Grachan

I see football has announced plans to restrict the number of non EU players. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32024808 Can't help but wonder if this is part of the same issue being dressed up as an FA decision.

What a shame GB aren't taking part in this. I don't think we do ourselves any favours there. Alun Rossiter has publicy said he believes we should be in it, so who says we shouldn't? And why?

There were some good kiosks in the early day. Or, at least, as good as kiosks can get! I remember a big shop at the back of the back straight stand. Reading v Swindon was massive. Swindon used to fill the back straight and there wad a real tense atmosphere for those early matches. The stadium was never finished either. The home straight bars were put in as temporary and never got replaced. Went to Smallmead a lot and it became my nearest track when I moved to Newbury. I didn't attend the first match at Reading but was there for the second one, and even did the Reading reports for Speedway Mail for a couple of years. Speedway just isn't the same without Reading and Oxford.

Just looked this one up! It was a Charity meeting in aid of The Widows and Orphans of the Printers' Pension Corporation. If you know what that is then you're a better man than I! There were seven trophies, all of which were won on a knockout basis, and the meeting was repeated in the second half using handicaps. Winners were: Daily Mirror: Gote Nordin Daily Telegraph: Terry Betts ATV Sportsweek: Gote Nordin Thomson House: Anders Michanek News of the World: Gote Nordin Daily Express: Sverre Harrfeldt Daily Mail: Gote Nordin.

It should be 6.00. So many riders got over 5 without breaking sweat, but getting to 6 is a bit more difficult.

"a rider returning to the UK must have achieved an Elite League CMA of 6.25 or a Premier League CMA of 7.00" A bit of an imbalance there, surely?

You'd have thought so, wouldn't you. Maybe it's down to the BSPA not being qualified to act as a sponsor at this particular time?

You're your own worst enemy sometimes.

Dunno. I Googled it.

I assume you mean Nathan Greaves, particularly as he and Rosco had a bit of a fall out last year.

Just a standard check at the border I guess. If you have a visa for, say, Germany, it is also valid to go into France, Poland or any other Scehgen country. It won't, however, allow you into the UK. UK, Ireland, Bulgaria and Romania are not covered by a Schengen visa.

Poole beat King's Lynn fair and square in the play-offs. They were undisputed 2014 Elite League Champions. Thinking about it, I see no case for that to be reversed. I do think the league table should be altered and King's Lynn put a the top, with Darcy's points deducted from those matches. Not sure I agree with the decision to do that, but it was, nevertheless, made. No big deal though, because Poole were stil league champions. The first year I went to Speedway, Hull were bottom of the league and Oxford second from bottom. After the season, a Hull v Oxford result was altered and Oxford's position changed to bottom. It can happen.

He'd be daft if he did. He got a pretty short ban and can be back in action by June so what's the point. And it could be increased.

Didn't Poole pick King's Lynn in the semis? So it's actually quite a big deal. Can hardly sue Poole though. It's wasn't up to them to say Darcy Ward couldn't ride.

Britain has opted out of Schengen. So they would need a differnt visa for the UK than the rest of Europe. For example, someone from outside the EU could settle in, say, Germany and would have free visaless travel throughout the EU bar UK and Ireland. Someone from outside the EU who is settled in the UK needs a visa to travel anywhere in the EU. A visa for obtained for one schengen country would cover you for the entire area.

Why "no" to everything? If he gets a ban and serves it, then there's no reason why he shouldn't be given both. He's one of the best riders in the World and would improve the gate in Australia.

Some forums do have that. You can have "like", "dislike", "agree", "disagree", "funny", "informative" and so on. Quite a nice thing to have. I remember the old forums. Ah, them were the days! None of this muslim stuff then! The "happy birthday" threads were always a bit of a waste of time though. Just pages and pages of people posting "happy birthday". Not so interesting really.

I don't think any riders have been approved yet. Teams are still waiting for sponsorship certificates aren't they? With one or two excetions. Best wait and see who does get approved and who doesn't before deciding if there are any irregularities.

I read that Troy Bachelor was particularly disappointed with this visa issue as he was close to being able to apply for ILR. I think he said it was because he's been resident here for nearly 10 years. Having had his visa revoked, he may have to start the 10 year cycle all over again.

Get what?

Like you, I don't know the riders or their situations. With ILR you are free to work (as you are with FLR - further leave to remain) so he wouldn't need a work permit. The Leave to Remain would be your permit to work and your visa. If he is applying for ILR, then presumably he must already have some leave to remain here? If he doesn't, then he can't apply for ILR, but would need a spouse visa first - which lasts for 2.5 years. You need two of these before you can go for ILR. As you say, none of these are guaranteed as permanent. You can only spend 3 months out of the UK on each period of Leave to Remain. It would be interesting to know his exact situation with this. My own wife is from outside the EEC and we're currently going through the spouse process. The whole thing is not at all straight forward and you cannot automatically get it just by being married to a UK citizen.

He must, presumably, have some sort of residency then if he has a British wife? Presumably he could look into that?

He'd have to reside full time in the UK for 5 years before he could apply for ILR or British Citizenship, and his wife would need to earn over the 18,600 limit. You can't just become a British Citizen because you have a British husband or wife. If he chose to live in the UK as a spouse then he could ride here no problem, but they would have to live here permanently.

Love the idea of Poole not picking another rider so as to make it the FIM's problem because Poole won't be a good team. To be honest, though, I do think they could reach a verdict quicker. I don't see why they would need the whole 45 days and it does have an impact on the club, who just need to know what is happening. Is it possible that the lack of respect being shown to the FIM by those involved is meaning they are showing no inclination to hurry things up?

Helge Langley