Backless

I dont actually have to hand a set of accounts & if I had I wouldn't post them on here, but yes, the money is shared around. The whole reason the league events aren't held on neutral tracks (apart from the PL Fours, which traditionally wasn't a neutral track either) is to maximise the share out. Clubs are invited to tender for the meetings. Spreading them around for the sake of it would reduce the share out. "Dudley" was a good call, because, despite being the same stadium it's a different fan base to Wolves & the predominantly NL / PL field pulled a much bigger crowd than the U21 has at Lakeside in recent years.

I'm sure Richard will be delighted (& squirming just a little) to learn the (disturbing) news that you're right behind him. "Peterborough produce high quality Danes" Is that Peterbro, the hamlet just outside Copenhagen? I don't remember Bjerre (but then again, neither do you), Peredsen x2, Iversen, or even the current love of your life rocking up at the Showground & saying "so, what's this speedway mullarkey all about? can someone show me?" - and that's not just because I don't recall the Danish for mullarkey.

The money IS shared around, that's why its called a Shared Event. If Birmingham (or whoever) came up with more cash for the BSPA pot, the meeting would be held there.

I'm sure the sports authorities look forward to receiving your cheque to underwrite almost all of those meetings!

And the admission cost for 28 heats with 24 riders turning out??? The meeting would have a smaller crowd than a Scunthorpe National League match!

Pretty much what the Peterborough fans said, the last time they held the same meeting there.... An excellent meeting on an excellent track.

Yes, because it's "their incompetence" that has rained off both meetings? Maybe the red wether alert in the south west is as a result of the BSPA penalising Plymouth for appearing understrength at the end of last season. If they did go down the route of seeding the top 16, what's the problem with that? Maybe you would prefer the Danish Championship this year, where one semi final was repeatedly re scheduled / abandoned until it ran the night before the final, with the proviso that if it rained again, they'd just pick 7 qualifiers.

Well, the converse of that argument is that another couple of rides at NL pay rates is hardly going to pave the streets with gold, so it's their choice to ride or not and show the sort of attitude necessary to succeed. If they're prepared to pull out of the meeting for the sake of £20 or £30, maybe spending a week less in the bar after a meeting being "speedway riders" for girlies' benefits might be a plan. They either want to get on in the sport or slope off into the nether regions of the sport and join the "used to ride a bit" brigade.

Except the Lee Richardson collection was always scheduled for the PRACTICE. How many of the 2000 would have been there? Not 700 - 800 like there will be on Saturday! But hey, the promotion got through Saturday, despite everything the weather in particular threw at them, so it's lucky thre's something for The Little Welshman with green eyes to gnaw at. After all, the only thing that ties the current FIM - approved Berwick Speedway with the dump that it had become under the present regime is that, despite The Little Watchman knowing how to do everything, both promotions have chosen to ignore him at every opportunity.

Probably very happy with the conditions, as opposed to a Kent / Northumberland / Kent drive out & not being able to make a restaging. It the chance you're always going to take, I guess you'd prefer the promotion or, in this case the FIM, to take responsibility for the weather. The fact is that the field would have been decimated by Monday & the crowd would have similarly been pocket-sized. That'll be the weekend that Dakota North was riding in the same championship as David Bellego (& Alex Edberg). So now you expect the same magnificent effort to be made for a PL meeting? Get Real. There's simply no need for them to do so. I don't have any problem with the Ipswich rain off: it's relatively easy to reschedule and on a date when both teams will hopefully be at full strength. How man "money-grabbing" jibes would there have been if (assuming the track had indeed been saveable) they'd shoved through a rubbish meeting with riders missing on both sides?

According to the FIM, restaging dates are Sunday 17/6 &, if need be, Monday 18/6.

Berwick's got an FIM Licence, and could handle a crowd like that seen at some SGPs.

Hadn't thought of even passing by the BSPA "website", not being that taken with harking back to a place that time forgot, a bit like an online visit to Workington. It's a real multimedia experience, ain't it? Maybe the Speedway Star should sponsor it - when the regular spats about the value of the Star break out & its pointed out that everything is more immediate on t'Internet, the BSPA website could come to the defence of Caxton's Press! Still, Mr Russell's webmistress has certainly come up with a cracking tag line now: "biggest meeting in Berwick upon Tweed!" Phew! (Somebody tell them it's in Tweedmouth)

If you work on the current system of having 2 "heatleaders" in a team, an average gate has to cover the expense of 4 heatleaders, 6 second strings & 4 reserves. A 4TT qualifier will have to cover 8 heatleaders, & 8 second strings plus some guarantee for 4 non-riding "reserves" - who may well be the remaining second string in the clubs' normal 1 - 7. Legend has it that popularity waned, especially at southern tracks, which is what killed them off in the first place. With the increasing northern bias in the location of PL teams there may or may not be more sway towards their return, but that doesn't addess the fact that they're considerably more expensive to stage if they're arranged properly

Yeah, but that'll be OUTWITH their control :-D

Because, despite commonsense, we have yet to construct a similar border to that between the USA & Mexico? If that's the best you've got left with which to run down the promotion, I hope for your sake you have another barrel on order. There's a big world out there: if you don't like the speedway at Berwick, you might ENJOY finding something you do LIKE. Or maybe it's engrained after years of Waite-run "entertainment"? Yeah, they were the days, eh? Instead of making the efforts they have maybe the promotion should take a leaf out of their visitors: rather than host all those pesky World U21 World Cup riders, they went with a NL double header packed with star names like James Cockle, Jerran Hart & Byron Bekker.

THAT is the point of the original post - a returnee from long term injury & a PL reserve become three PL Reserves & an NL "veteran". Now either that's a completly different agenda OR the concept of "a couple" in Scunthorpe is much more "liberal" & "cosmopolitan" as well as "exotic" than most would give them credit for....

That seems perfectly clear.

No need to "try again" - seek Special Dispensation. There would be a strong arguent that it would be "in the interests of British Speedway" that the few with actual potential would benefit from the granting of special dispensation from the current regulations regarding experinced riders in development league(s) on an individual basis than it would be for them to be half a lap or more in front of some old bloke having a second childhood. At least it would be a credible solution & help distinguish the league matches from the old guys with JAPs & ESOs who put on displays (now THAT would be worth a watch: Blast From The Past v Men In Black v Plodders v Chuggers - there y'go: Amateur racing at it's finest)

So what is "the real case" then? As to how to fill the hole left by excluding 40+ year old chuggers from a Junior / Development league, I'm not sure - if there arent the numbers, that's a fact of life. For the few number of meetings involved, with the number of ex-riders around any given pits on any given night, could they not be persuaded to have a blast & at the same time provide a bit of tuition? At least there would be a credible reason for them being out there. I wouldn't need to be the same guy in the same team for all meetings. There would be some purpose to that & it would be "real speedway" as opposed to old blokes with a bit of cash who bought a bike. I don't have any problem whatsoever with Amateur Meetings. If blokes want to have a go, good luck to them. But don't pass it off as anything other that what it is: pub football. Pub football is both fine and dandy - but it'll be Euro 2012 that'll be on tv. Speedway has always had " exceptional circumstances" ways & means to accommodate err exceptional circumstances, so that if some mid life crisis suddenly makes John Louis' debut at 29 look lite a whippersnapper he can be absorbed into the NJL on his way to NL, Pl, El & undoubted SGP glory.

I have a dream … where no one is discriminated against because of age, colour, creed & ability. A dream where sportsmen & sportswomen aren't judged merely by competence & results, but recognised as being special in their own right and so that they can all be accepted as winners in their own way. Perhaps all of which highlights why there's a lack of British talent - years of non-competitive education in schools.

If you could actually spend the time to read the post - maybe your mate Greg Hancock could read it to you after your finished your collaboration on your next Amazon best-seller - I said "that's what Amateur Meetings are for". Anyone can spend what they like on what they like - I don't recall typing anything to the contrary. But don't try to pass it off as "real speedway". The BSPA evidently don't agree with such tomfoolery, and neither do I. If 50+ chuggers want to aspire to be in a team, form one "Beer Belly Banditos", or "Hancock Stalkers" maybe. At least the BSPA have decided there should be some sort of criteria applied to those who appear during what is an event under their banner.

So "ridiculous" is now a geographic term? I'm fully aware of what goes on at Berwick, thanks. And Sike made appearances last year too - after it dawned just how far short of PL standard he was. Couldn't get a place in the NL because of nationality, so filled a space in the NJL. MacPhail has been around for years & flirted with a few NL reserve appearances & it seems that's his level. Anderson is one of a growing band of middle aged chuggers who thinks buying a bike & circumnavigating a track makes him a speedway rider. It doesn't. A place in the sport? Yes, if you insist. That's what amateur meetings are for - and that's fine. People enjoy playing football on a Sunday morning, and that's both fine and dandy - but it's not passed off as a form of "entertainment" for a paying public. "Berwick's #8!!!" Really??? Wow!!! Except in the real world the kid is little more than a mascot, through no fault of his own because he's nowhere near, within a country mile, of being even an NL reserve. That may well change in time, I believe he's having rides in the Midland Development League, which is a start. So that's the purpose of the NJL, is it? There aren't enough actual "riders", so make up the numbers with anyone that has a bike, irrespective of ability? It's to be hoped that John Anderson (or whoever, at other tracks with a similar policy) make sure any potential sponsors are dragged well out of sight before Rag, Tag & Bobtail take to the track (not exactly one for the teenagers that, but appropriate, given the age of the target audience) because (even though unpaid) if that's what's being passed off as part & parcel of a night out at a professional speedway meeting, they'd run a mile. Which is probably the reasonbehind the BSPA having said enough is enough. There's always more than enough hangers-on cluttering up the pits at the best of times without old blokes dealing with the onset of the male menopause by buying a bike, feeling the back end move a bit, buying a silly hat & strutting around like big Billy Bollocks "I'm a speedway rider, me". No you're not. The next thing will be buying a clapped out van & a set of vinyl letters "Billy Bollock - International Speedway Rider" 'cos they've been to Armadale & that counts as a different country. Years ago, Peter Waite tried charging the then genuine second halfers a tenner - he'd make a bloody fortune these days.

So what is it, then? Foot Injury or same hymn sheet? The basis of the original post is complaining that they're making all the leagues the same. So that's a good thing - in fact, "for goodness sake" to quote your post. Well, you've answered your own question before you've asked it. Ridiculous teams. On the assumption you're aware that Henning Loof learned to drive on the "wrong" side of the road, I'll give you Tamas Sike. There's also a difference between "experienced" and "ex-NL riders" and 40+, 50+ blokes who've bought a bike & think because the've been to a training school & an amateur meeting or two, they're "speedway riders". They're not. 15 year olds stood on the terraces shouldn't be thinking "when I'm bald & beer gutted I can force my way into somebody's old race suit & chug around a track".

Probably - I have no idea, I'll leave that for you to mull over. The fact that you seemed to be genuinely excited at the prospect of a Pole refereeing the meeting suggested that knowing his name (evidently beyond the coffin dodgers with microphones to pass along) would be of interest to you, if no one else. The listing of he other officials on the FIM website provided more information. The repeated churning out of the same information on every "media release" will simply result in anything new being buried and missed by those in the media too busy to plough through a Year 8 copy & pasted composition excercise.