Bruiser McHuge

who or what were Tusk ?....i remember them sponsoring some riders with vans..Daz Sumner springs to mind ....Did they then get a contract to "develop and market " British speedway and completely cocked up ?.....i might be totally wrong though but something in my mind remembers something...

i must admit that i didn't think one of them looked like Toni Kasper but i wasn't sure as it a long time ago !!

it could work with young reserves for sure....it often has in the past....but that is not a real squad system...these young reserves couldn't adequately replace a number 1 or any heat leader...or a decent second string to be honest...so where would the squad riders be got from to sit around to replace those riders ?.....young reserves are coverable iut the others are a lot trickier .

how would a squad system work ?....i don't see it being feasible in this country at all... sure you could get as surplus of very top GP standard riders but surely if they were being retained in a squad they would want bikes maintained and kept in the country as they may be required at 24 hours notice if an injury occurs...they would then want very large retainer to be willing to drop everything and fill in at short notice...it would be expensive to say the least. Then the middle order riders...who sits in a squad to replace them and where do you get them from....i just cannot see squad system being workable Guests are not ideal but they have been around since i started seeing speedway in the 70's and i cannot see a true alternative...i think there are far more faults and reasons for speedway's decline than guests but that is another longer story

Leyton Orient are a fantastically ran football team who most clubs in League 1 would love to be ran like....within their means as well... A solitary figure like Hearn couldn't run speedway though at league level...there are too many promoters with self interest in their own teams and if its their money invested then you cannot blame them....unless one man took over the running and had responsibility for every club then it couldn't happen A figure like Hearn could take over the GP's though and that could work..the only way it could work is on the individual side of things....far too many complications and self interest to make it happen at team level

so it looks like definitely in order....Sam Tesar, Roman Matousek, Vladimir Kalina, Bob Brhel, Toni Kasper....and taken at the 1990 World Team Cup final in Pardubice

the 1990 Czech team in the World Team Cup was Sam Tesar and Roman Matousek which you have on the left....the other 3 in that team wre Vladimir Kalina, Bob Brhel and Toni Kasper.......could that be this team ?....Brhel is certainly there.

TV stations spend fortunes on "real" feedback...they are totally aware of viewers views, ages, likes etc...it is a massive deal so they can promote their advertising to the relevant firms and also the costs of the slot etc....if Pearson was not performing to their liking then they would know the feedback 100% and he would have been replaced long ago

poeople are saying that Nigel Pearson knows the feedback yet refuses to moderate his style.....what feedback is this then ?...a few posters on a forum is hardly feedback and forums tend to generally be more negative than positive anyway because people are always more likely to post if they have a gripe...plus the majority of fans don't read or post at all on forums so feedback via forums is largely pointless. Sky will know the real feedback and what they want from commentators and if they felt that it was largely negative and Pearson was not delivering what they wanted then he certainly would not have lasted this long

that's not a surprise....the majority will find Pearson and Tatum very good...forums always highlight the negative about everything because dissenters are more likely to post if they dislike something and so it highlights it more....but forum posters are a mere drop in the ocean compared to the fans as a whole....i think Pearson and Tatum do a fine job and probably a lot of other people do as well but i can see why some people would not agree....but that's commentating for you....in all sports...it's all about viewpoints...but if all feedback was negative then they wouldn't have lasted this long for sure , so they must be doing something right.

i only watched the last half of the GP and i thought some of the racing was fantastic, especially from Sayfutdinov who was sensational and also Tai as well ....the GP's are an amazing promotion for the sport at the moment.....even my 15 year old came in whilst in was on and started watching and was impressed....his words were "speedway is miles better on a big track isn't it "....i coan't argue with that...proper racing on a fast track by the world's elite has to be one of the best spectacles in world sport in my opinion....if only Elite League tracks and meetings could provide anything close to this and we would be fine....as it is the GP's are currently at another level and then some

James Easter was Aussie manager for years....supposedly.

yes, a youth RL pitch would be much smaller than an adult RL pitch....i honestly don't think there is a call for a full size RL pitch in that area..certainly no call for a Super League team in the area so cannot see that being an issue, i believwe Manchester Giants are in discussions about being the tenants of the basketball arena...they currently play at the nearby Wright Robinson College but need somewhere bigger and better and i think they will play at the basketball arena if a deal can be arranged with the council

Hyde Road was probably the best track i have seen...but there were still some awful meetings there, especially when a lot of the small track teams visited...i remember Eastbourne getting despatched 64-14 and looking like they were on pushbikes ( slow ones at that ! )...the point is that no matter how good a track is there can always be poor meetings ..even at Hyde Road ! Hyde Road had the advantage of most world stars loved the place and providied great racing,,,,hopefully the new track will be the same.

don't know about that !!.......but i do feel that 365 metres is perfect for a good race track if they get the corners right....plus the fact that it should be available as an academy training track means that youngsters should hopefully get plenty of early experience on a biggish track which i think will be great preparation for racing on European tracks down the line.....my view is that youngsters need more experience of big track racing early on their career if they want to make an impact on the world stage......riding on a tiddler training track is almost a different sport altogether to a big European track.

when i was an avid fan i used to like the guest system....i liked the thought of a guest rider guesting for you as it was seeing somebody different...i wasn't that old though !! Nowadays i still don't see the big problem with it ...i still don't think it viable for a club here to employ a standby rider like Hancock, Gollob etc just for cover....they would want a retainer fee, they would want engines and bikes ready to use...it would be expensive basically,,, you cannot compare speedway to football,,,if Rooney is injured then Hernandez comes in ..no real change...you cannot compare it to junior Rugby because the standard of replacements are virtually the same, hence no real weakness. in speedway if a number 1 is injured then they simply cannot be replaced by a junior rider...the match becomes a mismatch..fans are not happy and are likely to not turn up at all if that is the case until a viable alternative to the gust system is produced then i don't have a major issue with it...i haven't seen a better option yet for keeping matches competitive

today's Manchester Evenig News says the track will be 365 metres

well it has just been announced on the radio that the go ahead has been given...so it's official then !!

oh yes it is !!! i've always liked Speedway Star but i do think it is superior today than back in the 70's and 80's ..i think it has grown and looks more professional and does have better content these days...and i don't follow the sport too much these days as well....only my opinion though .

interesting reading.. i would agree that the Mail should have kept itself as a paper..the magazine format did look a bit cheap and even more so when alongside Speedway Star...it didn't really matter when it was a paper as you cannot directly compare a paper with a magazine. i do remember Peter Baker's Aussie sections in the winter and they were very good...i remember a highly detailed rider by rider preview of the Australian Final by him ..when the Aussie Final actually meant something and was a route to the Commonwealth Final and hopefully the World Final ( unlike today's pale shadow of an event)....that was very good indeed. i do think that you have to congratulate Speedway Star though...hundreds of magazines have gone to the wall yet Speedway Star is still out there and is a far superior magazine now to back in the 70's and 80's ...it is still on the shelves of Tesco every week and that takes some doing in this day and age for a small sports magazine.

does anybody know whether SkySports News actually reported the result the meeting ?....my bugbear with SSN is that it is sports news for sports covered by Sky and anything else is ignored basically...so last year the Grand Prix's were covered excellently on SSN but this year they probably deny their very existence !......

that's Wade Aunger for you....when he commentated ay Claremont he gave an instant name to EVERYBODY....when my nephew was born he was called Ryan..he was 2 days old when he announced over the tannoy that "flyin Ryan" was born !!!!!.....it's an Aussie thing and i like it.. Didn't Nigel Pearson and Tatum do the world feed in Europe last season apart from Cardiff ?...i thought they did but i might be wrong...if so they may well be back which i don't mind to be honest

Wade Aunger who did the commentary has been announcing and commentating for years in Australia...he was the announcer and race commentator at Claremont in Perth for years and was excellent and added a lot to meetings...meetings are very differently presented over there ......he wll be slightly biased for Tai though as he has known him since he was a baby ! i thougt the coveage was good...of course he pictures were the same as would have been seen on Sky so no comparisoncan be made onthat front but it was a good show...the racing wasn't the best but ok and the crowd ooked decent to me....better than at the NZ v England test match !!!!

i used to like Speedway Mail..it was never as slick looking as Speedway Star but it was a great addition in its day....i felt it offered a good alternative and i liked the coverage it gave to some individual meetings that the Star tended to ignore....an example being the Coalite Classic at Bradford which i remember the Mail reporting on with a great double page centre spread with full photos and everything..the Star barely mentioned it !!....i think using Ken Carpenter's photos who was northern based helped in that regard..i sometimed felt that back in those days the Star was a bit too much southern influenced where the Mail wasn't.. i think i preferred the paper format to the magazine format though

i think that riders "gardening" and a bit of messing about at the tapes can actually add to the anticipation of a crucial race...i don't mind that too much....there are far too many delays though between races with nothing actually going on apart from some dreadful 70's MOR music over the tannoys.. Maybe promoters want to drag things out to make fans feel that they have had 2 plus hours worth of entertainment...if they rushed through every heat then you could finish in 45 minutes and people would be off home at 8.30 !! i can't believe that people want to get rid of parades.....i think the 14 bikes and riders lined up at the tapes before a meeting is part of the entertainment and the kids like that aspect of it i think....it means the riders are not just faceless individuals ....that shouldn't be got rid off. what can go on too long though is once that parade id finished then the riders can spend far too long on the track doing practice starts etc...that all delays the start of the meeting , but the actual parade and introduction of the riders is fine by me.