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I think its a bit unfair to criticise the new BSPL Management Board (Godfrey, Damian Bates, Debbie Hancock, Chris Louis and Stewart Dickson) who have updated their intentions/actions regularly on their website and in Speedway Star, including the political lobbying, subject to Govt permissions. All promotions have been praising their efforts and been kept in the loop with weekly 'Zoom' meetings. Not sure what else they could have done.

Kent's one of the seven speedway tracks (Birmingham, Newcastle, Poole, Sheffield, Swindon & Wolverhampton being the other six) who rent their tracks from greyhound landlords and at least some of that list of tracks have faced a very awkward situation (with Poole in a category of its own as its greyhounds haven't resumed behind closed doors for televised betting whereas the other six all have). Where the dogs have resumed, it's for between 3-and-6-times a week all year long (unlike speedway's 7-month season), heavily covid-regulated for stadium staff or trainers/kennelhands and with each of those meetings worth far more in betting shop media rights than any single speedway rent or the food/drink profit the speedway generates. But if any of those tracks go "open-door" for a speedway crowd and is then notified of a covid-positive spectator soon after doing so, it's just about guaranteed to be quarantined for a fortnight with the consequent loss of betting shop media rights. Now put yourself in a greyhound landlord's position - would you gamble between 6-to-12 closed-door greyhound media fees on 1 smaller speedway rent/profit ? !! In Kent's case that you refer to, it's the top end of the range - 6 dog meetings a week (mid-mornings-into-lunchtime all of Mon-Tue-Wed-Thu plus Friday/Sunday nights) so a 12-meeting cost of being quarantined. It's difficult (and understandable) for many speedway fans who only use their home track's stadium for speedway to grasp just how small a chunk of the overall stadium turnover their action provides in a shared greyhound/speedway situation but you'd do well to at least respect the overall situation even if you don't like it.

So... I see col69 has started the berwick bandits 2021 thread... whose gonna be brave enough to start the Newcastle Diamonds 2021 thread.... Whoever picks up the mantel... here you go... Newcastle Diamonds 2020/21 1. Claus Vissing 8.43 2. Matthew Wethers 6.92 3. Nick Skorja 5.00 4. Ondrej Smetana 5.00 5. Max Clegg 4.92* 6. Connor Mountain 4.61* 7. James Wright 4.00 Team Total: 38.88 Remaining: 2.12 Regards THJ

Kind of a career highlight for me as I 1st saw Lahti 2004 doing 85cc...

Links for Gniezno tonight https://daddylive.live/channels/stream-42.php - English https://daddylive.live/channels/stream-57.php Polish http://totalsport.me/sport11.html English http://www.drhtv.com.pl/drhtv-2.html Polish http://www.maniak.tv/mk8 Polish

Would be silly to allow GP riders in it if they aren’t going to award it to second in this scenario.

Madsen is better than the others. That's reality.

I'd go anything at the moment. The boredom is becoming unbearable. Hopefully Non league football will start soon, add to that the odd speedway or grasstrack meeting before the year is over.

100% agree for Glasgow... The point I was debating was to say that what was good for Glasgow on the 1st of June was not the right decision for the rest of the league's and to say that Glasgow were smarter in taking their decision when they did while everybody else hung on I just don't agree with... And while there is no Speedway to go to I have nothing better to do other than have a beer and debate these pedantic points 

Not a bad shout that THJ.. None of them have had a great season, but then again, none of them have had a bad one either.. Every rider has definitely managed to maintain their average......

What a farce of a meeting. A terrible track with ruts. A ref who stops a race because a steel shoe comes off and the start of ht17 is unsatisfactory.

Lovely ride young man... Very mature... Seem to remember someone else doing that move quite a bit (and has won 3 world titles by putting it to good use).. Even just 12 months ago Lambert may have been tempted to ride the boards and end up stone last, or off the bike.. We really do have two world class riders now..

Its gonna be a long winter.

Hi Baldyman the track is in great condition .few little cracks in it but soon as you start watering/rain they will disappear thanks for enquiring bob

The track is poor and that caused the crash

Wonder if the SCB/BSPA refund all the riders licence fees for this year or let it run till next year as that’s their bread and butter income

Nothing, hopefully!

Now that the season is over I would imagine Godfrey`s income from practice sessions will dry up as for the vast majority of riders there`s nothing to practice for.

At least there appears to be consistency from the various club statements concerning retaining the same 1-7s for 2021. Obviously there will be further discussion and deliberation at BSPL Board level and ultimately it will depend on rider availability. I wonder if the AGM will be brought forward from November? Or is it in a fixed month according to the sport's constitution? The usual explanation is to allow all clubs to finalise their season's financial balance sheet so they can declare their intentions to run (or not) the following year. Surely those decisions can be made much earlier this year?!

I think they should run the GP if they are going to get the 8 rounds they were anticipating ,but there again if they get a positive test during season it puts a whole new different complexion on it.Difficult one IMO. Think it as the right decision to cancel British season,as most Promotion don’t have the back up finances to cope with reduced crowds or the measures which might mean more expense.

That seems the logical thing from next year. By all means have GP riders as the “wildcards” but for the 1-15 should be non GP riders.

What I REALLY don't understand is why somebody like John does things like this? A lot of what he does is so ridiculous...

I couldn’t agree more however where does the money to provide free racing come from with all clubs except a notable few struggle for finance.

With the announcement this week of the cancellation of the British Leagues it got me thinking about how to stage meaningful Speedway. Who on here would attend an Individual British Speedway Championship Series? Or is it team Speedway only for you guys? I don't know how many British riders there are these days but you could run with say 2 or 3 groups of 16 riders with the top 16 after each round being split up to "headline" at each track for the next round of 3 matches all leading to the top 16 at the end of the qualifiers to ride in a final at the end of the season at the NSS.

Have you told her yet ?

Brilliant stuff from young Robert. Pleased for Lahti as well.

And loads of sheep..

All that's missing is a force 10 gale ripping through the place.

If i remember it correctly it is like SEC with a last chance heat + final.

Yes, that is very true. It is true that the international meetings due to take place for National Hot Rods, F1 and F2 Stock Cars and possibly Superstox have all been cancelled due to the limited crowds that are being allowed.

Here is a clip( 8:45 s) of Pajari falling (getting knocked off ) in a world championship quali in Abensberg 1957 won by Hofmeister of Germany, though they say he is Austrian in the clip.Getting him and Seidl mixed up https://www.filmothek.bundesarchiv.de/video/586279?q=Speedway

Well Godfrey is well placed to run an amateur meeting if his press release from in front of those curtains is anything to go by

I agree with you. That is the real reason.

It was a discussion about a former BSF member who was a very unpleasant person.

What about trousers?

Don’t think there was a lot of hindsight involved, when Glasgow pulled out and gave their reasons it sounded justified to me(possibly a few others).The pandemic was not yet at its peak and people were being told lockdown would last till at least end July beginning of August.There decision was justified IMO.Given the crowd situation that had been mentioned and the average age of speedway supporters.To be honest would you fancy travelling and standing at aSpeedway Match in Oct/ Nov if they had got something set- up.

I don't mind that so much. He's American and that is a normal American English word. It's just the weird and often random pronunciations of names that puts me off

OMG - Sam has actually said Jepsen Jensen a few times instead of Jesper Jensen. This is an incredible development.

Good post Mikebv, what has happen is very tough on clubs but the non running of the league’s in 2020 was inevitable months ago. It just shows the level of importance or should I say lack of it, that the cancellation of speedway in the UK hasn’t been mentioned on any main stream sports media. Speedway doesn’t get a line! Sadly many businesses will and are going bust and I fear this will also wipe out some clubs and put promoters in serious financial distress. Clearly there’s much going to happen and change between now and next March. Difficult times for many.

If you had prefixed your previous posts with “opinion “ that would have thrown a different perspective on it, but it was, at the time presented as fact. However be that as it may we are entitled to ask what you base your opinion on. We don’t actually know why Ippo is not running speedway meetings. It might well be that the Ipswich promotion we’re prepared to run but we’re outvoted by the other promotions who didn’t want to, or couldn’t run for whatever reason. They could hardly run a viable league if most of the other tracks wouldn’t run. Personally I think Old Bob at Herne Bay UK Martin and Mikebv have put forward some very persuasive and cogent arguments. The big worry is how many fans find other things to do and don’t come back and how many quality riders find other jobs.

Isn't the issue simply the viability of running the sport rather than any 'status' of it in the Govt eyes? All sports could have ran when football started but many simply couldn't do it with empty stadiums due to the huge financial cost of doing so.. Rugby League, Union, Cricket etc all decided not to start their leagues due to cost, hence postponed their start dates to see if crowds could be allowed in with a later start date.. Speedway also has a massive barrier to it of using someone else's property in many cases, which therefore can mean a positive test at 'the Speedway' by a steward for example, possibly impacting the core business of the landlord, (who rely mainly on greyhound racing). Therefore this would need a huge amount of faith being shown by any of the owners.. Add in the operating and business plan, which has always been unfit for purpose, of 'sharing employees' domestically and internationally, and logistically you can see why it's been pretty much a non starter to cram in meetings with riders who may need to be in four places at once.. The positive is that there may now be a 'reset' of the way they run the sport, to ensure any further impacts are lessened. A wake up call that starts with a clear focus on UK riders, meaning no dependency on rules implemented by overseas Govts, and Speedway bodies which may hinder your own business.. There may also be a reset around rider costs, as 30k of unusable kit sat in a workshop for a year, is a hell of a lot worse than having 5k of unusable kit gathering dust.. And lastly, as many promotions continually tell us that they lose "significant sums", at least this year they wont, so maybe they could invest something more into re launching and marketing a 'brand new' reset sport next year?

It is actually quite interesting to read how much clubs are losing. Surely if they lose money hand over fist in each meeting like people say, then 0 meetings will mean less debt come end of season!? Sensible decision as far as I am concerned. Absolutely pointless riding with no fans to watch, season nearly over anyway. Plan for 2021. This decision should of been made weeks ago. And I am no lover of Rory Scheiln, but I read somewhere that he is working as a delivery driver to bring in money. Good on him. You'd hope many others will turn to a full time job now, what with the tweets about earning no money etc going about. Welcome to the real world, where you have to do something you may not enjoy to earn money.

The BBC only ever mentions anything when it's something bad, I wouldn't worry about it too much the BBC is totally irrelevant these days to anybody outside of London and in hindsight it's probably a blessing that Speedway never got involved with them, can you imagine the scrutiny it would be coming under in these modern times with our lack of diversity? It'd be leading the news headlines every night

only the league is cancelled, people will still see speedway in October at a fair few tracks

To add to the confusion stock car and banger racing goes ahead at Ipswich with fans allowed in because both are classed as amateur sports. Are you any safer in the stadia because they are not professional paid sports people. You could not make it up.

Lower crowds less risk, i reckon. Non league football is supposedly starting in September, with fans.

To be expected, never thought we would see Speedway this summer to be honest. Could do without the opinions of the infectious disease experts on here too - enough of them on every other forum you go on.

PAJARI, Antti Born: August 27, 1932, Sippola, Finland. When Antti Pajari signed for Coventry at the start of the 1959 season he became the first Finn to race in league speedway in Britain. He was an accomplished performer on both shale and ice and had been involved in speedway for around nine years in Scandinavia, having to return to action after breaking both legs in an ice-speedway crash in 1952. By the latter part of the decade Antti was Finland’s top trackman and claimed three successive national speedway titles between 1956 and 1958. His reputation was excellent and he soon endeared himself to the Coventry fans with his own spectacular brand of riding, scoring ten, paid eleven, in his second league match against Norwich. Some of his form in the early part of the season was outstanding but he suffered a confidence sapping run of machine problems which reduced his average to below five points per match. He was struggling with the smaller and slicker British tracks and made it known that he would not be back for a second season at the end of the year. After leaving Brandon Antti’s standing in Scandinavian speedway dimmed somewhat and he never really reached the same heights domestically again, losing his place as Finland’s number one to the up and coming Timo Laine. Year Club Division M R P BP TP CMA FM PM 1959 Coventry NL 12 46 45 8 53 4.61 - - Individual Honours: Finnish Champion 1956, 1957, 1958. International Honours: Finnish international – 14 caps, 58 points.

Just reading thru' mine...brilliant as usual. The Oxford featured second halves particularly of interest to me. The amount of talent that took part in second halves at Cowley during the period covered really highlights how second halves at Oxford were keenly contested. Great days!

Good afternoon to all. The promotion at Newcastle would like to make a statement through the Supporters group in regard to the current rumours and to hopefully help people stop worrying about our situation at Brough. Due to the covid 19 pandemic and for the benefit of greyhound racing at Newcastle there had been talk of staging greyhound racing on a Sunday and live streaming into bookies. This had been talked about for a bit and would of been more then just for a short term period, moving us onto the only other day available at the stadium, a Monday. Thankfully the greyhounds have opted out of Sunday racing and have decided on taking their extra meeting mid week now. This was advised to us yesterday, Saturday. One issue we do have at the moment is with exception of a handful of track staff and a racing manager, all office and grandstand staff are furloughed till later in the year and the main grandstand areas are all locked down, which for speedway are very much needed to operate. We have put a proposal to the stadium in regard to the grandstand and are waiting for a reply. We will update you all as soon as we can. Many thanks.