Ben91

The trouble is, self interest and short sightedness sees promoters doing the best for their own businesses and killing their competition off at the same time. Then all of a sudden they have no opponents to race and their business dies too. Guesting is as bad an evil as doubling up. But doubling up is a huge cause of the “lack of riders,” which isn’t true by the way. There just aren’t enough riders of the standard British Speedway tries to run at. Why? Because the existing riders are taking up all the team spots, so there are fewer left for up and coming riders to fill and develop in. The team element of speedway makes it unique to other motorsports. That should be embraced, not scrapped. In any other sport you can’t be a full time professional unless you are very good at your sport. That isn’t the case with Speedway and it is a huge problem on multiple levels. If you want to ride you should be prepared to pay your way and invest and graft until you reach a level where you can turn it into your profession. Otherwise if you need an outside job to help fund your hobby then so be it. If a rule was put in place in the winter where riders were allowed one club only then they’d have to cope with it and long term it would help the sport massively. But nobody has the bollocks to do anything for the greater good, only for their own short term benefit, all the while the cancer spreads.

Promoters are to blame solely. But they have put a system in place that gives riders far too much power to the detriment of the sport overall. Namely excessive doubling up. It really can’t be overstated how Mickey Mouse it is for a rider to be riding for two clubs in one country. It’s not the only evil in the sport here but it’s a bloody big problem. Maybe even the first one that needs eradicating. But it will never happen.

Simple answer: no. Speedway people always seem to treat TV coverage as free advertising. The truth is you’re only tuning in to Speedway if you’re a Speedway fan. For this also read advertising Speedway in the Speedway Star. Preaching to the converted. Over the last decade the sport has gone from being on the biggest sports network to the second on a (rumoured) worse deal to now an even smaller network on a (again rumoured) even worse deal. And before anyone says it, Eurosport is behind Sky and BT (now TNT) in the pecking order in the UK. The sport needs to work on becoming a better product that TV stations want to cover rather than hoping someone comes along with a sack of gold to buy a load of turd with.

There seems to be a misconception that Poland can do no wrong when it comes to promoting and running the sport. Here’s a strong piece of evidence to the contrary. The sport is on the decline everywhere but Poland do it better than anyone at the moment. That doesn’t mean it couldn’t be done better there still too.

The play-offs should be starting at the beginning of September and for the top four teams only. Or better yet, the top team should be crowned league champions after all fixtures are completed. Six teams qualifying for the play-offs in a nine team league is ridiculous. Only just pipped in the stupidity stakes by four of the seven Premiership sides qualifying for the play-offs in that league. The current system almost renders most of the racing pointless across the season as everyone gets a medal for competing. And you have a situation where a team deep in the bottom half of the table can somehow be crowned champions.

Probably not. They’d just have to make sure they’re good enough to make the sport pay. Can’t be persisting with rules that are killing the sport here because a few riders’ noses may be put out of joint.

No issue with Glasgow making a signing the rules allow them to make but this is beyond the pale in terms of ridiculousness. The bloke has the same assessed average in both leagues. Stupid. British Speedway strikes again.

Arguably if you’re a professional athlete with aspirations to be at the sharp end of the game you shouldn’t be out on the lash at any point during the season. There’s a long old off season to get drunk if you so wish.

Time for riders to double up with outside jobs rather than with two clubs. Doubling up is bad for the sport, good for the riders. Things should be done for the good of the sport. In most other motorsports only the very elite competitors are lucky enough to race as their full time profession. Most speedway riders seem to expect a full time living from the sport even if they’re second tier, second string plodders or worse.

That’s fair. I did wonder if there was an underlying reason. Let’s hope he can emulate Dan in the future too.

The hype around Boughen seems huge compared to the likes of Kemp and Palin who had better first seasons in the NL in the not too distant past.

It’s because his average is more than two years old I believe. Same applies to Tai at Sheffield for example.

The most basic rule of team building is to try sign riders who will improve their starting average. I remember Rye House receiving many tonkings at Berwick over the years. Even our championship winning sides struggled with the place. One year (must have been 2009) we arrived early and spoke to Chris Neath in the pits where he said something along the lines of hating the place but the track looked alright from what he’d seen that night. He proceeded to have his best night ever at Shielfield.

No doubt about it. Quite possibly the best to ever throw their leg over a speedway bike.

I’ve heard of hedging your bets before but this is extreme… I’ll get my coat.

I don’t think it does. Honesty is always the best policy. If you’re being honest then there’s no need to sugar the pill.

The best way to make a point is to get to the point generally.

If the sport wants to honour him then it should give him a proper memorial meeting. Not stick his name on a cup final from last year that didn’t get completed in a half-assed gesture.

Such is life as a professional sportsperson. As someone who is very vocal about what he does to help promote British speedway you’d expect him to turn up for this or make a press release explaining why he’s absent. Even if he had to do it once a year to stop the gossiping it would make his life easier I’m sure. Personally I’m disappointed we won’t get to see Tai or Robert Lambert as it would make for a real contest for the title with Dan Bewley. But I don’t hold it against them for not competing. It’s a rare occurrence for Britain to have three truly world class riders these days, to have them battling it out for the national title at the best track in the country would be something to savour though.

Have Russia got a Queen lurking somewhere? The Grand Prix wouldn’t have her so her options are limited, she might have no choice but to come here. Royalists will herald it as a return to power for the monarchy.

It’s a shame Tai and Rob Lambert don’t show up for this event. I’m even slightly saddened to not see Scott Nicholls having a go, it’s the national title after all. There’s nothing appealing about the meeting tonight for me and that is a shame. Bewley should walk it if he doesn’t suffer a misfortune of some sort and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Think it’ll be the Man United v Wolves game on the other side for me.

Rumours at Buck House are that she passed away from boredom over the delay in completing the Jubilee Shield.

That would be very Speedway. How shall we get it done in a way to stop people complaining? We’ll stick a dead man’s name on the trophy.

For next season he is having a personalised race suit made for every team so he fits in while guesting. He will also be using a revolutionary colour changing crash helmet so he can ride for both teams in the same meeting. The colour the helmet is when he crosses the line will decide which team he scores his points for in that heat.

I’m off on a tangent here, apologies. There isn’t a lack of riders. There is a lack of riders of the standard the sport tries to run at in Britain. The doubling up free for all has only magnified that and made it worse over the last decade or so. The rules are to blame. As it is, there are likely to be a fair few less teams running next season. That means one league should be put in place eradicating the bad type of doubling up (between Premiership and Championship). Smaller teams are not the answer. It would result in a similar over saturation of the same riders as all this doubling up has. We also have to find a system that removes guests from the sport here.