uk_martin

Big what? Big question? Big Mac? Big Issue?

Minimally??? I don't think there were many more than half a dozen riders in the PL last year that didn't double down with the CL. Some teams were completely made up of double-downers. How is that "minimally"?

Great News The pub over the road from the stadium, "The Seventh Trap", is about to be demolished. In its place will be built a McDonalds Drive-Thru. Demolition will be finished before the start of the season, with construction to begin immediately afterwards. Should be ready in time for the play-off's.

Exactly the point I've been making for years. Just had a look at the BSPA Rolling Averages to see who's ridden in the UK recently. Deducting those that I know have retired now, (Schlein, Pedersen, Crump etc) and removing duplicate entries, there are now 137 riders featured, including NDL riders. Doing the maths, that's only enough to populate 19.5 teams, or 19 teams and 4 riders spare in case of injuries. And yet there are currently 25 teams in existence, meaning that doubling up is inevitable. And some people seriously want to expand that even as far as 30 teams? Seriously???

Well maybe not...it could have been at the home grounds of West Ham or Burnley...they feature claret and light blue in their interior decorations too, don't they? Balance of probabilities though is that it was at Villa Park.

Great News! The Brummies socials are buzzing again, with something that the fans have been waiting to see and hear for a long time. And why? Could it be news of a new signing? Could it be about a mega sponsorship deal? Er no...it's of a video that shows legendary broadcaster Tom Ross, (BRMB etc) filmed at Villa Park, telling us how pleased he is that the Brummies are back in action again this year. What else matters, eh?

What a great idea. Let's see if Henning Loof wants to ride again. Or maybe James Cockle? I don't think that they are currently signed up to other teams.

Great News! Birmingham Speedway's social media feeds are buzzing with a video clip of an interview with Josh Auty. What else is important these days?

Fun-guy or "Fungi", the geezer off Benefits Street?

Are you suggesting that Maceij Janowski is the new #1 for the Brummies?

Are you accusing our esteemed management of treating it's fans like mushrooms?

20 days until Practise & Press day....3 names still to go in the frame. That's now more than a rate of one signing per week needing to be made and announced to the public in order to restore faith in the team.

Can't help but wonder what the hit on season ticket sales has been resulting from the uncertainty about team composition and competitiveness. Was a time when season ticket sales took place in person at the stadium, but that stopped a few weeks ago. Has the well run dry?

According to the Facebook post I've seen, it says that they've "agreed terms", but won't announce a name until the paperwork is done. In other words, nobody has actually "signed" (yet?). That Facebook news comes to us from the same source that said that two riders were on the brink and just needed to check their fixtures, a couple of months ago, and more recently, that there were 6-8 riders of interest. Let's wait until we see who turns up at P&P in 3 weeks' time. My take on this is, it's 3 weeks to go, and 3 riders still to sign.

Any truth in the rumour that John Priest & Arthur Browning are both swapping tractor driving for speedway riding, and making comebacks at a combined age of 158, which will be perfectly in keeping with the age of the team's fan base?

On one hand some say "stick to posts about Birmingham" On the other hand you get people from north south east and west telling us from Birmingham what we can and can't say on here. Well tough. If you don't like it, click away. Nobody's forcing you to be here. If you don't like the analogy of people arguing crap, feel free to disagree. If you want to call me names, well sticks & stones. Nobody cares.

You could argue that. You could argue anything. You could even argue that Russia's war in Ukraine is in "self defence". Fill yer boots. Argue what you like. At the end of the day, who cares? If Birmingham only has 4/7 riders in a team, you could even argue that there's nothing wrong with having only 4/7 posts relevant to the Brummies team themselves.

See what I mean?

That was the theory - once. Trawl back through the 82 pages worth of posts and if more than half of them bear any more than a passing resemblance to a relevance to Birmingham, I'd be amazed.

UEFA have withdrawn the Champions League final from Russia, and stopped any more matches being played there. FIA have cancelled the Russian F1 GP The IOC has requested all governing bodies to withdraw events from Russia. And what are the FIM doing apart from sitting on their thumbs? No news yet about the destiny of the SGP in Togliatti. Will it go ahead, or won't it? When will we ever know?

Great News... Tai Woffinden is making a key announcement at 6pm next Tuesday

Oohhh...investigative journalism in action Wonders will never cease. I guess that any rumours that Birmingham were about to sign Artem Laguta and Emil Sayfutinov have gone up in smoke now. As for that photo of the track, is it an optical illusion or does that look like steeper camber around the inside and negative camber around the outside? Have they just built a second Rye House?

They also charge huge amounts more in their equivalents of National Insurance that fund their "generosity"

Yeah, I've seen that before - Other Polish tracks do it as well. I'd forgotten about that until you reminded me. You'd never get away with that in countries where the Politically Correct Thought Police have got a foothold.

Great News The Brummies fans can carry on using the One Shop Stopping Centre car park. Better still, access to the OSSC car park has been improved thanks to the road works which aren't far from being complete. Just as well really as the capacity at the stadium car park has been significantly reduced.