Aries

Under current rules Jenkins would get the 25% reduction for exiting the rising star scheme. Could change at the AGM of course. If it doesn’t, makes sense to use that to our advantage and have him at 6, leaving more scope for the top five.

Brennan is nailed on and so he should be IMO.

If the 36 limit is true, even Doyle and Brennan as a top two would be pushing it, let alone adding Bewley.

Maybe Fricke is off to a new entry to the league..

Ellis seems really popular behind the scenes as well. Nice words from Louis there. Wouldn’t be at all surprised if he was kept on too.

Not a huge fan myself I have to agree.

Nobody would get remotely close to them at the NSS with that side.

I’d usually agree, but a move back there might relight his fire. From memory, he was fast around there when he rode for them and would be on a decent average.

No he isn’t, and yes it is. I’m sorry Bagpuss I’m not trying to be argumentative here for the sake of it, but of course it’s to do with Money! Chapman could have more money than Elon Musk, I never said Chapman wasn’t wealthy. But his personal wealth is completely irrelevant to the point I was making. Does Jason Doyle still live in Norfolk? The fact of the matter is that if Lynn offered a better deal to Doyle than Ipswich then Doyle would be riding for Kings Lynn. It’s quite clear that no matter how much money Keith Chapman has, it means very little if he isn’t prepared to compete for the top riders. That of course is his prerogative, he sets a budget to build a team every year and that budget doesn’t seem to stretch to paying for a Doyle/Bewley/Emil etc. Now that IS all financially relative isn’t it? We’re in danger of veering away from my original point here which wasn’t to do with Keith Chapman’s personal wealth. If the top three are going to be forced in to not re-signing one of their heatleaders to allow Lynn and others the opportunity to sign them, are those clubs going to offer the top money that these riders will still demand? I personally have my doubts but time will tell on that one. In an ideal world, every club would have the same financial clout OR, willing to invest more of their personal wealth to compete but unfortunately that’s just not reality. As I said before, there will always be the have’s and have not’s and that’s not restricted to Speedway, it’s all sports. The Championship is no different. Would you bet against next years play off final being contested by Poole and Glasgow again? I wouldn’t. You can bring in points limits and different rules to try and make things as equal as possible, but there will always be in demand riders on bargain averages that will always be snapped up by those with better resources who will stay one step ahead of the competition. With all due respect to them, the likes of Scunthorpe under Godfrey who builds his teams to a tight budget, are just there to make up the numbers. It’s just the way it is I’m afraid. ALL the heatleaders have now been “freed up” Bagpuss. Every top heatleader that rode here this year, and want to ride here next year, are now available to Keith Chapman and anyone else who wants to sign them. If finance isn’t an issue as you and StarBoy have said, then Lynn don’t have any excuse not to sign one of them do they? Outbid the top three and you’ll bag one of them. We’re going around in circles here. It’s not so much “freeing” up riders for others, it’s a question of if those other clubs can afford them and/or are willing to pay for them. If they can, then fair enough I’m not against bringing in rules to help spread the top riders around. My concern is that they bring in a rule that prevents the clubs that CAN afford to sign them, from doing so, and those riders are then lost to British speedway because they’re not happy with the lower terms offered by others.

I’m sorry but I disagree. Money clearly IS an issue, otherwise you wouldn’t be left picking up the scraps every single year. Chris Louis won’t be dictated by unreasonable demands either and Kenyan Rew is a perfect example. Rew was in the plans last winter, But Rew got a better offer from Birmingham which Louis wasn’t prepared to match. That’s common knowledge. Fair play to Rew, every rider will go where the best deals are. There’s a very small pool of riders that ride here that are genuine world class. Forget all the noise that comes from riders about “this is the only place I wanted to come to” nonsense. Fact is every meeting could be a riders last and they’ll go where the best deal is, quite rightly. Chapman clearly won’t get involved in competing for the world class riders that others are prepared to do. You’re a Lynn fan so maybe you see it from a biased point of view, but from an outsider, Chapman does the bare minimum every year to get through another season. So my point still stands. If the top three are forced not to sign one of their big hitters, what will be Chapman’s strategy? Will he suddenly decide to pay what the riders are looking for (if he is why doesn’t he do that to begin with?) or will he sit and wait for the riders to lower their demands and just accept what he’s prepared to pay as it’s their only option? If he’s banking on the latter, he’ll be disappointed. Those riders will just concentrate on Poland and Sweden.

Was going to say something similar! What a weird take. You get your points limit and then every club then builds the best team that they can within that limit and within their budget. It’s not the fault of those three clubs mentioned that the budget of some clubs doesn’t enable them to secure the signatures of certain riders. If those three clubs each don’t sign one of their heatleaders, that doesn’t necessarily mean that an Oxford or Kings Lynn would suddenly be able to afford to pick them up! The reality is that those riders would likely give UK a miss and our league would be worse for it. I’m afraid you’re always going to have the have’s and have not’s which is why I’m not convinced on the rumour of one rider per team over 8.00. If Belle Vue for example have to choose between Kurtz or Bewley, would the one who didn’t get a place at the NSS next year just accept a lesser deal elsewhere because that’s the only offer in town?? I’m not sure they would.

The Rowe Motor Oil Premiership and the Cab Ditect Championship are to operate as separate entities. The activists have come to preliminary agreements and at AGM we are to know the final version of the order in the UK for the 2026 season. With each club on British soil that was declining, fans began to wonder about the meaning of the two leagues. The departure of the Birmingham Brummies and Oxford Spires means that next season the Rowe Motor Oil Premiership will not be able to gather more than five teams. Of course, sudden changes in the plans of the promoters and the persuasion of some centers must be taken into account, but the league seems closed. Driving in such a small group is no fight, especially for many clubs in the Cab Direct Championship. There, however, the situation is very different, and most resorts cannot afford to ride in the Premiership. Especially when their current teams rely mainly on players who compete in both leagues. However, the plan to combine the games goes into the background. It will not be without changes If nothing extraordinary happens, the British speedway will remain in the current stage of play. The 2026 season will be played on three levels and, above all, there will be changes in building the squad. Activists work on the transfer market to stay back and build a team worthy of fighting for the championship. We know that the Ipswich Witches, Leicester Lions, Sheffield Tigers, Belle Vue Aces and King's Lynn Stars will remain in the Premiership. Sheffield Tigers are primarily waiting for a new owner, and without it the club will not move next year. The league seems to be cut and even a double basic phase will be of no use. Certainly, the KSM limit is to be changed so that the players can spread out throughout the league. Most likely there will be another reduction, so that the duo of Belle Vue Aces Daniel Bewley and Brady Kurtz may be separated. The Cab Direct Championship does not promise to be many changes, possibly in terms of a greater bet on young Britons. The Mildenhall resort, which is set as the favorite to return to the Championship step, is about to determine its future. Upcoming limits However, there is no denying that the British speedway is facing further regulatory problems. According to the regulations described in the Club Membership Regulations, from the 2027 season, players competing in Poland will be able to choose one foreign league. The question remains, what will the current stars of the Rowe Motor Oil Premiership choose? Will some go to Sweden to race with names, or maybe they will stay in British structures. One thing is known - promoters must start thinking much earlier than a few months before the start of the 2027 season. https://speedwaynews.pl/zuzel/zaskakujace-doniesienia-jednak-nie-dojdzie-do-rewolucji/

Ah missed Leicester you’re correct. Maybe we’ll see it in the top division too then. We’ll see.

Seems to be a closely guarded secret! We can only guess by looking at previous years. Last year the AGM concluded on November 14th so you’d assume it’ll be around the same this year.

But they wouldn’t have done. The only way Jenkins would have gotten in at Ipswich this year was at rising star. You say “that’s life” which of course is your prerogative and opinion, but I’m pretty sure nobody else would have picked him as a senior reserve at number six either so a young Brit would end up missing an opportunity if he’d “opted out” of the scheme. The whole idea to start with was to help these young Brits. The flip side to that I guess would be that someone else on the list would have gotten an opportunity instead. A staggered pick based on league positions from a totally different season was a really poor idea in the first place so lord above knows why they came out with it. Worth remembering also that all signings made including rising stars are “subject to ratification by the BSPL” so if indeed there wasn’t any priority picks and they were all content to let everyone choose who they wanted, then why bother announcing that rule to start with? 🤷🏼‍♂️

Rumour on the Championship threads that they’ll have a rule next year of one rider over 8.00 per team to help spread the number 1’s around. Wonder if we’ll see the same in the Premiership? actually after looking at the green sheets there’s only one team (Belle Vue) that have two riders over 8.00 so it would be a bit pointless. If that rule was brought in then Belle Vue would rightly feel a bit aggrieved and targeted.

All the focus seems to be on Jenkins when it comes to the rising star “picks” for some reason. Nobody has ever mentioned Leon Flint! Ipswich actually finished fourth, But Sheffield finished first so had the “last pick”, and yet arguably picked up the strongest rising star of them all! Let’s be honest here. Are we to believe that Birmingham, King’s Lynn and Oxford, all made their picks and left the two strongest rising stars on the shelf? The Lynn fans on here and there were a few of them, said that Rob Lyon was very open at one of their end of season’s meetings, that they wanted Jenkins as rising star, or failing that, Flint was also of heavy interest seeing as they were the two strongest rising stars. He was apparently confident of getting one of them as Lynn had one of the first “picks”. They ended up with neither!!

Remember it well! Incredible performance.

I’m still a bit miffed we never managed to get Shields in at Foxhall! For someone who rode our track so so well it’s always puzzled me how that move never happened.

This is why it’s difficult for them to agree on any concrete rules and regulations on league structures for 2026 until they know what (if any) TV revenue will be incoming. It’s not ideal to say the least. Fingers crossed a TV partner comes forward from somewhere so they know where they stand and can crack on with the set up for next year with certainty. As it stands, they must be planning with two different strategies.

Don’t even know where to start with that. Yeah, let’s just agree to disagree and we’ll leave it at that.

Of course anyone that is picked doesn’t have to accept it that’s a given. I think that’s unlikely however. The financials and the chance to ride with world class riders would be too tempting to turn down. It also doesn’t matter how much Louis would want him unless he signed him at number six which wouldn’t happen. If Ipswich give up their retention of Edwards, they’d have to sit and wait for their pick and I’m sure someone would go for Rushen before Ipswich got their chance. Unless Cooper did what Jenkins did last year, reject the advances of other clubs that picked them first and then accept Ipswich’ offer when it’s their turn! Another reason why this rising star scheme doesn’t work and is a total nonsense. No rider should be forced to ride where they’re told, that should NEVER have been the case and good on Jenkins for sticking to his guns and riding where he wanted. Scrap it.

But you’ve been a big advocate of the rising star system in the Premiership and you’ve just highlighted one of the major flaws. We disagreed on this topic right from the beginning. Cooper will turn 16 by the time the season starts and so will be on the list IF it remains. Someone will pick him and the concerns you’ve just raised will become valid. There is such a disparity between the riders on the rising star list that makes the whole thing a farcical nonsense. It becomes even more farcical that clubs end up being FORCED to include a rider that they don’t particularly want because after everyone else has had their pick, there’s bugger all left except cannon fodder! You're gonna get one or two clubs that will pick up a ringer that will give them an immediate advantage before a wheel has been turned, and a couple that will have to accept a Sam Hagon or Joe Thompson (with the greatest of respect) that could end up costing that club a league title! The rising star list is actually quite extensive if you look at it. But the vast majority of them shouldn’t even be on there. You wouldn’t take a bet on most of them even getting around for four laps! There’s a very small pool of riders that would even be in the hunt for a single point, but even then there’s a disparity between your Flints, Edwards’ and Mulford’s to your Hagon’s and J Thompson’s. Chuck this rising star balls in the bin. Settle on a points limit, and let every club sign any seven riders they like to fit in to that points limit.