Dave_minall

Yeah I thought the blue thing was a deflated air fence waiting for a structure to attach it to, but like I said my eyes may be deceiving me.

Northampton posted this image on their facebook recently. It's hard to tell but do I see an air fence waiting to be erected or do my eyes deceive me?

You're bang on with this I'll say that. I rode myself in the early 2000s and would often be in the pits at Wolverhampton for the 2nd half racing - it was 50/50 whether Derek Bodley would allow us to race after the meeting. Me and my dad now have an in joke whenever we watch speedway and quote Derek on the regular when a meeting is dragging on - "no 2nd half tonight lads" would be his phrase of choice. It wasn't so bad for us as we lived 20 minutes away, but my dad would have to knock off work an hour early to get us there on time so I do understand it's not easy.

I notice you're always quick to jump in when someone criticises BSN Ian - you're welcome to your opinion however! I'll say this though - your reply states that the free stream was a lesser quality because it was free? Not exactly a great idea from a business perspective is it?

I don't see why a proper 2nd half can't be implemented at tracks that aren't involved in the NDL. Put together a little (and more importantly) local team of say 4 riders and have 4 races and a nominated 5th race (similar to a heat 15) - keep it fast and flowing with pushing off the next race immediately after the previous race has finished, it could all be said and done in 10-15 minutes (barring tapes issues, crashes etc) Have an overlap of riders in the NDL to give them more experience if necessary. Everyone gets 2 races each + 4 riders get an extra race. I understand that there will be a cost to the rider, which is an issue, but if the riders are local (ish) it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

I don't think I'll have much choice this year!

Why not both? The teams no participating in the NDL should be forced to host 3-5 2nd half races really.

I read the press release as that they would be in charge of the premiership in 26 because the powers that be haven't found a commercial partner. I know there's a lot of positive feedback about BSN but personally I think it's still a bit ropey to me. I watched the free stream from Ipswich and one of the races was viewed entirely from the start line cam so you could only see the riders for about 3 seconds per lap 😂

Only 6 teams confirmed is a travesty, but the bigger issue is only 1 home / 1 away per team, a total of 10 meetings per team. This is absolutely nowhere near enough meetings for the youngsters to develop. Why not 2 home and 2 away?! I know this was a very long time ago but in my short stint in the mavericks we rode 24 meetings in one season.

I think that he'll get snapped up. He'll come in on a VERY low average due to the new 8% reduction rule, he's got Sean Wilson & Gary Havelock behind him - he's also lined up bikes, suits, a van, a mechanic etc. If he's not signed before the season I reckon someone will sign him for injury replacement at some point.

Danny King also went straight into the elite league at 16 if I remember right. He didn't do too badly...

I will be very surprised to see Kemp back at Leicester after Stewart Dickson's very public comments about Kemp's attitude towards the tail end of last season.

I struggle to believe that Kemp would be back. I know his average would fit but from what I remember Dickson has cut all ties with him due to some butting of heads late last season.

I always thought the AGM was minimum 2 days? I have a vague memory of them all gathering in spain for 5 days in the past.

Yeah it's a grey area. He's technically self employed as well so it's not even as if he's being "hired" in the traditional sense so I've NO idea what the rules are there.

I know integrity is something that's lacking from the BSPA, but I do believe them when they say "at least 5 clubs" - Ipswich probably tentatively agreed to run if they can't find another team to take their place. That's my assumption anyway.

As far as I know as he has an unspent conviction it IS legal to refuse employment, but I may be wrong.

Lets be honest here, the only thing that really matters with the AGM and in 2026 is which teams are lining up to tapes. Hopefully this is the real rock-bottom and that things can only improve and strengthen from here. It'll be a herculean task with everyone involved pulling their weight. Surely it can't get much worse right? ...right?!

Regardless of whether he has apologised or not, it's completely up to the general public as to whether they support his reintroduction to speedway or not. I think personally a lot of promoters will be prepared to give him a wide berth just purely because it could damage attendance if a convicted felon signs for a team. Speedway as a whole in this country operates on a bare bones level (give or take a handful of genuinely well supported teams) so in my opinion it's just too risky to give him a shot. Think of it from this perspective, if he applied for a job in a supermarket and they rejected him because of his past, would you be surprised? I wouldn't.

It's going to take a good 12-24 months to finalise and move everything over to Netflix (if that's the plan) so nothing will change in the short term. That's if the deal even goes through!

I think it's far too late to switch to one league now. Some championship teams have already named riders, if the BSPA did a u-turn and made it so, it would make a farce of an already farcical situation.

It was confirmed in the comments that it's simply Mark being Doyley's mechanic for 26. Incredibly tone deaf from Jason.

I could be mistaken on this - you could be right! I was of the impression that Chris owned the stadium and everything within.

I have a lot of respect for the late Tim Stone - he was definitely marmite to a lot of people, but he was always very nice, welcoming and respectful to us during my (short) time riding for the Mavericks. You always knew where you stood with him and he never minced his words. Plus the man lived and breathed Newport and it's such a shame things went the way they did there. I'll never forget we used to go down there every Sunday in the winter to practice, and planned to sleep in the van the night before, he offered us the option of putting our van in the pits (there was a lot of travellers in the area and often targeted Newport as a place to pitch up) and letting us sleep in a VIP box with heating - to which we gratiously accepted. He said "under no conditions are you to go outside before I get here in the morning though, the guard dog will have your pants down" - one night someone tried to break in and we found a pair of absolutely shredded jeans in the pits the morning after 😂😂😂

It's been said but every club is different. If it's Sheffield you're basically buying a ticket to put guys on a track, the fence and some equipment. If it's say Ipswich you'd most likely be buying the entire venue with everything that comes within. Privately owned clubs will fetch much more money (Ipswich, Leicester, Kings Lynn, the list goes on) but you'd have complete control. Tracks that operate under a leasing arrangement would obviously be much cheaper but don't come with the freedom to do as you see fit with the place.