IainB

1! In the whole 3 leagues! Who was the last I wonder? How many promising youngsters have been lost to the sport over the years because of a lack of loyalty? Countless! Well the chickens have come home to roost this year. Are the "rising star" positions this year protected?

History, especially since the play offs were introduced, clearly shows there is zero loyalty in British Speedway. Clubs will drop a rider like a hat if their average doesn't fit. Who, I wonder, was the last rider to actually achieve a genuine testimonial, for actually being with a club for 10 years? Believe it or not it used to happen, these days you get a testimonial if you manage to stay in the sport for 10 years let alone a single club! Believe me, they will be dropped if their averages don't fit and Leicester are struggling to secure a play off place.

Isn't there a lockup full of GTR engines somewhere? I don't know, I'm no engineer, maybe the banning of "trick" parts. Instead of buying an engine and throwing half of it away and replacing it with "special" replacements a simple seal on the engine casing. If you want to use "special" equipment go ride in the Swedish and/or Polish leagues, it's simple economics really

Let's not kid ourselves, if their averages don't fit they'll be farmed out elsewhere. Look at Connor Mountain who had an excellent season for Leicester, showed great promise, was signed with great fanfare and then binned off when his average didn't fit. I've only seen the twins at Scunny so far this year and I was well impressed with them! To be chopping and changing in this season of all seasons, with rider availability, imo is, as King's Lynn are proving, complete madness

You have to wonder why, in the opening weeks of the season, Wolves (and other clubs) haven't budgeted accordingly. I think viewing live Speedway at this current time with limited numbers is a privilege and they could rightly justify increasing admission prices to cover costs and then reduce them when full capacity was allowed. Also, one has to question, has British Speedway done anything to cap the costs involved with the sport? They knew they were going to be running with reduced capacity so surely this was the ideal opportunity to introduce standardised equipment.

I don't buy all this "for our entertainment" business, some will no doubt want to put a show on for fans, but don't kid yourself it's primarily about doing it for themselves. You can see that by how many riders willingly come round to acknowledge the fans after a race win or close race.

I have look with my own eyes and it does clearly state £17, £1 booking fee. When you actually book the ticket it says £18, £0 booking fee... I wonder how the accountants will look at this one

Looks like this company got £45k but it was back in 2010-11... I just wondered if anything ever came of it, or if it was more taxpayers money down the drain

Sorry to have scared you lol You're not going to get a virus by clicking a link, you'll only get one if you download and install a program or open a document that it's encouraging to do.

I do, many rock concerts in fact and we all know that's a swizz too, especially in these days of e-tickets. I think the last time I went to see Iron Maiden you just had to have your credit card with you. £1 on £17 is working out at about a 6% booking fee, which is about what you pay on an £80-£100 concert ticket. Doesn't make it right though does it? And as far as I can remember (it's been so long since I've been to a concert) it's per transaction with concerts not per ticket.

I just think that if we are being asked (forced in some cases) to pay a booking fee and all we're getting for it is an email, it's a justified question to ask what the booking fee is for

Well... if you're feeling adventurous I can highly recommend TJ Perkins, it's about 2.5 miles from the track but I've never quite tasted Fish & Chips like it, in a good way. https://www.google.ca/maps/dir/Leicester+Lions+Speedway+Bar,+The+Pavilion,+Leicester,+UK/Perkins+T+J,+32+Woodgate,+Leicester+LE3+5GE,+United+Kingdom/@52.6557525,-1.1758882,14z/data=!4m19!4m18!1m10!1m1!1s0x4877604272b53bc5:0xdd770fcaee8cb0c8!2m2!1d-1.1649697!2d52.6678594!3m4!1m2!1d-1.1613646!2d52.6539206!3s0x487760f543872453:0x880f56093dd5ac4c!1m5!1m1!1s0x487760e4d42d4b13:0x4e6f73d30578cd60!2m2!1d-1.145935!2d52.6436245!3e0?hl=en-GB

It's not a moan, it's a discussion. I think you'll find if you look back through the posts that I have very much considered where the booking system has come from. Just because you're paying a booking fee everywhere doesn't make it right. Much like the £1 for parking at some tracks it looks like an additional add on to scrape a bit more money from the punter. Like your £3 programme full of adverts, but at least you normally have a choice about that. With no pay at the door option at some tracks it could look like a bit of a cash in, especially at £1 per ticket... That they're not actually physically sending to anybody

... and the graphics on the start line

https://gtr.ukri.org/project/FE65A183-82CB-43DE-814C-BABA3658508E#/tabOverview

They can add them to all of the GTR engines they've got... just need to buy some dodgy bendy frames and they'll have enough for a complete league of unrideable bikes

was probably watching Home and Away on C5 lol

Do you not have a decent chippy in Scunny lol

So after the initial 3 hour programme which, apart from the actual racing, was introductions, explanations and adverts, Monday nights transmission was cut back to 2 and a half hours and a very scaled back production. Abby presenting on her own, minimal interviews from "Brando". The new deal was greeted with great fanfare and while glad and grateful to watch live British Speedway on TV last Monday's match was a far inferior programme than what was previously offered by Sky and BT Sport. Where was all of the detail and analysis that was promised and going into greater depth... a lot of the programme seemed to be the camera scanning the... erm... crowd, playing Where's Wally. There was also some atrocious direction with the age old problem of the pictures cutting away to a close up of the leader on his own just as there was a move about to be pulled at the back.

Looks like a bit of a dead rubber this one, but the weather forecast is good so I've got my ticket (including booking fee) and will be there to hopefully see some good racing. Unless there's some weird teams I can see the only excitement here being whether they can beat the sun going down and get it done before any delay is needed.

I seem to remember Steady being told the same thing years ago... Bates like Stead is probably just not good enough to put the teachings into practice

Is that because you're particularly ugly in that part of the world? Please take that as a joke... You do have a regional stereotype to live up to!

I've also booked mine, it said £18 £0 booking fee... Where on the website it says admission is £17, don't know about you?

I thought the one on telly was pretty good, BH Monday wasn't great, but then it never is and you were up against a weakened Ippo side last night. Most riders haven't "raced" in nearly 2 years, maybe a bit early to be blaming the tyres, who knows like you say may be part of the reason

You only have to wear them in the stand at Peterborough