arnieg

So if Birmingham's bond with the BSPA is insufficient to pay off amounts owed to riders will the Brummies outstanding share of SKY money go to: 1) pay remaining sums outstanding to 'speedway creditors' or 2) be shared out amongst other nine EL clubs?

Off the top of my head I can think of four other times: 1969 - Reading v Plymouth 1970 or 71 Rochdale v Workington (or was it Workington v Rochdale?) 1991 - Coventry v Middlesbrough 2009 - Coventry v Peterboro

There have been at least 4 nil-nil heats since 1965. I saw one of them: Cov v Middlesbrough heat 2 circa 1991

But what about Gary Glitter?

Big difference from 20 years ago is that EL clubs no longer have weekly meetings - just 18 (14 last year) league matches. As a consequence if riders aren't riding abroad they must race in PL in order to get enough meetings. If doubling up is abolished or severely curtailed there could only be a handful of Brits in the EL. And the number of guests has been shocking this year. We need to return to the situation where two riders cover a double up spot. I'd also go back to one d/u per team in order to match supply and demand for d/u places.

Danger this could be decided by joker!

As I read it It looks like Kyle was disqualified. If so then the best three riders in the meeting came 6th, 7th and 8th!!

from sportowefakty: 1. Fredrik Lindgren (Szwecja) (3,3,3,2,3) 14+3+3 2. Mads Korneliussen (Dania) (2,2,3,3,1) 11+2+2 3. Morten Risager (Dania) (2,3,3,3,3) 14+2+1 4. Jonas Davidsson (Szwecja) (3,2,3,3,2) 13+3+0 5. Henrik Moller (Dania) (2,3,2,3,t) 10+1 6. Eric Andersson (Szwecja) (1,3,2,2,2) 10+1 7. Tobias Messing, (Szwecja) (1,1,2,2,3) 9+0 ­ rezerwowy 8. Tero Aarnio (Finlandia) (3,1,1,0,3) 8+0 9. Niklas Fridell (Szwecja) (3,2,1,0,2) 8 10. Rene Lehtinen (Finlandia) (1,1,2,1,1) 6 11. Rune Sola (Norwegia) (2,0,1,2,0) 5 12. Rune Knudsen (Dania) (1,0,1,1,2) 5 13. Lars Hansen (Dania) (0,2,0,1,1) 4 14. Petri Koskela (Finlandia) (0,0,0,1,1) 2 15. Joni Keskinen (Finlandia) (0,1,0,0,0) 1 16. Aarni Heikkila (Finlandia) (t,0,w,­,­) 0 17. Joni Kitala (Finlandia) (­,­,­,0,0) 0

Now back to the television programme. I don't dislike him, but I'm not a great fan of Tai (and I really hate the 'ear rings'), but I really thought he came over well. The programme itself was excellent, I feared we'd be in for lots of racing clips with Mr Shouty going all orgasmic, but instead we had a beautifully paced haunting soundtrack that captured the sense of boredom and repetition that travelling round Europe entails. Highlights were the childhood clips, the contributions from Sue and the letter from Rob that became a tattoo. The programme engaged me emotionally in a way I didn't expect (my eyes watered twice)-fantastic, congratulations to all involved in its production and thumbs up Tai! PS It's even improved my view of Peter Adams - he lives in a cat friendly house so he can't be all bad

Devon Demons 56 1. Tim Webster, 1,3,3,3,2=12 2. Matt Bates, 3,3,2+,fx,2+=10+2 3. Danny Stoneman, 2+,1,1,3,0=7+1 4. James Shanes, 3,3,3,3,3,15 Full Max 5. R/R.(MB 3, TW 3, JS 3, DS 0=9) 6. Richard Andrews, 3.2+,1,2+=8 7. Tyler Govier, 1,f,3,fx=4 Scunthorpe Stags 28 1. Steve Jones, 2,0,2,1=5 2. Aaron Mogridge, fx,2,1+,f^=3+1 3. Danno Verge, 1,1,1,2=5 4. Ryan MacDonald,fx,0,0,f=0 5. Sam Chapman, 2,1,4^,3=10 6. Jack Hall, 2,1+,f,fx=3+1 7. Reece Downes,f,0,2,n=2 This match was more competitive than I anticipated, particularly after the decent effort the Demons had put in against Cradley (some of the points that appear gifted looking at the Cradley scorechart were well won on track before the Cradley riders fell - eg heat 9 where Shanes easily had the beating of Starke and Perry) For Devon, James Shanes' poor gating proved less of a handicap than in the Cradley match and his comfortable maximum included the matches two fastest times. He also passed Mogridge (on a TR) to win heat 11 from the back. Stags riders led both the first two races. Aaron Mogridge (a real chip off the old block) was competetive and would be a great asset to any side once he gains the knack of staying on for four laps. Reece Downes led heat 2 before taking a nasty fall that affected his competitiveness for the rest of the match. However it was Sam Chapman who finally provided the Stags with a race winner, a fast starter he looked much better than the last time I saw him. Jack Hall (a completely new name to me) and Danno Verge also gave it their all and both provided opposition for the Devon tailenders. Verge was a victim of one of the worst refereeing decisions I've seen for years. Verge held off Danny Stoneman for three hard fought laps when Ryan MacDonald fell at the back and the race was stopped. The race result: Shanes, Stoneman, Verge!!! Had that race been awarded correctly Scunny would have opened up the match with five heats without conceding a 5-1. Despite their continued beatings team spirit seems good and I hope their brave project succeeds.

I was merely rebutting your statement that no other sports would have unbalanced fixture lists. I have in fact cited all five major American sports. (In US culture 'major sport' has a well understood meaning: baseball, American football, (ice) Hockey and Basketball. Some would add Soccer as MLS attendances are similar to the NBA. Incidentally lacrosse is the number six team sport in the States.) You seem to be introducing the arguments about weather and stadium availability at a rather late stage, and they don't alter the fact that your original posting was wrong. BTW I have been to a rained-off baseball match (at New Camden Yard in Baltimore). We saw five of the nine innings before it p*ssed down. And what they do in mlb is come back (two months later in this case) and play the remaining four innings even though the teams are different! Imagine what speedway fans would say if the BSPA proposed that after being rained-off after six races the match should be continued three months later with changed line-ups? No idea - I have no interest in cricket

I suggest you go and look at archive copies of the national newspapers from any part of the twentieth century before 1993 - they all seem to take cricket quite seriously (and First class county cricket consisted of 17 counties from 1921 to 1993 - considerably more than 8) Basketball (from Wikipedia): During the regular season, each team plays 82 games, 41 each home and away. A team faces opponents in its own division four times a year (16 games). Each team plays six of the teams from the other two divisions in its conference four times (24 games), and the remaining four teams three times (12 games). Finally, each team plays all the teams in the other conference twice apiece (30 games). This asymmetrical structure means the strength of schedule will vary between teams (but not as significantly as the NFL or MLB). Over five seasons, each team will have played 80 games against their division (20 games against each opponent, 10 at home, 10 on the road), 180 games against the rest of their conference (18 games against each opponent, 9 at home, 9 on the road), and 150 games against the other conference (10 games against each team, 5 at home, 5 on the road). Ice Hockey (also from wiki): In the regular season, each team plays 82 games: 41 games each of home and road. Eastern teams play 30 games in its own geographic division— four or five against each one of their seven other divisional opponents—and 24 games against the eight remaining non-divisional intra-conference opponents—three games against every team in the other division of its conference. Western teams play 28 or 29 games in its own geographic division-four or five against each one of their six other divisional opponents-and 21 or 22 games against the seven remaining non-divisional intra-conference opponents-three games against every team in the other division of its conference, with one cross-division intra-conference match-up occurring in four games (these are the teams that play only 28 intra-division games in a given season, in 2013–14 those teams are Colorado and San Jose). All teams play every team in the other conference twice-home and road. Soccer (wiki): Major League Soccer's regular season runs from March to October with its 19 teams playing 34 games in an unbalanced schedule That's a pretty full list of major US sports - all having asymmetric schedules

Cricket until 1993All American major professional sports

And all the other sports where it happens

Barry Stephenson is the compiler

honourable mention to Rob Shuttleworth five falls in his first five rides, then a last, and then he won heat 14 to set up the last heat decider

Fantastic meeting (plussed it and just got round to watching it) For comparison went to a Danish Super Liga match earlier this month 100dk (~£11) Big difference in cost structure for Sweden (&prob Denmark too) is the lack of astronomical stadium rental costs

Absolutely. Do you remember the Mike Keen testimonial? Sheeting down and Dag won every race by a straight.

Me too.... But at least I got to see a decent live meeting beforehand - British Youth Champs at Leicester was an excellent meeting

Plenty of examples of foreign teams riding in other leagues: Daugavpils(Latvia), Miskolc(Hungary), Rovno(Ukraine) have all ridden in Polish leagues Ukrainian teams have competed in Russian league Last year an Estonian team participated in the second league in Finland Zarnovicia(Slovakia) have competed in Czech team competitions Finnish teams have competed in lower leagues of Sweden Think there used to be a Dutch team in the German leagues, and Helzod of Belgium are competing in the new Dutch League. I assume the main impact would be separate FIM membership with Team GB becoming England once more

1976 Cradley 40 (John Boulger 21) Reading 38 (Proch 9) The Heathens used r/r for Bernie Persson and under the 1976 rules their was the opportunity for riders to have multiple r/r rides

Yes - the restraint of trade case law goes back to before 1900* - and of course during 1964 Wimbledon promoter (and SCB member) Ronnie Greene took out an injunction to stop Bob Andrews riding for PL Wolverhampton. However the application of commercial/contract law principles to sport has evolved considerably since then and for that reason I think that drawing on 1964 would be of very limited relevance. * just looked at Wikipedia and case law goes back to 1613!!!!!!!!!!

The PL ran black in 1964 - but everyone involved was banned. as a result riders could not compete at ACU grasstrack events (this was why Malcolm simmons elected to go 'white' with National League West Ham instead of continuing with PL Hackney), or compete in the world championship. Australians riding in the PL were banned from riding in their native country by their national federation as a further consequence. Belle Vue were threatened with immediate expulsion from the National League for staging the Provincial League Riders Championship - however by that stage the national League/SCB position was so weak they couldn't follow through with their threat. The bans were lifted as part of the settlement during the 64/65 close season, which was largely on the Provincial League's terms. Whether this has any relevance today is questionable.

These figures are don't look right, but the conclusion certainly is! The 1987 average wage was £8,140 ( £17,857 in 2010 prices). The current figure is around £24,000. That's a factor of three increase which would make the equivalent admission fee £9 (the data goes up to 2010, so that would probably be £10 by 2013). So admission prices have gone up way faster than average earnings If they had gone up in line with inflation the admission price would be just : £ 7.50 Source: http://www.measuringworth.com/ukearncpi/

From 'Tears and Glory' 1976 chapter: Bernie Leigh also upped his average by over a point, overtaking Bengt Jansson for the third heat leader spot. His best score of the season came when guesting for Hackney at Hull – 15+1. Sadly he got a duck when he returned to Hull in Racers colours. He did score 12+3 for Racers at Newport – from eight rides. Speedway is littered with bizarre rules, and 1976's rider replacement rule comes into that category. When operating rider replacement the rider immediately above in the averages could take one ride, and any rider with an average below the others. This meant Leigh could have three of Jansson's rider replacement rides, as well as a tactical substitution. He rode in heats: 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 12.