moomin man 76

Another mediocre doubling up signing announced with Robert Branford doubling up/down for Rye House and Sheffield.

I don't have a particular objection to young British riders such as Max Clegg 'doubling up' as a way and means of gaining experience, but the situation has got out of hand when the likes of Craig Cook are doubling up and the likes of Lewis Bridger and Chris Harris are looking for doubling up places. Equally there is no reason whatsoever why any non-British rider should be doubling up at all. The likes of Jack Holder and Lasse Bjerre should be riding in one league only. If they can't make it pay riding in one league in Britain, so be it. I'm not convinced that the 'rider shortage' argument is valid argument for 'doubling up' either. I personally know of at least two non-British riders who are desperate for team places in the Uk this year but have received no offers, in part due to 'doubling up' and the reduction in the points limit at Championship level.

The reality of Dudley is this - the town centre consists of a mixture of charity and pound shops, while the bypass conveninetly allows you to avoid the centre as you travel on your way to the out of town Merry Hill Shopping Centre, which was built on the former Round Oak Steel Works in the late 1980s. In terms of sporting attractions, there is not a single major sporting team playing within the boundaries of the borough of Dudley that are competing on a national level. There is Stourbridge FC, who are playing the 2nd Round of the FA Cup today, who play in the Northern Premier League and two rugby clubs, Dudley-Kingswinford and Stourbridge who play in Midlands 1 West and National 2 North respectively. That is pretty much as good as it gets. As I said in my earlier post, it would be difficult to find a borough council with a less proactive attitude to sport within the borough. Any free land that is earmarked for development is invariably for housing and nothing else.

No sadly - Dudley Council are probably the least proactive council in the UK when it comes to leisure activities and amenities.

If my memory serves me correctly, it ran from 1995-97.

I wouldn't claim to know what budget Speedway Star operates from, but given the profile of the sport in the country now, I think that as fans we are lucky to have such a magazine published weekly. There are some features I would do away with, such as coverage of the domestic grasstrack scene and I skim through the track by track news, but I'm sure other fans have their gripes too. All in all, I'm glad I took out a subscription once again, but I actually get more pleasure from the other speedway magazine that I subscribe to - Speedway Sanomat from Finland, which is a true labour of love to compile and a magazine I would heartedly recommend to other speedway fans.

Two weak reserves - I can't see either Phillips (again) or Coles pulling up too many trees at Championship level. The top five are going to have to score big to minimise the points lost at reserve.

He might be, but over a number of seasons, he hasn't demonstrated nearly enough to be considered a top rider in the league, which makes me wonder why he is going to suddenly make a big jump forward this season. At best, he is a good second/third heat leader, rather than an out and out number one rider.

Sadly there's nothing to excite me so far in the signings announced by Workington...a pity as it's my nearest track and I was looking forward to attending more meetings next year now that my son is a little older. If the other signings are in the same vein another season of mid-table mediocrity awaits.

The perils of typing with a two year old next to me! 'Face fitness' - doh! At the end of the day, Tero isn't going to be scoring maximums each week, but can be relied upon to score steading home and away. I think he'd be good for a 7 point average in the league this year.

Indeed, Tero hasn't retired. He spent most of last season recuperating from his operation, but since then he has been extensively testing in Finland, to build up his face fitness. Given that the league has been watered down this season, I would be more than surprised if he couldn't retain, if not add, to his starting average.

I'd love to be able to offer an objective analysis, but I am apparently on Mr Putin's blacklist, so I wouldn't be issued with a visa anyway!

I know it hasn't proved to be a problem so far with the SEC rounds at Togliatti, but a potential issue with staging the GP Challenge at Togliatti may well be getting Russian visas for certain riders.

My point exactly - three strong heat leaders and a long tail didn't work this season. If there's a 40 point limit, the team cannot afford to have more than two strong heat leaders. The notional third heat leader plus second strings and reserves need to have plenty of improvement in them.

I certainly wouldn't disagree about your thoughts regarding Atkins, but I'm not sure how much further improvement the likes of Dwyer, Bowtell and Basford have in them, as they have ridden at National League level for some time in obtaining the averages they have.

Three strong heat leaders, but a very long tail after that. In my opinion, riders with bigger improvements in them required at second string.

At Under 21 Level, Finland arguably has a better set of riders than Sweden at present...Lunna, Mustonen and Partanen are a match for anything Sweden has to offer. Anyone who seems to think the situation in Sweden is healthy is deluded at best. At senior level, I would guess that Timo Lahti would be a shoe in for a qualifying place and would at least have a fair shot at getting to the SEC Final Qualifier. After that, I guess it would be a question of which other riders would want to participate, but to say Finland wouldn't have any riders to sent to the SEC is a little odd.

Even if it was worth entering PZM/Ektrasliga would have to amend their own rules to allow it to happen, as otherwise any 'British' based team would be restricted to the Polish lower divisions. After all, Daugavpils have won the lower league for the last two season but have been denied promotion, as to ride in the top league, you have to be based inside Poland's territorial borders and employ a minimum number of Polish riders. The latter would defeat the point of entering the league as a means of developing British talent.

After the false start of the previous 'Crawley Heathens' thread, I thought it better to start a new threat, to allow Heathens fans and others to discuss the forthcoming season. Amongst the apparent issues to consider are race night and how many available dates might be available at 'Monmore Wood,' the potential points limit for team building (I personally can't see it being lower than 40) and potential team lineups if clubs will be working to a 40 points limit.

Alternatively, someone could always start another thread with the correct heading this time!

If that is the case, I can't see Nike's average being a problem in him getting a team place somewhere, even if it isn't at Glasgow. He frankly should be achieving far more than a 5 point average in the 2017 watered down Premier League.

I'd be pretty surprised if Tero couldn't at least hold his average given how the strength of the league has been watered down.

If someone could provide concrete examples of where the 8 day rule has been waived this season it would be helpful, as the rule book is crystal clear that James Shanes was ineligible to ride. in my opinion, Graham Drury was naive to book James Shanes as a guest, as even if the rule has been waived earlier in the season, there was no guarantee it would always be waived; after all this was the Knockout Cup Final, rather than a league fixture potentially between two teams with little at stake. As always in such circumstances, the losers were the paying public, who were paying to watch a spectacle that wasn't as it was described. I particularly have sympathy with the Birmingham fans who travelled to Eastbourne to spectate, but their own team manager could have booked any number of riders to guest, yet chose to book a rider who was ineligible.

I appreciate that this is a long shot, but I am looking for the programmes below to finish off my collection; 1950: 22/7/50 v Walthamstow - National League Division Two (17) - Rained Off 28/8/50 v Glasgow Ashfield - National League Division Two (22) - Rained Off 25/9/50 v Sheffield - National League Division Two (26) - Rained Off 1951: 9/4/51 v Leicester - Midland Shield (3) 14/5/51 v Southampton - National League Division Two (8) 9/7/51 v Norwich - National Trophy (16) 31/8/51 v Glasgow Ashfield - National League Division Two (22) - Rained Off 7/9/51 v Walthamstow - National League Division Two (23) 1952: 5/7/52 v Motherwell - National League Division Two (13) 11/7/52 - World Championship Qualifying Round (14) - Rained Off 18/7/52 v Oxford - National League Division Two (15) 25/7/52 - World Championship Qualifying Round (16) 1/8/52 v Glasgow Ashfield - National League Division Two (17) 15/8/52 v Liverpool - National League Division Two (20) 5/9/52 v Stoke - National League Division Two (23) 12/9/52 v Glasgow White City - National League Division Two (24) 19/9/52 v Edinburgh - National League Division Two (25) I would be grateful to hear from anyone who has any of these programmes spare, as well as anyone with any information about them; especially the existence of the 'rained off' programmes.

I couldn't honestly say, but the result did end up as a draw at the end of the meeting. The riders before the final heat would have known what result would have led to a drawn match, so some sort of unofficial agreement may have occurred.