1 valve

For BEN we did get there early as did most folk...so everbody arrived early and start of meeting was delayed because they could not get in. Not so much a simple solution as you make out.

I have zero complaints re the ladies who work in the ticket office or the work thay do in fact given the need to sell every type of ticket they do a great job. I just think we need more of them for busy meetings or split Adult / concessions to minimise the length queue.

two meetings on two different days, so could do both?

OK I understand the point re pre ticket sales. but as the host, Leicester should plan to provide better facilities than two windows and a belated appearance of two girls on foot handling "exact cash only" sales. Its a small but important factor to consider or even ensure BSPA are made aware of the need to improve on last years problems. lets get the day off to a good start by avoiding a potential problem..thats my point.

Amazing, (maybe not) the first sniff of what could be a great early season meeting for British speedway and the doubters kick in with predictions of worthless meeting and waste of money etc. Truth is that given half decent weather the place will be near on full - remember the BEN fund last year? My only request would be DH & co anticipate a big crowd and do better than at last years BEN and provide slicker entrance planning both up front and on the day thereby avoiding over long waiting to get in.

Brilliant...especially Digging the hole....I would love some promoter to ensure this gets played when the gardening starts...tension build up is one thing and should be encouraged but this kind of p#~s take would add some fun...no doubt BSPA would fine the club for bringing the game into disute and being dangerously close to adding entertainment. oh well we can dream.

it's Sir, and thanks its my pleasure.

Brilliant...bring it back....last heat decider and tape pushing, and give up on punishing flying starts with a restart, more often than not the riders reactions are just so much better than the refs eysight and being a tad older than the rider they cant believe he can be so quick getting out of the gate.

How about going back in time and allowing riders to nudge the tapes - even push them to breaking point....only for another rider to apply the final straw and be excluded for being "the cause"...it was great to watch though caused loads of arguments between riders and supporters, and Olsen & Mauger were the very best at it.....It wont happen...just saying it might be better/entertaining than the current methodology/rules of today and almost certainly would remove the vast majority of the so called false starts.

Sponsors, shareholders & the majority of season ticket holders all do something us pay on the day supporters don’t do and that is put their money up front before the total rider line up and fixtures are known. Sure during the season some of that same up front group complain about whats going on within the club or on track performance, which like us pick and choosers they are entitled to do no more no less. Understandably, DH like many similar organisations rewards the upfront investors with a few perks which is good business practice and may encourage others to invest. So in this case, it means that although I am as keen as anybody else to know who the next signing is going to be, I guess I will have to wait the few hours, maybe even minutes after the announcement at the official meeting to find out who it is...whoever, my real interest is that he compliments the team and the Lions promotion deliver a successful (& profitable) 2015 season.

He took the time and money to ship his european bikes down under rather than rely on equipment down there - This shows a great professional approach. sure pleased he rides for the Lions and is a genuine number 1. something many doubted this time last year. Now what about the two riders we still need, where are they? who are they?

JD now joins four other riders with connections to Leicester Speedway who have won the Australian solo championship - Ken Mckinlay, John Boulger, John Titman & Steve Regeling. Congratulations JD - I hope the Lions back you up next year with some strong team performances to match your individual exploits.

Ok so I admit it..The world passes me by and in doing so I miss out on who the rider who everybody has grassed on actually is. Can anybody help me to catch up?

what has he said?

Not sure if its a tad early to count Cook as a Lions rider (if you are doing so) and in terms of comparison to Simon, the relivance. However as I see it so far, SS has been riding for 16 years and has won 1 PL individual title after 15 years and rode in one GP via a wild card scoring 3 points in his 8 season. Meanwhile CC has been riding speedway for 6 years has won 1 PL individual championship after 4 years and qualified for 1 GP scoring 2 points in his 6th season. So as for going nowhere CC looks (at the very least) to be getting (or as got to) SS level already (big stage wise) - and he is very quick around BP.

Shame we will not be seeing him ride for the Lions as his form was coming on strong the more he remained free from injury. I guess he prefers the shorter traveling distance for home meetings as well as returning back to one of his former tracks. Meanwhile does he still remain a Swindon asset?

Tai is not the tip of the iceburg, but its not good that none of the past or current world champions still riding will not be there will not be with a EL club in 2015 (Chris H may hopefully prove me wrong) most prob we will be lucky to have 50% of GP riders at best? I still think the big question is what has british spedway got to do so that it attracts the best speedway riders to ride every week in the El so that the sport can attract more supporters, more media coverage and more sponsorship etc etc..in other words make it a more appealing product. Meanwhile I just do not understand why folk are having a go at Tai over his decision not to ride in the UK. Putting the fact that he is a Brit then clearly in orde to make best use of his time to earn a (decent) living and have some time to enjoy it he neds to have some time off during the week and the UK is the least best option when taking into account time involved in travel and earnings...Bit like we all do when agreeing on where we we work and who for. I dont think we can expect UK speedway to organise itself around one rider, (though hats off to TW for the amount of work and effort he put in promoting UK speedway whilst being World Champ) but we should expect promoters (BSPA) to work towards developing top flight speedway so that the top rideers do see the benefit (as they use to do) of commiting to riding in the UK on a regular basis.

quick answers. 1. Yes - and if you think about it, which track could not be made available on either a Thursday or a Friday. 2. Yes - stadium owners and promoters - but guess what? some dont want to change because it means changing their race night. 3. I said I would like 10...achieved over time by better promotion of the sport on a united planning for the future basis. 4. Tai prefers/wants one race night, agreed but I think we know clubs need meetings to be more regular than one every two weeks hence my suggestion of back to back nights. BTW I like the idea of one meeting per week and all it would take is for the home team/promoter to meet the cost of both teams and its possible. I fear the problem with EL promters (who actually I admire for giving it a go) is that they dont quite realise that "doing what you have always done only gets you what you have always got" ....and they have got a slippy slope to tp class speedway obliveon. And I find that quite sad and avoidable.

Actually, I would like to increase the number to 10 as a minimum. Howver, you are correct my suggestion does appear to be a contradiction to fact 2, I was refering to the possible issue that a team might not be prepared to move from an existing race night (say Wednesday) to a Friday if that was one of the back to back nights (Thursday Friday).

FACT 1. I have suggested back to back race nights not a singular race night. FACT 2. All existing EL stadiums could be made avaialble on either a Thursday or Friday. some on one night only others on both nights. SUGGESTION. Maybe iin the near future, those speedway promotions who can't provide stadiums in support of a back to back approach need to consider if they should continue to belong in the EL as their inability to secure appropriate facilities prevent UK EL speedway moving with the times.

Ok lets look at it another way. why is it that all GP riders ride in Poland & Sweden or DK but they do not ride in the UK (all of them) OK so maybe the other leagues pay more (why cant the UK do the same? - reason poor promotion = poor crowds = lack of money) The other main reason - Too much travel to complete fixtures in UK. solution, promoters need to agree on two back to back days when tracks can have back to back meetings if they continue to insist on one home meeting each during most weeks of the season. Promoters need to make the prospect for top speedway in the UK appealing to both fans and riders - then they will get the right quanity of both attending the meetings to make EL speedway worthy of the name

No, not at all - the promoters need to set up speedway at the Elite level without needless hurdles for the riders to deal with. One of which is that all top riders face the prospect of having multiple trips in and out of the UK each week to meet EL commitments. Not only is it tiring for the riders it is also very expensive for the promoters who have to pay the travel cost. There is a win win situation be be had here and hence why I suggest that the promoters need to have a hard look at the way they set out the season, the objective being to attract the very best riders which goes way beyond setting up to meet the needs of one rider. Exactly

Good luck Tai for 2015 - I think the promoters need to take a hard look at themselves and in particular how they organise the sport and ask why a top class british rider based in the UK prefers travel to mid week meetings in Sweden rather than plying his trade in the UK. yes I know money will play a big part in it, but I visited a number of meeting last year where TW was racing and without exception the crowd levels were up on the norm. so I dont think there is the need to say UK speedway couldnt afford him....I think the larger issue is how the meetings are planned which causes difficulty in arranging sensible travel plans. and by sensible I mean avoiding time consuming muliple flights to and from the UK in the same week. I just hope during 2015 the promoters come to their senses and realise that they need to run the sport on 2 nights back to back and not perm 4 from 7 otherwise, as other riders realise the benefits of giving the UK a miss, the sport will be saying bye bye to all world class riders very soon.

I think I read somewhere that the Elite league will be trying to ensure riders in GPs have a free week leading up to GP meetings. Not sure how this will work but I pressume it means (at best) one week per month without elite meetings after (say) Wednesday?

If true, Then he wil have served the ban by the time March comes around...In fact he wil be able to ride in australia as they will take into account "time served" since first being suspended.