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They have to get a job then like they used to

I was told by delaying the team announcement it creates added interest, It my mind it does exactly the opposite, fans get fed up waiting and lose interest altogether...

Why not announce it then? bizarre really, there could be a percentage of fans thinking of maybe doing something else or picking and choosing there meeting's.Or does the owner just presume or take for granted that fans will turn up.This episode is exactly how British speedway is being run secretive things being decided behind closed doors and no transparency.

Imagine talking to someone about the coming season and someone asks you who is in your team and you reply i dont know yet.I cannot see any logic in it, i cant get my head around it.

The saddest thing is that it illustrates how set in his ways Buster really is. Like it or Lump it customer relations.

If only the Clubs paid standard rates,maybe the Sport would be in a healthier state.

Quite a lot of sponsorship today comes from social media. Without saying what team they ride for they miss out on local support.

There certainly hasn't been a queue But now that he has family and friends (and a sponsor) as co-promoters it will allow him to pursue his new business abroad whilst still having the trust and confidence in the day-to-day running of the club. As he's said he can and will fly back in for match days - similar to what many riders do. That arrangement will at least be in place for the next couple of years unless he does get a decent offer. Any potential new owner or co-owner will still need to have at least one licensed co-promoter on board.

How about Chapman addressing Panthers fans , the very people he will be relying on for support , rather than just a staged managed press conference. I won't hold my breath though .

Sidney, whether or not you think it’s the best way of doing it surely you can see the logic in drip feeding the team through the winter months in order to keep speedway relevant in the media in the lead up to the beginning of the season? Surely it will keep King’s Lynn Stars on the back pages of the local papers and on radio and social media with actual news and therefore in people’s minds at a time when there is no racing going on? We all know the team anyway, it’s been sorted since well before Christmas. And I’m pretty sure they all have their sponsorship sorted seeing as they all ride for the club at some point last year.

Is there one named Buster taking part? I wouldnae be putting any money on it winning.

I would imagine the riders know exactly who is in the team - especially as 6 of them have been on the training regime - so the fact they have not yet been announced should have no bearing on individual sponsorship.

The two fastest will be announced as your reserves.

Thing is, North Norfolk's a real hotbed of top sports and so it's a very tough task to get the timing of any announcement right, such is the competition for media attention. We have much the same problem in the Outer Hebrides. Try finding the right time for announcing the new line up for the Stornaway over 65's Curling team, it's a nightmare.

I think it is a bit much to refer to it as a team given that it is no more than a bunch of individuals with no loyalty or local knowledge or upbringing riding under the Ipswich Witches banner. Even Harris whinges that he had to start finding new sponsors having lined up a few around Peterborough and is possibly in transit. Most witches fans were able to support and follow local home grown talent and more recently rely on the Louis family to be the back bone of Ipswich speedway. That last remaining foundation has gone so expect criticism from here on in given that someone north of the border has got his hands on Suffolk’s number one team. Sad to say that the frequency of home meetings has not improved and the golden days of weekly speedway at the Heath are just history and will be no more as long as the farce of two leagues carries on.

April 19th: https://www.younglionsspeedway.co.uk/2019-dates/

Gavan will be back soon to spice things up

Apologies Leander. Took my own advice and read the article again. What you say is correctly quoted. The misunderstanding on my side is that Mason states he will be 27 in two years, getting too late to start over again. He will be 26 for the 2020 season so wrongly assumed he would have to miss two seasons. As you say, great shame he has been forced into this situation, again.

because nothing at all regarding the Swindon track/stadium has been secretive has it Sidney ....

Or may-be someone keen to stop U.K.s most promising prospect scoring 3 points?

Aye, what a night that was in '77... Superb maximum from Colin, including one win in 60 seconds dead... Steve

https://www.sportskeeda.com/football/work-permit-issues-prevented-lionel-messi-becoming-arsenal-player But ironically he would have needed a work permit for the UK which he would have failed to obtain I have edited my question above for clarity

For me it was never the quality of the racing - it was the experience and everything that went with it. Although people rave about the NSS, I can't abode having to walk through a car park, miles around and up a steep grassy bank, greeted by one overpriced catering van and some portaloos and have to stay there all meeting. Now we have robots who appear, ride around and f off, all to the background of some person mumbling along between someone's music collection whilst you stand around doing nothing apart from occasionally visit a filthy hole called toilets. It's now an experience only real enthusiasts bother with. Peoples' expectations, mine included, have moved on but speedway as a live event has not (Cardiff excepted).

Yes today's racing at various tracks do produce as good and sometimes better racing than the era the clip is from, however back then there was more and I'm pleased that I had the pleasure to live through it.

He didn't used to be, back in the day.. People still remember him for that, but it was years ago now. How slime flies. I'll get me coat

I really doubt that there is any video footage, but there is a good chance that Wally Loak may have covered them on audio cassette. Not sure if anyone else knows, or perhaps even has the recordings. Steve

I have stayed in Hultsfred and Vimmerby for previous Malilla GP`s and would recommend either town. Looking at map these are sort of wrong side(north)of Malilla for Vaxjo- you are not flying from UK ?

It takes a while. They drag it out a bit.

Great news! the BSPA have started the ball rolling how to get G.B. speedway back on it's feet: Replace the easily recognised Yellow & Black helmet colour with the less obvious solid Yellow.

just spotted Andrew Blackburn playing a nurse in ask the midwife on bbc 1 wondered were he had got to

A speedway fixture at home every two weeks . i would be happy with that and as HGould above says . one at home every two weeks will make you want to go every fortnight . i would be keen as flip .

I don't think I'm missing the point, with the current scenario with fixtures (Prem & Champ) you get 2 things: 1. Riders not having enough meetings with ONE TEAM & therefore having to double up or down. 2. Supporters without their regular weekly speedway fix - loose interest, find other things to do or simply get out of the habit! What I think we can all agree on is Speedway in the U.K. needs a major overhaul........... I have been watching Aston Villa for 30 years, never been every week, on average it alternates. I am a Member at Warwickshire for 5 years, it alternates home and away I like to go Horse Racing at Cheltenham, there are 6-8 Fixtures a season. i dont walk away from those because they dont run every week; encourages me more! Why then should we expect a Speedway Team to only thrive if it runs weekly. I agree with what Buttons says in many ways. If Team have a stable Home / Away Ratio, min 2 max 3 meetings per month the fans will soon get used to it and accommodate it. as Buttons says better than nothing. In any sport if you can't make a full time living out of it, you have to be more flexible. In our sport riders need to be flexible but also need help with costs. I do agree about Adult Admission Rates, I think £15-£16 is as much as you can charge but as an OAP now any Club that gives me even a few bob off will have my support. I also like to see Clubs encouraging young fans too so more that do zero or low rate entry for children the better.

When the football pitch was widened all of the speedway track had to be moved out. The only things not to be moved were the Floodlights. When Poole Town FC were booted out then the speedway track was brought back to a similar size which you see now with the Greyhound track being reinstated.

that's the bspa for you or just general state of british speedway

This is laughable if true,Bspa to Jacko,any trophy shops in worky?couldn't pick us a shield up of some description, it's only been going since March and we haven't had time to sort one out,while you're at it sort out some winners/losers medals,don't go overboard incase the kitty doesn't cover it,oh and by the way you've been fined 3 grand for not completing the outstanding fixture take it out of that and send us the balance,it would be comedy gold if it wasn't serious

when speedway was flourishing .although it was only 15 minutes of racing , it was 2 or more hours of an event , the anticiptaion of your top rider taking on theirs , the atmosphere from the minute you arrived at the stadium , banter on the terraces , local rivalry , and of course characters , go back to the days of Sean Wilsion Roman Matousek , anything could happen before during or after a race . speedway now is a clincal expeerience . get them in ,dole out the minimum in the shortest time to take their money , and hope they may come back next week , provided of course theres enough roders in the country to provide some speedway or they find out about it through connections , because they sure wont be seeing any fixtures in the local paper , my guess is 90% of people on the terraces go out of habit , a habit that is broken with a disjointed fixture list , and as In my own experience an easy one to break ,it only took 1 week and I wouldn't have bothered if I never went again ,thats after being a regular for 55 years

It's definitely a cunning stunt designed so that by the time all the riders have been announced - no-one will give a monkeys. After all the fixtures have now been released and we know the team has been involved in intensive training, so it follows that it doesn't matter which riders we have. Just let them be clones of Robert Lambert. This media technique will stand alongside the Stars Anthem as a testament to How Not To Do Things if you intend to win the hearts of your supporters.

I’m afraid the ticking time bomb went off long ago. So many clubs have gone by the wayside...and sadly more will follow. My club can not be anywhere close to breaking even , crowds down no new sponsors...it can not go on with the way things are. My second club Belle Vue with a new £8m stadium which I go over as often as my finances allow I’m told are loosing a small fortune and according to mates I sit with say are only going because they are propped up by the council. That can not go on for long. My mates at other clubs say it’s a only a hardcore of older fans that go. The sport has been mismanaged and tampered with for years and it’s been run into the ground by the idiots at the BSPA who are clueless. Speedway is bust and promoters only have themselves to blame. Who in their right mind would want to buy, invest or sponsor a speedway club?

Three Comps all ending within a fortnight of each other is crackers.... Spread them out over the season... Workington should have had several weeks of locally building up the hype of their potential double then subsequent treble.. Not to mention time to celebrate (and make the most publicity wise) of their first trophy won.. Expecting fans to attend every few days, like they had to, will inevitably also effect attendances negatively due to the cost... Spreading out the trophies will also potentially help teams that might start the season well and then get injuries.. Speedway should do as much as it can to keep itself in the public eye so spread out the Finals...

As ever the devil is in the detail - an area where speedway regulations to date have not excelled

If they signed Calamity Garrity they would be under the team limit and waste the points surely theres a better option nearer to the limit unless devious tactics are in place

Fixtures out now and a choice has to be made come June 8! Support the Monarchs at Leicester or go to Glasgow for the GP Qualifier. Personally I'd have liked to have gone to both. Not well thought out for Scottish supporters.

I presume you meant "morale" rather than "morals" !!! Or maybe not ???

It seems a bit odd there are only 2 home fixtures in May which are 4 weeks apart. At least we have Speedway to watch I guess considering Workingtons plight.

There are 8 teams in action though in the Championship and as it isn't one of the PL's chosen race nights i assume the CL gets preference.I don't know.With what looks like 5 of our riders will be riding in the CL that day and 4 for Ipswich it seems like a good call to me.

Poole report big increase in young fans last season due to some initiatives by the Marketing Agency - now Co-Promoters - Bespoke4Business. www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/sport/speedway

Not this year you won't, it's the year of the Panther

Probably longer than you gave your American last season

Then a dumped victim