4thbender

"Doubling up" - along with speedway's insidious fixation with using "guests" - makes speedway a laughing stock within the serious sporting community. In any other professional team sport the idea of participants representing more than one team would be a non-starter. Can you imagine the outrage if Liverpool's Mohamed Salah did a bit of moonlighting for Tranmere Rovers?

I'm beginning to wonder if the light has started to dawn on the speedway authorities at long last, 'cos I've just come across this on a lesser visited forum on this site: THE PATHFINDER REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS 2018". The report has the feel about it that suggests it may have been commissioned by someone with authority within speedway. It identifies all the major challenges facing the sport in the UK, contains a detailed analysis of speedway's current assets, and makes recommendations as to the way forward in 2019 (which all look eminently do-able.) It makes some astute observations about where UK speedway is letting itself down as a marketable product and gives some really practical signposts as to how it might improve its marketing potential. Overall it contains some radical and controversial suggestions but my view is that it reads like a breath of fresh air. If someone in the higher echelons has really started to think along these lines then our sport may yet even manage to drag itself into the 21st century. One thing's for certain: if the powers-that-be stick to the 2018 formula in 2019 (as some have suggested), we are all down the pan.

2018 has been one of the hottest, driest summers on record.... and the speedway authorities - in their wisdom - delivered the shortest speedway season in the history of the sport, with endless numbers of blank dates in the diary and many teams going weeks without a fixture. Yet here we are in the midst of October's gales and deluges trying to stage the season's most important play-offs on sodden tracks. Am I alone in seeing the irony of this? You really couldn't make it up.

Now THERE's a coincidence!... With regard to "root and branch investigations," I've just come across this on a lesser visited forum on this site: THE PATHFINDER REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS 2018". I don't know who's written this but it has the appearance of something that could have been commissioned by the sport's authorities. It identifies all the major challenges facing the sport in the UK, contains a detailed analysis of speedway's current assets, and makes recommendations as to the way forward in 2019 (which all look eminently do-able.) In short, it seems to recommend two leagues: a National League and an 18/20-team unified Premier/championship league, which it calls the British Speedway Champions League. Each of the teams in this league will sign a core of five premiership/championship riders plus a "reserve" team of 3 riders made up mainly from National League doublers-up. At the start of each match the 3 "reserve" riders from each team will compete in a 'B' team match over three heats, from which managers can then select two riders to make up the nos. 6 and 7 in the team proper. The League match will then follow over 13 heats. If I'm reading it correctly, guests and R/R will be completely outlawed! The report then goes on to make some astute observations about where UK speedway is letting itself down as a marketable product and gives some really practical signposts as to how it might improve its marketing potential. Overall it contains some radical and controversial suggestions but my view is that it reads like a breath of fresh air. If promoters have really started to think along these lines then our sport may yet even manage to drag itself into the 21st century. THERE COULD BE HOPE EVEN YET!

Now the dust has started to settle for most of us on 2018 (it settled for Sheffield nearly two months ago!) It's an opportunity for true fans to have our say on what we want/expect for 2019. With question marks hanging over Poole, Lakeside, Peterborough, Rye House, Redcar, Coventry and possibly some others, the question perhaps ought to be whether Speedway has a future at all. So, for the umpteenth year in succession, our sport faces crisis point. Perhaps 2019 could be the final make or break year. It's hard to think of many plus points from 2018 - perhaps the greatest is that we once again have a British world champion - but there's no shortage of minuses. Amongst the oddities is that after 6 months of close competition, a mid-table team has been anointed Premier League champions and the same thing may well be about to happen in the Championship (the next few days will decide). So, ahead of the November AGM, what messages do we want to send to the promoters? From my perspective, the only sensible salvation must be a single unified Championship/Premiership league - hopefully with 18/20 teams - plus a National League. Whoever thought that "rationing" Speedway was a good idea has been proved wrong, so a meaningful league competition of 18-ish matches home and away, a KO cup plus a further cup competition split into four regions of 4 or 5 teams will guarantee a season of at least 24 matches for every team, with a few more for teams putting together a good cup run. Play-offs are silly and must go. What is YOUR manifesto?

When was the last time you changed your gas supplier / car insurance / broadband provider? Did a piece of paper prevent it? As I said, any old bit of paper can be changed. It's not fraud - It's just a response to changing circumstances. All it takes is two signatures.

What it says on a piece of paper can always be changed. Where the heart lies is immutable.

Hands off Kyle - you won't get him that easily!

Will the Wooden Spoon Championship finish in 2018 be sufficient qualification for promotion to the Premiership in 2019?

Nor was there mention of Kyle winning the Bordernapolis at Berwick on Saturday, or of the fact that Kasper scored 9 points in the same meeting (having two wins, including one over Kevin Doolan and Kyle in heat 9).

There will be no transfer of football/rugby facilities to a new stadium before the project has received planning permission from the Council. If this is a serious threat, now is the time for all shale fans to get writing to their local councillors to explain that speedway is one of Workington's sporting mainstays, bringing visiting fans into the town on a weekly basis throughout the summer and providing jobs, wealth-creation and sporting entertainment for the people of the Borough. Tell them also that the Comets bring national kudos to the town, being at the very pinnacle of the sport in the UK (in the 2018 Championship play-offs - a feat unmatched by local teams in either football or rugby!) Explain that without the revenue from football and rugby, Derwent Park will be unviable as a speedway-only venue and therefore, in order to retain the sport in Workington, no planning permission should be granted for a new stadium unless it caters for speedway as well as other sports. You can start by writing to members of the Planning Committee which is chaired by Cllr Mike Rollo. The Vice Chair is Cllr Ann Bales and other members are Cllr Lillian Baldry, Cllr Michael Heaslip, Cllr Antony McGuckin, Cllr Peter McHarry, Cllr Bill Reville, Cllr Denise Rollo and Cllr Joan Wright. Write to them all at Workington Town Council, Town Hall, Oxford Street, Workington, CA14 2RS. Get cracking and good luck. I'm sure fans of Workington speedway can rely on the support of all speedway fans across the UK if we need to kick up a stink with the council. If all else fails you can set Jenga on 'em!

There seems to be a proliferation of lower-middle order riders sniffing round for a team slot next season (Shanes, Nicol, Mountain, Andersen, Kennedy) and there'll probably only be room for one of them - two at most. I'm not at all sure Kennedy is the wisest first move. I'd have preferred to see the first confirmed team slot go to Kasper who's done enough to show he can probably add 3 points to his average next season. Kennedy, on the other hand, has an assessed average of 5.2, which makes a big hole in the likely points allocation for 2019 and he might struggle to maintain that sort of average. He could turn out to be a big disappointment.

….and one side no-one expected to be where they are.....SHEFFIELD!!! (not to mention the ridiculous decision by promoters to shorten the season to just 15 league and cup matches, meaning the season was over whilst the kids were still in the middle of their summer holidays).

I'd add in Todd who's not done anything wrong this season and continues to add points to his average year-on-year.

I agree. Keep Todd and he'll improve. Bringing back Josh Bates would be a big mistake IMO. He should be asked to prove his race fitness before he's included in the team - maybe a spell in the NL. By March 2019 he won't have sat on a bike for 18 months; with that length of inactivity (and a bad back) who knows if he can still hack it? I'd say let some other team take the risk. Including him in the 2018 team was the factor that started the rot this year. We don't want to make the same mistake twice (but uncle Damian might feel differently!)

Each time Barker comes to Sheffield some poor soul ends up making a visit to the medical room. Last time it was Connor Mountain and the time before that it was major fisticuffs with Kyle Howarth after BB reportedly threated to put him on a spinal board. Don't know why the management don't ban him from the stadium.

So glad that someone mentioned the "bend 2 sling-shot," which I have made reference to in previous postings. This is a high-speed manoeuvre which involves a death-or-glory drive round the bend 2 air-fence, carrying momentum into the back straight. It is heart-stopping to watch and is invariably a devastating overtaking tactic. The move was perfected three or four years ago by Simon Stead when he was at the height of his pomp around Owlerton. I suspect he taught it to other Sheffield riders because, throughout the 2017 season and the first half of 2018, it was deployed by others, notably Josh Bates, Kyle Howarth and Lasse Bjerre. In 2018 the "sling-shot club" was joined by Charles Wright and latterly Todd Kurtz. However, for some reason which I cannot explain, the manoeuvre became absent from Sheffield's track-craft half way through the 2018 season and immediately Sheffield went into the pattern of losing matches at home (failing to win any of the final 5 home matches). Maybe it was a result of a slicker track, less dirt or whatever, but the sling-shot manoeuvre was noticeably absent after June.... until yesterday, when it was used to good effect by several riders. I can't help but believe it was the demise of the sling-shot that led to Sheffield's loss of home form. Faster-gating opponents were able to hang onto their leads in situations where previously the likes of Howarth, Bjerre and Wright would have been past them on the second bend like a rat up a drainpipe. I hope that whatever factors have done away with the sling-shot will be put right before March 2019.

Yes, but as I said: "of all the Sheffield riders who've represented the team for the past two seasons..." James wasn't a Tiger in 2017.

No, you are being absolutely UNfactual. Todd has spent most of his Sheffield career riding at no.2 to Josh G (in 2017) and Kyle (in 2018). His greatest strength has been turning their race wins into 5 - 1 scores by securing second places. You cannot therefore assess his performances by comparing the GSA average, which excludes the 49 bonus points he has scored (more than any other rider in the team) which, when taken into account, give a more accurate account of his team performance. Hence his averages are 6.11 in 2017 and 6.78 so far in 2018. Incidentally, of all the Sheffield riders who've represented the team for the past two seasons, he is the only one to improve on his 2017 average in 2018!

Not quite factual. His averages for the last three seasons have been 5.76 / 6.11 / 6.49. If he keeps up that same rate of progress he'll pass the 8 point mark during 2021 at the age of 29 (when most riders reach their peak).

Todd is a slow-burner who will develop into an 8-points rider (but it may take him a couple of years yet). Definitely worth hanging onto. For me, Kasper is the rising star who, in the space of three matches, has shown that he has great potential. He professes to prefer the smaller tracks, as his 13 points at Armadale demonstrates. But 6 +2 last night in only his second Owlerton outing shows he's no slouch at home either. I would be very disappointed if they let him slip through their grasp. Of all the riders that have come through the revolving door at Owlerton this season he is by far the best prospect. It's a shame they didn't find him earlier. A lot of fuss is being made about the Zaine Kennedy signing but on a 5.2 assessed average he's a big risk. Although he only finished sixth in the Top Gun scorers list, I'm prepared to go with the razzmatazz notion that he's a star of the future. But as things stand nothing is proven. We now seem to be "blessed" with three riders in Nicol, Kennedy and Andersen all vying for the same lower-middle order position in the 2019 line-up and I figure they'll only be able to accommodate one of them. It seems Kennedy is the current favoured option but if it means losing Andersen I think that would be a big mistake.

Only the Sheffield and Edinburgh ones. I suspect the idiotic solution was none of their doing.

Ephraim Zimbalist Jr. was an American actor known for his starring roles in the television series 77 Sunset Strip and The F.B.I. He is also known as recurring character "Dandy Jim Buckley" in the series Maverick and as the voice behind the character Alfred Pennyworth in Batman: The Animated Series and associated spin-offs. Meanwhile, Ben Hur (1959) starred Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins and Haya Harareet. was directed by William Wyler and produced by SAM ZIMBALIST (I knew there was a Zimbalist connection).

Ooooh! So we did. Just two left then.

He does still have matches at Redcar, Scunny and Peterborough to prove himself. If he can manage to get close to matching his Edinburgh performance in one or two of those he should be nailed on for another go next year. Daft as it sounds, he could turn out to be this season's greatest "find".