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Totally agree. I've been following the Stars since 1969 through thick and thin (mostly thin) at times going twice a week when the Starlets were also running, but for the last few years I have been increasingly bored with the racing, the rising costs and the perceived lack of value for money. Sometimes the meetings seem to drag on, with us supporters standing for ages on the terraces waiting for the action to start. The disease that is "gardening" seems to be getting worse at all tracks and even the GP's can't escape it. Sometimes on my long dark drives back to my home near Norwich, I think to myself "why did I bother tonight?" and yet I will often turn up the next week for a dose of the same mediocre fayre. Sadly what I've found out over the last year and the Covid lockdown, is that I really don't miss it that much, which I feel sad about as I've supported Speedway since I was 13 years old, starting at the Firs in Norwich in 1963. Will the sport, and Kings Lynn, rekindle my love of Speedway in 2021? I really don't know. I wonder how many fans in my age group feel the same, and are there enough younger fans to keep the sport alive after oldies like myself find the love has died. I applaude the effort to include "rising stars" in the teams, as that is one way to give younger riders a chance to progress and experience racing at a higher level, but I ask myself what is being done to encourage new fans, or even older fans like myself, to turn up each week and part with our money? The sport has come to many crossroads in its time, and against all odds has always managed to survive. However with all sports in crisis at the moment, I fear for the future of Speedway but hope that I am proved wrong.

Imagine if Josh had been Matt Ford's nephew and Poole had signed him using the same criteria?? This place would have been in meltdown!!!

To be fair James Sarjeant has has plenty opportunity over the seasons to impress, yet seldom has.

Bates will qualify forever then......

Absolutely. I’ve gone from a die hard every week to now picking and choosing my meetings. Speedway for me no longer represents good value for money. The racing is getting worse and the team strengths are the weakest in history. Yes COVID undoubtedly makes a difference but the decline has been coming for years. It’s just a race to the bottom now rather than trying to improve. I’ll give it a go early on but if the racing is still 13 out of 15 FTG and the team isn’t competitive, my money’s staying in my pocket.

For me, when Jonathan Chapman left. Although he came across as arrogant to many he ALWAYS made you feel like he listened. He always tried to put on various entertainment during the summer months. It was massively noticeable when he went & it's gradually slipped further & further down hill since. Rob Lyon did try when he became promoter but he wasn't around long enough to really make an impact on the terraces.

Takes deep breath, laughs and then thinks every word written above is utter ridiculous tosh. Im not even sure where to start? 4 rising stars in the Champs with 3 far experienced/higher grade riders per team generating a gulf in racing worse than there is now. Clubs letting riders out onto the hallowed shale pre meeting? very few even allow the mascots out and non would risk a delay in start time due to a 2nd half taking place. Have you looked at the numbers of 125/250 riders competing? there are very few 250 riders and nowhere near enough to generate a league of 4 rider teams even if they only formed half of it. I stand by my previous statements that the only good thing about British speedway over the recent years has been the lower leagues, the National league and the development leagues who have tireless volunteers doing it for nothing other than the love of the sport and i find your comments above insulting to all of those involved past and present.

I’m the opposite to Bagpuss on this one. I watched the vast majority of the Young Stars meetings and loved them. Yes some of the riders could be a bit rough around the edges but that was part of the enjoyment for me. I’d say when the Young Stars stopped that was the beginning of me falling out of love with speedway. I loved watching the riders progress. Not everyone was a Robert Lambert (few are) but it felt like we were investing in the sport and growing our own talent. Just a shame more didn’t support it. Also the big trouble is the NL has a mixed identity. You have big standalone clubs where it is just about winning and others where it was all about development.

Barry was a fair junior rider in his day, doing a couple of seasons in the old Scottish Junior League, making their all-star team that raced against the Anglia Junior League around 1979/80 time

I've always believed the sport is too expensive. Its too expensive to watch, Its too expensive to promote, and too expensive to ride, and until that issue is addressed the sport will continue to die. In this modern day our stadia are old and run down , and the tracks are not suitable for the super fast machinery that the riders now use. All the individual facets think only of themselves . This pandemic created the ideal opportunity for a sport to have fresh start with new ideas that would bring in new blood, new format, new machinery, but all they have done is to continue along the same criteria that hasn't worked for years.. They haven't learnt a thing......

It started to go wrong at Lynn when the catch fence was put up around the track. It stopped the fans getting near the riders and killed the atmosphere dead. The meeting referees don’t let riders be characters anymore, people remembered meetings because of the atmosphere even if the racing was dire.

Another british rider who's a victim of the new rules... I'm so confused as to how josh bates can be a rising star but james cant? Other than family ties

Zac Wajtknecht would be a fantastic signing he has the talent & Crump could be the key to unlock that talent on track, both Bristol born boys.

I stopped I think 2018, the year of the double headers & the season ticket holders were compensated with a cup of tea. The owners gave zero s#!+s about many complaints. After it being a religion, going for over 30 years I haven't missed going at all. King's Lynn will always be in my heart (hence being onhere still), but would never contemplate ever going back unless changes to attitude & racing happen. British Speedway as a whole is in serious need to give the fans what they want, quality racing constantly & supply entertainment. Unfortunately the only place delivering on the racing is Belle Vue but even there, people just ain't returning. British Speedway is at the point now of no return & the pandemic has emphasised it even more. Recently the promotion had a q&a, nobody was interested, only the usual fan names asked questions. The clubs social media is dead, the interaction numbers are horrendous. I do jave a feeling thing's may look bleak for the club. When read comments from the other club down the road that our owner rents, it just feels more effort has been put in their but they're still not getting right with the fans.

I'm a massive advocate of junior racing and scrapping the Ndl would be ridiculous do you not understand the massive step from second half level to league racing. Having it as you say would be madness from occasional second half's to championship in one step

A spot on post and sums up much of why myself and my partner stopped attending the last meeting we attended at KL was the last year we held the World Cup round and for various reasons we couldn’t get to the next meet which I think was Holder / Batch gate fiasco and since then we’ve attended one meeting at Pboro - and after attending 95% of home meetings since the early 70s have we missed it?no not at all - we watch the GP s on tv and league racing from Uk Poland and Sweden - a change of circumstances may make it more likely we will start attending a few meetings this season we shall see .

All depends on what the actual points limit is? Based on 35 then Jamie Halder would be a good addition as a strong second string anything less than that and its likely another 3 pointer either new to league or failure from previous attempts.

Makes sense to use our asset in Kinsley. I’m not actually sure which promotion Connor is as asset of now which is just typical of speedway’s behind closed door deals. Retained asset lists should be freely available on the BSPA website. Also, let’s be honest, using Mountain rather than Kinsley is hardly likely to turn us into title contenders, unless there is a massive rabbit to be pulled out of a very small hat. Until we find a second heat leader and Jorgensen and Proctor massively improve their away form, we’re going to get hammered away most weeks regardless of who is at reserve.

The problem is, if you tell the truth, you get accused of being negative. Who said 'the customer is always right'. It doesn't apply to speedway.

per meeting!!!

Hi all, Reg was in touch with Bengt Jansson, apparently Ulf Ericsson died in the mid seventies in an air crash so he can sadly be removed from the list. Still no word on Olle Andersson yet though.

James sarjeant on a 3.90 anyone? Would LOVE to see zach back in the sport

I'm sure Plymouth will take advantage of him? On a bargain average and can sit in a number 4 position quite comfortably

Or 27 year old Tom bacon but it’s all in the best interest of the sport so they say. feel for James as he’s a good guy and hopefully he’ll get sorted out soon somewhere.

Or get a relative on the Management Committee

and i thought Odsal Boy was bad......

Nothing would surprise me.

laugh at this comment Lewy if you're hung like a gnat

Not exactly true, Mildenhall & Eastbourne have had quality teams full of young developing riders!

That’s fine. I obviously won’t reveal the source but they can’t keep everybody happy, not even the rest of the promoters but it’s all ‘ in the best interests of the sport ‘ as they like to say !

If you look at it like that though then you have to say that most of the riders have replaced each other ie Bridger replaces Proctor who then replaces Kerr.Kerr then moves into Jorgensens position.These are all positional changes which now have to happen anyway. The way i was looking at it was basically out German in Kinsley,out Riss in Bridger out Lambert in R.I think possibly the new rider will be 3rd in our averages behind Jorgensen depending on Bridgers average as to what we have to play with.So with the way you are doing it it looks like Jorgensen for Cook and the new rider for Riss.

I’ve never really taken to third division speedway to be honest, I went a fair bit twenty years ago under Waggy when he built a team from scratch with Brundle, Mills, Cook, Burton etc but despite trying it lots of times in different seasons I just don’t get the buzz from it like senior racing. I used to be a regular at Mildenhall as well as Lynn in the mid to late noughties but haven’t been there since they were last in the second tier.

I think its a positive plan to build on the growing sccess of the British Youth Championship which is starting to develop good, young riders. Maybe the plan is get lots of untried riders into league racing. After say, a couple of season those that are good should be at Champrionship reserve level. Then a couple of years after that in the top league aged 20ish. Maybe the benefits of these changes will not be seen for 4+ years

I'm surprised that Mountain was not selected by a top team

Absolutely, although it’s difficult to see who is available to ride over here to fill that slot with the points left. More likely that the seventh rider will fit into a budget rather than use all the points up anyway, similar to P’boro. I agree with those who say that getting back on track is the most important thing for 2021 but at the same time the team needs to be competitive.

Very sensible.

Or maybe they prefer to put their time and effort into riders who want to be at the club? That’s no criticism of Mountain who no doubt made a decision which was best for him at the time.

It was. Connor was riding for King’s Lynn Lightning in the MDL. They wanted him to step up to the Young Stars and become a club asset. He decided to go to Mildenhall instead. Obviously that’s his prerogative but don’t think it went down all that well.

Possibly his injury put the brakes on his progress??? Agree it's now time to kick on if he ever is to

They should contact Boris to see what he is going to do, and they can then plan with 100% certainty what WJK will do. . ie. Exactly the opposite to him to show what a 'great leader' she is...

i bet that was a special time of his life doing grand prix - and shows how well thought of he was, proper speedway person.

Leader is not how I would describe Herr Furher. Children may log on from time to time so I will refrain on what I would like to call her.

Agree , we can only hope Salmond finishes her off.

Just curious, but when did your non speedway person ask you those questions?

And so we come to speedways second biggest issue, fans that bury their heads in the sand, as long as its their team that benefit.

Very conveniently Bates was 25 on Feb 1st...... has a Prem ave just under 5.50 ......and a Champ ave just under 6.50 ........ Is everyone getting it yet....... Looks like the criteria were written using the Bates career bio as a template

Sad news indeed. RIP Varg "Olle" My parents first met Olle at a New Cross supporters club meeting at Fred Mockford's cafe at Eynsford Kent. One of the first Swedish riders to ride in England. A real fiery young Swedish rider. Lived life to the full and up until recently rode a huge touring motorcycle with his former Norwich team mate Ove Fundin all over Europe.

So its James Sargeant who makes way https://www.edinburghmonarchs.co.uk/news-centre/article/2021-02-19/monarchs-make-change-for-2021

Probably not a popular thing to say but I think the NDL needs to be scrapped completely now, the UK should run with just the Premiership and Championship as a professional and semi-professional league structure. The aim should be for a 10 team Premiership within the next 2 seasons and if you take Swindon/Somerset coming back then it would create a 12 team Championship if Mildenhall and IOW go up into a Championship. Othe Future stars list there are 55 riders with some names missing! thats at least 4 riders per team so you could have 4 of these riders in the Championship running at no.2/4/6/7 with 3 more experienced riders as heat leaders, would be better progression for riders than being thrown in the premiership at no.7 from the off You could then look to have a development racing programme consisting of 4 riders per team and encourage as many clubs to participate as possible and have a mixture of 125/250/500 junior racing on either as a 2nd half event or if say doors open at 6.30pm for a 7.45 start have them doing their programme before the meeting starts. say a 6 heat format where each rider gets 3 programmed rides track experience only no points, any that are good enough come into the rising star programme when ready as a 1* rider