Deano

Your suggestions are? Or are you a self employed critic of all things posted on forums?

It seems to happen to most riders who don the red and yellow B. Brilliant or promising before... but then they put it on... Finn Jensen included.

I seem to recall Jason Crump doing really well on is debut season, I think he was 18?

My daughter came home from school today with a leaflet about "Aston Villa's tickets for schools". Basically your child gets into a football match for £1 provided they go with a season ticket holder or a paying adult, an adult can accompany up to four children using these tickets. If the adult is paying they get a discount on the full admission price for accompanying these kids. Each child can go and watch a maximum of 10 matches per season. The incentive for the school to participate? The tickets are donated free of charge by the football club and the pound for each ticket goes into the school coffers. Therefore the school is pushing for people to go to the football. Could this work for speedway? Yes there are costs associated, but it could work to grab the attention of kids and adults over the full season and not just a summer special? There is also an incentive for the adult to take the kids. What better place than to have a school do the hard advertising work for you?

Rob Lyon selected youngsters a fews years back..... there was uproar.

You are not alone, I've had strong lesbian tendancies too. I'm constantly walking into the ladies changing room at the gym... it's getting pretty serious.

Where did The Ambulance come in the end?

Yeah.. I think the ambulance will come out for the tapes next.

As in an old Leyland Plaxton?

I think the ambulance has covered more ground than the bikes so far.

It should be the the best four riders for the World Cup. The World Cup isn't the training ground, there should be other opportunities for training riders and giving the experience. Selecting wild cards for GP's can give a youngster an idea of the 'moment' without losing any potential cups in the process.

Okay so which World championship system do we prefer?

Can we agree to disagree on this topic?

Priceless! Thanks for sharing.

I was fortunate to see quite a few of these during the Hancock, Hamill, Cross, Ermolenko, Correy, Karlsson era during the nineties. It always felt better at Monmore as the crowd was more mixed. Two very evenly matched teams on the night could bring on some very heated races. Karlsson sticking his middle finger up at the Heathen faithful on the first turn after a win and usually getting a few waving back in return..

You only have to look at the speedway venues over there though to see the level of investment that goes into Polish Speedway. According to people who have been, a polish league meeting is something to behold and is akin to going to a rugby or football match in the UK. The Poles have created a model that pulls in the riders, riders want to be part of it. The GP's have created a model that pulls in the riders, not so much now, as Poland seems to be the greater draw. UK speedway is just a hindrance to the big riders and a training ground for foreign nationals, most seem to come through loyalty rather than a need. This level is just about affordable for promotions in the UK. Perhaps the new Belle Vue stadium will give the BSPA the confidence and knowledge it needs to start doing more stadia on similar lines in other cities across the country. Better facilities will pull in a higher profile clientèle.

I agree it hasn't helped at all. IMG/BSI looking after their own interests... perhaps they went to the BSPA school of speedway to learn the craft. The rider shortage it generates over here can only be blamed on the BSPA, they should have hatched a plan to fast track youngsters rather than rely on cheap imports that don't give a flying fig about UK speedway. With Wizzer now in place hopefully things are looking up, but it will take time and patience.. 20 years perhaps before we will see any real benefits. Will the BSPA stick to it though?

Speculate to accumulate, the private sector do it why shouldn't the public sector. Perhaps the BSPA should look at the workings of the Polish model and look at the reasons why they have managed to keep speedway up in the top three sports. Instead the BSPA would rather concentrate on their own little world/club and continue to in-fight damaging the sport for years to come. The BSPA/British speedway fans should look closer to home as to the reasons for the state of UK speedway rather than blaming the GP series and a forward thinking international promoting company for it's failings.

Putting it another way Godfrey does say it is easier to find foreign riders of a higher standard, without the hassles and financial burden of running an NL team.

The one off's used to wide me up. If the guy I was cheering for lost out because of a bad decision, I then had to wait until next year.... and he may not have qualified for that one. Secondly, when I sat down to watch it once, it was won by a complete obscure German I thought was a pop singer!

Would speedway still be around at it's current size if the GP's didn't attract the TV audience it does? The GP's have given speedway some incredible television exposure, which surely has some kind of effect on local gates? Perhaps your team could be dead and buried in the defunct section or you could be paying more for the privilege of watching your team with fewer friends.

I still think each rider should get one miniature guided missile. A rider won't be so quick from the gate if he new three Polaris missiles could be aiming at his poop shoot!

The thing is we'll never know if top riders would have deliberately dropped out of the one of world final qualifying rounds. Speedway was more financially rewarding back in the day of the one off final. These days I guess the prize money for a one off final would be peanuts compared to back then and perhaps not worth the machinery investment.

It put it back on the television? Making it more available to approximately a million people in the UK? Created sponsorship opportunities that wasn't there previously? Not one television broadcaster wanted to show speedway until the new era of the GP's came along.

Never give up and have faith, the new silencers silenced Birmingham's critics... perhaps they will help potential London venues too.