Wee Eck

As I said, an interesting year. I don’t see much room for improvement in the team which is why it doesn’t excite me. Allen should increase his average a little and Palin should go up by a couple of points, but who else? There’s a lot of hype about Ayres but I’m not sure there’s more to come. He’s fast but reckless (look at what happened at the British Final) and I think a five point average is his limit. Having said that, I wouldn’t put money on my predictions, so don’t expect anyone else to

The easiest prediction to make is that very few, if any teams will end the season with their starting 1-7. Also, I think many of the usual favourites will find it far harder that many think. Poole’s inability to put a team together suggests that they’ve discovered that the previous “magic” of attracting good riders isn’t working in this league. Whoever they go for as their last two are likely to struggle if they are new to UK. Who was the last new rider to this league who hit his assessed average from the start? Indeed, how many struggled to get there at the end of the season? My guess is Poole will take too long to settle and, by the time that they do (if they do) the play offs will be beyond them Glasgow look vulnerable in the middle and Ostergaard and Sedgmen are unlikely to be there at the finish. Ricky Wells needs to find what it was that he lost last year. They do, however, have two very good reserves, maybe the best two in the league. Leicester will struggle with their reserves and need the rest of the team to cover for them until they find their feet in this league. I can see a lot of heat 1 5-1s and heat 2 1-5s Redcar look strong and Eric Riss has had some great meetings in Australia Their heat leader trio must be the league's strongest but, like Leicester, their reserves will struggle For me, the team to watch will be Edinburgh. They’ve done it before and will do it again - a solid team at Fortress Armadale with enough away points to make the play offs, but which time the team will have gelled to become play off winners. Oh yes, and everyone’s whipping boys, Newcastle and Berwick will do better than predicted. Berwick have a great team spirit which means the perform ahead of expectations, and the Newcastle management won’t hesitate in making changes if faced with disastrous results. Wooden spoon team for me is Scunthorpe. Although they might have to fight Birmingham for the race to the bottom. Whatever happens, it’s going to be an interesting year.

Mine and I suspect, many others.

I prefer the following definition of a journeyman: “a workman or sports player who is good but not outstanding”

Now who’s being negative?! If you own a business, and it makes money for you, are you not allowed to take money out? And, is it really “dry”?

I don’t have a club close enough to attend, let alone one to support. I’m maybe negative about the Premiership because of the way it’s slipped over the years, but do believe the Championship has a great future. Indeed, if Poole make a financial success in 2020, I can see every other Premiership team following their lead for 2021. A few teams might fall by the wayside, or become part of an increased NDL, but, in my view, a 15, 16, maybe 17 strong league will give supporters a better product, whichever league they currently support.

If you really want an answer...Batchelor had a great 2019. But he’s still not a number one, is he? Kurtz and Holder J didn’t really improve in UK in 2019 in what was a weaker league. BK put less than half a point on his average, Holder 0.1. Even Grajczonek improved by more. Holder had 16 home meetings, 10 riding at number 1, 6 at number 5. You need and expect your number one and number five to win their first outings or, if they’re up against a top opponent, at least get 2nd. JH had one win and one paid win out of 16, 7 2nds or paid seconds, 3 thirds and 4 lasts. That’s third heat leader performance at best. Journeyman position. As far as Dan Bewley is concerned, it would be great to see him continue to improve. He should certainly kick on from 2019, a season that started slowly after his bad accident. And he’s having a good winter in Australia. He’s got the ability to improve in 2020, and his target should certainly be to outscore BK and Kildemand. Will that make him a proper number one? As good as Jason Doyle? Robert Lambert? Craig Cook even? Time will tell

Goodness me. It’s a bit of a rubbish league, isn’t it? One proper number one in Jason Doyle, one future number one (maybe) in Robert Lambert, one former number one in Nikki Pedersen and loads of journeymen (Kurtz, Holder J, Harris, Kildemand, Batchelor etc) I think Poole made the right choice - CL is not trying to pretend it’s a top ranking league, just a good balance of up and comers and been theres

Because I wanted to know who was racing and couldn’t find a link anywhere UPDATE: finally found a link but can only find one other confirmed Premiership rider, Jordan Stewart. If you include Sam Masters, who must be nailed on for Wolves, that’s two. Who is the third?

How many other riders who’ll be riding Premiership in 2020 were in it?

You also need a completely different fence for stock cars. Kirky Lane used heavy duty chains, Coventry had Armco barriers, Kings Lynn has a solid steel fence. I don’t know what Sheffield and Scunthorpe use. The centre “green” at both Coventry and Kings Lynn was concreted over to allow the stocks to drive on then without damage. Kirky Lane was just a muddy mess. One of the “failures” (in my opinion) of the NSS is the lack of success in turning what is the best Speedway stadium in the UK into a multi-purpose venue. Look at what Somerset have achieved with turning their place into a busy function hub. Weddings, birthdays, even (though maybe now regretted) a venue for a Conservative Party rally. Maybe it’s the difference between one venue being run by its owners, the other by employees.

That can’t be right - BWitcher tells me, despite the stats, that every Premier stadium sells out every match. They must have been using old Arnold with the arthritic thumb to click the crowd counter last night

Any idea why Bjerre was so poor last year? It’s often said there are no false averages in this league, unless affected by long term injury, but Bjerre lost over a point. An injury free Nielsen will hold his average, but I’m not sure there’s much more to come, not on a consistent basis anyway. He’s a nice lad and I’d like to see him do well, but he’s been “up and coming” for a long while now. Of the suggested 1-7 (including Bjerre and Bowtell) maybe McDonald is young enough to improve but I’d be astonished to see much increase from the other 6. Poole used to be the team of innovation, of new faces, but that’s not the case in 2020. We’ll, not the original declaration anyway.....

Check the official stats. I did. Anyway, it’s irrelevant to Speedway so no need to be rude

I must have 14 fingers then! The comment made was about full stadia, not nearly full. The only one that sells out for every match is also the largest - Manchester United with 74,879.

I think you can count the number of full Premiership football stadia this year on one hand. That’s one sport that’s priced itself too high. But they don’t seem to care as ticket sales are now a small part of overall revenue - about 14% comes from that source, with around 70% coming from tv.

My point is the mentoring can’t have been that good if it didn’t cover guiding him about being paid.

Is that the same Jack Thomas who walked away half way through the season?

3 live in UK. One will be based in UK. Two - King and McDonald are part of the Sheffield/Poole exchanges. Neilsen has had more tracks than most other riders, Steve is the only one I can see took some negotiation. Look at Eastbourne - a well balanced team of British riders. That’s how CL should go, rather than importing overseas riders whose only claim to fame is that their average fits

Don’t you believe it. “SG”, or as others call him, SD (!) did what he was told on team building - and more importantly, team changes

Was it not Homer who said “things are difficult to predict, especially the future”. That’s Homer Simpson not Homer the Greek philosopher. Anyway, it’s too early to make any overall assessments, but I’ll go with three predictions for now: Justin Sedgmen won’t last the season at Glasgow and neither will Ostergaard unless he gets some decent kit. Poole will find their anti-Brit stance will bite them on the backside. They’ve dropped a league to save money and now are having to look at expensive fly in fly out riders to get anywhere near competitive. Leicester will discover the folly of allowing Stewart Dickson to build the team, especially having two 2 point riders at reserve. (See Glasgow 2004)

Not sure I follow that: team has three under 20s, JS is 27, RW 28 and Cookie 32. All of whom are fit and able young men.The only one who might just have been able to avoid conscription is Ulrich but more because of multiple injuries and an inability to keep his machinery in good nick than age

BSI is a British company with its base in Britain. It’s ultimate owner is a US group now called Endeavour, of which IMG is a subsidiary. BSI has been largely autonomous with Paul Bellamy, former MD of BSI (I think) having an over arching role whilst appointing a local MD, first Torben Olsen then earlier this year, Steve Gould. Paul and Torben - and the FIM - fought to limit the influence of Polish speedway, and I assume that was part of Gould’s remit as well. The Poles have long maintained that they should be allowed to hold even more GPs than the three they now have and that Warsaw rather than Cardiff should be the marquee event. A senior FIM member was heard saying Baku to Monaco (in F1) is like Warsaw to Cardiff. Baku tries hard but it will never be Monaco. When the new consortium is in place, I expect Warsaw will become the number one event. With BSI heading out of the picture (actually, no surprise there as they’ve failed to innovate) and OneSport - who already have the SEC and the World Under 21 Championship - part of the new package, I would expect at least one more GP in Poland from the start of the new franchise, at the expense of one or more in the rest of Europe, something that wouldn’t happen under BSI. From a personal perspective, I’ve been disappointed by the lack of involvement of IMG. I really thought when they got involved, there would be a huge push but they don’t seem to have done much. Such a shame especially when you consider they have their own TV company, Transworld Sport that has shown but never really pushed GP speedway. My opinion is that the new franchise holders could well be good for speedway as a whole, which we know is now centred in Poland, but that is potentially detrimental to Britain.

That team should walk the league with four heat leaders.

Morris rode for Buxton then joined Glasgow on his 16th birthday.