YeOldPitGate

Who are they Phil the new promoting company ?

There that desperate for teams I think the fit and proper person bar will be set at a very low level.

Didn't Mike Bacon qualify as a rising star at nearly 30 ?

Spot on i think it will be a big ask now for Ipswich to put a half decent side together let alone if Northampton do happen. Its going to take someone with serious bags to burn when you look at it you are going to be getting the very last left overs to form a team, either running at a place with no heritage or at possibly Oxford under a different brand name where its already been proven the Oxford public don't want three teams. No tv deal rumoured either, who would be bonkers and rich enough to take this on ?

Tell me about it Iain I stopped going the year after Cradley brought Hamill over after that I forget about speedway until I started watching it again on tv the night Harris beat Greg in the final at Cardiff so you might well be right. In the SGP'S though he was such a good trapper most of the time he was out front, but that race his hand got caught in the mudguard he was incredibly lucky 9/10 it could have had his arm off but I think he got away with a broken finger/nuckle.

Yes both these lads should have big futures and be core England regulars in 5-6 years time, just need to stay grounded, not take on to much to soon and most importantly avoid big injuries, one of the reasons Hancock and Nielson went on so long was they didn't have many really bad smashes , all be it Hancock got lucky when he got his hand stuck in Neils mudguard.

I definately think theres more to come from Becker he is the perfect build for a speedway rider I think he just needs an ex top level old hand to help him get up a couple of rungs on the ladder.

More chance of congress saying those rumored UFO's in area 51 are really real.

Similar thing happened with Dillon Ruml was developing into a promising your rider but ended up with and average over five and no one seemed prepared to take a chance on him, I think if someone had perservered he could have developed into a seven point plus man at championship level.

Agreed I can see no logic in selling possibly the most successful club in the UK with infrastructure already in place and then putting your sale proceeds into somewhere with zero speedway history , if Coventry revival was the rumoured sixth club and the stadium wasn't falling down then yes maybe.

Hopefully will be a better long term ending than when JB sold out to Shears.

Remember Josh Bates

I can't think he would do either if he has any sense, I think the chances of a sixth team are near zero unless someone who has money to burn can be found and is happy to take a six figure loss on the chin assuming the other five promoters don't agree to underwrite part of the losses. The issue with that would be the new Ipswich owner has to buy the club with presumably no Emil or Doyle and then underwrite part of the losses also for another track just can't see it. I think it was in hindsight always a fantasy idea to try and throw a bone to the fans of the top league.

The only positive I can see is at least the top league didn't go with three home and away, at least with only potentially eight home meetings losses should be more contained but you just have to hope they don't start running home meetings once every 3-4 weeks with five teams they would be better off starting in May and done mid Sept.

Don't think much between Scott and Cairns if both stay grounded and don't take on to much to quickly they should be core England squad members in 5-6 years I would have thought.

Straight to the play offs forget the league and make sure everthing is run in October.

Aussie mate ?

The old three day p-ss up's those were the days.

Christ that's almost Tolley like figures, I wonder how much of the £350k loss was racked up in the year they had Crump and Pederson

Has anyone checked the door hinge at the entrance to the boardroom if that's playing up its the perfect excuse to rearrange another date in the future.

Sounds like it would be cheaper to get Bartoz in than Picko

Yep John was a brilliant promoter but despite the current mess up until the bombshell Louis was the best of the current promoters the thing they both had in common is the Ipswich Witches being probably the best supported club in the UK.

Agreed hopefully something will be pulled out of the bag but I'm getting a horrible feeling we could be going with four teams I really hope not.

I didn't get to see him in the very early days/at his best as I started going late 84, when he had his first comeback at Lynn after a year or so off in 1985 in the first race he blitzed Eric Gunderson but after that he could be brilliant, very average or missing in action to the point where Rogers eventually booted him out. I remember one night when he got a 15 point max (we still lost) but the team riding between him and Bobby Schwartz was the best I have ever seen in the game from 1985 to present day. To me as he was so tall he never looked entirely comfortable on a bike but he was one of the greatest natural talents for sure.

Its a shame Austrailia don't have a really strong fourth rider in his prime like Fricke, Holder and Kurtz with Doyle at reserve if they had one more top line rider they could probably give the poles a run in the world team cup next time round.