MattK

If you were asked to step up and fill your bosses job - would you expect to be paid the same as your boss was paid? If you're also told you can no longer do your evening job, would you want more than what your boss was being paid?

So more doubling-up equally higher crowds?

With Woffinden and Dudek on their roster, they won't be too worried.

There are 22 weeks from April to August. With 14 home meetings (assuming eight teams) and seven away meetings (assuming an even distribution of teams between race nights) clubs would be able to have a home meetings most weeks with only seven gaps over the course of a season. As long as the gaps are evenly spread out, it should result in no more than a fortnight between home meetings.

Do Wolves have dogs on a Monday as well as speedway?

Top riders have previously stated they don't want to ride in Britain on a Monday, as they like to travel directly from Poland to Sweden. It also makes sense for the nights to be consecutive to save on travel costs. For me, Wednesday and Thursday seems to be the best fit.

I agree about Hancock, but not Holder. He scraped into the series by virtue of finishing eighth last year and this year looks like finishing lower. I don't see how that deserves a wildcard. As for the others, I'd like to see a bit of variety. In terms of strength I don't think there is much between Lindback, Pawlicki (who I think will finish 8th), Lebedevs, Milik, Kildemand, Madsen and Thorssell. You're correct, there is no disgrace in finishing 9th or 10th with the strength of the current field, but with so many capable riders knocking on the door I don't think current GP riders should get priority over wildcards.

I don't like the idea of riders who raced the whole series and finished outside of the top 8 being given a wildcard. I'd rather see Lebedevs, Milik, Kildemand or even Madsen or Thorrsell than Holder, Vaculik, Zagar etc.

As I said before, we go back to how it was, when quality foreign riders such as David Lampart, Krzysztof Stojanowski, Sergey Darkin and Manuel Hauzinger graced our leagues. It seems some people would rather see journeyman foreigners making up teams, rather than riders committed to British speedway making a living.

When doubling-up was limited we had a lot more journeyman foreign riders. I remember plenty of riders at Swindon who rode for a season or less, David Lampart, Krzysztof Stojanowski, Sergey Darkin, Manuel Hauzinger and I'm sure more I've forgotten.

Yes, but there aren't dozens of riders sat on the sidelines unable to ride due to lack of available spaces.

Isn't half the reason we have doubling-up in order to allow riders to commit to British speedway by offering them enough meetings to make a living? If you remove doubling-up, by having one big league, you are effectively halving the number of meetings and therefore making rider MORE dependent on racing in foreign leagues?

I'd say lack of ambition. You only have to look at the number of Australian's in the Ekstraliga (five if you discount Schlein who's only ridden once), compared to a single Brit.

Paul Starke is riding in place of Jake Allen, who is injured.

I don't agree. Fans don't care that a rider races for two clubs. Find me a single Swindon fan who thinks Nick Morris is less of a Swindon rider now he doubles-up for Berwick, for example. What fans dislike is riders missing due to their doubling-up commitments. The solution to this isn't to ban doubling-up, it is to have better fixture planning and ideally fixed race nights.

Newcastle had a rather sarcastic segment about it in their programme yesterday.

No. Firstly, I don't believe that doubling-up as it stands does reduce openings for youngsters. Look at how many of the National League riders are currently riding in at least one other league. How many NL or Championship youngsters have the ability, but cannot get a ride in a higher league? Secondly, people say they want riders who are committed to racing in Britain. If that is the case then British speedway has to offer said riders the opportunity to make a decent living. British speedway does not exist in a bubble. If riders can't make it pay then they will look to other league to supplement their income. You can't ask for commitment and then tell them to be a postman in their spare time. Yes there is currently a problem with riders missing meeting due to clashes between their clubs. However this should be solved with better fixture planning, not by scrapping the concept of doubling-up.

So where do you draw the line? Do you ban riders from racing in the World Cup, as both Workington and Newcastle rode without their heatleaders during SWC week?

Precisely. So we have a choice. Accept the position we are in, the third choice (behind Poland and Sweden) country for league racing and compromise to make the best of it or stubbornly persevere with the view that we can arrange fixtures whenever we choose and everyone else falls in line. Given that we are currently pursuing the "stubbornly persevere" route, which in turn causes countless rider clashes (ironically, most are between the Premiership and Championship teams, rather than Britain and other nations), maybe we should try the compromise approach?

We already have Sweden on a Tuesday, Denmark on a Wednesday, GPs (and qualifiers), SEC, Pairs and other assorted meetings on a Saturday and Poland on a Sunday, with as BV52 says increasing number of Polish fixtures on a Friday. Unless Britain puts a stake in the ground and says "these are our nights" we will simply have to accept British speedway getting squeezed from all sides.

Or, we could avoid arranging fixtures on a Sunday, which is when the vast majority of Polish fixtures are held. It's not rocket science.

I don't think they are lying, but i think there is a strong case of "head in the sand" and "we've always done it this way and we're not changing" which plagues British speedway.

There are also houses right up to the current pits (on the left) so much so the away pit was demolished to allow a house to be built.

Other countries have fixed race nights, therefore it is easier for us to work around them, rather than the other way around. As for losing money, I find it hard to believe that Rye House/Leicester running on a night when half the riders are missing due to GPs, SEC, doubling-up and other assorted reasons doesn't cost them more than moving to a regular race night of Wednesday/Thursday.

Polish clubs ask for a commitment once a rider has signed to a team. If the Polish club "drops" the rider, then they are under no obligation to that club. You are proposing a rider commits to a 6-8 year long contract prioritising British speedway, without any clubs offering a similar commitment to employ that rider over the period of the contract.