ouch

I remember it well from my correspondence with the powers that be at the time. You’ve got him as assessed on the greensheets so he cannot guest. He has an average from before so he can guest. It’s never been done that way before(or since). Well he has an average. If he has an average then you’ll rolling it rather than waiting for the 4H+4A. Radio silence.

It use to be the case that assessed riders could not guest but wether it’s in the rulebook or not, that all changed when Robert Lambert was allowed to guest against you in the 2023 final even though he was assessed*.

Great to hear. Congratulations to Mark, Phil, Paul & Tony. A fabulous effort that bodes well for the new era that sees up wanting to add to the participants of our top league. Love it.

You’d like to think with this one being a dead rubber that if it was shaping up to be a Foxes loss, it could then be fixed for a win in a last heat decider. The witches are through to the cup anyway and a close victory could help future attendance.

I hope they’ve got a decent podium for all the big individual meetings they’re not running like other clubs.

Any local fans that attended between 1954 & 1967 will be au fait with guests as they were utilised long before Brafield opened the first time. Nobody seemed to bother back then though I did dig up an old correspondence to the old Speedway Star & News from Ted Valentine in Manchester…. “Having taken my young grandson to the speedway recently I just want to comment on the overuse of guest riders. It makes a mockery of the sport and takes away any sense of jeopardy and meaning for an old timer like me. Luckily young Mike Bernard Valentine loves it and I very much doubt that 50 years from now he’ll have such concerns with our sport that I can only see it going from strength to strength following the announcement of the forthcoming Shawcross report.” I wonder what Mike is up to now.

Disappointing as it was the low amount of available riders (we weren’t into the idea of a seasoned campaigner like Jake in a development team) and the fact Buxton opened up only 20 miles away meaning we really didn’t want to draw any kind of development league attendance from them. Bigger picture thinking that’s sadly lost on most within the sport, both on and off the track. I wish ALL tracks had shown the same level of involvement as Belle Vue with regards junior speedway, just think where we could have been then. It won’t see the end of our wonderful involvement in rider development and hopefully we’ll see yet more FIM medals coming our way.

Nice to see three Aces reserves past & present (plus an ex Colt) hunting for more FIM gold. Love to see the system working.

Given his age what do you suggest he should have previously done, clean chimneys?

So if we get all the above back it will create meaning in meetings? Televised speedway ran along side the sports biggest demise in decades. I’m not saying it’s the reason for it but neither will it be the saviour to have it back. Coming from you, the comment about top stars is confusing given your repeated suggestion that they don’t matter. With regards racenights between then and now, for every Wednesday, Friday or Saturday club there were and are Monday & Thursday clubs. Touting Wednesday as a speedway night again is at odds with your previous thinking where weekends are the goal. As with a lot of stuff on here when suggesting ideas to take the sport forward we get confusion and contradiction when drilling down to the fine detail. “First out of the gate always wins” was the common complaint from folk when speedway was mentioned. As a sport we have leaned into this rather than rail against it making the sport tedious & boring and we have continually charged more for people to “enjoy” it. I’ve more than halved my attendance of the sport due to this but that’s better than most how have reduced theirs by 100%.

24 years ago we had play offs and played each other twice home & away due to the fact there was only nine teams in the league. The “something” it meant back then was the same as now. Prior to that in 2001, without the play offs you could be soon cut adrift as The Aces were finishing with just 16 match points compared to Oxfords 58. The vast majority of our fixtures meant nothing in terms of the big prize. We still played each other twice at home due to the low amount of teams competing. How far back do you go to find a time when meetings would “mean something” to all those competing? Speedway is tedious & boring plus too expensive for what’s on offer. Fix that and it doesn’t matter if it’s a bottom of the table dead rubber, people will attend and return again.

Worrying. How the hell are Northampton going to fit in 12 home fixtures before early/mid September?

Much better off the start than the Ipswich meetings when he failed to beat an opponent. He was better against Northampton and great last night. I like his analysis of what needs to be done and the fact he implements it. I use to love his races over four laps with some spectacular last bend lunges. I’ll miss those but the positive is a Brit piling up the points from the start, a real modern day speedway rider.

Biggest problem with the Elite league is the money they throw at the top ‘stars’. Stars who could walk down the street without anyone batting an eyelid and who have little impact on the attendance. Admission cost is around the £25 mark for adults which offers poor value to money and the associated cost like food, drink and merchandise is prohibitively expensive for most. It needs to move away from having a board of directors made up of participating clubs and go independent. With attendance averaging around 1500 over the last few years it was good to see it top 2000 last season though I’m sure come the first televised match next season from the massive AO arena the mantra will be “why all the empty seats in Manchester”? Only in ice hockey eh?

Is that still going? I remember standing near the front and getting sprayed with ice.