woodenspoon

In Dan Bewley's case, can you sign up a rider who may be still injured at the start or the 2019 season, and then claim R/R or a guest facility for him, if he is not yet fit enough to ride. If he cannot ride, as someone has pointed out to fit him back into the team would mean probably your third heat leader would have to be dropped.

Belle Vue as an example, is a large wide track, so to cover the circuit the tractor and equipment need to do four laps to redo it all, and if you have the water bowser as well it all adds time out from the actual racing. Does anyone know who gives the OK for the tractors to come out. as sometimes it appears to be quite random.

With there now being a conversion rate for riders doubling up/down, have the BSPA released which of these averages will be used for riders riding in both leagues. For example Harris has a Premiership average of 7.78, and a Championship average of 7.71. If you convert the Premier league average it will be a lot higher than his current one in the Championship. For me if you wish to reduce the amount of doubling up/down, the higher of the two averages when converted should be used.

I agree with your statements A Orlov, but please do not mention anything to do with a certain Southern club on this thread as we all know what happens, the thread will be taken over by their posters.

Belle Vue will have to go with a weaker team in 2019, despite not winning anything in 2018, as we were one of the highest combined averages team. For 2019 how about, Fricke Cook Bjerre Bewley Auty Berge Etheridge With the 2.5 reduction for NL riders that might just fit in the 42.5 limit.

It is a total joke, can you imagine a team in footballs Premiership, finishing 2nd in the league, and winning the cup, and then relegating themselves, no wonder speedway and its league structures have no credibility.

The top team Phil would miss out on a lucrative semi-final. As the play-offs are a KO competition, why not go the whole hog and involve all the teams after the normal league fixtures have been run. Top of league gets a bye, then 2 v 7, 3 v 6, 4 v 5. home and away legs, higher league team gets to pick home or away first leg. Semi - finals, top team gets to pick who they will race out of the other 3 teams, higher league team gets to pick home or away first. winning teams into final. All teams have an interest at the end of the season, you could call it The Champions Cup.

Do Belle Vue get a vote this year at the Agm, as I feel sure that they would not want the same race nights as this year, and would prefer Friday nights again. But as per usual there is nothing from Belle Vue's promotion to say what they would like to happen in 2019, unless something was said at the "Maugers"

It is now looking like the rumours of four clubs moving up to the Premiership was a load of pie in the sky, with the recent posts that Ipswich & Sheffield are not interested. Surely the Premiership cannot contemplate running with just 6 teams ( rumours again that Leicester are dropping down). Perhaps Belle Vue should drop down, as would it be more attractive to race against fellow northern teams, this is only a thought, as I believe the Manchester Council would not agree to it, as they funded the stadium.

Congratulations Kings Lynn, it was a pity that the Belle Vue regular riders could not match the guest, a poor showing from Belle Vue, even with a makeshift team. The final could go either way, but Poole have the experience of having been in several finals, and that could tell in the end.

I think similar to Belle Vue Ace, the only three I would want to keep for next year are Fricke, Bewley & Tungate, Cook is just a gating tart, and rarely overtakes anyone at Belle Vue. In heat 13 tonight he just got in Fricke's way. As we are now unlikely to make the playoffs, now is the time to plan for next year. Yet another delayed start to the meeting, 8.00 PM when the tapes went up for the first race, management don't give a stuff for the fans who have planned ahead and got there in good time. We might just as well advertise an 8.00 PM start.

Does Cook have to have a ride ? If so which heat would you put him in. Cook should never have been in the GB team this year, he has not been in good shape at all this season., and though he is putting a positive face on events, what has happened must surely be destroying his confidence even further.

No problem with the weather for Monday, bright & sunny, so should get a good crowd, if it wasn't on TV. I for one hate going to live meetings when they are on TV. TV being there ruins the experience, with all the contrived breaks for adverts etc. I do hope they leave the track prep to our track man, and not that bald bloke who used to ruin many a TV meeting with his idea of a good track. I would not mind if they never televised Belle Vue home meetings. Will be a close result.

I can see Belle Vue's little water truck doing more laps than the riders.

According to the BSPA Web-site it is a KO Cup match 1st leg I assume. The official BV Web-sites calendar does not show type of meeting, Am I correct in assuming the 2nd leg is at Wolves on the 18th of June.

The problem will be if the weather is too nice, will be keeping the track dust free , as it is a 12.00 noon meeting. Belle Vue have had early leads in the last couple of home meetings, and have failed to capitalise on them, with both being very close finishes at the end, and this could easily be another of those close finishes.

I thought you could not have 2 riders at an over 8.00 average.

Owing riders money is nothing new in Speedway, it has often been the way of getting riders to sign up for you for the following season, with the premise that the promoter will pay your owed wages, or part of it, if you sign again on the dotted line. Promoters only get money coming into the club with home meetings, so if you are unfortunate to only have one home meeting to say two or three away meetings, you obviously have a cash problem. I believe that at one time the home promoter also paid the basic start & points money of the away riders, whether this is still the case I am not sure. As for the Captains signing to say all monies have been paid before the meeting that is a complete joke. The BSPA should bring it a rule that applies to all, if clubs owe any money at the end of the season they cannot operate in the next, until they have cleared them. (The only club they did this to were Belle Vue, though I think there were some things going on that we do not know). You have to blame the riders to some extent, as without them as body standing up to the promoters this problem will just go on & on.

Having attended several meetings at BV when the meeting was on TV, it was not an enjoyable experience, as there were far too many holdups whilst the TV did interviews and adds. You always felt the TV were in control of the meeting and not BV. If the weather looks inclement a lot of fans will stay in and watch the TV meeting. For BV this winter has seen them get a real stuffing from the BSPA as they did not get a vote. We lost our Friday night speedway, and will now loose quite a few fans, as Mondays are followed by a school day, and some parents will not take their children if so. Also we lost any chance of re-signing Kenneth Bjerre, with the alternate night being Wednesday If the TV is live on a Monday it will mean that BV run home matches on the same night. So all in all BV have nothing to gain from live TV of speedway, unless there is a considerable compensation package.

A lot of the OAPs that go to speedway have also encouraged their son's & grandson's to get interested in speedway, and this is still often the case, so I think they deserve their discount. Unfortunately in Belle Vue's case, the competition from Man United & Man City is too big a lure when the youngsters get into their teens. A couple we stood with had a young son, and as he got older he was constantly whingeing to his parents " can't you take me to Man United". After a while we never saw his parents or him at speedway again. I daresay if my grandson had to choose between Football or speedway, if they clashed or he could not afford both, that football would win out.

If we go with last years team less Kenneth, it would mean the most important signing would be the rider who takes up the last place in the team. Looking at the averages it appears that we would have something near 7.00 points to play with, and looking at the averages of riders yet to sign, it doesn't look as though there are any left who would improve on their current average. So we will have to wait to see if there are any surprises to come.

I just do not get why some of you posters would want Zagar back. Far too overrated in my opinion. Where to is the money to pay him his inflated pay demands coming from ? Appears there is no TV cash cow anymore, or at the most very little. If we are forced to choose between Stevie W or Tungate, I would pick Tungate as he is far better at the NSS than Stevie. Though I would have thought along with Bewley that those three would have been first to be signed up. One person who doesn't get much of a mention is George Carswell, who it appears is sadly missing from any involvement with Belle Vue, it was his money and sponsorship that saw a lot of riders sign up for Belle Vue,. He must now in my opinion very much regret his involvement with Gordon & Morton. .

Because it is a new promotion, you have to be a promoter for three years before you can get a vote at the BSPA AGM.

Belle Vue Speedway badges of all types, probably number since 1928 over 1,000 different badges. That includes official & unofficial, metal, plastic & picture badges. That is just one club. If you were a completest collector,(and there are some) when you consider that a lot of individual club badges now number at least 8 badges per year per club, at say £5.00 a badge, and you want them all, it becomes a very expensive hobby. It is also a case on E-bay of buyer beware, as not all badges sold are original old ones, there are a lot of remakes on the market. You can tell more from the back of a badge regarding its authenticity, than the front. My son had a load of BV programmes in complete years from the 1980s, and was told to store them away for 50years or more, then they might be worth something, as it was at that time,they were virtually worthless.

As far as I am aware, Drew Kemp is probably at 15, too young to be signed up by anyone yet. He at the moment does second half's at Ipswich, and recently has also been riding for Mildenhall.. He wants to ride for Ipswich when eligible, don't forget Kevin Jolly Mildenhalls manager has in his day ridden for Ipswich, and with the lad being Suffolk born, that is his most likely future I assume.