Reviresco

Jamie Habbin 'The Pink Panther': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIa7CzZ4seU (Although by 1989, he had moved on to Mildenhall) Cam Heeps has been known to sport a splash of pink on his bike covers, so you may be seeing a fair bit of it at Hoddesdon this year.

Australian U16 and U21 Championships being held at Gillman next weekend with the Junior U16 125's at Sidewinder's on the Friday (U16 Best Pairs and Sidecar Titles also being held). (Along with Scott Norman's son, Jack, you will find Nigel Sadler's son, Jack, and Shane Bowes sons, Fraser & Patrick in the line up for the 125's.) Lidsey appears in the U21's, whereas Eves and Gilmore are in the U16's - Matt having just had his first run out on a 500cc at Mildura. Entry Lists as follows: Australian Under 21 Solo Championship: Jake Allen (Qld), Dakota Ballantyne (SA), Jack Fallon (Vic), Max Fricke (Vic), Cameron Heeps (WA), Jack Holder (NSW), Zaine Kennedy (Qld), Tyler King (NSW), Brady Kurtz (NSW), Jaimon Lidsey (Vic), Joshua MacDonald (NSW), Jake Mitchell (SA), Cooper Riordan (Vic), Blake Russell (WA), Tyson Snow (Qld), Jordan Stewart (Vic). Reserves: Karl Lawler (NSW), Jack Morrison (Vic), Seth Hickey (SA), James Dimmock (ACT), Luke Bacskai (SA) Australian Under 16 250cc Solo Championship : Aden Clare (NSW), Mitchell Cluff (NSW), Brody Eves (Qld), Matthew Gilmore (NSW), Brad Gordon (WA), Mitchell Grech (SA), Oliver Hamilton (Vic), Jacob Hook (Qld), Isaac Hawes (NSW), Declan Kennedy (Qld), Declan Knowles (WA), Jedd List (Qld), Matthew Marson (WA), Brayden McGuiness (SA), Cordell Rogerson (Qld), Kobee Ziedas (WA). Rider Draw for the U16 125cc Qualifier Meeting (21st January): 1. Patrick Hamilton; 2. Bailey Viner; 3 Jye Johnson; 4 Layne Riorden; 5 Broc Hall; 6 Mitchell Grech; 7 Cordell Rogerson; 8 Liam May; 9 Troy Kutcher; 10 Jacob Hook; 11. Connor Bailey; 12. Maurice Brown; 13. Fraser Bowes; 14. Jack Sadler; 15. Hugh Evans; 16. Patrick Bowes; 17. 1st Res Nicholas Possingham; 18. 2nd Res Angus Vandenberg; 19. 3rd Res Teagan Pedler; 20. 4th Res Joshua Beetham. Rider Draw for U16 Junior Individual Championship: 1. Keynan Rew; 2. Declan Killeen; 3. Q7; 4 Q1; 5 Brayden McGuinness; 6 Jedd List; 7 Q4; 8 Q2; 9 Matthew Gilmore; 10 Q8; 11 Brad Gordon; 12 Q5; 13 Tom Dixon; 14 Q3; 15 Jack Norman; 16 Q6; Ist Reserve = Q9; 2nd Reserve = Q10

Out of the Aussies eligible for a visa application, I would opt for Jordan Stewart - but of course bringing in a 5ptr will leave Rye a point under the limit.

Thanks for the feedback and explanations Mr Hague. (I appreciate the Portal is a separate entity from the Club web-site, but just felt that the web-site could do with the inclusion of some of the content that appears to feature on the Portal only at present as, IMO, most visitors to the Island would most likely search for info on the web-site first and possibly only look there. I do agree that the Portal capture a different audience and may entice people to travel, also the visual media is improving and I thought the video that was produced for the meeting before Christmas was excellent. Agreed about the No. 8 too, although as Kent Kings have found, it is difficult to recruit and keep one.) As regards the logo, please don't change your avatar - certainly not on our account and not to a self portrait - just kidding. All the best with everything.

i think the point with KB, Star Lady, is that, if he was signed up by the Stars, there would be a lot of unused points anyway. Better to bring in a rider on a 7/8 if they can find one, particularly with the Tier 1 Reserve position still to be (re)filled.

I reckon the 'New Feature' on a Thursday night will be linked to the Witches' new Title Sponsor - any news on that yet? So: if it is Truck R Us, it will be truck racing; if it's Jack's Cafe it will be an all day breakfast eating competition; if it's Hintlesham Fisheries it will be an angling competition - or similar. Other than that, it might just be a 'spot the missing rider/s' competition due to all the doubling up/down or, if they can't get the new Team Manager off the golf course, maybe a different fan can take on the role at each home meeting, or with Sarj in the team the fans will be asked to make replacement tapes (sorry Sarj, backing you to have a great season under the Louis' influence). All joking aside, I hope it is a success and well done to the Club for even thinking about engaging the fans.

Well, KB is on the HL List, so that makes him an EL HL for the purposes of team building... Unless the change of race night was simply as a prelude to and an indicator of a fixed EL race night from 2017, agreed on both points Steve and, as you say, the change of night was linked to the signing of a rider rather than anything else. On this basis then, KB should be discounted from the 2016 Stars team and he can be free to take his services elsewhere - Peterborough fans seem keen on him. (I did see that he had an operation back in November to alleviate arm pump, so it looks as if he will be taking this year seriously.)

And how do you propose classifying riders into Grades? From their Average? Didn't the Conference League utilise 'Rider Gradings' (11 down to 2) a decade or so ago which were based on Average, age and experience, but then all teams still had to come in under a combined Grading Limit and had to have 2 x Grade 2's and only 1 x Grade 11? Averages or Grades? Does it make a lot of difference? To provide a reasonable playing field (racing track) some form of 'limit' seems a reasonable method of equalising team strengths and, has been alluded to, has to be better than a return to Rider Control. There's no doubt that Averages in the EL have become skewed and made it more difficult to use them simply to build team strength's up to a combined set limit. but what other method can you employ? Other sports have introduced 'wage caps', but these seem to be open to all sorts of abuse. Personally, I certainly wouldn't want to run speedway under a 'who pays most' wins basis. Apologies - gone off Thread here.

Thanks Steve. So with Batchelor, Schlein, Lambert, Mads & Rose announced, I make that 11.81 points left to recruit a Heat Leader/Second String and a Tier 1 Reserve. If KB is re-signed on his closing 5.87, that still leaves a further 5.94 for the Tier 1 which, imo, would leave the Stars too far away from the 40.50 Limit and must rule out KB then.

Totally agree with you and Iris, Trees. Always enjoyed Pairs meetings and riders who look for their partner in Pairs and Team meetings always receive my seal of approval. Whilst I would prefer a national team based World Pairs event, maybe the advent of this new Pairs format will help attract new sponsors into the sport and bring it in line with other forms of team motor sports. Maybe...

Yes, great old images. Can you tell me where the new stadium has been built in relation to the two other stadia in these pictures, to form the triangle of Belle Vue speedway?

At the end of 1975, Ipswich had Mick Hines moved to Wimbledon and Belle Vue had Soren Sjosten moved to Birmingham for the 1976 season, so Rider Control was in operation then.

Andy, I've probably missed it but has the regular race night been announced yet? If so, this should really be on the home page of the web-site. I also concur about the logo. I appreciate that the Club is pursuing a friendly, community, family feel to it but if you are going to call yourselves the Wightlink Warriors, then the characters on the logo don't fit that at all, imo. Not at all 'Island Warrior' like. The trouble is, individual characters already appear on the merchandising, T shirts, coffee cups, etc, and on individual pages on the web-site, so if you do change the logo, then these would need to be altered too. (I had thought it was odd that there were eight characters on the logo, when speedway teams have seven riders, but I guess you have signed a number eight in George Piper, so fair enough maybe.) Also, there seems to me to be a lot more up to date and relevant information about the Club on your Speedway Portal web-site rather than on the Club's own site. Is it planned to transfer some if not all of that across at some stage? Due to it's unique location, I would've thought that any info on IOW attractions, places to stay, eat, drink, transport links, stadium location, etc. should really be on the Club's web-site and not on the Portal. I do wish you all the best of fortune and am very pleased to see the IOW back on the speedway map.

Agreed, and I also hadn't realised that he and Mads Korneliussen had been added to the rider list already.

Australian Rules Football and there will be an 'A' League franchise in 2016 to keep the Roobins Aussie theme going. Alternatively, if the stadium isn't quite finished in time, boomerang throwing competitions and didgeridoo lessons will be held in the open spaces.

How many points do the Stars have available for their last two riders - I haven't a clue what average Mads Korneliussen would start on?

Ben Barker and Simon Stead to take part in the Meeting on 12th March: http://www.kingslynnstars.co/2016/01/14/british-duo-to-race-in-ben-fund-bonanza/ I hadn't realised that Ben had taken part in each Ben Fund meeting since 2009, so kudos to him.

Would expect Richard Lawson to be announced as back riding in the EL for Lakeside in the next couple of weeks.

The Club's website and twitter announced yesterday that ticket prices were being frozen at 2015 levels. Also the statement went on to say that: 'We are currently assessing the fixture clashes involved for Rich, Edward & Kim to ensure we have the maximum availability possible and we hope to announce further rider news after the BSPA meeting next Tuesday.' Does the reference to 'Rich' mean that Richard Lawson has been re-signed for this season, or may be after the fixtures have been assessed or, as usual, have I missed something somewhere? http://www.lakesidehammers.co/vortex-hammers-price-freeze/

It doesn't look as if this has been mentioned on here yet, but the second staging of the International Pre-Season Cup with Wroclaw as the visitors is now scheduled for Friday 18th March and not 20th as originally mentioned: http://www.kingslynnstars.co/2016/01/08/stars-to-open-with-wroclaw-challenge/

Josh Bates winning the 'A' Final of the 2016 Rob Woffinden Classic at Pinjar Park at the weekend: https://www.facebook.com/210176433026/videos/10153323069043027/

Video of the 'A' Final from the 2016 Rob Woffinden Classic held at Pinjar Park at the weekend, featuring WA Champion Daniel Winchester, Josh Bates, Frank Smart and Cameron Heeps: https://www.facebook.com/210176433026/videos/10153323069043027/ Connor Coles and Layne Cupitt also took part in the meeting. Heat 1 (Coles); Heat 3 (Heeps & Cupitt); Heat 4 (Bates): https://www.facebook.com/Quit-Pinjar-Park-Motorcycle-Speedway-210176433026/videos?ref=page_internal

If Woffinden and Janowski are at KL on the Friday with Wroclaw, maybe they will be available for Chris' meeting on the Sunday too?

Yah Nice Aas? Surely not...

Dave, there was a song titled 'Speedway Star' on the 'B; side of The Pastels single 'Speeding Motorcycle' which was released in 1991 and both tracks can be found on their 'Truckload of Trouble' compilation album released in 1994. Also on the 'B' side of the single was a track titled '4th Bend'. Both tracks can be found on youtube if you want to remember how they sounded, with 'Speedway Star' being linked to a video of Indycar racing, strangely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq_t7Sgogv0