YeOldPitGate

He has done a great job but I would imagine having Guy Nichols money involved has helped plus Guy's business contacts and I would imagine when done right Ipswich generally has the best support of any team in the country this certainly seemed to be the case back in the John Berry days. I can remember regularly going down to Ippo for the bank holiday derbys when I followed Lynn mid 80's to early 90's and there was generally more than 5k there every time for that meeting. The potential is still there I can remember Buster saying when Poole came to Lynn several years back with Holder and Ward in their prime he had his best home crowd since the seventies.

Out of interest Dean did he get to keep the bikes and van or did they go back to the club at the end of the season ?

Personally he needed a season at reserve to build confidence but he was forced into the number 2 position before he was ready has happened to so many british youngsters.

The championship clubs would probably rather take their chances with a revolver with one bullet in it and five empty chambers spin the barrel and hope.

Personally I think the biggest issue will be not enough teams to form a top division of six absolute minimum.

Yep putting things back is never a good sign dear old Rachel Reeves coming budget a case in point try to delay the bad news for as long as possible it looks like the bspa are now entering into one of my favorite quotes "delay and pray"

In a realistic world I think the level of rider standard in the championship is where UK speedway now sits, in the perfect world if they could get another 3 clubs in and get the fixture list better sorted they could gradually progress. Appreciate the lack of riders issue but their are newcomers/youngsters out there its just having something to tempt them over with.

And from memory Jen's Rasmussen at the same time ?

I truly hope we are all wrong because when its promoted right with a good track and riders at the top of their game it can still be a brilliant sport but it seems even getting six teams in the top league together to maintain the current not working status quo is going to be uber difficult. There' still no news on Sheffield and surely if someone is going to go in at Oxford they are going to need to be a lottery multi millionaire or the other promoters will have to part underwrite the losses which given most will be breaking even at best and if no tv deal is forthcoming you would think where will they find a possible guessing £50-80k needed to tempt any normal promoter who isn't loaded to take on the risk.

That's the spirit

So working on the current possible prem league set up 2-3 teams will get to pick before them so should be plenty of choice to go at.

Yes the winter we all feared for two decades has finally arrived Mike and its not looking two friendly, when I used to go every week mid eighties to early 90's there were loads of problems but we still had all the top men and crowds in general were ok, plus if it had been used wisely there was time to set the sport on a sustainable footing. I'm not sure I can see a way out of it all if a tv deal isn't forthcoming it truly is a right mess but its been forty odd years in the making. As an aside I was just thinking in 1985 when Gundo and Hans reined supreme pre-internet how as a 15 year old I used to race to the newsagents for a copy of the Star and Speedway Mail (remember that any veterans on here) the Star must be nearly a fiver a copy now given they do a sterling job but to an ever shrinking fan base.

No idea but this rumour of Northampton running at Oxford if true would be pure desperation that could be what someone said Buster was talking about that Prem bosses will have to pony up to make the top league happen maybe the potential promoter wants a big hand out to stem the losses. It might also be a case around the Fricke rumours that the leicester promoter is thinking need to cut the cloth next year , all guesswork but if no tv deal, some top men leaving lower points limit rumoured, less top league teams it certainly isn't looking great from trying to join the dots.

So is it looking like a tiny premier league once home and away and then all four into the play offs ?

Lets hope so Steve would love to see the lad over here strikes me as there best recent talent since the great darcy ward.

Don't disagree at all 1 valve we all know you could add all of the below in just for starters Run on best nights for fans A decent tv deal for clubs not swallowed all up by number one's High profile premier league sponsor End of guest fests every week Decently prepared tracks Meetings starting on time Meetings not dragging on for 3-4 hours In a perfect world not staging meetings in stadiums that look like they have been bombed by the Luffwaffa Efforts really made to promote the team/awareness locally I know all of the above is easier said than done but if the powers that be want to save the sport the above are all reasonable starting points.

Agreed Ian it might be just be me but my mindset is who the hell wants to go out for the night on a Monday (maybe top level footy fixture aside) but other than that the mindset is first day back in the 9-5 grind where as Thurs-Sat you have that weekend coming/here feel good factor that motivates you to go out more.

A cunning plan indeed.

If they could get rid of Sedgmen for a better seven pointer they could be a useful side problem is I can't really think who to swap him out for.

Plus Gusts who should have been a trump card either under performed or was another who was missing half the time.

Do the big gun's take part in this or not ?

More than they did last year no doubt.

i think running on a night that suits the fans not the riders has been a big driver of their success.

If true adds to the dark picture best track in the UK and two of the best riders in the world plying their craft there.

He's at three, Nicki Pederson at 1 getting ready for that first corner move then feet up for rest of the season