Little Thumper

So, will this be the kind of thing that will be offered at the National Speedway Academy when it opens? Or is that going to be a different kind of thing altogether?

And seeing as both clubs appear to have run NL at a loss last year, they can share each other's losses this year. As the saying goes, " a loss shared is a loss halved"..................or something like that any road up. They are obviously keen to have 12 teams in the league and with 2 tracks with shaky looking futures, they are probably just hedging their bets and hoping that one of the two will pull through. Perhaps rather than Belle Vue + Coventry, it might be Belle Vue or Coventry.

When you look at the web page that was put up to entice to people to work at the Belle Vue Arena, it is easy to see where great gobs of money have disappeared to:- http://ios-security.co.uk/about-us/work-with-us/belle-vue-aces-speedway-1/ What happened to a few old boys in white coats sorting the job out? This is the trouble when you get involved with councils, the Jobsworths feel obliged to implement every last bit of the Elf and Safety Manual as though their lives depended on it.

AJ is King, do you think this is a real strange one?

The new riders' kit should be interesting. They had better not sign up any small guys - they would never get all that writing on! The Belle Vue and Coventry Storm Aces. I think they would need to carry it on down both legs.

I hear what you are saying. But surely, there must be variations to a theme? I think sometimes supporters might like to see something a bit different either in the way of riders, machines or format. Perhaps one element could be an Oldies v Young 'uns challenge I know at the velodrome, they sometimes used to put a team of Talent Team youngsters up against the old hands and it was pretty good entertainment. How about putting an Academy Team up against some more experienced riders? Surely, that would be good experience for them. Sometimes, I do wonder if speedway needs to think a little bit more out of the box and not just plonk for the same old format every single time.

Yes, I thought that was a bit handy! Hopefully, the Buxton v Stoke meeting can also be used to decide the Air-fence Challenge or whatever it might be called this year. There are only so many times that you can watch repeats of repeats. Instead of pointless challenges put on an individual meeting that includes some of the young hopefuls and mix it all up a bit. Throw in a veterans race and some old skool stuff and I' d pay a couple of quid to watch that!

Nice to see that Shelby Rutherford will be back with Buxton in 2017. Shelby had a bit of an up and down season in 2016 but he remained enthusiastic and I do believe that he could make significant progress in the coming season. G'day to our southern hemisphere friends who read this drivel Give it LARGE, Shelby.

Give me an ????????????????????????? Give me a ?????????????????????????? Forget it.

I don't want to be negative, I really don't. I was there at Hyde Road when Peter Collins raced against Ole Olsen and I was there when the opposing groups of fans indulged in their passionate but friendly rivalry. I was there when Soldier Boy heckled Olsen and I was there when speedway was great. Yeah, I know rose-tinted spectacles and all that! But speedway is better than cobbled together teams of Travelling Wilburys. If you can't afford to run a proper NL team, run in the MDL or something like that. Build up your fanbase and let them grow with you. I would far rather see a league of 10 half-decent teams rather than a collection of odd bods thrown together for the sake of convenience. I'll shut up now. Sorry for banging on.

And I wouldn't mind but when you do go to the Belle Vue site, the last post is dated 4 November and there is nothing about this at all. If this joint venture is such a good idea, then it is a shame that somebody couldn't have posted something on the web page to tell us something about it or at least acknowledge the existence of this new equipe.

I think you can do better than that! I have supported speedway for 50 years and hope to do so for a while longer. Do you honestly believe that a "solution" like this adds to the brand that is speedway? You could perhaps understand it, if the two promotions involved were next door neighbours. They're not. Coventry is the land of Ole Olsen and Manchester is the land of Peter Collins. We are like chalk and cheese. Unless there are genuine team rivalries what is the point? I'm sure I am missing something here, but who is this going to appeal to and is it likely to get more people coming through the gates?

Interestingly on the Speedway GB site, you can go to the NL section and look at the list of clubs who will be competing in 2017. The Belle Vue and Coventry logos are snuggled up together nice and tight to show their new combined status. When you click onto the double-headed logo you are whisked away to Belle Vue's web page. So, in essence, this team is the Belle Vue Colts and Coventry are the junior partners. Fair point! So will this announcement be tomorrow or will we have to wait for it along with the various other announcements that are in the queue?

So, who is we? Are you referring to the new promoter at Belle Vue Speedway? I know NL racing is good, as I've been watching for years. I worry about speedway and scenarios like this do not lessen my worry. We've already had an announcement:- http://www.speedwaygb.co/news.php?extend.31675 What do you expect that a further announcement will disclose?

But it isn't a team! It's a collection of sundry riders with no connection to anywhere in particular. Speedway is meant to be tribal! This is turning into something the Liberal Democrats might dream up. So if it's a team, what is it going to be called?

We were hoping you might tell us.

Who would you suggest I support?

Why not get all the riders to throw their van keys into the middle of the table. Team selection can be achieved by inviting a passing lunatic to select keys at random.

You couldn't make it up! Either a team runs or it doesn't. This hotch potch approach solves no problems and just makes speedway look totally amateurish. And where are these "pooled" finances going to come from? If you have two clubs who have no visible promoters, finances or venues, then your pool is going to be more of a puddle!

The same 7 riders all the time........well, that would be a new innovation! So surely it will be the Belle Vue Colts?

Careful!

If you don't mind me saying...........................you are clutching at straws! I'd like to see the marketing strategy when they are putting one of these meetings on. Good people of Manchester come and support your local team, the Coventry Braces. This is a joke. Please tell me it is a joke.

I don't think they need trouble themselves opening the track shop. They ain't exactly going to be rushed off their feet.

Do you think many people will want to want to support a team that is half theirs and half somebody elses? It's bad enough already with the constant churn of guests and rider replacement nonsense. Talk about alienating supporters from teams. Now they won't even have a team, just 3 and a half riders. One can only assume that at this year's conflab they opened the bar especially early or someone was passing round the hallucinogenics because otherwise, it is hard to comprehend how such a bizarre arrangement could have passed muster.

Who do you think is going to want to watch this band of wandering minstrels?