Chadster

Other sports like cricket and rugby have complicated scoring systems and they seem to manage ok. They don't however, have anything like the double points rule and that damages credibility, I think

A few from Wimbledon who were fun to watch; Roger Johns, Todd Wiltshire, Kelvin Tatum and Mark Burrows. Andy Galvin as a visiting rider could always cause uproar. Others who were always entertaining; Trevor O'Brien, Chris Morton, Les and Neil Collins and Mark Loram

You obviously have a problem with understanding other people's posts. The point was, if there is no legal restriction in the NL why can't the PL introduce a scheme whereby, say, 2 British riders were at reserve. If you think that there aren't enough British riders for that to work, start with one, the next season make it two etc. This would give an incentive to get British riders coming through and not drop them at the first opportunity.

If the NL can insist on British riders only, why not other leagues?

I grew up with speedway in the 1960s, so from a nostalgic perspective I might favour one big league, 13 heats and a second half, the old tac sub rule etc. However, 13 heats was not a good formula and there were good reasons why second halves were abolished. People arguing for greater value for money seem reluctant to accept a logical step, which would seem to be longer matches. 18 heats was tried a while ago, is it time to think again? However, are the riders available? One weakness of the one big league approach is that if it included the 22 teams currently in the top 2 flights they would need 154 riders to stock the teams. I'm not sure at the moment there are sufficient riders of the standard available and that the top 2 flights are only able to run because of the amount of doubling up that's going on.

It says more about the referee than the sport. No one accuses football of going down the drain when the nightmare that is Kevin Friend referees a match

Most tracks in World Championship events are big, sweeping tracks that require powerful equipment. Most tracks in the UK aren't. They are of a size that require a certain technique to ride effectively. Indeed, it's worth pointing out that since our glory days in the 1970s, tracks in Britain have got smaller on average, many of the big, flat out British tracks like Hyde Road, Exeter, West Ham, Bradford have closed down. A lot of British tracks also, sited in greyhound stadiums are rather odd shapes, with long straights and tight corners, a far cry from what's seen on the continent. I'd be interested to know how easily our young riders acquire sponsorship as compared to their counterparts in Poland and Denmark.

The first thing the BSPA need to ask themselves is whether Team GB winning the World Cup would have any benefit for the sport in this country. If the answer is 'no', which might very well be the answer, then carry on what they're doing. If the answer is 'yes' then how are they going to achieve it, because it's not going to happen without a change and that change is going to cost money. A plan might include some or all of the following; Test matches abroad, which would probably need to be funded by the BSPA. Initially we'd have to be looking to take on countries like Czechoslovakia, Germany etc as the Poles would be far too strong. Identify and stick with young talent. Garrity seems the most likely of the younger riders, Robert Lambert is obviously another. Were Morris and Vatcher consulted over this years World Cup squad? Once young riders are identified, get them working with people like Loram, Tatum etc who can give advice on organisation and may be able to open up doors to sponsorship. All the above costs money, and our impoverished state makes me doubt that much if anything will be done.

I went to the two meetings at Wolverhampton this week and thought there were possibly more people at the Cradley meeting than the Wolves so running in two competitions might work, as you say. Certainly the crowd seemed more enthusiastic and more tolerant of the riders' efforts. Out of interest, how much do Swedish clubs have to pay to rent their stadia?

If you asked a man in the street if he was going to speedway because Nicki Pedersen was riding there, I guess you'd get a blank look because few people have heard of Nicki Pedersen. He'd bring in only a small number of fans and certainly nowhere near enough to fund his wages. If Birmingham and Eastbourne can't currently make ends meets, replacing the fast track reserves with established world stars will be lunacy.

Shazle, I'm not entirely sure what all the top line means but if you compare with some of the other formats it gives you an idea. In the case of the format you quote '0207' relates to number of riders in the team. If you look at the format for BEL 98 it's 0206, which was one of the years when they ran with 6 man teams. Then '0002' is minimum number of rides and '07' maximum number of rides. '0513' are the heats within which tac subs could be used. I'm not sure about the last 8 figures but they seem common to all most formats. The long line of letters means that all but the last heat have a defined format, the B seems to indicate a nominated heat. 'E' is sometimes used for a heat reserved for top scorers. The best advice is to play around with it, play a few games and see if it works as you think it should. Hope this helps

You can create new heat formats. Once you've downloaded the game go to the Flying Shale folder on 'My Computer' and open the Data folder and there is a 'Notepad' folder called formats, in which you can create new formats.

Why not?

Was certainly contested on a mini-league basis between 1965 and 1968

.....is a phrase that's been in Speedway Star match reports a few times in recent weeks. Given the general level of gloom and despondency on the forum, I was surprised to read these comments. Are crowd levels recovering? Can it be linked to promotional activity (e.g. lowered admission at Birmingham) or is it a response to the first decent summer in years.

Yes, but they don't have to interview you.

Old Music itself isn't the problem, more the quality. 'The Magnificent 7' seems to me to be a stirring anthem and worked brilliantly at Hackney, 'Those Magnificent Men on their Flying Machines' doesn't cut it at all at Rye House. Traditional music can still be part of the spectacle if it is traditionally associated with the club, as 'You'll never Walk Alone' shows in football

I haven't been to speedway for a few years now, largely since Wimbledon closed. I'd prefer the old tac. sub rule but I can see the thinking behind the tactical ride, though I can see why it would puzzle newcomers because it is so unlike other sports, many of whom have substitute rules. Scoring systems are complicated in a lot of sports (bonus points in cricket and rugby, away goals in football) so why are these things not issues in those sports (perhaps they are, but I'm not aware of it). I suspect the difference is that speedway is perceived to be in crisis where the other sports aren't and so its fans are casting round for a solution and these seem to be obvious targets. Personally, my nearest track is Rye House and I don't go because it's a long trek by public transport for some not very good racing the last few times I was there. The racing there used to be good in the days of Ronnie Russell and I went regularly. So, my suggestions are, well-prepared tracks, evenly matched riders and speedway can still be immensely attractive.

Tokyo Melody, I think it was called. It was used to introduce TV coverage of the Tokyo Olympics in 1964. I remember it from my first visits to Hyde Road in 1967. Regards Frank

My understanding was that it was to give the riders a longer run in to the first bend

I always enjoyed watching Trevor O'Brien at Rye House. At Wimbledon it was Roger Johns, with an honourable mention for Nathan Simpson.

Could the track be the original track at Rye House, now the go-kart circuit, I believe? I've no idea, but as a readily available track near London it seems as likely a choice as any. Has anyone got any photos of the orignal Rye House?

With regard to photo 10a, are the West Ham riders Tony Clarke and George Barclay?

Crowds at Wimbledon in the last era there were down to the small hundreds, weren't they? I read somewhere that the average crowd at Wimbledon in the last NL season was 800. Now Newport would probably kill for crowds like that, but the rental costs at Plough Lane are huge and, of course there's no income from catering to offset that. Those extant speedway fans in London would probably still see themselves as Wimbledon or Hackney fans and be reluctant to attend the 'old rivals' track. The failure of the London Lions suggest that changing the name wouldn't help.

I don't know about Reg Lambourne but I remember watching Ray Wilson on it, in the late 60's or early 70's I would say.