Grachan

Ellis was probably the best Brit after Woffinden and Lambert at the end of last year, and he is riding in Poland, so not an overly surprising pick. What level is he riding at in Poland? I saw that he scored a 15 point maximum recently but don't kmow what level of rider it was against.

Speedway continuity. Not hard to work out really. The Rebels nickname in the past used the Conferderate flag so they stuck with that at first. The same as Reading Racers did with the Harringay Racers logo, for example. Later, they changed it to a more locally appropriate image after dropping the confederate flag.

No, you're right. The fact that the Rebels fought in the Battle of Sedgemoor and had a Wyvern on their flag and their speedway team is called The Rebels and has a Wyvern for a logo is clearly just a coincidence. My mistake.

It still fits though. Westonzoyland is just 10 miles from Highbridge. Are you suggesting that the Somerset promotion had absolutely no knowledge of this and it is just coincidence? The Battle of Sedgemoor was the last and decisive engagement between the Kingdom of England and rebels led by the Duke of Monmouth during the Monmouth rebellion, fought on 6 July 1685,[1] and took place at Westonzoyland near Bridgwater in Somerset, England, resulting in a victory for the English army. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sedgemoor#:~:text=The Battle of Sedgemoor was,victory for the English army.

Certainly more connection with Somerset than the Confederate Flag. The Wyvern is the official flag of Somerset. The Rebels is relevant because of the Battle of Sedgemoor, which took place near Bridgewater in 1685, which was part of the Monmouth Rebellion. It's actually one of the few nicknames and logos in speedway that are truly locally relevant.

And it made last night's meeting intriguing from the off. I was wondering, for example, if Robert Lamberts had missed an opportunity to stamp his authority over Madsen in his second ride. Using the new GP scoring it's all down to the final race (which, I guess, is what they want), which would have given the same result but in a less interesting way.

Brilliant. Very impressive from Lambert.

Got it now. On Maniak. Sorry. I'm a novice at this.

Why am I getting tennis and road racing????

Where's this speedway then? I'm seeing roadracing from 1993.

So, what is the European Championship scoring system?

Isn't that just one single race though?

I agree, and it led to a close finish last year so why change it?

That's a shame. I liked the scoring. I guess it solves the anomaly of the winner not always being top scorer though.

What I was really trying to say was that I don't believe there is any difference between trying to attract any different ethnicity to speedway than there is with trying to attract white people. If people are interested they will come. If the evening out is a good one they will come again.

Some suggestions to get more BAME fans to be interested in speedway: Less restarts after someone makes a good start Less tractors going round for ages. More up to date music over the tannoy. More modern stadiums. Any other suggestions?

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but, in general, nor do the majority of white people. Speedway's main problem is trying to get anybody of any background to watch it. I'm sure all the promoters would be delighted if any ethnic minority adopted it as their sport.

I'm interested to know why you feel it is an issue that speedway in this country needs to address. I'm not saying it isn't, but I can't think of any examples as to why. Yes, most - if not all - the riders in the UK are white, but that's just a case of who is deciding to take up the sport. I don't see it as an equality issue. As for taking the knee, it should remain at the rider's own discretion. Personally, I find worthy white people taking the knee rather cringeworthy, although the intent behind it is probably a good one.

Another thing about Cradley 1983. Their no 8 was Simon Cross.

Ah right. Apologies. I just clicked on the link and saw "Cancelled" without checking properly. Dur...

Cancelled.

I don't remember the exact story, but it was one of the follow ups. Chris Pusey in an exclusive interview, telling of how speedway was fixed. If, as you say, he had an alcohol problem, then maybe there's a connection with that and him doing the story. The Jiri Stancl one is actually quite an interesting one if you watch that final race and listen to Dave Lanning's commentary on how Penhall and Stancl seem to be "playing to the gallery".

Also sold his soul to the Sunday People in the fixing scandal.

Wigg, of course, only moved up from Weymouth that year, so he, too, was something of a sensation.

Pusey was a good rider. I'd say he was probably of similar standard to Bob Kilby or someone like that. Great team man but not quite there in terms of international success. All of the Cradley team achieved a high standard at World level, which is remarkable really. Ok, it wasn't all in 1983, but the pedigree is there.