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Hard to raise an average when you go through the tapes three times a meeting!

Not if you don't stream the TV matches?

Vaccine discrimination being put forward then Effectively banning the under 50s from attending If they do that then I wont attend for the rest of the season on principle even once able to

I disagree, I think he could definitely increase his average!

FROM the Daily Telegraph (maybe substitute speedway for county cricket) ... County cricket hopes that its elderly fanbase means it will be the first sport to allow spectators to return to grounds when the Championship season begins on April 8. Plans under discussion include admitting only spectators who have had a Covid-19 vaccine at least three weeks previously — the point at which the doses are highly effective — to further reduce the likelihood of transmission in grounds. Positive news about the rollout of the vaccine is leading to growing optimism among county chiefs, with everyone over the age of 50 due to have received one dose by the end of March.

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......

True story But I prefer this one

Think you are way of the mark . No team in any league will run with out fans that's fact. Even with Streaming

Think they asked Josh Bates his plans for this season,then set the rules

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.

Ludicrous ideas! Without the 3rd tier, you probably wouldn't have Birmingham, Scunthorpe, Plymouth, Berwick and Eastbourne in the 2nd tier. These are clubs who either dropped down to the NL to keep going or reopened in it! Mildenhall and the IoW probably would close if the NL folded! The step from junior racing to Championship level is huge so the NL is a more than useful stepping stone!

I am sure that Jordan will blossom this year with his experience in a Championship side.... Riding for Peterborough will be brilliant experience which will help his career.

The middle of that bend has caused a few riders to lose it over the years, Sam was only one of them.. it seemed that when they were riding mid track they either hit some divot or whatever and lo and behold they were on the floor.. seen it happen many times from off Scotsmons bonk...

It seems to me some riders coming to the end of their career's fall for no good reason ,one that springs to mind was PK in his last season he did it a few times ,when he was one of the safest neat riders I have ever watched .

Definitely at Dudley Wood. We used to call the 3rd bend at Cradley "Sam's Bend", he used to come off there that often.

May be the BSPL as still busy organising their pi££-up in a brewery?

i would be surprised if that were true, if it is they could've run last season but didn't. For any speedway to run they need people in the stadium.

Not seen any mention of the Premiership Junior League that was going to be launched? All the ghost teams were forced out and the development leagues put in jeopardy ready for the BSPL to swoop in and save the day but all gone very quiet since......

Tbh that's pretty believeable!

Do Plymouth, have a sponsors licence. This would be needed for the likes of Cook and Ruml.

Now tell spent all of 2019 in Eastbourne's top 5 I believe, so if he's starting at reserve he should do well!

Alfie and Henry will be a solid reserve pairing for Plymouth especially at home, could well get extra rides.

Yes I was thinking that, I would prefer to pay for meetings to be streamed, than another season of no speedway in the UK.

Speedway would not survive without fans - so unless matches are streamed - it would be financial suicide.

*cough, cough*, You mean of course that "It's a case of it's in the interest of Speedway"... *cough*..

Monarch fans will get a nice surprise with the announcement of the unfortunate james Sargent's replacement.. & I still can't understand why sarj has lost his place due to the * rating system when others who have been around longer don't seem to be affected.. suppose when the powers that be who may be related to some riders.. & it's a case of JOBS for the boys

I'm sure that could be tweaked as required....

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.

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.

Or get a relative on the Management Committee

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 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

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

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.

Bates will qualify forever then......

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.

I'd think the main problem is that the UK government has proved totally inconsistent and unreliable when it comes to deciding something. We were all told that 'Christmas wasn't cancelled' and everyone made plans, only for that to be changed a couple of days before. Same with the schools 'definitely opening' and then being closed one day later... Even the whole story about the vaccine is inconsistent and has changed several times, with one minister saying one thing and another saying another. What sensible business is going to plan events that rely on spectators - with the inherent costs that entails - in this climate? If I were speedway, which is pretty much totally reliant on spectators for its income, I wouldn't even be bothering to try to run this season.

On Tuesday, a meeting of the presidents of all PGE Ekstraliga clubs was held, at which the most important regulatory changes before the upcoming season were presented. A lot of space was devoted to the telemetry system, which is to apply from the first round. The clubs have learned the exact cost of this system and have to find in their budgets about PLN 7,000 for each home game during which new equipment will be used. In practice, this means that each club must find an additional PLN 50-60 thousand during the tournament, because this is the amount of costs of applying new solutions. The authorities of PGE Ekstraliga, however, ensure that the system will be so expensive only in the initial years of service, and over time it will be possible to use it much cheaper. This system is comprehensive "The new system is to help not only in resolving disputable situations on the finish line, but will also show average and maximum speeds of players, the number of meters traveled, lap times, etc."

Flop like a wet jelly

......Then you get the riders who sign up for a British team, then dump them when they get a better Swedish/Polish gig. They're called shystars*. (* spellcheck may be required).

Indoor speedway meetings are rare but I attended one here in South Africa back in 1983

I think Birmingham's fan base will be amongst the most inoculated in the whole country. The problem is that the decision to open the doors to fans won't hang on whether the fans are inoculated or not, but on the infection rate in the region. A region which ignores rules on masks and social distancing, treats a trip to the supermarket as a family day out, thereby ignoring the "one shopper per family" rule and then squeals like little piggies, oops, no, can't use the word piggies, that might offend, er, squeals like really squealy things, that their community is the hardest hit by the pandemic. Speedway, or any other forms of hospitality or entertainment won't resume until these other houses are in order.

I delighted when Bridger signed for Berwick a few seasons back, he looked the part, turned up with immaculate equipment and came over as very professional. Things then started to go wrong, first machinery, then loss of form, then missing meetings. Very talented rider but with Lewis there always seems a back story.

At the Firs since I was 7 years old and Ove Fundin arrived. Echo nearly all of your sentiments, about faling our of love with the sport. My happiest memoroes of speedway this century were with the arrival of Robert Lambert in the NL. Now that's what I call speedway! Buster cares nothing about wether you go or not and has nver made any effort to intereact positively with the older fans who want better racing and more variety ( myself included ). As for paying to watch Lewis Bridger! Well I would want to see that he turned up for 4 or 6 matches AND made a visible on track effort to race, before I paid my money,