1 valve

As crowds are dropping then the amount of cash available after paying off bank principle and interest would leave less to pay for other variable costs than first envisaged so maybe no mystery account actually exists. As DH is not now promoting Leicester it looks like he is left with the stadium (as owner) for which he would charge the club to use (to cover his bank and other maintenance costs) which is a reasonable expectancy. Rather than just point an accusing finger at DH - it might be worth casting a look at the BSPA who's actions have played their part in no small way to the plight at Leicester by creating a circumstance where the running of a speedway club is forced into the hands of co promoters whilst preventing the majority shareholder from being able to run his business on a day to day basis. Given that scenario it appears far from reasonable to expect DH to be held responsible for paying the bills associated with the actual promotion of the meetings. Well done BSPA for creating the nonsensical vacuum and as they created the mess, then perhaps they should set about solving it ...amicably.

some in for free on the night having cashed in the ticket for the cancelled fixture v Poole.

I think the point(s) DH is making and the tack he is taking is based on a)rightful provocation b)Vindicated anger and c) failure of the SCB to take into account mitigating circumstances. Although rightful provocation can only be used as a partial defense, he supports his vindication by demonstrating forces beyond his control were not properly executed and he further questions that given the length of time the SCB and or officers have been in situ the SCB could be considered to be delinquent in their duties to ensure such matters had been addressed well before the date of the incident(s) in question. I note DH does not deny wrong doing and says the fine that is ultimately decreed to be following the appeal process will be paid. Finally his letter appears to set out a clear set of questions that the SCB needs to carefully consider as it will reflect on their own conduct both in terms of their culpability and fair play. Both of which our law courts observe.

My proposal for a second half is after a 12 heat main event - i.e. 16 races in an evening. If a rider is missing through injury, a reserve could take the place of the missing rider. should beat most curfews BTW - this is not a new invention of mine. This format was in place back in the 70's when there were 13 heats and 7 second half races.

Avoiding the detail (such as how many teams in the EL) for the time being as this gets in the way of creating an initial concept to build on. How about 6 man teams Heat leaders 1,3 & 5 top average = No1, 2nd=No.3 3rdNo.5 4thNo.2 5thNo.4 6thNo.6 Total team points limit 37 12 heat format Riding in fixed pairs v fixed pairs round robin heats 1-9 Heat 10 4&6 v 4&6. Heat 11 5&2 v 5&2 heat 12 1& 3 v 1&3 Tactical substitute allowed but only heat leader for heat leader or second string for second string after heat 6 if team falls 6 or more points behind. No TS can be used for heats 11&12 3 TS allowed per meeting Riders must have minimum of three rides maximum of 5 If rider is injured & withdrawn then IRR allowed irrespective of score but must be on same rules as TS.IRR allowed for heats 11&12 Interval after heat 12. 2nd half - short individual event Hat 1. Top 4 riders as programmed of home team. Heat 2. Top 4 riders as programmed of Away team Heat 3. Lowest two riders as programmed of each team Heat 4. Final - 1st two riders of heats 1&2 Objective. Create snappy team event where results are protected from becoming too one sided by giving team manager has more tactical alternatives than present. Provide an alternative second half format to the main event - "Rider of The Night"

He passed Doyley around bends 3 and 4 last season.. not someone who could be regarded as weak oppo. Plus, if first two corners are altered as per 3 & 4 for next eason there will be some good lines for Bomber to exploit without the need scrub off so much speed as previous.

Well if the Lions are in the El next year, Race night is going to something other than Sat or Sun so you may get your wish for a Friday but somehow I think it will be Thursday. However, if you want to see all British rider teams then to overcome the Eu restraint of trade laws you need to vote for Brexit. although no problem in keeping the Aussies out. Cant help but think good job such rules were not in place during the Blackbird Road days . just think - No Boulger, Michanek, Terroma, Titman, to name a but a few home riders, never mind the likes of Briggs, Moore, Major, Olsen, Penhall, Nielsen and Gundersen for the visitors. Surely, rather than devising a plan to keep the best riders away from the UK it would be preferable to plan to make the UK the best place to see speedway that attracts the best riders and provides the means for British talent to make progress. After all, when the best overseas riders were here in the UK it didn't stop the likes of Boocock, Wilson, Collins, Lee & Loram making their mark on the world stage did it.

I agree that some people will not bring children to speedway for mid week meetings. but some will. Saturday nights are not the be all and end all answer for attending anything on a regular basis because there are/is other weekend activities which impinge on that concept . Next year EL will be run purely during mid week & once established, a regular mid week race night for the Lions will not be so detrimental as some (DH) fear. in times past Tuesday served the Lions well and although that would not work now thanks to Swedish fixtures, a Thursday or Friday race night would by removing the "Poland problem" and provide the promotion the opportunity of attracting better riders to create a more competitive team which would attract the much needed additional support. The lack of a successful team has the largest detrimental effect on attendances whilst a winning team would attract a much larger following no matter what the race night. Success breeds success - success on the track will bring success at the turnstile Summary for the Lions 2017 - 1. Stay in EL. 2 race Thursday or Friday. 3 attract (some) better riders & be more competitive. 4.Attract bigger crowds. 5.go from strength to strength.

So the team at the foot of the table and clearly struggling lose a rider due his "home country club" insisting he rides for them. and so the rules further punish the British club by banning the rider for the next 28 days. perhaps the BSPA think that this action clearly benefits the Lions, who will be stronger without Wozniak and also means that fixtures held during that time will also be far closer and more entertaining as R/R always produces more points than the replaced rider will ever do. ah sorry, my mistake...The reality ....BSPA rules yet again ensure speedway shoots itself in the foot and short changes the paying public by making sure the last thing they consider is creating value for money entertainment. Much better to stick to crass bureaucracy which makes no sense for the short, medium or long term good of the sport.

I read somewhere that DH prior to resigning had been banned from speedway for 4 weeks due to something he said/did at a recent meeting. If this is true does anybody know what he did or say? My apologies if the answer is already in this thread, I have looked but cant see anything so specific.

During an early interview prior to the match Jason d said he had heard from other riders that the change of track had not meant new lines were needed and that by and large the same lines from last year were proving to be still the best lines. He then promptly came second in his first two heats including getting mugged by Wozniak on the inside of bend two (one of the unaltered bends). Subsequently he made use 3&4 to make passes on his way to race wins...so maybe there is something there to benefit from. However, not sure if the new lines on 3&4 are providing significant changes as yet, maybe they will become more prominent when 1 & 2 are altered to create a more rounded track with less speed to scrub off in order to take advantage of inside lines?

I think you are wrong on two points. First, when it was announced the Lions were moving to the EL I believe the majority of supporters welcomed this development because a. PL racing was not particularly exciting (despite what some may think) & b. it represented a chance to see a better class of rider, even GP stars. I am the first to admit the second aspect has tailed off, though it was good to see Jason D in the Lions colours and to see a Lion appear in the GP's, but we still do see better riders at BP than when in the PL, unfortunately we haven't seen a fair share of them sign for the Lions. Secondly the track is now half way through being altered, and yes it has taken longer than it needed to have taken but at least its now being done. What I do think DH is wrong to presume is that Saturday night is the preferred night for Lions fans and crowds will drop if Saturday is not an option. I can see some folk will not attend during mid week, but this will be offset by better riders being available to form a stronger and more competitive team which will attract more fans to meetings. So I suggest the future for the Lions should be to remain in the EL and move to a midweek race night and build a stronger team from the wider pool of available riders that would become available.

could someone confirm which nationals would be allowed to race or put another way which nationals are classed as foreigners?

I think it can be made to work very well if two race nights are chosen and those nights are Thursday & Friday. Not every Thursday & Friday but these two nights can accommodate weeks when there are GP's and avoids clashes with Scandinavian meetings as well as being relatively easy on riders travel planning. Not everyone is going to be pleased with whatever is finalized but eventually they will have the choice of going with what is best or facing the consequence of dropping out of the EL.

Running on the same 1 or 2 nights will actually help the economics in terms of cost per meeting. The challenge will be if restricted to one night, then there will be a reduction in actual meetings per season. this may be ok for clubs that rent the stadium given that stadium costs are variable in those instances (although the landlords may increase "the rent" to make up for lower income) For those clubs who own the stadium then 7 home meetings a year will be far from sufficient to maintain the cost of ownership. That particular problem goes away and profit is maximized if two back to back race nights are adopted on the basis that this will provide weekly fixtures.

Tigers might let you down

So if I understand you correctly. Take Leicester. They would run 7 Elite League meetings during the season every alternate Wednesday whilst staging weekly "British League "meetings on a Saturday (their current race night). This seems very workable, but how far do you believe the promoters will be able to promote two meetings in a week? also how many promoters would be up for it?

if we do see a single race night next year which means only one home fixture every two weeks is that sufficient to sustain a club given that with eight teams this will mean the regular season could be over inside four months. I.e start in mid and the season will be over by end of July/August. OK, the season could start later, or perhaps the number of clubs will be increased to lengthen the season and through in a new cup competition and we may see a worthwhile number of meetings after all

Shame this topic is beginning to go "off topic" and insults beginning to fly none of which are remotely interesting to anybody. But I am putting this down to the fact that there is now nothing to discuss now we have a team. The one exception is the track alterations so lets hope the weather is kind enough to see them completed - whoops just realized I have opened a window for someone to go on about the weather....again...Sorry. Anybody got anything interesting to bring up relevant to Leicester Lions 2016? - sorry I cant kick it off but hope you guys out there have.

why would there be a need for mutual exclusivity? Why not create a situation where a) Entices top riders back Eliminates the loss of riders through doubling up A change to regular fixed race nights must be thought through first on the basis of what is believed to be possible - which I why I looked at the 1 v 2 race nights then think about what race nights work best which in itself is fairly easy to work out giventhat only 3 nights are viable to provide back to back - Wed, Thurs & Fri. Will there be enough teams for the EL? who knows, But consider this, If the EL did race on 2 fixed nights (say) Thursday & Friday, and (say) top riders could be persuaded to return to the UK attracted by earning good money over two consecutive nights then maybe more teams could be attracted to the EL rather than teams dropping out You know it doesn't have to be all doom and gloom via dreaming up the concept of impossible tasks...just change for the best and the vision to go with it and promote the hell out of it for the good of the speedway in the UK.

As it looks like we will be seeing a fixed race night(s) for EL next year I am wondering what your thoughts are on whether we are looking at one or 2 nights per week and if so what night(s) should they be? To start with lets take the current set of circumstances. 8 teams v each other twice home and away. in this scenario based on one fixed night we would need 32 weeks to complete the regular season plus 2 more for play offs. On the face of it considering the current season runs for circa 30 weeks without allowance for rain offs or the World Cup this would appear not to work. If the season is reduced to 8 teams meeting each other home and away once on a single fixed race night then only 16 weeks would be required and there appears to be sufficient spare weeks to cover for rain offs and World Cup breaks. The downside is a limited number of pay days and stadiums being used only eight times a year so I guess other forms of meetings would need to be considered especially for those clubs who own their stadium or who are speedway solace. Teams who rent may not mind so much, but 8 earning weeks would hardly generates a return/wage for promoters and managers. If we look at 2 fixed race nights per week then the 2 meetings home and away concept can be retained and I believe is actually the most viable option given that it still provides sufficient time to run the season in what we would expect to be the best time of year weather wise, as well as providing sufficient income to the promoters. Having these race nights back to back would also help avoid multiple back and forth travel costs. What thoughts do you guys have?

On the face of it, although clearly lacking an out and out number 1 aka Jason D, this line up has the feeling of solid scoring about it. The top 5 all have experience in the UK whilst the reserve pairing is widely acknowledged as one of the strongest. As a result, I can see Lions riders finishing first on more occasions than last and hence quite a few meeting wins. Obviously the risk of injuries could influence matters, but is applicable to any team. Now worth looking forward to the new season. Good luck with the track Glyn - hope the weather is kind to you.

If Nicki Pedersen agreed to ride for the Lions what thoughts are there on how many additional spectators would he attract to a home meeting? Go back a couple of years and you will see people saying pre season that the Lions would struggle because Jason Doyle was not a recognised No. 1 and not likely to improve. Not saying Wosa will emulate Doyley as a number 1, but may improve by a bigger margin/average

At the heart of the problem is that speedway promoters do not have sufficient trust in each other to work together for what is best for the sport and ultimately their vested interests. There are some who would/could work that way but they fear being taken advantage of by the others...So we are back to the trust thing. Some 50 years ago American football was in exactly the same predicament with even more at stake. Fortunately for the then owners, they agreed to give it one last shot of doing something to save them from self destruction and appointed a totally independent "Commissioner" to steer the way. A complete overall followed, a stack load of pride was swallowed, egos deflated and tons of bitter truth pills were consumed and then, the NFL was born...the rest as the saying goes, is history! If only UK speedway promoters could follow suit.

stand off or not. I cant believe clubs would say they are not able to ride Saturdays (which appears reasonable and realistic considering Lions cant find a full team for Saturdays themselves) without providing an alternative solution. So Mondays, Wednesday Thursday or Friday...take your pick - Obviously Friday would suit DH the best because of his thought that a no school day/next day adds to the attendance. And then we get back to the beginning..Coventry will not allow Lions to ride on Fridays as their regular race night. Which again confirms that whilst individual promoters insist on thinking about themselves first, there is little future for the healthy growth of the sport....or even long term survival. When will they ever realize that battles between clubs should be fought out on the track, not in the meeting room!