foamfence

I would still ban him, even after the statement. He was known to be a bit of a loose cannon and that cast some doubt in some minds when Redcar signed him.

I didn't think the Star was being that critical, the article is simply an interview where he revealed his thoughts and attitude.

I see he's still named today in the under 21 final draw.

If you've paid to go in you expect a better effort than that and better presentation. I doubt members of the public could have done much worse than some of Redcar's "professionals."

Bandits will get far tougher tests than against that bunch of throwouts.

I think of darts and wrestling as something of an amusement rather than sport. I wouldn't be interested. In sixty years of watching, mechanic and sponsor I've seen a wide variety of off track novelty attractions, they just turn me off. I think that the current set up could be speeded up and that seems to be most peoples complaint on here. How often do they get 11,000 at darts by the way? With the exception of the big televised events.

Having seen those that make up the crowds at darts and wrestling, All I can say is "no thanks" if that's the way it's going, fair enough but I won't be there.

One with an injured number one.

Newcastle and Redcar.

I gather that a new silencer is coming in for next years GPs. It's a lower decibel model from the current ones but is a straight through type without the restricting plate that the current ones have. So it'll be likely that the various national authorities will adopt it.

I quite like them, not overdone or anything. There are some good pictures of them on Hugh Skidmore's Facebook page.

It was "excluded" in my day.

Nice to know it went well. The play off's would be a surprise, but you never know. How many times did Wilko fall off? :-)

Theme songs have been done lots of times over the years. The last bit wouldn't add any interest to me to be honest.

I would allow the race to finish and THEN exclude the offender! That would soon stop it.

Not everyone is the same, personally I think bad presentation is worse than no presentation and all the ideas that people here have put forward, wouldn't attract me. I don't even like the parade! All I want to see is racing, so whatever the other attractions might be, I don't want them. The best thing that could happen (too expensive probably) would be a giant screen with replays of the last race and replays of other events before the start and during the interval. And also heat results that you often miss because of crap sound systems.

You should know all about them! :-)

I would prefer not to have things that reduce it to the level of a circus.

The Polish tracks have dropped attendance by a lot, years ago you were talking 20,000+ as the norm, they are nowhere near that these days, despite having club sides stronger than most countries line-ups.

I think everything boils down to cost. It's too expensive to run speedway, too expensive to ride speedway and too expensive to watch speedway. Plus nowadays too many tracks are out in the sticks and inaccessible by public transport. I also find the presentation is mostly embarrassing, a bunch of riders on an old trailer waving at empty terraces. Instead of all that crap, I'd prefer to see 15 minutes (before the start time) practice and then get straight on with it. I would make it that the two minute rule meant that the rider was at the tapes and ready for them to rise, or he's out! I like the Draft system and would like to see it as a progressive system from PL to EL (one big league would be better with all clubs having a second team in the development leagues).

Well Wilko has had a couple of seasons as a Bear, Hall hasn't started yet.

Surely people are allowed to be critical where it's due, especially when you consider how much we have to pay. Incidentally, I was the one who told Carl that I wouldn't have re-signed him, on the Bears Talk Forum. I think he's not going to improve and he lost us a few close matches through his falls. Anyway he claims to have three bikes now and a Redcar specialist bike that is to be looked after by someone else, so he might do a bit better (I have my doubts)and if he does then great. I do wish all the Bears a successful season (even if it isn't the team I would have gone with).

If you have a league filled with top riders, they just become normal everyday riders. We have the best riders in the world anyway, Ward and Woffinden. It's good if each team has a big star who you look forward to seeing when they visit, but teams stuffed with top riders just doesn't work here. Personally, I've watched plenty of Polish and Swedish league racing and I much prefer ours. Feel free to disagree but that's how I see it.

That's true! But he seems to fall off everywhere and very frequently.

They'll certainly finish above that OTHER Scottish side.