JamesHarris

Sorry if this is not allowed on here but I'm selling a very rare Norwegian Ice speedway programme form 2009 on ebay if anyone is interested https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/383467373769?ul_noapp=true&fbclid=IwAR2NqTflHWn4spjHvGnC3itqAHx-FRICiOew0IK-pk553fConiReXSiXf_g

Oooohhhhh!! Somebody needs a poo

Cricky old lad, wind your neck back in. (Lancashire runs from the Lake District down to the north of Manchester) - Really!! I thought it was near Southampton??

Sounds good if you have a landowner willing to provide the land. Only snag is though you already have Buxton. And it may not go down to well with Belle Vue. Good luck though.

Brace yourselves for all the long winding press releases from your new manager that make it all about himself

Look I know my comments here are not going to make me any friends but here we go. The bottom line I think is that the BSPA has finally lost patience with "Ghost Teams" popping up year after year in the junior leagues and now that Cradley have folded, the thorn in the side of that argument has finally been removed. I've sat on the fence over the last few years and watched the MDL/MDSL with interest and In my honest opinion for what it's worth it has started to look a bit silly with all these old names being used. One or two like we had a few years ago is fine but when the league is made up of more defunct teams than actual junior teams of the promotion it starts to look a bit of a joke. Do the speedway star still run a fantasy league for people wanting to use such team names? I know the people running these teams are helping juniors get track time and that has to be applauded. But, I do believe that people running the likes of Reading, Weymouth, Crayford, New Cross, Wembley, etc, etc, have a very different agenda to those running the junior teams at Birmingham, I.O.W or Belle Vue. I could be very wrong of cause. I do sympathise with the people running the ghost teams. I know it takes a lot of hard work and enthusiasm, but if you are genuine about giving young lads track time and helping them develop then just swallow the bullet and call your teams Swindon juniors, Plymouth reserves, etc. After all if you are genuine then you will not care about team names, trophies and so on as long as the lads (and girls) are benefiting from a meaningful team competition. I know the objective of such enthusiast's it to find land and build a new track to revive them, but please, please, please wake up and smell the coffee. Unless you have endless pockets of cash, and are even lucky to get a patch of land when councils are after more land for homes, then you are just living in a romantic fantasy land. Cradley have failed and given up. Take lessons from that. The other thing you have to take into account is the 2 men now running the BSPA have no time what so ever for the junior leagues I will just finish on this. The language used in recent weeks on social media by the organisers of such teams to describe the powers that be has been very unsavoury when you are "promoting" yourselves as a family sport on the other side of the coin. It makes you look childish and like you are throwing your toys out of the pram. Sorry if my comments are a bit harsh but there's no point sugarcoating the truth.

Hi, I'm after a bit of help please as I've started to collect programmes again. Since 2012 have any MDL or NJL clubs such as Milton Keynes, etc printed their own separate raceday programmes and what years? Also have any rounds of the youth championship been held at Sittingbourne or Northside since 2011? Thanks

Sounds like the wrong topic to write about but I was wondering in these modern times when land is at a premium for housing, what will be the first track to permanently close its doors in the 2020's? At the turn of the last century there used to be a new track opening every couple of years but there has not been any new ventures (if you take Belle Vue's new track out of it) since Kent opened in 2013. I wonder how many tracks will be in operation in 2030?

The brutal honest truth is the BSPA don't like "ghost" teams. Now that Cradley have gone they have probably put their foot down. That said they still seem happy enough to take the £300? or whatever it is now for these teams to enter the development league's. It used to be on the grounds that they had 1 year to find a venue. If Reading have land fair play to them. I hope it goes well. But some of these "ghost" teams have absolutely no chance in finding land and even if they did it would probably be financial suicide. If my memory serves me right no new track (if we take Belle Vue out) has opened since Kent in 2013? That is a long time. There would always be a new track opening up every other year until the turn of the last decade. On the subject of Ghost teams how did Lakeside and Rye House get away with calling their joint NL team Hackney a few years ago?

As I've posted before I don't really know much about dog racing so I can't comment about the animals welfare but what I will say if anyone who jumps on the animal rights bandwagon and claims that horse racing is cruel and barbaric are very naive and easily led or they have absolutely no knowledge of how the horses are trained and looked after. They are probably treated better than humans. Their stables are immaculate and are the equine equivalent of the Savoy with prices to match. Everyone is entitles to their opinion but what folk must understand is a thoroughbred racehorse is a trained athlete. They are ultra competitive. They are individuals and have their own temperament. They have a jockey on board to guide and encourage them but they are not forced to race. Surely you have seen a race where a horse has refused to start? A loose horse will continue running not because it is a stupid beast and it has been trained to do so. It will continue because it wants to beat the others (even though there's no jockey on board). Unfortunately though horses do get fatally injured. It is horrible to witness and no racing fan enjoys seeing it. When it happens it is usually instant (broken neck), but if a horse incurs a leg break, etc, the care they receive is immediate and the the horse is "put to sleep" within minutes. It's horrible yes, but if a speedway rider suffered a fatal crash or a driver is killed in motor racing do we say their respective sports are inhumane and should be banned? Of cause not. Someone posted on this subject that horses are killed every year in the Grand National. This is highly inaccurate. One unfortunately died this year but prior to that the last fatality in the race was 2012.

I agree. I don't know much about Greyhound racing but once the PC animal rights brigade eventually succeed in getting it eradicated in the UK they will move their attention to Horse Racing and that is when these crazed extremists will come undone. Horse racing in the USA is not the same as the rest of the World. In the US, horse racing is primarily a gambling business. You will notice all the racetracks are identical and it's more about the speed of the horse (more about this can be read in Frankie Dettori's autobiography). In the rest of the World racing is big big business worth billions of pounds. You will notice that it is highly influenced by rich arabs. Once these animal rights loons start targeting horse racing here and in Europe my guess is their ring leaders will "get a visit in the night" or go missing.

Very surprised with the signing of Lasse Fredriksen. I may have missed something over that last couple of years but of his age group Glen Moi and Thomas Gunnestad were far better though I think Thomas does not ride much now? Norway is not exactly the hotbed of speedway these days. Lasse may turn out to be a good signing for you but I am a bit baffled.

Trouble is we now have a chairman of the BSPA who only cares about the present and will only worry about the future come November 2020. A Vice-Chairman who has no interest in junior racing or development and a NL coordinator who will do as he is told. Make of it what you will.

Unless Glasgow or Edinburgh move up as well it would be financial suicide for Berwick to move up to the Premiership. Unless of cause there is going to be "one big league"

Fair play mate. You probably should have appealed though. I really do commend your commitment and enthusiasm for bringing on young riders and if that is what you want to do then I take my hat off to you. But if you are putting so much money into doing it can I just say this based on personal experience. Not all but some of these riders are spoilt brats who will have a rant/strop at their dads in the pits even though it is their dads who are paying for their very expensive hobby. Some riders will get bored and quit when they get to 16 and start partying and chasing girls. Some will be more talented and stick with it. Even more so if their ego's are boosted by arse licker's and groupies. Will the clubs (promoters) thank you for your efforts in providing their next asset? Will they at least token compensate you something for all the time and effort you have put into their new asset? Will they f**k. Do you even think the riders will give a damn for you when they have reached the heights of the Elite League (sorry Premiership)? Probably 2 or 3 will stay mates and appreciate the time you put aside for them. Most will simply treat you as a stepping stone and some enthusiastic mug who did something along the line.

There are always two sides to a story. Some very interesting comments here. I'm not going to comment on who's right or wrong but something must have taken place in the refs box for the fine to be dished out. As someone has already pointed out if the person feels that strongly they should appeal. What I will say is if the young rider in question was truly "traumatized" at being excluded then he is not in the correct frame of mind to be riding speedway bikes. I would suggest the young lad take up a more gentle hobby of flower arrangements or bird watching than racing a fast machine with no brakes.

First one of these I watched last night on Europsport. Interesting meeting and well deserved victory for Michelsen. Only downsides were the racing wan't great for the first half of the meeting but I've never been a fan of temporary tracks. I also though there was a lack of on-screen updates of the scores and the live championship standings and only had to go on what the commentators were telling us.

It is with much sadness to learn this morning of the death of Phil Spence (Spensites) following a long and brave battle against cancer. Phil was one of the pioneers of the Midland Development League in its early days providing websites free of charge for Long Eaton, Coventry-Mercia and the Castleford Kings. He was also a sponsor of several junior riders. His enthusiasm and tireless online promotion of the MDL was key to it's early success. Nothing was too much for Phil and all of his MDL club websites were often updated on a daily basis at his own time and expense. Probably not known to many outside the junior ranks, Phil will be greatly missed by those that knew him. A genuinely nice guy and one of the sports unsung behind the scenes hero's. Rest in peace mate. Laurence (Main Man) if your'e reading this maybe it would be a fitting tribute to name this years league trophy after him?

I've only been to Osdal once and that was on a business trip to Bradford and I stopped by to have a look. This was long after speedway had finished. It's a fantastic location and from videos I've seen was one of the best racetracks in the country. Would I invest shed loads of money in it now and try and bring speedway back? Errm - No! If I had a few hundred grand spare I would buy a Ferrari. Take it for a drive every Saturday and then after a couple of years when I'm bored of it I could sell it on for a profit or at least get back what I paid for it.

Could be wrong but I'm pretty sure Rachel Hellowell and Monty Jowett raced in the same NJL meeting back in 2011?

Now that's a very interesting question. As a whole the percentage of attendance in the USA would tiny. In the state of California it would be small but if you narrow it down to the counties in California that host speedway it would be interesting to see.

One question worth asking is does speedway need to re-brand itself (in the UK at least) to bring in a new audience? As I mentioned in my earlier post, the first thing people who are not familiar of have no knowledge of the sport think of is Speedway is some sort of car racing. A complete name change perhaps? One other thing that could be looked at to reduce cost and admission prices is to reduce the number of riders in a team. 5 a side has worked for Denmark.

Oddly enough a few years ago I was chatting to a few Polish lads and asking them of cause if they were into speedway or Zuzul as they call it. They were also shrugging their shoulders but one of them had heard of Tomasz Gollob. So even in countries where it is one of the biggest followed sports there are some that have hardly heard of it.

Lack of general interest or just promoters stuck in the past? I work only a mile or so from Brandon stadium and when I mention the speedway to some of my younger colleagues they don't seem to know what I'm on about. Most assume it's some sort of car racing. Most folk my age or older have been or at least know of the Bees. Even when on holiday I have been talking to fellow Brits and they come from say Poole or Sheffield and I ask them "ah I bet you know of the speedway track there then" most look bemused and again car racing is the first thing that comes to mind unless they are speedway followers of cause. Don't even go down the route of asking if they have heard of Tai Woffinden. But another major factor in this debate is do most promoters simply still live in the 80's and just assume all they have to do is open the gates, charge top dollar and a few thousand will turn up to watch?