Vincent Blachshadow

Yes, but only for the play-offs. Shame they don't bother going to the qualifying matches which TWK and hundreds, no, thousands of others did go to.

Have they changed the system now then? When I subscribed to the mag up to some three years or so ago the match reports were by a local journalist and some were so home-orientated it wasn't true.

You still haven't got the point of that initial post. Never mind, let's leave it there.

No, I think I've got it right. Maybe you'd like to read my initial post again and see the point I was making. It wasn't the use of guests per se.

Well, what a surprise. I post I would prefer a championship to be decided by a team's efforts throughout the season when incidences of injuries and the like even out between all the teams rather than by a scramble to beat the opposition for the services of some other team's rider to win it for you over a couple of matches and you answer, what it is Drop a cog's posted, '....they're brilliant because they attract huge attendances.......' What is it you posted, oh yes, 'the same old same old'.

Much is being made of the fact that the team with most money will win the championship by virtue of being able to throw most at the best guest available. Is that really the way a season-long competition should be decided, by scrapping to procure the best rider available from another club's team for a couple of matches? At least during a season injuries, bad luck, poor refs usually even themselves out.

Why don't the promoters get off of their collective backsides, go out and find a sponsor. Oh, hang on, they couldn't even find a sponsor for (what they want to call) the League Champions now the one's that devalued the League have stopped so what chance have they got of finding a sponsor for what is merely a qualifying competition. After all, do qualifying group winners get a trophy in major competitions like football's World Cup or Champions League?

Depends if you include the top continental riders in this 'full strength' scenario, as the poster I quoted was. Most of the top continentals would opt out of riding here if Monday was the race night.

One night a week may or may not bring the top liners back to Britain but if it's a Monday it won't. Belle Vue and Wolves riders know the deal before they sign but the rest prefer to go from Poland to Sweden direct not via GB.

But not every team would get away with what you suggest in your next post. And some may not wish to!

But that's the very reason they remain the top club in Britain. As you post, Poole haven't always been as well supported and as financially healthy as they now are. Ford has got them there by bringing and maintaining success to the club. I wonder what would happen after a couple of years of mediocrity, will they slip back to where they were pre his arrival? Ford can't take that chance so does everything in his power to keep the club up there. The trouble is, this may keep Poole at the top but it doesn't do the rest of the teams any good and can only go on for so long before everything goes knockers-up, and we're going that way fast!

We could try to change things!

There were two. Somebody didn't like that and did their best to alter it!

Not sure the crowd will be bigger any more. To be bigger, there's got to be more people in the vicinity that actually give a toss about the sport and read about who rides for whom these days and I don't believe there is. I reckon most who care go anyway now.

Not where the breathalyzer's concerned. If that were the case they may as well dump the things since 'no intent' gives at least three ways to not guilty - no intent to go over the limit, no intent to smash into the bollard or whatever, no intent to be in the right place for that idiot to be on my side of the road and hit me. And there is also the old adage that ignorance is no excuse.

His livelihood depends on not drinking the evening before a lunch-time speedway match. End of. Drink and motorsport does not mix.

If the bloke went out on the raz last night knowing he was riding a speedway bike competitively the next lunch-time he deserves everything he gets. What the legal level is here, there or Timbuktoo has no bearing on the matter. Many people, me included when still working, have jobs where they need to be 100% sober so stay off the pop the previous night accordingly - he should have done the same.

Basically, back then you replaced a struggling rider with one going well, a track specialist, whatever, but it was usually a case of sticking a heat-leader (or two) into a heat in which their poorest top five rider was riding, usually accompanied by a reserve. Nowadays, it's a case of deciding which of your riders will beat his counterpart in a programmed heat, not quite as easy as considering the likelihood of your top two beating their weakest pairing. Your top rider might not be riding in the next heat when you drop far enough behind to use a tac ride but back then you could make sure he/they were by changing. Down to opinion, I suppose. Personally, I'm in the no tac sub/ride lot.

Not exactly rocket science back then, you just stuck your top two into heat 8. And the PL team don't want to see the same 7 riders?

Course, it's all about money coming in that determines how much you lose as much as money going out. When some other promoters are more than happy to take Mr Frost's money in exchange for a rider's contract and the MC are happy to see the same money circulating within the sport, I'm sure Mr Frost would have appreciated other clubs having the same sense of fair play and spent some of theirs' when getting his paid-for riders from him. As you say, you have to factor in who's running the clubs and obviously not every promoter has Mr Frost's integrity.

Yes, probably true. It's a heck of a lot of the thousands that have already left the sport that care about it. Not the best way to start getting them back.

Are you confusing this case with a club bringing in a rider who finished a season riding for them but was not included in their initial declaration the following year? I believe that needs MC approval.

Not sure that's correct but if it is, the man was injured. What encouragement is that for a team to replace a medium-term injury if they then can't re-declare when the injury clears up? Much better to run with guests then.

Sadly, without a plausible reason being given (by the MC, officially), people will draw their own conclusions and, with his title-chasing Monarchs being first in the firing line for Roo-Boy (and a small matter of a Cup Final in the near future) it's very easy to put two and two together. Within rules, promotions should be able to put together whatever team they like without interference from interested parties. Given the fact the particular interested party has two very good reasons for wishing to keep Panthers' strength down is it surprising such conclusions will be reached?

In most cases, the BSPA MC consists of one bloke with an interest and others who shrug shoulders and go with the flow.