uk_martin

With the doubts over Belle Vue continuing, I wouldn't be surprised if there were some phone calls being made to the Lawlor and Bickley households...just in case "worst comes to worst" like....

Haven't we just gone through the same issues at Birmingham these last few years? Alan Phillips left a debt that Tony Mole had to clear before he could use the stadium again. Gary Patchett also left a debt in 2010 that wasn't cleared. He's been banned from the Perry Barr Stadium and couldn't even attend when Cradley raced there a couple of years ago.

If being faced with having to pay off a league club's bad debts in order to stage an event of it's own is "putting money into the league", then that's a very benevolent and broad understanding of the situation.

Both partly right and both partly wrong...the BSPA's sole remit is the running of the leagues in the UK, on behalf of the SCB who in turn answer to the ACU who are affiliated to the FIM. AS ARE the PZM! So the BSPA would be powerless but on the other hand the BSPA plus some referees plus one or two others make up the SCB, so it's a matter of off with one cap, and on with another, but it's pretty much the same people. So you can be pretty sure that the SCB will put the blockers on any such idea. If the SCB put the blockers on, then it won't be recognised internationally by the FIM, so therefore the PZM, who also answer to the FIM, will be stuffed.

MCC will want it's rent paying up. How the rest of the debts are administered will be a matter for others to worry about. HOWEVER, going forward, MCC have provided from public funds, a facility for a speedway team called "Belle Vue Aces" to run there. If the BSPA / new promotion think that they can mess MCC about by shoddy business practises, then don't expect MCC to sit back and "be played". There may come a point, if they are messed about, when they will have their fill with speedway, and convert the stadium for use by another sport. So if it happens every day, that's somehow alright then? So if you were a landlord and someone did a runner without paying their rent, you'd happily rent a property out to that person's next relative, would you? Or would you rent it to a person nominated by the abscondee's parents? Any MCC employee familiarising themselves with the world of speedway by reading BSF will be well aware that the sport is run, organised and administered by a bunch of shysters who don't trust each other let alone warrant the trust of outsiders. They will quickly learn to become very wary of doing business with anybody from the world of speedway, and any business conducted will be on MCC's terms and be kept under close supervision.

To get the keys to the stadium from the landlords, perhaps? How much do people expect Manchester City Council to write-off in owed money?

And if the bills don't get paid the what it's called and who originally named it go for a ball of chalk.

Coffins and nails spring to mind.

You an get to Daugavpils and back in a day from places like Riga, Kaunas and Vilnius, where there are plenty of budget flights to. Car hire there is reasonable, the roads are good, and the big towns have all the usual hotel options. As has been said, Daugavpils is not exactly a touristy place to spend a weekend but the other options make for a nice little excursion.

Easy peasy for Buster isn't it? He showed his true colours when he failed miserably to "promote" the NLRC this year. Good job for him that BSI will be handling all the promotion for him. He can just lie back and watch the money roll in. Disturbing though that Belle Vue has been cut out of the equation. Manchester City Council will have expected a national stadium to host big events, and that'll have been at the crux of them agreeing to fund that stadium. If the BSPA screw up now and don't find an alternative promoter for the Aces & Colts, I can see Manchester City Council converting that stadium into one that can suit another sport. Manchester is short of top quality Rugby and Hockey facilities, that stadium would be ideal.

Let's run a sweepstakes and have a wild guess at when it will be. I'll go for the weekend 18-20 November. C'mon, plenty more options between now and mid-March. Have a guess, it costs nothing.

Gorzow is about a 3 hour rail journey from Berlin, but add to that you need to get to Berlin Lichtenberg railway station by U/S Bahn first, as that's where that particular train departs from NOT the Hauptbahnhof that you would expect. You also have to change trains, usually, at the border at Kostrzyn. If you insist on using this route, buy a ticket from Berlin to Kostrzyn and then when you are there buy a second ticket from Kostrzyn to Gorzow. You'll save Deutsche Bahn's €20 border crossing premium. You can also get to Zielona Gora by train from Kostrzyn too. As regards thinking of it as a day trip, I wouldn't bother. The big meetings are usually 7pm starts and getting a night train after a meeting, allowing for the time you need to get between stadium and station makes that an impractical proposition. Best to book a hotel locally and head back to Berlin on the Monday. Think of a trip as a weekend break, not a day trip. Not even the speedway riders (who you'll likely bump into at the airports) fly to the UK until the Monday at the earliest. Given the choice I'd opt to fly to Poznan. It's about 2hrs 20 mins by direct train to Gorzow (3ish hours if you get the connection where you have to change at Krzyz) and there are frequent flights there from Luton (Wizzair) and Stansted (Ryanair etc) One added advantage to this option is that if you fly Friday or early Saturday, you could see a Poznan home meeting on the Saturday before carrying on to Gorzow on the Sunday. The train from Berlin to Torun takes about 6 hours and depending on your connection can involve between one to 4 changes of train. Most people going to Torun fly Ryanair to Bydgoszcz where it's about a 1 hour train ride to Torun. You can also fly to Gdansk and take the train or bus from there (2-3 hours) Wroclaw, Leszno and the other Extraliga tracks are not really an easy rail journey away from Berlin either. Best to look for local Polish airports. I've flown in and out of Bydgoszcz, Wroclaw, Gdansk, Szczecin, Krakow and Katowice, and they are all perfectly good airports with decent connections to the local towns. Weighing up pros and cons, Berlin will need a big feather in its cap to overcome the disadvantage of distance compared with the local airport alternatives. Useful web sites: http://www.bahn.de/ http://en.e-podroznik.pl/public/index.do? http://www.polskibus.com/pl/index.htm

That means that they haven't received a press release from the BSPA to copy and paste into their magazine.

There's a time and a place for everything. The National Development League (to give it it's full title) should be for developing young riders, in my opinion. Maybe, if there's a demand, speedway can do what tennis, golf (etc) do, and have a seniors league?

The oldies can be in a coaching role at a team without needing to ride and using up a team place that a youngster can make use of. And I dare say that the chairman of the BSPA will be excused any punishment if Kings Lynn fail to fulfill their fixtures again, won't he? The organisation fills one so full of confidence doesn't it?

When else is an Easter home and away derby supposed to be held?

I think Monster Joe is oblivious to all of that. He didn't care much when Darcy Ward, who's house must have been brimming over with complimentary energy drinks, was caught "dehydrated" at the SGP a couple of years ago. I mean, what does dehydration tell you about the energy drink's qualities? But it didn't matter, he continued with the sponsorship of Darcy Ward regardless. The same will go for Monster Joe's country-mate. As long as people keep talking about you-know-what (to avoid mentioning the Brand for the third time in one post) he's happy.

Maybe they could become the Pub-Crawleys...??? Might attract a new and younger fan base that way. Possibly?

Good to see that the old Pension-Dodgers are getting signed up so quickly. I'm assuming that Stoke will sign up at least 7 more old-timers, but not announce a thing until the day before the start of the season, as usual. Let's hope that when the oldies have all been signed up, that there's still room in this league for the young'uns, somewhere.

What's this "Rider in waiting" thing that Google mis-translates? Is it like a "squad rider" that can double down to a lower league, or something, and then be recalled if and when needed? Whatever one of them is, Thomas H Jonasson is one of them for Stal Gorzow. Additionally, the two junior berths will be contested by Stal's own juniors - Rafał Karczmarz, Kamil Nowacki, Alan Szczotka, Hubert Czerniawski & Marcel Studziński. http://www.przegladsportowy.pl/zuzel/pge-ekstraliga,cala-sila-w-seniorach-czy-mistrzow-polski-stac-na-obrone-tytulu-,artykul,733441,1,984.html

There's always a way...mystery illnesses, breakdowns en-route, etc...if a Championship team doesn't want to be promoted hen the situation can be "engineered" to prevent it from happening.

Belle Vue now has to be a doubt. Coventry have secured a lease for the stadium but who knows if they can afford to run the NL team with only two men and a dog in regular attendance there plus some away fans. Mildenhall - how long can they hold out with the cost of that legal action hanging over them? Birmingham - I'd be more interested in who the promoter will be who will be buying the club from Tony Mole, than anything else at the moment. Kings Lynn - I thought that I heard that they wouldn't be running a Young Stars team in 2017 Lakeside - is their situation based on hope or on any fact?

Has there been a thread this year involving the Birmingham Brummies that got to 7 pages before? Did the Kent thread get this much interest?

It has been according to the latest press release. I hope it's not just a case of "deflector shields up" lol.

I've given up caring. If they lied about the 5 previous incidents, then the situation stinks. If they were right about the 5 previous incidents, then the situation stinks. Either way, the situation stinks. Just glad the season's over. Let's see if time will be a healer and the people who were cheated out of a good meeting will forgive and forget in time for next March. And that's the big question...IF Has anyone spoken to a referee about what their responsibilities are? So, does anyone "know", or are people "supposing that they know", or is it a case of "I don't know but surely it must be the referee's job"? I was always under the impression that a referee takes control of a meeting 2 hours before tapes up. Now I may be wrong about that, but if I'm right, then the team line-ups could have been in the referee's in-tray for as long as you like, there would have been nothing that he would have been empowered to do. Now imaginge for a moment that the referee had spoken to Drury in the week, and given him some advice about what will happen if he fields an illegible guest, how happy would Eastbourne (really) have been? Accusations of referees colluding with the Brummies management would have made this scandal look like peanuts.