uk_martin

There's "Kids" three years younger than him fighting a war in Afghanistan against kids hardly big enough to pick up a Kalashnikov. He's been deemed responsible to be married for 4 years, to vote for the last 2, so he's old enough now to know that drink, drugs and bike riding is wrong. Part of making mistakes is suffering the consequences and punishment. That's what you learn from. The fact that no-one was harmed is a fortuitous circumstance, not a mitigating one. ..."and he's in control"..."and he can stop at any time he wants"...yeah, heard all that before. Why is he entitled to make more mistakes than anyone else? Just because he's pretty handy on a speedway bike and has a fan following doesn't entitle him to softer treatment off the authorities.

Birmingham Brummies: Adults: £16.00 OAPs, Students (on producing of I.D. cards), Disabled: £12.00 Juniors;(aged 14- 17 incl): £5.00 Children (13 and under): FREE (When accompanied by a full paying adult) Programmes: £2.50 Cheapest in the EL possibly?

Would anyone now like to start a new thread, imploring their promoters to "Break the bank to sign Darcy Ward"???

The SS Big Issue. May God bless it and all who sail in it.

I still don't get it. You hear of riders spending what it takes to shave a few ounces off the weight of their bikes, and then they go for a pizza or kebab on their way home from a meeting... You also see really big guys like Joe Screen, getting the sort of scores that waif-thin riders can only dream about. Why bother with titanium bits and bobs at grass roots level? Like pub darts players having titanium stems on their darts, at that level it won't make a ha'peth of difference. Skill is what is needed at lower levels. Having a bike as light as a feather won't help a Byron Becker become a world champion. Still, it's a free world to some degree. If twit-bits are allowed and people want to waste their money on them, let them go ahead. Just don't let the paymasters get suckered into increasing their pay to compensate, or our admission prices to pay for these follies.

The bikes have to be of a minimum all-up weight don't they? So what's the point ???

This thread has been on the boil now for just over 2 weeks. In that time, we have moved 2 weeks closer to the first stated event date, however we are no closer to knowing any more about the riders who will be making up the rest of the field, nor where the remaining events will be taking place. The only developments have been the possible withdrawal (depending on who you believe) of Leicester as a founding father venue of the series, possibly as a reaction to the other main occurence, which was the famous SCB statement. The "temporary" web site is still holding the fort, however no new news has broken out about who what when or where...etc...anyone else booking their holidays for this year yet? Anyone else likely to find it difficult to take time off work at short notice to travel to a track on a Tuesday night to help make a success of these meetings? Whoever these Chuckle Brothers are who are running this series, they aren't doing themselves any favours by slowing information down. And another question for the organisers, bearing in mind that speedway teams generally lose money, for instance, Peterborough lost, it was said, £140,000 for running a 14-meeting season, so about £10,000 per meeting, what will the Chuckle brothers do for 2014 if they lose that kind of cash in 2013? Because even if the events take place, if they make it hard for the fans to support these events, then they will lose money, and then what? Oh, and finally, looking at the Rye House and Leicester web sites, their fixture lists include the likes of British Youth Championship rounds, Flat Track meetings etc, but no mention of this UK Speedway Series...why not?

Remember brass darts? It goes back a few years doesn't it? But then along came tungsten darts...and with the option of TITANIUM stems too! Well every pub player had to have them didn't they? The chance of cramming more darts into that treble twenty was too hard to resist. But do you think that the standard of pub darts improved in the slightest?

One thing that will be very different...and that's that both the intended fixtures announced so far (give or take whether Leicester goes ahead or not) are set to take place on Tuesday nights. Hmmm, a journey to the Hoddesdon Raceway for some Tuesday Night, Dry House speedway...OR maybe they will be even more different and actually water that track to give racing a chance....now maybe that would be worth going to see

Are they capable of running meetings without SCB Referees as well? Or running meetings NOT called speedway and NOT governed by the SCB rules and regulations on Speedway? Can't wait to see what will happen when the first rider uses a 600cc bike or removes his silencer, or uses one that's not approved under the SCB regulations. Maybe, without referees, they will run things like in ancient Rome, with the power to decide being given to the fans, based on who shouts loudest? There may even be polls on BSF or the Speedway Updates site to decide on who was at fault for a first bend pile-up with fans voting using their mobile phones...it just keeps getting better.

Can't help but wonder how Silver Len has allowed his Rye House set-up to get involved with all this. He's been around the block a few times, he knows the ropes. He must have been given assurances that everything will be above board, approved and legit. Can only assume now that the promises would have included approval from the SCB to run this series, which now seems unlikely. It will be interesting to see how Silver Len reacts to the SCB dictat.

I would question that. The only reason in my mind why the FA countenenced the formation of the Premier League, and the constitution of the Premier League Management Committee, was the threat at the time of the top clubs (Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool etc etc, ) joining a European Super League. Looking at who is signed up to this new upstart, and bearing in mind that it is for individual meetings only, so the BSPA have no involvement, at risk of sanction currently are 2 PL tracks. Ask yourself if the SCB would care about losing them? To continue the analogy, I doubt that the FA would have cared twopence if Plymouth Argyle, Lincoln City, Carlisle United and others of lower status had wanted to break away from the Football League.

I'm out of breath!

My understanding is that the SCB control Speedway in the UK, as the ACU sanctioned body, and recognised by the FIM as the controllers of the sport in the UK. The SCB then devolves the running of League speedway to the BSPA. The fact that the composition of the SCB is predominantly BSPA members with some referees chucked in for good measure, does nothing to help remove the impression of "conflicting interests" though does it?

Less than 3 months to go til the first round, and only 6 out of the 16 riders signed up and 2 out of the 6 tracks committed, and the 2 which are mentioned are not renown for their great quality of racing. And now the SCB have issued stern warnings to all concerned resulting that at a minimum, it can't be called "speedway" either. 'scuse me for not being inspired.

Anyone who has concerns about seeing Polish speedway in the UK may want to invest in satellite TV equipment that can pull in the transmissions off the "Hotbird" satellite. There's plenty of web sites that can help, and plenty of installers who can get you set up. You can even go for a motorised satellite dish, that you can use for Sky UK AND the "Hotbird" satellite (as well as many others). Decoders aren't a problem to get hold of, and if you look at some of the satellite TV forums, and do a search on "card sharing" you can get very economical deals on your access to encrypted services., no less legally than the streamed services that you have all been used to.

RIP Matija Duh http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.delo.si%2Fsport%2Favtomoto%2Fmatija-duh-podlegel-poskodbam. taken from http://www.delo.si/sport/avtomoto/matija-duh-podlegel-poskodbam.html Not a perfect translation, but the important bits are in plain and simple language, and unlikely to be mis-understood this time. Sincerest condolences to Matija's family and friends. Another sad loss.

I suppose that the amount that a sponsorship deal is worth will be a factor of the value that the sponsor gets out of their investment, and that is a factor of the size of the potential market that they are exposed to, and the likelyhood of a positive response from the market to the sponsor. A marketeer researchin into and engaging with "the market" is a very normal thing to do, to get a feel for "the market" that a potential sponsor will be exposed to. Sadly, judging by the responses above, doing this in a BSF forum does not seem the best place to get a good impression of the kind of people that a sponsor will be hoping to sell to as a result of their investment in the sport. You'd forgive a company for backing away from sponsoring British Speedway, not because of the way in which the sport is run, but because of the flavour of the people that follow it. I feel sorry for you, StormMarketing, you made a valient attempt at opening up a valid discussion, but I think you're asking the wrong people.

Any word if TVP might get Liga 1, in the same way as lower league football goes to stations other than Sky over here? Well, this looks interesting and holds out the hope of a sensible answer to the question of "how many subscriptions" - http://www.digitaltveurope.net/28273/polish-regulator-approves-merger-of-%E2%80%98n%E2%80%99-and-cyfra-plus/ On the other hand, this link suggests that there is still a bit to get sorted out. http://www.canalpluscyfrowy.pl/en/brands

Eh? What ignore button. I must have missed that.

No chance of any "Fender Stratocasters are better than Gibson Les Paul's", "oh no they're not you whally" "oh yes they are, you string twanger" etc etc, banter then??? How nice.

What are you expecting? Look who started the thread...and who's changed his screen persona AGAIN!

OK, so let's call a spade, "a spade". It's the European Championships of Eastern Europe! Or just the East European Championships... What chance that we are going to see this sport heading the way of Boxing? Boxing has the WBA, WBC, BWO, IBF etc etc Or Wrestling with the WWE and WCW?...Speedway has BSI (of SGP fame) and now One Sport...I wonder how long before riders have to sign "exclusivity deals" with one or the other?

Sounds like Telford Revisited. If it was on the doorstep then I might consider it, but add the admission to the price that DB would charge for the rail fare, and it's out of the question. Not good value for money for what it is.

Now there's a good idea! Not been to their new stadium, in fact not seen Bayern since a certain year when Man Utd drew 2-2 at the Olympic Stadium during Oktoberfest, on their way to an event that led to the following shirt getting created!