Fortythirtyeight

A bit strong but I see your point and think you won’t be far off the mark. It would make no sense to have a British Championship when the riders have had little to no racing.

It’s good business sense not to put funds into something that the private sector provide .

Mark Courtney lives in Poland , spanner’s for Max Fricke over there.

Bob Watts lived near Exeter , rode for Teesside.

But he's not a promoter and it will be the same promoters who have governed the sport for the last few years who will be running it again whenever we start up. The few ' new ones ' messers Jensen ( Rye House ) Morgan ( Workington ) Rathbone ( Peterborough ), Phillips ( Newcastle ) , and Kay ( Redcar ) all of whom had ' new ideas ' didn't hang around long for various reasons and all had issues of some sort with the sports governors , it appeared, and with only one of the young Courtney's left at Berwick and Smith / Lemon at Belle Vue to bring fresh ideas to the table you have got to wonder where the change of direction will come from. We can hope for a miracle but then we are all waiting for another major one to get us out of the current situation and they don't come around that often.

Here's some reasons why speedway should not run , particularly behind closed doors. We are supposed to be avoiding putting any excess pressure on our NHS. Most tracks medical cover are usually NHS employees ( Doctors and paramedics ) doing a second job for extra money. They should not be asked to cover ANY form of Motorsport events whilst we are in the current pandemic situation. Sports injuries are classed as ' self inflicted ' by the NHS for a reason, let's not add to their stress. Money : no crowd means no income. One track I know of needs to find in excess of £35,000 annually just to keep the stadium running even without holding an event with rent, bills and maintenance costs . Then you need to find riders wages which are usually covered by turnstyle income, no crowd equals yet another financial loss. Sponsors want coverage, they get it via programme adverts, mentions on the track announcements and rider sponsorships, they won't be getting that sort of coverage with no crowd as there will be none of that. Most large sponsorship deals are paid in instalments. I doubt most clubs have been able to gather in their full quota of sponsors money. The majority of speedway crowds are elderly. They are the most vulnerable and should not be expected to attend any event whilst the threat of Covid is still around. They are also the least likely to have access to watch ' streamed ' speedway meetings or pay to watch such an event. Travel. Putting on events means adding to traffic on the roads again putting added pressure on our NHS with the increased possibility of traffic accidents. About 25-35% of riders are currently out of the country so are faced with not only the travelling issue they then face added lockdown isolation periods . I could add more but I think I've said enough. In my opinion NO SPORT should take place till this is all over even if that means we lose clubs through it then sorry but lives are more important than entertainment.

No but it does depend on what they put in the copy of the contract given to the border agency.

A lot of 'vastly experienced' individuals have not made good team managers. The bigger question would be why was Jason Pipe appointed in the first place, then sacked?

Ridiculous figure, how can you say 499 is fine, 501 is not? crowds / large gatherings should be banned, full stop.

BSPA rule book is written in pencil. Im not sure you are right with Buster but I'm sure someone will clarify it.

Newcastle should not get a vote for three years . The Stoke promoter was in the NL , that won't count for Championship issues but then who knows what they will allow these days as your not supposed to be a promoter at more than one track , but that one got overlooked if your on the committee! . Newcastle are the only Sunday track in the division.

Talks Less? Never going to happen.

It only has to apply for the last quarter of the season which could be as little as 4-6 weeks. How about a bad photo copy of an email from a supposed Danish Doctor saying " Rider sick , Not Ride" and a copy of a doctors business card alongside it? its been done before and lasted some considerable time even though it's authenticity was questioned to be answered by " this has gone on for years , live with it!".

Rules being made up after the AGM? so what's the point of the AGM! This is yet another one that will be manipulated by the more unscrupulous promoters with more dubious sick notes that cannot be questioned .

Where's the contradiction? I never said there wasn't an asset base just that certain riders have ridden without being an asset of any club and there is nothing to stop them doing so. Each club and no doubt the BSPA will have a list of their alleged assets, wether they have ridden in the last 10 years or not!

Bunyan bought his own contract therefore was not an ' asset ' of any club, there's nothing in the book to say a rider must be someone's property because he doesn't. The asset system is only there to benefit the club's financial liability to the BSPA so that if a club folds they can claim the club's assets and then benefit from loaning them out themselves, like they did with Coventry. New riders become assets by default once they have ridden so many matches for what ever club they start their career with in the U.K. Some riders are ' owned' by clubs that they have never ever ridden for, the British Champion being one such rider. There has been no new asset list since 2017 as it was so out of date then it was embarrassing .If it was ever challenged it would have no legal basis whatsoever which is probably why there's been no attempt at renewing it.

Either you need to go to Specsavers are get a new calculator. Whilst the crowd is healthy replace your minimum with maximum.

No sure your right Dave. There's nothing in the rule book to say a rider has to be ' controlled ' by any club. Jason Bunyan bought his own contract and then rode for Mildenhall. The last club asset list that was published included riders who hadn't ridden for over 10 years and even two that are no longer with us!

Rules state that a nomadic team can only use a name when they are actively trying to find a location to run from in the near future. I assume Reading are not looking to find their own piece of land? A lot of nomadic junior teams have disappeared for the same reason recently.

So some fans will have to find serious pocket money to be able to go to the Pairs, then Cardiff, then Leicester for the Fours in 3 days. Can't even imagine the costs if thinking of doing Swindon on the Thursday.

Brian Havelock, once a promoter at Redcar, stopped Matej Kus signing for Newcastle until they agreed to purchase him which had to go to arbitration. Think he did the same with Aaron Summers.

George Rothery, Elliot Kelly? Both impressed last season at Edinburgh but the team will need a couple of heat leaders and non of those so far mentioned are at that level yet.

Whilst the NL has to be saved this doesn't look like a good plan. I admire Edinburgh having a go at giving the northern based young ones a team to aim for but their nearest rivals will be Belle Vue then Leicester . The makeup of this division will see more lads ' retire ' during the season as the distances between tracks is just not cost effective for 'youngsters' , allegedly on £10 a point , or those trying to hold down full time employment. The new rules also look silly, we now have handicap racing which means the more inexperienced riders have more chance of being dropped from a ride having travelled for hours to get to a meeting . Yet again we make the sport more complicated than it needs to be. Whilst I do think it's the best of a bad job , this is not a good strategy for the future of speedway.

Not surprised that any club struggles to sign riders at this time of year when a well known tactic of a certain very northern based club is to have around 10 riders ' signed ' before the AGM. Thus preventing said riders signing for other clubs before the full points limit is known and then said club drops the extras that no longer fit in the club's plans. Good tactic if you have the guile to do it. Obviously Newcastle were never in a position to ' sign ' anybody till after the takeover so at a disadvantage straight away. THJ makes some valid points on rider availability on a Sunday so your looking at a very small field of riders to choose from. Just hope Newcastle can sign at least one big hitter to turn the decline around but you will need big bucks to get one.

Redcar will be looking to follow last season's success with a top heavy side, one solid reserve and a ' two pointer ' at reserve. I don't see young Kelly as the no.7 just yet, but you never know. The lad has done plenty of laps around Redcar over the last eighteen months ( despite Marshall07's statement) having started on a 500 when he was 13 before committing to 500 fully in 2018 . I don't see Bukhave fitting in either although he deserves a chance somewhere . Think the promotors down there know exactly what they want and have already signed them up and good luck to them.