Humphrey Appleby

Patents only last 20 years though, and I'd guess the GM design is now a fair bit older than that. Any subsequent improvements may be patentable, but I'm not sure that you could basically stop someone building a GM after all this time.

From the article, they don’t seem to be threatening legal action, and only issuing empty threats. So presumably the GM design is no longer patented (or never was) or the FGM one is sufficiently different.

I would imagine many if not most first class countries own their grounds, and are more likely to find sugar daddies if it really comes to the crunch. Neither of which speedway generally has.

The obvious question is how do the (English) promotions expect to pay back their loans, far less guarantee them? Most promotions would seem to have very few tangible assets, and given they live hand-to-mouth at the best of times, where is extra money coming for the repayments?

Putting aside the particular issue of the BSPA and Sky for a moment, I'm not sure it actually is that common for members and particularly directors (notwithstanding that the BSPA didn't have directors as such until recently) of non-profit associations to take commission on fund raising and commercial deals negotiated for the benefit of all members. It wouldn't be unreasonable to be compensated for the time involved in negotiations, or indeed even as one-off reward for finding and bringing in a substantial amount of money if that was offered before the process began, but in many circles it would be viewed as poor form if not an outright conflict-of-interest. Indeed, that's what ended-up bringing down the FIFA President and much of its Executive, and as well as the leadership of the IAAF amongst other sports bodies. Can only really think of F1 where a similar set-up existed whereby a team principal (Bernie Eccleston) took a cut of the money raised from commercial deals, but that probably lasted because revenue keep rising over many years. Perhaps with British speedway though, there was some sort of quid-pro-quo in the arrangements whereby Swindon would prop-up the Elite League to keep the necessary numbers.

I believe Tel was also once a shareholder in the Spar, although before the BSPA deal.

You could have said that was the case all along, but that hasn't prevented the country from being locked down under the guise of 'protecting the NHS' (which actually is a legitimate consideration). Whilst that philosophy remains and the government's scientific's advisors continue to predict doom, I don't see a lot changing until much later this year.

The reason that fully professional sports have been allowed to continue is partly because so much television money is at stake, and partly to keep the population 'entertained'. Fully professional squads also allow 'bubbles' to be formed and routine testing to be carried out, but that's not possible for semi-professional sports where the competitors have other jobs, and certainly not speedway where everyone travels independently to the track.

Yes, but if you try to run in 2021, who's going to invest in new kit or get their engines tuned for a half-a-season or one that might be cut short at a moment's notice? As with many other people in the entertainment and sporting industries who've had to find alternative employment, it may already be too late. No-one is going to be travelling to the UK to race whilst quarantining is mandatory for a minimum of 10 days, especially now with the threat of being forced to stay in a hotel and pay for it yourself. And that's even before we get to the random transport cancellations that makes it nearly impossible to plan anything. It's still unclear whether the vaccinations prevent further infections or indeed completely reduce the risk of the recipient contracting COVID. The UK government is saying one thing on one hand, and then on the other saying the lifting of all restrictions is not likely for another year (and they said that last year too).

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.

The obvious question is why would it be needed given that speedway teams have had the same opportunities to score at any point in the match? Duckworth-Lewis(-Stern) exists in cricket because teams bat alternately and the side batting second may not get a full innings, along with all the complications of how they may have been pacing their innings before the stoppage. If you want truncated speedway matches to be decided fairly, there are particular break points when most/all riders have ridden the same number of times (e.g. after Heats 4, 8, 11 and 14 in the 'classic' formats). It's not perfect as some riders may have ridden against each other more times, and/or not every rider may have ridden against every other rider at any given point, but that's no different if you ran a full match and the DLS method has its imperfections as well. What would be worth considering, is replacing guests with a handicap system. Bring in a junior, but give their team a starting points advantage based on the difference between their average and that of the rider being replaced. It's actually more complicated than it sounds if you have tactical subs and/or rides because you'd need to distribute the handicap over a given number of heats to avoid the situation where the handicapped team simply uses a tactical option and quickly wipes out the deficit. So I'd guess you'd need to allocate the handicap as happens in golf over particular holes, which would probably cause fans to give up the will to live, but if it could be done like DLS on the scoreboard...

Because speedway was of course of attracting thousands of young people, or indeed thousands of people of any age before apps came along. The argument that technology is ruining things reminds me when football refused to show matches on television - far less live - on the grounds that no-one would turn up to the grounds. The irony was that attendances actually increased once the sport entered the 20th century...

One of the reasons given for leaving the EU was getting rid of 'red tape', such as governments imposing limitations on ripoff credit card charges. Well now UK credit card companies are free to charge what they like, and are doing so...

It doesn't really matter how speedway compares to other sports, or whether 20 quid is really value for money or not if people aren't coming through the turnstiles. With football you'll generally also know that the matches will be held regardless of the weather, and you're not standing around for most of the 90 minutes watching the pitch being mown...

It's not exactly comparable. The actual rules of playing the sport are determined by IFAB, which is in effect FIFA these days despite the Home Nations representation. Unlike the BSPA, the FA generally doesn't get involved in tinkering with the playing rules, beyond stuff like determining the number of substitutes within those rules. The BSPA has a much broader scope to tinker with heat formats, team make-ups, and racing rules. The actual running of the leagues is largely determined by the league memberships and their boards/committees, although the FA (or County FAs for lower levels) does I think have to review and approve the constitutions and you can appeal decisions to them. The FA (and County FAs) also handles in-competition disciplinary issues, such as player and manager conduct. Of course, the FA isn't a complete ivory tower - even if it behaves like one sometimes. It's owned by a couple of hundred of the most senior clubs along with the County FAs, with the professional clubs (who obviously directly and indirectly generate most of the FA's income) having significant influence. However, the important point is that the competition structures and operational rules and regulations are generally decided by the clubs only once-per-year at most, with the day-to-day operational issues delegated to league CEOs (who are usually employees) and judicial issues handled by various parts of the FA. There will be some exceptions in that leagues in the National League System have limitations with respect to their formats and memberships, and also agree to apply common regulations with respect to ground standards for example. These are defined by the FA through various consultative processes. In general though, the English and to a large extent Scottish football structures are well established (although Scotland has recently been going through a big shake-up in non-league football) and don't change much from year-to-year. When I was on a league board, I think we were basically still using the same rulebook from 1960s, and I don't think the County FA was much different. There wasn't actually much for us to decide on a week-to-week basis during the season.

It only works up to a point. If you're Fortnum and Mason and your customers expect a certain quality for the prices you charge, moving to cheaper and likely lower quality products will eventually turn you into Aldi. Nothing wrong with that if your clientele is prepared to accept that, or if you develop a different clientele. But still charging Fortnum and Mason prices for Aldi products would be surefire way of going out of business.

Not sure why people are bothering to complain about public postal services which seem to have become the only delivery services that have got worse over the past year as everything becomes more reliant on them. The electronic version of the Spar doesn't have delivery issues. However, one annoyance is that I don't think the Spar can be viewed on both Android and iOS platforms with the same subscription as it needs a platform specific app. So any chance of making it available through something like Kindle?

The EPL is followed globally and makes a lot of money for UK plc. The BPL isn’t and doesn’t.

Speedway hasn't really thrived in big cities for a long time. It's really only Manchester, Glasgow and Sheffield where it's been sustained over the longer term, although I suppose you could just about make the case for 'Birmingham' if you include Wolves. Speedway seems to do best in towns where there's not (historically) much competition in the way of football or other major sporting teams. Whilst you need a certain amount of footfall for any sporting venture, speedway has been just as, if not more successful in smaller catchment areas. Maybe there's too many other things competing for attention in larger cities, plus of course the 'unenvironmental' nature of the sport makes it increasingly unviable in those places.

I actually think the new Wembley is fantastic - properly designed and well appointed with the football spectator in mind. Almost the best stadium I've visited, with the exception of the Dallas Cowboys one. What is/was a bit rubbish, was they obviously ran out of money for the surrounding infrastructure when they re-developed the stadium. Whilst in fairness the old Wembley was hardly situated in the most salubrious area - surrounded as it was by old warehouses and a concrete plant - they largely left it as a building site along with the crummy old concrete walkway which no longer makes any sense. Whilst I admittedly haven't visited since 2017, it was then only just starting to have been developed into something approaching a respectable complex.

Which was a bit of dump to be honest - even after various attempts to upgrade it with modern facilities. No doubt that's why it got demolished and replaced with a much better, albeit less iconic stadium.

I think even the 6th tier of English football - i.e. National League North/South - gets better average attendances than anything in British speedway. There's even some teams down in the 8th tier that have attendances that speedway would die for.

There were already established criteria for what constitutes an 'elite rider' for non-EU/EEA riders so presumably they can just be extended to apply to all foreign riders. However, how the minimum earnings threshold of GBP 26k plus employer and employee NI surcharges will be met in a sport that essentially operates on zero-hour contracts is anyone's guess. But surely one of the points of Brexit was supposedly to restrict the number of foreign workers and create opportunities for British ones? Speedway riders can hardly be classed as essential workers, greatly contributing to the economy, nor adding to the cultural wellbeing of the nation. Why should speedway expect different treatment from any other industry that has difficulty finding workers to do the job?

Yes, but the above example is precisely a decision that should be taken by an independent commission according to the rules in place. The underlying rules should still be decided by the promoters though, no matter how daft they may be. Bottom line though, is that Crapper would surely have known the rules about replacement riders and was probably trying it on. Even if it was just a missing bit of paperwork, the onus was on him to ensure it was registered wherever it was supposed to be registered. Whether or not a squad system is impractical in speedway, so many promoters have abused the guest and rider replacement rules and is one of the reasons why the sport has no credibility so many have walked away after one too many pisstakes.

Speedway...