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Last two weeks in a row Star brought from different WHSmith retailers have failed to scan and numeric bar code had to be entered in manually.

Ok thanks Next time I have any issues at my local smiths I will ack them to get their machines checked in case the issue is with them, not the magazine.

A code on an envelope would be different to the one on the magazine which is what you scan why trying to buy it, the machine can’t read it, and sometimes the number underneath isn’t helping, the staff in my local WHSmith have mentioned that it’s a frequent problem they have seen with this magazine.

There has been an issue spanning a couple of months where for some reason the bar codes are not scanning properly when you buy the star in WhSmiths. Can someone look into this please?

So it’s now Monday and still no star in my local WHSmith Maldon, guessing it’s not going to turn up now.

No star in local WHSmiths today (Friday)

Lubos Tomicek had a different style, always looked to me like he was unbalanced and could fall off at any point. Another couple of riders who spring to mind is Barry Thomas and Paul Whittaker

Congratulations to the Aces, very strong team at the right point in the season and they had a very good balance from 1-7. The Leicester track has never been great but it’s a damn sight better than what it was when first built, there is plenty of room there, you don’t need every inch to be race able, I like tracks with wide corners as it allows a bit of get off time should a rider hit trouble, some tracks your racing right by the fence, there is zero room for error.

I know exactly what some riders would say “ those long seats weigh to much” 😉

Spires and Cheetahs two different teams but had Bomber been allowed to guest at Oxford for Poole, that would have been interesting, on his home track in front of his home fans, after all, they might have two teams at Oxford, but it’s not two sets of tracks or two sets of fans. Would the fans applaud Bomber if he cost the Cheetahs the tie?

I think it should be a good tie over the two legs, gutted for Ben Cook as one of the reasons I wanted Aces to make the final is that it would hopefully see two full teams and no guests. No idea who will take this or who I will be routing for, been super impressed with Blodorn and Voulas when I have seen them but equally Lions have two ex Lakeside riders in Lewis Kerr and Richard Lawson who is one of my all time favourite Hammers riders. Hope it goes down to heat number 30

No point just turning up for the play offs, you should support your club all season long.

Wilson effectively ended the career of Gary Corbett because of his temper, Lakeside fans will never forgive him.

Yeah I remember that, Robert was riding a Josh Larsen bike and was flying on it, Dugard took exception to being best by him and deliberately put him into the first been fence after the race, but nothing knew there, this is a rider who would punch his own team mate.

Grade all you like, but it’s NOT the tracks, it the bikes

If a race is good enough to warrant a rider get paid for winning it, then it’s good enough for the winning time to count even after an early abandonment.

Could it be money orientated? Maybe Riss will accept a lower guarantee or per point value? Running three teams doesn’t come cheap so maybe they are cutting their cloth accordingly, especially if a rider is scoring well below what his guaranteed points money equates to.

Always hard to promote a team in a City where a notable percentage of the population will have no interest in speedway at all, and what you do have as a target audience is likely to be swayed towards other areas of sports or entertainment. Only a promoter will deep pockets and prepared to spend a lot more than they might get back has any chance of making Birmingham viable imo, Brummies need to have a team that is outstanding on paper or has one or two top well know established World class riders.

British speedways solution to everything, use a sticky plaster without addressing the underlying cause. It was a different time I know but after the war there was a shortage of riders, did they just make everyone double up? No, they ran programs to encourage new riders to take up the sport.

The amount of guests pale into comparison with the number that double up and I think the latter is far more detrimental to the way the sport looks to outsiders.

If my memory serves me right, the 1996 conference league which Arena Essex was in, only consisted of six man teams.

Glad to see Brummies will not be cannon fodder, in a league of just seven you need every team to be competitive, if one or two are not, it makes the play offs for forgone conclusion to the rest, in which case you might as well skip straight to them.

It really doesn’t matter because bar their away matches as they won’t be racing at home on account that track is built on marshland which means they have trouble getting meetings on in the height of summer, never mind April. Why on earth would BSN opt to show a meeting from their this early in the season knowing it’s very likely to be canned 24 hours in advance.

There is only seven teams in the league, no need for added points here and there, you need to try and keep the overall points down so they are as close as possible to the eye. But you know how it works, we must have these silly gimmicks to keep the interest going in the short term, even if it damages it in the long.

Reading this makes me even more convinced I made the right call in stopping paying for streams, it’s the same old, same old, tracks poorly prepared and refs who have been around for years and yet still incapable of making clear cut decisions. Remember that picture recently in the speedway star of the UK referees? It was like rogues gallery, the only one I have any respect for is Chris Gay who comes across well in interviews and explaining things. Those who try to cover our sport in the best light it can be are being buried by those in charge.