Wee Eck

I should have said that…..IF they get by Plymouth. But, I have a sneaky suspicion they might, especially as, like Arnie, Middlo will be back.

From a business perspective, Leicester vs Glasgow in the final is the dream line up. The self styled chosen one versus the money boys who chased him off the premises (not actually true, but makes a good story). To make that happen, Leicester need to pick Poole in the semi. All a bit of a gamble though if Glasgow don’t make the finals or if Poole beat Leicester on aggregate. There’s still many a twist to come in this league……

BSPA is the association of speedway promoters with BSPL the umbrella organisation. BSPL has four (or five?) directors. I know that Messrs Godfrey, Bates, Louis and Ford (Dan) are directors. I don’t know who else is if anyone. SCB is a sub-committee of the ACU, the governing body for motorcycle sport throughout the British Isles excluding Northern Ireland. It has two members from ACU - Tony Steele and Paul Hurry - and two from BSPA - Rob Godfrey and Chris Van Straaten. It also has an independent non voting chairman, currently Jim Lawrence. An easy way to look at the different roles is that SCB is responsible for the rules of the sport whereas BSPL/BSPA are responsible for the business of speedway.

It’s just my opinion and not really “over the top”. But, are you saying that I am wrong about Eddie Kennett never going to do more than the very first few meetings?

Putting aside bias, why would you want a team that built a decent 1-7 from riders who wanted to ride for them, and who have not made any changes, even when tempted, to be beaten by a team put together in the knowledge that their number one rider wasn’t going to last the first month, let alone the season, and who have chosen to ride out the league campaign using other teams’ top riders rather than finding a replacement? Yes, they’ve been hugely unlucky with injuries, but that problem has been exaggerated by the tactic of trying to go all year using guests. Oxford managed to get Summers, Birmingham Sedgmen - either could have done a job for Plymouth allowing the promotion to strengthen up further down the order. Their hope for success was having 7 specialists round the tricky track at the Coliseum who could then dominate home meetings so that away legs became unimportant. It’s my view that relying on guests has lost them much of that advantage.

I have no idea what that means.

I think you make my point for me - it’s expensive to set up a new promotion, and better to recognise that sooner rather than later. All credit to the four of you that you HAVE recognised that rather than carrying on only perhaps to suffer the same problems as the previous promotion (as well as the ex-Newcastle promoter). Speedway in UK is hanging on by its fingernails - or rather the deep pockets - of most of the existing promoters. They are much maligned but, if there was a magic wand to sort it, I think they’d have found it by now. But then, if running a speedway team was the licence to print money that was the case in decades gone past, the barriers to entry would be far higher. It may be that a multi million pound relaunch, used to give spectators better facilities amongst many overdue updates, might just help to rebuild the sport, but there’s no guarantee that crowds would return. So why take the risk?

The rules for joining the leagues are the same for everyone. Championship requires an entry fee, a bond payment and either riders on the club’s retained list to a certain level or else cash to make up the difference. The four supporters trying to relaunch Eastbourne said they needed £150,000 so they must have understood the costs involved. They also said they could raise £50,000 between them so must have tried, and failed, to find the other £100,000. Better they save their money than going into an underfunded venture that has the potential to go the way of the previous promotions at Eastbourne. Full credit to them for trying but even more credit for admitting defeat before any harm was done. Perhaps promoting speedway is much harder - and more expensive - than us Forumites realise. UPDATE - HGould beat me to much of that!

How would you know it was Santa?

I doubt there were brown envelopes involved. The statement from the Council was as follows: “West Lothian Council, as a public body, has a legal duty to obtain the best price possible when selling land in a commercial transaction. This represents best value for the council, local services and the public purse. “The funds raised from the sale of the land will be invested in local services. “This land was marketed through June and July and offered to all interested parties for lease, sale or community use. Two offers for the land were received and it was determined that Mr Stewart’s offer to purchase the land represented the best value to the council, being the highest offer.” Would they not have been open to legal challenge from Mr Stewart if they’d sold to the under bidder?

You should have contacted the promotion to see if you could have got a lift from someone on the late Fishbourne to Portsmouth service

I am happy to maintain my view that FIME events are lesser in stature to all FIM events and pretty irrelevant to domestic speedway supporters. It is a view. An opinion. That’s all. Not a statement of fact. You have a different opinion apparently, and you are absolutely entitled to that. We differ. No problem. Move on. No need to be rude.

Who guests for Berwick? Harris and Flimt are due to ride for GB in Denmark this afternoon

GB Team line up includes Flint and Harris. Are they not supposed to be at Berwick tonight? Berwick need to win to give Redcar a sniff at the play offs but that now seems less likely due to an FIME meeting of little consequence.

I think the answer is yes - Glads plus many guests will be in the top six CH likely to still have plenty of meetings left this year

You have the skill to limit the cost that others might lack. I made a weekend of it so paid the crazy price demanded for a city centre hotel. Having said that, I’ve secured a twin room for two nights bed and breakfast for next year’s GP for £150 all in right in the centre of Cardiff

Who would you say are the “Far too many people involved in speedway” who are “only in it to rip off the public”! This is the once a year Grand Prix that is staged in Britain. None of those involved in promoting the event have any tie in to British league speedway, nor, since the demise of BSI, a tie in to any other event. Unless you are referring to the FIM who are certainly not in it to rip off the public. I get it that you don’t believe you got value for money but let’s face it, Cardiff has never been a bargain so “value for money” is never going to happen. The track was awful this year (and has been on very many occasions) , no one is denying that, but then so have plenty other tracks over the years (including Prague, Teterow and Vojens this year) but it’s not an event I attend for the racing - it’s the atmosphere that makes it and, even without Dan’s win, it had all the usual ingredients. Dan’s win made it a special night

Interesting press release - says Dan will be defending his British GP title then which rather suggests his place is guaranteed for 2023

For me, Cardiff is probably more about the social occasion than the racing - which is seldom great but has seen some great individual races or meeting results. I go there knowing I will meet up with people, arranged and otherwise as people circulate round the town centre before and after, and the meeting is guaranteed to be on. The atmosphere is also like no other speedway event in UK. The hotel prices are extortionate but so are Manchester’s if there is a big event on. The NSS is undoubtedly a better track - in truth probably every track in the UK is better - but there is not the infrastructure let alone the space to support a 10,000 plus speedway event.

I think the result answers your question. The doubters were proved right. in other news, congratulations to Redcar’s Archie Freeman on his paid max. First ever in the NDL?

Is there any better walk on music?

I think you’re just making yourself look silly now. It didn’t happen, and GB got silver. Would they have done better if they could have got someone else in quickly (who might not even have had a ride)? Who knows. Not me and not you. The decision was taken not to bring in a replacement (no doubt with difficulty and at uncertain cost) and the decision proved right. Do you really believe that GB would have won gold if any of the under 21s had been in the pits? Because I don’t.

He was there, of course. But I doubt he’d fit into Tai’s race suit!

I stand by what I said - you’re comments were after the event hypothetical. Tai was not withdrawn until yesterday when it was clear his injuries were too severe for him to ride. There was perhaps a two hour window between the decision being made and the mid-day sign on at the track. Who would you suggest GB could get to Vojens in that time? The only possibilities were Brennan, Flint and Kemp but all had already left Denmark, as had all their kit. Tai’s injury was unfortunate but GB made the best of a bad job. Few had us as potential medal winners, even with Tai but we ended up second. There should be pride in the success and appreciation of the turnaround in fortune for GB since Vicky Blackwell and Rob Painter took over the management of the team. British speedway at international level is exceeding expectations, considering how poorly the domestic sport is run. Could have, should have, might have beens have no relevance. All that matters is what happened and where that will take us. IMO!

What questions would you ask? Tai was only ruled out after a trip to hospital in the morning. Where would you propose finding a rider able to get to Vojens with his kit and his pit crew at such short notice? The under 21 riders all went home yesterday morning with two of them racing in England last night. Management did the best they could do with what they had and no amount of hypothetical questioning will change. There wasn’t a big crash to rule out an Aussie and a Brit and there’s nothing to say that, if that had happened, the one remaining Aussie would have won. Australia got better as the night went on and were deserved winners. The Brits overcame the loss of Tai to take silver. That’s what happened. Anything else has to be pointless mithering. Who gave the Brits, even with Tai, a shout over Poland or Denmark?