uk_martin

You don't need to tell anyone at Birmingham or Plymouth that. It's the fantasist clamouring for the reopening of Bradford, Coventry, Eastbourne, Reading, Swindon etc. who need convincing.

After the Commonwealth Games, when all the building work is finished and all the temporary workers have gone home, watch the prices at that Travelodge tumble.

Maybe he/she is still checking his/her fixture list... but don't worry, there are plenty of irons in the fire, even though getting the 4 partners together was the hardest winter's work ever.

To be slightly pedantic, 1 woman and 3 blokes...but as Lawrence Rogers ISN'T one of the 4-person ownership consortium, I'm left wondering who out of the 4 does have speedway promoting experience. Rogers put the consortium together but didn't invest any of his own money into buying into a share of the consortium. He's got promotion and speedway management experience and it would appear he's got a salaried position in the company. If, woe betide, all goes belly up, it won't be Rogers who loses his house.

You don't have Hairy Trussell, (or something like that) in mind now do you? He could set up a company (call it AmbuSpeed International Ltd, maybe?) and as you say, trouser a load of money for himself, before putting the company into liquidation.

£8 reduction off readmission price of a future meeting according to BSPZzzz regulations. So the net cost to fans last night was £5 per race. Feel sorry for the Berwick fans for such a wasted journey.

Annoying when that happens, especially after the Redcar meeting in June 2021 had to be abandoned for the same reason. Lessons not being learned.

GiveusaB must be one of the few remaining fans below pension age who spends the day focused on the job that they get paid to do, and not spend all day every day just staring out of windows. A strange concept for some speedway fans to understand, perhaps, but someone has to keep the economy ticking over.

RIP Nigel Pearson

Any more references to the second coming of Darcy Ward are vastly premature. So how about we leave the kid alone to develop at his own pace and not put him under any more pressure? Maybe that way he will develop into a decent rider rather than just burning out too soon.

Average race time then about 65 seconds? £18 for 10 races = £1.80 per race. Divided by 65 = 2.77 pence per second of track "action". Alternatively, for the 4 overtakes that were not attributable to bike failures, that's £4.50 per overtake. Bargain! So, who's eating their words now? Who'd want to be a weather forecaster? Yep, it certainly was a night like no other...no getting away from that. It's almost a good thing that the crowd was "unspectacular" as at least if someone does come for their first time in weeks to come, they have a chance of picking up a better impression of the sport than tonight would have given, and may come again.

I live in Perry Barr, and we don't get the Chronicle here any more. We used to, I think, years ago, but spam newspapers here are a thing of the past. Shame really, I could do with a regular supply of old newspapers for when I need one to protect surfaces when I'm decorating etc.

Does anyone know whether this streaming malarkey is meant to be a commercial concern, or a social service?

Be interesting to see what CMA's Crang and Thomson attained in their illustrious Bees careers.

Doesn't anyone do what Ivan Mauger used to do, to keep a book and write down for each track what his best bike settings were, what gear ratios, carburation settings, timings were etc? So that when he re-visited a track he'd be as good in his first race as he was after his last race last time. Obviously, he'd adjust a bit for conditions on the day, but at least he had a good basis to start with. I mean, don't people do that these days? Or is it all "rule of thumb", and "well, let's see if this works"? And as for Harris's quoted reasons..."fuel problems" can someone please explain to the lay person, what problems are incurred in a fuel system where only methanol is permitted? It's not like the mix between methanol and additives was wrong, is it? You don't get a build-up of limescale in the pipes, do you? Was it rust or dirt in the system? In which case why? Aren't things kept clean?

Beware! Dads Army have got a whole platoon stationed on the first bend. Mess with them at your peril

I wonder if the Birmingham management have ever thought about asking Tipp-Ex for sponsorship?

As they say in the world of football..."we at least we can now concentrate on the league"

The onus of responsibility, by having a clear rule on the matter lies with the team signing the rider. My understanding of the rule was out of date, and IronScorpion clarified what it is now in his post above. Other teams abide by it, so no excuses. LR knows it too, and considers it a price worth paying in order to have Ellis on board for (most of?) the rest of the season. With it being an away fixture, it probably made his decision-making process that much easier for him. And when did the paying spectator getting VFM ever come into consideration in the realm of British Speedway, anyway?

There used to be a rule, not sure if it still exists, that says that you can't have a "proper" guest (& have to use a NL guest) for a rider who's not ridden for the team yet. Birmingham came a cropper in 2007 under this rule when they couldn't have anything more than a NL guest for Emiliano Sanchez in the opening fixture, after he picked up an injury that prevented him from making his debut. If this is the rule being enforced, then Ellis riding for the Brummies in the NL doesn't count for the purposes of appearing in the CL.

I'll second that. Best of luck to the team. Let's hope they all keep healthy and that the fixture concerns don't materialise.

Good job that the server isn't hosting the Microsoft, or Facebook, or Amazon web sites isn't it? They'll be blaming the Birmingham web site for overloading the servers next, won't they? Just like they did in 2013.

Tell that to all the fantasists on the other threads talking about reopening Bradford, Eastbourne, Swindon, Reading, Coventry etc etc On the other hand, do we want to compound the shortage of riders with an influx of non-riders? Riders who appear on paper but not in the flesh? It may be hard on Birmingham, but if that stance taken by the BSPZzz is correct then it's the right thing for the sport.

The Brummies need 1,000 people through the door every week, or even more if most of them only pay concessionary admission, and digging up Barnyard Pedalo and putting him into the team is NOT going to achieve that goal. He is widely unpopular at Perry Barr, and would only disincentivise fans from wanting to go again.

Let's hope not...because after the announcement that "someone" was checking their fixtures and the amount of time that what must have been a thoroughly forensic check has taken, it would be a huge embarrassment if that were to happen now, wouldn't it?