HGould

I made this point precisely during the winter when teams were announced and at which point there was only 1 team in the 19 Clubs in the PL / CL with 7 British riders and a couple with 6 British riders and a smattering with 5. The issue though for Promoters is that the richest Clubs will sweep up the British riders, especially Clubs like Wolverhampton (2020 team not a single British born rider), who will suddenly seek to do something they have rarely done and be interested in British riders. For many of the Australians in the CL though Poland/Sweden are NOT an option so there would have to be some non UK born riders allowed to race here as they would base themselves for 6-7 months in the UK.

Mine not arrived yet but arrived Saturday last week so fingers crossed...sounds very positive feedback from all who have read.. Great news.

Don't think Belle Vue is on a par with some of the Polish Tracks. There are some exceptional races there but many is who gets the dirt line first and very spaced out Racing. There is a space in our sport for that type of sit on the dirt and just screw the throttle on, just as there are for some of the more technical throttle control tracks like Cardiff and plenty in between. I've turned off matches at BV as just down to horsepower and turned off Cardiff as too rutted. Of all the tracks I went to in 2019 the new Swindon shape is exceptional and will provide even better racing when it matures and Glasgow is also now excellent track and hopefully Berwich being similarly widened can provide some great action. CL wise the 4's at Peterborough and Pairs at Somerset were as good quality as BV.

Need some reality I think. Why would BBC / ITV want to or have the need to show Speedway at this time when they have tens of thousand of hours of 50 other far more popular (to mainstream TV Sports). The 3 obvious Sports exclusive channels we could expect to see Speedway on are Sky / BT Sport / Eurosport. As we all know though as usual fate has not landed kindly for Speedway! Sky gave up the ghost a few years ago and is now apathetic at best. BT Sport got the product on the cheap, very cheap, only upped the ante when they realised they could lose the product, have lost UK rights now and lose GP rights from 2021 Eurosport gained UK coverage but not yet any to show and have access to some recent Swedish / Euro Champ if they want to use it. Devil and Deep Blue Sea seems to be the best description. Sky won't be bothered, BT Sport toys out of the pram can't be bothered and Eurosport can't really help very much at this time. Meanwhile all 3 show other forms of 2 wheel and 4 wheel motorsport highlights of the past. No blame here just fate!

Great news thanks

Too many Clubs are still in dark ages of Cash only.

Countries will slowly you would think slowly relax social gathering and start to define numbers. What will constitute a "large gathering" and when. So it's currently 2! At the point it becomes 1000 or 2000 and at the point at which the significant majority of people are prepared to be in Crowds of 1000-2000 then in the UK we have Speedway (subject to Medical Cover). When that is ??? The Government will dictate the ability to stage an event by numbers that's the easy part, the general supporting public being convinced it's safe will be harder! NOBODY knows. I am now reconciled to it being no sooner than early 2021.

I'm hoping to see some Brummies Away matches down South at some point in 2020. £19 at Kent and no concessions for OAPs like me! Poole and Eastbourne letting my NHS working wife and daughter in for free and Poole offering me concession price and Eastbourne reportedly £10 for early meetings or a concession if not! Bit of a no brainer for us!

(right thread this time) Star still getting to local Supermarket thankfully - well done to all involved. Post seems to be very delayed from some areas, had a letter sent from Bank in Sheffield today posted 31 March 1st Class yet had letter posted in Scotland on Thursday 9th April at same time. Got to be patient.

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Read that Poole and Eastbourne have already announced some free NHS deals. Hope more will follow.

Very enjoyable. Loved the Sam Norris update. The short Eastbourne fight clips told us nothing other than Cook was probably the biggest "idiot" on the night.. whether you insert Craig or John is entirely up to you!

They certainly are and it's because they devote time and effort and financial investment. Everything about BSPA Media is cheap and reactive but as long as a few people can milk the system it will be no different nor any better.

Might be a nice bloke, might have methanol in his veins, Scunny is a decent track although poorly supported numbers wise . As the head man of our Sport though and on his record as Vice Chairman he was and still is way out of his depth. No marketing ideas, no vision, no charisma, look at the Scunthorpe programme (a joke) website (an embarassment) social media ( non existant ) and then compare with Barry Bishop, Lee Kilby, Peter Faceena and a few other Promoters and the likes of Rob Painter GB man Sport is cooked with "dumb down Godfrey" in charge. Time for an Independent professional approach.

Totally agree with DC2. Can't we all accept that Covid-19 is a variant of Flu - IT IS and that's irrefutable. Can't we all accept that if normal flu was reported in the same way as Covid-19 there would be far more incidences of normal flu reported. Can't we all accept though that it's a particularly virulent strain for those that develop pneumonia (or similar complications) and that death rates amongst that small percentage are a lot higher than other flu strains but that as Covid 19 has global attention and been reported differently it is clearly a bigger danger to susceptible groups. Can we all accept that 95% of the population could have it and either not know or have very minor short term symptoms but that 5% could develop worse symptoms of which a yes undetermined but significant number could die a very painful death with little than can currently be done to save them.

I went to Eastbourne last year to see Brummies twice and both times Pits open before and after meeting, Stadium Tours and Home Riders mingling with Supporters in Pits and on Centre Green after the meeting. Got to talk to Brummies riders I usually can't get to see at PB although that had changed by end of the season. Went to Shield Final at Arlington with a mate from Leicester, what an effort then put on, dozens of Harley's and a Harley parade and again Pits open before and after and a Parade for Leicester who won the meeting. Brummies too making real efforts last season with Groups and features and involving kids at Interval. David and Peter Mason deserve great credit for that and notable improvement through the season. Same when I went to Somerset and Redcar. Trips to Wolverhampton though on the other hand far less enthusiasm same old Presentation as 10 years ago.

There you go again though, generalising based on one Track one annoucer. Every track is different some better than others. My visits to Swindon, old configuration and new have always been very enjoyable.

there were children on some occasions always with as many if not more adults and at one of the tracks (can't remember which when I went away) all seemed to be adults - was announced as a major Company... may be pointless to you with respect but not pointless to the Clubs!

Saw that at Birmingham last year predominantly in School Holidays, and also when Brummies were at Somerset and Redcar and at Eastbourne. Groups invited Free being shown around and being made a fuss of. Some of the best work is done in the Championship from what I've seen promoting wise.

That's a generalisation. There is no Leadership at the top that's true. There are some Clubs though who using their own initiatives are seeing crowd growth and are seeing newcomers coming to Speedway. A number in the Championship I saw with my own eyes at Birmingham and on travels last season. It works locally, that may be the way to go.

Some people seem to think we have to wait for all the foreign riders to arrive, we have to wait until Covid 19 is totally eradicated, we have to have perfect conditions, perfect team strengths, perfect crowd levels. If we wait too long for the second wave, scared to go out late summer, the second wave will arrive in winter and be 10x more dangerous as a result. Herd immunity idea is not dead, it has to be allowed once the NHS can cope. We have to go out and every day we all take "a risk" in any form of life. Things to some degree will never be the same. Some Teams WILL fold if no speedway in 2020 for sure. Some riders will retire if no Speedway in 2020 for sure, many foreign riders will never come back if teams fold so in their interests to do 1/2 or 1/4 of a season. seems some on here want to see speedway die so they can say "I told you so".

Speedway could take place though, of some kind as plenty of British riders and UK based riders would be clamouring to ride. It's very unfortunate that a team like Wolverhampton can't offer a team place and a job to a British rider but that's a topic for another day.

I would go to speedway at the first opportunity. I'm an OAP and get more or less chance of getting infected at Perry Barr as I have the local Tesco. Most people will be keen to get back to any level of normality. It's not as if I'm going to be in a crowd of 40,000 at Villa Park....700 at PB minimal risk and far more exciting.

Wimbledon, Glastonbury, other massive Events cancelled as the lead time to set up and organise logistics is MONTHS....you don't organise them in weeks. By cancelling now that limit losses massively. Speedway could theoretically be given green light and actually facing within a week. To suggest there is and correlation between putting Wimbledon on and organising Swindon Robins v Wolverhampton Wolves within a week is scaremongering nonsense. Speedway meetings with initially British riders could be organised very quickly. Clubs will have everything ready to go very quickly

There will surely come a point when restrictions have to be lifted as the death rate follows the infection rate in falling to early march levels. Millions of jobs in retail / leisure and especially our own Coastal and Tourist Towns will implore that restrictions are eased otherwise we won't have a pandemic we'll have a great depression. Many of the Events being cancelled are major ones that take a huge amount of logistical planning and expense and so have to be cancelled now to save unnecessary expense. Speedway could resume in part one would assume within 7 days. It would take longer for foreign riders to arrive back in UK and some may decide not to bother. The issue by then may not be "social distancing" as the Government has suggested more than once that it is willing to try "herd immunity" again in summer once NHS can cope. The big problem for speedway may not be lockdown, may not be social distancing, may not even be crowds of up to a few thousand, it'll be the medical cover and possible usage of A+E departments. That's a practical and ethical issue. I am still hopeful that we may see "some speedway" in July / August, what form it takes is another matter entirely.