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Just a quick update (from Facebook) from Starman's Mum, June - Mike has now been moved to ward c4 in Poole Hospital. She also thanks all BSF members for their good wishes.

All for less than £50 - marvellous

Well done!!!!! to you lot. I'm very proud of the Speedway fraternity. Some of you dish out some personal garbage, but when one of its own hits a bad time, everyone rallys around and for that, you've revived my faith in this Forum. Get well soon Starry and look forward to seeing you selling the STAR around Wimborne Road.

I think both Mick, and especially Sandhu, have more blame on their hands than Neil Watson.

I have learned this evening that Nigel 'NODDY' Fordham has sadly passed away. It appears that Noddy suffered a heart attack, then once in hospital had a massive stroke and sadly passed away. Most speedway fans will fondly remember Noddy, for his unique way of getting around the country and Europe for speedway meetings, covering thousands of miles by thumbing a lift and hitch hiking everywhere. I am still in a state of shock as Noddy was a good mate and stayed in touch, even after I had to leave my job at Foxhall many years ago. Noddy was a true speedway fan, in every sense, supporting riders from many clubs and countries, no matter what. I am going to miss you mate and may you rest in peace and look down on your coveted Witches from that great speedway track in the sky. R.I.P Noddy Jerry, Dee & JJ

Actually, I think he might be one of the best signings Peterborough make. I don't know the guy, but highly impressed with factual explanations on here and knowledgeable rule explanations. Wish him well, and he will be a good right hand man to Ged even if it's just to remind him of the rules.

Not sure if the new media company working on Matt Fords behalf is doing this but I have noticed that even in these dark depths of winter the club are putting out news on twitter and other social media on virtually a daily basis. Matt has never been one for the net so perhaps he is finally grasping the bull by the horns and starting to exploit its potential. Also hearing the pop up shop has been a huge success in the Dolphin Centre. I said years ago that the club should have a permanent presence in the high street. A well positioned cafe/bistro serving good quality drinks and food tied in with large screen tvs showing Poole speedway meetings from the last couple of years, and selling merch and tickets. A good meeting place for shoppers and putting Poole Speedway in front and center of Joes Publics eyes.

Many thanks for the warning !! - I will make a note in my diary not to tune in to that programme on 18 December

I think the amount of comments regarding this about sums it up. Mick Horton will not get a penny more out of my pocket, the man is a walking disaster and we will vote with our feet. I miss speedway, I miss Brandon but I have certain morals in life that when you are being taken for a complete idiot then I'm out. Why Mick Horton and Neil Watson actually think this is going to work is a little strange if the answer is that simple then please shed some light? It is clear as day the fans don't want this ! How is it financially viable and what is the minimum attendance to make it break even? It's on par with putting Donald Trump in charge of us, not a grip on reality and its not going to end well. Maybe its more on par with Blackadder and who has a cunning plan ?

At the end of the day it doesnt matter what you think of someone you wouldnt wish ill health on them. The guy isnt a murderer or a criminal, he just a bit out there with his posts. Hope he gets better soon. I was struck down with strep 'a' pneumonia in November 2013 and ended up in a coma for 4 weeks and my wife was told twice to come and say goodbye. But i got back to full health and hope the same for Starman. It was the time when my work colleagues changed my picture to Lily Savage and started a topic that speedway needed more corners! All done in jest but i left the Lily pic!

39 point limit will do nothing to put badly needed bums on seats ,and may rule out several promising riders that may not even get a team in the Championship

Sorry guys have reread the tweet and I wrongly assumed it was being aired on 18th, think it's being filmed then Big senior moment apologies

The press release says rider news will be released throughout January with the final two announced at the forum. Given all the fuss about Lynn press releases I do wonder sometimes why they bother as it seems folk don't read them

Very true Worky turned us over on a regular basis at Ashfield in the good old Stoney years. He was an absolute joy to watch in his prime around Glasgow , to be fair he was top drawer at most tracks was Stoney.

In a couple of threads I suggested that an easy way to produce assessed averages would be to I could do it in a couple of hours using data already in existence I'd use dolgin's rankings, starting by doing linear regression on all those riders who have 2017 British averages. That would give a formula that would provide an average for every rider. ( I would reduce the average of Americans by 10% because I think dolgin's methodology over-rates them). And finally I would round to the nearest half point). And I would use a 1.25 multiplier to go from PL to CL. I have now done it (and it took less than two hours) I used Dolgin's rankings at 30 September (topped by Tai Woffinden on 4701 ranking points and end of season PL GSA averages for all riders (61) with a PL GSA achieved in 2017 over 3.00. The regression formula came out as: Formula: Assessed Average = (ranking points – 1118) --------------------------------- 347.3 Here's the scatter graph: And the list of assessed riders (note it includes anyone without a PL or CL GSA achieved in 2017 (so it includes riders like Stefan Nielsen, Tobias Busch and Davey Watt) And a list of assessments: 10.5 Woffinden 10 Zmarzlik 9.5 Zagar Dudek Hancock 9 Laguta Laguta Pawlicki Pawlicki Sayfutdinov Vaculik Pedersen 8.5 Janowski Kolodziej hampel Iversen Milik Wozniak Jonsson 8 Lindback Drabik Kildemand Sundstrom Lebedevs Holta 7.5 Jepsen Jensen Miedzinski Protasiewicz Michelsen Ljung Woryna Bech Zengota 7 Smektala Okoniewski Thomsen Crump Jamrog Smolinski Mat Szczepaniak Mroczka Korneliussen 6.5 Janniro Jedrzejak K Gomolski Fajfer Wolbert Bogdanovs Karpov Buczkowski Przedpelski 6.5 Ulamek Czaja D Davidsson Kosciuch P Aspgren Pieszczek F Jakobsen Bach 6 Walasek Kudryashov J Davidsson Pavlic Lampart B Pedersen Jablonski Krcmar Jeleniewski 6 Covatti Puodzuks KK Hansen Lyager P Karlsson 5.5 M Ruml Franc M Nowak Berntzon Berge Gizatulin Gala Kroner Gafurov 5.5 D Balinski Miskowiak Kubera Kulakov Miesiac Tarasenko 5 Watt K Jablonski Brzozowski Karczmarz Kus Koza C Vissing J Andersson Eklof 5 Polis Palovaara Cyfer R Jensen Bober Hjelmland Borodulin 4.5 Fisher J Jorgensen Mazur Hartel Busk Jakobsen M B Andersen K Andersen Kostigovs Jeppesen 4.5 J Kling Dolny Busch Chugunov Thornblom Stachyra Ajtner Gollob A Gomolski Nissen 4.5 Adamczewski Borowicz Drodz T Sorensen Jedrzewski Skornicki Monberg Kaczmarek 4.5 Risager Tabaka Stichauer Kuciapa K Lykke 4 Lindman Melnichuk Grobauer Mads Hansen Z Holub St Nielsen S Burza Michalovs L Sowka 4 Fox Becker Manzares B Bast Nicol Novratil Thaysen Alden M Tresarrieu 4 Chmiel Castagna Melgren Sogaard Gruchalski Chalov Fierlej R Kling P Hansen 4 Adamczak Logachev F Eriksson Fienhage Tornqvist V Bergstrom Mag Karlsson suchanek Puszakowski 4 Dilger

Roland Rat would probably be a better option!

Losing Cook , Lambert , Masters and Grajczonek from the Championship leaves quite a void for top heat leaders. surely the BSPA will admit the error and let Nicholls ride in the Championship

Anyway, great news that everyone was hoping for, but as the silence got longer it didn't look possible. Time to get behind the team and celebrate speedway continuing rather than wish for bigger things rider wise. No doubt a strength on depth side following the failure of two big hitters last year and a weak tail. Someone like Ashley at reserve, along with Alfie, will do me and strength throughout the rest. Robbo, Ludde, Tero, and some new blood aside them. Roll on 2018.

I think most people would agree a combination of 1and 2 is the ideal scenario, but surely the amount of teams in the league and the combined average of last year should be taken into account in some way. Last year was 39 , averages went up and this year less teams. Would have thought even putting it to 40 would not have threatened the development side, but may have made it easier for progressing 4/5 pointers to get a place, rather than 3 pointers who will falter.

And we got Nectar points.

Exactly..its not a hard thing to do....but this is speedway and the last thing anybody wants is it to be a fair and open sport that's not open to fiddling or making things up.

I think the winter has shown that in terms of communication the club can't keep everybody happy.......people moaned when nothing was said for ages and now people are moaning because there have been several bits of communication about what is going to happen in January.

I sincerely hope not ! Can't stand the self opinionated little P%$*# !!!

I could do it in a couple of hours using data already in existence I'd use dolgin's rankings, starting by doing linear regression on all those riders who have 2017 British averages. That would give a formula that would provide an average for every rider. ( I would reduce the average of Americans by 10% because I think dolgin's methodology over-rates them). And finally I would round to the nearest half point). And I would use a 1.25 multiplier to go from PL to CL.

Bartosz Zmarzlik and Patryk Dudek were in the Ekstraliga at age 16 and didn't have the benefit of a lower league grounding in Poland. I can recall a certain Jeremy Doncaster starting the sport at the deep end too. If JPB wants to progress he won't do it in the NL. He has to move up. And this time he has to swim instead of sink. Too much British potential has been unfulfilled by being comfortable in low leagues and not being challenged at the highest level possible. Do we want JPB to do a Craig Cook and still be riding lower league speedway at age 30?

Totally agree, another fine example of diluting a pretty good product ( the nl) and making it less attractive for spectators and bad for the riders on the second/third rung of development as they could be frozen out over averages. Just not enough Kemps and Edwards to justify the points limit, will be a lot of poor 3 pointers in teams next year with a lot of poor races.

I hate to criticise the NL Promoters who have done so much to keep the sport alive for many or us but I think this is a disaster. When the final teams are declared there will be a load of promising riders without any ride at all. If they were going to do this they might have at least have stipulated no doubling up. As it is we already have Hulme and Morley in two leagues and probably Ayres, Smith and JPB. In will come a dozen 3.0 pointers many of whom are not yet ready. Five have been signed already. With one less team it is double disaster and should mean about 15 to 20 riders left out including the likes of Bacon and Bowtell. This could have been covered to some extent by no double up and an age limit for this league. You cannot take this sort of action without excluding the likes of Atkin, Armstrong,Bowen Hurry, Boxall and Roynan.

Not sure that this is a bad thing though. From the bigger picture point of view, don't you want the talent to progress up the league's? Shouldn't JPB now progress in the CL instead of treading water in the lowest league? He can't be allowed to fester in the speedway kindergarten any longer. He needs to start playing with the bigger kids in the playground.

That would suit a lot of riders,getting paid to lower their average ! .There is enough bookmaker betting already( on match results).

If Scott Nicholls can't ride Championship Speedway, why should Chris Harris? The amount of doubling up of riders of increasingly higher standard has become ludicrous. It prevents any chance of team speedway being taken seriously by anyone other than the ever-dwindling number of die-hards.

Best wishes to starman! We all like to get stuck in on this forum and sometimes into each other but at the end of the day we are all people with personalities, with families and unfortunately problems like these occasionally. Sometimes it takes something like this to remember that.

Without fair and proper rules and therefore a level playing field the competition is pretty pointless. And unfortunately that is the situation speedway finds itself in today. Some people can ignore all the political garbage and unfair averages and just enjoy the racing, and I feel a little bit jealous of those people. Some of us just can't and the whole thing is tainted by the ineptitude of the governing body and how some teams seem to be able to find loopholes and ringers year after year. Unfortunately many people of that mindset end up walking away.

Many years ago back at the old shay stadium a man and a woman approached us and told us they were new to speedway and wanted to know the rules. We told them not to worry about the rules as they change them every other week, just enjoy the racing. The couple looked at us and walked off disgruntled. A few weeks later they approached us again to apologise has they had found out that we were correct. From what I have experienced in speedway since I started watching the sport again in 2005 nothing has changed. In fact it is so much the norm now that I believe the whole membership of this hallowed forum would have a mass cardiac arrest if the rules applied were ever well thought out, correct in almost every instance and were adhered to from start to finish.

Fantastic news,well done George, History will show you were Mr Newcastle Speedway during this turbulent times in Speedway, I’m now really looking forward to my annual visit down to Newcastle

No, but I know he has been a Horton sidekick. He seems to know a lot more about speedway than his critics though.

As I said on another thread, the likes of Bartosz Zmarzlik, Maceij Janowski, Patryk Dudek, and the Pawlicki brothers were cuttung their teeth at the deep end from age 16 in Poland. The result is that Poland won the SWC with effectively an u23 team. Not to mention the success of their u21 team in their own event. I dare say that if the Poles put out an u19 or even an u17 team they would wipe the floor with all comers in those age groups too. That's what British riders need to emulate. Being up there with the best in the world, not the toddlers who get races stopped after half a lap because they can't stay on their bikes. It's no good wrapping them up in cotton wool and making them nice and comfortable in the kindergarten league. These young men need to mature improve and develop in a competitive environment that challenges them and improves them...all the way to the top.

Roland Benko rumored to be unveiled as a Bear shortly. Previously rode in the UK a couple of years ago for Plymouth.

i thought the same to be honest when i heard. Would rather go with fresh raw talent like Saul Bulley.

Pleased to see Newcastle confirm that they are running

I have quite often been pillared for voicing adverse comments about the lack of communication from the Promotions , and like you say its not difficult to publish information to generate interest within the club. I have no problems that the rider announcement is delayed, and yes, it was nice to have the press release about the forthcoming Fans Forum meeting. But the fans needs more than that. Drip feeding information does a wonderful job keeping fans interested and up to date. I'm sure, I'm not alone when I say I like reading about the Stars, their thoughts, their plans, their hopes and intentions. Its not just about who's riding for us...... At times it feels like we are the enemy and everything is top secret... Surely that cant be right...

Well that's Jon Armstrong, Jake Knight, Connor Mountain and Ben Hopwood confirmed without a team place next year due to the 39 points limit along with potentially others like JPB and Jack Smith who' s averages have increased last season, this must be the only sport I know you get penalised for getting better .

well done you have two riders over eight but your not the only team to be compromised by the new rules.

Really don’t understand this, there’s no extra teams in the Top League, they run this season so why not next season? Although the times I went this season the attendance was very poor, compared to previous seasons, As for just going just in the Trophy complete nonsense, it will just be a team of 7 individuals taking a guest booking, just like it was at Swindon this season, Cradley fans deserve so much more

Haha I had misinterpreted what you meant, and thought you meant you can't believe he isn't in the team. Fingers crossed he is the next name on the team sheet.

Likewise, wouldn't wish ill health on anyone. Having gone thru a health trauma some years ago I know how tough things can be. Can only echo the get well messages of others too.

Love the seethe. Edinburgh promotion again proving they’re just slightly more switched on that the average.

Although Starman speaks plenty of nonsense on this forum he has actually been an absolute gem to me on the forum messenger. Offering real support for my own personal head s#!t that's going on. Starman, I sincerely wish you all the best mate

Wonder if you thought that when you had Lambert and Worrall, Bach and Larsen etc... suddenly look like there struggling for a number 1 and the rules should be changed its laughable

Get well soon Starman. Might well explain some of his recent posts

I totally agree with that ff. I think Scott Nichols would be a great asset to the Championship.