Halifaxtiger

He's as good a signing as you could have made. Made huge progress last season and was very impressive every time I saw him.

I must admit I don't get - and never have - the argument that because the overall meeting is 75 rather than 90 or 105 minutes its either poorer value or highlights just how poor value it is. You see around 15 minutes of racing either way, so I'd say the sooner a meeting finishes the better because the rest is mostly just standing around. Its also only poor value if the speedway is rubbish. Your last sentence is something perhaps all riders needed to be reminded of when they are making demands. Below the very top level, speedway is (and indeed always has been) a part time sport.

While I accept it is needs to be more specific, that would mean that every rider coming out of the NL at least could be a 7.00 - and its pretty clear they aren't. Its also nothing to do with Wilson-Dean's immigration status, as it could apply to English riders. Wilson-Dean is a 3.00 in the PL, not the 5.00 that both Somerset and Plymouth were quoted. A promoter being honest and apologising ? Never thought I'd see the day That's your chance of being BSPA chairman gone..............

The 3.00 and 5.00 pt rule applies in the NL, not the PL. This is the rule as stated in SCB Regulations regarding riders new to the PL and their averages: 18.6 RIDERS MATCH AVERAGES (see SR 16.2 for Definitions) and GRADINGS 18.6.1 Riders new to Premier League racing are categorised as follows: Cat 1: Riders with an “end of the previous season’s published average” in the Polish Ekstraliga or the Swedish Elitserien of above 6.00 points and a Rider subject to a Certificate of Sponsorship Cat 2: Riders with an “end of the previous season’s published average” in the Polish Ekstraliga or Swedish Elitserien of 6.00 and below plus ALL other Riders riding currently in any Professional Speedway League, Cat 3a: Riders not riding in a Professional Speedway League Cat 3b: Commonwealth or USA (to a maximum of 4 each season) Riders new to British Speedway Cat 4: Riders who have ridden in the National Development League as an Amateur 18.6.2 The Assessed MA's for new Riders to the PL racing is: Cat 1 8.00 Cat 2 7.00 Cat 3a 5.00 Cat 3b 7.00 Cat 4 3.00 Can you point me to a regulation that states that there is a difference between a rider with a British passport and a rider who has patriality ? If not, Wilson-Dean's PL average is a 3.00. Or is it the case that the BSPA are attempting to make things up and ignore their own rule book again. Shades of Len Silver's insistence that Daniel Spiller came in to the NL on a 5.00, despite the fact that he was a British passport holder and had not ridden in the NL.

Delay is almost always mentioned as a reason for fans being unhappy. Meetings simply shouldn't take 2 hours - 90 minutes tops, and that includes breaks for injured riders. Standing around waiting for an hour or more for an ambulance to turn up tests the patience of even the most diehard supporter and if Plymouth and Newcastle have two ambulances and two paramedics, why can't everyone else ? When Ash Birks got seriously injured at Plymouth, the delay was just 15 minutes while they fixed the fence. Referees have some responsibility for ensuring that as soon as the riders go into the pits the two minutes goes on whenever possible. Most fans accept track grading, but not after every single race. And for heavens sake do away with intervals. I have never met anyone who actually likes them, yet the majority of clubs still hold one. Why ? Personally, if a meeting is good I think the quality of the presentation matters less. After all, we go to watch the racing, not listen to whoever is on the mic. That's not to say that the presentation isn't important, because it is. To my mind, though, it comes second every time to what happens on the track. What you seem to say in the statement in bold above is even if the track has a reputation for excellent racing you wouldn't go because the presentation is poor. As a speedway fan - and I know you are too - I find that hard both to understand and to accept. I'm not sure that's true. To me, its about being and sounding enthusiastic and not to do with the actual age either of the announcer/presenter or the crowd. I have thought for some years that Ken Wrench is just tedious to listen to and actually damaged the chances of Belle Vue being successful. Plymouth's Graham Hambly must be around the same age, but he's one of the best announcers in the game. Eastbourne had a new presenter when I was there and his enthusiasm was catching. He was reasonably young but was clearly keen to get everyone involved in some way or other, and I am sure he appealed to the youngsters there as much as me.

I don't totally agree. Better a cracking meeting with crap presentation than a crap meeting with top quality presentation. People come for the speedway after all, not to listen to the bloke in the middle. As I have said before, there are too many tracks where it seems to me that good enough track preparation is good enough, and it simply isn't. That must be the first thing that is put right. I do accept, however, that there are some pretty awful presenters out there - not so much because they belong to another age but because they are just plain tedious. Its also about winning. As far as I am concerned, Scunthorpe get the whole thing right. Best racing track in the country, Rob Godfrey in the mic and Graham Tagg in the box and as few delays as possible - I have actually heard the aforementioned Mr Godfrey making comment to the referee about putting the two minutes on - no intervals at EWR. Their gates crashed at the start of the season when they were losing at home.

Its bizarre that some think that Wells is not no 1 quality when he has one of the highest averages in the PL. No-one would doubt that Brady Kurtz is a no 1 yet Wells average is higher.

Have a look at their results at the start of last season and you'll see why their attendances dipped. If memory serves me correctly, they lost 12 out of 13 and 5 out of 6 at home, some by large margins. No matter how good the racing is, home form like that is disastrous. It says a lot, though, that when Rob Godfrey went public about the situation crowds significantly improved. I'd like to think that that was because the thought of losing our best racing track was something that many could not stomach.

Its difficult enough to open a speedway track without insisting that they are of a standard size. That would mean that Weymouth, for example, would have no chance of re-opening the Wessex Stadium. Tsunami is right. Anyone who believes that the quality of a track surface is not affected by the weather lives in cloud cuckoo land. However, that doesn't affect my view that not all tracks put in the amount of effort required to ensure good racing and hence attract paying customers. Good enough is good enough to them. To give an example, I was down in the west country in August when we had some very heavy rain over Thursday night/Friday morning, that band continuing across across the country. It stopped raining in Plymouth at 11.00am and by 12 Ashley Taylor confirmed the meeting was on. By 4.00pm, they were watering the track and we had an excellent meeting. One track, due to ride on the Saturday, actually called their meeting off on the Friday night even though there was no rain predicted the following day. In other words, they simply couldn't be bothered to put the effort in to get the meeting on. That's not good enough. I'd ask the same question again: If Scunthorpe can prepare an excellent racing track virtually every week, why can't others ? In my experience, you are lucky if you see an entertaining heat 1.

Could it be that the EL club he wants to ride for have their meetings on a Friday ? Whatever the case, its a shame. Barker would have been an excellent signing. Low average and no-one rides SBA like he does.

Track preparation, spot on. In my opinion, there's nowhere near enough effort put in to ensuring that a track is good for racing across the sport and far too much complacency and arrogance about fans expectations. Track preparation is a skilled job yet it seems to me that some believe that anyone on a tractor can do it. I have said before that it is all very well going on about promoting the sport but if the product isn't as good as it could be that's a total waste of time. If Scunthorpe can produce a superb racing track almost every week, why can't everyone else ? I'll disagree on size, though. In my experience, Plymouth is one of the best race tracks in the country yet its also the smallest.

To be fair, its not like Jayne to not respond. To be even more fair, she's one of the few who actually does bother to post.

Message on twitter 'all systems go'.

That is terrific news. Fingers crossed it happens.

I much preferred Fridays..................but I can very much see why they have switched to Sunday evening and the quality of the racing at EWR - definitely the best in the country - means I'll still go there more than anywhere else next season. Whatever the night they choose to run, this is brilliant (if not totally unexpected) news. The loss of Scunny would have been a disaster.

The question is why ? The product is no different than it was 30 years ago when I started going. There are those who will have you believe that racing was better then. It wasn't. My old Dad went in the 50's and said to me when I started going it was first out of the gate, first home. Points limit ? Speedway has had some form of rider control for 50 years. Tactical rides ? Its had them for 50 years too. The only difference I can think of is cost. That has gone up disproportionately, but hasn't it in most sports ? I'd maintain that the first step is to get the product as good as it can be first and that means promotions doing everything they can to ensure that people come back - because I am nowhere near convinced that is the case - with the most important factor being that the track is set up for racing. For every good track surface I have seen this season I have seen a bad one. Its all very well saying promote the sport, but a dog turd in a shiny wrapper is still a dog turd and people will only buy it once. When speedway is good, its very, very good. Too often, though, it falls short of that for reasons that are wholly preventable.

Barker, Newman, Holder as the heat leader trio and build from there.

If I had to name my top ten that I have seen in 2015(see below), all those three would be in it. The best of the year anywhere for me, though, was Scunny v Ipswich. Setting aside the Tungate incident, the racing that night was simply fantastic, we had the extraordinary sight of a track sit in and a bit of fisticuffs to boot. It was just top drawer stuff Top ten: Scunthorpe v Ipswich, Scunthorpe v Plymouth, Scunthorpe v Peterborough, Somerset v Ipswich, Redcar v Plymouth, Buxton v Birmingham, Workington v Peterborough, Plymouth v Rye House, Rye House v Eastbourne, Poole v Belle Vue.

It depends where you go. Glasgow's have doubled. Eastbourne's have probably slightly increased as have Birmingham's, despite the drop in leagues. Leicester's are still pretty healthy. They are, however, mostly poor - and by that I mean below breakeven - but I haven't noticed any sharp decrease from previous years at most tracks this year. Again, that depends where you go. I don't think the presentation and music are 70's at most places but I'd say that some of the presenters are dreadful with about as much charisma as a moose. Worse still, some still think they are the star of the show or just don't know their speedway. Eastbourne had a new chap when I went down there and, with time and an announcer, he'll be very good. I do find, though, that presentation is very much about individual taste. What suits one often doesn't suit another.

Lets get this straight. Are you condoning what he did and would accept(and defend) it if other riders did the same ? As I said, I have some sympathy but walking out on your team just when they need you the most is nothing short of a disgrace.

I have some sympathy for Fisher (and Holder) because I believe this match should have been run at an earlier date. But that doesn't for one second excuse a rider who decides to end his season when his club have fixtures remaining. Fisher let Plymouth down when they were facing their most important meetings for several seasons and that's totally unacceptable.

I could make a fair argument that getting into the Premier League (which is decided at least partly by a play off) is more valuable than a league championship. In the PL, the only team that was certain of their place going into the final couple of matches was Edinburgh. Plymouth qualified in their final match, putting Ipswich out. Glasgow lost by a point at Workington in theirs, putting Somerset second. Even Sheffield and Peterborough weren't absolutely certain of where they would finish. In the EL King's Lynn were out (and Belle Vue through) when they lost their final meeting. Birmingham won the NL on 06/09/15. There were 12 NL meetings still to be held after that date. Works both ways maybe, but there's no doubt under which system the interest is kept going for more people.

I once got bidding for a Leeds Lions programme that was pre war. I am not sure how much it went for but it was well over £100. I have programmes from 90 different UK speedway tracks and the most I paid was £30 for a Fleetwood Flyers one. Most are pretty cheap.

They're becoming the exception though and, as you say, they do have play offs in lower divisions. There's no doubt that they make sure interest - and through that attendances - is maintained. Both the EL & PL play offs have gone to the wire this season and there's every chance the titles will too. The best match I have ever seen - Mildenhall v Scunthorpe - was a play off final match and a huge chunk of what made it my best ever was the fact that it was a play off. I wonder how big Swindon's gate would have been if they had lost the first match by 6 or 8 ? Personally, I do think league winners should be league winners but I really don't think speedway is in a position to abandon anything that creates interest and revenue.

I'd say it would be wrong of Rossiter to attack Batchelor in public after last nights performance but an attempt to defend him using those grounds is astonishing - if I were a Swindon fan I'd be furious. 'Track wasn't to his liking' is bad enough but 'quite clearly see he wasn't up for it' is extraordinary, given that he was the captain of a side in a play off semi final.