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DO you seriously think that someone who commentates for Sky, BT Sport and TalkSport has no qualifications. You have posted numerous times on here that you are not a fan. Fair enough, that's your views but continually doing so will not sway the opinion of those who recognise Nigel as a first class commentator for darts, speedway and football.

That’s the problem with speedway in a nutshell.

Wouldn't it be the height of irony if UK via German Pfizer and its own Oxford and Cambridge led work had ample supplies of vaccine by May and the Poles were lagging behind and unable to keep up. How would that suit the bullies of Polish Speedway Federation. They need to realise they are part of a global sport and that other speedway countries may be behind in Speedway terms but light years ahead in other scientific areas.

It would seem in the UK that the elderly and 'at risk' will be the first to get the vaccine along with key workers and then followed by age groups downwards ie 80s, 70s, 60s etc. That should cover the bulk of the UKs speedway audience by April. Job done!

To be fair to the guy (Rob Godfrey (RG)) he's not saying here are 16 riders you must use these guy's that's it; the way I read it is; here are 16 Brits who are without team places it would be nice if you could consider these guy's before bringing in some foreign rider. You would think he is telling teams to put 3 point riders in as heat leader's. Also have Glasgow not declared the same 7 already for next season as it was mooted that all clubs had agreed that they would try and start with the same teams as announced at the start of 2020 season so what's the problem. If Newcastle manage to get all 7 back they will be around 2 points under the team build level but that's their choice. If either of Nick Skorja or Ondrej Smetana cant make it next season I would like to see a British 7 point rider replace one of these 5 pointers and if there is someone available on the list fine; if not Ludvig Lindgren (foreign rider) fits the bill; its not mandatory to pick one of the 16... If neither make it then again a 9 point rider with a 3 pointer off the list of 16 would be fine by me... (we are about 2 points under the limit) Obviously there will be the odd rider who changes his plans; especially foreign riders I would suggest; (or the rider retires (prematurely) because they have a proper job now and are earning regular cash for a change) and the odd rider who is spending the next 3 to 4 years at Her Majesty's pleasure who wont be available (ever hopefully) and also I have heard that THJ (no the other one) may not be back at this level next year so teams will by default require new riders. However RG has a list of 16 brits who are available and should be given consideration first; but if that's not viable for the team re-building and if all that's available are riders with averages from 3 to 5 points then they wont be filling in for heat leaders (will they?); They should do this every season by the end of November and float riders names around the clubs nationally and if one brit rider gets picked up over a foreign import then great; furthermore it would make all the clubs aware as to who is available to fill in for injured riders as well... There has been many a daft scheme to push riders on to clubs to promote young British riders but this isn't one of them I think people are making a bit of a mountain out of a mole-hill on this... Regards THJ

That was 1979. But, remember, Arnie arrived at Hyde Road with a back catalogue of recent injuries, his demise hastened by the fact he had completed just one full season - 1977 - of the last three. In 1976 he missed the entire season barring one league match with a broken arm. In 1978 a broken thigh, again after one league match, restricted him to the sidelines. He was an eight-point rider in 1975 before the setbacks. Arriving at Belle Vue in 1979, aged 36, considered old for a rider back then, it was a period of change in Belle Vue’s make-up. With Alan Wilkinson injured the year before, fans tried adjusting as riders arrived from rival clubs as the conveyor belt of training school talent was ending. Pekka Hautamaki came from Cradley and an unknown, Emil Sova, from Czechoslovakia. The side was terrible early on, especially to fans brought up on a diet of 1970s success, and for much of the season tried desperately to get out of the bottom three. Changes had to come. Haley lost his place when the club brought in Dave Allen in August. Manager Eric Boocock liked Haley and thrilled when he got him from Owlerton, revealing he looked fitter than he had ever done. But in hindsight, the signing didn’t prove good, and Haley struggled to cope, especially away. He totalled a meagre paid six in 12 league matches on the road - three of which came at old track Sheffield. He failed to open his account in nine of a dozen matches on his travels. Perhaps his saviour was his Hyde Road form, which may have bought him more time in the side. He scored a reserve league maximum in his penultimate match for Aces in August 1979, before adapting better to the National League when loaned to struggling Workington, where he completed the year. Four points (two at Belle Vue) from nine early 1981 matches in Cradley colours signalled the end of Arnie’s racing days. It was clear his dabbling with top league competition was behind him and he joined Oxford, then in the National League, in May, but rode only one match for them before calling time on his career.

Some riders never quite achieved what they could have done. The bar was so high with Michael though. The fact that Michael Lee became world champion and, in most people's opinion, was an amazing talent, but still we think of "what might have been" shows to me that he could have been one of the greatest riders ever instead of a one off world speedway champion. I'm sure that he's thought that himself many times. I support Belle Vue and can't pretend that I liked the guy for his off the track troubles and the bad publicity it brought he sport, but I was never in doubt when I saw him ride that I was watching a unique talent.

That's the problem in general, in a nutshell.

Yes, all good points. 1979 and 1980 were pretty unsettled years for the Aces

Drew Kemp has signed a 2 year contract with Gdansk.

It’s quite simple logic too. If Poland take the monopoly on the sport then ourselves, Denmark and Sweden will fall even further behind. Less fans means less future riders. A vicious circle which continues to get smaller. That means in 15-20 years a Grand Pix full of solely Polish riders with maybe the anomaly of a breakout natural talent from another nation (a Zagar, Vaculik etc.), but these anomalies will encompass the interest from the previously strong Speedway nations too. It no longer becomes a World Championship because the World is no longer interested, only the Polish. You and I might be interested still because we’re already speedway fans but the next generation won’t be because they won’t have the same exposure to the sport here as have/had growing up. Poland being the mega power closes the shop, if interest in the sport there wanes as as it continues to do here, for example, then the sport as a whole suffers. A slight tangent but look at darts, it was always a reasonably big concern in Britain, the sport has actively looked to increase its fan base abroad. That has led to more players from more countries, in turn leading to more interest, that means more tournaments in more countries, bigger sponsorship etc. A snowball effect. Whether you like the sport or not, darts is massive now in more countries than ever before. Speedway is currently doing the opposite. Let’s not kid ourselves that the Poles want to have all of the pie for the good of the sport as a whole, they’re being selfish. As we can see from our own leagues, self-interest is one of the biggest flaws in Speedway moving forward. How it can then be seen as a good thing because it’s happening in Poland now too is short sighted.

I remember when he joined Belle Vue at the very end of his career when he came in as a reserve. I thought that he could be a really potent weapon there but sadly time had caught up with him and he was a shadow of his former self. A great rider at Sheffield though.

At least he was honest!

Lets leave out the negative and remember the talent. In the 50 years I have followed sport for me Micheal could have been our greatest ever English rider.

I've rarely read anything so littered with inaccuracies and falsehoods. The one thing Polish Speedway always had was passionate fans. The one thing it didn't have in the 70s was money and financial clout. Quite the opposite, go and study Communism and the Fall of it in the Eastern bloc. There was no free Press, free Media, you'd struggle to find any Polish rider with anything but a factory Jawa and black leathers well in to the Briggo Manger Olsen era. When Zenon Plech was allowed to go on one of the Mauger Briggo Troupe Tours all he could take was his handlebars. If you are about 15 you might think Polish Speedway is the greatest thing on the planet. It may be now but that's a very modern phenomenon as the old timers before the end of the Communist era around 1990 and the dozens upon dozens of riders still owed fortunes by Polish Clubs up to the very recent past will testify...it was anything but the jewel in the crown. New Polish stadia to are a very modern phenomenon. Most are expensive returns paid for by local politicians keen to get reelected It's also the case in the UK that as many if not more speedway tracks were added to dog tracks, than the other way round and similarly most tracks round football or rugby pitches followed the ball sports. Purpose built stadia and those where speedway were there first is the exception over the past 50 years and not the rule.

Ignoring the critics on here who hold a perpetual dislike of his style of presentation

Tony Millard was a lovely guy and it was such a shame when the style of the Sky Speedway production was changed to have commentary and presentation done together so Tony was no longer required. I do still think the ride in studio presentation was the best although the amount of times the floor managers nearly got ridden over trying to get riders into the studios was quite a health risk. Getting back on topic I have a feeling that Eurosport may have a slightly different style to their coverage than BT. I am hoping that they do a better job of it than when they had the GP coverage as it was low budget as basic as they could get. Hopefully the money people in Paris will give Speedway a realistic budget to produce a high quality broadcast . As much as people moaned about BT coverage you have say that technically their production was the best yet with all meetings being in UHD and with a fresh style

And that's exactly how British speedway behaved in the 1970s, which is one of the reasons we got to where we are now.

Poland are just looking after their product, and well within their rights to do so. This year has been ideal for them with riders all based over there and very few travelling to Sweden later in the year for the odd meeting once a week with very few injuries throughout the course of the season too. Losing some of the biggest earners in this country might be a blessing in disguise and can be the beginning of lowering costs and lowering prices in this country. This is likely to effect Jason Doyle, Nicki Pedersen, Jack Holder, Rasmus Jensen, Rohan Tungate, Brady Kurtz, Niels K Iversen, Robert Lambert, Dan Bewley and Jaimon Lidsey.

When Gorzow offers me the same as they do for Zmarzlik, it’s a done deal.

"He looks like a flying hairpin"... you don't get Speedway commentary like that anymore, brilliant!

One of the better races i've seen live

Maybe this one. For those watching in black and white, Joe Screen is in the blue helmet.