YeOldPitGate

They need to take a leaf out of Rich Lawson's book when it comes to managing your average.

Does anyone know why the investors pulled out ? Given all the problems/loss of revenue/lack of teams with the top flight going into 2026, I would have imagined the only people interested would have to be massive fans of the sport who would shrug off losing 50-100k. I don't think the Bates are short of a few quid I guess it just comes down how much there willing to loose on the club in 2026 compared to previous years.

The only reason dad's army won that year is you had a group of previous top line riders but they were all at least a decade past their peak but were still good enough to pull it off as the quality of the league in general that year was probably the worst in top flight history.

Whilst handing out wads of tenners to bang average riders.

I guess it will come down to if he wants more than Shaun Moran used to get paid at the peak of his powers.

When you present it like that its hard to disagree.

I can't remember it but pretty sure Buster owned the stadium might have been the year after Waggy ran things for a season Bagpuss will probably know. Doh would help if I read to the bottom of the thread he has answered already.

Has anyone seen Harry around London kicking the doors in of big business searching for sponsors ?

I wouldn't have thought so but I think it will most likely be driven by Poland only and the one other league rule if it comes in rather than the top league promoters actually doing some forward planning that in a sensible world should be happening now.

I had forgotten about Handberg never hugely rated him but from memory didn't he finish third in 1992 world championship ? such a shame re Simon Cross as he was at the time really looking like a truly world class rider but then had a bad smash and was never the same afterwards.

You would have thought so or your in the position Tolley ended up in 2025 where your laying out top dollar for average riders on ever decreasing crowds and that's before you factor in your a nomad team on someone else's track or trying to build a brand in a town/city with no previous speedway following. If there is someone genuinely interested the sensible thing would be to park it and plan for 2027 with a view to helping them but given this is british speedway if they find someone who doesn't know any better they will be rushed in and then served up the scraps.

The new lot seem well funded so hopefully will get one top line rider on board, I just hope they don't make the same mistake as the fella who took over Rye House and put a load of riders on huge guarantees and then went bust at the end of the season.

With Northampton having the remaining scraps of the bones if they turn up.

It is sadly one of many more holes fast approaching Mike along with all the existing one's that are just patched over.

Probably started with Simmo , Jens Rasmussen and was it dear old Peter Shroek ?

Agreed I can remember I think it was Joe Owen who an 11 point man in the old national league being called on by the british league and he struggled at reserve in the top league the gulf back then between top men in division2 and 1 was massive when the likes of Havvy and Andrew Silver moved up it took them a while to get established and they were both super naturally talented riders.

Yes Ray was doing mostly second half's when I was going the stand outs were himself, Sean Wilson and Andy Phillips who was at Wolves. Martin Rogers heart was in the right place and he always tried to promote the team I can only assume he had a shoestring budget that's why it all looked so good when Simmo and Bill Barker took over we on paper had a powerhouse team of Lynn specialists there must have been 3k-4k at the first home meeting and I think it was us and Bradford who had the financial backing of the Ham brothers who were favourites. Six months later all the Lynn specialists other than Lance King who had a couple of bad knocks looked dire Bo Peterson went from unbeatable round Lynn to awful. I loved it when Bill was in charge he used to wander round selling raffle tickets and you could always nab him for a catch up and things did look promising for a while when we had Loram and Henka and the odd glimpse of the old Mike Lee.

If world titles were judged over the first three yards Bricey would have more titles than Bartoz he could outrap anyone the problem was most of the time he was on a flymo. Yep those teams during the mid 80's we would be in with a sniff then you would have a critical heat where it was Nielson and Wigg (virtually unbeatable at Lynn) v Brice and Einar

Who was stingray ?

Bonkers again and poor old Tolley stumped up, if he manages to get Cradley up and running he needs to get a good team around him and stop paying bang average riders wages that Emil and Kurtz would warrant.

I think it was later than that someone better informed than me commentated that they only won once which was Swindon away Einar got a 15 point max which meant he scraped above a six point average so Rogers could have him back in 1987, with all due respect to Einar I was hoping he wouldn't make the cut. We had a truly dreadful team that year we got Richard Knight who went from world beater at Lynn to seven point man which I think in hindsight for a few years prior to Richard's arrival we were so bad we made him look gp standard. Who remembers Kevin Brice he was pretty much nailed on for fourth place by the second bend but was the best trapper ever, I remember one meeting we were in with a shout against Cradley and it came down to the last heat and Brice out trapped Gunderson like he was standing still the crowd erupted but it was all over coming out of the second bend. Halcyon days still remember the mental lynn fan "nutter who would sink 10-15 pints in the bar come out every time Richard Knight was getting ready to race shout "Richard Knight " at 20 thou decibels you could have heard him in Glasgow and before tapes even went up he would be back in the bar he never watched a race all season. He was about 11- 12 stone but looked hard as nails but so long as you nodded approvingly to his Richard Knight war cry you were safe.

60% chance if five teams not bad odds.

He's just taken huge advantage of the promoters opening the doors to the double dip trough.

It is bonkers on the one hand you have to give credit that they are prepared to stump up and loose money to keep the tracks going in some cases serious sum's are burned through but equally you think as you highlight you could not decide to deal yourself a worse set of cards if you tried to make your product as unattractive to fans and sponsors alike as has been the case this year.

Might be cheaper to get Picko in.