Paulco

A few of us having a get together in the Horseshoe Bar tomorrow from one o clock . Anybody fancies it , the more the merrier . So sick of Christmas ? Sick of sitting around the house , missus nagging a bit too much ? Come and get pished with us tomorrow afternoon

I'll be the same in reverse , going to the EOES is one of the season's highlights

The doubling up nonsense pretty much rules out an all in KO Cup , but you're right about the watering down . Somerset have more or less the same side that won the Premier League last year and should Belle Vue run and Craig Cook sign , you could have him riding at number 1 in both leagues .

But it's not all doom and gloom . It's still one of the few sports where supporters of different teams can stand shoulder to shoulder and enjoy themselves . The two day fours event at Peterborough was an incredible example of that . From where I was sat the were Glasgow fans , Berwick fans , Edinburgh fans , Plymouth , Newport , Workington , Rye House and of course , the hosts . It was brilliant , and of course the racing on a wonderful track was really entertaining . £30 pounds for two days enjoyment with the hot summer sun beating down , cold beer and enjoyable and sometimes witty banter flying back and forth . What other sport offers this ? There is much wrong with speedway , we know that , but when it's done properly , like those two days at Peterborough , there's no better spectacle .

Elite League ice hockey doesn't have a London club and it is thriving . Most tracks are away from towns and cities nowadays and Rye House is only a half hour train journey away from London Liverpool Street .

You will indeed . We're 8 handed so far , so should be an entertaining session on the bevvy .

It's always hit and miss , we know that better than anybody

When i was a teenager we used to go to Coatbridge on a Friday night and Paisley on a Saturday night . I remember reading somewhere that Paisley shut down at the end of their second season when the crowds dipped below five thousand ...........scary or what .

Next year we'll need to make the Ipswich v Glasgow more of an event , Merry Christmas guys

Some still are , especially in the second tier . Nobody was more approachable than Saint Shane Parker . But some of todays riders still have time for the fans

You could be right , but no other sport in this country has had anywhere near the same mortality rate .

I dare say clubs not owning their stadiums has been the biggest factor . Trying to make the sport pay while fending off developers , greedy landlords etc can be easy , hence why so many clubs no longer exist

For me it was Edinburgh winning the Premier League in 2003 , the speedway world never quite recovered from that and the smug levels emanating out of Scotland's capital city only increased in the following years .

Merry Christmas to all Tigers fans and speedway fans up and down the country , even the Weegily challenged from along the M8

The problem is the bloody chairs . You could get more people along the front if those chairs were binned . Every week it's like a load of German holidaymakers , only these ones are putting chairs along the front . I used to enjoy watching from the back straight , but we have now moved to the covered terrace on the 4th bend . I actually miss the days when there was only about 6 of us stood amongst the knee high weeds on the back straight lol

Hope we get lucky weatherwise for the Benfund . Been to three of those , Scunthorpe 2011 it was dry and cold , Birmingham 2012 we were sitting in a beer garden wearing t-shirts , it was roasting . Berwick 2013 , oh my god there were polar bears roaming around the back straight terrace . So as long as dry is in the description.

I'm too young to have seen him race , but Tommy Miller was recently inducted into Glasgow's Hall of Fame . I don't see his name mentioned anywhere on this thread , was he not rated in the wider speedway world ?

Shame you weren't there when we were down this year , we have a very enjoyable couple of hours in the bar after the meeting . Bringing a Monarch into the light hearted exchanges would only have enhanced the evening . Hope you can join in next season

As we have spoke about on numerous occasions , once clubs stop trying to gain an advantage with dodgy track prep and start preparing tracks to maximise the entertainment value , the better the sport will become .

Merry Christmas to the Massif , hope to have another wee session on the beer with you all after another Glasgow win at Foxhall in 2017

Aye getting away from the pages of juvenile mud slinging , I agree . £2-90 isn't an astronomical amount for a magazine in this day and age . Having an actual magazine to hold in your hands to read is always better than clicking a mouse on a computer , much the same as holding an LP in your hands rather than downloading something . I've grown up reading the Speedway Star and into my late fifties , I still do . Much of the soundtrack to my lifelong love of speedway was being greeted entering the stadium at Glasgow by a bloke shouting " get yer Speedway Star , Speedway Mail " , you just had to buy both .

You don't unearth Dan Bewley's very often and Edinburgh stumbled onto him more by luck than judgement last season after struggling to attract a three point reserve for the money they were offering . Mitchell was who was widely touted to fill that spot last winter , presumably as he was local and not expensive , before passport issues intervened . So it's a fair bet he will be included .

That was his forte though . He was good round proper speedway tracks like Scunny , Sheffield and Somerset . He was never comfortable looking round Ashfield and the likes of Armadale ...........well . First time I watched him there he couldn't quite negotiate the first bend .

True , but your lot liked to mock him when he was a Tiger , there's no evidence he's improved much since those days

It's the off season , people have no actual live speedway to watch , so they pick holes in other club's team building , or in some cases even their own club's efforts . We'll get this Christmas bollocks over with , then the countdown to March can begin and we'll all get back to normal ......................trolling and abusing opposition riders and fans , that kind of thing