foamfence

You could race Monday AND Thursday if your stadium is available, I don't think it has to be one or the other. If a team has a handful of rain-offs it'll start to get tricky. You are quite right about it getting awkward for some, what with stadium access and the fact that some Thursday clubs may not want to be in the premiership and are in effect being forced to change their race night.

Is it though?

So what happens to Monday and Thursday clubs that don't go in the Premiership?

Then again, why bother with two leagues?

What would he have to gain from being found guilty of assault?

Obviously he'd be happy to 'let it go.'

I doubt they actually 'need' it but any TV coverage is always welcome.

Even though it was in full view of spectators?

I used to go to Halifax, they had some good riders at times but often they didn't, eventually we moved to the Bradford track and richer promoters were able to fill the side with mainly top internationals every season. Halifax had pretty steady crowds and although the stadium was tatty we loved the steeply banked track. The big Odsal track held all the top meetings but I found it rather predictable, whether that was the case with everyone I don't know but for some reason it just died and when it closed supposedly to build a superdome, the crowds were so low it was embarrassing to be there. So I wouldn't blame any promoter who refuses to risk everything on paying massive wage bills on the off chance that it would sufficiently raise crowd levels (it probably would but only for a short while).

Well we can't afford them, they consider our tracks dangerous and Polish Speedway controls what they can and can't do. If things go wrong elsewhere and they start to drift back, fair enough. Meanwhile we need to look at what we actually have and make the best job of it, if only we could agree what that 'best' actually is.

Modern helmets usually have shorter peaks and they are actually higher up on some models, longer peaks would certainly help.

My comment was appropriate.

The leagues are British, Scotland is in Britain! (despite the wishes of Wee Jimmy Krankie).

I remember Tai saying that he needed to cut down and he decided to stop riding here because he had more accidents here. I think this obsession with Poland and to a lesser extent Sweden, is ruining things here. We can't alter most tracks and we can't afford big wage bills, the only answer is to leave them to it and go our own way, personally I have no interests in foreign leagues and if riders want to ride over there to the exclusion of riding here, then that's fair enough. What isn't fair enough is riders who can't be bothered riding in their own national championship or representing their country in internationals and that applies to all three (that I'm aware of) who refused to represent us in the SWC in recent years.

I've read elsewhere that there wont be any TV money after this year.

We aren't talking about Cricket and they don't do that at the same time.

It makes the sport look ridiculous, it's bad enough when it comes on the telly and the fans are corralled into one little section to make it look full. Then Nigel gleefully tells the world that most of these riders are in two or even three teams! And that's before he gets to mentioning their overseas commitments. You can understand it more if it's an up and coming rider getting a chance at a higher level but that isn't usually the case.

As the difference between the two leagues has been greatly narrowed, I imagine quite a few would consider the Premiership, particularly if the other options were the NL or closure. The old excuse about it being too expensive, no longer applies.

Totally agree but the question was whether you prefer the old tac sub or the current double points, if the option had been 'neither' I would have gone for that.

That wouldn't be possible but if you brought in a few from overseas who might want to ride here and a few NL riders with higher league experience, you could do it. There has also been suggestions of six man teams, I remember that being tried before, a few decades back. It wouldn't be impossible to have one big league and if rumours about the viability of some clubs are true, then it would be even easier.

Definitely old.

I think a lot of fans want their own team, not one made up of riders from various others, the fact that some riders compete abroad makes much less difference to fans, than seeing the same blokes in two or even three teams here.

Originally the idea of fixed race nights was to make it possible for more overseas stars to ride here, as they are mostly out of our price range and Poland is considering even more restrictions on their freedom to ride, that side of it seems to be dead in the water. Personally I'd prefer to see one big league, even with the conditions that would impose on rider strength.

The promoters have pre-meetings before the annual conference, maybe some Championship clubs have indicated that they'll be non-runners or NL next year? Today the Scunthorpe boss has again cast doubt on next season and I gather that the stockcars actually make the money there. As Paulco indicated, there are a few Championship clubs with very small crowd levels. We wait and see, we don't want closures but wishfull thinking doesn't pay the bills.

While that is true, surely the purpose of the championship should be to provide a stepping stone between the NL and the Premiership. That hasn't worked as it should for a long time and we even had the situation where Draft riders went straight into the Elite, because the second division had been allowed to become it's own little empire and declined to take them. We now approach rumour time and hopefully the leagues will become one or the Championship will continue it's intended purpose and supply riders to above, while accommodating riders from below. With such small differences between the leagues currently, I'd go with amalgamation.