Bruiser McHuge

You really do want a white elephant if you think Belle Vue can build this mega capacity, fully seated stadium ...the cost of that would be astronomical and to be honest would be a complete waste of money even if it could be built which would be unlikely in the extreme.. A good modern 6000 capacity stadium with a top grandstand around a top class race track is ideal , perfect in fact......if they can possibly extend for bigger world level meetings than so be it and that is good but to build this so called super stadium that people seem to be expecting is completely unrealistic in this day and age. This stadium should be excellent, ideal for what it's intended for week in week out and something to look forward to in my opinion instead of constantly looking for negatives about it

I cannot understand the negativity around this stadium....I think it comes from the naming of it as the National Speedway Stadium which was a mistake probably...but a lot of people seemed to want it to fail for some reason.. I am naturally a bit of a cynic and pessimist but for a good while now I genuinely expected this to happen and I am not expecting Wembley or the Etihad but a nice little stadium with good viewing , a nice race track and decent eating and drinking facilities will be great and surely everybody would agree with that.... FC United are opening their stadium soon with a 5000 capacity....Salford's RL stadium took ages to get approved and built but is there now....Curzon Ashton' s new ground is a lovely little ground....none are massive....none will probably rival the new Polish stadiums but they are neat and tidy and more importantly....built ! I will go to the new stadium , and I haven't been to speedway in England for about 15 years and I know plenty more will....they won't all come back but some will and that can only be positive........it then needs the rest of speedway to get its act in order and that might be the hard part.

Well if anybody does that these days then I have no sympathy at all and have no consideration for anybody else on the road at all....that is absolutely no defence for Ward to to come up with that ludicrous statement.

I remember Andy Grahame representing Milton Keynes in the NLRC and Birmingham in the BLRC in the same season...and deservedly as well, not through Birmingham dropouts

I used to really like Elfield Park....the most basic setting for a speedway " stadium" but it had something about it that was really enjoyable I thought and really good viewing

The fast track rule is one of the most ridiculous rules ever and really doesn't do anything to actually help the progress of riders,,,people might say it does, but it doesn't....it is purely a cost cutting watering down rule and the fast track riders themselves generally get harder rides in the Premier League which will bring them on quicker than this false fast track rule brought in I don't think the top stars will flock back to Britain even if the Elite goes one night only, which I can't see happening anyway....this isn't just the Grand Prix but mainly due to the growth of the European leagues...whilst the Polish and Swedish leagues are there then the British League is always going to be third for a lot of top riders regardless of race days , one race night etc Unfortunately I don't think people are going to be attracted back to speedway , there are too many counter attractions now and the product isn't strong enough....I don't know what the answer is...answers should have been found a long time ago but weren't

Day in day out I think Nielsen was the best rider I have seen but I think Gundersen was possibly the quickest rider I have seen and could peak for the big meetings...I think it would have been the toss of coin between them in GP's ..they were so far ahead of the field I honestly don't think Lee would have won anything under the new starting regulations...maybe he would have adapted but I have my doubts...pity he didn't hang around to find out..he definitely benefitted from the old style starts One rider who could have won some was Sigalos who but for his injury could have been better than Penhall I think..he was a great rider.....and Eromolenko in his champion year would have won a GP series I think that year There are years when a rider is on fire for that year and you could make a case for that year alone maybe...Jessup in 1980 maybe...definitely Jan O Pedersen in his year.....and to be fair to Havelock I don't think he'd have been a milion miles away in his winning year as well.

The advertising space in the programme is a vital part of the funds coming into a club so if they scrapped the programme for a scorecard then they lose all the advertising revenue on top of the programme sales revenue....that's a lot to give up

Regarding Kings Lynn, I follow the Evo Stik Northern Leagues with Curzon Ashton FC as my son plays for the Youth team and Kings Lynn are in the Northern League with lots of teams from the Manchester , lancashire and Cumbria area......I can't work that one out Would they be a Northern team in any speedway regionalisation I wonder....hardly derby matches....Belle Vue v Kings Lynn....Glasgow v Kings Lynn !

When it comes to natural talent then Ward is one of the best natural talents I've ever seen....he is a rider I'd travel to watch but when it comes to a racing brain then he is miles behind Hancock , who I wouldn't travel to watch !........but to be where Hancock is at 44 is a brilliant tribute to his dedication, professionalism and racing brain

Monster or Red Bull doesn't re hydrate you...it's not an isotonic drink it's a high caffeine energy drink...completely different...you'd never drink Monster at half time in a football match.....if he wanted to rehydrate then water is best or isotonic drinks I think to be over the limit at at a speedway meeting is a disgrace really...if he had been involved in an accident which hurt an opponent then how could he live with himself....sure the alcohol may not actually have been the reason but Ward would know it was there and he would never ever be 100% sure that it hadn't affected him one tiny bit ....he'd have to live with that so why put yourself in that position in the first place..

It always surprises me how people somehow expect the B test could be different to the A test...seeing it's the same sample taken at the same time and split into two then there is no way it could ever be different If it is then there is obviously contamination and no way could a guilty verdict be found, but I have never known a B sample to differ from an A sample in this day and age

There is nothing wrong with a club employing a Grand Prix rider if the GP rider actually wants to ride here and does a deal that a club can genuinely afford....to ban them all purely because they are GP riders is just denying the fans any chance of seeing them And if GP riders were banned then riders mentioned like Hans Andersen and the like would just demand more anyway because their value as number 1 riders increases even more....and then if clubs decided the likes of Andersen and the second tier were too expensive you are left with a purely domestic league that some people seem to want but would have little widespread appeal and would definitely ensure England would be in the international wilderness for years to come

I see Tai Woffinden is publicly calling for Elite League teams to be allowed to sign 2 number 1 riders next season so they can job share to ease the number of meetings.. I cannot see how the teams can afford to do this...they can barely afford one top GP standard rider let alone two....I'm sure both would want a signing on fee and a retainer and probably extra bikes ready for a short notice call...a top rider isn't going to sign as a sharing number 1 for nothing when he is not riding Does anybody think Tai's idea has any chance of coming in ?

I still think that in general people would like to see the very top riders...I think it's only real die hard fans that say otherwise and they would keep on going regardless... I think if they still had a top league of 18 clubs , each with a real top star or 2 and then some good standard back ups like in my early days...every GP star riding here basically, but you didn't see them every week because it was a different club visiting all the time , then fans would come back ...to a degree...top riders do have an attraction if they are not seen all the time This is never going to happen though...the old days have gone...top riders are not going to return..so we are faced with weak teams facing each other too often with loads of free weeks along the way...that is not a recipe for bringing back old fans or attracting new fans. Off topic, speaking of the old days...I was watching some races from the 70's and early 80's the other day and you forget just he perfect the starts are today, and how awful they were back then...but I never thought anything of it back then.....the 1980 World Final...how Michael Lee ever got away with gating like that !! ...would anybody like to go back to the old tape breaking rule ?.....I thought the pushing at the starts added greatly to the tension...but I can't believe how unfair it actually was looking back.....so some progress is good..

i don't believe league speedway is struggling because of the golden double rule or because of guests replacing a top rider..that has been going on for years....if a number 1 is missing then there is no better alternative than having a guest....it never stopped fans coming before...it doesnt stop them now,,it's a necessary evil.. the thing stopping fans coming is that there are not enough teams...teams are cobbled together on a yearly basis with virtually no connection to the local fans...fans know they are basically hired hands for a few months and will more than likely be a hired hand for somebody else the following season....who know what clubs actually own which rider these days. There are not enough meetings....when i started going it was a meeting every week at the same time..usually with the same 7 riders against a different team every week...there were away supporters there in numbers..there was an atmosphere...these days there are too long a gap between meetings...when a meeting comes around its against the same old teams , who are usually turning up with half their team missing anyway...where is the encouragement for anybody to follow that... part of the attraction in the old days was that you only got to see certain teams once a season, twice if you were lucky so you got to see a certain world star only on that occasion...there was anticipation in seeing riders so rarely in the flesh... if you look back, often the racing was no better than today...the stadiums were a bit run down ...but there was variety...regular meetings and a crowd to add to the atmosphere,..there were world stars and a regular 1 to 7 where more riders actually hung around to complete a few seasons with the club..it felt like your club, your riders....none of that exists today with the advent of multi channel TV, internet, computer games etc there is just so much more to stop people attending these days and the old days will never return , but speedway doesnt help itself thats for sure.. finally...the old tac sub rule was far superior to the golden double !!!....in fact it was a highlight of the meeting for me to watch it happen....although i cannot believe anybody has stopped going these days purely because of the golden double...the problems are much deeper than that..

I find it incredible that people are making excuses for Ward...there are no excuses..full stop....being 22 is not an excuse...hearing bad news is not an excuse....there are no excuses and he should be banned for the rest of this season at least and from next years series as well.. There are too many apologists for Ward , and certainly so within his close circle..it needs a lengthy ban to maybe make him see sense and it certainly needs somebody like Middleditch to actually stand up to him and say he is an idiot...being surrounded by apologists and yes men is the worse thing that can happen to anybody and in the long run will do Ward no favours at all

Riders were always given a booklet and at the back was a list of every banned substance ...it was a long list and was a bit mind boggling but everything on it could easily be checked on any medication about to be taken...it wasn't difficult to do...and it is the riders responsibility at the end of the day... Wad it Eric Monaghan that failed a test for Night Nurse once !..

No...what's he said ?......I take it you dint agree with much of it !

Britain has been left behind since the opening up of the foreign leagues and Poland in particular....the riders are not doing anywhere near enough foreign racing....the Polish League opened it's doors to foreigners in the early 90's and if you want regular foreign racing then it is a must to ride there and it is not easy to get a spot..especially for an English rider brought up on English tracks which are virtually a different sport to the European circuits...I cannot see many English riders getting a break in Poland to be honest. Up until the Polish League becoming open then the main route for extra racing for English riders was grass track and then long track which developed skills on the big tracks and opened up doors to individual meetings on Sundays in Germany ...plenty of English riders developed skills through this route and it was this racing that taught them the skills to compete on the big European speedway tracks ... Riders rarely seem to ride the grass tracks or the European long tracks anymore or do German weekends on the big speedway tracks...these certainly helped the likes of Wigg, Doncaster, Cox , Screen , Tatum , Loram etc who could all ride the big European speedway tracks with no problem...most of them had tuners like Otto Weiss, Hans Zierk, Otto Lattenhammer as a result. English riders now ride the small tracks at greyhound stadiums and never venture out of the country as they cannot get a foreign league spot and this racing is a million miles away from the bikes and techniques needed for the Euro circuits, especially Poland....they will never compete at world level doing that

Sky is certainly expensive but any speedway is a bonus for me...I certainly wouldn't subscribe to Sky purely for the speedway...the product is not that good !

There's a case going on in Manchester whereby the Night and Day club is being sued by a local resident in a flat above it over noise from the bands in the club.....bearing in mind the club has been a music venue for years and the flats are very recent and obviously the resident knew he was moving over a live music venue when he moved in....now one resident is threatening the future of one of Manchester's iconic music venues and it could be closed.......very similar to this...it surely shouldn't be allowed

When I used to go to speedway I would quite often go to various tracks if there was a decent looking meeting on or a rider I wanted to see....I could easily finish work and drive to Wolves on a Monday for instance...not much more than an hour..... I have never understood that a fan would ONLY want to see their own team and have no interest in seeing anything else.....I think I was always more interested in good meetings and certain riders round the country than the team as a whole, but I suspect I was in a minority with that

I'm not criticising Tai or any other rider for maximising their earnings ...I well remember my brother in law saying often enough that speedway was a job and he rode for money.....and if riders earn more in Poland and Sweden then good luck to them The Elite League is in a critical condition and if going one day helps improve it just a bit then go for it if it's practical What I'm saying is that the main reason the riders don't ride here is money and I can't see that changing, but if they can give it a go and see then I'm all for it