Wee Eck

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

I downplayed the “Saturday night and no top league” comment but what about “Bank Holiday Sunday” and no Championship meetings? No Sheffield, no Newcastle? At least the top league shows how to create interest by running two home and away derbies tomorrow night.

What were you expecting? Top league UK doesn’t run on Saturdays. Had you forgotten? Five PL meetings on Bank Holiday Monday. Not bad in a 7 team league Also one NDL meeting

Only one possible track.....

Is it just a coincidence that this appears on the day that CFS sponsored Swindon were going to use Craig Cook as a guest? Just as well that the weather forecast has put paid to that idea....

Is there a way to watch this other than through BT Sport? I don’t have a BT subscription

You’re not comparing like for like. When you buy a season ticket for a team, you know that doesn’t guarantee who will be in the team. Injuries, loss of form, or even big payments to ride in Poland can cause a rider to be missing. You are paying to see the team. The only comparison to your stack vs lasagne argument would be if you paid to see Peterborough and Kings Lynn were there instead (not to say that won’t happen!)

What is or was “tricksgate”? ”Trick” was the nickname of Tony Richardson but he’s not ridden for a UK team for about 15 years? What happened with him?

Why would anyone post something like that? It’s just rude and an insult to all Poole supporters. What are you trying to achieve, or, do you think you might achieve? And “cheats”. When, what, where, how? You getting confused with Coventry in 2010 when they could have used Shamek Pawlicki 23 times but only allowed him 11 meetings (when you needed 12 for an average) so he remained as a reserve?

I think all he’ll get for that load of nonsense is sympathy for his carers who have to deal with his ramblings on a daily basis. What a waste of bandwidth.