JamesHarris

Hi, I'm after a bit of help please as I've started to collect programmes again. Since 2012 have any MDL or NJL clubs such as Milton Keynes, etc printed their own separate raceday programmes and what years? Also have any rounds of the youth championship been held at Sittingbourne or Northside since 2011? Thanks

Sounds like the wrong topic to write about but I was wondering in these modern times when land is at a premium for housing, what will be the first track to permanently close its doors in the 2020's? At the turn of the last century there used to be a new track opening every couple of years but there has not been any new ventures (if you take Belle Vue's new track out of it) since Kent opened in 2013. I wonder how many tracks will be in operation in 2030?

The brutal honest truth is the BSPA don't like "ghost" teams. Now that Cradley have gone they have probably put their foot down. That said they still seem happy enough to take the £300? or whatever it is now for these teams to enter the development league's. It used to be on the grounds that they had 1 year to find a venue. If Reading have land fair play to them. I hope it goes well. But some of these "ghost" teams have absolutely no chance in finding land and even if they did it would probably be financial suicide. If my memory serves me right no new track (if we take Belle Vue out) has opened since Kent in 2013? That is a long time. There would always be a new track opening up every other year until the turn of the last decade. On the subject of Ghost teams how did Lakeside and Rye House get away with calling their joint NL team Hackney a few years ago?

As I've posted before I don't really know much about dog racing so I can't comment about the animals welfare but what I will say if anyone who jumps on the animal rights bandwagon and claims that horse racing is cruel and barbaric are very naive and easily led or they have absolutely no knowledge of how the horses are trained and looked after. They are probably treated better than humans. Their stables are immaculate and are the equine equivalent of the Savoy with prices to match. Everyone is entitles to their opinion but what folk must understand is a thoroughbred racehorse is a trained athlete. They are ultra competitive. They are individuals and have their own temperament. They have a jockey on board to guide and encourage them but they are not forced to race. Surely you have seen a race where a horse has refused to start? A loose horse will continue running not because it is a stupid beast and it has been trained to do so. It will continue because it wants to beat the others (even though there's no jockey on board). Unfortunately though horses do get fatally injured. It is horrible to witness and no racing fan enjoys seeing it. When it happens it is usually instant (broken neck), but if a horse incurs a leg break, etc, the care they receive is immediate and the the horse is "put to sleep" within minutes. It's horrible yes, but if a speedway rider suffered a fatal crash or a driver is killed in motor racing do we say their respective sports are inhumane and should be banned? Of cause not. Someone posted on this subject that horses are killed every year in the Grand National. This is highly inaccurate. One unfortunately died this year but prior to that the last fatality in the race was 2012.

I agree. I don't know much about Greyhound racing but once the PC animal rights brigade eventually succeed in getting it eradicated in the UK they will move their attention to Horse Racing and that is when these crazed extremists will come undone. Horse racing in the USA is not the same as the rest of the World. In the US, horse racing is primarily a gambling business. You will notice all the racetracks are identical and it's more about the speed of the horse (more about this can be read in Frankie Dettori's autobiography). In the rest of the World racing is big big business worth billions of pounds. You will notice that it is highly influenced by rich arabs. Once these animal rights loons start targeting horse racing here and in Europe my guess is their ring leaders will "get a visit in the night" or go missing.

Very surprised with the signing of Lasse Fredriksen. I may have missed something over that last couple of years but of his age group Glen Moi and Thomas Gunnestad were far better though I think Thomas does not ride much now? Norway is not exactly the hotbed of speedway these days. Lasse may turn out to be a good signing for you but I am a bit baffled.

Trouble is we now have a chairman of the BSPA who only cares about the present and will only worry about the future come November 2020. A Vice-Chairman who has no interest in junior racing or development and a NL coordinator who will do as he is told. Make of it what you will.

Unless Glasgow or Edinburgh move up as well it would be financial suicide for Berwick to move up to the Premiership. Unless of cause there is going to be "one big league"

Fair play mate. You probably should have appealed though. I really do commend your commitment and enthusiasm for bringing on young riders and if that is what you want to do then I take my hat off to you. But if you are putting so much money into doing it can I just say this based on personal experience. Not all but some of these riders are spoilt brats who will have a rant/strop at their dads in the pits even though it is their dads who are paying for their very expensive hobby. Some riders will get bored and quit when they get to 16 and start partying and chasing girls. Some will be more talented and stick with it. Even more so if their ego's are boosted by arse licker's and groupies. Will the clubs (promoters) thank you for your efforts in providing their next asset? Will they at least token compensate you something for all the time and effort you have put into their new asset? Will they f**k. Do you even think the riders will give a damn for you when they have reached the heights of the Elite League (sorry Premiership)? Probably 2 or 3 will stay mates and appreciate the time you put aside for them. Most will simply treat you as a stepping stone and some enthusiastic mug who did something along the line.

There are always two sides to a story. Some very interesting comments here. I'm not going to comment on who's right or wrong but something must have taken place in the refs box for the fine to be dished out. As someone has already pointed out if the person feels that strongly they should appeal. What I will say is if the young rider in question was truly "traumatized" at being excluded then he is not in the correct frame of mind to be riding speedway bikes. I would suggest the young lad take up a more gentle hobby of flower arrangements or bird watching than racing a fast machine with no brakes.

First one of these I watched last night on Europsport. Interesting meeting and well deserved victory for Michelsen. Only downsides were the racing wan't great for the first half of the meeting but I've never been a fan of temporary tracks. I also though there was a lack of on-screen updates of the scores and the live championship standings and only had to go on what the commentators were telling us.

It is with much sadness to learn this morning of the death of Phil Spence (Spensites) following a long and brave battle against cancer. Phil was one of the pioneers of the Midland Development League in its early days providing websites free of charge for Long Eaton, Coventry-Mercia and the Castleford Kings. He was also a sponsor of several junior riders. His enthusiasm and tireless online promotion of the MDL was key to it's early success. Nothing was too much for Phil and all of his MDL club websites were often updated on a daily basis at his own time and expense. Probably not known to many outside the junior ranks, Phil will be greatly missed by those that knew him. A genuinely nice guy and one of the sports unsung behind the scenes hero's. Rest in peace mate. Laurence (Main Man) if your'e reading this maybe it would be a fitting tribute to name this years league trophy after him?

I've only been to Osdal once and that was on a business trip to Bradford and I stopped by to have a look. This was long after speedway had finished. It's a fantastic location and from videos I've seen was one of the best racetracks in the country. Would I invest shed loads of money in it now and try and bring speedway back? Errm - No! If I had a few hundred grand spare I would buy a Ferrari. Take it for a drive every Saturday and then after a couple of years when I'm bored of it I could sell it on for a profit or at least get back what I paid for it.

Could be wrong but I'm pretty sure Rachel Hellowell and Monty Jowett raced in the same NJL meeting back in 2011?

Now that's a very interesting question. As a whole the percentage of attendance in the USA would tiny. In the state of California it would be small but if you narrow it down to the counties in California that host speedway it would be interesting to see.

One question worth asking is does speedway need to re-brand itself (in the UK at least) to bring in a new audience? As I mentioned in my earlier post, the first thing people who are not familiar of have no knowledge of the sport think of is Speedway is some sort of car racing. A complete name change perhaps? One other thing that could be looked at to reduce cost and admission prices is to reduce the number of riders in a team. 5 a side has worked for Denmark.

Oddly enough a few years ago I was chatting to a few Polish lads and asking them of cause if they were into speedway or Zuzul as they call it. They were also shrugging their shoulders but one of them had heard of Tomasz Gollob. So even in countries where it is one of the biggest followed sports there are some that have hardly heard of it.

Lack of general interest or just promoters stuck in the past? I work only a mile or so from Brandon stadium and when I mention the speedway to some of my younger colleagues they don't seem to know what I'm on about. Most assume it's some sort of car racing. Most folk my age or older have been or at least know of the Bees. Even when on holiday I have been talking to fellow Brits and they come from say Poole or Sheffield and I ask them "ah I bet you know of the speedway track there then" most look bemused and again car racing is the first thing that comes to mind unless they are speedway followers of cause. Don't even go down the route of asking if they have heard of Tai Woffinden. But another major factor in this debate is do most promoters simply still live in the 80's and just assume all they have to do is open the gates, charge top dollar and a few thousand will turn up to watch?

I would offer the job of GB team manager to Scott Nicholls if he wanted it. Highly respected by his peers, still in touch with modern speedway and still has enthusiasm to win.

Very fair point. No disrespect meant to Harris but I wouldn't say that he is in the top league of riders anymore. I understand Woffy is injured? Rosco should have gone with selecting another youngster in place of Bomber. Nothing to lose but everything to gain had we done well.

Not watched the GP or World Cup for a while so just hooked up to a stream of the new World pairs champs after reading rave reviews from last year. Just turned it off as well. What a bore. Rider touches the tapes - they spend ages getting ready for the re-run. Is there really any need for 5 mechanics to attend to the bike on track while they are waiting to re-start. In between heats drag on. Then after the round of heats have concluded we have 20 minutes of boring studio talk. Sorry for the rant but the presentation of the racing and studio coverage is like watching paint dry.

Whats the latest update on the all singing and dancing brand spanking new Swindon stadium folks? I've noticed it's all gone very quiet again and nothing recently as such on their website. Do the stadium owners still think its viable? With all those new housing developments creeping up around it maybe they are waiting to be made an offer for the land they can't refuse. And one other question - Will Mr Russell be staging another Farewell to Blunsden haha.

I've not read the Speedway Star for a good 5 years now so I can't comment on it's current format. I found it to be boring, repetitive and not worth the £2.90 it was back then (sorry Philip Rising but that's just my honest view) What I can say about the development league from my time running it is that you have to rely on the guys that run those teams to feed you back the results, heat details and times etc so you could submit them to the star on time for it's next publication. At times it was difficult getting the results let alone heat details without chasing but that was just a minority and most of the team managers/organisers were spot on. Of cause I can't speak for now. There is a facebook page for the MDL (MSDL) so maybe that's where the majority of people look nowadays?

To be honest we are going on about the best riders giving "One league" a miss but the truth is we don't really have the "best" riders here anymore to begin with. I really don't mean any disrespect to the star names we already have here but they are no where near to the high standards (maybe a couple of exceptions) we were used to watching on the terraces in the 80's and 90's. Maybe a few of the modern star names are charging top dollar for their services? You can't fault them for doing so if promoters are daft enough to pay what they are asking but does the standard of racing reflect that? I Know people will come back and say "No - we saw good racing last night" but come on lets face it, it's probably once in a blue moon you actually see a decent meeting these days. I could be wrong of cause, but the last few meetings I have seen on BT sports including the GP's I have turned the channel over after a few heats. That said, I also recently watched a Swedish league meeting on the Free Sports channel and that bored the hell out of me so maybe the standards have dropped in other countries? It all comes back again to asking does the punter get value for their money? In my opinion NO. British Speedway needs to re-invent itself fast. Let it be run by the organ grinder not the monkey.