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The Facennas are very successful business operators, if they say it’s not financially viable in Glasgow, then it is not financially viable. I have no doubt that if Premiership moved to Friday then that’s the league they would operate in, same as Birmingham who haven’t gone up out of choice, they’ve gone as Monday is the only night they can now race. To suggest they are being tight is a tad harsh when they have literally invested millions in the stadium and team, way more than any other club. But the day to day economics have to add up, they don’t feel there is a hidden community of speedway fans hiding in Glasgow who would only come out for Premiership speedway. Also the notion of a “weak” league I don’t think stacks up, it is going to be a more even league with the bigger riders spread around more but opportunities for younger riders to break through. It should make for closer league, but it’s hardly like you had Doyle Woffy & Sayfutdinov in the Championship last year. Sheffield’s traditional night is Thursday (they tried Sundays once and it was a disaster), that’s one of the reasons they are in the Premiership. And Lee Complin I seem to recall dragging Glasgow over the line to get into the Grand Final so I probably wouldn’t start by having a go at him lol. Different things work for different clubs due to various factors, Glasgow it’s Friday nights. It’s not lack of ambition, it’s good business.

We all the know (some of) the ifs and buts surrounding Craig. But let's be cheerful and optimistic for him and Workington. Both have come back from the brink and we should celebrate. Good luck to both in 2024.

Before the Facennas came in Glasgow speedway was on its uppers as far as I remember. They’ve pumped money in, smartened the place up and improved the track. If the Premiership is a step too far then it’s better for them to stick to Championship speedway which they can sustain than go bust in the short term because they wanted to race in the top tier. Don’t bite off more than you can chew being the moral of the story, it’s what happened at Rye House and now we have no team to support at all.

Good looking side bandits putting together, long overdue a good season

No way hes better than Masters plus you know at some point hes likely to go AWOL!! Will score well for 4/5 meetings but then go missing

Cookie is a class signing....... If his heads in the game he is 100% the best rider in the league

While there is a risk signing Cook. ,but still one of the top Men in the League if he gets his act together,good luck to him.

Good luck to Cookie on his return to the Comets. Still one of the top riders in the league and a proven number 1.

So glad my fave has a team place, I reckon Craig will be back to his best in 2024 and Workington track will suit him, he has had a couple of difficult years, Hope he has a cracking season even though I am a Glasgow supporter

Getting away from the question of the name change from dirt-track to speedway, let me tell You how it was when the new sport arrived here in Germany from England on July 7, 1929, with the opening of the Hamburg Dirt-Track. It was introduced by an English-Danish-German consortium and they promoted the new sport here as "Dirt-Track Racing" and not as "Speedway". In Germany there was a pretty clear distinction between Dirt-Track/Speedway and the other forms of motorcycle oval-track racing, that we, like the rest of the world, did have much earlier. From the turn of the century, in Germany there was motorcyle racing on steeply banked concrete or wooden cycle race track ovals, and at about the same time, the first motorcycle races were held on horse (harness) racing tracks. The cycle tracks were usually rather short ovals of between 300 and 500m length, while the horse racetracks were of course longer, mostly between 800 and 1200 meters in length. The motorcycle races on the harness tracks with their sandy surface were of course the beginning of what we know as long-track racing ("Sandbahnrennen") today. Interestingly there was no grass-track racing in Germany until the very late 1920s. When Dirt-Track/Speedway arrived here in 1929, it was totally different. The tracks were shorter than the usual horse race track, more like the cycling tracks, but of course with flat corners. The tracks were covered with a deep layer of cinders. Races were over just three or four laps, usually roughly one english mile, which was a much shorter distance compared to the other forms of track races, and there were only four (sometimes five or six, or only two or three riders in a race). In the other long established versions of motorcycle track racing there were more riders in a race and they rode over much longer distances. The style of riding (cornering) was a dsitinctive aspect of dirt-track/speedway racing, because neither on the cycle tracks nor on the horse tracks was is neccessary or even desireable to slide the bike going sideways round the corners. This would have been very much contra-productive. Another new feature of dirt-track/speedway was that it was held at night under lights, which was quite unusual at the time. There were of course a lot of day time speedway meetings as well, so that is not a significant feature of the sport. Accepting that these roughly were the defining features of speedway, what would have been the first such meeting to fit these criteria? Forget any of the very early track racing in America, Australia, South Africa, or elsewhere in the world. This wasn't speedway as we know it, but rather what today we know as flat-track or long-track racing. Was it at West Maitland on December 15, 1923? Just because it was held "under lights"? Certainly not. Maybe one of the early meetings at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground, when they put cinders on the track? I tend to agree here. The first purpose built speedway track to fit the bill would be Davies Park, which would also make Brisbane the birthplace of our sport. In my opinion it is Mr. A.J. Hunting, rather than Johnny Hoskins, who should be regarded as the founder/father of speedway.

Absolutely. I've long said that the reason the racing is perceived to be better in tier two is purely down to the circuits. We've now lost Peterborough which was one of the better ones too, although Brum and Oxford are potentially decent. But as you say Redcar, Glasgow, Scunny and Workington are better than anything the top league can offer excluding BV which in my opinion is the best we have in the UK. We can only imagine the top riders who race over here on those best tracks......

There would, but fortunately it’s not gonna happen! There was a reason he wasn’t pursued last season when he wasn’t retired. Got a good feeling about the 2024 side , I think people will be surprised!

Spot on

Considering cooks had a higher average than masters ever has in this league proves you're talking pish

Unfortunately not. The result is in the International section. Masters 4th!

So it proves everyone wants the bloke to do well let’s just hope he can manage any issues he may have and he can once again become the rider we all no is there.

Very much so!

Think the fans at Edinburgh and Glasgow also loved him

I think it’s great that cooks signed for a team where he’s loved, it’s a bit like my team with barker if the rider feels wanted they always perform that little bit better, I no the comets fans will give him all the love and encouragement and hopefully Craig is in a good place comfortable in his surroundings it all bodes well and I can see him being one of the top riders in the league. Well done Workington and good luck Craig I look forward to seeing you down at Plymouth when hopefully you will have your one and only stinker lol.

Ged has said numerous times the club would've continued and Chapman only purchased it to keep the Elie league alive

True,but as i always do have one it will work out more expensive.I don't really buy a programme to read but i like to see who's in the next lot of races,when i would do a reserve switch etc,etc.Blimey at my age i sometimes forget who's in the race that is actually going on,so i definitely need one

All depends on which Craig Cook turns up or doesn't as the case may be.

Everyone is raving about Sheffield (weak reserves) but saying Plymouth look terrible (strong reserves). A strong heat leader & a weak reserve still gets a 3-3 against second strings & strong reserves. With less heat leaders available this year, all teams will want to have two, points limit stops you having 3 (except Poole who could have 4). Then improving riders at the bottom end could prove the difference.

I think most people were aware at the time which makes it all the sadder. The promotion made a silly decision. The fans had to deal with the consequences (and still are sadly). Maybe more could have been done to help but that’s a subject for another time and place. The Facennas have done right by Glasgow. Their judgement so far appears to have been spot on. As you say, we don’t want to see another club go to the wall, I don’t think the custodians of Glasgow would be foolish enough to overstretch thankfully.

"You cannot be serious " ( J. McEnroe ) J.P. is 8.63 !

Sedgmen will be the Monarchs new No.1 for 2024

Was always on cards he wouldn’t be lining up for us in 2024. Agree with you. A fit Cookie is one of best riders in the league. My favourite ever Monarch. Good luck in 2024 Craig and hope you can get back to your best.

Good luck to Cookie at Worky next season. Can see him having a good one.

Not long now to your next signing hope you're all pleased with him

I wouldn't mind betting that To a certain extent Buster wishes he'd just let you bunch of ungrateful b@stards go under when Ged Rathbone had had enough, rather than keep the place going. If Tomalin had put his money where his mouth is last winter you could all be blaming him now., you could have " enjoyed" Chris Holder for the season aa well .Can't blame Buster for not showing up at the rally, I wouldn't have either if I'd been slagged off that much.

Bandit fans don't stalk other pages much, so the message won't get across to said fans, BUT if you said happy Xmas to Poole fans that's another story

If its Craig Cook Worky are going to struggle

too much focus on heat leaders teams are more successful with strong reserves and 2nd strings that improve rather than strong heat leader who mins every race but his partner only picks up points if others dont finish race

In hindsight it's so obvious what went wrong at Rye House. It's such a shame the promoters didn't realise too. Obviously they would've been better staying in the Champ on Saturdays than going Prem on Thursdays, don't want the same to happen to Glasgow.

Extreme left in the picture is team manager Joe Crowther.

Riss, Cook, MPT.

Hope your correct, need some good names to keep fans onside, especially as the promotion have recently been pushing season ticket sales, but no riders named to help sell the tickets, yes if you like your speedway you are going to go whatever, but lots of people like to see names who are gonna be in the team. Hopefully we will have a team that will win at home and not disgraced away from home, and the fans back the promotion by turning up UTC

Better tracks in top league? I disagree. Bar Belle Vue, Championship has much better tracks and racing, even excluding Glasgow. Give me Workington, Redcar and Scunthorpe over any other top league track to Belle Vue. Oxford a good track, but in both leagues.

Kings Lynn, Ipswich and Leicester are good tracks for the tv viewer? Even Sheffield outside the play offs is usually a bore fest. I gave up my Discovery subscription early this year as the PL meetings they had on were just awful. Watching Doyle win heats at Ipswich half a lap ahead and with many meetings having almost zero passing bar ef's isnt entertaining. Diluting the CL this year is frustrating but moving leagues isnt the solution to it IMO.

Imagine all the hysteria here over not having announced more names and then they announce Bickley. There’d be a meltdown.

As Peter explained there is not enough fans to justify the expense.I”ll stick with his explanation .The fans will see decent speedway whatever league they compete in.

Sounds interesting I genuinely hope it comes off for Edinburgh if it's going to be a good one, they deserve a good year next season, always nice to see the Scottish teams doing well

Yes you have interesting opinions. I'm still trying to get over the fact that you posted on the Poole thread that they should sign Joe Thompson (already signed by Plymouth) as you were really impressed by him at the U21 at Ashfield earlier this year (Joe didn't impress, he wasn't even there, it was his brother Dan) and that he beat Tarasenko 'fair and square' in the play-off final (despite Vadim having bike issues). Definitely 'interesting'.

I think the goal may have been for a third tier with no standalone clubs for a while. Arguably that has cost the sport Mildenhall and Kent as tracks and forced Workington to move up. Ironically the lowering of the points limit and stricter doubling up rules in the third tier could have made things more viable for those clubs and the likes of Buxton and the Isle of Wight. It would have opened up more team spots for young riders too.

I’ve heard it’s Redcar for Craig Cook too.

if he has a average season can see him pushing 10pt average