The Little Un

But there never was, never is and there never will be another Alf Weedon. Alf was photographing speedway seven years before I went to my first speedway meeting which was the 1955 World Final at Wembley. Mike Patrick is closest to Alf in talent and I am sure he learned a lot from studying Alf.

When I was young the first page I read was Pam Oakes' every week; followed by Rising to the Occasion. Back in those days there were so many fans that you had people going through the crowd selling it; their cry was another thing that added to the occasion. Speedway had a aura and the supporters were as one with every club having its own war cry. I doubt that the sport will ever be the same as it was then as even today's Polish crowds look very sparse in comparison to those days. Crowds of 16,000 were the norm at Wimbledon with both Ronnie and Barry in the team with good riders like Cyril Brine, Olle Nygren and Trevor Hedge just to name a few. Today the sales of the Speedway Star are probably well below 10% of the sales they were then and so they have had to cut their suit to fit the cloth. They will never be able to meet the demands of every speedway fans but since it started it has done its best to achieve that. I do not mind people suggesting things to put in the magazine but why complain about what is already in it? There are places that have speedway as an after thought in their magazines and you have various types of stock car, quads, sidecar speedway, grass track and long track depending in what country you are in.

I think that the IOW could be a surprise package this year as there is not a rider who could not or should not increase their average. Some riders do hit a plateau and that is true for at least one IOW rider but that does not mean they cannot make progress in the future. Three years ago it seemed that Jason Doyle was going to be a Championship number one and maybe a Premiership heat leader at best but something changed and he is now where is, world champion. I just hope that the team has some success this year and come October the fans feel that they have had their monies worth. Living locally in Chichester I would love to support a club such as the IOW but transport is a big problem and even if I came over on my scooter the cost is prohibitive.

I always thought that jumpers were started by casting on?

You may be very surprised by those who turn up at the raceway in 2018! The last time the prospect of a new season got me so excited was 1969 when the King of Plough Lane (Or as Barry Briggs said and Ivan agreed with him the greatest New Zealand World Champion of all time) returned to the fold; More than anything I could not wait to see the Hammers bringing a fantastic team to Plough Lane also. The names of then Hammers riders Olle Nygren and Sverre Harrfeldt still sends shivers down my spine almost fifty years later.

It was 61 yrs ago in September since I went to my first speedway meeting and there are few non-riders I have lived awe of and Bryn was one of them.

Rest in Peace Bryn. Let us know what the weather is like as I will see you sooner rather than later.

I think you might find that the PL does not have the same declaration before the AGM but if they do go PL they will not be eligible for the KO Cup. Anyway why I came here today was to say that since Lakeside closed our forum I have gradually lost more and more interest in speedway and I shall not be following speedway at all in future; still after supporting speedway since 1955 I think that I have earned my parole.

I did not miss the point, if potential and current riders do not lay out a lot of money to race the fans will be looking at bare tracks, so the fans need the riders financial input and if the fans were not going to speedway then the riders would race in another form of track racing. When they introduce division specific race days for the 1st and 2nd divisions the number of guests or R/R meetings will greatly reduce as they would only be needed for injuries and FIM events. I am quite happy to keep doubling up and to its extension to almost any rider but those specific race days are needed for it to work. Poland have (for all I know they still might) and Sweden still do have doubling up, so doubling up is not limited to this country. Not true at all.

No riders, no fans is the same thing.

I am sure that if Matt Ford thought it was viable he would have made it happen. Why has no consortium come forward to buy and run speedway at Plough Lane? Because it is not financially viable.

Surely after the first greensheet averages rider will have a proper average that only needs to be converted if a riders switches divisions, as it is now. These converted averages are being brought in for team building purposes only, not for life. The trouble with speedway is that nothing can believed until it happens and sometimes not even then. The last time we had the AGM that made "dramatic" changes and would secure the long term future of the sport and reduce costs I said that is until the next such AGM, so this is the AGM to make dramatic changes, to secure the long term future and reduce costs: Well now you have it. I am just waiting for the next one because as sure as eggs is eggs it will happen. If anybody thinks I am joking I have heard the same thing every few years since the 1964 AGM When the failing 1st division bribed the successful 2nd division into joining and make one big league in 1965.

When we know what riders earn in the Premier League we might know if riders are willing to ride for it. We have been told for years that clubs do not go to the PL from the EL because the costs are the same or nearly the same in both leagues. Maybe doubling up gets round the new polish rules on racing in three countries only. We will only know who is doubling up when riders sign for their clubs. If many riders ride in both of the top two divisions the first division becomes even less attractive. The only thing I would object to is PL clubs signing any rider who is permanent GP rider. I still and always will believe that the PL and EL should have single use racedays, the PL would not race on EL racedays and the EL would not race on PL racedays as in Sweden because it is the only serious/sensible way to handle the doubling up rule. I do not mind the double up rule but we must have a system where there is not a constant use of guest riders because of it: We already have too many guests due to Overseas events and FIM events. I do remember that and it looked like Edinburgh were riding not to win.

I agree with you fully. My point was that the BSPA had to change this press release twice before they got it right.

That is what happened when we last had promotion/relegation.

I believe the double header was due to the availability of riders and had nothing to do with Cradley. He will not and you will not.

I think you will still see Lakeside in the 2nd Division because income cannot match costs for them in the 3rd Division: Not forgetting that more than half of the current supporters will be lost to speedway. You cannot run a 3rd division team with 1st division costs such as rent. It is only the 1st division that has a set entry at the AGM.

The original release said that 1.4 would be added, multiplication or factor were not mentioned at all.

If you do not have it over two legs the 1st division sides will not take part as they need the home leg to cover the costs of their riders. Anything that is not solely 1st division league speedway does not attract most fans as they think league racing is all that matters. The 1st division stopped second half racing because many fans did not bother to hang around for it. Actually the biggest laugh today was when somebody moaned about Wolves racing alternate weeks when there are only enough meetings to race every other week already; that may change next year or some stupid formula where team play one team four time but other teams twice during the season. I cannot believe that that was ever tried in the first place. Probably League One. They could simply have less clubs in each League Cup Group to maintain the same number of meetings. I have not read anything about the 2nd Division racing home and away twice.

It has to be tested as to whether or not the new Polish Regulation complies with the free movement of employees across the EU.

Why? The KO Cup would still be over two legs even if both divisions were included. There is no way that a single KO Cup will happen for a several reasons, one of which is league standard differentials and another is doubling up. It is only a short time ago that a single league cup was in place and it was utter shambles with most teams having to use several guests due to the said problems.

Doing away with doubling up will only increase the gap between the two divisions and that counter to what the BSPA want to achieve, thus I cannot see that happening.

Talking about the new GTR engine do they mean it will be an option or that it will be compulsory? If it becomes compulsory it will increase costs for many teams when riders insist on being given more engines (Some will say they even need more mechanics that specialise in the GTR engines) just for use in the UK where many lower riders use the same engines across the countries. The last time promotion/relegation was in place it was also compulsory participation but most teams knew it would not involve them and the rest knew they would win or lose before the play-off matches took place. There is no reason to believe it will be any different in 2017. The average system is too complicated. What happens if a rider starts solely in the 2nd division only and achieves an average in that league would that average take priority over a 1st division average that was earned anything up to five years ago and would they then come back into the 1st division with their second division average being reduced by 1.4? Obviously no average will be higher than 12 as that is the highest possible average; too many decades have gone since the early years and averages based solely on the match average which took no account of the number of rides taken: So if you had seven rides and scored twenty-one points that would be the match average.

There is already trebling up.