Vince

I keep reading how you need the foreign lads to make the NL exciting as if it were the case that every foreign rider is a great prospect and exciting to watch while British riders aren't. Clearly that's not the case, some riders of any nationality are draw cards for crowds. Restricting the league to British riders is not going to create an influx of riders instantly. The U15 and Amatuer Speedway scenes are growing well at the moment. Given a couple of years where people become aware that the opportunities are there to progress from there into league racing and maybe it will attract more riders from other motorcycle disciplines to Speedway. Certainly as things were going less and less British lads were even contemplating riding Speedway, something needed to change for sure.

"Allen Trump accepts that he said things in the heat of the moment which could have been avoided in relation to the BSPA and certain named individual members" Interesting that some choose to see that as an apology. Personally for all the criticism of the statement on here so far I believe it is a work of genius with nobody admitting doing anything wrong other than not keeping what they still believe to themselves Anyway good to see the two teams back in the league, makes it a better product and is good for the sport. I also suspect that in the long term changes will be generated from this which may well benefit the way Speedway is run.

I would have thought that riding time is limited enough for those in the NL already without sharing it out.

I don't think people went from Grasstrack to Motocross because of the foot and mouth, after all there was no MX running either. In my opinion there are literlly thousands of kids riding MX simply because it is easy to get into locally and it is easy to find practice tracks where you can get hours on a bike every week. If Speedway tracks were to work together with Grasstrack clubs or even buy some posts and rope and run a couple of practice days a month it would be more attractive to youngsters. If you then offered the top four in each class a ride before or after Speedway meetings they would be involved with Speedway straight away. It is always going to be difficult getting people away from MX because of the time they get on the bike in comparison. Without drving for more than an hour I could spend longer riding a MX bike this weekend than a young Speedway rider will all year. That is the real reason riders from other countries are ahead of ours at similar ages imo. Time on the bike - it's more important than what bike they ride or how many races they take part in. Promoters then compare an 18 year old Dane or Aussie with the same age British lad when, in the main, the British lad needs to be 8 or 10 years older to have comparable experience. A young CL standard rider practicing whenever he can over the winter and doing 25 meetings will be lucky to get 3 to 4 hours on track time a year. I saw Kristian Lund quoted on here the other day about development of riders. He once told me that he could practice all day, any day for about £8. He was helping train the Mavericks and pointed out that he would ride more some weeks at home than they would all year. If we can't make Speedway tracks available then fields have to be the next best option.

Just had a qick count up of names I recognised in Malc Vasey's A-Z of CL riders. I would say the 3rd division has been remarkably successful if th yardstick is getting riders into the higher divisions. I made it about 75 riders who have ridden in the 3rd division and gone on to at least hold down a PL team place for a season. I don't think that is so bad. Would be better still if the asset system favoured Brits instead of working against them. The idea of getting kids on smaller bikes is undoubtedly the way to go. Unfortunately I am not sure it is practical in this country because you also need smaller tracks that are able to be used several times a month for practice as well as meetings. With planning and the general attitude to motocycling as it in this country that would be nigh on impossible. I still believe that Speedway needs to get heavily involved in youth Grasstrack because the possibility of getting practice tracks is very much higher. More kids would take up Grasstrack instead of Motocross if there were more practice opportunities and it was recognised as the route into Speedway.

Personally I believe it is equally or even more important that the NL produce riders of all standards for both the EL and PL. That imo is the way that the 3rd division can best benefit British Speedway. Any GP riders should be viewed as a bonus, after all riders of that ability would probably make the grade anyway.

I think that's fair comment and it looks pretty straight forward.

As ever a lot of assumptions are made about EU employment law that have no basis in fact. There are lots of exceptions and the last time I checked NL Speedway would have been exempted on at least two counts. I agree that Henning, living full time in this country, married and employed should be able to ride in the NL. However it would be very difficult to draft a rule that took every case into account. The rule of having only passport holders seemed a logical way to apply the restriction. It is difficult to think of a more sensible way that wouldn't be open to abuse, at least it is black and white and rules out arguments about eligibility that have been going on for years. Henning's current situation is unfortunate but I can't see a logical way around it without opening a can of worms.

I think the should be a big 'IF' when talking of these supposed actions against them. IF they ever happened in some cases, IF any or all of them were intentional and most importantly IF they were the deliberate actions of people who were in any way involved with the motorsport. Such people seem to make many enemies in life and just lay the blame for everything in the place that most suits their current grievance.

Second time that you have tarred everybody who doesn't share your opinion with the BNP brush. No less disgusting this time than it was the last. People are allowed a reasonably expressed opinion, those like yourself who fail to see that are more bigotted than even the most staunch BNP member ever could be. For what it's worth I too believe that the NL should be for British riders only. In my opinion the big difference between British riders and some of the other nationalities is just time on a Speedway bike. Of course a structured program would be good with competitive racing but nothing beats seat time. Most of the lads from overseas that I talk to ride some sort of motorcycle daily and/or a Speedway bike two, three or more times a week. Most British lads would be lucky to get 10 practice days a year. Therefore at NL standard you are not comparing like with like as the foreign lads have far more experience (in the main, not always)of riding round an oval. The British lads need every single second they can get on the bike as time is at a premium for them. Easy to say build a training program in the UK. Far from easy to do in a country where it often seems motorcyclists are only one step above paedophiles in popularity.

Wonder if the Stadium and MX were there when they moved in? The rest of it sounds like they've been watching some of those 60's Hells Angels films and decided it could be reality. If they can't move back why do they want to restrict the operations to 40 days? Important court case for all of us I would think.

You have to be kidding, the ACU collect a few quid from Speedway and their interest ends.

Whatever nationality of rider there will always be the few who are completely dedicated and the majority who put enjoyment first. Plenty of Aussies, Danes, Swedes and Poles have partied to the detriment of their Speedway careers. There also some British riders who cannot be beaten for dedication to their sport.

Must have improved a lot in the past year because the only time I saw him ride both Tim Webster and Sam beat him. Would have been a good NL rider (think he scored 10 or 11) or maybe PL reserve at that time. I do wonder why they would put foreign riders instead of British lads in, why not Chris Schramm or similar,he had some experience and was improving. Edit to say I realise Chris wouldn't fit - but the rules should be set so that he does.

Like yourself the vast majority of people who signed petitions and are complaining about the silencers will not have used them and are judging them by hearsay. I haven't had any experience of them either but I have had a good amount of experience when noise levels have been lowered in other motorsports. Generally the arguments are always the same as they are for Speedway at the moment and then almost without fail the fears seem to be unfounded. Doubtless there will be a difference in performance and usually the problems are caused by people trying to get exactly the same results that they did with the less restrictive silencers. You may well have to accept a few hundred revs dropping off the top end and if you try and get them back by leaning the motor off you may have problems. Until people start using the silencers in anger solutions won't be found. Plenty of people have used them and reported no problems. How do you explain the Long track riders engines not blowing to pieces all the time? I still bet that any problems will be minimal. I have a YZ450 motocross bike in my garage waiting for me to do the engine, that is restricted to 98 or 96 Db (can't remember which) a lot less than the new Speedway silencer and the engine has 130 hours on it before what will be it's first rebuild. I know it's watercooled and a lot different but only two or three years ago we were being told that the new MX silencers would destroy engines left, right and centre. Finally, for the record I don't believe that lowering noise levels will make any difference at all to the nimby's.

Not proof but I did bother to contact the manufacturers and check they had carried out testing and their results. I have also heard all the same things about silencers every time they reduced the noise limits in other motorcycle sports and in nearly every case the reality has been nothing like the scare stories. Do you have proof that they will cause any damage to people riding below the top level? Why have these silencers not been a problem on the longtracks? Do you have any evidence other than what a couple of top riders have written? Do you believe that youngsters use an engine anything like as hard as the likes of Gollob? Do you think your engines are tuned to that level to start with or that they need to stay at exactly that level for every race? How do I know every breakdown will be blamed on them, that was more of a light hearted comment but there will be more than a grain of truth in there. Haven't ridden for a lot of years, have had a son riding and worked on a fair few engines over the past few years though.

I bet not a single youngster 'melts' an engine because he is using the new issue King,Dep or Prodrive silencers. Obviously every single breakdown will be blamed on them and claims of double the usual number of services will be made but in truth it will make absolutely no difference to anybody except, possibly, the sports very best riders.

Can't ever understand how the same people who say the sport needs to bring on British youngsters also say they won't watch NL racing - mostly without having done so. Like the other 2 leagues there are good, bad and indeifferent meetings at this level with the odd great one thrown in. The riders are a long way from wobblers and you are looking at 1 second a lap or less different in race times from the PL most of the time. The slower speeds are made up for by kids who haven't yet learned about settling for position and race as hard as they can every lap. If the complainers actually go along and have a look for a few weeks they will be pleasantly suprised how enjoyable it will be I am sure.

To be honest I don't think most non Speedway people even know the sport exists, they certainly have no idea at all about how it is run! Having said that of all the leagues the NL is always last with fixtures when the riders need to make plans sooner than those in the other leagues because they have to get around school and work more than full time riders.

I know and like many of the people who have problems with Phil. Personally I believe you have to judge people on how they treat you and yours. So while people are queuing up to give him a kicking (some justified, some will have never met the bloke) I should say that in the time Sam was at Weymouth Phil did everything he promised him and paid him. He also treated Sam and myself with decency and respect throughout the season. Whatever the rights and wrongs he must have chucked a big lump of his own money at Weymouth. Hopefully somebody with the skills and finances to secure the clubs future will now be found.

Both clubs are having to make the best of a bad job. Whichever team wins fully deserves the title of champions. If it's Buxton then it really couldn't happen for a better bunch of people who put the interests of the NL and young riders above everything else.

To my way of thinking it is pretty simple. If a club signs a rider knowing full well that he cannot complete the season then they should not be allowed a facility for that rider. The facility is there for riders who are unable to compete because of injury or unavoidable commitments.

Brilliant end of season by Chris Harris. To my way of thinking last night proved how far he has improved because he got a terrific result on a track that didn't suit his style. We all knew that he could finish on the podium when there was a lot of dirt and/or it got rough but when I saw the track last night I feared he would struggle. Bomber on the podium at such a slick track would have been unthinkable a year ago.

There is no argument - what I have wrotten is, as said, provable fact. As I have also said it is only a part of the whole. The only reason I put anything at all is because wanna lied about Sam throwing it in their face. If he now wants to use what was clearly only part of a deal to back up his argument that is up to him. 3 people know exactly the deal that was made and wanna isn't any one of them while I am. Clearly you will know far more about the situation than I could but I take that for granted!

He rode a Mallett bike for all of 2009 - as with the transport it was what was offered to get him there. Like I said I KNOW the deal that was done because I was there - you THINK you do because it's what you have been told afterwards. If you don't KNOW things for fact why not just leave Sam out of the conversations - he was nothing to do with this topic. Whether he should have been back is irrelevent, the point is he was guaranteed a place repeatedly in the off season and nobody ever had the decency to tell him any different. I have never lived in Dorset either