Wee Eck

I’ve just read that Henry Atkins has stood down from Somerset. This used to be a rarity but is this not the third or fourth young British rider this year? Part of this might be caused by the reduction in the points limit at the beginning of the year, meaning that too many riders came into the league before they were ready but it doesn’t explain Zach Wajtnecht and Jack Thomas taking a break. The up and coming riders need all the experience going but maybe it’s time to bring back the protected races that the Elite League used when they had the draft system?

Was being dumped by Edinburgh and being deprived of making a living also “nonsense”? Why does “if you want him, you’ve got to buy him” work when Glasgow want a Leicester rider and not the other way round? And don’t tell me that Stewart Dickson didn’t know the score when he approached the rider. He’s been around too long to make a mistake like that. I suspect he publicised it first, hoping that peer pressure would let him get the rider. The Glasgow management seem to be working towards making Speedway viable in the city, so deserve credit not criticism from less well supported and funded teams.

Pointless competition with mostly processional riding promoted by a Polish company with largely second tier riders in front of a stadium less than half full. And people say Speedway in Poland is the future? If that’s the case, there is no future.

The 2011 silencers were withdrawn after riders complained that the additional back pressure they caused led to engine over heating and blow ups. The current silencers are virtually the same as the pre-2011 ones, so have nothing to do with any perceived reduced quality of racing.

So why then do supporters idolise riders and slag off promoters?

So a 4 ride maximum would pay £8 meaning that 23 supporters at 7/- (or 35p) a time would pay the maximum man. In 2019 CL, the top guy gets no start money but, say £80 a point? 12 points = £960 which, at £15 a head is 64 supporters, or nearly three times the number needed in 1970. Makes you wonder if it’s riders rather than promoters who are making it so expensive?

Lol. Nice attempt at deflection but I know that’s not true and I suspect you do too. Richard retired over 10 years ago

Just arrived in Manchester so picked up a copy of the Manchester Evening News to see what they were saying........nothing! Despite what you might think, BV’s promotional activity has been poor since Morton and Gordon’s day. Hopefully the BV faithful will turn out but not many more

Was that as a result of his heat 6 crash? He was brave, or foolish, to have four more races after this, then

Why?

Where was Ricky Wells?

I’d put any money on it they didn’t say that... R/R is a facility. Your comment then means “no facility for a facility” which doesn’t mage sense. Edinburgh had the option of a guest or R/R as long as only one rider was missing and the rider was in the top three in the averages. If you book a guest and he doesn’t turn up or isn’t available for any other reason, then you revert to R/R.

Ignorance as a defence? It is surely the responsibility of every professional sports person to find out what is and what isn’t permitted in their chosen sport. Speedway Regulation 8.1 and Appendix E spells it all out Edit: R&R beat me to it!

Reassuring that one of the most senior promoters in British Speedway thinks allegedly failing a drug test, for whatever reason, is an excuse for a joke. Professional sports people know or ought to know what medicines they can or cannot take and they know that anything containing pseudoephedrine is banned. There can be no excuse or justification - if any rider tests positive for taking a banned substance, then a ban is the only acceptable outcome

I know people talk about a racing incident but was last night’s crash caused by Covatti being impatient to get passed Berge?

The difference with Danny Ayres is that he’s managing to hold down a Championship League place of course. I take your point on having an experienced older rider in the team, but, in my view, that should be a rider who has recently held a position in a more senior team or successfully raced in the top league. That would include riders like Carl Wilkinson or Adam Roynon, but not Ledwith, Wallinger or Wilson. It is my view that part of the problems in UK, problems that are only now being addressed, stemmed from allowing the training league to go professional. This then encouraged teams to strengthen thereby restricting opportunities for “beginners” to move into teams. It took two things to change that - a ready supply of new riders, helped hugely by Neil Vatcher and the amazing success of the British Youth Championship, and a restriction on team building at development level. For me, the next stage is to go to two leagues with the top league being slightly stronger than the current CL, maybe built to whatever points the top team in this year’s CL achieve, and a development league that pays away match travel expenses only. That way, the Buxtons, Mildenhalls, Stokes, IOWs of this world can function successfully (and maybe be a fiver a head entry) while the top league can provide opportunities and a financial incentive for more riders to move up.

Actually yes. Maybe not Perry, but certainly Ledwith (late 40s!) Bowen (30 - but not riding) and Wilson (I assume you mean Ben, aged 33) should be “encouraged” to find an amateur league they can have a bit of a skid in, but leave the development league for developing new British riders. For the sake of survival, we need two leagues in this country - a feeder league populated by teams that can’t make ends meet at a higher level, a league which pays expenses and nothing more, and a balanced professional league, largely filled with Brits, that can entertain the fans. If that league becomes a feeder to Poland, so be it, but we need to recognise that there is no other professional motor sport that pays a decent living to riders learning their trade. Promoters and fans have been subsidising these riders long enough. Time for them to start earning a living in as hard a way as do most supporters.

On the contrary. Wallinger is 35 and going nowhere. The sport needs to encourage riders who can contribute to the future. There’s not many of those who are without team places and they should be the ones encouraged to improve themselves by taking guest bookings, not guys who are going nowhere. With apologies to Mr Wallinger - who I don’t know and doubt if I’ve ever seen ride - at 35, he must simply be riding for his own benefit, rather than because he wants to develop his career.

Chris Holder isn’t attached anywhere. Should he be allowed to guest wherever suits him? Or any rider like Iversen, Tai, Pedersen etc Or does it, in fact, make sense that you need to be in a 1-7?

I bet Scunthorpe say the same about Rob Godfrey and Leicester about Neil Machin. I maybe can’t say the same for the Premiership with Keith Chapman of Kings Lynn, Colin Pratt of Peterborough (owned by Keith Chapman) and the reserve member being Chris Louis of Ipswich (owned by Keith Chapman). That’s proper democracy for you

Actually, I think this is where this league is finally getting itself sorted and returning to the development league it was always meant to be. There shouldn’t really be places for 35 year olds when there are younger riders available.

I thought Damien Bates had been on Management Committee for the last two of three years? Is he then one of the “numpties on the BSPA”?

On the other hand, if you drop your price by a third - say from £15 to £10, you have to increase your crowd by 50% just to stand still. In BT Sport’s first season covering domestic speedway (2017) all tracks were ordered to reduce prices for televised meetings so they’d look good to BT. Some went at a fiver (Swindon?) some round about a tenner. I’m sure I read somewhere that all tracks lost on the deal. Don't forget tracks are made to take tv fixtures and, historically, crowds are down for these so, unless a track can guarantee that by lowering their prices they will substantially improve the crowd and make good the lost revenue, they need to maximise prices so they minimise losses

That really would only work (maybe) on one track in the country. Are you suggesting the other 22 close down? Many people suggest that UK should copy Poland - but Poland thrives on team racing. Individual meetings are just an add on and seldom attract big crowds. In UK, supporters don’t turn out in big numbers for individual events either - compare crowd levels for play-offs versus league riders’ championships But, if you really believe a two day festival of speedway as you envisage it would work - sidecars, juniors, and solos - why not get a group of like minded individuals and rent the NSS for a couple of days and run the event?

“Shared” by Poland I assume you mean? And we all know Poland doesn’t share