brianbuck

The long term answer to the gardening problem must surely be some kind of ribbed "carpet" laid across the starting area? This would need to be heavy enough not to lift under the pressured of riders' starts, and possibly light enough to be able to be moved onto the centre green as soon as the riders have moved away from it. Not an easy combination I agree. I do have some ribbed plasticy-rubber mats in mind which I have seen used by builders in soggy grassed areas at a caravan park, which look strong enough to withstand the pressure of a rear wheel, and perhaps there might be a way of leaving them in place on the track? I have shown pictures of these to a couple of promoters and suggested that they might be worth a try, but neither of them have shown any interest in doing so.

I tend to agree with this complainant. I think the Speedway Star is gradually concentrating more and more on the Continental scene at the expense of British news. I think it's still a decent read but there are increasing parts of the magazine such as the "Polish Scene" and the Grasstrack news, that I never read.

Yes, the stock car operation was well used and profitable, and the promoters didn't deserve the shabby treatment that they received from the City Council, who forced them into relinquishing their lease and to close down their operation, and then sold the land to Birmingham City in spite of receiving a substantially better offer from elsewhere (my information is that this alternative offer was actually over £30m greater - the the Council rejected the offer as "too low!" I know the site well as I was born and lived within walking distance of it, for the first 27 years of my life. It was formerly the Council rubbish tip and I've seen it described as the most contaminated piece of land in Birmingham, but although it was a desolate place in the early days, it was developed as a quite attractive venue in an extremely run-down part of the City, and I have always believed that speedway could have been successful there. The problem for the Brummies came in that fact that Dan McCormick moved in there far too early and when the place was in the very early stages of being developed. He had no option at the time for the old Greyhound Stadium at Perry Barr was about to be demolished, and there was nowhere else to go, but in hindsight, it would have been far better to have closed down Birmingham Speedway temporarily, and waited three or four year for the Wheels Park's facilities to be installed. If there is a possibility of getting Birmingham City to include speedway in their plans, then the Wheels Park would definitely be a lifeline for us.

I have been around long enough to remember concrete and tarmac starting areas. The individual grids were ribbed so that the riders all got a better grip and were also spaced out much better than they are now, and at several tracks the tarmacked area was extended to about halfway to the first bend. I don't ever remember any serious injuries being sustained by riders falling on the concrete/tarmac, but in reality, this isn't a part of the track where riders fall very often! One of the problems though, was that there was more rearing at starts, with riders sometimes somersaulting backwards and landing on the concrete, which must have been very painful! They were eventually done away with as a safety measure, but looking back, I think the starts were better (and less drawn out) than they are now. Personally, I think riders touching the tapes should be excluded full stop - with no handicap or reserve replacement allowed. I know there is always this parrot cry of "supporters wanting to see four-man races" but supporters don't want to keep seeing the starting rules, (or first bend "bunching" falls for that matter) being repeatedly abused, and this would stop it. As far as "gardening" is concerned, I think most supporters find it irritating and annoying, and would welcome some rules to reduce or eliminate it. Perhaps two minutes is too long and one minute might be better - and I would definitely ban completely, the practice of mechanics swarming onto the track before every race. Mechanics should do their jobs in the pits and riders should be "on their own" as soon as the pit gate is opened.

Just been announced that the Alan Grahame Memorial Meeting originally scheduled to be staged at Birmingham next Monday 16th September, has now been re-arranged for Monday September 30th at 7.30pm This will be a Four-Team Tournament between Birmingham, Coventry, Cradley Heath and Wolverhampton, with all four teams being comprised of Championship level riders.

Very easy to just say "Sack Phil Morris" after just one miscalculation hasn't met with universal approval, but if this short sighted calamity did happen, then speedway would find it very difficult indeed to find a replacement with anything like the same enthusiasm, work-rate and drive than Phil has shown since taking on the job.

Probably the ideal option would be one of the non-league football grounds in the London area? I don't have a particular knowledge of which football clubs there are and whether any of them would be suitable - bearing in mind possible environmental issues, plus the fact that speedway tracks around football pitches haven't been outstandingly successful in the past. It's a nice thought, the old speedway stadia that used to exist in London were all far too big to have ever been able to survive into the modern era. My club Birmingham's Perry Barr Stadium could at one time accomodate over 40,000 and in the 1940's even that was often considered too small, but these days with spectator facilities only on one side, a couple of thousand would be its approximate limit.

From what I know of Lampart, missing these last two Birmingham fixtures is not something he is doing from choice. Polish riders who race in Britain are ruled by the wishes of their Polish clubs, and have no real option but to do as they are instructed. I like Wiktor as a person and think he has shown considerable promise this season. He enjoys riding in England and is keen to continue with the Brummies, but I do appreciate and agree with the view of those who are not happy with the way Polish riders keep opting out of riding in British matches for whatever reason, and that there is a need for some strong action from the authorities to keep a lid on this.

That's perfectly true. It's a growing problem and is all the more reason why strong action needs to be taken.

I think whichever club has our support, it is hard not to sympathise with Ipswich's situation in which the top end of their team has been virtually wiped out through injuries. Come what may, I think they will definitely reach the play-off's but going on from there is going to be difficult for them. Leicester it seems, are the team running into form at the moment and who must be the dark horses for the title. They looked a very sound combination at Perry Barr last Monday if perhaps on the suspect side at reserve, but it wouldn't surprise me if they do pull it off this season.

Another issue is the so-called "first bend bunching" with referees seemingly under a bit of pressure to restart races with the oft expressed view that "supporters want to watch four man races." That's fair enough on the face of it, but supporters don't want to watch repeated re-starts either, and this season especially, I have observed more and more instances of a rider missing the gate and then either gracefully sliding to earth on the first bend or creating a minor collision with another riders (sometimes his team mate!) so I'd suggest that if this is to become a situation which is abused by the riders, the rule-makers need to think very carefully before introducing and kind of "first bend bunching" regulation.

The only real answer would be a binding contract which riders should sign to confirm that they will be available for all British fixtures which should be enforceable in law, and with financial penalties for non-compliance, but even then, it would be virtually impossible for clubs to successfully challenge the fact the a medical certificate is inaccurate. Any rider could always say that even though he has been declared unfit, it is still his personal choice of whether he rides or not. In other words, I am saying that there is no foolproof way of dealing with this problem, other than a total ban on foreign nationals riding for British Clubs. Again, technically illegal and unenforceable if individual clubs challenged it. So we are back to square one - I don't know of an answer to this!

Surprised to read that there have been issues with Sheffield's. I've been there numerous times and have always considered it to be one of the best prepared tracks in the league. Pleased to hear that there was some good racing there last night though. With the gap between the strengths of the two teams, I wasn't expecting anything but a home win so well done Sheffield and good luck in the play-off's! One small point to make though. We all see how both the guest rider and rider-replacement rules can be beneficial to strong teams and detrimental to weak teams, so maybe there would be merit in devising some kind of system which would base the choice of either rule being dependent on the overall average of the opposition? I'm not having a go at Sheffield over this. They complied with the rules as they are entitled to do, and their supporters would have been up in arms if they hadn't. I'm just making the point that a better and more competitive match could have been possible if the teams had been more evenly matched - which is what speedway is all about?

It continues to amaze me how so many people living in places anything up to 100 or so miles from Perry Barr, seem to have such intimate knowledge of all the background information of how Birmingham Speedway is run and of the merits of the members of the promotion, so perhaps a few genuine facts might be useful to them: Senior Birmingham management have keys to Perry Barr Stadium, and access to the site can be obtained at any time - but access to the speedway track is a different matter. The stadium's major greyhound meeting is staged on Saturday nights so no work relative to the speedway operation can be conducted until Sunday mornings, and even then, the tenancy agreement insists that heavy equipment cannot be taken across the dog track until it has been covered, so this time consuming job has to be done first. When the weather has been as dry and hot as has been the case these last few weeks, watering of the speedway track commences on Sundays and continues throughout the day, and then re-commences on Monday mornings. The suggestion that last Monday "that the track was dusty from heat one" made by someone who was not at the meeting, is absolute nonsense. Regrading and re-watering of the track is usually conducted after heats 4, 8 and 12 as is the case at most other tracks. On this last Monday, the first re-grade was delayed due to the first heat being restarted twice, heat three being similarly re-started, and a further delay when a rider was excluded for failing to make the two minutes deadline and some confusion when he wasn't aware that he had been excluded. The situation with Pawlicki's absence has been well documented, and I imagine that pretty well all of us share the same opinion about this, but having now completed 75% of their fixtures, Birmingham are not now able to replace him with a new signing - but I have it on good authority that no Birmingham rider is on any kind of guarantee as seems to be widely imagined, and the clown who keeps flogging the notion that Birmingham should have signed Artem Laguta, must know as we all do, that Laguta is not interested in riding for a British Club. Where the poster who criticises Sam Ermolenko gets his information from, I do not know. Lampart was nominated for his Rider-Replacement ride in heat 3, but after a first bend collision his machine required adjustment and he subsequently failed to make the two minute warning and was excluded. His exclusion does not allow him to take another rider-replacement ride, which is fair enough. This might or might not have cost the Brummies the match, but it can hardly be the fault of the team manager! Birmingham's difficulties in assembling a more competitive team have been well documented since the start of the season, as have been the difficulties in persuading foreign riders to join the club. The signings of Milik and of Pawlicki have not been as successful as was hoped, and Freddie Lindgren, although still a very good rider, is taking a little time to re-adjust to racing on British tracks after his lengthy absence, so in my opinion, the Team Manager continues to have rather limited options in his job, and doesn't deserve the constant criticism he receives. Fair comment and opinions are always welcome on this site, but it seems to me that there are too many posters from distant parts who are making up their own opinions based on heresay or guesswork, and others who just can't seem to wait for their chance to put the boot in against a club and it's enthusiastic management, which is battling for its survival under difficult circumstances not all of which are of their own making.

Most people seem to agree that the referee made the wrong call in heat 15 - but the referee makes the decisions and these decisions have to be final - that's the way it is, and always has to be, and these things do usually even themselves out over a period, so I wouldn't pillory the referee over this one. On the plus side, everyone also seems to agree that this was a cracking meeting and that both sets of riders put everything into making it so - and that's good for speedway. As a long time Birmingham supporter, I'd like to have been there, but I'm pleased to know that those who did go, saw such an enjoyable contest.