uk_martin

Wow - this is what those immoral and greedy bankers do to one of their own who's caught fare dodging. So what does that say about the BSPA who allow their chairman to get away with the same offence without even batting an eyelid. If the greedy bankers are supposed to be the cesspit of society, and yet they have the decency to discipline one of their kind when caught out, then where does that leave the BSPA? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30475232

From the wording on the home page of that site: All action motorcycle sport, Speedway GB, is rapidly gaining popularity this side of the pond* following British rider Tai Woffinden’s 2013 World Championship win. With a growing UK fanbase**, a string of successful seasons for British riders*** and a new five year TV deal with Sky Sports, the brand is on the cusp of mainstream success****. We’ve become worldwide licensee for Speedway GB and will be working alongside parent brand, Go Speed International****, to propel the brand into sport stardom. * "this side of the pond" - what sort of comparison statement is that? What's the point that they are making? Like it's even "bigger" on the other side of the pond??? What???? ** This has to be a joke. *** This goes back to the fundamental question of "how long is a piece of string?" - Not a very long piece of string as far as successful seasons for British riders is it though? **** Is "the cusp of mainstream success" the same as being virtually bankrupt and being within a hairs bredth of losing the SkySports deal? ***** Is this the GoSpeed International Ltd that was liquidated in 2010 with debts of some £39,000 or the GoSpeed International Ltd that rose from the ashes? And we've seen BBC Watchdog programmes about companies that do that sort of thing haven't we? Seems Terry Russel is still pulling the strings then! Well I doubt if any of the political parties at the next General Election will be able to put on spin like that, some of which is pushing the boundaries of honesty and credibility. Still, let's hope that all this "artistic license" will endow the sport with the kind of riches that Terry Russell can finally retire on.

British speedway and forward planning? C'mon

No, it's the start of a discussion on a topic that lots of people will have lots of opinions on. If you have one, please feel free to join in.

Who do you think will be in line for call ups to the national team this year? What do you feel will be their prospects at international level? For me two riders are obvious choices. Bear in mind that there are only 3 British riders who are likely to be exclusively EL in 2015, and out of them Scott Nicholls won't ride for Team GB again. So that leaves Chris Harris as the stand out rider from the EL for a place in the team. That leaves the other all-EL rider (at the moment) - Steve Worrall. He's inexperienced, but he's got the balls to commit to the EL full time, and he'll come good in the long run, so for that reason, I'd pick him. Tai Woffinden, despite not riding in Britain next year will be the other obvious choice for me. There are those who say that he's turned his back on his country, and others who want to say he's not really British anyway and all that...but that's all opinion. My opinion is that he's the best GB have and should be in. Greg Hancock doesn't ride in the USA and no-one complains about him wearing the stars and stripes, so if it's OK for the World Champion, it should be OK for the former World Champion. So that leaves the riders who've chosen to double up/down between the EL and PL. What to do for those? The obvious choice would be to pick from the "oldies" (King, Barker, Stead etc) but where will that get the GB team in the long run? And what will become of the career double-uppers (Barker etc) who could have kicked on if they's have got themselves experience in Sweden and Denmark but instead chose the comforts of home? What happens to them when their 2-year lease on a doubling up slot expires and they are 2 years older? Sadly I only see their fate sliding down hill and that their fate will be in the PL from 2017 onwards, so should Team GB pick riders whose career paths are on the slide? And especially, should team GB pick a rider who has just stated that his heart lies in Edinburgh and who in the past has turned his nose up at riding for GB in a domestic test series? So for me Craig Cook, Ben Barker, Simon Stead Danny King and for other reasons, Lewis Bridger are out of my equation. What to do with Richard Lawson? Not signed for an EL team yet and at 28 years old, is he the future? Should he be in the way of a youngster who is keen to get on with their career? Hard choice but I think his race is run in international terms. My picks for the remaining places will go to young chargers who seem keen to progress. I admit that it will be a steep learning curve, but they have to start at some time, and as Jason Garrity showed at the British Final in 2014, they are no respecters of reputations, so to quote Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in "Full Metal Jacket" - "they may be silly and they may be ignorant but they've got guts and guts is enough". As for their chances iin 2015. They'll not come 4th at Kings Lynn, so will progress to Vojens where they'll be knocked out of the play-offs. HOWEVER, some young riders will learn from the experience and that will bode well for the future. The team I'd chose (in no particular order): 1. Tai Woffinden 2. Chris Harris 3. Steve Worrall 4. Rob Lambert Reserve choices: 5. Ashley Birks 6. Jason Garrity 7. Richie Worrall 8. Kyle Newman

Nothing more sophisticated than good old fashioned and very petty, "not invented here" and "what's in it for me"? Some folk in the BSPA & SCB still think that Great Britain has an empire and that everything to do with speedway should revolve around this country. This is a tournament, like the SEC that's basically being run by Poles, out of Poland, and so, to the tune of "boo hoo, a-waahhh a-wahhh" the BSPA / SCB stamped their feet, turned their backs on One Sport (the promoters) and decided not to play with their train set. Meanwhile, whilst the likes of the Turbo Twins, Greg Hancock etc etc were earning big money from this competition, (was it about £12,000 for a win?) the British World Champion, Tai Woffinden, was barred from taking part, just to show the Poles that they can't mess with the British authorities. Sadly it also meant that Woffy (and partner) didn't have the advantage of the extra income that from one meeting alone could have paid for a whole new bike, or more, as he strove to defend his crown last year.

So does it go on age only? In which case why aren't we hearing British promoters complaining about the cost every 7 years or so? PL and NL teams needed special fund raising efforts to roll out air fences all round. Gawd help them iF they all have to replace them in 2020.

The thing is, the BSPA are only concerned with league racing in the UK. As long as Percy Pensioner walks in through the turnstiles at Belle Vue and Buxton, then the promoters are happy. Anything else that goes on in the world doesn't earn them any money so they don't care. If the BSPA/SCB wasn't committed by FIM obligations they would be even happier not to take part in the SWC as well. The SCB run the sport in the country, and they delegate the running of league speedway to the BSPA. Maybe in reality it's the SCB that we need to moan about for not looking after our national interests? The fact that the people that sit round the SCB table are pretty much the same as the ones that sit around the BSPA table (give or take a few referees) does sort of blur the issue though, so no wonder everyone gets confused. What really gets my back up is the fact that there are a couple of British riders who could be earning good money in the Best Pairs. The sort of prize money for winning just one round would do very nicely thank you. The fact will be that foreign riders will be earning that money, probably re-investing it in better equpment, making themselves more competitive, especially in the SGP's and SWC, therefore further relegating the British riders down the international pecking order. The downward spiral of the fortunes of British speedway has been further accelerated.

7 years use out of an air fence? Do British clubs renew their air fences every 7 years? Wow, do the maths, 200k zloties is roughly £40,000 divided by each usable season = just under £6000 per season. Including play-off's and GP's that's £600 per meeting. Good job that they get an average attendance of over 13,000 innit?

"Warning, warning, danger Will Robinson" - will be the new 2 minute time allowance alarm lol

How long before people opt for the line of least resistance and just call him Zach Smith, like the character in Lost In Space?

That sounds a delightful prospect, NOT. With "Birkogate" in mind I can just imagine how Brummies supporters will feel when they grow an attachment to a rider, especially one likely to be fulfilling the role that Jason Lyons once did, only to have him whisked away when a failing PL team decides to have a reshuffle. Hands up any Brummies fans who will be happy to be "left in the lurch" as the previous poster says? Keep your hands up while I count... Oh well, the life and times of National League speedway, I guess, innit? Guess a lot of the fans who Tony Mole is relying on to fill the terraces will have to get used to the fact that the National League is not about the winning, it's about the taking part...unless you're Cradley of course, which only makes it doubly hard for a Brummies fan to get used to it.

Be interesting to see this lad's development. He cut his teeth at IoW which is as near as you get this side of the North Sea to a Long Track, and he rode a year and seems to have done quite well at Lakeside. Talk about two tracks that are like chalk and cheese. Still, it should aid the development of his skill set. Slightly concerned (wider perspective) as to why he was a sub-5-pointer and only a #7 in the PL last year and why none of the PL teams have beaten his door down for his signature this winter. I'd have hoped that this EL "Fast Tracking" would have brought him on further than that, and that he'd have gone on to make more progress at PL level this year. However, (narrower perspective) the system's loss could be Birmingham's gain, so good luck to the lad.

Ludicrous innit? Don't we even have a "young" 28 year old starlet in the fast track process???

Jon Armstrong? No-one knows the NL as well as Jon Armstrong. Dan Halsey is also an NL #1 but hasn't he retired now? Maybe Tony Mole can bring him out of retirement? Paul Starke has the average of a NL#1 Did Oliver Greenwood ever appear in a Birmingham Bulls team when there was the Academy League (remember that?) - all those years ago. Would Aidan Collins or Lee Smart be tempted into a comeback and would they qualify for the NL?

How about some real fan involvement?? How about giving each of the top posters on the Brummies Forum one match each when they can be in charge?

They do love their Bank Transfers in Poland, don't they? If your bank is like mine, you can add £30 to the cost of transferring money abroad. Must investigate these online bank transfer web sites. Apart from that, what isn't immediately obvious on the web site, and you only notice on the application form is that the price is in EUROS not zloties. So, prices are between £140ish - £150ish for a ticket, a night's kip and a breakfast.

Has anyone noticed how slowly the remaining VIP tickets are selling compared to the rush on the cheap seats? If the cheap seats have been bought to be sold via third party web sites at a huge mark-up then they must have bought in bulk on the basis that one £38 sale (according to a previous poster) justifies 3 bought tickets at face value...so there could be a lot of "wastage" if the prices don't come down, leading to an embarrasingly empty stadium on the night. It could also dispell any hope of them ever coming back into the Kupbilet system and being available at proper prices.

I suspect a game of brinkmanship is afoot. It's in the interests of BSI / Polish promoters to sell out their VIP tickets so the longer they keep the cheap seats back, the more that people caught somewhere between the devil and the deep blue, like yourself, will be emotionally blackmailed into buying the VIP tickets. I think that the cheap seats will become available again at some point, but not for a while.

Have shared many a flight with people on "package tours". They use Ryanair the same as I do (other airlines are available), get seats in the same stadiums as I do, just that they get picked up from the airport in a chartered coach, whereas I use the bus. The booking.com web site (other web sites are available ;-)) offer lots of great deals on hotels, and when you know the tricks to look out for, renting a car from Hertz can be exceptional value as an alternative to public transport. If you want to go by bus or train around Poland, then, well, trains are trains, and the Polish Railways are getting better every year. polskibus.com (other coach companies are avaialble) offer some good inter-city coach travel options too. With everything being able to be done online at home (or at work if your boss isn't looking) and if you can trust yourself to get it right, then the economies of doing so are compelling.

Phil Morris has been appointed Race Director to the FIM, so at a guess, his SGP and SWC duties will probably preclude him taking up a job in British Speedway. No doubt there will be plenty of Brummies fans that will find that a bitter-sweet pill to swallow if they were hoping to see him back at the Brummies next year but congratulations have to go to Phil for his appointment. Onwards and upwards eh?

Looking a bit further down the road, the news is that a debt free Wanda Krakow are looking for their promotion to League 1 and a new freshly financed Poznan Scorpions will be looking to join the 2nd League in 2016. Maybe a few years later, there will be a couple more EE teams located where the planes go, making more trips from the UK possible.

I'm told that this sort of shenanigans goes on all the time at English cricket grounds for the big international matches...they withhold the cheap tickets until all the expensive ones are gone, then all of a sudden, "another batch of tickets has become available".

Don't give up hope if you haven't got a ticket just yet. reserving a ticket was free...let's see how many reserved tickets come back onto the market when they're not paid for, or once the VIP tickets have sold out to those taken in by the "mind games" - whichever comes first. Maybe if you're a "Bronze" VIP @ £164, but for a £280 "Gold" VIP I'd expect there to be more than just a luncheon voucher.

So you get for about £150 in Warsaw, with 5.5 hours of complimentary drinking time, pretty much what you get for £280 in Cardiff with only 4 hours drinking time? (unless the Cardiff pit walk really is worth £130 of your hard earned ackers?)