E I Addio

Your argument is based on assumptions. Jon Cook said in Speedway Star recently that the promoters have looked at a single race night but it is not possible because they don't own their own stadiums and can't get all their stadiums at the same time, so unless you can tell us how they could all get their stadiums on back-to-back race nights, and back up what you say with a few facts then we have to accept that back-to-back race nights are not a possibility. What the promoters did agree on at the AGM is that the fixture list is focussed on non GP weeks so for the most part the riders will only be flying in on alternate weeks. As far as Tai is concerned, I am not surprised he is tired. He has had some pretty bad knocks in the last two years, been under the surgeons knife a few times, then had to get back on a bike almost immediately. Even he has admitted that he would have taken longer to recover if he had not been in with a chance of the world title. Pain is very tiring and its not surprising he feels drained. If he wants to concentrate on his continental commitments I wouldn't blame him at all and I don't go along with all this criticism that he somehow owes British speedway something. I respect his decision BUT, the plain fact is that a number of top riders such as AJ, Freddie, Zagar , probably Chris Holder and others years older than Tai, have decided that the planned fixture list is doable, so if Tai wants to cut down his commitments that's fine but don't complain its the reduced fixture that is at fault.

Word on the streets is that Matt won't release him for the time being. We'll have to wait and see, but at the moment it doesn't look like there will be a place for him.

It would fit :- AJ 9.03 Mikkel 6.85 Awesome 6.5 Kim 5.63 Ben 5.85 ------------ 33.86 The thing with Ben Barker though is that he hasn't really improved for a few years now and although at one time he was hot stuff around Lakeside his recent visits have tended to be rubbish.

Fast Freddie has become very popular with the Lakeside crowd in recent years and has great rapport with them. Of all the riders with other clubs Fred is the one I look forward to seeing the most. Great to see him back

Its clear from things that Jon Cook has said and written since the end of the end of the season that Richard Lawson , Kim Nilsson and Pete Swidders are in the frame but I think signing all of them would go above the points limit. . It's pretty much an open secret that Richard will be back if the contractual position with Worky can be sorted out, and going purely on guess work I reckon KIm purely because he is an asset, plus he would give a little more leeway on points for the final place. Looking at the averages though it looks like we might see a completely new face at the lower end unless they are thinking of having Robbo or Kauko back, which seems unlikely. Who might the new face be ?

AJ half expected, but not many thought Mikkel would be back. AJ 9.03 Mikkel 6.85. Mikkel presumably will be second heatleader, not quite a full heat 15 standard yet but at last years rate of progress he should be there very soon. Far better start than I expected.

I think it has changed. Typical Speedway Star ambiguous gobbledegook but what I think they are trying say is that the rule is the same as 2014 in the sense that it can only be used in heats 5-11 in the EL and heats 5-12 inclusive in the PL , although exactly what they are trying to say about one or two TR rides is not clear . Other sources say only 1 TR ride though. For a trade in which the prime requirement the ability .to speak or write in clear English, SS leave a lot to be desired.

Spot on. Garrity going back to Coventry seems to defy all logic.

No. King and Watt are virtually on the same CMA. So if you had either Watt or King I don't think you could have both Swidderski and Nilsson, you would have to have one or the other. Anyway, the Wolves thread says King has signed for an EL club and I am pretty sure that would be Lakeside, as the Hammers have first call on his services.

But you are presumably happy with the idea that the best teams get the best riders and the rest get what's left?

No. That team is more than 1.5 over the limit. Even if we assume Davey is back at Poole which seems more likely than not, and you replaced him with Kim Nilsson you would still be a bit over. To make that team fit you would either have to replace Watt with someone lower than 5.52 or bring in Nilsson to replace Watt and replace Swidderski with someone a 6.07 or lower. Simon Gustafsson would be ok if he hadn't decided to take a year out, but apart from him there is nobody I can think of that could really do a job. Cam Woodward would have fitted but he is too much of an accident waiting to happen for my liking, and unlikely to improve much anyway. Of the riders in last years EL you could only make it fit by having Lasse Bjerre in place of Watt and keeping the others mentioned or bring in someone from new from abroad. We will have to wait and see but if AJ comes it seems to me that there will be a very long tail.

Correct. It is that simple. Yet somehow they managed to mess it up.

Assuming Hans and Bomber are back you could have both Woodward and Howarth and still have room for someone like Craig Cook, unless the batteries in my calculator are past their sell by date.

In a way that highlights what a lottery the draft is, Auty and Roynon are both hopeless at Lakeside. Ben Morely could probably give them 15 metres and still beat hem by a good measure. On the other hand if they got Blackbird and he gets fully dialled in the Hammers will look like a top two side, at least they will until the usual mid-season collapse around late July

Auty at Lakeside, that's a laugh. Unless some team turns up with Benji Compton on board Auty wouldn't be troubling the scorers much.

5.50 x 1.40= 7.70. Not Difficult.

All the Criminal Case Review Commission Does does is to decide whether to refer the case back the Court of Appeal for them to consider the matter further.. The CCRC cannot overturn a conviction themselves, almost always they can only refer a case to the Court of Appeal if there is fresh evidence. So the present position is that, the CCRC might refer it to the Court of Appeal , who might quash the conviction IF the is powerful further evidence. As I understand Evans website his girlfriend's wealthy father has hired a fresh legal team and r retired detective to try to find some more evidence, which may possibly relate to things the girl said or did after the incident, Whatever happens I think there are always suspicions, rightly or wrongly in any case when someone with a bit of money turns up and fresh witnesses suddenly appear. So , from the point of view of Charlie Girl and anyone wishing to protest, now is the time to do it because if they wait until the CCRC make a decision, then wait for the Court of Appeal, he would be back playing anyway and impossible to dislodge so its now or never for them. In short the whole thing is a bit of a mess for both Evans and the girl, a pair of complete idiots. I have no sympathy for either of them. There are far worse miscarriages of justice for people who have no control over the situation but unfortunately for them their stories don't sell newspapers so few people care.

That's because an appeal is not proceeding. He doesn't even have permission to appeal at this stage. He has twice applied for permission to appeal and both times his application was refused because the grounds of appeal were inadequate. There are plenty of people in prison waiting for appeals to be heard (including the two men convicted of killing Lee Rigby) but unless and until their convictions are overturned by the Court of Appeal , they stand all stand and guilty men.

Jeremy Bamber is still protesting his innocence 25 years after being sentenced to life for killing five people. Should his conviction be quashed on the basis that he is protesting his innocence ?

Home teams that rack up 60 points will still rack up 60 points whether you have a t/r or not. Having a T/R would simply mean that the losing team would potentially score 36 in your scenario instead of 30, and the T/R woul have made no difference to the quality of the racing.

But what came first, the Chicken or the egg? In other words did fans leave because the product got weaker or did the product get weaker because people were leaving anyway and income was reduced ? I don't know the answer but look at the sports history. In 1950 there were huge crowds and at least three leagues. Within 10 years it was down to about 9 clubs. We still had the best riders in the world but people found other attractions, like television which was becoming mass produced just as people have computers and home cinemas as new novelties today .The sport was then revived by Mike Parkers apparently cheap and cheerful Provincial League with riders who were basically pert timers, some of them apprently on clapped out bikes we are told, and tracks were re-opened in quite large numbers.that was the start of a relatively successful era. Don't get me wrong , I am not saying we can do without some top riders, but I do think there is a lot more to it than getting top riders back in large numbers. There are things that can be done to improve the presentation, without necessarily importing more top stars. More smoothly run meetings, less tractor racing and consistent application of the rules would be a good start that would make a lot of fans happier, even with the existing riders, but it would cost little or nothing to put into practice. I think Aces 51 is right in the sense that the sport has to live within its financial means.we cannot possibly afford to,lose a single EL club now. IMO it is aquestion of hanging on to what we have, consolidating and looking to build up in the longer term but going beyond reasonable financial limits would be disastrous.

Well, we are getting off the point of the point of the thread here because sponsorship is not really a matter for AGM announcements, but having said that I have to agree that the British Final would be a good candidate for sponsorship , and now you have mentioned that point it would be interesting to know what if anything is being pursued in that direction, I was, in the first instance thinking of weatherwatchers claim that they are, as he put it sitting on their fat backsides doing nothing when they should be having an advertising campaign. People say these things and others believe it. Now, I am all for constructive criticism, and for those responsible being held to account, but when people make OTT comments it only stirs up more discontent. In many ways speedway , and its ability to attract sponsors is a victim of events and problems that have built up over decades, some of which has been of the sports own doing and other things outside the sports control., and these things cannot be sorted out at one AGM. I think what has been done this year and last is a new direction, which I welcome but whether it is too little too late remains to be seen. But lets be realistic. You make a good point in suggesting sponsorship for the British Final, but what do you offer the sponsors ? A field of riders that consists of a world champion, two riders who were once genuine internationals but now past there best, but those three have dominated the competition for years and still there is nobody remotely likely to give them a serious rune for their money, the rest of the field being riders who are not really even 2nd heatleaders, or riders from the lower league. Not really an attractive product is it ? How much would a sponsor want to pay for that when he probably gets no more exposure than he would for an ordinary league match. ? I remember a few years ago reading in Speedway Star about Castle Cover sponsoring Poole. The sponsorship had all kinds of local benefits even encouraging staff recruitment, which saved the company money but those benefits would not have been as great if it were a national sponsor as it would have meant very little to people in Manchester or Norfolk, so you see my point. I as I follow Lakeside only really see what happens there although I would imagine some other clubs are very similar. The obvious route for Lakeside would be to advertise in the shopping mall a mile away but the costs are horrendous, several years ago someone told me that just to have a stall in the car park for one day would be £120, and to put a tiny advertisement in the toilets would be about £600 a year. A major advertising campaign with costs like that are prohibitive. However the club do take another route. There is plenty of information on the website and programmes about activity in the community. Riders go to local schools and clubs, even hospitals, and several times a year we see groups of school children being taken onto the centre green to watch a couple of races. These are the fans of the future so interest is being cultivated in ways that are not obvious to casual observers especially those who only watch the sport from their armchair I am not trying to defend or excuse the BSPA but much of the criticism I read on threads like this is totally misdirected and misses the point of what is really wrong. If as you say you are involved at grass roots or junior level, I respect you for that and you will be far more face to face with some of the real problems in the sport than some who come on here moaning about helmet colours being changed.

Hope not. Agreed Cams a nice bloke and I wish him well, but Lakeside's need is for an all out No 1. Can't see what Cam can offer that is not already covered by Watt, King, Lawson or Nilsson. If any of them are changed it needs to be for someone with a bit more potential than CJW. Anyway, we have had the clearest hint from Jon Cooke that Lawson is nailed on and very possibly Nilsson . Would be very surprised , even shocked if Cam gets in.

The Sky Sports Elite League denotes where the major income comes from. Given the nature and structure of the sport its difficult to see where a bigger source. of income could be obtained other than from a TV company, The major expenditure in the sport is by the individual riders and the clubs. It makes more sense that sponsorship should be sought on that basis, Speedway , like almost all branches of motorsport could not survive without sponsorship, but relative to it size there is quite a lot of sponsorship already in speedway, The mere fact that someone is a "sponsor" is meaningless without knowing how much money they put it. . In speedway as in many other sports some clubs sell their brand much cheaper than others, and there is also a lot of private or anonymous sponsorship . Chris Harris for example once told me he never pays for anything so obviously has more sponsorship than outward appearances suggest. The same applies to certain clubs,. Far better that sponsorship should, in the main go directly to where its needed rather than the BSPA creating another level of administration before the money gets passed on. Also as HA has pointed out the pointed out the demographics of speedway do not really lend themselves to overall sponsorship not least because of having to use run down stock car stadiums they don't own, but it is an attractive proposition for businesses fairly local to the clubs,. Its not like sports where the competitors have relatively low personal outlay. promotions do work quits hard to get sponsorship in ways that some fans don't realise, and for people like weatherwatcher for example posting they sit on their backsides doing nothing demonstrates a lack of knowledge of sponsorship as a whole. Even in Poland where the sport is very big a lot of Poles have never heard of the sport so the opportunities to reach a wide audience by advertising are limited, and even the Poles these days are struggling to maintain sponsorship levels , such is the modern world. So personally I would say that having got Sky on board (and trying to keep them) I would rather see all promoters trying to keep their clubs afloat financially in these difficult economic times and other sponsors going direct to the riders..

The Elite League has a sponsor. It is the same sponsor as ice hockey. The clue is in the title of the top league in each sport. Go and work it out.