uk_martin

I think Gorzow's #8 is riding at #6. People forget that Stal have 3 injured riders not just two. Hubert Czerniawski, one of the original reserves is also out injured.

Of course I have. But you've hit the nail on the head...IF it's nurtured. And if they don't do a JPB and retire too early. There's a few youngsters who can grow up to do a decent day job at EL level. The big question will be, who has what it takes to eventually perform on the World stage, up there alongside Tai, and maybe Robert Lambert?

I was lucky enough to see Leon Flint at Gustrow, in Germany last year, riding really well amongst the local kids, in the 250cc junior class. So bearing in mind that Leon has only been riding 500cc bikes for 2 months, his progress has been as impressive as his potential promised last year. Here's the scary bit though. Great Britain needs the likes of Leon to make it big in this sport, as there were 6 or 7 young German kids, just as good as him, who could also have big futures ahead of them. In fact, the best that Leon did, from memory, last year was to come 2nd in his races. And that wasn't even on penalties. We don't want to be relegated even further in the international pecking order by Germany, now, do we?

I think that Leon Flint has earned himself a nice cold pint of Milk tonight. Heck, someone might even allow him a fizzy drink.

And how is the situation improved by deflecting the criticism onto the the person raising the issue? Would you do that in any other walk of life? Customer to waiter - "the soup's cold" Waiter to kitchen staff - "I bet the customer complaining about cold soup couldn't make a hot soup as he's too busy knocking anything made in these kitchens, blah blah..." Yeah, that's an attitude that improves the situation. Customer care. Who, even former promoters, gives a damn about that in this sport?

Juggle them around all you like before you publish the fixture list, but once the fixtures are published, stick to them. Don't advertise that an event will be at location A, and then when people have had a chance to book hotels, take time off work, and make other arrangements, then move the event to the other end of the country. That's just blatant pi$$ taking.

Not much sympathy for the travelling fans here is there? Anyone remember the travelling fan? Those fans who followed their favourite team or riders all over the country and who organised their lives around the fixture list? Speedway used to have some of those in the olden days, before promoters made being a travelling fan into a hellish experience. Yeah, that endangered species...Those who booked time off work to go to the original fixture, who may have booked a hotel if they didn't fancy the drive back afterwards, who then had their day off work wasted, and who had to cancel their hotel booking possibly losing their money in the process, not to mention needing to book more time off work, now that the fixture is on a Wednesday, possibly needing another hotel booking... Who cares about messing fans about? Not the BSPA / SCB, that's for sure, and not by the looks of it, those whose idea of "going to the speedway" means sitting at the computer "watching" the Speedway Updates site. No wonder the sport is losing it's fanbase. #speedwayshambles

You put your Birmingham in You take your Birmingham out In, out, in, out, You shake it all about.... That does it, the "Hokey Kokey" should be the walk-on tune next Wednesday, with the Benny Hill theme tune to accompany any other parades etc. You can't make this up can you? #speedwayshambles

Pray for good weather then. One week later and the Swedish league starts, which could rule out star attraction, Robert Lambert.

Star attraction, Robert Lambert, will most likely be needed in Poland.

2 different angles on the same question. I'm assuming that for Coventry to return to action, someone with a promoters license will be needed, or will the fairy godmother approach of Belle Vue be relied upon here? This could get interesting if Horton retains the rights to the Coventry "franchise" and someone else runs speedway out of Brandon, as, er, "Brandon Bees", maybe, or the "Rugby Rebels" perhaps? Shades of AFC Wimbledon and MK Dons going on here.

Birmingham COULD have run on a Tuesday. Birmingham ran on a Tuesday when entertaining Poole in the EL Play-off final a few years back. Birmingham have also at various times run on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays Thursdays and Fridays. What day wasn't an issue. The BSPA's incompetence and vindictiveness towards Birmingham, because it thinks it knows what's "in the best interests of British Speedway" IS the issue. #speedwayshambles

When?

What will be Mick Horton's role in all of this? Who in their right minds is going to pump shed-loads of cash into a venture that Horton will be left to run (down) afterwards?

Is THAT why? Are you sure? Because how can you guarantee a date if you can't be certain that the semi-finals have been run? As it is now, no-one knows when or where the "Newcastle" semi-final will be run, always assuming that they want ALL the riders not to have any fixture clashes for that again, so how can any date for the final at any venue now be set in stone?

NO! It's just been announced that the BSPA have taken the fixture off Birmingham, mainly because they say, they wanted "a date when no riders would be involved in a fixture clash". Now that Newcastle's semi-final has been postponed, our beloved organisational body, has neither a venue nor a date for the final. What a typically shambolic state of affairs.

It was Colonel Mustard, in the library, with the dagger!

Maybe we should go back to riders in black leathers riding Douglas's and Rudge's around cinder tracks then? That's what most fans on the terraces would recognise. Maybe the old timers not recognising the sport any more isn't the problem, maybe the sport not being attractive to a newer and younger audience is the real problem?

So what this basically boils down to is an admission of failure by the speedway establishment, that they can't run a GB team competitively, for a toffee. There's no money coming in from TV, Terry Russell's SloSport International has failed to get any nationwide sponsorship.The ideas that Rob Lyon, Jonathan Chapman and Tai Woffinden had were far too radical over the years for the old fuddy-duddies to get their heads around. The SCB/BSPA can't afford it and no-one from within is bothered any more. Best just to let someone else have a go, give them the rights, let them take the risks, and see how they overcome the obstacles that the BSPA throw in the way when there's a fixture conflict between club and country at some point in the future. And who are VXR anyway? I thought it was a sporty Vauxhall car of some kind.

It's a "HE" so that kind of narrows it down a little...

Pretty much. In a world where the women make up more than 50% of the population, the number of women involved involved in speedway, and in the hands-on end of the sport is tiny. Yes we know about Marta in Poland, like we know that Peterborough, Buxton and Somerset have (or had) a female involvement in the promotion, and we know of 3 or 4 female referees. Add them all up and you still have some spare fingers on your two hands. The place where women are most visible are on the start lines. Take them away and to the untrained eye, speedway becomes a big boys club. where the only women you'll see to do with the running of the show will be those selling 50-50 tickets, those serving behind the bar, and those cleaning the loos. Charming. I've heard from some ladies for whom "promotion" is a job and a way of life that they actually enjoy. They earn good money, get to travel to places that you and I can only dream about, and live in some comfort. Has anyone ever asked them how they would feel about being handed their P45's because someone elses socio-political values deems their work to be non-grata any more?

The fact that you are scouring the world in order to quote exceptions kind of proves the rule.

Administrators = out of sight of the public Referees = out of sight of the public Riders and Mechanics...could be done, but they would have to get there on merit. None of your trendy lefty Corbynista women-only shortlists. And sad to say, wherever you go, whether it's in the pit lanes of MotoGP or F1, or speedway, none of the jobs that involve getting a bit of dirt under the finger nails seems to attract the women in. F1 & MotoGP has some female Press & PR people, probably for their "people skills", but you don't get that in speedway much, do you?

Take away the start line girls/ladies/women/females (delete according to your personal political correctness values) and you'll then have cries of "where are the women in this sport". And apart from the occasional co-promoter and less than a handful of referees, what actually would be the role of women in the sport?...and no, you can't count the very occasional track photographer that happens to be female.

It was all going so well, and then you compared British Speedway to a serious sport...never mind