PHILIPRISING

INCIDENTALLY, our website (speedwaystar.net) has been given an overhaul by Andy Povey who will be looking after it from now on.

THANK you ...we have been making a few changes with our freelance editorial contributors. The winter series with Phil Chard has been terrific and Peter Oakes new column has been outstanding every week. Don't know hoe he does it.

WE do complain but are always told that the complaint should go to the local sorting office in question.. Although they do not guarantee next day delivery it is an expectation.

APRIL 1st...

SORRY you are having problems with delivery of your Speedway Star. Think that Royal Mail are simply passing the buck. Nothing we can do beyond paying for a first class service and hoping that Royal Mail literally deliver.

AS yet we haven't heard from BT about their plans. I'm sure we will when they have all their ducks (production, commentators, presentation, etc) in a row. Would be extremely surprised if Kelvin and Nigel are not the commentators. Will Natalie be the pits interviewer, will Chris Louis come onboard? Have a pretty good idea who will handle the TV broadcast and it will be good although perhaps not quite along the lines flagrag suggested. Presume BT will be able to interject some SGP highlights into a domestic meeting should they so wish. Does the 18 meetings mentioned include the British Final? If so, perhaps a change of race might would be a good idea... staging it on a Monday at Belle Vue is not a good, traffic, late night and all that. How about a Saturday afternoon ... would that appeal more?

IF the council were to release the ARUP report it might prove interesting. We did ask MCC on several occasions what happened to the £690,000 but they wouldn't comment.

HAVEN'T had a chance to fully digest the document yet but still many unanswered questions on both sides including what happened to the £690,000 MCC didn't pay to ISG.

SOMEONE has to negotiate a deal and Terry is very good at that.

LOOK at ... http://www.bbc.com/sport/speedway/39183123

I WAS actually at the FIM Congress when the BSPA were granted Associate Membership and their representatives at the CCP meetings were under the mis-apprehension that they would be afforded a vote. Of course they weren't and although allowed to sit at the table, the power remained with the ACU rep.

NOT strictly true. BSI do pay the BSPA re the British GP although, in fact, they don't have to. The BSPA have nothing to do with the World Championshiop, it is an FIM event and it is the ACU who are an affiliate.

WORTH a look ... http://www.itv.com/news/granada/update/2017-03-01/national-speedway-stadium-has-great-potential-say-new-owners-of-belle-vue-aces/

THINK that's right KELVIN and Nigel did the commentary on the Aussie GP from London because BT wanted to stay with them rather than have the world feed commentators (Crump and Tapp).

LOTS of cuts, some behind the scenes, some not. Quite a few presenters/reporters have already got the chop. Even as a soccer fan cannot understand why they are allegedly paying Thierry Henry millions to supplement an already over-crowded football bench.

PRESUMABLY to the BSPA who will distribute to Premiership tracks, most if not all of whom will have budgeted for TV money. In many cases tracks like Somerset sold sponsorship deals win the back of TV exposure so will be desperate to have BT fill the Sky void. Incidentally, Speedway Star had the squeeze put on us not to reveal Sky's decision while negotiations were at a delicate stage with BT and, in the wider interest of the sport, we acquiesced. Probably been left with egg in our faces if it is announced later this week but that's the way it goes.

MOST likely they will pay off contract but save on production costs. Throwing all they money at football again, or so it seems.

ADMIT what ... you have just confirmed what we have been saying. Or did I miss your irony?

BELIEVE they are in the hands of an administrator appointed after the companies went into liquidation.

AS Shale Searcher explained (post 2188) proceeds from Sky and gate receipts simply went into a big black hole from previously incurred debt, some of which had been carried forward year on year from Kirky Lane. I remember saying to Chris Morton at the play-off final against Wolves, with a big crowd at the NSS, that at least their season would finish with a good pay day. His curt reply: "But we won't see any of it." There were concerns about the track in the days leading up to the opening but you ignore the fact that it passed an SCB inspection the day before. The fact remains that had ISG properly constructed the base section of turns 3/4 as they had elsewhere and subsequently did there too this whole sorry chapter in British speedway would never have taken place.

WERE you there? I was, from around 1pm, and David Gordon and others were confident that the track would be okay, if not perfect, that evening. Have detailed here many, many times why it deteriorated later in the day but if you don't believe that then fine. Gordon and Chris Morton had nothing to gain by opening the turnstiles knowing that the meeting wouldn't go ahead. It would have been an act of commercial suicide although from their point of view the outcome was very much the same. The fact that it didn't go ahead was, as we later discovered, due to circumstances out of their control and which were later fully agreed upon and documented by Manchester City Council. VERY positive and hopefully they will reap the benefit of all the NSS has to offer.

WHAT is the question?

THEY weren't idle. It's not always advantageous to wash one's dirty linen in public. And the public don't have a divine right to know everything. GP has decided that discretion is the better choice when looking at the bigger picture and I for one applaud him for that.

AND probably won't.

Not speedway's decline ... but for a fact that Sunday People expose and what followed had a huge impact of how speedway was treated by the national press. Simon wasn't the only one involved of course.