Great Central

Excellent summary so thank you. Just add to it, the Agricultural Society appears to have transferred all the shares of EESS Ltd to AEPG who will then repay the Agricultural Society from the money raised when Phase 1 goes through and money starts coming in. It seems to me that EAAS have been taken in by this "crook".

Great idea there. It is also not in a riders interests to make a big issue out of non payment of "wages" since they may be overlooked for a team place in the following season.

Thank you for your very kind comments about our meetings. The programme wasn't as planned initially, but in the end we put on an evenings entertainment and our spectator numbers were up despite several logistical problems that affected support from the mainland. I am glad that you thought they weren't rubbish.

As usual you have managed to really capture the event mixing formal and informal views alike. Nobody is safe when you have your camera in hand.

That is one way round the shortage. We were going to trial it on the Isle of Wight this year but as you know, riders were warned off from riding with us. Rob Peasley devised the format, and whilst it reduces travel costs for one rider it does has some very good points.

To be perfectly frank, most of it is childish and is bringing TV speedway down. They talk rubbish most of the time. Of course others will see it differently.

Thank you for the information.

Why is a new air fence required? Are you saying it belongs to somebody else?

You may see it as the flying circus but we don't. We provide an evening packed full of entertainment for all ages at a very reasonable price for all people to watch, but moving on to your last comment about running from March to October. When running in the NL, we never planned to run in March or October, as we recognised that those months would be difficult for us but we did try and stage a meeting every week.. This year we are running later than in previous years so we will see how things look after those meetings but we may spring a surprise later on.

That is so true.

Yes it does seem quite tricky for them and I feel for them both right now as they would appear to be in a very difficult position.

You need two promoters to stop what happened when the late Tim Stone passed away several years ago at Newport. The aftermath was very difficult to unravel apparently and obviously stopped the club in its tracks. At Eastbourne, it is slightly different as the club is not owned by the Promoters but by the two named directors who the BSPL have no control over as they are not BSPL approved promotors.

There are currently little more than 130 riders spread out across our 3 leagues. Where are the other 10 coming from (or 3 of IoW are excluded again)? Where's the injury cover? Or are you looking at 6-man teams? Had we been able to get the riders across to the IOW unhindered by pressure from the authorities, we would probably tried running 6 man team challenge matches. Rob Peasley Oxford TM devised a format which had some merits and looked promising enough to try out. Maybe next year.

Thanks to all those who submitted objections but it would seem that less commented than for the previous application. I think only two or three BSPL promoters objected and as far as I can see nothing from the BSPL Board. An absolute disgrace by a company that is supposed to promote speedway in the UK. Martin Widman Wight Warriors

I have objected as well and have spread the word. Hopefully you will get loads more objecting. Best wishes. Martin Widman

The 11pm ferry from Fishbourne is very much like a "speedway special". Lots of banter for 40 minutes and then disappear home.

That is obviously of some concern to us and the reason for not having a late FastCat is currently because hospitality places aren't fully open yet. In fact some haven't opened at all like many around the country so according to Wightlink the demand isn't there. We are hoping for some good news when the Government hopefully decide to open up fully.

Thank you so much for those much for those kind words of support. They mean a lot to us in these difficult times. .

And yes wouldn't most people like to see a league campaign but the fault does not lie with Barry and myself, but firmly at the doors of the BSPL Board of Directors who imposed rules on our operation without any consultation or agreement. You try running a business with your hands tied behind your back with all the financial risk being yours. The current situation is far from ideal but a number of people believed in what we were doing this year and we have tried to be loyal to them in the best way possible by coming up with this programme of meetings. Yes there are some omissions but our season has been curtailed by bodies not operating in the best interests of the sport so it is shorter than was anticipated. Apologies if the programme doesn't suit you personally but we are trying our best to put on events that will please and entertain, and will also aid the development of the riders who come through our training sessions. Martin Widman Co Promoter Wight Warriors

Danno lives on the Isle of Wight and at busy times, it is not always easy to pick the ferry that you want especially for late bookings. Bear in mind that he was supposed to be at Eastbourne yesterday so would have been staying over on the mainland.

Extremely well put and the first of the Objects for which BSPA is established is to "protect and represent the lawful interests of the Members" This is not me making it up but is from the Articles of Association produced when the BSPL was formed. You could say that they aren't doing a very good job but like us they have been battling with Covid keeping their own businesses going, as well as trying to run the BSPL. This may come as a bit of a surprise but I do have some sympathy for the "Top Table", because trying to plan your way out of Covid restrictions has been difficult but in my view there was no better time to shake the tree and come up with something new. Barry came up with an idea to liven up the 2020 NT competition but it was rejected as being too difficult or something like that. We have ideas on how to change the look of speedway as we are also very conscious of the criticism of the "same old same old with tractor racing" and I think with our team challenges, Best Pairs, 3TT, Handicaps etc we were doing a pretty good job. Yes we sometimes did have problems with our track but we normally filled the interludes with news, interviews or action for the kids. Nothing works 100% of the time but if you don't try, nothing will change. Martin Widman

Well said Barry. I certainly couldn't have put it better myself. There are still so many people out there who still think that we withdrew from the BSPL because of the points limit and that just isn't true. The BSPL will continue to say that all clubs voted in the new points limit, but that is not what we have in black and white from the BSPL, and even if they did, how were they allowed to vote when the two most affected clubs, weren't even allowed to discuss the matter. It was our choice to try and run speedway on the island and doing it from our homes just adds to our problems but our business that we have worked bloody hard to build up with great support from businesses and supporters on the island(and off it), cannot operate under rules dictated by clubs who have no financial liability towards us. Martin Widman

The meeting was organised and run by Scunthorpe Speedway under SCB rules and riders had to get Day Licences if they didn't have an SCB licence. It was racing and I suppose you can under a private hire but the implications of anything happening would I think be quite significant, especially on the owner of the track.

Oh dear. I will have to keep my eyes wide open when travelling up north. I always thought men were men up there but obviously not so. Regarding the island, thank you for your comments but we were only putting on what we thought the paying public wanted to see. We haven't given up and this week, we start on the road back with our MFS training school trying to develop the many youngsters, not so young, that normally attend.

Halifaxtiger very well put as always. Yet another balanced posting. Although I post as Great Central (most people know who I am because I live in Loughborough which is one end of a famous steam heritage line), I am Martin Widman Co Promoter and Joint owner of the Wight Warriors Speedway team. It is clear looking at the post by "crescent girl" that she hasn't read our press releases or postings on here. Whilst Barry and I did have misgivings about the product that we would have to promote as a result of the 35 points limit, that was not the reason why we chose to leave the BSPL. We may yet be proved wrong about the new limit but only time will tell and it will be a case of perception. The only reason was because as a member of the BSPL(albeit an Associate Member) we did not get the opportunity to discus its merits in a meeting or AGM, the pitfalls of it and the impact it may have on the product that we had to promote and the resulting impact on our business. The rules were dictated by the Board of the BSPL, none of whom have any liability as to the financial success of our business. In spite of the many emails sent seeking clarification about an AGM, about whether this method of dictating the rules which we had to work under would continue at the end of the year, no clear responses to our requests were made. We may actually be forced into publishing the emails to show that we are not telling lies and to show the lack of respect that we were afforded. We were therefore left with no option. Barry and I are the people who have started the business out of our own pocket, assisted by our sponsors and fans, and we live or die by how we run our business. It has to be noted that along with Mildenhall, we have never received any TV money from the BSPL, money which helps to subsidise the NL teams run by other league teams. As standalone clubs running more NL meetings than non standalone clubs, we actually put a lot of money into the BSPL and SCB coffers and yet got no say in how our business is run. Crescent Girl can buy out my share if she wants, and then be subject to the same dictatorial rules but I suspect the offer will be declined. I have tried on many occasions to come up with an analogy on the position we found ourselves in and can only come up with this one. Imagine you are a shop owner paying your taxes and rates to the local Council and suddenly the Council come along and say that you have to cut your prices by 25% What would you do?? Move to another area, get out of shop keeping, or accept the new rules and go bankrupt. Speedway is not in good shape right now and all we were asking was to be given the chance to have our say in how we thought it should run in 2021 and beyond. For now, that is all I will say but there is a lot more that could be said. Martin Widman