Fortythirtyeight

If you can’t make a profit on a play-off meeting you probably shouldn’t be running anyway.

I await your detailed list, shall we put a cut off on it if riders who have been at the same club for 4 seasons or more ?

Whilst I agree with your content , you have to bare in mind modern society’s change in attitudes. In yesteryear, when riders stayed at clubs for quite a while, they got a following, a fan club and a bit of loyalty all round . That’s not the modern way. Mediocre teams get mediocre crowds, poor teams get poor crowds. You should remember the Havelock senior days at Redcar , poor team , poor crowd, club only kept afloat by generous pensioners. Whilst it may look like ‘ win at all costs ‘ it’s more, be seen to try to be successful or go under !

Think you need to check what’s going on before you make idiotic posts.

But complete opposites with their knowledge of how to team manage.

So not a ‘shield’ match at all then ?

Hyde Road - Belle Vue ( old school speedway ) NSS - Belle Vue ( for racing but not the atmosphere ) Redcar ( amazing what they produce there on a budget ) Scunthorpe ( always produces great racing but it isn’t the safest track in the world with Armco barriers and girders everywhere ) Torun ( ( the Carlsberg of stadiums ) ( worthy of a mention- Somerset, Edinburgh - Powderhall, Peterborough, Bydgoszcz on a good day )

Well Barker’s night certainly ended with a ‘ thump ‘.

No 250cc riders involved ? You sure this was a ‘ Shield ‘ match not just a challenge match?

“One club claimed “…..so nothing ‘ official ‘ at all.

Then I repeat my question….where was any of this ‘ ban ‘ officially notified ?

Great match and after 10 heats it looked like a Pirates four point win. Poole riders were so much faster after bend two it looked like a Bears hammering . Heat 11 gave the Bears hope, Gary Havelock missed a trick by not putting Hume in for Cook in heat 12 , then the Bears seized the incentive in 13 & 14. Basso looked impressive on his debut , Worrell was the best I’ve seen him at MPA until his last ride but Rowe turned the match for me in his last three rides, did very well to turn his form around. Good crowd, great atmosphere and even good second half racing.

Has there been anything ‘official’ from ‘official’ sources to say that this is the case ? or is it just hearsay ? The reason I ask is that he’s a Belle Vue rider and I don't suppose they would be happy at a ‘ban’ for their rider and the BSPL have gone public saying they are happy for riders to appear at the I.O.W. so this does not make sense.

Well listening to today’s gossip it appears neither the riders or the landlord has seen your money and I’m cancelling my b&b for next weekend.

Might just help if a proper track curator with the proper equipment was given the proper amount of time to prepare the track. It appears that is not going to happen with the current set up ( reluctant landlords , ) and a promotion who can’t see ( because of the dust perhaps ?) the issue .

Didn’t say it wasn’t, but tell a football or rugby supporter that a match was called off because the club couldn’t open the stadium because some one on the staff had been pinged and see what reaction you get.

The sport has zero credibility as it is and we wonder why ? , got to feel sorry for the Redcar fans who booked a bus, hotels etc

Put a positive spin on it. Big crowd, low wages !

You might be the exception then as our local grass meetings, and we are lucky if there are six a year around here, features very few genuine grass bikes , and I know because I competed in it. The only grass only bikes was the 160 class which was basically the older guys who no longer can safely handle a 500. A speedway ‘ star ‘ was given a nice little guarantee fee to feature in a meeting recently to give it extra publicity. He promptly did two rides , poorly, and withdrew with an ‘injury ‘. Several riders have made appearances on the grass in the last few seasons as ‘ one offs ‘, just read the speedway star for evidence.

Your obviously not up with the grass track scene these days. There are only a fraction of the events that used to take place in the 70’s and 80’s , therefore there is only a fraction of grasstrack riders around and if you look at recent trends , it’s speedway riders turning to grass to get a nice little bonus wage packet . Even the youth classes, the hotbed for speedway in the past, have very few entrants of genuine grass bikes and Over 60% of ‘ grasstrack ‘ entrants are riding moto x bikes so there’s very little chance of a speedway club finding a star from the grasstrack scene.

and his predecessor, and Ged Rathbone and a few others….

Read what I’ve said! I don’t know EVERY club but I do know that lease agreement because that was my job , so yes , leave it there.

Your just not taking this in are you? . Redcar pay 12 months rent ,on a 15 year lease, so that that piece of of the motorsports park is the speedway clubs, no matter wether they run speedway racing, speedway practice sessions , amateur meetings, flat track, tiddlywinks tournaments or NOTHING at all as long as they pay the rent on time every time the council are happy ! That’s ‘ the deal that was struck that suits them both ‘ as that’s was what the council stipulated as it’s their facility . If the speedway stated they only wanted to pay six months rent, there would be no speedway but the motorsports car park would be a lot bigger!, and yes, I do know this as I was involved in changing the lease when it was renewed. Now not every club or council will have the same agreement but councils want rents paying and if some one only wants to pay for 6 months and some other sport offers to pay for 12 months, guess who will get the lease!

What ? So if they did nothing the rent would be less ??? Don’t be daft ! The council base the rent price on the facility, not what the tenant does with it . Same goes for the moto x track, the m/cycle training school, the stunt school and the motorsports track .

and probably your rights to be a promoter as you would be regarded as ‘ not fit and proper ‘.