AFCB Wildcat

Pff! I'll raise you a Gregg's chicken and bacon slice, a cheese & onion slice and a vegan sausage roll. :-)

I'm not complaining. Just that based on people's previous experiences as posted on here I was given to understand that the cheaper tickets were always available on the day so it was a bit of a shock when they weren't and cost me more than expected. When it's just me and the wife going I always opt for tickets over £50 anyway but paying for a larger group I could have done with getting cheaper tickets. It's good for the event that the tickets sold out but given that the view from the upper tiers is pretty similar all the way round it wouldn't hurt to make more cheaper seats available and maybe boost attendance even more. Yes I attend Premier league football weekly. I have a season ticket which works out about £28 a game and away matches are capped at £30. My Arsenal away ticket was £26. Yesterday was my grandsons 1st speedway experience and he blew his horn and waved his flag all the way through and loved it so I don't begrudge it.

We were U25 but not worth the extra lol. Oh well lesson learned. Won't make the same mistake again. My grandson loved it so we still had a good night. It just felt like being held to ransom at the time. Thank goodness for Barclaycard lol. Best start cracking in some overtime next week!

Yes plenty of cheap tickets available in advance but due to circumstances we decided to pay on the day. The website showed the cheapest on the day at £25 which is fair enough increase for a walk up price but we got there about 2pm and was told they were sold out and the cheapest was £50 Upper tier bend 3. I couldn't let down my grandson and my daughter hadn't budgeted for that much so 4 adults and a child cost me £225. I can't help agreeing that selling the empty upper tier spaces more cheaply on the day would increase attendance.

I blame Brexit ;-)

£50 cheapest available! Kin,ell' !!! I needed 5

Due to circumstances beyond my control I will need to buy tickets on the day from the WRU office. I've seen conflicting posts on here regarding this in that some have said they buy the cheapest on the day and now I've seen that there are no cheap ones on the day. Okay 'cheapest' and 'cheap' are 2 different things I accept, but how much generally are the cheapest on the day? Also is the ticket office open right up to start time as I don't know what time I will get to Cardiff. Thanks in advance if anyone can offer advice based on previous experience.

I'm confused too! We always sit in block U5 upper tier 1st bend which is cat 5. Although it's expensive there's always room there to move back to get a better view when people block my view or annoy me! When I click on Cat 5 it just says 'tickets not available' They can't of sold out the entire upper tier surely? Normally only the 1st 3 rows are occupied. Or are they just not releasing them?

My wife gets mine at our local Asda with her weekly shop and has never let me down yet so I can recommend Asda :-)

I'm thinking that maybe he wanted the rider to park up on the infield and continue his practice lap when the presentation was finished but I take your point. As you say, who knows for sure? Only the people involved. I remember years ago being invited onto the centre green at Eastbourne to watch a race from the start line which was quite an experience. Probably wouldn't be able to do it now though!

From the video it looks to me that the flag Marshall is gesturing with the flag and pointing with his right arm to indicate that he wants Craig to exit the track onto the infield which is why he has stepped to his left because he has indicated for the rider to go to his right. It doesn't look to me like either the Marshall deliberately stepped in his path or that Cook deliberately rode into him, more a misunderstanding. Certainly Cook lunged at him in anger but I wouldn't call that a deliberate head butt.

It could work for me because many years ago I was a huge tractor enthusiast but then lost interest and gave it all up. It turned out to be beneficial though recently as I saved a lot of people when the room we were in filled with dense smoke. Lucky for them I was an ex tractor fan.

Yes it makes sense and after re-reading it I misquoted saying "twice the size" but Steve's words were "They have 2 valves instead of 4 but it's 2 big ones instead of 4 little ones".

Well there you go then. The BSPA GTR challenge series. Everyone's a winner! ;-)

Yes that's true but as Barry said it makes no difference if they are 2 valve or 4 valve as long as they are all standard and balloted engines. The article in the Star said that while they were 2 valve engines the valve size was twice the size of the 4 valve units so in practice not much different. These are modern laydown units and not like the old 2 valve engines that we remember. I assume that the Nice competition is tied in with the Jawa engines but if the BSPA would block their use because of their GTR contract as has been suggested by Fortythirtyeight then they could replicate the project with the GTR engines that they probably have a surplus of.

The proposal was standard, balloted engines. Nothing to say they can't be GTR. In fact it could save the GTR's becoming the doorstops that they currently are!

A season long GP style series to fill in some of the fixture gaps we currently have would be great. I'm sure riders would be keen to prove that they can compete with the best on a level playing field and put themselves in the shop window for attracting sponsors and advancing their careers. As you say though it will rely on a major sponsor to supply and maintain the balloted engines. Good luck with the project I hope it's a success.

I absolutely agree with you 100%. I'm just going on the words of Josh Auty and Steve Worrall in the Star. On the front page Auty is quoted as saying the spiralling cost of stuff for riders to compete and be on the ball is phenomenal but in the article he says the riders would "throw out" the idea of standard engines because of the reasons stated. I'm sure it's not insurmountable if the will is there but I'm not sure how a migration period would work?

The riders will stop it. Although they accept that the cost to stay competitive is spiralling and standard engines would resolve this they have too much money invested in their current engines which is what scuppered the GTR project. To quote Steve Worrall in this week's Star. The engines they've spent thousands of pounds on would now be merely "propping the workshop door open"

Well, reading the Star it seems like the meeting was a success. Close racing, bikes were safer and only a fraction slower than the GM's. Introducing the engines would reduce costs and improve the product but the riders won't buy into it because it would make the kit they've invested in so heavily worthless so a bit of a catch 22 situation unfortunately.

I agree with you that team speedway at top level in its current format isn't working but a 16 man GP series wouldn't produce enough meetings for either riders or clubs. I would retain the team speedway in the top flight but in a 4 team tournament format with 4 man teams and a reserve like the old world cup format run alongside the GP series you suggest. Maybe less fixtures would attract some of the big names back and increase quality? I know people will bemoan the loss of team riding (which is virtually extinct anyway) but what we have now isn't working so change is needed in my opinion. If teams still lack fixtures they can enter National league sides to bring on the next generation as I think this still works in its current format.

Talking of engines then, what is the engine in Eddie Kennett's bike shown on the front cover of this weeks Star? In the feature photos in the inner pages he's on a GM but I don't recognise the one on the cover.

Likewise, I had an excellent weekend too and the weather was the icing on the cake. We flew out Thursday morning and back to Bournemouth on Sunday so had a couple of days to explore before the meeting. Will definitely go again but will choose different seats next time. We were at the end of the start line straight by the first bend and with everyone leaning forward our view of the starts and the run to the line were obscured so will probably opt for one of the bends next time. I was a bit surprised on how low key the event was in the city with no merchandising or large gatherings of fans before the meeting like Cardiff but was impressed with the Metro system which made getting to and from the Stadium from the city centre and back to our hotel a doddle. The meeting itself was a slow burner but some decent racing later on so all in all had a good time and look forward to the next one.

Prague this year was my first GP other than Cardiff and yes you're right Steve, it's a great opportunity. Cheap flight from my local airport and 3 days in a beautiful city with lovely weather as a bonus after weeks of cold and rain at home! :-)

I didn't suggest you did. I was just pointing out why people criticise the format as you said you couldn't understand why in a dismissive type way. It looks like BSI, FIM are finally happy with the format now anyway as they've not tinkered with it for a while.