1 valve

If two or more riders in the referees opinion touch the tapes then they would be excluded. However, in nearly all cases there is a clear indication (in the eyes of the referee) of who actually touched the tape first. There is no penalty directly linked to a rider prematurely moving and thus influencing a second rider to touch the tapes. However, the first rider may/should receive a warning for moving before the tapes went up and if already on a warning would also be excluded. this is why nearly all riders on a warning tend to stay still.

Having read both the Speedway Star article and the SCB release, it seems that the latter merely provides clarification on the matter raised by Peter Oakes, and rather "going to war" the SCB are merely making things clear and unambiguous. - "Just saying"

The starting point is not who owns stadiums but who is recognised on a global scale as being responsible for running speedway in the Uk and ensuring compliance with appropriate rules and regulations. From the top down. Speedway uk is subject to the jurisdiction of: 1. The Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Global organisation for motorcycle sporting events - 2. Auto-Cycle Union. The Governing Body for all motorcycle sport in the British Isles (less Northern Ireland). 3. British Speedway Promoters Limited (BSPL) responsible for UK domestic motorcycle speedway including designated FIM meetings staged in Britain. If a BSPA club wishes to run an event it needs to ensure the event is held compliant with the rules & regulations of the governing bodies. This includes amateur events held on property (stadiums) where the club has direct control on speedway usage but is not actually organising the event. Leicester would be an example of this scenario. Where clubs do not have exclusive management of the stadium, then all promoters have within their agreement with the landlord that they (the promoter) have exclusive use of the facility for speedway events. This would be as per the agreement Ipswich have with Spedworth. Note the agreement is between the promoting company and Spedworth not the SCB and Spedworth.

Uh? You had two Lions riders in the team tonight who scored 38% of the total & neither is a heat leader for Leicester.

And it’s so easy to pass at Belle Vue even if you miss the gate as the riders in front are rubbish!?

All NFL games are shown live without regional restrictions across the whole of the USA via either CBS, Fox, ESPN, NBC & ABC. The TV companies will be paying a combined annual fee of just over $10billion until 2033. There are varying degrees of local restrictions on games via streaming channels but this amount of coverage/subscribers is tiny in comparison to the views via the television channels.

He doesn’t (didn’t) like nor can he ride the Leicester track.

Shame. Although will be interesting to see how heavy the rain fall will actually be. A nearby airport is expecting low cloud and around 3.5mm of rain in total between the hours of 3pm & 10pm.

Indeed. Latest forecasts for this afternoon/evening not very promising at all.

Quite a few intriguing nuances involved in this latest message from the Council. Whilst not yet (publicly) known if the stadium has actually been sold or only used as collateral to cover a loan it does beg the question, what would GI need a loan for? given they actually haven't purchased anything significant over the past few years. It could be worth speculating that GI have borrowed money to fund a new stadium "somewhere" which would be positive news. However, on the downside should they fail to find (or look for?) such a place and then be able to refinance that particular project then L&G would take over The Abby stadium, leaving GI with their hands washed of the current stadium and a wad of cash. One further consideration (for now) The value of the Abbey would be significantly different if housing could not be built on it so one wonders if, by engineering a circumstance where another stadium was built "somewhere" would that in turn mean that the council/planning/etc altered their views on the future of the Abbey as a place zoned for leisure use. After all Swindon may need one such facility, but does it need two?

In the case of the current football Premier League The sequencing was first the rebranding of Football League Division one to "Premier League" together with Sky Sports investing into TV rights/sponsorship. This money allowed (then and now) clubs to attract the best of foreign players. Since then the Premier League TV rights has increased from its first deal of £191 million per season to £1.67 billion per season (across multiple TV companies not just Sky). Clubs have not only invested in Players for the first team but also academies and stadium and training ground facilities. Of course the growth of the Premier League in terms of global TV coverage also generated significant sponsorship agreements large commercial organisations. Whilst all this appears great...and far beyond comparison to speedway in the UK - A sobering fact is that in the 2022/23 season only three Premier League clubs actually made a profit! (2023/24 not yet fully known but will not be greatly different)

To be fair. The plan was working very well last year (top of the league including wins at Sheffield & Ipswich), that was, until a certain Australian rider failed a drugs test. After that, what didn't work were the changes made to try and cover for the lost points capability of the subsequently banned rider.

The players are employed by the two competing teams which are not based in UK. Work Visa are only required if a person is to be employed/paid by a UK based entity. Similarly, if a UK based team were to play in Germany or Spain, visas would not be require for players of that UK team. However, in a sport like Tennis. all visiting foreign players competing at Wimbledon are required to have a valid work visa as their earning/prize money would be paid by the All England Lawn Tennis Club (a UK entity) and of course may finish up only playing in one match should they lose in the first round. The above tennis example is similar to the reason why foreign speedway riders require a Visa is they are to be employed/paid by a UK based team.

In the case of Vic, a long standing servant to Leicester speedway both as a rider & promoter. I remember after he had retired from racing he made a return at one of the end of season 2nd half "fun" events racing against other past riders...Unfortunately for Vic he fell off on the first bend. Think that was the last time he actually "raced". condolences to families of both Doug & Vic. RIP

"No" He hasn't walked away? "No" He's simply unavailable?

When a suspended sentence is passed down then the "sentence" associated with the charge/verdict is known. Given that the penalty this time around has been announced as a two point deduction, then the previous penalty must have been a "warning on future conduct (or similar) if not then the penalty now being applied would equal one point for each offense - somewhat lenient to say the least and something that will not affect Chapman one bit.

“HARD” but not dangerous.

Should be of no surprise if he has already implied that type of threat in the belief that UK speedway cannot do without him. However, in todays climate and profile of speedway promoters and officials, it most certainly can. So if Chapman does want to take his bat and ball home so be it. Put simply, one person is nowhere near being bigger than the sport and as such Chapman cannot be allowed to hold any part of it to ransom.

It’s just weird or even bizarre that Chapman “postpones” meetings that are capable of being run. Ok, he’s the one who has to deal with the short term cash-flow challenge but he simply cannot be allowed to be the tail that wags the dog. The BSPA need to hit him where it hurts the most which is a financial penalty (fine or fixture awarded to Lions) and be informed clearly that such similar actions will not be tolerated in the future.

He won’t want to lose the amount of money involved in doing so. And to be clear. Nothing is forcing him to do anything other than his own self centred actions.

Good point but “No” because Ipswich were the away team & Chapman wasn’t the promoter.

Your rider is not available due to long established (and agreed) rules regarding priority being given to Polish Speedway on Thursdays. This is the same as Premier League clubs having first call on riders in preference to The Championship or National Leagues.

Agreed. Award the result 0-90. no restaging required. Given that Chapman claims running speedway costs him money, he should welcome such a penalty.

Absolutely. The sort of weather that generates a good attendance

Yes it has been said earlier but you do emphasise an important fact which Chapman avoided by referring to December as a date when the meetings were not in the international diary. Also worthwhile recognising that this meeting has been arranged as replacement for the one originally planned for 28th April, the one Chapman cancelled due to the weather “forecast being not good” & not only did it not rain, it was sunny most of the day! So clearly he chose the rearranged date without referring to the international fixture list & now he’s tried to cover up his error. Which hopefully the powers that be have seen through.