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As teams are settling on certain riders and the list of top Enders shrinks I hope Newcastle have someone in the bag like Hans Anderson already or could be faced with picking at scraps and a season as the leagues whipping boys. Not sure even the leftover hardcore would stomach that. Not exactly a good time for a third tier season either so I fear for the Diamonds. Hope behind the scenes they are well ahead and on the front foot.

I think the list of other attractions during the week impacts more than not being allowed to stay up.. Since the halcyon days of the sport there are a myriad of things for kids to do post school hours. . Thousands of kids football/rugby/cricket etc teams now operate and train during the week, my lad trained four nights a week for his several sports teams.. My daughter used to attend two dance classes that were packed mid week.. Schools now do an incredible amount of after school clubs till 8pm or so, covering drama, dance, arts, media production etc etc given so many now have state of the art facilities... And of course you then have gaming which keeps the little cherubs up to all hours on a school night.. Bottom line is Speedway doesn't maintain the interest of enough kids, many of whom "save the world" each evening on their PS4, narrowly avoiding 'death' each evening to do so.. Hence 'death defying Speedway' leaves them much less impressed than the way earlier generations used to be.. They simply get their adrenaline rush elsewhere these days.. And let's face it, anywhere your Dad and Grandad go to (and most of the crowd are 40 something and above), cannot be cool can it?

I agree with the idea of Speedway being a weekend sport, the good old days with big crowds also had the majority of people working until 5 or 6pm which is no longer the case I don't think you can extend the time a meeting takes or involve it with other sports without it becoming an amateur event supported by friends and family of the competitors and funded by the racers. Too many Speedway fans have absolutely no interest in other forms of racing. About 3 or 4 years ago we did a demonstration race at Rye House on a Saturday night, 'luckily' it was a very good race with loads of passing and plenty of elbows and hard passes made. The crowd were very receptive with plenty of cheering on and applause afterwards and lots of spectators after the meeting asking about flat track and telling us how good it was. . The following day we held a full British Championship meeting at the same track with a minimal spectator entry fee in front of the usual one man and his dog. All live sport struggles to capture an audience most of the time, even football and cricket which are part of our education and culture only pull a crowd at the highest level. Speedway is expensive to put on and I find it really difficult to see where future crowds are coming from no matter what you do. I've always maintained that much more should be made of the very real danger and risk to the riders as outsiders would be horrified at the list of injuries some riders can collect in a career, it really is an extreme sport marketed as a family friendly one. However while I see that creating some interest I have no idea how long it would last or just how many people would turn up live to watch. Might just be time to fund the sport in a different way with sponsorship available because of good TV coverage being the aim rather than people through the gate.

Glasgow couldn’t have been as impressed as you

Sorry but statistically Kyle started on an assessed average of 2 - his actual average for his first season at Workington in 2018 was 1.37. His average over the 2019 season for Glasgow was 4.54. Pretty impressive improvement I'd say.

Whoever's if any changes are in the future let's hope it's good news and someone with new ideas and enthusiasm.. not that there is anything wrong with George as he's done a great job at the club in all theses years gone by..

The problem IMO is that for too long the sport has been in the control of a cartel of spivs and wide boys more concerned with self interest than the wider picture. Those that have tried to change things have been hounded out. Confidently expect the 2020 master plan will be a re hash of increase prices and water down the product.

The Speedway world is in turmoil !! The world is in turmoil !! one thing remains constant however- R and R Bookmakers are the worlds top Speedway Bookmaker !!! Due to the re-arranged GP series i have had to alter my plans for the 2020 competition. The spread is now under the new scoring rules 1st 20 2nd 18 3rd 16 4th 14 5th 12 6th 11 7th 10 8th 9 9th 8 10th 7 11th 6 12th 5 13th 4 14th 3 15th 2 16th 1 Positions 1 st to 4 th in the Final Meeting Classification will be according to the result of the Final (Heat 23). Positions 5th to 8th in the Final Meeting Classification will be according to the results from the Semi Finals (Heat 21 & 22). The 2 Riders who finish 3rd in each of the Semi Finals will be 5th and 6th in the Final Meeting Classification, with the higher ranked rider from Intermediate Classification 5th and the lower ranked rider 6th . This rule will apply if both riders complete, or fail to complete the Semi Final. If only one of these riders fail to complete the Semi Final for any reason, he will be placed 6th in the final meeting classification. The 2 Riders who finish 4th in each of the Semi Finals will be 7th and 8th in the Final Meeting Classification, with the higher ranked rider from FIM Speedway Grand Prix World Championship 29 Intermediate Classification 7th and the lower ranked rider 8th . This rule will apply if both riders complete, or fail to complete the Semi Final. If only one of these riders fail to complete the Semi Final for any reason, he will be placed 8th in the final meeting classification. Positions 9th to 18th will be according to the Intermediate Classification after 20 heats. I am increasing the start amount to £500 with the maximum bet per GP still set at £200.- minimum bet per GP is £50 minimum bet per rider £25 The other bookies are not going to like this initiative and will offer stupid gimmicks for your bets- so i`m getting in 1st !!! 1 On 1 occasion during the season punters will be able to use the " spread stretcher"(SS) to move the spread to their advantage by 1 whole point. 2 On 1 occasion during the season punters will be able to use the " double your money " card( DYM) ( i`m old enough to remember Hughie Green and Monica Rose) when a total bet for that GP can be up to a maximum of £400 I know it`s foolhardy but both bonuses can be used at the same time !!! Here is an example for you to get your head around Championship points Zmarzlik 15- 17 Madsen 15 - 17 Woffinden 12 - 14 Sayfutdinov 12 - 14 Janowski 10 - 12 lindgren 10 - 12 Vaculik 9 - 11 Doyle 9 - 11 Dudek 8 - 10 A Laguta 8 - 10 Zagar 6 - 8 NKI 5 - 7 lindback 3 - 5 Fricke 3 - 5 Drabik WC 3 - 5 Smolinski 2 - 4 Rules Each contestant MUST place bets in all 8 rounds -in the event of having no money left they are out of the competition All bets can be edited up to the advertised starting time of the meeting. If a rider is injured before a round starts then the bet is voided on that rider, or bets can be amended up to the meeting start time. If a rider starts a meeting but is injured and cannot continue THE BET STANDS but any points scored by the reserves count towards the injured riders score. If any rider is excluded for a starting offence the reserve points scored do not get added. To ensure fair play bets for the final round may be required to be PM`d to me instead of normal posting. If a meeting is called off at heat 16 then the spread will be adjusted to 4/5th`s of the original. If a meeting is called off at or after 20 heats the spreads stand. HOW TO PLAY One must bet on a rider to score MORE OR LESS than the spread-the HIGHER figure is taken for MORE bets and the LOWER for LESS bets-the mid between the two is what I expect them to score-and they add up to 146 which is the total points available in a GP A final message regarding the 2020 competition to you punters. M more value in 2020 U unique format from the no 1 Bookie G great bonuses S simply the best competition in world speedway

The tea leaves say 2020 could finally be the year of the Stars, be interesting to see what team you track next year ...

Yep and if you take that 2.00 as a starting point (rather than the 1.37 Boothers pointed out as the true figure) he still put 1.79 on this 2.00 average which is pretty impressive to me. If all the other Glasgow riders put 1.79 on their combined averages you would have been shouting from the top of every Munro in Scotland after winning all four competitions with a combined team average of over 50.00 from the starting point of 38.00 but they didn't and as history shows Glasgow didn't win anything unfortunately... its harder than you think ask any of the 20+ riders who finished on a lower average than he did... I think the kid has done brilliant this season and will do just as well next... Regards THJ

That told him

Honestly He nearly doubled his average in what was only his second season in the Championship; Last year at Worky he settled in and visited all the Championship tracks in a competitive environment at the relevant standard and this year at Glasgow I think he done more than expected of him to be fair Whilst I don't disagree with much of what you are saying as Newcastle is probably Kyle's least favourite track closely followed by Edinburgh; and as stated above it is only his second season at this level and he is progressing to be fair which can be seen from the increase in his average. Next year I can see him sticking another point to a point and a half on his current average and continuing his apprenticeship. I believe he will be riding as a competent No 2 in someones championship team by the end of the season and if he does fancy learning on a "Trick Track" I would love to see him at Newcastle. Regards THJ

With this innovation due to come in for 2020, be interesting to see if the forthcoming AGM discusses implications and makes public comment.

Now finally confirmed: Wildcards: Hansen, Jonasson und Shanes. Reserves: Stella, Wajtknecht, Dilger, Hummel, Malek und De Vries.

Massive thanks to the departing Scott Nicholls for his efforts as a rider and as our influential captain in Season 2019 - huge respect for the guy as an accomplished speedway rider over many years .... hope the future holds good things for you wherever you end up Scotty !!

I find the comments about young people not being able to attend midweek meetings due to school the next day interesting as throughout my school days I went with my parents to Wimbledon Speedway every week and they used to run on a Monday evening in the early days which then changed to Thursday evenings. My parents had a strict rule that I had to finish my homework before we went to the meeting. If truth were known it was the one day in the week when I did do my homework properly as there was no way I was going to miss the racing! Are today's children really so soft that they are unable to have one or two late nights during the school week?

Wouldn't disagree with that assessment tbf. Also seemed to rely on his gating a bit too much for my liking, all that said though he exceeded my expectations this season and played a strong part in the season long success. Certainly still on the up and a good future ahead of him.

Maybe he's lost it down the back of the settee Dave, bet he's got a big settee

Please don't have such musings in public. The more ridiculous the idea ... The more likely that Armando will implement it.

Be careful what you wish for.

No offence but running a 4 rider NL to accommodate the upper leagues is nonsense. Especially when you have stand alone clubs.

The clutch of fans who post on here, but don't go have always been a pathetic bunch of sad old pricks wishing the sport dead and they have done it for the entire existence of this forum which is about 14 years now. "this time next year the sport will be dead" The desperation for it to happen that pours from some is utterly tragic "I went to speedway so I can say things that will change it" No, you can't and you won't because no one actually gives a idiot that you used to attend but now don't because your persona non grata and things have moved on without you If people acted like this in a pub, they would be politely told to piss off

Everywhere, except your mind...........

Seriously ? Sedgmen ? Ostergaard ?

Shame really would love to see a junior side back at scunny

Think you’ll find everything’s gone South at Poole.

The main problems for the promoters in trying to promote this sport are many. 1, Bikes too fast; 2 Bikes too expensive; 3, No equality in the standard of Riders, 4, Unfit tracks; 4, Too many processional races, 5, High admission prices; 6, Poor VFM. stated just as an examples, so I fail to see how the makeup of the teams will make much difference..

well surely the crowd should have voted for him ?

In his Rye House days Len Silver was always the first to name his team, usually the day after the end of the AGM. Maybe he will do the same with Kent.

Let's not be too quick to write Scott off, especially at CL level. He captained the side to the Championship and finished top of the averages, he may not be as competitive as he used to be at the highest level but he is one of a handful of riders (in the CL) that have mastered BP and I would pay to watch. The place will be poorer without him.

In fairness if the BSPA looked at supporting the needs ( of all clubs rather than the big / more affluent few then maybe Buxton and alike would still be going i don't mean financially but by helping and maintaining rules so that all clubs can compete). As for the GTR fiasco all those involved should have one tied to each ankle and thrown into the nearest lake.

We really could do with finding a trump card foreign 4 pointer

scott could step in as rider manager if neil steps down because of other commitments just a thought

So why has he lost so much money this year then, and he can't keep auditors,

Maybe Kent's surprise could be THJ. You never know as he could be classified as International and had signed a contract to ride in UK

Would love to see Buxton run again.

It was a good system for sure. I would like to see the man with the most points win the even thats all. A guy Winning it with 13 points and a guy coming second on 20 seems as silly to me as someone scraping in the semi's and then getting 25. But thats just my opinion, I fully expect people to disagree!

Josh Pickering has been announced by Edinburgh 3 weeks ago so i unlikely is impossible im afraid.

If I had a £1 for every time some one has said “he’s a steal on that average”that goes t*ts up,I’d be a rich man

What a bizarre comment ... Four riders who quite demonstrably couldn't 'put bums on SGP seats' any better than the 2019 guys.

probably just another guy making out he knows something others dont but really knows nothing at all...

Harris, Lawson out klindt and covatti in. If Danny fancies a year at Sheffield, I would be happy with that to Nki. Klindt Schlien Heeps Allen Covatti/nicholls ?????

A speedway forum is the perfect place to have your say, however if you are not prepared to back up you posts perhaps you shouldn't post it. Just my opinion.

Shanes has been offered one as well.

As has Kenneth Hansen.

Aggro between the teams and riders is certainly missing these days. However very hard to produce that kind of thing as at some point during the season all the riders will appear on the same side at least once.

Were they force to go in the top league and ride on that night ? they done that themselves .No doubt Workington were killed off as they allowed to race on the night they wanted to

Who is it causing financial suicide to ? we were told that guests and rr were causing this financial suicide ...Of course if we change back people will then moan about the riders missing and the reason they are not going . FRN has been one the best things to happen in recent years imo.

Me neither, but it's not my list, I've got better things to do with my life than make up lists, unless it's top 10 females that do it for ya, then I could be interested. Maybe he likes the name niels

Just some Pi in the sky method then...