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Nobody suggested "dry-as-dust". I guess "quirky" and "childish drivel" is a matter of opinion. Maybe the "we were talking to an ex-GP star, but he said no" blether coming out of Glasgow is a masterstroke, akin to Joe Kinnear "announcing "I phoned Lionel Messi on my mobile. He hung up". Oh hang on, that's next week's back page.

Regularly sending such tosh out to what are supposedly targeted media outlets does more harm (on a single club basis admittedly, as opposed to the sport as a whole) to the credibility and exposure to the outside world than any rule change, black & white helmet or absence due to foreign commitment. It's like a (failing) school English project. You failed to mention Harry Potter & magic spells from last year… The best case scenario is that the club is ignored by the recipients because this stuff bounces automatically into the trash can.

Hands up everyone who thinks the reporter wishes he could have remembered the name "Shergar".

That'll be the Management Committee of which he's a member (albeit Reserve). Because the rule book that he signed up to doesn't suit him, the rule book gets a slagging, the Management Committee gets a slagging - "blocked by them" - who are "them", fellow Management Committee members? Perhaps READING the rule book and working out ramifications of bringing in cheap & ultimately sub-standard foreigners on assessed averages might have been an idea. Of course "they" have written rules that apply to, for example Sheffield where the 5 pointers haven't worked & Edinburgh where he has. Them's the breaks.

About a week before coverage begins (if there is any). No one thaws days is going to produce a cheque book and say "how much would you like?" So it'll probably go to the last minute - or later - before anyone agrees anything. Sky agreed NFL coverage a couple of days before the first match & agreed NBA coverage a couple of months after the first match. For the sake of a couple of million including coverage costs, there'll be no mad rush from Sky. The relatively paltry sum might just entice say BT Sport, but it'll probably turn into a freebie, where the TV company broadcasts but doesn't pay a fee.. With the track record of GoSpeed for pulling in lucrative sponsorships, the eventual outcome of that one seems pretty much assured.

I'll try that argument at the next meeting I attend. "I can't afford the admission so I'll come in and watch for free". Bearing in mind that otherwise I wouldn't attend, the club won't be out of pocket, in fact if I scrape together the cash for a burger, they'll sell one more than they would do otherwise - so, everyone's a winner! It's a winning formula: it'll be sure to work at cinemas, theatres, concert venues. Come to think of it, supermarkets spend a fortune each year in the disposal of perishable foodstuffs. Think how much they'd save if I voluntarily removed some shortly ahead of expiry! Tesco here I come!

<p> <br /><br /> </p> So, based on your logic, the complexity of the rulebook should form some correlation with the amount of cash sloshing around the sport? A novel approach. So what rules delay the running of a meeting - as opposed to the complete lack of even a basic grasp of what's going on such as the example shown on Monday. Simple answer: read the damn rulebook - or maybe have someone read on your behalf if you're incapable of taking it in. As far as I'm aware "new fans" don't have to sit an exam & therefore most probably don't give a damn about the vast majority of rules... "Will there be four maniacs in the next race? Yes? Fine - bring it on" It's only the bobble hat wearers that screw themselves nup in knots - an unfortunate group of people that speedway seems to have attracted over the years. How many football fans give a flying Wallenda about say, the criteria needed for a non-EU player to play in this country? Probably a few, who are waiting for bobble hats to become fashionable again & think the games not the same without Bovil & the aroma of the bogs wafting opver the terracing. But it'll generate a hundred pages on here. It comes as no surprise that Gary Havelock is a legend in your eyes.

If the atmosphere is "good" that's because the crowd that have voluntarily turned up and paid their cash are evidently enjoying their night out. The feeling of enjoyment will inevitably boost their sense of value for money and time well spent, all encouraging them to return. That's actually the point of the exercise - the result of the sporting encounter is important but not overriding. Of course you wouldn't recognise any of that positivity, but as the chances are that the likes of you won't be forcibly made to attend Owlerton shortens the odds on it being a pleasant night out for those who attend because they want to do so.

The rules of speedway are not complicated - especially those that apply to the actual running of the meeting. Even if the rules WERE complicated, it doesn't do, say F1 any harm. It does however fall apart if a promotion put someone for whom reading, writing & thinking don't come naturally. Laugh Out Loud … It's Gary Havelock would be a more accurate title. Anyone watching for the first time wouldn't have mistaken the bumbling, mumbling interview with that colossus of speedway knowledge for an earlier-than-usual Newsnight broadcast. Maybe it's genetic - Christ knows, his Old Man has the same inability - like his speech impediment, and should be pitied more that mocked.

If only there was a regular sequence to the days of the week that the Speedway Star could adopt for their match reports - and why do they have to have SO MANY days in each WEEKLY issue. Jesus Christ, in the last issue that comes to hand the Match Reports are spread over THREE double spreads- and that includes three quarters of a page taken up with adverts & Saddo Fantasy Cobblers. I don't know how people can be expected to spend days of their lives trawling through THREE double page spreads - I'd be demanding a refund, never mind pondering cancellation.

The Eurosport guy said at the beginning that it was his first speedway meeting. With Tatum to begin with before commentary duties & Nicholls throughout, he asked intelligent "novice" questions and got intelligent answers. Never rated Nicholls when on Sky, usually with a non-English speaking co-pundit (usually Ermolenko or Havelock). Last night it was like a different guy. Having the parade & presentations is such a huge improvement over going back to the Sky Studio - even when the studio is in a box in the stadium! Mrs Nicholls was competent and didn't make an arse of herself. This in itself was a revelation in comparison to what we have to endure to get to the next heat on Sky these days. If only coverage was like that on what is rapidly becoming "the other channel" that carries speedway with, for obvious reasons, Premier Sports in 3rd place. Looking forward to the Pairs next week - just a shame that Team GB are too good to put a pair forward lol.

You mean when the weatherman said "there's not going to be a hurricane… and there wasn't. And yet the BBC and many others still seem to rely on a system that doesn't involve an arse looking out of a window and pounding irrelevant drivel into a keyboard. Strange that.

And doesn't that sum up the situation. Nothing to do with half-baked opinions on team strengths & everything to do with spouting cobblers about weather that other gormless halfwits think is relevant & then don't turn out, reducing the crowd further. Does it matter what the weather is like in Leeds? If Leeds had flooded, would Sheffield had to have called the meeting off in sympathy? Half this forum if taken up by halfwits commenting on or seeking halfwiited comments about the weather. Want to know about the weather? The BBC amongst many others, in conjunction with the Met Office have invested heavily in forecasting - which doesn't include halfwits looking out of windows. But hey, it's okay, you weren't going to the meeting anyway.

And doesn't that one expression sum up the whole problem with why speedway is absolutely screwed. It's nothing to do with black & white helmet colours, silencers, points limits, bombed out stadia, or anything else. It's gereatrics thinking that if only it was still the 1950's - and for someone in such a position within "the media" that surrounds the sport to make such a statement just shows how antiquated you and your outlook are. I suppose it must be confusing for the befuddled, to see the streets full of shops selling coffee again. Let's hope the 1960s don't have any of that horrible loud music & long hair this time round, eh?

And the irony of it is, that this shambles is totally outside of the control of the BSPA. God knows, they screw up enough things on their own, I don't remember them appealing for help.

Whose flagship meeting? It may be held in Britain, but remind me what British Speedway gets out of it? It's not as if a Brit winning it makes much difference to the outside world, so it won't have much effect either way.

And in the mid 1970s ('76?) Mike Patrick took a photo of three Wolves riders which appeared in one of his books as the nearest he got to a team picture all year. Still, the sport had a few good years So,, what if a team already with a couple of injuries picks up another at (say) Ipswich on a Thursday. You'd be happier if at 10pm on Thursday the match at Somerset was postponed?

For the love of God - it's a multi BILLION pound organisation & you're banging on about it being "an expensive broadcast". Maybe if Sky need a few quid for diesel, not putting together the most expensive team in cycling or perhaps have avoided buying a racehorse amongst many other vanity projects. Obviously as an ex- Berwick number one, Tatum wouldn't have contemplated lowering his standards to cover Premier League, but as far as "no obvious northern choices" I'm sure there could have been a whip round to buy Gary Havelock a ticket on the Megabus.

It's a shame the Berwick promotion bought Starke a race suit, what with the tar & feather combo he'll be wearing if some on here get their way.

Because if it chucks it down, or there's a bad crash causing a delay, they can't whack 20 minutes of the SGP we all watched two days earlier on to "entertain" us while everyone goes for a cuppa. As for the 4G - and even 3G - updates inserted in what puppets to be an HD broadcast, it's playing with technology that may or may not be rolled out into other programming. The don't "do" dry runs - hence the toy helicopter fail during the recent Belle Vue match.

So, what's that then - 20 or 25, maybe more years since the rule was brought in? Pretty good rule if the average is 4 or less "screw ups" a century. How much better would the semifinal have been if it had been over 6 laps, or maybe 8? Stupid 4 laps rule.

Or indeed at any point in time in the more than a decade since the rule came in and sad sacks have moaned about it - despite it being no less unfair than pulling a hapless reserve out of a race & replacing him with a high scoring number one.

Jesus H Christ … you'll be moaning about lay down engines next

You've randomly typed "mutating into" in the middle of that sentence

All of which I'm fully aware - Ashworth's Birminghamassociation was merely more amusing than Sky's usual efforts because he hadn't ridden for them at the time of the British Final.