PHILIPRISING

THE trouble these days is that they identify with them one minute and the next they are riding somewhere else. Say it again ... continuity.

LOVE it...

WOULD only take issue on one thing ... speedway needs both the Jim Tebbys and the Greg Hancocks. Any sport trying to attract a paying public needs its superstars, not just because they pull in the punters but because they are the figures that others, even a Jim Tebby, can aspire to or dream about. And, of course, it was far easier to piece together a team years ago when you chose riders rather than a number. Jim gave loyal service to the Dons for many years but if he was riding right now he would probably be forced out because his average was too low or too high. Which brings me back to my perennial gripe ... as a speedway fan, nothing to do with journalism. Continuity of teams and race nights.When we lost that we started on the slippery slope and are still going down in my opinion.

THEY probably would if they actually existed. Life in Britain let alone speedway was very different when they started riding. Far more saw speedway as a worthwhile career then than do now. They grew up in a different age. One of my favourite riders was Jim Tebby at Wimbledon. A real journeyman rider, salt of the earth. Speedway was his second profession but he was a vital member of the Dons team at number two, a vital position under the old (and much lamented) formula. Highlight of his career was when he and Ronnie Moore secured a 5-1 over Ivan Mauger in a KO Cup (also much lamented) meeting at Plough Lane. But had Jim been born 40 years later I very much doubt that he would have gone near a speedway bike.

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WHO is going to pay him for the lifetime of the contract? Scrapping the whole asset anomaly would be a step in the right direction.

OR doing the graveyard shift on Sky Sports News off an auto-cue

BSI won't say anything publicly until a) the contract is signed and sealed and the FIM have officially been informed of the complete calendar ... around the middle of November. But my information is that it will be the 18th. Will have to wait and see ...

CONTRACTS not signed as yet but that will be the date...

WRONG date for Warsaw before anyone starts booking flights

WHICH is what I said ... Reminds me of a comment by a former SCB Chairman who said, quite rightly, that is easy to impose discipline (paramount if a wage cap exists) when promoters are making shed loads of money and you can threaten to withdraw their licence. Not so easy when they are not and any such threat would probably be meant with "I'll put it (licence) in the post."

THIRTY years ago riders earned their bread and butter in the UK and for the top tier some cream on the grass and long track scene in Germany over the weekend. It's not the GP series that has changed all that. The fall of communism in Poland was the catalyst for what we are seeing now. I can recall Jimmy Nilsen riding for Zielona Gora and needing a van to bring all the US dollars home! Sweden was always attractive because of their single race night but has grown considerably over the past 30 years as well. So I am not sure Sidney that you can claim league racing world wide as suffered. We had an almost monopoly for many years but times have changed.

GOOD points well made

THE BSPA tried a wage cap several years ago and the season hadn't even started before one track broke it. Frankly, if the leagues in Britain, Denmark, Poland and Sweden got together and imposed a wage cap, obviously with different rates in each country, it would benefit everyone but that is never going to happen sadly. There are ways that the BSPA could reduce some costs for riders. They bulk buy tyres and sell them to riders. There are other bike components for which they could also negotiate a favourable deal... Chris Louis suggested clutch plates for example. Apparently riders go through them like butter, according to Chris Holder.

I MAY have mentioned this before somewhere, but Niels-Kristian Iversen told me in Latvia that he just changed vans (a Merc Sprinter, the most popular brand because it drives like a car apparently) and that his previous one had done 660,000 kilometres. But with "one careful owner!"

AS a neutral armchair viewer last night, thoroughly enjoyed the meeting which came over well on TV with thankfully the cameras showing a tightly knit crowd rather than the sparse attendances we see too often. And despite all the guests it was Poole's own riders, led magnificently by Maciej Janowski, who won them the title on the day. Greg Hancock, who has has Janowski 'under his wing' for some time said he would be a 'slow burner' and that is proving to be the case. Think he will do well in the SGP next year.

WHERE will Sayfutdinov end up?

NO doubt the Aussie riders will come to an agreement ... would guess that they would actually want their GP bikes to be flown back to Europe. GOOD post...

PROBABLY depends where you are sitting. Under-21 World Team Cup Final at Mildura week after SGP (Oct 31).

NOT allowed ... BSI pay all their expenses, fares, accommodation, freight, etc., so they cannot ride elsewhere

THINK they will do okay first year (Etihad reporting over 4,000 tickets sold already) and maybe second but whether they can retain the interest will probably largely depend on how the first two went.

EXCELLENT ...

AND you are happy with the conditions under which the play-offs took place and the fact that neither Coventry or Poole had any real time to properly plan and promote the actual final? If you are going to have play-offs we should be making the most of them not shoe-horning them into a few days at the tail end of October.

NO one said they cannot run until the end of October but surely it would be better to aim for September when there is a better chance of decent weather along with time to re-rrange should it not occur. Or do you prefer the shambolic situation we have with the EL play-offs right now?

WILL be early June ... host nation not yet decided