Chris116

Not only do any news items on the BSPA website have the disclaimer but it is not possible to get to the club website as Eastbourne and Birmingham don't exist according to the list of teams in the league. If I was of a suspicious nature I would be thinking that someone wanted to sabotage their entries and if I was in charge at either club I would tell the BSPA that either the links are restored or I would be moving back to the National League which might ruffle a few feathers that need ruffling big time. The fact that both teams who moved from Championship to Premiership appeared immediately makes you wonder how they got accepted so quickly! Does the BSPA want to make Speedway grow or are they determined to ruin the sport?

That is possible but then there is the question of how soon the BSPA were advised of the situation and how long was it before they took action. If Chris Harris has not been paid for nine meetings then that should also be true for all the other riders. So how many meetings did the bond cover? In other words was it that the riders were not paid for fifteen meetings and the bond has been used to pay six meetings? Could the BSPA confirm that all fees were paid up to date or was some of the bond used for that purpose? I understand that the team sheet given to the referee at each meeting has to be signed by the team captains to the effect that riders have been paid up to date. When did the Rye House captain refuse to sign that information? Too many unanswered questions sadly.

I have to ask where the bond all promotions are supposed to lodge with the BSPA went? If it was used up with payments to the BSPA before the riders were paid then it is a disgrace which the BSPA should be ashamed of and the riders should take action to rectify the situation.

So are they going to reinstate the ones they stole from Birmingham?

I am sure that the Kings Lynn award for Track of the Year is from Stock Car fans as it is a superb track for National Saloon Stock Cars and BriSCA Formula One Stock Cars.

While this is a reasonable sentiment, BMR who own Rye House are not flavour of the month with the BSPA so very unlikely to happen sadly as Rye is the only track I can really get to, to watch racing.

During my lifetime I have gone to Speedway meetings by public transport at Wimbledon, Hackney, West Ham, New Cross, Crayford, Wembley, Rye House and Poole. Only the last one of them is still open and costs over £40 even with a Senior Railcard plus admission and I don't get home until nearly 2am so I have given that up as a bad job. A few years ago it was possible to get cheap rail tickets on the Waterloo to Poole line and I usually included a trip to the Swanage Railway during the day which at least meant a rain-off was not a complete waste of money! The others I went to while at school/work even midweek.

Freeview needs to be the HD version to get channel 95 as I understand it. I can't get channel 95 sadly as I am in an area that doesn't seem to work, South West London being the middle of nowhere according to Freeview!

A dictionary is no use to someone who doesn't know how to spell the words! Need Santa to give out a Thesaurus or two maybe.

Your last five words may be partly the explanation!

I do not understand why the BSPA adjusted the league table immediately Rye House were closed but the averages they left until the end of the season! Surely all the changes should have been made upon Rye House being closed or did they forget the riders averages?

Today and some of the details have been posted on the BSPA website.

That looks like good news for the Eagles and I wish them all the best. Sadly it could have a bad effect on the National League which is worrying as that is where the next generation of riders learn their trade. For the good of British Speedway all three leagues need to be kept as strong as possible.

I would make it that the first 2 minutes ends and the new 2 minutes starts immediately. If the replacement is not ready at the end of that two minutes then the race runs with three riders and the rider who is now by himself goes off the handicap. Team managers won't take a chance on making that mistake as it would be an almost certain 5-1 against them. Harsh but it will concentrate the minds of managers and riders very quickly.

I think the rule should allow the team manager to either send out a reserve or have the excluded rider on a handicap. That seems to work well in the case of a tapes infringement.

The Rye House meetings were removed from the league table the day they were removed from the league. Why were the riders averages not treated in the same manner? If the meetings did not count in the league then surely they should not count in the averages either!

Surely if Sweden run on one of our protected days then it is the Swedish teams who will have riders missing?

It may not appear to be the most pressing issue BUT if used correctly and consistently then it will help with speeding up the running of meetings. There have been a lot of complaints about the delays in running meetings and this could help. Back in the 60's tracks had a large team of rankers who worked between every race but without causing any delay to the meeting. The tractor did one lap, sometimes two laps, between each race, again without causing any delay. The modern way of having very few rankers and the tractor(s) appearing every three or four races causes delays and makes for a less consistent track surface so needs to be looked at. Sometimes the old ways are the best!

All very quiet here and on the Monarchs web site! Any thoughts on the team for 2019?

That is the rule book as written by whoever thinks they can get away with it. Matt is just very good at reading between the lines!

Too many details leaves a lack of wiggle room later in the season when someone wants to pull a fast one!

The important word is "Promoter". Buster is "Owner" of three teams but not "Promoter" of three teams. I suspect that the original rule makers thought of Owner and Promoter as the same thing and the new idea of having the "Promoter" as a member of paid staff did not cross their minds!

The other teams in the league need to tell him that if he can't get riders then it up to him to change HIS fixtures and he can go to hell if he thinks he is going to do what he did last year.

I would say that many of us have concerns but if you look at what has happened in other sports then snooker is a good example of a near dictatorship working for the good of the sport. I agree that it could go wrong but I think we should give it a chance and try to be positive in the hope that it works out for the best. I write the above while very depressed that I have no easily accessible track to watch racing but hope that things will get better and recently lost tracks will reappear.

When BMR took over from Len Silver they started a number of improvements but it appears they ran out of money or enthusiasm before any of them were completed. If they had started one project and finished it before doing the next one the place would be in a much better state than it is. On the subject of paying riders, surely the bond should have been used by the BSPA to pay the riders or has it been used and a balance is still owed? If money is still owed then it is right that BMR are not allowed to promote speedway but it should not stop another promotion using the track or has the BSPA said that speedway cannot be run at the track until those outstanding bills have been paid.