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Hard to criticise any rider for choosing Poland, they have families to feed...

HAVE to say that I think Rob Godfrey is working hard and doing a good job under unprecedented circumstances

Problem is I do think most would still moan if the bspa came up with a eureka moment

I think that no-one within the BSPA is doing any post Covid 19 planning or decison taking other than -"when we can , we will open up for business and things will go on as usual". Deteriorating in my opinion. That is why UK speedway is in the position that it currently is - on it's uppers! Those with influence still believe that if it aint broke, why try to fix it!

There you have it - the perfect riposte to my post from Rob Godfrey " “We need to be more open about the work we are doing because our critics seem to think we sit on our backsides and do nothing.” All he and the rest of the BSPA have to do is to live up to the promises made with this statement - live streaming etc etc. We await actual progress and can then offer our feedback on it! And hopfully even our congratulations ( should real progress actually be made ).

Has had two spells as a witch and on the track was absolutely brilliant especially his passing and team riding. But other off track issues hold him back. I feel if you could do a deal where the club provides the bikes and a mechanic who cleans and maintains them with Ben just turning up and riding them before returning home with the bikes going in the opposite direction with the mechanic. then I think you would see a even better version and if he could lose a stone or two then he would really benefit imo.

The top two leagues of British speedway has for many years relied on cheap airlines to enable riders to race in multiple leagues around Europe, however with the aviation industry collapsing the knock on effect for British Speedway is simple….. it will not have access to riders who wish to race in more than just the British league as the logistics will just not allow it. No star riders will mean a significant drop in crowds (I am guessing levels of 50% pre CV19) which will lead to lower revenues from ticket sales along with a significant drop in sponsorship/advertising revenue as well. If clubs have less money to spend then riders will also be paid less and some will probably turn their back on the sport as they cannot afford to ride, thus reducing the pool of available riders down even further. In my opinion British Speedway needs to give up on the idea of their rider assets holding any financial value and press the reset button to create a new blueprint to survive post CV19 ready to be launched in March 2021 (subject to government restrictions). I believe now is a great opportunity for supporters to share their thoughts and ideas on what British Speedway ‘reborn’ should look like and which clubs should be part of it so I can send them on to the current guardians of each club. I look forward to reading the thoughts you may share on this.

I always thought that Homburg/Saar had a speedway track rather than a long-track, but from the information given by @iris123 it is obvious that there was long-track racing at Erbach from 1951 on. But could there have been another track, a proper speedway track, somewhere else in Homburg? It would really be interesting to know where a pukka speedway track could have been ? FC08 Homburg's Football ground, the "Waldstadion", looks very very likely. Perhaps @Gustix can help us with more info. I seem to recall that he was there with the English team in 1958. By the way, it is interesting to know that after WW2 the Saarland was NOT part of Germany, but a French Protectorate with self government from 1947 til 1956. They participated under theri own flag at the 1956 Olympics, and had their own national teams in football and other sports. (West-)Germany played against the Saarland twice in their qualifying group for the 1954 FIFA World Cup. On January 1, 1957, the Saarland was reunified with the rest of (West-) Germany. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saarland

Didn't I read somewhere that a group of serial BSF doom and gloom merchants went for a drink together and spotted a sign saying "Happy Hour" so they all left ?.

Imperial College London says Coronavirus kills 0.6% to 0.9% of those infected while flu kills 0.2%. Sounds like glorified flu to me apart from the fact that it doesn’t kill children in any numbers.

Oddly, I have now been on the international speedway website, which clearly shows a front cover from a programme in 1958 that a four way tournament was held between West Germany, England, Austria and Holland with England represented by Danny Dunton, Tommy Sweetman, George Bason and Jim Tebby. The cover has 'Internationales Speedway-Rennen' whereas others are marked as 'Sandbahnrennen.' Aside from that the covers appear identical - were the same promoters staging both sand racing (longtrack) and speedway??? I would gratefully appreciate if anyone could clear this one up....

Seems your friend must have missed a talk about the track and the races that was held late last year. But here is a report. It wasn't a speedway track, but a sand track. Held 17 meetings between 1952- 1963, although I think somewhere it states 1961 https://www.wochenspiegelonline.de/news/article/unvergessen-sandbahnrennen-in-erbach/ https://homburg1.de/homburg-vortrag-ueber-das-legendaere-erbacher-sandbahnrennen-von-1952-bis-1961-84369/ a programme here https://www.saar-nostalgie.de/Motorsport.htm and here are 3 programmes up for sale from meetings in Homburg. lot 7353 https://www.automobilia-ladenburg.de/aAPI/catalogs/en/4576acacc279e96599de02909e6b18bc/page/8

they arent forcing any rider to do anything,its the riders decision if you want to ride in poland this yr youll have to live there your choice,anyway do you think any premiership football club would allow a player to play for them on sat but live in poland the rest of the wk,no if you want to play football over here you live here

No real news...

And long may it continue.

Especially with the size of signing on fees paid to riders in Poland the clubs will expect them there every week not stuck in another country.

Depends what the contract says. Given that short haul flights are likely to be extremely rare in the short term, it makes sense to require riders to based themselves in country.

It is a German word lol

There was an electric ignition system produced and used in the early 00's. It was a small lever on the handle bars which detuned/retarded the ignition so producing more grip from the start with less spins. Once in front the rider flicked the ignition back to normal having gained from the gate advantage. I caught a very fast starting Exeter rider at our away meeting at Exeter using one, but the rider hid his bike from me and the machine examiner wouldn't do anything about it. I reported it to the Ref and the SCB, but I never heard anything after that. It was illegal cos in 1997 there was a vote amongst riders as to whether programmable ignitions could be introduced into British Speedway, but they voted against them mainly on the basis of cost. Hope that helps.

My journey is upto an hour each way depending on traffic, and know many more who travel further. I d be surprised if even 10 percent of our crowds hail from the swale area.

Hang on , are people honestly classing riding a motorbike stoned just as bad as robbing two vulnerable people with a blade ? Jesus Christ.

Anyone who thinks what was working 30 - 40 years ago is the way forward is deluded. However, the way things are now is definitely not working. The answer? No idea.

Thanks again Tigerowl-I think your list is now the definitive one-hopefully it will stay this way for a long time. Amazing how many World Finalists in their nineties are still around. they must be tough old birds!!. Incidentally Reg received a note from Marion Cresp-Ray's wife. Despite having some heart surgery a few years ago-he's fine, living in Melbourne and enjoying pottering around in his garden under the beautiful Aussie sunshine!!

Oh let it be so at King's Lynn where I have to, by necessity, sit on the disabled bench. That gives a reasonsble view but you can't hear much of any announcements and certainly no interviews. Riders seem to have practiced audo distancing for years and most regard the mic as something likely to do them harm. I have offered this as feedack for at least the last five seasons but with no improvement whatsoever. If you can have a word, please do. Sadly I don't have a smartphone, so I cannot go down the route suggested.

Some of the more progressive Promotions have already announced that this will be the case. I highlighted last week a few who have already made announcements with Free Offers and significantly reduced Admission Rates. Other Clubs will no doubt follow once the actual position about chances of Racing in 2020 are known. It's not all doom and gloom out there far from it. The biggest danger as I see it are the dinosaurs amongst the current Promoter population just carrying on regardless and killing the Sport in the process. A breakaway of the progressives at some point might be the best solution and that takes us full cycle back to the 60's.

That's not what I said.National League racing takes place in stadia now, not "some field where some people...." Still, if you want to believe such utter rubbish to look good then go ahead. The rest will leave you to it. Ever been to Iwade? That's real grass roots speedway and that certainly doesn't live up to your stupid description.

I agree that a scoreboard should be at every stadium but then I was brought up at Wimbledon who used the dog racing boards they had from the time I started going in 1959. They had the heat result, time and score up on the board. Could be very useful if the speakers were not working too well.

Why can't we run with the engine's they tried in the meeting that was run at the isle of wight? It would be cheaper for riders promoters ect. And the racing maybe better? What do people think?

I think a 'festival fo speedway' is a great idea

I tend to agree. I'm sure that speedway will survive and hopefully common sense will previal and expenses looked at...the days of super-charged bikes costing thousands to tune may well be at an end as it's unsustainable at the present level certainly in this country. If that means that "The Stars" look abroad for the mega bucks then so be it.

If we add the effects of our departure from the EU the days of cheap and simply-organised foreigners has hit the buffers. I suspect that apart from a fully amateur grass roots league the only way forward at the higher level is a semi-professional set-up based on riders who are based here for the season and can commit to a full season here. This would effectively be a rebirth of the highly successful National League model of the late seventies and eighties, with a pool of British and Commonwealth riders. Those who wish to take Poland's money could be allowed to, but at the Polish club's expense. If they can pay megabucks per point they can pay the air fares.... Whatever level emerges it must fit one simple principle. The costs must not outweigh the revenue.

Like you say, this could be a once in a lifetime opportunity to totally rebrand the sport. Will those in power have the balls and the knowhow to pull this off, lets hope so.

I agree that team meetings should be written off, however if the government restrictions allow it I would hope a few open meetings could be held before end of October

Any rider on a British licence will have to ride just in Britain then surely.... If said rider wanted to be based in Poland and ditch the British Leagues then I would expect his licence to be revoked......

It’s pretty obvious that if there is any meaningful Team speedway this season(doubtful IMO)there won’t be many foreign riders or Aussies that have gone home available.Most Aussies that went home will have used their return ticket, so who will pay for them to return in present climate and if they do return they will be heading for a Poland IMO. Riders wanting to be full time riders in GB might have to rethink.Writing this season off would be the best option for many Promotions.IMO.

I made this point precisely during the winter when teams were announced and at which point there was only 1 team in the 19 Clubs in the PL / CL with 7 British riders and a couple with 6 British riders and a smattering with 5. The issue though for Promoters is that the richest Clubs will sweep up the British riders, especially Clubs like Wolverhampton (2020 team not a single British born rider), who will suddenly seek to do something they have rarely done and be interested in British riders. For many of the Australians in the CL though Poland/Sweden are NOT an option so there would have to be some non UK born riders allowed to race here as they would base themselves for 6-7 months in the UK.

I certainly don’t know all the answers but a scenario where it’s much cheaper to get in, meetings are more regular and riders are always present save for injury would only be a good thing. If speedway was reincarnated in this way and somebody who knows what they are doing could rebrand and market the whole thing properly and professionally it might grow again, you never know.

I said a similar thing recently re cheap air flights being a thing of the past. This would be the obvious time to think maybe about 1 league with UK based riders, where teams are more balanced in terms of the difference between the best in the league and the worse are much closer. Hell, go the whole hog where 6 & 7 have to be under 21. This in turn should bring closer racing, which could help bring in new people to the sport as the drama of a race increases. If mass gatherings were allowed this year (I suspect they wont) I fear that many of the premiership teams will struggle for riders this season as they will be unable to commute between countries/leagues. Even some Championship teams will have problems. Two of Leicesters heat leaders are in Australia who are thinking about introducing a total international travel ban.

Then they will fail as it can not carry on as it is, the world post CV19 will simply not faciltate it.

But the promoters only want to look after themselves and not the sport can’t see them wanting to give up assets. I think it sounds a good idea though but a lot of the old promoters are old school as you well know and don’t and won’t do change even if it’s for the better

That Bloody stand gave me a headache year in year out and will continue to do so for whoever now deals with the LCC!