Mylor

DartfordHammer, Just a quickie (probably off-topic ) it's been a very long time since I was at school. Do you get the opportunity to study historical topics more relevant to today's world and what's now seen as important? The history of communications, engineering, business practices, world trade, sport? I can start a new topic if anyone would like to discuss this further, just let me know.

Now why didn't I think to sell the spare programme to someone in the queue(s)!! Stupid boy!

As Team GB aren't likely to set the world alight any time soon why don't we offer HA a British licence. He may well jump at the chance as he'd probably get Lee's place in the GP's and we may just make the WTC Final!!

No such thing as a free programme of course but what does annoy me is 'paying' for one each. Mrs Mylor and I only need one but we're very much aware we're paying for two. Lord knows what a family of four do with all theirs!

Give 'em a bit of extra time for 2 heats and a final!!

Steve's not into answering questions or justifying what he posts. God knows I've asked him to enough times but never once has he answered. Eventually it'll dawn on you that he likes winding people up. Witness all the replies to his posts. He very rarely gets involved in a genuine discussion, probably 'cos he's often on shaky ground. Just smile and ignore him like many of us do. He probably hates that but maybe we'll never know.

We can't be too hard on Scotty. After all he did make the semis in the last two GP's. That said I believe we have already seen the best that he and Lee can produce and we shouldn't expect any more from them. They're both in the world's top twenty but are now starting to slip back. It's also pretty obvious there are no others to take their place. The blame lies squarely with the promoters for not backing young Brits and the riders themselves who appear, unlike their foreign counterparts, to lack ambition, preferring the easy life. It probably frightens half of them to see the time, effort and comittment the young foreigners put into trying, and succeeding to make the GP's. Drastic action is required guys, something like a Grand Prix Academy where the best young Brits, say aged 18 to 23, are guaranteed a decent wage for say 2 years and a place in an EL team with each team being compelled to accept one. Hopefully amongst them would be the youngsters considering an easy life in the PL but willing to try their hand in a relatively risk-free environment. In exchange for this commitment they would be expected to produce performances and improvements in keeping with their status. Reviews could take place every half season. Funding? Well, just as we pay to develop foreigners through entrance fees we could just transfer that to the British kids. The primary stumbling block is that we don't have any real world class mentors willing to put in time, effort and expertise. I also don't see much in the way of a street-fighting mentality or real aggression amongst the kids. These are first thoughts. I'm sure you guys could add a lot more.

Please............Whoever's organising it this year can we have 2 heats and a final? Ta.

Still provisional Trees............. http://www.speedwayworld.tv/en/swc/a3740 They should be selling tickets and promoting it by now. Perhaps they're more interested in selling British GP tickets for the time being.

Ahhh...............but I wanted to sit as close as possible to the Prince of Wales. Now somebody's told me that's the pub!!

Ordered mine last SEPTEMBER.........still waiting of course. The tracker says they're now in stock awaiting dispatch. I think they leave it till the last second so they can say "Tough, no time to print any more" if the Royal Mail van gets broken into!!

Can I take it that Olsen started interfering with tracks from 2000 onwards? As they earned the right to hold a GP because of the quality of their track, track staff should be allowed to prepare it as they wish. Only if it's unrideable due to weather should Ole be allowed to wave his wand to get the meeting on, otherwise he should stick to being Race Director.

Like the last line on that page............... Triangular tires!!

Plenty of Two-penneths on this forum Hazzman as you've probably already discovered. What we actually need is 30 or 40 Twentythousandpoundeths to open new tracks in competition with the BSPA, a BSF League no less. Lanzilla could return from the dark side and.................. Well we can dream occasionally can't we.

Does anyone have a photo of this mythical monster?........or even one of the world championship trophy itself? I miss the silver wheel............Great Trophy, it had soul!!

Not difficult. Entrances would be between the storage bays and just like at Cardiff or most football grounds, you'd climb a few steps and find yourself in the middle of the stands, which, of course, are around the oval, inside the storage units/workshops. Just think about the cupboard under your stairs. That's the layout, sort of.

Excuse me guys for blowing the dust off this one just before the season starts but you may feel it's worth taking just a few minutes to review what's actually been achieved since the review of Forum members 'Future' threads took place very nearly 2 and a half years ago. Many of you will recognise the topics reviewed in the original post as we've re-visited them many times. I forget who posted the original quote "- any predictions? where can you see speedway being in the next 5 years?" but the answer seems to be 'Pretty much no change, as long as we survive". The emergence of the Academy is just about the only measure of progress in all that time. True the EL has grown somewhat but it would have died if it hadn't. The PL has shrunk and the sport is just as poor as it was then with nothing being done to generate the sort of cashflow we so desperately need. Regulation, be it EU directives, national government initiatives and legislation, local authority and planning regulations will all conspire to squeeze the life blood out of the sport. We need to fight our corner but we seriously lack leadership. Surely John Postlethwaite can't be the only 'visionary' around who can drag this sport into the 21st century? Is the country completely devoid of entrepreneurs? Can't they see what's blindingly obvious to most of us on the Forum, that speedway is a heaven sent opportunity to generate enormous profits, in the medium term, and have plenty of excitement along the way? I, along with many on here despair at the wasted opportunities and the dire lack of vision amongst the people who are controlling, some would say stifling this should be great sport of ours. The promoters, national federations, the UEM and the FIM should all be ashamed of themselves. Their long record of neglect and their lack of leadership leaves this sport's status just a little above a fairground attraction................without the showmanship! Can I see myself writing pretty much the same at the end of the 5 years? I'm afraid so, that is as long as the Forum and the sport are still going. A little OTT maybe but think about it. All it would take is an environmental legislation change and/or a Chancellor who decided to cash in on sport, especially football, by slapping on another tax. How many clubs out there are running on a shoestring? How many could survive? With fuel charges going up 20% or so how many of your club's casual supporters will be lost to the sport? Will there be a recession? Will we always have to live on this knifedge?...............'Fraid so, unless someone comes forward to show the way.

I posted this on another thread which has now died. As it's related to new venues I should have posted it here so I've moved it. Amendments and explanations in italics Bit of a quantum leap this.......perhaps it's a new topic. We'll see. Steve started two topics recently, this one (Rain-offs) and the 'Dealing with noise' one. Now let's assume we're dealing with a greenfield site (Cradley?, Trelawney (Par Moor)? and others). The promoter needs to build some form of stadium but it needs financing and he needs to overcome problems of noise. He/she also requires to maximise income by overcoming rain-offs, which will presumably make his venue rather attractive when it comes to staging prestige events. The design would be based on an oval of industrial storage units/workshops (income) with the stadium in the centre. The storage units, or any offices/hospitality suites built on top (more income) form the foundations of the dome which becomes a permanent fixture. See http://www.aaask.com/sports/trainingdome.html (scroll down to see inside). Voila.....the quietest, dryest speedway venue in the country with an all year round income. Perhaps a hockey pitch on the centre green? Mr John Postlethwaite.................... Can we have a word about the new Reading Stadium??

No.........back then they all went to the speedway!

Nice try Shazz. Problem is that as no money has changed hands, no contract has been made. Now if the hotel asked you to pay at the time of booking, as per Ryanair for instance, then Trading Standards would be interested.

So who qualifies to take part in the qualifying rounds and how?

Ahh but it could! You allocate world championship points related to the finishing order after 20 heats. You then hold a Final consisting of the top four, of course, to compete purely for the Grand Prix title and any associated prize money. The media gets it's grand finale, the championship is unaffected and we all go home with smiley faces!! Come on BSI. Think outside the box!!

Spoilt you are........!!!!! Ipswich to Reading 129 miles St Austell to Reading 234 miles Glasgow to Reading 388 miles. Source = RAC Route Planner

Ahhh 2004............I was there. It poured with rain from about 4.00pm and the meeting didn't start till around 10.00pm if you remember. I would think almost no tickets were sold at the gate as almost everyone believed that it could be called off. Say what you like about Ole, he made damn sure it would go ahead.

I like the idea whichnut but the more i think about it the less likely I think it would happen, for speedway at least. Methinks you'd need a good sized office full of people spending a lot of time on the phone negotiating to buy clips and arranging interviews and the video-ing thereof. Would any terrestrial channel get any meaningful return on investment from such an outlay? Would Sky? I do applaud Sky's editors for the way they can put a sequence of clips together, some of them only minutes old, to close their programmes. A real shame that this talent isn't employed for a highlights show. Fingers crossed. Let's hope I'm wrong.