IainB

Wasn't he taken to hospital in a shopping trolley?

It sounds to me that this case is more based around bullying rather than racism but the focus has turned to the racist element. Bullying goes on in all walks of life, I have come across it in the past and called it out when I could see that a deaf woman I was working with was being bullied. Work place bullying is prevalent and probably more so in sports clubs where there will be a less diverse set of "team" members. I've read about Geoffrey Boycott being tied naked to a chair by Ian Botham and you only have to listen to some of the stories that Andrew Flintoff tells and see the way he acts with other people to see that the guy is just a bully and in a competitive environment of Alpha males it does need somebody to call it out and eliminate it. A worrying aspect of this is it's trial by media, it's a he said vs he said case, there is no evidence (as yet) other than those that have admitted what they have done and said. Look at the Harvey Weinstein case, no evidence ever produced just she said vs he said. Prince Andrew, not convicted of anything (admittedly due to him avoiding answering the accusations) but now he's openly being called a paedo on TV comedy shows. Jussie Smollet made allegations was instantly believed by all and sundry in the media until it was proved he was a fake.

I signed up to Discovery+ this time last year as a freebie from Sky. I've just had an email from Sky telling me that as a Sky VIP customer I'll be getting it free again for the next year... Result!

What would Tobiasz Musielak's CL average be?

Taylor Lanning's got to pay for that camera he's dropped! Just a personal opinion but the montage looks a bit of a mess to me

I read that and thought the same, but to be fair it did say "traditional" AGM

Business as usual...

I did look at buying some merchandise to wear when attending the SoN, it was sold out then, I didn't comment on it but am now... so you can make that 4

That's not really an incentive though, that's just chance. If you are guaranteed a point for finishing the race, that's incentive to do 4 laps.

It all got too much for him I think after a spell with Coventry, which is a shame as I remember him pulling off a hell of a ride in the final heat of the reopening match to secure a draw. For me there isn't a rider in the modern era that I associate with Leicester, probably because they've chopped and changed leagues so much. Hopefully, if they stick with Speedway, don't get binned off and don't become too good the twins will be those riders

Les Collins? John Titman?

But you get 0 for last at the moment, no incentive to keep going when you're at the back.

Has Speedway always used the 3,2,1,0 heat scoring system in team matches? It has for as long as I can remember. We had the dreaded double points for a few seasons and thankfully that is just a bad memory now. Would a 6,4,2,1 scoring system not be a more radical scoring system? There would be a bigger incentive for riders to achieve a better result, I suppose you could have some run away wins with this system though if a team scored a succession of 10-3's! 5,3,2,1 would incentivise heat winners. I do think that riders finishing last should be awarded a point though. Obviously it's not something that's going to save Speedway but it always annoys me when I see a rider just quitting at the back and pulling onto the infield, Nick Pedersen always used to be one for this.

It's a very big subject and there is no single thing that can be done to fix everything but to do nothing is not an option. Every owner of a club must be applauded for getting through this season as nobody could realistically have seen Covid coming and nobody knew what the crowd numbers would be like coming out of lockdowns... BUT, I still think much could be done to actually promote the sport which just doesn't seem to be happening at the moment. I can only speak for Leicester, but I live local to the track and you would not know anything was going on in the city as regards to Speedway other than an advert I see on the side of a bus. There's a shopping centre within a few hundred feet of the arena with a massive foot fall, yet I have never seen anything promoting Leicester Speedway in there. Why isn't there a rider and machine displaying there on match day giving away discounted tickets? It's really simple things like this that just aren't being done. Also when were you last attracted to a match to see "rider x"? Since all of the "stars" have left British Speedway I can't recall ever thinking to myself "I must go to the Speedway tonight to see..." whoever, probably the last time I thought that was Darcy Ward in 2015. And now it seems that any star that is produced works their way to the top and then out of the sport in this country. If you're not going to have star riders to attract crowds then all you have are teams and at the moment they just aren't credible. I would be more than happy to watch even weaker teams than we have at the moment as long as they are credible, if that means watering down the league then so be it. The fans should have a voice somewhere, especially regarding the race night experience, if the first you know about fans not being happy is them not attending then it's too late. I could go on... but it's all bee said before.

There's now 3 live threads for Oxford... more virulent than Covid!

I fear for Birmingham then now he has left

Looks like the track is based on Poole's

Definitely... though the fact remains that ALL clubs in this country do not attract the numbers of people through the turnstiles to make their businesses profitable

Even though they've proved not to this very year?

If they did they would be running next season... but I get it, there were multiple reasons as to why many of these clubs have closed. Bottom line is that not enough people attend the sport

Not enough people attending

Yes they'll reap the financial rewards of running on an off race night in early November and then in the following season, if they're still in business, they can reap the rewards of winning the Championship by failing to ever mention it ever again to promote their business

I know what you mean and if the CL de-strengthens then I'm sure he could but as the strengths of the leagues converge then his BV average of 5.2 is pretty similar to his 5.3 at Berwick, therefore I'd say his average is an accurate reflection of his abilities... it's a no from me

Does Sweden even count as a league? A lot of riders hardly do what you'd call a full season over there with their squad system

Don't forget Peterborough are also up for sale along with KL... and who's going to buy that with the question marks over the EoEA And are the Manchester United of Speedway (in the 2nd division) still up for sale?