Grand Central

It would be an absolute delight if such a positive outcome were forthcoming. Unfortunately my involvement back in 1993, and to a lesser extent in 1986, when similar moves were made, makes me very pessimistic. Back then there were far more top line riders who were fully committed to Britain who could have been able to offer all the things you mention to the Juniors promoted at the time. It never happened. They were paid minimal monies and got diddly-squat from the 'big guys' in the team. I have no reason to believe it will be any better this time.

On a different, but related aspect. I wonder what effect these changes will have on the thorny subject of averages. The NL reserves will have their own which will not matter about team positions as they are locked in at reserve. But if the NL guys are protected from Heat Leaders, but meet second strings, that will upset the other figures too. It will mean that the second things will have some average-inflating easy rides. And just to balance things up the format will mean that the Heat Leaders will be meeting each other proportionately more often; thereby deflating their averages. We will end up with three sets of averages for Heat Leaders, Second Strings and Reserves. None of which are directly comparable to each other. That should make life even more interesting mid-season. My money is on Matt finding an 'edge' for his team in the resulting melee.

As you say not worth arguing about. Try and be a little less touchy, though. My contribution on this point started with correcting another person's fixation on the two ride point. It was he that had the fixation It was you that joined in and have got caught in the crossfire.

Not quite true.. PR was writing before Cook gave his extra information. And PR never mentioned anything about TWO rides. It could easily have been more, say three, races among themselves. Fixating on TWO rides was never a reasonable inference from the very, very brief teaser statement from PR.

Well, I can't confirm it, but I can agree that this is looking likely. Of course back in 1993 when they upped the number of lesser riders in the main teams and created more 'protected' races in the format for them they also increased the total numer of races in the match to 18. That was part of the compromise, I suppose. I have no idea whether that is going to happen this time. My cynical side says not. If the development of British riders was truly the main focus of this decision then the rides for the youngsters would be extra to the normal 15 we pay full price for. But if they are subsumed within a fifteen heat format then the cost cutting will be seen as being overwhelming. Having only 11 or 12 fully fledged First Division heats in a match will be just too few. In my opinion.

Fair enough you took this statement by PR .... And wrote these yourself .... So just to clarify. NOT the BSPA statement. AND PR never said anything about only TWO programmed rides for reserves. Thank goodness that's clear, now. We don't want to get all confused.

There was no confusion. The original BSPA statement made no reference whatsoever to the number of rides nor the format of them. Jon Cook's Press Release make it clear that there would be two reserves races AND 'easier outings against rival second strings'.

No it doesn't. Perhaps you could quote where you think you have read this.

I agree with almost everything you say here.Including your scepticism about implementation. I think that the promoters are taking the tried and tested route of watering down the top league to cut costs whilst maintaining everyone's option to continue to pay for top men as well. It's difficult to see what other option could have been adopted. I'm less sure that this will offer one iota of 'fast tracking'. But using the PR spin of that in negotiations with Sky may be something Russell can work with. It will be interesting to see how the whole thing operates over the season. We should remember the occasion another similar method was last used. In the eighteen heat format of 1993 there were two juniors in protected places in each team. And remember how getting those two riders 'right' won the league for Belle Vue. The untried hopefuls thrown in at the start had been swapped for Smith and Schofield by mid season. It transformed the Aces chances. Come the decider at Wolverhampton - truly the best 'play off' before they had even been created - and the Aces duo trounced their opposition counterparts. And the League was won.

OK. I see the point that they 'could' ride in up to three leagues. If there are enough days in a week. So will we be getting guests in these slots as well?

As a cost cutting measure. It should be quite effective.Just five mouths to feed. Not six or seven. But to mock it up as a 'fast' track is laughable. To say it is about 'progression' for these guys when there is NO progression is plain silly. Any guy who is Under 21 with ambition would surely want to get a low end Premier League berth and get as many rides as possible against that sort of opposition and progress up the ranks in that League. That is progression. What sort of person would equate 'ambition' with getting locked into the 'fixed' position of EL reserve for the year?

These cost cutting measures pretty much mimic every other similar move going back almost 30 years. In 1986 an untried junior had to be used at number 7 by all first division teams. This lasted a couple years In 1993 the eighteen heat format had double reserve races and 'protected' races for the two Reserve League riders that had to be used. It lasted just the one year. All these moves were just about cost cutting exercises. Back then it was about reducing the wage bill to just six 'proper' riders. I find it wonderful that Jon Cook has been able to mock this up as a bright new future for fast tracking the best of the youth. Such is the wonder of good 'spin'. Now we are down to just being able to pay for five full wages. So we have a semi-professional EIite League. Where the reserves stay reserves all year, on a pittance. Won't the best showing guys in these berths want to go to the Premier League to earn some real money. Just as soon as they can?

My, rather childishly scrawled, programme from 1975 shows that Mike Hiftle won Heat 1, with Rick France second. Both scored six points.

I can see that Sky will now have vacant slots in their 2015 schedule ... But not 2014. They still have their current contract with UEFA right through to the Berlin Final in May 2015. TR will need all his famed wheeler-dealing skills to sell Speedway right now as some sort of gap-filler, so far ahead. I think that people should also remember that Sky did not offer a huge sum for the football rights out of benevolence. They offered more than ever before (but still not enough) so as to be able to sell it to subscribers and advertisers at a big profit. Not winning that contract does not mean they 'have money in the coffers' for Speedway. It means they will be looking for another contract, probably very expensive, with something that pulls in punters at a substantial rate. I don't know what that will be. But it won't be Lakeside v Eastbourne on a damp and dreary Monday night.

I've downloaded their app and had a look around at some of their Mags. Looks like it should be good

What platform is the web version going to use? The Yudu version of SpeedwayStar Xtra is not usable on an ipad. Will it be in downloadable form (say pdf) so that issues can be 'saved' for future reference?

Yes, that's the general jist of what I thought.

Every track 'supported' then received it's own share of the Sky money too, remember. Does anyone know what 'net' amount Go Speed introduced?

Oh, you are absolutely right. You have said that TR is a brilliant negotiator. He really rang rings around the numpties at the BSPA to get the deal with them on the rights so skewed in his favour.

'Finders Fee' may have been an appropriate term back in the late 90s when Sky were brought on board originally. But 200K a year for finding your way back to Isleworth from Kent for the subsequent renogotiations seems a bit steep. .

OK so Laguta has blotted his copybook sufficiently with those that matter that he will not get a pick. Got it. But surely Lindgren is not the only other viable option in his place. Having a Swede in the series is a cert for the commercial folk. Hence the inclusion of Jonsson. And the GPs held in Sweden will get a wild card anyway; so there will be two home guys at both their GPs So which mal-adjusted person in the decision making process - FIM, BSI or Olsson - really believe that anyone extra will buy a ticket because Freddie is in for the year? If having something else Swedish in the line-up was so important I'd have gone for a PAX Wardrobe from IKEA at Number 15. It would add a little more personality. .

Perhaps they just want their car parks sweeping.

Surely, Nigel or Kelvin could get you a DVD copy. At 'Mates-Rates'. The most controversial night of Speedway in Britain this year. And you seem to want to not have an opinion.

That just about sums up Speedway Promoters very neatly. "We only need a few hundred more people through the gate and we will be just as well off!" Easy, peasy. It's a bit like the poor folk who borrow money from Wonga.com and the like. They calculate just how 'cheap' it will be if you work out the repayments down to a weekly amount. "Sure I can afford £50 a week" The fact that over the year they will have paid £2500 plus and STILL owe most of the capital sum just goes unnoticed. If you break it down into small enough chunks the poor folk who are desperate will convince themselves it is a good deal. What a way to run a sport in the twenty-first century. .

I think this is a bit of an overreaction. There was no presumption of guilt implied in the description that this is 'another sorry chapter' in the chap's life. Guilty or Not Guilty. Mike Lee must think it rather 'sorry'. As opposed to a 'happy chapter'. Whatever, I think this and any other threads should be curtailed ASAP just to stop us bickering about a subject that will doubtless get out of hand.