leander

Set race nights (Mon & Thu) for the Premiership not for the Championship. Not sure how Sheffield, Redcar, and ipswich feel about that. It would also ease the doubling up/down situation as there wouldn't be a many conflicts apart from the three clubs mentioned. Nobody has a Monday as their preferred race night in the Championship. Except the top riders won't want to go to Newcastle or Scunthorpe on a Sunday.

One big league + set race nights (Mon & Thu) = Bye bye Newcastle.

If Newcastle are running and that's by no means certain.

Not quite. You can get a subsequent note to say you are fit to return to work before the original note expires.

Apology accepted. lol. The BSPA get a lot of stick. Mostly justified. The SCB don't seem to get any stick at all, yet they deserve to get a lot of it, especially when they twist and ignore, or go against the governing body's rules. I just like to see the knife stuck in the proper place. He may be an asset but he's not in there declared 1 to 7 or is he in anybody elses. So tough. There would have been hell on this forum if Wolves had brought Woffinden back to ride in the playoffs, KOC final. He's a wolves asset. However stupid the rule appears it needs to be applied consistently

How? A sicknote (be it english, polish, or whatever) would have to be supplied to the BSPA for a facility (i.e. guest) to be granted. So he was injured. End of. The severity of which may be debatable, but he was injured.

Not quite. Try SCB not BSPA . They're not the same.

Can't agree with that that I'm afraid. It wasn't simply the fact that they chose not to run. It was more a case of being short of the necessary staff to be able to run, due to the volunteers (upon which the club depends, and without which there simply wouldn't be speedway at Newcastle) either deciding to celebrate Newcastle's promotion or being at Cardiff and therefore being unable to fulfil there normal duties. I, for one, am grateful to them for the work they do and this is by no means a criticism of them. The alternative being to employ people to do the job they do and, almost certainly, put the entry cost out of reach for most. The promotion chose not to run because they couldn't guarantee there being enough staff on duty to SAFELY run a meeting. (And I'm not a volunteer).

Who gets fined or forfeits? The home promotion or the away team who won't/ can't come back within the month due to rider availability or other reasons( e.g. they may usually share race days Ipswich/Sheffield/ Redcar for example).

As fast a they were pumping water off the track more water was coming UP through the track. The problem Newcastle have is the greyhound track is higher than the speedway track and it drains onto and under speedway track resulting in the water coming from underneath. Putting covers on won't work a well as at Berwick (where the speedway track is higher than the pitch) as the water will just seep through from underneath the covers. There probably is a solution, but whether the stadium owners would allow any work to be done in this respect is doubtful as it would certainly disrupt the greyhounds. Wouldn't have made any difference whether it rained in Poland or not.

And in this mornings "Sunday Sun".

?? This doesn't appear on any fixture list I can see.. Glasgow website shows the Riders Individual on the 14th as the next home fixture.

Unfortunately it is in the polish fixture list from day 1 that the promotion/relegation play-offs will be on these dates. it's just the teams involved that are undecided. Similarly the Premiership playoffs would take priority over any rearranged polish fixture as they were in the fixture list (for the telly) originally.

What empty race nights? Since the first postponed fixture we haven't had any. All blank sundays were due to other BSPA events or rain-offs! apart from the one after the Cardiff GP, and a GN run day when everybody we still have to race were already racing elsewhere.

Steve has tried Poland this year in the same division as Robert. The main race-day for that division being a saturday. The problem with Robert arose because his team made the playoffs (Steve's didn't) which are always run on consecutive sundays at the end of their season. Robert has already said he is unlikely to ride in the championship next year. I fear we could lose Steve as well if he chooses to forgo the championship for a higher division in Poland. (Sundays). However, It is said that Poland are looking to reduce the size of their squads next year from the current 15 ( I believe) to 8. If that happens it could be that their are not a lot of foreign contracts to be had in Poland next year apart from the big (GP) boys. Why sign a british championship 8 point man when there is a polish championship standard 8 point man available.

Yes, but then the worky fixture was already in the fixture list. The PLRC was advertised as an early start as soon as it was rearranged. As yet we don't have a fixture on the 8th and the pairs has been advertised as a 3:00 pm start for some time. I can't imagine they would move the start time forward at this stage just to accommodate us.

Assuming it's not rained off tomorrow

I would suspect we are running on the Monday 9th October. Potentially we are running out of dates! 1 October Redcar 9 October ?? 15 October Sheffield 22 October ?? 29 October ?? We have still to arrange Glasgow KOC QF; Workington (H) Possibly KOC SM; KOC Final. So at least two fixtures, possibly four into three dates. (Assuming the weather is kind!!! Not to mention Workington away and Glasgow KOC away definite, and KOC SF, KOC Final as well

So if Man City are eight points clear at the top of the Premiership with two weeks to go and the bottom three are already relegated you'd just cancel the last two weeks fixtures as they are pointless. Yea right.

No we can't. Last time Robert was entitled to "rest day" following his FIM event on the saturday, and we took advantage of that. This week there is no FIM event on the saturday so it's a NL guest whether it rains or not unless Robert is at Newcastle. The only way we can get a facility is if he gets injured (heaven forbid) on saturday at PL Riders Championship, doesn't go to Poland and provides a valid sicknote.

That's what I thought as well. (Sunday). However, according to this weeks Star Redcar are grateful to Sheffield for re-arranging their match for MONDAY 18th, so it can be played before the cutoff!!!! Stating Sheffield didn't have to do that as they've already qualified. confused.com

Tom owned a construction company, or something similar, I seem to remember. Joe, I think, only rode speedway. but you are right, for the most part, it was just a "hobby". Just bung the bike on the back of the car and away you go. 1 bike, 1 engine, per season in most cases. Not many rode in more than one country either. Finding an employer that would be willing to give you time off is probably more of a problem now as well. Nowadays I think you'd struggle to find enough riders to fill half a league if it was just treated as a hobby.

It's an interesting conundrum isn't it? Supporters:- "Get rid of the doubling-up it's killing speedway" Riders:- " I need to double up to make speedway pay. It's my only job" Doubling up is not new. When I first started watching in 1975, the Owen brothers regularly rode for Newcastle and Hull, all be it for the same promoter.

There are (by my reckoning) currently 33 riders doubling up/down between Championship & Premiership. I'd just love to know just where you can find enough riders to fill the vacancies that will be caused, even before any injuries etc. And don't say the National League. I very much doubt there are actually 33 riders in the national league that aren't already riding for somebody else. A lot of the current crop of 2.00 Championship riders have struggled to make in impact. Reduce the numbers maybe. Introduce Polish type squads for the championship. Better. Fans can relate to different team lineups if the riders are part of a squad. And it would reduce the number of guests which is really the crux of the problem with double uppers/downers missing meetings.

Doubling up is here to stay, I would think, as is two divisions. Scrap promotion/relegation. Its never worked in the past and I can't see it working now. Some times simply can't afford to be promoted, and others will find it impractical. Can you imagine two teams in the playoff, one of which wants to drop down to the championship, the other not wanting to be promoted. A case of how can we lose without appearing to be trying to lose!!!! If premiership team wants a double up rider then sign two for the same position. For example Belle Vue sign Richie and Steve Worrall to share the same position. Guarantee them a minimum number of fixtures (injury permitting). Then if Glasgow are riding the same night they use Steve and if Newcastle are they use Richie. It should then be far simpler to avoid fixture clashes. just need to make sure that, for example, if Belle Vue are at home on a friday and Newcastle are at Edinburgh, then Glasgow don't have a fixture.