Grachan

I seem to remember that when I started going in 1974, Peter Craven still held a track record somewhere. Not sure where it was now. Maybe Oxford? Or Coventry?

Brilliant. I've been trying (and struggling) to get enthusiasm for Sheffield, as my "second" team with Swindon pulling out. With Steady, Batch and now Adam there I might even make a trip up to watch the Tigers this year. Now, where's my Sheffield Tigers polo shirt? I'm sure I've still got it somewhere.

That may well be the case. All I'm saying is that blaming crowd levels on the percentage of ethnic minorities in the city doesn't make sense. I remember going to a Bradford v Swindon match in what was probably the late 1980s and was pretty much stood alone on the back straight.

This argument doesn't stand up at all, even if speedway didn't attract non-white people. If Bradford has a population of 530,00 and 67.44% of the population are white, that still leaves around 360,000 white people in Bradford. That's more than the entire populations of Poole and Swindon combined.

Alternatively, you only need to finish in the top four so could possibly afford to have a number one missing for a couple of meetings during the season - particularly in a 6 team league. Swings and roundabouts, I guess. It depends when you lose a rider.

Pretty similar to what they did in about 1977 or 1978, but it was only done for one season. It came up with some big scores, with riders like Finn Thomsen and Henny Kroeze getting 21 points, but it was certainly better option than guests. I think they did it that the rider above the missing rider in the averages can have one R/R ride, and everyone else can have up to 3 R/r rides. THen, I think, you were allowed a guest if you had 2 riders missing. When Swindon won the league in 1967 they lost Barry Briggs for about a month following a crash in Germany and had to use their number 8 in his place. They still came top despite that. There is too much of an obsession with equality thee days.

To be honest, I'm kind of resigned to the strength of the league this year after seeing so many riders opt out of their own accord. For example, I was concerned that Adam Ellis might not get a team, only to later discover he had opted out of the UK himself anyway. It now looks like the points limit wasn't as daft as I first thought, although I'm not sure about the number 7 rule - particularly as riders such as Anders Rowe already have a proper team slot anyway. I think that Covid and the Polish rules have effectively finished off top flight speedway in this country.

Surprised to see Anders Rowe signed as he is the type of rider I would have expected to be classed as a "rising star". Good to see him get a team though.

If you are going to stream live interviews during a meeting then surely it's best to put them up on a big screen so that everyone can see them as part of the experience. A stadium full of people wearing headphones and staring at a phone is not going to attract people to speedway. It just makes it less interesting for those who are not doing it.

Spot on. Even my own kids pretty said the same thing. Why would you want a speedway app? You go to speedway if you're in to speedway.

I decided to ask my 20 year old daughter about whether a phone app would attract young people to speedway. She looked at me, screwed up her face, and said: "Why would you have a phone app for speedway?" So I questioned whether or not a phone app might attract young people. She reckons not. Her opinion is you go to speedway because you like speedway not to look at a phone app. Why would anyone go to speedway to look at a phone app, she asked. My teenage son likes speedway and goes sometimes. I asked him about a phone app before when it was suggested. Pretty much the same reaction from him. He'll go because he likes it. A phone app makes no difference. My own opinion - a stadium full of people looking a phone apps would be a silent stadium. Young people are very specific about what social media they use. Even the wrong sort of social media - even though they all do the same thing - is a definite no-no.

If you want to make a football comparison, then the closest to Speedway would probably be the National Conference league, which attracts crowds of around a thousand. The only admission price I could find was St Albans, who charge £18.

Good to see Batch sorted out at Sheffield. He should go well round Owlerton.

Clearly some people think that having a top league of 6 teams at this strength is a good thing. Hopefully there are enough to keep the sport going.

I haven't said we need World Championship standard riders, although I made the point earlier. Bringing in these riders doesn't increase crowds. However, getting rid of them lowers crowd levels. Somerset signed Jason Doyle but it meant little to non-speedway fan. If Swindon, for example, had been forced to get rid of him then their crowds would have dropped. I think you need a strong level of team in the top tier, especially if that league has just 6 teams in it. It needs something to make it an appealing league. I don't even think we need GP riders necessarily. Just good, solid top tier sides. A top league with a points limit of the one they have come up with will lose supporters. I can see very small crowds coming out if the league runs this year. By all means have a league of this strength, but don't sell it as the top league.

Reducing costs reduces crowds. It always has done.

Who are the others? I've no idea who has signed for whom at the moment. Just hoping that Adam Ellis gets a team place somewhere under this ridiculous points limit.

I did wonder about how Jason Doyle felt about this. He did, after all, turn down a team place in Sweden so that he could ride for Swindon, only for us to withdraw from the league a week or so later. It did seem odd that he wasn't informed earlier and it's good that he got a team place in Sweden. With the way the league is being run this year I suspect he may not be back too. The impression I got (I may be wrong but this is how it came across) is that the decision not to run was made by Terry Russell and Clarke Osbourne. I do wonder if Rosco and Lee Kilby had any say in it too, as I'm sure they both would have run if they could. I didn't hear Jason's interview, but I hope he didn't find out about it from the media reports rather than actually being informed personally.

It's actually not bad thing. Swindon did it with Jason Doyle a few years back when he was given a 13 average. Once the new averages come into effect then you can make team changes and still have Jason on a more realistic average and it will make the team stronger. Plus, you'll still have the pleasure of watching a legend riding in the team.

In terms of this season you may be right about too many teams for one league, although this is apparently a 5 year plan so it isn't just to take that into account. If the gap in reserves is a problem, why are Premiership teams effectively signing the same strength reserves as the CL anyway. PL team reserves are grade 4 or below. CL team are grade 3 or below. There is a difference there, but not much, although we don't yet know what a Grade 4 rider will be so that could be wrong. Are riders like Dan Bewley and Adam Ellis going to be grade 4 riders? I doubt it. You could call both "rising stars" though, so I could be proven wrong. Riders should just get the average that they have from the league they are in. So, if a rider averages 6.00 in the PL and 5.00 in the CL just give them that average - 6.00 in the PL and 5.00 in the CL. I'd only use an average conversion for a rider who didn't ride in that league in 2019. In future I'd like to see the top flight teams able to sign who they like within the points limit. If you have a league as small as 6 teams I would say it needs to have strong line ups to make it attractive.

Top flight - 42.5 average. Sign who you like within the limit. In other words, I wouldn't have introduced anything. Championship - the new system if fine for that as it is supposed to be a lower league and it serves a purpose for that. The top flight needs to be a strong league otherwise there is no point to it. Alternatively, scrap the higher league completely and have one league at Championship level. A six team higher league is a waste of time unless it is a league for teams that want strong teams.

Ooh. A five year plan. How exciting. Am I the only person seeing deja vu here? Points limit of 35.5 plus what will effectively be a three pointer, yes? So a points limit of 38.5 for the top league of 6 teams? Are people actually approving of this? How did things go last time they put points limits in the thirties into operation? Crowds pretty much halved. Now they are doing it again. What happened before when they did the 2 point junior in every side rule? They scrapped it after a year because they riders couldn't keep up. I guess it depends on the level of the gradings for British youngsters and who are included, but this will please those who want to watch grass roots speedway and everyone else will continue drifting away like they did before. Also there is one less team in the Premiership this year to what there was in 2019, so it is an even bigger drop in points limit than it looks. To be honest, I don't even see the point of having a six team Premiership of this standard. Why bother? Why not just have one league of Championship standard and have done with it. There seems little to gain from being a top flight team under this system.

I remember Bob Kilby and Phil Crump also coming back and being poor reflections of themselves too.

I used to go to Reading on a Monday. I went to Swindon on a Thursday. The crowds were big at one time. Youngsters went with no problem regarding school the next day. Reading crowds dropped massively when they lost Per Jonsson and the stadium became more and more delapidated. Then they dropped down a league which also affected crowds. Swindon dropped down to Division Two in the nineties. Crowds visibly dropped. I, myself, stopped going for a while when the standard of what I was seeing at Swindon dropped to levels that weren't enjoyable. Swindon crowds shot up when they became more successful and there were top riders there every week. They visibly dropped again when promoters weakened the product in the mid-2000s. What will bring crowds in is giving people a product that they want to see. that is what would get me, personally, going. Low standard leagues with only unambitious riders in them are not the way to go. Die hard supporters may well be happy with a weak league, but you're not going to get people in with that. Dumbing down the standard is what killed the sport in this country, and it was done just as the sport looked to be staging a mini-revival. Jason Doyle riding at Belle Vue may well not bring in an extra 200 these days, but Jason Doyle, and other top riders, NOT riding will take another 200 off the gate and then, before we know it, we are in crowds of 3 figures.

It's not just top riders who go to Poland though. Poland now is, basically, what the British League was in the 70s and 80s. Riders have to ride there to have a chance of making it. What about riders such as Adam Ellis and Anders Rowe, who also want to ride in Poland to try and improve themselves. Shut out everyone with ambition and we'll end up with a league of novices and pot-bellied middle aged men that would be f little appeal to anyone. I don't think the problem with speedway in this country is the day of the week it is ridden. It is that it has become a second rate version of the sport. Excluding any rider with any ambition will only add to that.