*JJ

I'm not sure what you mean here? I was replying to someone who criticised me for not driving all the way to Berwick or Edinburgh for a rider to practice. I was over 70 at the time.

Probably the 'security' men employed by the stadium, who confiscated food and drink, and searched your bags to see if you were smuggling any in ... they (all 10 of them!) were nothing to do with the speedway promotion. After a couple of times, I just ignored them on entry. Hopefully, we wont have them next year if the Brummies go ahead.

Well, I bet that he wasn't travelling in a pensioner's car!

This is true.

No, too far. Edinburgh is about 350 miles from here! Plymouth, at over 200 miles, was far enough in one day, certainly at my age.

The promotions of 'major clubs' don't care about training; everybody knows that speedway riders come from Denmark and Poland! My experience was that training schools, amateur racing and Development League (ie MDL/SDL) teams were run by fans and enthusiasts who were barely tolerated by the official promoters; which is why they are struggling, and it is difficult to start riding.

Why not?

Yes indeed, Wayne Carter was excellent, but he seemed to be one of the few. Andrew Silver was helpful, as well, but generally speaking, the rider stood in a queue until it was time to go out on track and find out how to ride by himself. We live in Birmingham: Scunthorpe, Kings Lynn and Rye House are about 120 miles away ... Leicester is only about 60, but it was annoying that the Birmingham promotion had no interest in training whatever.

Not actually true. I spent 5 years driving a would-be speedway rider around. We had to go half way across the country to get a few rides - there was no or very little coaching - which was very annoying when there was a speedway track only two miles down the road! Too many tracks are in greyhound stadiums which allow speedway only once a week.

Why did you put an apostrophe in his name?

And I remember once at Birmingham, a thick rope was used for the same reason. The riders fought and struggled to get their bikes back over the rope in order to do their gardening and jumping ... All of these shifts will only work if the riders are forced to co-operate with them, by being disqualified if necessary.

The point is, I suspect, that someone is trying to pursuade the previous owners that something which they think is worth £68,000 is basically worthless. We don't need to start panicking just yet ... IIRC, the planning permission stated that if speedway is to finish, the stadium has to be returned to its original form. This is likely to be very expensive; who will have to pay for it?

I would say that yes, he does draw in the fans. And he has been scoring very well this year, beating some top opposition riders. The fact that he was still at reserve is a fluke of the average system, not of his usefulness.

And the reason for this is the destruction of the Midland Development League and the Southern Development League, which were essential in the development of new riders. Very few can go directly into the National League; many can't make it that far.

If you mean Paco, he is not 'second rate', he is very popular, and valuable to the Brummies.

If you had heard his voice over the PA last meeting, you wouldn't have questioned his flu.

No he isn't.

If you didn't attend, how do you know what are 'facts'? If you don't attend, why are you always boring the rest of us with your stupid comments?

Stop talking sense, Brian: this is BSF, you know!

Yes, but he only rode a couple of matches, and the promoter didn't pay him (like everything & everyone else) so he lost interest.

It was upwards of half a ton of scrap metal. The same type of person who vandalised the Birmingham track equipment, or who steal church roofs.

Yes, we would have let them have Stephen Whitehouse!

The obvious guilty party being Poole, who signed the World Champion for the play offs in 2013 ...

He was just making excuses. The 'extra track work' which was carried out was just a few passes with the usual grader. As for Stef couldn't turn the bike: everyone else could do it. He actually ran into Grobauer trying to overtake.

He was injured last night.