Humphrey Appleby

Flight tickets may well be double the above figure. You might get a 700 quid fare if you don't care when or how you travel to NZ, but I recently had to pay over a thousand quid for a ticket to NZ for business, and that was after shopping around a bit. You also haven't factored in BSI's staging fee, which is likely to be well into six figures.

Maybe because New Zealand is not in Europe?

It happened twice - in Jamaica and Antigua. The first time the pitch was dangerously unfit, and the second time the outfield was too soft.

These figures seem to very much contradict the higher figures mentioned by BSI.

Maybe they would, maybe they wouldn't. The point though, is that all these meetings take up dates and at some point British speedway has to tell riders to make a choice of where they want to race. We've explained many times why British speedway needs to race on different nights, and even if the BEL was able to rationalise down to a couple of days, they'd probably still clash with some of these glorified open meetings that get arranged. Official WC and even EC events are bad enough, without even taking into account private series that get organised at the drop of a hat. This is not being isolationist - it's about the survival of speedway in Britain.

Maybe they do, but they shouldn't. If you sign an EL contract you should be available for all meetings except recognised World Championship events or BSPA shared meetings.

The Best Pairs is not a sanctioned international championship, so it's not a demand at all. As for doing it to benefit himself or sponsors, well if you decide sign a contract to ride in the British Elite League, then that is what you should be focusing on.

A question for Phil Rising I think...

I thought the SGP was shown in a 100 countries, and yet not in a country where speedway is actually raced...?

The EL is the main competition of the recognised promoting body in Britain, and is the elite competition in this country even if it doesn't have very elite riders. The OneSport competition is billed as the SEC - Best Pairs Cup which implies it's some sort of authorised European Championship, which it plainly is not. If they just called it the 'International Best Pairs Cup' then it would be less of an issue, although I still think official governing bodies should be wary of competitions organised at this level that resemble world or continental championships.

It's ultimately not helpful for private promoters to be organising unauthorised events that effectively masquerade as world or european championships. I like pairs competitions, but if there's a place for them in the calendar, then they should be properly authorised and monies asked for the rights (to be re-distributed to established speedway bodies). I'm no fan of BSI as you know, but the rhetoric and propaganda that seems to constantly emanate from OneSport doesn't really convince me they're the saviours of the sport either.

It may just have been idle speculation in the Star, along with GPs in Dubai and Malaysia, but I certainly remember it being mentioned as a possible early GP venue.

Wasn't there speedway in Romania as well?

Bottom line, is that if a rider doesn't want to represent their country, they shouldn't have to. A rider should be free to choose where and for whom they want to ride, unless they've previously contracted to do so (and been paid).

Warsaw will be an interesting test. Can you fill a largish stadium in Poland, where speedway is apparently 'the most popular sport'? LOL.

No, but neither is Cardiff or Copenhagen.

Why should the BSPA support a series organised by a private promoter without getting anything in return? I don't think this pairs competition is even sanctioned by FIM Europe, is it?

I think that's appreciated. Certainly my own responses to your posts are addressed in a generic sense. I must say that I don't like the way this SGP vs SEC is being made into a British-Polish thing though, ostensibly being whipped up by the OneSport propaganda machine. If there's concerns with BSI and how they run the SGP then that's one matter, but it has nothing to do with British speedway.

Might make you laugh, but it's BSI who are laughing all the way to the bank thanks to the ineptitude of the various promoters and clubs to organise.

No, it's a matter of survival. The most financially viable days for staging speedway in Britain are at the weekends, and a decent number of meetings are needed to amortise costs and give enough earning opportunities to riders who don't do multiple leagues. Take away 12 days for the SGP, another week for SWC, now another 4 dates for the SEC and then a further 3 dates for the Pairs and there's not many prime race days left.

I think British teams are well used to riders disappearing off to other competitions, but I don't think there was much sympathy from Poland. Perhaps Polish teams should ride midweek when World and European Championships aren't staged?

If that's over two years, isn't that a fair bit less than what they got out of Gorzow?

BSI may also have dropped their demands for the Warsaw GP in order to ensure the PZM continues to support them.

Like I said, maybe they were locked into an existing contract.

Possibly under contract?