Wee Eck

If you really want an answer...Batchelor had a great 2019. But he’s still not a number one, is he? Kurtz and Holder J didn’t really improve in UK in 2019 in what was a weaker league. BK put less than half a point on his average, Holder 0.1. Even Grajczonek improved by more. Holder had 16 home meetings, 10 riding at number 1, 6 at number 5. You need and expect your number one and number five to win their first outings or, if they’re up against a top opponent, at least get 2nd. JH had one win and one paid win out of 16, 7 2nds or paid seconds, 3 thirds and 4 lasts. That’s third heat leader performance at best. Journeyman position. As far as Dan Bewley is concerned, it would be great to see him continue to improve. He should certainly kick on from 2019, a season that started slowly after his bad accident. And he’s having a good winter in Australia. He’s got the ability to improve in 2020, and his target should certainly be to outscore BK and Kildemand. Will that make him a proper number one? As good as Jason Doyle? Robert Lambert? Craig Cook even? Time will tell

Goodness me. It’s a bit of a rubbish league, isn’t it? One proper number one in Jason Doyle, one future number one (maybe) in Robert Lambert, one former number one in Nikki Pedersen and loads of journeymen (Kurtz, Holder J, Harris, Kildemand, Batchelor etc) I think Poole made the right choice - CL is not trying to pretend it’s a top ranking league, just a good balance of up and comers and been theres

Because I wanted to know who was racing and couldn’t find a link anywhere UPDATE: finally found a link but can only find one other confirmed Premiership rider, Jordan Stewart. If you include Sam Masters, who must be nailed on for Wolves, that’s two. Who is the third?

How many other riders who’ll be riding Premiership in 2020 were in it?

You also need a completely different fence for stock cars. Kirky Lane used heavy duty chains, Coventry had Armco barriers, Kings Lynn has a solid steel fence. I don’t know what Sheffield and Scunthorpe use. The centre “green” at both Coventry and Kings Lynn was concreted over to allow the stocks to drive on then without damage. Kirky Lane was just a muddy mess. One of the “failures” (in my opinion) of the NSS is the lack of success in turning what is the best Speedway stadium in the UK into a multi-purpose venue. Look at what Somerset have achieved with turning their place into a busy function hub. Weddings, birthdays, even (though maybe now regretted) a venue for a Conservative Party rally. Maybe it’s the difference between one venue being run by its owners, the other by employees.

That can’t be right - BWitcher tells me, despite the stats, that every Premier stadium sells out every match. They must have been using old Arnold with the arthritic thumb to click the crowd counter last night

Any idea why Bjerre was so poor last year? It’s often said there are no false averages in this league, unless affected by long term injury, but Bjerre lost over a point. An injury free Nielsen will hold his average, but I’m not sure there’s much more to come, not on a consistent basis anyway. He’s a nice lad and I’d like to see him do well, but he’s been “up and coming” for a long while now. Of the suggested 1-7 (including Bjerre and Bowtell) maybe McDonald is young enough to improve but I’d be astonished to see much increase from the other 6. Poole used to be the team of innovation, of new faces, but that’s not the case in 2020. We’ll, not the original declaration anyway.....

Check the official stats. I did. Anyway, it’s irrelevant to Speedway so no need to be rude

I must have 14 fingers then! The comment made was about full stadia, not nearly full. The only one that sells out for every match is also the largest - Manchester United with 74,879.

I think you can count the number of full Premiership football stadia this year on one hand. That’s one sport that’s priced itself too high. But they don’t seem to care as ticket sales are now a small part of overall revenue - about 14% comes from that source, with around 70% coming from tv.

My point is the mentoring can’t have been that good if it didn’t cover guiding him about being paid.

Is that the same Jack Thomas who walked away half way through the season?

3 live in UK. One will be based in UK. Two - King and McDonald are part of the Sheffield/Poole exchanges. Neilsen has had more tracks than most other riders, Steve is the only one I can see took some negotiation. Look at Eastbourne - a well balanced team of British riders. That’s how CL should go, rather than importing overseas riders whose only claim to fame is that their average fits

Don’t you believe it. “SG”, or as others call him, SD (!) did what he was told on team building - and more importantly, team changes

Was it not Homer who said “things are difficult to predict, especially the future”. That’s Homer Simpson not Homer the Greek philosopher. Anyway, it’s too early to make any overall assessments, but I’ll go with three predictions for now: Justin Sedgmen won’t last the season at Glasgow and neither will Ostergaard unless he gets some decent kit. Poole will find their anti-Brit stance will bite them on the backside. They’ve dropped a league to save money and now are having to look at expensive fly in fly out riders to get anywhere near competitive. Leicester will discover the folly of allowing Stewart Dickson to build the team, especially having two 2 point riders at reserve. (See Glasgow 2004)

Not sure I follow that: team has three under 20s, JS is 27, RW 28 and Cookie 32. All of whom are fit and able young men.The only one who might just have been able to avoid conscription is Ulrich but more because of multiple injuries and an inability to keep his machinery in good nick than age

BSI is a British company with its base in Britain. It’s ultimate owner is a US group now called Endeavour, of which IMG is a subsidiary. BSI has been largely autonomous with Paul Bellamy, former MD of BSI (I think) having an over arching role whilst appointing a local MD, first Torben Olsen then earlier this year, Steve Gould. Paul and Torben - and the FIM - fought to limit the influence of Polish speedway, and I assume that was part of Gould’s remit as well. The Poles have long maintained that they should be allowed to hold even more GPs than the three they now have and that Warsaw rather than Cardiff should be the marquee event. A senior FIM member was heard saying Baku to Monaco (in F1) is like Warsaw to Cardiff. Baku tries hard but it will never be Monaco. When the new consortium is in place, I expect Warsaw will become the number one event. With BSI heading out of the picture (actually, no surprise there as they’ve failed to innovate) and OneSport - who already have the SEC and the World Under 21 Championship - part of the new package, I would expect at least one more GP in Poland from the start of the new franchise, at the expense of one or more in the rest of Europe, something that wouldn’t happen under BSI. From a personal perspective, I’ve been disappointed by the lack of involvement of IMG. I really thought when they got involved, there would be a huge push but they don’t seem to have done much. Such a shame especially when you consider they have their own TV company, Transworld Sport that has shown but never really pushed GP speedway. My opinion is that the new franchise holders could well be good for speedway as a whole, which we know is now centred in Poland, but that is potentially detrimental to Britain.

That team should walk the league with four heat leaders.

Morris rode for Buxton then joined Glasgow on his 16th birthday.

I know there’s a GP section but this maybe requires wider circulation. It seems Eurosport/Discovery in conjunction with OneSport have won the rights to the SGP from 2021. Because of the OneSport involvement, that means that, once more, the Poles have won out against the Brits. Should supporters of British Speedway be worried?

The only two remaining Championship number ones, if Skidder is to be believed, are King and Ellis. I reckon Wednesday’s “revelation” will be Danny King. If Worrall, King and Ellis are the top three, that’s a reasonable start, although only Ellis is likely to improve his starting average. And there’s going to be a longish tail

It’ll be a killer of a signing if it’s true...

Yeh. After 2019, he’s paying to ride

Sounds like another fencer might be on his way to Owlerton....

8pm!