uk_martin

So we're now being asked to believe that the sport's governing body is conspiring against the Coventry Bees? Donald Trump got away with nonsense like this. The rest of us are wise to this tactic now.

Hands up if you are holding your breath over this. Keep them up while I count them...

Any work put in by Bob the Builder this week?

You're expectiing a lot from the British Speedway Prevarication Association. aren't you? .

Maybe today will be the day? Yesterday was all about Buster Chaplin in the limelight. He wouldn't have wanted his appearance on Facebook Live to be marred by anything important. So maybe we can get some real news today?

Je suspect that le "Ellis Adam" n'est pas Francaise.

Has anyone given thought to the possibility that Mick Horton may delaying things so that he can be considering his own options, which could include divesting himself from all the hassle at Coventry, and buying the promoting rights off Tony Mole at Birmingham when Mole retires? Why should he think that the hard complicated and aggravated life is the one to choose when there's an easy way out, with less stress, less hassle and none of the surrounding personalities that give hm so much grief.

Of course it is...this way Buster can do it within his normal working hours and be home for tea and crumpets with his wife this evening. No need to pay him time and a half for working out of hours. What else matters?

Birmingham, Coventry, and Cradley all at Perry Barr? All within the 30-fixture limit that our Planning Permission allows? Behave.

It would be a shame if the Brummies went out with a whimper...but fret not. There's a guy called Mick Horton, last seen around the Coventry / Warwickshire area who'll be looking for a new club to promote before long. So never say never. Just as long as Tony Mole doesn't rip out all the fixtures and fittings and doesn't remove the shale off the track before he goes....

I'd rather my team gives a chance to a 15 year old British rider than going down the Stoke route of signing up the Chelsea Pensioners

A bus pass?

As Shads has said, some people do their own little speedway tours, or they book their holidays to avoid home matches etc. Of course things change but what else is a fan supposed to do? And when it comes to booking time off work, the sooner you do it the less the chance of a colleague having nabbed the date first and you not being granted the time you want. Coventry's situation has an impact on the top and bottom leagues but no-one in the middle league is getting their fixtures either. Is that fair on them?

Are the BSPA still planning on issuing the fixture list by the end of January? Will there be two fixture lists this time, one with the Coventry Bees and one without? Bigger picture time, which is that there are fans up and down the country, in all 3 leagues patiently waiting to book time off work, sort out their holiday and travel arrangement, book hotels etc, much of which will hang on what their team is doing, where and when. Yes I know that the main sympathies are for the Coventry fans, but there comes a time when the BSPA has to think about all the other fans in the country that will be getting messed about (again) if this situation is not sorted out and the fixtures released soon.

Good. Every track will at some point or another. Statistically, it's good that the once in a blue moon time that Malilla gets rained off has already happened rather than it's waiting to happen. Unless you believe in lightning striking twice in the same place....???

What is he now? 36 years old? The perfect man for this Dads Army team. Stoke Potters 1. A 27 year old 2. A 36 year old 3. A 32 year old 4. A 22 year old 5. A 51 year old 6. Victor Meldrew? Albert Steptoe? Privtate Frazer? (who knows?) 7. A 32 year old Combined ages of the six so far signed riders = 200 Average age per rider = 33yrs & 4 months Is there a record for the oldest ever team? I hear the arguements about having an experienced rider on hand to help the youngsters along, but seriously, this it going a bit too far isn't it? Poor Arthur Daley is there just to remind the oldies what it is to have been young once, isn't he? I'm sorry, but for the role that the National League is supposed to play in developing young talent, this team is bringing that concept into disrepute.

And wouldn't he (or anyone else) need a BSPA Promoters LIcense, which if memory serves me right, he let lapse? I don't think that the BSPA will allow just any old Tom Dick or Harry take over at the helm, remembering back to when Alan Philips took over at Perry Barr and had to retain Graham Drury, as the promoters license holder for Birmingham.

I've gone down the route you are going down twice now at Zielona Gora. As has been mentioned, e-mailing the club in advance to let them know of your travel plans is a good idea. What they did for me, was that they had my tickets available for collection at a ticket booth, and I paid for them on arrival, in cash. You would probably find yourself then being in the "VIP" stand which is on the exit of the 2nd bend. It's a great view, with the Falubaz Hooligans to your left. I intend going to this meeting as well, later in the year, with some travelling companions. I'll be getting tickets from my friends in Gorzow, and will be in "the cage" with the rest of the Stal fans. Now that's a real "hardcore" experience that you've probably not seen outside of the football sphere, in the hight of the hooligan era. When someone said that this was a "hated" derby, they were not wrong. Both in Zielona Gora and in Gorzow, the away fans are given an armed Police escort into the stadium, and are kept in a segregated "cage". Completely different to how it is in speedway anywhere else, but well worth the experience. Also, llike with football, after the meeting, exiting times are staggered. Home fans can leave straight after the end of the meeting, but the away fans are kept caged-in for about an hour before being escorted back to their designated car park. Bear that in mind when planning your traveling time. The thing to remember also is that you'll need your passport with you as ID. It will definately be needed at the turnstiles, whether in the home or the away "end". Something else you might want to bear in mind. If you are flying in to Poznan, you might want to base yourself there and drive to / from ZG on the Sunday, and then on the Monday, there's the Polish Elite League Riders Championship in Gdansk. You can get a Polskibus from Poznan to Gdansk very cheaply, and fly home from Gdansk afterwards, as an option. One other thing to bear in mind, so that it doesn't come as a surprise, is that the Falubaz v Stal meeting is the day after the Swedish SGP. If, and it's a big if, that meeting is rained off and restaged on the Sunday, the Falubaz v Stal meeting will be postponed. No guests, no R/R, none of that nonsense. Most if not all the Polish League will have a day off if the SGP is postponed. It's just one of those risks that you need to be able to accept when going in for these things. That said, Malilla is the one track that can survive the rain. I was there at the last SWC to be held there, and the amount of water it dealt with was mind blowing, and a great compliment to the track and the track staff who ensured that the meeting took place, The chances of Malilla being rained off are pretty remote, but you can never be sure. However if there is one SGP with the minimum risk of a postponement it's Malilla and I'd feel happier the SGP before race day being at Malilla than I would at many other venues on the SGP circuit.

Well of course he has to say that, doesn't he? He can't go public with a prophecy of doom can he? As I said elsewhere, I'm optimistic of us having a white Christmas this year...but what you're optimisitc about and what you get can be two different things.

Is boredom creeping in? 2 months to go til the off, and precious little to stir the imagination any more, so things start getting made up to fill-in the gap?

Well Monday Tuesday it will be then... Looking forward to hearing the good news.

Hold on... how about the questions you want BUSTER to answer?

I'll go back to the Dragon Den comparison. It's all about the "numbers". If the "numbers" given by BSPA / MCC justified the prospect of a profitable venture, you'd think that people would be dying to snap their hands off. Alternatively, if the "numbers" look dodgy, then any sensible business minded person would say "I'm out". So if that's the case then you have to hope that either you find someone who can turn things around and make a living out of something that has cost someone else dearly, OR you have to hope to find someone who has money to burn (or to "hide" from the tax man) and is willing to lose their money, for benefit of the riders and fans, most of whom will never thank them for what they do or the money that goes up in smoke. I wonder which of these scenarios is playing out at Belle Vue?

What's it say? All I get is ...www.coventrybees.co server DNS address could not be found.

Buster Chapman will be live on Facebook next week. It'll be speedway fans chance to fire questions at him and for him to answer live. You can tweet them in to #askkeith in advance if you want, and no doubt all the serious questions will be asked, won't they? You can then ask more questions on Twitter or on Facebook Live by adding comments on the day. No doubt the comments with questions will flow thick and fast, so it's easy to miss them. Much better to tweet in advance and if you see a question that you like, retweet it, to gain it some gravitas. SO... what are the questions that you want to ask? Let's start with: 1. What the hell is going on at Coventry? 2. When will the humble fan know what is going on at Belle Vue, and who the promoters will be? 3. How do we know for sure that Swindon won't share the same fate as Reading? 4. Why was the SWC switched from the NATIONAL Speedway Stadium to your own stadium at Kings Lynn? ...and over to you for the rest.....