uk_martin

I wonder how many Polish teenagers have been living here with their parents and gone to school here for the last 5 years? ... just wondering...because you know what the promoters will say to them don't you? And you know where their career path will take them if they show any signs of promise and potential...Thank Gawd that Matt Ford isn't at the helm of any NL teams because you can just see him pulling a stunt like this. Still if a grounding in a foreign country and then onward development leading to international representation for your home nation is good enough for Robert Lambert, then why not in reverse too?

That may well be the case. Sponsorship plays a huge part in the finances of Polish clubs. And look who the sponsors are...all major national companys. In Britain, you might get Sid's Wholesale Electrical Shop as a title sponsor of an EL team, in Poland you have the Polish equivilents of NPower, British Gas, etc. Massive companys with massive budgets for massive sponsorship deals. No wonder if one (SPAR??? possibly???) dishonours it's sponsorship agreement and doesn't pay up, it throws a speedway team (Falubaz ZG) into financial turmoill.

Don't agree with this. Birmingham have been in all leagues and have seen this doubling up malarkey from all angles. We've been on the good end and the bad end of the stick. Nobody complained when Tomasz Piszcz was on fire for the Brummies and eclipsed Jason Lyons as our #1 in 2009. Nobody complained then when the Brummies had priority over Belle Vue, who he was also on the books of... On the other hand, when the Brummies were in the EL, no-one was at all happy when NL teams had priority over Josh Auty and others. Weren't Brummies fans complaining then, about the absurdity of the EL team having to suffer because of lower league committments? Now it appears that the boot is on the other foot. And guess what? the complaints keep on rollin'... And who cared about what was best for the riders and their personal development? What good did it do anyone getting dumbed down to the lowest standard of racing whenever both options could have been open to them? We have to play fair to the riders and accept that for their develoment, they have to race at the highest level possible. For all that anyone says, the NL is in essence a development league. A feeder league for riders to get a grounding and progress to better things. If Tom Perry has the chance to develop late in his career (like Charles Wright did) then we should support him and wish him all the best of luck.

How about this as an alternative to the T/S - T/R situation? How about teams having the option to taking a #8 and even a #9 with them and having the option of using them as the tactical substitutes? It replicates what happens in other sports whereby (say in football) the top 11 start the game and the others are on the bench ready to come on if a player that starts is ineffective for whatever reason. Ok so there may be a difference in initial quality between a teams #7 and those who haven't made it into a teams 1-7 but what is there to lose if a rider has a duff night? There's usually a rider or two who only get 0 or 1 point so why not blood a youngster in their place? It is still a development league no matter what some say. It serves a purpose especially if the next JPB is given a chance as a #8 or #9 a bit earlier than by just waiting for someone to get injured to get a guest booking. So what's the difference between a #6 and #7 and a #8 and #9 you may ask? Well, the #6 & #7 would be contracted riders and would have to have their allotment of rides. They would be subject to CMA's too. My idea is that the #8 and #9 could be non-contracted "guests" on assessed 3.00 averages (permanently for the whole season) picked from a pool of the best MDL (etc) riders who are making good progress and who may be ready to make the breakthrough. Additionally, there would be no compulsion on the teams to use them. It would be a tactical decision on whether to use them, subject to the match score and the team managers discretion. The teams will have the options on whether to have them in their line-ups or not, so those who can't afford it won't have to pay extra expenses, but on the other hand those who want to keep their options open can do so (tactical or what?) Imagine the benefit to the next Jack Parkinson Blackburn of getting rides from May and June onwards instead of having to wait until the season's curtain call?

Visions of Porky trying to be funny by doing a HaKa when this guy wins a race - glad it's going to be happening in Wolverhampton and not at Perry Barr

http://sportowefakty.wp.pl/zuzel/562734/ekstraliga-w-zagranicznej-telewizji-przetarg-zakonczony# One wonders if this may finally signal the awarding of the contract for the management of international TV rights to an agency that actually does want to sell Polish Speedway to a UK broadcaster instead of doing the SlowSpeed International tactic of acquiring the rights in order to block the transmission of the spectacle to the British public in order to protect the image of the British speedway on Sky.

The Mickey Mouse Club has been saved. http://sportowefakty.wp.pl/zuzel/562562/falubaz-zielona-gora-uratowany

I think Trees more likely to become a more ardent Stal Gorzow fan if the Stars no longer shon on her.

Agree with the concept of developing young British talent but it's counter productive to develop riders like Zach W and then having a points limit so low that they can't be accommodated in a team to continue their development. Maybe the Polish system needs to be looked at whereby if you are good enough you are guaranteed a junior team place up to the age of 21 irrespective of your actual average.

or "auf der Insel" - as the Germans refer to being in Britain.

Polish media also reporting the possible (probable) bankruptcy and demise of Falubaz Zielona Gora - http://sportowefakty.wp.pl/zuzel/561241/dzialacze-falubazu-spotkaja-sie-z-wladzami-miasta-prawdopodobny-scenariusz-to-up

I'm confused by that too. In what other sport do you build a team to a combined strength that is not enough to be a winning combination? (Working on the basis that you have to exceed 39.00 to have a winning team?) Still, this is speedway.

Simple - Cradley will get Matt Ford in as a guest representative for them, just to make sure that what they want, they get. (as is usual with Matt Ford)

You mean that Birmingham have a pair of Jacks and Belle Vue don't hold all the Aces any more? lol

Can you edit your post please solrac so that you get the credit for what you are saying and it doesn't look like I'm saying what I'm not saying?

A pair of Jacks. Will Danny King still be there in a coaching role? Anyone for any card gaming puns? I wonder if Graham Drury can tempt Jack Roberts and Jack Hargreaves out of their retirements? 4 Jacks could be a winning hand.

Oh yes you do...that's why you got on to your soap box to pontificate about it instead of just letting it pass you by. Typical trendy lefty. Bangs on about there being two sides to every story but reacts vehemently when the opposing view to his own sees the light of day. No wonder you are on BSF! So it's off to Siberia for Mr Tsunami for harbouring right wing views is it? Or will he get some Cambodian-style political re-education, maybe in the morning?

Some are involved in speedway simply as a tax loss. Lose money to speedway or pay it over to the tax man...either way the money doesn't stay in their pockets. So what's the difference? For the number of years that the Dugards have been crying about the losses at Eastbourne, you have to wonder how long it would have been before a genuine business that stands or falls on its own merits would have survived if there wasn't "other money" propping it up.

Does anyone honestly think that in a country with a housing crisis, that it will be remotely difficult to get that little caveat about a stadium overturned? Imagine an empty housing estate waiting for people to occupy the houses and some Councillors telling them, "NO! You can't house people until a speedway stadium is built"- yeah right! The developers have got Swindon's Planning Dept wrapped around their little finger with that kind of emotional blackmail tactic. As a speedway fan I hope it won't come down to that, but in the real world you just know that kind of thing could well happen. Yeah, Reading all over again IMHO. All promises, and probably zero delivery.

They've been trying to make that work at Twickenham before the England rugby internationals for years. A few fans sing along but put very basically, the experiment has not and is not working. GSTQ is, however, sung by all!

The only place where you pay for speedway and if you stand in the right place you get to see stock car/banger/hot rod action over at the "neighbours" too.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-34724002 Should be an interesting contest to see who Dudley Council elects to work "most" closely with to find a plot of land for either a sports stadium fit to host speedway or a mosque. (one assumes there is no room for both?) Looking at the text of the BBC news article whereby the Muslims are describing themselves as "disadvantaged", maybe the Heathens fans should show their plight and convince the Dudley Councillors of how disadvantaged they are too...??? (maybe) - Big Issue, anybody???

Welcome to "Parkie" - that'll get some chatting going...

Actually no. It's the responsibility of the BSPA, or even AP Media on behalf of the BSPA to ensure that there are no "broken links" on their web site. They can run checks to look for dead-end links and they have the sole capability to fix them. Web addresses change all the time. Where I work we get reports on a monthly basis of links that are identified as "broken" than need looking into and possibly fixing. As for the Facebook page (do they also have YouTube, Flickr, Instagram and Twitter presences as well?) I'm not at all surprised that these do not get publicised more and are flying below many people's radar, in view of the anti-social-media stance that the BSPA adopt in order to comply with their contractual obligations with GoSpeed International as sole speedway media/multimedia copyright holders. I bet Terry Russell must be jumping up and down at not being able to capitalise personally from what Poultec are doing.

And once again instead of addressing an issue you have nothing better to do than to berate a poster. Well done. You can be proud of yourself for that. I'm sure your mates will be thinking what a big man you are now. Carry on. I'm more interested in what's happening in the development of the next generation of talent. I didn't know that there was a FB page for these courses. As the BSPA site shows and as The White Knight will testify publicity has been less than brilliant. Glad to see that things have begun. Will have a look at FB page and see what's happening.