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THIS week's Speedway Star is its usual 48 pages plus a 24 page section from Travel Plus. How are you losing out?

I think BT coverage is far better especially with the after meeting interviews and chit chat much better than the rushed finishes with sky . Natalie is quality and whilst I admit Nigel and Kevin are too shouty, you can’t knock the enthusiasm. we should start a petition to get Floppy back I thought he was really good.

Phil you have nothing that needs defending , like you state you need the extra revenue these days to exist every publication does really can’t see where Semion is coming from as like you say the 24 page ad is an extra that doesn’t cost the customer any more! I actually find the brochure quite good toilet material once I’ve read the actual magazine content lol Despite social media and the internet in general I still enjoy my fix of my speedway star as does my son...as you know! Keep it going more of us appreciate it than those that do not

Bit of a generalisation SCB, there's plenty of pensioners on basic pension and maybe a small personal pension .....

...trouble is SCB has a fixation about ageism and raises the issue over and over again. Gets a bit tiresome after awhile.

This is the uk not poland seen it all before with polish riders!!

BUT 33% of the usual 48 pages are not devoted to adverts. It is hard enough making SS viable these days without turning away what little advertising is available.

Easy to say that but I doubt anyone would have expected KK to be so pathetic. Looking at the lineups Swindon are nowhere near strong enough to retain next season. No big improvers and no big hitting reserves. Looks like last year was a blip and its back to mediocrity for the Robins. While normal service resumed for Pirates? Looking possible.

Lakeside wanted him (and Kennett) Dont feel too sorry for them though as they simply gamzumped Berwick and Sheffield for Morris and Lawson instead and have brought in 2 reserves on out of date low averages....

I doubt that there are many rich pensioners that include speedway as an interest.. The OAP concession should remain

Here you go again SCB. You really must be a very bitter person. You are right when you say that a hell of a lot of Pensioners are well of, some of them very well off. However the obverse is also true. There are also a hell of a lot of Pensioners who are not very well off, are indeed very, very poor. Some can afford Speedway every week, but others will inevitably not be able to, and it seems that you want to make them even worse off. I doubt if there are many very well off Pensioners who attend Speedway that often so you are actually having a go at the poorer ones. Shame on you!!! You are either very bitter, very jealous or very selfish or maybe a combination of all three. Shame on you!!!

Below are Brady's scores in the Aussie Championship you claim he should be dominating, while insinuating he isn't... r1 = 3 3 DNF 3 3 FEX r2 = 3 3 3 3 3 FEX r3 = 3 3 3 3 3 2 So, he's only been beaten once in three rounds when he has completed the race. Your post on this subject is EXACTLY why people hate you on here Gavan. You are a troll and t*sser.

It's free for him to watch the Colts. A good way to get him and his mates interested.

Time to get some long trousers then !

First of all we are discussing a CL club here and no one is advocating that the NL should allow overseas riders to participate in their league. At Edinburgh, the supporters have had very few problems with the overseas guys recruited in terms of commitment. Indeed in 2016 when we ran our final home match, due to previous postponements, on 21st October , a break of 3 weeks since our last actual race meeting, our 3 Germans traveled back to honour their commitment. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of a certain English team member who threw a sickie, but was well enough to attend a social function at his EL club on the same night! Unlike the overseas riders who are prepared to commute here, we have great difficulty in attracting decent English prospects to sign on for us, usually citing our base as being too far for them to travel. So what are we supposed to do, just employ any Brit who is willing to come, irrespective of their ability? Well current & potential local supporters up here would soon lose interest if we were compelled to track cannon fodder in the name of keeping all British riders in a job. Oh and btw, our foreign guys do socialise after the meeting and our promising Aussie, Josh Pickering, stayed within a couple hundred yards of the Stadium with a local family.

A very sad and touching film that many of us ex fans of defunct clubs can relate to.

This thread is ok until gavan comes back on it then it goes into lets dig at every poole rider,you don't see any poole fans go on the Ipswich thread bleating on about how he's got beatan by him,he shudnt be beat by him hes a no1 and the other guy is a 2nd string blah blah blah why dont you focus ur attention on how ipswich are going to massive chumps again next season and win nothing again LMAO

Makes a change from you being reported eh Gavan. Considering all the abusive language and name calling you have used in the past, you really don't have a leg to stand on.

Along with his sons runs a very successful electrical business despite the awful injuries he suffered during his brilliant career which very nearly crippled him.

but he usually doesn't come back to you.

I don't think parents would be shocked at that for a one off night out. Getting them to pay it every week, however, is a different matter. But if my son was taken somewhere by his friends' parents and I was told it was 20 quid to see a live sporting event I'd pretty much expect it. I don't see why people factor food into the cost though. Just eat before you go. What's the issue? And you don't need to get a programme for every one either.

As many said, a tad dear for families, else nail hit on head. Put on more races, juniors, anything, after main 15ht match....

I see that Brady went through the card again in the latest round of the Aussie Championship. He really is a cut above the opposition in this event. Got pipped by a fast gating Holder in the final but virtually unbeatable. In fact Holder is the first rider to beat him over 4 laps this championship. The only points Brady has dropped is for an exclusion and EF. Let’s hope he comes into the speedway season over here in similar devastating form and battles to retain his number one berth.

The speedway star in my opinion is excellent value look at the prices of other sporting magazines or papers the Racing post as a example for me it should be more than 3 pound.Also the 2018 teams line up edition is a terrific read great value that certainly should be a higher price.

Sadly the same can be said about everything leisure costs a fortune these days.A few years later as an apprentice my take home pay was £10.06 a week a pint of beer was 10p so I could(not that I did) buy 100 pints with my wage.Now a pint is approx £3.00 how many apprentices take home £300.00 pounds a week. Again a few years later on full money married buying a house etc I went to football on Saturday afternoon and speedway at night and could afford both no problem.As the years have passed and my money became worthless I could not afford to do both so I had to choose I picked speedway it would seem most others stayed with football. And there lies the problem people can't afford to spend as much on leisure because it and everything else cost so bloody much and your wage goes nowhere these days.As with me a lot of people cannot do everything they want to do and have to pick and choose and it would seem speedway is lower down on peoples list than other things and in my opinion is a big reason why speedway is struggling these days.

Have you finished wiping that egg off your face from last season, Steve?

What on earth are you expecting for £3 a Book! I find the SS excellent value for money!!!

Please, please, please say it's Bridger

Because if the Brits don’t come first and we lose our British riders the national team with disappear, the profile of the sport will sink even lower, the sport won’t be able to afford the extra costs of flying in riders, our league will be at the beck and call of the foreign leagues, just like last season with Poland dictating where riders should ride, there will be less interaction between riders and potential local supporters because they will rarely be in the country, there will be less interest in a sport in which only foreigners participate, all us families who support NL riders and give our time to clubs for free will be lost to the sport ....

I think they do a good job myself.

Not overly impressed if I'm being honest.

Are you having a bad day?

Sorry ! Were you talking through the chair or that which you place on it ???!!!

Be interesting to see whether they actually cover the whole of the season this time, or just the back end.

And why do two very long journeys a week to the other end of the country when Poole is just 15 miles up the road?

Come on Skidder. You knew full well what putting out a comment worded in the way it was would cause on the Forum. Especially when some of us have come to expect some of your advance hints/comments to be sensible/credible. More than happy if its Sundstrom but had there been a reassessment of Pawlicki it could have been so much better. At least we can kick this one into the long grass (for now) You will no doubt however have great joy in reminding all come next mid season of the above post SHOULD a rider get dropped for not performing and a certain Mr Pawlicki gets signed

Why is the information re: Nicholls and Ludvig which is in Speedway Star not on the Diamonds website. I appreciate that we have not signed these riders but not everyone buys or reads the Star and often fans sources of information (whether accurate or not) are these forums. I know promoters aren't keen on forums due to mis-information but it would be nice if the Diamonds website was updated in the off season more than once every two weeks. e.g. Happy New Year

And of course following Chapmans utter condemnation of his actions Rathbone then committed an even worse sin in the eyes of the BSPA MC by winning the Fours without Jack Holder, what a kick in the nether regions that was. I am just pleased that the ACU saw through the BSPA MC and the SCB and reacted accordingly, it just remains to be seen what happens now.

I tend to wind people up but not on a wind up no. I've said before that if Rathbone did receive a phone call from Poland and told them that we can't speak to you then that's where it should have stopped. The fact is that he asked for and was allegedly advised that the benefit of doing something "dodgy" outweighed the slap on the wrist that he might get so it was worth the risk. The action does still make Rathbone the main culprit (and he was punished for it) but what would you have done? You have bills to pay and a high ranking official advises that you'll make more than you'll lose from the deal whilst getting minor grief from the powers that be for transgressing the rules.

Oh really like you know!

...remember talking to the late Bernard Crapper about the times he would appear to 'rant and rave' at the referee whilst on the phone at the starting gate. He explained to me that often he was just passing the time of day with the referee but felt the need to liven up proceedings just to get the crowd excitable.

Graham - Using Swindon as an ax ample as that is your team, then Swindon would be in the one big league along with all other tracks, so hopefully 18 home and 18 away meetings from late March to mid September. As the teams would be the same strength at Swindon as it is at Redcar or Peterbourough etc then as an example only, Swindon could be a team something like Nick Morris, Tobias Musielak, Justin Sedgeman, Adam Ellis, Zach Wajtknecht, Mitchell Davey and a 2.00 NL draft. Then as they want to also compete in the Super Cup league of 6/7 home and the same away, they would name FOUR squad riders of which one must be lower ranked than the number one in the other team and these could be riders doubling up from a track not operating in the Super Cup. So Robins could name Jason Doyle, Niels K Iversen, Peter Kildemand and David Bellego and would name any two in the SC meetings while Kildemand and Bellego could cover for Morris if injured or missing and Bellego also for Tobiasz The team in the big league isn't a great deal less that what you have now and with 17/18 home meetings (should be a bit cheaper than now) I'm sure they would get the support as this is the regular action and could be one of the pace setters. Then for just 6/7 meetings through the season, you would use the top five of that team along with any two of your squad riders so it could be Doyle, Iversen, Morris, Musielak, Sedgeman, Ellis and Zach W which as its only once a month and against a top line opposition, then maybe £20 would be acceptable to many to see such a meeting and crowds should be good at both levels. If they wear a Robin are you going to turn your back on one level even though five are in the other level ?

Not a mastermind, just better than the other tosh. Every year promoters vote on new rules to save money and hinder Poole, yet every year you all complain that Matt is smart enough to make the most of it. You should be whinging about your own lazy promoters.

So even no hoper British riders should be guaranteed a place?

In which case it could be down to around 7 taking discount into hand. Will ride as a second string if it goes through.

Unfortunately for us all only the BSPA and Matt Ford will know the answer on a GSA for 2018 if this rumour has any truth in it. Could just be a rumour of course. Mind you Skidder is normally fairly reliable on a lot of info. Assuming he isn't just pulling our leg ;-)

Won't be anything other than an 8 or 9. Anything else is pure manipulation and bias.

Really enjoyed the Speedway Mail and still have a huge collection wish it was still around today.

Thanks for your interest Gustix. Somebody belatedly just pointed me in the direction of this forum, so I joined. I'm alive and well, living in a small Yorkshire village looking after birds (feathered ones), growing roses, being belligerent and generally enjoying life in my late 70s. Sadly, no other family members (four sons, two grandchildren, have any interest in speedway). I still enjoy watching the GPs and WC on tv. Not so sure about the Elite (Premiership) coverage where incredibly boring processional racing is 'excused' by Mr Tatum waffling on about a 'Technical track'. I have no post Speedway Mail contact with speedway other than occasional correspondence with Mike Patrick whose company I always enjoyed in the old days although we were on 'rival' publications and a few contacts from the good old 1960s days in Poland. Nothing much changes - Split Waterman and Briggo were always the masters in my book (starting watching at West Ham in 1946). Glad to see you are a New Cross fan - always loved the visits to the Frying Pan.

One name that I don't think has been mentioned yet was the late Doug Adams who brightened up many an evening for me at Ellesmere Port, although his major role was over the Pennines at Halifax, and I seem to recall Sheffield. I also used to thoroughly enjoy Laurence Rogers' work at Cradley Heath.