YeOldPitGate

Fair point again Steve I was in hindsight thinking more from the media point of view, Phil normally heres a few whispers that are right more than wrong but even he has said this year its all been locked down more as far as info getting out goes.

If that is even remotely true its no wonder there's no takers £35k would be nearer the mark given at the current time your being asked to buy into a failing business model with top level UK speedway as a whole.

To be fair Flagrag is probably one of the best connected people on this forum to the powers that be, I remember him being the first one to highlight the Sky cash cow was soon going to be no more and he was spot on.

But what a corner it was.

Fair point but I would rather they took a chance on a 4 point newcomer on the chance on maybe unearthing a gem rather than a rider who has probably peaked at a seven point man in the championship and a 3-4 point man in the premier.

Mmmmm Henka, Loram, King, Lee and er Castanga much as I respect anyone who slings their leg over a speedway bike, I don't see Paco adding a thousand to the gate on opening night.

Good to hear Dean as I say they are probably the only two teams that could get away with a track share so long as it was central to both, even better if the new track was based on the design of the old Cradley track.

I've always thought if someone could get Cradley up and running again its probably the only area that could also house Wolves at the same track a bit like AC & Inter Milan given the strong support for both teams when they are based very close together. The issue apart from getting it running is ideally it needs to be set up in the short term before Wolves fans start to drift away en-mass. Wolves Monday & Cradley Thursday.

I know a fella who's in the badge business same as Tolley and it would appear theres big bucks in it even though it seems something from the 1970/80's

He's the only fella I can think of who can afford to lose 50-100k without worrying

Cookie reminds me of a lesser talented version of Mike Lee, Mike was never the same on his comeback 1985 onwards could bang in 15 one week whilst putting in 50% effort and then struggle to get above six for the next three meeting whilst missing meetings he didn't fancy. Agreed Cook if his head is right could still more than do a job in this league but it really is last knockings for him to put a proper shift in if he decides to comeback.

I seem to remember that now Triple H , Einar was pretty bad and how he didn't kill himself on the bike lord knows as he seemed to have a big smash every other week. I think that 15 point max got him over the six point average that was required at the time to come back the following year, me and my mate were hoping he would fall below six so Martin Rogers would be forced to go with someone new rather than the same old faces who fitted the budget but were generally 4-5 point men and none showing signs of getting better. Richard Knight used to be unbeatable when he came with Ippo but he turned into a seven point man at Lynn I think in hindsight it was just that we were so bad for 3-4 years we made Knighty look a lot better than he really was. I also remember Steve Redgeling starting to make progress then in one meeting (poss Oxford on a bank holiday) he was leading and both his front forks collapsed leading to one hell of a pile up, after that he never really went onto the next rung of the ladder which given the severity of the pile up was understandable.

I'm beginning to think someone running the mythical sixth team out of Oxford is looking the most likely outcome, maybe under Swindon name possibly, The Oxford stadium owner gets some money in which helps his situation, the other five promoters have to pay in 10-15k each to cover part of the expected losses. All they need now is to find a lamb to sacrafice that has 50-100k in its sheep coats ready for burning and its all systems go, the only other loser I can see would be Courtney given it seems speedway fatigue set in last season with fans not wanting to pony up to watch three teams.

Crazy prices for Speedway the last meeting I went to was a fair few years ago but was a world team cup qualifying round at Lynn, Hamill came back to help the USA out so I mainly went to see him one last time, it was £15 a head and there must have been north of five thousand there with a great atmosphere. I can't remember the year but £15 to £200 over possibly a decade is bonkers.

Plus don't forget Mike those polish tracks are like carpets compared to the pot holed ridden tracks in the UK.

Your normally on the money Phil but I'm hoping your wrong on this one.

If Flagrag is lurking do you have any updates your able to share as to whats going on behind the scenes good or bad ?

I think it was longer ago than that Mike in my view it started when Penhall retired, then Lee went off the rails, followed by the sad losses of Carter and Sanders in fairly short succession you had four of the biggest names gone in a few years and it just seemed to be the start of the downhill slide. I was speaking to one of my oldest friends the other day and we were talking about the year when Lynn had Bob Schwartz leading us and I don't think we won a match all year as we were so weak but like now no help was given to strengthen up. New greats did appear in Crump and T Rick and the Sky millions as we all know that was the golden opportunity to reset and stop the rot but was wasted by the short sightedness of those at the top who thought the golden goose would last forever and the number one's at the time hoovering the trough clean and once said trough was empty most left the UK for the new full trough of Poland. I would love to see a new crop of young Americans come through in the Penhall, Moran's. King, Hancock and Hamill mould the test match's against the USA were brilliant back in the day but sadly other than Steve Evans efforts the USA are in an even worse place than us which really does take some effort to achieve.

Don't think you will find to many crowing over Laguta in the UK Dean.

Also think there's merit in trying to forge stronger ties with Aus and the USA to try and help them get more youngsters set up they could send our way later, agree its probably to late with the Dane's and Swedes now as most of their better younger riders just skip the UK and head straight to Poland and with better money and easier logistics its easy to see why.

Keep near your phone this afternoon Dean I've heard you might be getting a call later about the size of your back garden and if its big enough to fit an Plymouth sized track in the back of it.

Nothing I can argue with there Bob as you say 600 houses or 2k per week, local council will be on board as its nother 600 lots of council tax probably in bands D to F. Didn't someone say at the Stars winter meet up that Buster mentioned Prem promoters probably having to put a bung in each to keep the top league going maybe they are going to offer Oxford 50-60k to go one more season. Like most on here I can't think of a defunct track that is remotely likely to be in a position to come back , I'm not in the loop these days other than what I read on here but is there any prospects with Kent seem to remember when Len ran it crowds were decent but possibly it fell apart when owner wanted big increase in the rent ? I can't really see any other championship side running two teams, unless say Terry Russell ran Swindon out of Oxford for a year before relaunching closer to Swindon he could afford to take a 50-100k loss on the chin maybe less if the other promoters subsidised part of the losses for a year.

Is anything happening at Arena Essex or has that been flattened for housing also ?

I think we just have to accept the days when 90% of the big guns rode here are gone, however it would be worth having a push on the SGP2 lads there are some great riders coming through the ranks and they may be tempted to the UK for 2-3 years to learn the different types of tracks over here whilst they try and work their way to the top.

I'm getting muddled in my old age Bagpuss so the Jubilee cup is still as big a myth as bigfoot and ufo's ?