first century team suits are a no brainier and should be compulsory in our top two leagues.

I think you’re obsessed, you don’t seem to stop going on about it. If they finish top and we bottom you might have a point but it would be better to stop worrying and see what results the actual speedway racing brings before jumping to conclusions.

I don’t see what it has to do with King’s Lynn, if he was willing to help out for a few weeks before his season gets into full swing it would be a great move. A few weeks is different to a whole season for the Stars.

Terry Betts Michael Lee Henka Gustafsson Bo Brhel Robert Lambert Tomas Topinka Niels Kristian Iversen

Nothing to do with being arsed though was it? He was in dispute (not the first) with the governing body about professionalism and trying to win. Thankfully they saw that he was right in the end. I don’t particularly agree with him missing British Finals but on the whole he is top class and yes the best we have ever had.

It’s a fair point, although only half of the first dozen meetings are actual league matches so if by the end of May it’s decided that changes are required there will be plenty of points left to win to get into the Play Offs. In terms of bringing in support, I understand and appreciate the desire to see fresh faces but at the same time many people build up a rapport with riders and having seven riders back from last year will go down well with lots of fans.

I’d probably suggest that we wait for ten to twelve meetings before deciding whether we have been ‘let down’ or not.

Riss has spent three (?) years at Edinburgh, not sure he struggles on tight tracks.

For me Hans is about ten years past his best and on the way down, not sure I would drop any of the three on similar averages in our side for him. Can see why people would want Simon after the job he did last year but he wont ever get any better and there is a chance Kasper could be a decent speedway rider given time to develop as he is young enough to improve. Not convinced Hans and Simon offer an awful lot of potential.

I’d also question if Hans or King are really any better than what we have.

The argument about what we would do without Lambert is a valid one as he’d be impossible to cover but any rider can get get injured at any time so when predicting team strengths I think you have to disregard injuries and just deal with them when they happen. I expect this team to be better than the sum of its parts like last year but it’s sucfess of course depends on improvement, if somebody can step up to second heat leader effectively and Kasper has a breakthrough season for example we could be a match for anyone, if not it could be a season of struggle. But I’m expecting something in the middle.

So how should we line up? My preference would be 1 Lambert 2 Kerr 3 Jorgensen 4 Riss 5 Proctor 6 Andersen 7 Palm Toft

That’s a fair point but I was more thinking of a club specific one which can be used to be alerted to news etc and to use instead of a programme on race nights.

Surprising that no club in the UK has developed an app yet, as has been said it would be far more appealing to the younger audience and engage them. There is still a market for programmes but an app alongside is long overdue.

Not any more. Cant recall where but I’m sure I read/heard that there’s ongoing legal stuff with the promotional changes which is why nobody involved can say too much yet? Could be wrong.

I think that sums things up quite well, it’s a good idea in principle but has been poorly executed.

I think the fact that it’s a very similar team to last year and perceived to be weak doesn’t help, as you say fans like those on here probably wouldn’t have an issue if there were three or four new faves and the team to them looked strong and potentially league winning. I still maintain though that to those people who go to speedway at Lynn but switch off from it in the winter it wouldn’t matter if it’s Riss or not, it’s about keeping the club in their thoughts through regular press releases.

You do come out with some odd stuff.....Trees is as big a speedway nut as there is but like many people she doesn’t read the Star, probably because it’s overpriced for what it is and the majority of stuff in it you can read on the internet either before or shortly after its published. Plus there is a lot of filling in there of little interest IMO. I expect Niels has a Swedish team lined up and I would never expect a rider to pick the UK over Sweden.

I don’t think Puk was ever going to do four leagues and the GP’s, so it’s no surprise which country he has dropped.