Najjer

I’ll say it again, it is beggars belief a good idea that should have been so simple to implement has turned into an absolute car crash already. Wait until 2022 when the grades are revised and promotors try and shoe horn in certain riders then. What a mess.

With the amount of fixtures in the Premiership, he isn’t going to be riding Monday and Thursday every week for starters!

Are Birmingham fans still banging on about this one? I remember at the time they wanted Tomicek thrown out the meeting.... probably would of done Somerset a favour if he was but that’s another story for another day! Tomicek used to have a near heart attack every time he got near anybody on track so I am 100% certain there is no way that is intentional. You could actually even argue he passed Lyons into the turn, he doesn’t have to leave room and Lyons should actually back off. Nothing more than a racing incident!

To be fair I’m not opposed to Josh Bates being on the list. I only said the other day that I believe the ‘rising star’ list shouldn’t have grades/averages and should purely be capped to a maximum age (which I suggested at 25) and a maximum average - both of which would make Josh eligible. The difference between me and the BSPL is I wouldn’t of hid my criteria, simple, straight forward and not just produced a list that suits some and doesn’t suit others.

Decent signing in Bjarne. Whilst he will never reach the heights that he did during his career, he will no doubt still be lightning from the starts and he was always immaculately turned up with fantastic kit. Not only all that, regardless of his age it’s a huge marque signing at this level I think. Now if they sign Crump too, I’ll be massively envious that Somerset aren’t running and making these signings too!

Mateusz Bartkowiak has joined Grudziadz on a season long loan from Gorzow. Decent signing for them!

Whilst Becker could feature quite regular for his Polish team, there is no guarantee Masters will. He’s in a team where only two out of himself, Ellis, Karpov and Hansen can ride. There is a good chance Ellis and Karpov will be the preferred options.

I’ve seen him mentioned on here already, but Jordan Frampton would be great. He was set to get abit further in the sport and I always felt like he could of done a ‘Charles Wright’ and gone to the top of the British scene, especially given the standard nowadays. I don’t think he’s interested anymore in regular action but still had a few practices fairly recently at Somerset within the last few years.

Terrific news for Plymouth. Good luck to them. If everything goes ahead this year as planned and they manage to sign Crump then I may well make a trip down to watch! Such a shame that Plymouth, Somerset and Poole aren’t all competing against eachother at the same level this year.

This might answer a few peoples questions here.... I believe this to be the correct category and document You’ll need to complete the public health passenger locator form before you travel to the UK. You need to take a coronavirus test before travelling to England. You’ll need to provide written evidence from a United Kingdom or English national governing body for your sport of your status as an international elite sportsperson or essential support staff attending a specified event. You will not need to self-isolate for up to 10 days as long as you proceed directly to the footprint of the listed elite sports event you are participating in, and remain either self-isolated or within the event location (or locations if the event has multiple venues) until your departure from the UK. You must isolate within the event footprint with elite sportspersons training for or competing in that event, and also ancillary sportspersons who are involved in that event. Travel between multiple venue locations for the sports event is permitted. The sports event may include provision of hotel or other suitable accommodation within its location(s). You remain obliged to self-isolate if you stay somewhere other than the event footprint (e.g. if you own a residence in England), but are allowed to travel between such a location and the event. The 10-day period for which you are subject to these additional conditions begins from when you were last in a non-exempt country or territory. ————— So the long and short, yes you can travel and compete between England and Poland - will the Polish league stop it like last year though, is a different kettle of fish altogether.....

You do realise he’s ridden for Glasgow significantly longer than he has for Kings Lynn?

His average has been reduced by 2.5% - has he qualified for a British Reduction maybe?

What does it matter? They are all treated 2* riders from what you said - so they are basically 1* riders but treated like 2*.... clear as mud ey? I’ve said this before, the idea and theory behind this scheme is actually a good one. Like with most things done by the BSPL it seems like the execution is a bad and over complicated one to what should be a quite simple solution, effective and basic system.

So what is the point of a 1* rider, if they are actually 2* riders? That makes no sense at all

You must be one of hundreds of people who contribute to this forum that still has a massive interest in speedway, but don’t attend. There will be thousands outside of the forum that are in the same boat. I just wonder if the BSPA/BSPL has ever even considered doing any form of market research targeted at these people wondering what it would take to entice these people back to the sport? It would be much easier to get these people back than to try and entice new fans with no interest or background in the sport. I don’t know the answer to my question but I would be willing to stick my neck on the line and say NO they haven’t, because they probably don’t want to know the answers... I’ve said many times in the past Speedway is marketed wrong on so many levels. It should be advertised as an extreme sport not a nice night out for the family sport. Very good point - The possibilities are endless. I myself as first port of call always used the ‘Premier League’ app for my football news, fixtures, results and most importantly fantasy league on a daily basis. There is no reason why that same model couldn’t be adopted for British Speedway. The comments about “spending all night at the speedway looking at my phone” are pretty short sighted.

You’ve missed the point - if the list isn’t confirmed and it’s still being worked as has been said on this thread, surely that needs to be finalised before riders can confirmed? Orrrrrrr maybe the list is confirmed and sorted and is just being kept a big secret until the mere minions that follow the sport need to know?

I haven’t stopped reading, but thanks for being patronising. Thanks for also confirming... team places and riders are being signed before the list has been finalised by the powers that be. So the rules have been bent and created to suit certain teams? Because Newcastle, Poole, Redcar and Edinburgh are going to have to make changes to their teams. Funny enough Scunthorpe don’t and have even confirmed their ‘rising star’ before the list as Tsunami has said has even been sorted or confirmed.... it does make you wonder!

So you’re saying that the list hasn’t been finalised and teams are signing riders without the grades actually being finalised? That probably makes it even worse!

Good post - one alarming point though that maybe I have missed but I had just assumed that the rising star would stay in the no.7 berth all season no matter what? Otherwise I’m not really sure how the graded ‘rising star’ is any help to the progression of British riders. How many RS will make a good start to the season, see their average rise and then shafted to sign someone else once they have a couple of bad meetings? Maybe they should rebrand the RS name and call it BS instead. Obviously standing for British Star and not anything else

I don’t think that would be possible, as it would go against the rules set in place the league organisers - who aren’t just some promotors thrown together thinking about self interest either!

It’ll be interesting to see what happens when/of say a rider really over achieves and scores highly. Do they move into the main body of the side? Do they stay at reserve? Do they get regraded at the end of the season? Do they end up no longer being a ‘rising star’? Is the 5 year plan for the current crop of riders along with additions or is the 5 year plan for the teams meaning that riders could be removed from the system after say 1 or 2 years once they reach a certain level? Or more importantly... Are we just going to be making it up as we go along?

Why haven’t they published the list on their site to stop any speculation, or as you put it ‘arguments and negativity’? Teams are signing riders so the list must be finalised.... why the secrecy again?!

Why not say that after a week then? It’s treating the fans with utter contempt that after a week a reasonable explanation couldn’t just be given for the delay - it the BSPL who set the week announcement themselves after all, when knowing about the Somerset/Plymouth situation. It’s the typical “ahhhh say nothing, they would of forgot we said a week” approach within the BSPL that pi$$es everybody off and rubs them up the wrong way. Such a simple simple mistake that could do easily be avoided and dealt with beforehand - instead of having to try and cover their tracks when the FIM ‘jump the gun’.

They are tested regularly plus football people’s travelling around Europe are usually flying on their own private planes - not on easyJet or ryanAir flights with Joe public. There is also currently a debate going on about moving Arsenal’s next match in Europe in Portugal from that county to avoid large isolation and quarantine upon their return. I know that Portugal is no longer on the travel list but it just shows that footballers still have to adhere to this.

I’ve said before, why are there even grades for? Because this is the type of thing that will happen. How Anders Rowe is a 4 star grade is an absolute laughing stock.