SCB

Must admit, I'm missing the criticism of trying to keep wages down. Makes perfect sense to me. Ok I'd be annoyed if I was the rider but I'm annoyed that I dont think I get paid enough now.

Of course. D'oh.

So Nicki has a sponsor who would prefer he rides in a the SEC which si 4 meetings of coverage vs 12 GPs and 2 (maybe 3) SWC meetings?

Surely this proves that motorcycle fans at least appreciate speedway and have respect for it? Always said i thought chasing bikes was a waste of time as they tend to like bikes they can associate with but maybe thats not true at all?

What does the SEC actually do and improve on though? It's a pointless competition. How many previous European Champions can you name? I bet most would struggle after naming Martin Vaculik.

Britiain has not backed the European Championships since day one. So you're wrong. It's nothing to do with Poland.

But that's just it, those of us on here moaning do care. I want to see the sport made better, O do try to have ideas rather than just moan and so do most others. For all the moaning I do on here about the sport I wax lyrical about it to mates and work colleges (unlikely the mythical "my mate down the pub..." stories). However, even if I made a lot of money and had 200k to spare, I'd not buy a speedway club. No way. I'd have to have millions and be able to won half a dozen clubs before I considered it.

Two issues. Firstly. I pay for a product, I expect it to be good. Don't cry to me if you're failing. Secondly, why if I was such a great businessman would I invest in a business that loses money and is as corrupt as I say on here?

Because it does.Coventry who run on a Friday already have riders missing on a dozen or so weekends a year because of the GP and the GP qualifiers. Now add in 3 weekends of SEC qualifiers and 3 SEC meetings thats 6 more meetings. How long before theres 6-8 SEC meetings and more qualifiers?

Its weird, when you lot first moved into Ashfield the track had a great reputation. It was know as a great track. I only made it up there once, would have been 2005 for a Glasgow/Newport meeting. It rained all the way from Workington to about 5 miles from Glasgow then it stopped but the track was obviously wet but as Newport were on a Scottish tour they got the meeting on. It was a stupendous meeting with passing on the inside and the outside by almost everyone involved in that meeting and I'm pretty sure the meeting went down to the wire too. Though by heat 15 thanks to the hospitality of the locals I was a little merry. Its a shame to read in recent years it gone form one of the best to one of the worst it seems. Hopefully curing that problem will help bring in a few more fans and help Glasgow in their bid for survival. Hard to believe it was 15 years ago now that it all kicked off at Newport when Emil Lindqvist clearly didn't take out Sean Courtney and Will Bevridge attacked him:D

Right, so lets get rid of the EUM (FIM Europe/SEC) then. They can have as many Championships as they like, we can all set one up. But British Speedway (the SCB/ACU) don't have the recognise them. in the same way if somehow a speedway rider was also a footballer who got to play for England in the World Cup this summer, his EL club would not get a facility the SCB/ACU don't recognise the FIM Europe meetings. They never have in it's 12 year history.

British Speedway gets nothing from BSI. British speedway through the SCB, and the ACU are running under the FIM. They don't run under EUM (FIM Europe - the people SEC run under) so don't have to recognise it.

So if a rider who performs badly at Swindon informs his club he cant ride on a Thursay in the EL because he has his pottery classes you think thats ok? Because thats what the SEC is equal too. It's an irrelevance it's not seen as a valid competition. The SCB are not a 3rd party, the SCB enact the rules that the BSPA write. The clubs are the BSPA.

Hans was banned by the SCB for riding in an unrecognised meeting that British Speedway ranks alongside any other random individual meeting. The FIM are now banning GP riders competing in the SEC championship. All seems pretty reasonable or what's to stop me declaring now I'm running the the "All of the World except Uruguay Championship" and getting riders to sign up. I'm running it on a Thursday too, so screw the British clubs running on a Thursday! You seem to think that's acceptable? Unless I'm still confused

I'm confused, are you for or against riders being fined if they go off on a jolly up?

Hans Andersen missed a BEL meeting for a SEC meeting. And what happens when it grows to 8 rounds and 8 weeks of qualifiers so riders are missing for 16 weekends? People will says, "They should have stopped it sooner, it's too late now". Gollob is not in the GPs.

Or Christ as a literacy teacher? I despair sometimes.

Alternatively you let OneSport trample over the sport taking up more valuable weekend dates and taking more rider from weekend British tracks. I say kill it now.

I once saw him score a 3 point maximum for Newport as a guest. He broke down going into the 3rd bend of lap 3, Chris Mills rode into him and Mills was excluded with Justin awarded the win and he had to pull out he meeting injured. I remember being totally bemused at how the referee had awarded the race. He top scored for Wimbledon once and teletext printed his name as Efkins

Its the UKBA criteria that say it. http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas-immigration/working/tier5/creativeandsporting/ "If you are a sportsperson, you must be internationally established at the highest level in your sport, and/or your employment must make a significant contribution to the development and running of sport at the highest level in the UK.". Alex Davies does not fit the bit in bold. Erm, everyone. I suggest you look back. You quoted me discussing Alex Davies with womble53. You are the one who mentioned Jason Doyle, I pointed out that was a red herring as Jason is "internationally established at the highest level". Certainly a greater claim to it than Alex Davies anyway. you said that Debbie Hancocks bit about Jason Doyle said nothing about being "proven at the highest level" too., Well news for you, Debbie Hancock doesn't give out the visas, the UKBA do and their website clearly states, as I quoted above, sportsmen have to be established at the highest level for a tier 5 visa. You brought Doyle into it, we were discussing Alex Davies - shocking that on a Plymouth thread.

Again, equality and diversity law says that we should all be treated equal regardless of age. Yet George and Margret get into speedway for less because they're old. You can't force a person to retire due to their age, thats illegal but the same people can get into speedway for less. Age is a one of the protected characteristics, yet promoters charge people of different age a different price. Imagine they took one of the other protected characteristics (religion, disability,gender, race, sexual orientation, pregnancy, gender reassignment or marital status) and let people in for more or less based on one of them characteristics. I'm going to open a speedway club and give anyone with one of them characteristics a 10% reduction for each of the following, being a Catholic, in a wheel chair, male, black, bi-sexual, pregnant, man who was a woman and unmarried. I'd be up in court pretty quickly, so why is it ok to discriminate because you're not an OAP?! Yet you wouldn't get away with charging OAPs more would you? Would you believe I was asked about 3 weeks ago to be on the company I work fors "Equality and diversity" committee? Why do you think that was? I'll go with because Im gay. Yeah, thats equal!! I guess it would make the committee diverse, except it has two other gays guys already!!! Really representative.

And where did Alex Davies finish in the same competition? I think you'll find the criteria for a tier 5 visa is to be "proven at the highest level". Jason is Australian number 2 and a SWC rider so qualifies. While Alex Davies is....?

You're all looking at this backwards. I've asked if a child goes to speedway, should the parents have to pay. Not if a parents goes to speedway should they pay for their child. Not if a disabled person goes should he pay. 5 year old Johnny rocks up to the York Barbican Theatre and says, "I'd like to pay for my ticket please, and my carer (mother) would like a free ticket because I can't go on my own I'm only 5". Will the Barbican Theatre agree to this? Because if not, little Johnny is being victimised as a child. Just one of the many ways the UKs equality and diversity laws are a load of bollocks.

TBF you were sending good quality streams for a TV audience. This will be sending much lower quality content to be used on smaller screens and computers. The quality is nowhere near as important so the data being sent will be much smaller, thus quicker.

It's not the highest level though. We're talking work permits. So you have to be the best available. Not the best at an age group. Alex Davies is NOT proven at the highest level.