Bruiser McHuge

I know I said that I had no problem with guests in speedway, and in principle I don't as it's an entertainment business at the end of the day and fans deserve 2 competitive teams going head to head...... But..reading the Janowski situation is just ridiculous and you can't say you are fit to ride a big track but not fit to ride a small track...you are either fit to ride speedway or you are not....if you are not then you don't ride anywhere and a guest comes in......end of story. Plenty of riders like big tracks and hate small tracks...plenty like small tracks and hate big tracks....tough...you cannot risk a situation whereby riders suddenly pull out of tracks they don't like to be replaced by a track specialist and then , hey presto, they are suddenly fit again for a track that they quite like....that is cheating and at best just looks dodgy....

Squad systems are too expensive and difficult to manage at short notice.. Guests don't , and never have, bothered me...and that's regardless of circumstances....I always felt cheated as a fan if the opposition turned up with a no hope junior instead of a top rider....I'd sooner see a competitive guest any day of the week ..give me a competitive meeting with good races rather than somebody tailed off every race because of some "ruling".......it's all about entertainment to me at the end of the day.

Yes I'd say it obviously must have been, although I cannot remember Neville ever having a high enough British League average to convert to an 11 when dropping down.....I never thought he was as good as that !!

Blimey, what year was that ?.....when did Neville Tatum ever warrant an 11 point average !

I'm sure Howath scoring 0 tonight at Kings Lynn to go with his Kings Lynn performances previously has totally ruled out a spot for him...it would be madness to pick him at Kings Lynn.....on the other hand another 10 paid 11 from 4 from Lambert must have sealed his spot, if it wasn't sealed already which it should have been.

Nobody is saying the squad is full of poor riders, it's not....Woffy is at the top of the world tree, Harris is still a world class performer on his day, Lambert is one of the best prospects we have had for a long time...the others are all very good capable riders ...nobody is knocking them as riders..... But...I have to agree that as an international squad it is a poor squad when compared to squads Britain have been able to pick in years gone by...not knocking the riders but a lot of that squad would not have come remotely close to a squad a few years ago which basically shows the lack of depth in British speedway at the moment. ....but it think the actual team should still reach the final, but that's where they will struggle when only 2 pg the squad have real extensive European experience on European tracks

Well the fact that Schlein was allowed to represent GB in the pairs showed that the BSPA or whoever didn't consider that to be a proper international event ..yet they still barred Nicholls from earning a living by banning him from riding in it..mixed messages there !

I can't see that being an issue should it happen.....the stadiums aren't next door to each other and the policing for the speedway crowd wouldn't be excessive., compared to football....I'm sure the police would allow both.

I think Rossiter's hands are tied over Nicholls....to me it's irrespective how Barker rides in the British Final as that's one meeting on a track a million miles away from the types of tracks British riders will need to master to be forces on the world stage , and Barker has had his chances and he's not good enough.....I'm sure Garrity will ride well at Wolves as well as he generally does but he's a different story and I'd liked to have seen him in the squad and maybe even the team as he is one for the future and riding Sheffield each week can only help him now..I can't understand that one.

The squad is fine...obviously some have no chance of actually making the team but they are named as encouragement for their efforts and possibilities for the future. Although he wouldn't have ridden I would have named Steve Worrall instead of Richie...he's in excellent form in both leagues, plus why is Garrity omitted ?.....again it's not a big deal as he wouldn't have ridden but he's as good if not better than some named. I wouldn't name King in the actual team...he's probably in the best 5 currently but he's had plenty of chances...GB srent going to win this and King is not going to improve so it's time to look to the future, which is the reason I have no problems with Kennett being left out of the squad. I feel certain though that the final 5 will be Woffinden, Harris, Lambert, Cook and King

I think if it was televised and advertised as a National Pairs event then yes it should be taken seriously....I think that's the least TV viewers expect and deserve Now if you were organising it as a filler challenge meeting at the local track then maybe not.....but the fact it is billed as what it is and it is televised around Europe then yes I do think it should be taken seriously.

To me it doesn't matter whether this was an FIM event or not, it doesn't matter whether Mauger and Briggs used to represent GB..this is advertised as a national pairs event, it's advertised as riders representing their country and the fact that Schlein is a proper Aussie representing GB is a farce and cannot be dressed up any other way......not Schlein's fault but farcial for British speedway all the same.

I agree it's a sad state of affairs discussing some of the names likely to be picked for Great Britain.......my first international match I saw live was a World Team Cup qualifier at Belle Vue and the 4 man team was Peter Collins, Michael Lee, Dave Jessup and Malcolm Simmons.......even Chris Morton couldn't get in on his home track !.....now that's a team and its sad we are talking about fast track reserves and average second strings making the team these days.........that's another reason Lambert has to be included...yes he is far from the finished article and has plenty to learn but he's the best prospect we have, deserves his spot on merit and can only benefit from the experience. I don't agree the GP has solely decimated our league..it hasn't helped but if our league was strong and attractive it could have coped....the growth of the foreign leagues have decimated the league far more...the Polish League only opened up to foreigners in the early 90's and has grown and grown...the options to ride in the other leagues have grown as well.....back in the 70's and 80's these options weren't open to top riders, it was mainly Sunday individual meetings on the continent for the lucky few...there are so many more options open now for top riders and Britain is way down the list.....that would have happened regardless of the Grand Prix 's

The way the Brits performed in this weekend's Grand Prix qualifiers only strengthens Lambert's case....Britain, outside of Woffinden and Harris are an embarrassment on the world stage and most of these failures have had their chance....to ignore Lambert would be plain ridiculous...

Rosco says Lambert is in the frame to get into the World Cup team at Kings Lynn.....well that's the most obvious comment of the year !....of course he is and he should be in the 4 without doubt....there are not 4 better English riders around Kings Lynn than Lambert and to ignore him in order to " protect" him as Rosco said would be criminal ...

I think Eric Boocock and Mick Grant were behind trying to get the Honda engine off the ground weren't they ?.....it got a lot of publicity at the time but it was always a non starter... It would be great to see Godden back ...they certainly served Hans Nielsen well for many years , but it would be very difficult to break the GM monopoly now I think but competition is always a good thing. When my brother in law rode he had a GM, Godden and Jawa engine side by side....those were the days !...and Joe Screen at that time was riding a Weslake engine.....now that's competition. Wasn't Dave Jessup the first high profile rider to ride a GM ?.....I seem to remember him riding one in a world championship round at Coventry ....little did anybody know just how dominant it would become and virtually kill every other engine off on the speedways.

The ticket prices are not excessive and are likely to sell and I'm sure a good crowd will be attracted... But......only diehard speedway fans will buy tickets this early......I would have liked some extensive advertising closer to the event with cheap tickets that would attract non speedway fans to come and have a look......people buying tickets this early are likely to be existing Aces fans who will return anyway or out of town speedway fans coming to see the new stadium but will be watching their own team for the rest of the year... Extensive local advertising closer to the event with cheap family offers would attract curious newcomers and these are the fans the Aces need to attract and then keep....but you have to lure them there in the first place or else you are just left with a load of Kirky Lane regulars in a different setting and the Aces and the stadium need a lot more than that.

FC United started construction of their stadium in November 2013 ..first they were hoping to start this 2014-15 season there but it was nowhere near ready...not surprising as that would have been about 9 to 10 months to complete....they were hoping to finish the season in it but it still wasn't ready ...so that was 17 months under construction without being ready.......they are due to open in May though .....so that is 18 months from starting construction to the official handover ..and that's around 5000 capacity I don't know how Belle Vue compares in design but they have another 12 months to be able to start next season plus the few weeks of construction already done..and hopefully a good summer to work through....I think they should be fine to start next season and I'll certainly go and have a look at the place once it opens.

I didn't hear the music but I've always said speedway has to be promoted to the younger viewer as an extreme sport and if you put on the extreme sports channel or watch the x games then you are likely to,get that crappy rapping noise that you mention....and its music that the younger generation seem to like !....so if it grabs a youngster' s attention then that's a good thing in my book....the product following the music might struggle to do that though !! Speedway has to attract a younger generation of followers to survive...

The building of the stadium and the basketball arena are well underway so there's no problem there....my doubts are whether it will be ready for the start of next season seeing how long the FC United stadium has been under construction meaning they are still ground sharing when they were expecting to be in there ages ago....stadiums take a long time so I hope it's ready for the next season but I think it's a tight deadline.

I find the criticism Cook gets quite baffling...and basically who cares if this is the peak of his speedway career because his peak is still higher than the majority of riders reach...I'm sure he can live with that ! I don't recall other second division stalwarts like Tom Owen, John Jackson and the like getting stick for sitting at the top of the second division averages and they didn't even want to ride top league speedway which Cook does....his record and his career is fine even if it goes no higher than this.

To quote the great Zammo McGuire he could always " Just say No " ..!

Can't see why some people are so obsessed with people riding abroad.....any rider does what is best for themselves and to maximise their earning potential...a rider like Danny King is never going to be a world champion, he's never going to be a Grand Prix rider and he'll know that himself so why not ride in both leagues over here and earn good money without the expense of hopping around Europe and setting himself up over there when the deal he'd get wouldn't be the best either....it makes sense to me and it's good for the Premier League to have class English riders in it and good for fans to have that type of rider visiting their track as well. For a potential Grand Prix rider or potential world champ then it's a different story..they should be looking abroad ...but not everybody

Football, darts and internatinal cricket I would tune into before speedway these days

Zagar doesn't miss many matches at all and his commitment can't be faulted....he can't miss the Slovenian Championships so the question is why couldn't something be arranged to have this fixture on a date that doesn't clash...once again it's the fans that are short changed by incompetent planning. I assume Leicester were quite happy to run without Zagar and Cook there as they had a better chance of winning...if so that's typical of speedway these days..short termism over giving entertainment to the fans and depriving them of seeing a GP star and a full strength team....speedway doesn't help itself sometimes.