1 valve

Would help, if you understood that SCB are prohibited from sanctioning any events outside of the FIM,/ACU pyramid.

The difference could be down to the contribution from the reserves.

If the council collectively or individual officers have acted incorrectly then such matters can in the first place be reported to the Monitoring Officer and Standards Committees as per local authority & government Ombudsman procedures as council the council must do what is required by law. Of course it will need somebody or recognised campaign group preferably from the locality to raise the issue in the first place.

So according to the Swindon Council "It is now for Gaming International, as owners to recognise the importance of speedway in Swindon and bring forward the final phase for the Abbey Stadium site in line with the existing permission.” And if they don't ? Is it a case of "so what"?

Genuinely, I had the opportunity last evening at home of explaining the Super heat to a friend given I was pleased with the Lions draw and he is not a follower of the sport. His summery of the situation was. "so after two matches Leicester won on aggregate over 30 races and overall received 4 points (home win, away draw & bonus point) Sheffield lost but received two points one for a home draw and one for winning an extra race to the original 30 races". He then added, "doesn't seem sensible to have an extra race for anything other than if the aggregate score had been level" Sometimes the promoters forget that one of the attractions of speedway is, its simplicity. 4 riders, 4 laps, 6 points up for grabs in each of 15 heats, the winner of the meeting being the team with the most points at the end after heat 15 Or a DRAW if both teams have scored equal points!! SIMPLES.

Agree, Peter has indeed contributed loads of good stuff, and the article in question was merely stating a view that was not, for many particularly contentious but a tad short of being balanced considering the facts which the SCB provided in their comment. One of the beauties' of this country is our freedom of speech and the press so long Peter and other journo's continue to do their bit as does the right of reply to any point raised.

In the case of a facility being available suitable for speedway in the UK unencumbered by agreements with BSPL then it would be possible for it to be used as a venue to stage speedway . No riders contracted to any association affiliated to the FIM would be eligible to ride/race in an event where an admission fee was paid and or prizes awarded, but they could use it as a practice facility as long as they did not receive preferential treatment i.e. free practice time whilst others paid. Another aspect to consider is rider & spectator welfare. Under the FIM structure, speedway meetings of any kind, competitive or practice, must comply with a comprehensive agenda of regulations such as (to highlight a few) i) track preparation/condition ii) Qualified officials for machine/equipment examination/ pit supervision & race administration, iii) Medical and emergency services and iv) Insurance covering public liability and for each individual rider. On a slightly different matter. I do agree with you that at the professional end of the sport in the UK, some promotions appear to lack pro-active promotional ability (being polite) resulting in a poor fan base a lack of long terms support from sponsorship resulting in doubts about the long term future for the clubs concerned.. However, the way forward is not through rival organisations being set up to compete against the FIM structure but to work actively with the current bodies to develop the sport whether it be by providing sponsorship, professional services or promotional investment.

Nora is independent of the "international" structure as previously outlined. Regarding track time for riders, within the current structure of speedway in the UK there are training/practice facilities available which are well used by both amateur and professional riders. Unfortunately with any governed sport comes the rules and regulations which form the structure by which the sport operates domestically, nationally and internationally. . On the domestic front, nobody, especially British speedway promoters want to see the sport suffer unnecessarily and similarly, welcome new potential investors. some clubs such as Leicester are fortunate to have an owner with a structured vision, and sponsors onboard in JCB who support the club without the need to to do anything other than be "sponsors" . They are not alone in this regard. Unfortunately, other clubs/promotions have found that the promise of sponsorship comes with caveats where the sponsor thinks they have a right to demand change and frankly have more self interest at heart than the good of the club or the sport in general. Not everything in the UK speedway garden is rosy, but that does not mean, a new broom would sweep away the bad and replace it with anything better. The sport in the UK is not in terminal decline as some naysayers would have us believe, but it is far from being as healthy as we would want. The evolution rather than a revolution, will continue towards a brighter and healthier future albeit without a revolution and still within the global structure.

Leicester have hit some decent form at home consecutively beating Aces, Tigers and Witches by wide margins in their last three meetings. It will be interesting to see as to what extent that form can be transferred to their travels. Whilst not unreasonable to expect a Tigers victory, it would nevertheless be a shock if the Lions did not keep the score close enough to comfortably take the bonus point as a minimum. Should be a good meeting.

If two or more riders in the referees opinion touch the tapes then they would be excluded. However, in nearly all cases there is a clear indication (in the eyes of the referee) of who actually touched the tape first. There is no penalty directly linked to a rider prematurely moving and thus influencing a second rider to touch the tapes. However, the first rider may/should receive a warning for moving before the tapes went up and if already on a warning would also be excluded. this is why nearly all riders on a warning tend to stay still.

Having read both the Speedway Star article and the SCB release, it seems that the latter merely provides clarification on the matter raised by Peter Oakes, and rather "going to war" the SCB are merely making things clear and unambiguous. - "Just saying"

The starting point is not who owns stadiums but who is recognised on a global scale as being responsible for running speedway in the Uk and ensuring compliance with appropriate rules and regulations. From the top down. Speedway uk is subject to the jurisdiction of: 1. The Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Global organisation for motorcycle sporting events - 2. Auto-Cycle Union. The Governing Body for all motorcycle sport in the British Isles (less Northern Ireland). 3. British Speedway Promoters Limited (BSPL) responsible for UK domestic motorcycle speedway including designated FIM meetings staged in Britain. If a BSPA club wishes to run an event it needs to ensure the event is held compliant with the rules & regulations of the governing bodies. This includes amateur events held on property (stadiums) where the club has direct control on speedway usage but is not actually organising the event. Leicester would be an example of this scenario. Where clubs do not have exclusive management of the stadium, then all promoters have within their agreement with the landlord that they (the promoter) have exclusive use of the facility for speedway events. This would be as per the agreement Ipswich have with Spedworth. Note the agreement is between the promoting company and Spedworth not the SCB and Spedworth.

Uh? You had two Lions riders in the team tonight who scored 38% of the total & neither is a heat leader for Leicester.

And it’s so easy to pass at Belle Vue even if you miss the gate as the riders in front are rubbish!?

All NFL games are shown live without regional restrictions across the whole of the USA via either CBS, Fox, ESPN, NBC & ABC. The TV companies will be paying a combined annual fee of just over $10billion until 2033. There are varying degrees of local restrictions on games via streaming channels but this amount of coverage/subscribers is tiny in comparison to the views via the television channels.

He doesn’t (didn’t) like nor can he ride the Leicester track.

Shame. Although will be interesting to see how heavy the rain fall will actually be. A nearby airport is expecting low cloud and around 3.5mm of rain in total between the hours of 3pm & 10pm.

Indeed. Latest forecasts for this afternoon/evening not very promising at all.

Quite a few intriguing nuances involved in this latest message from the Council. Whilst not yet (publicly) known if the stadium has actually been sold or only used as collateral to cover a loan it does beg the question, what would GI need a loan for? given they actually haven't purchased anything significant over the past few years. It could be worth speculating that GI have borrowed money to fund a new stadium "somewhere" which would be positive news. However, on the downside should they fail to find (or look for?) such a place and then be able to refinance that particular project then L&G would take over The Abby stadium, leaving GI with their hands washed of the current stadium and a wad of cash. One further consideration (for now) The value of the Abbey would be significantly different if housing could not be built on it so one wonders if, by engineering a circumstance where another stadium was built "somewhere" would that in turn mean that the council/planning/etc altered their views on the future of the Abbey as a place zoned for leisure use. After all Swindon may need one such facility, but does it need two?

In the case of the current football Premier League The sequencing was first the rebranding of Football League Division one to "Premier League" together with Sky Sports investing into TV rights/sponsorship. This money allowed (then and now) clubs to attract the best of foreign players. Since then the Premier League TV rights has increased from its first deal of £191 million per season to £1.67 billion per season (across multiple TV companies not just Sky). Clubs have not only invested in Players for the first team but also academies and stadium and training ground facilities. Of course the growth of the Premier League in terms of global TV coverage also generated significant sponsorship agreements large commercial organisations. Whilst all this appears great...and far beyond comparison to speedway in the UK - A sobering fact is that in the 2022/23 season only three Premier League clubs actually made a profit! (2023/24 not yet fully known but will not be greatly different)

To be fair. The plan was working very well last year (top of the league including wins at Sheffield & Ipswich), that was, until a certain Australian rider failed a drugs test. After that, what didn't work were the changes made to try and cover for the lost points capability of the subsequently banned rider.

The players are employed by the two competing teams which are not based in UK. Work Visa are only required if a person is to be employed/paid by a UK based entity. Similarly, if a UK based team were to play in Germany or Spain, visas would not be require for players of that UK team. However, in a sport like Tennis. all visiting foreign players competing at Wimbledon are required to have a valid work visa as their earning/prize money would be paid by the All England Lawn Tennis Club (a UK entity) and of course may finish up only playing in one match should they lose in the first round. The above tennis example is similar to the reason why foreign speedway riders require a Visa is they are to be employed/paid by a UK based team.

In the case of Vic, a long standing servant to Leicester speedway both as a rider & promoter. I remember after he had retired from racing he made a return at one of the end of season 2nd half "fun" events racing against other past riders...Unfortunately for Vic he fell off on the first bend. Think that was the last time he actually "raced". condolences to families of both Doug & Vic. RIP

"No" He hasn't walked away? "No" He's simply unavailable?

When a suspended sentence is passed down then the "sentence" associated with the charge/verdict is known. Given that the penalty this time around has been announced as a two point deduction, then the previous penalty must have been a "warning on future conduct (or similar) if not then the penalty now being applied would equal one point for each offense - somewhat lenient to say the least and something that will not affect Chapman one bit.