IainB

wasn't singling him out... even though I singled him out but you gotta admit it's a bit of a come down after watching all of the others over the years. You could substitute Rob Shuttleworth's name with many others

No, I mean like: Zmarzlik, Sundstrum, Pawlicki x2, Kolodziej, Zengota, Sayfutdinov, Kildemand, Hancock, N Pedersen, B Pedersen, Hampel, Protasiewicz, Woffinden, Janowski, Millik, Wozniak, MJJ, Walasek, Zagar, Michelsen, Lindback, Jonsson, Ljung, Korneliussen, Bech, Buczkowski, Bach, Madsen, Iversen, Davidsson, Miedzinski, Balinski, Miskowiak, Jedrzejak, Ulamek, Woryna, Smolinski... There's probably more, I've got bored of trying to spell them now! All of these have at some point ridden in the BL and no longer do so. And there are also loads that have never ridden in the BL, we've never even seen them... Still we've always got Rob Shuttleworh to watch!

the constant reduction in the points limit year on year squeezing the top riders out of the BL

was interesting to read in this weeks SS that Lakeside are looking to come back into the top league next year. John Cook says his crowds are down by a half. Proving, I think, that lesser quality means fans stop going. I wonder if this lesson will be learnt once and for all and rules are changed to allow the top riders back into the BL?

Didn't Colin Meredith have some kind of jet engine? or was that an April fool?

And I bet he came round in all his personalised clobber too. His jacket saying and cap saying "Unknown Speedway Rider Racing - USRR" with some flash logo printed all over it Thanks for the reply

I've always wondered and perhaps you can answer this as an ex-rider and that is why, unless your are at the very top level, spend all the money on the bells and whistles? Surely the riders of, let's be polite, lesser quality can be faster by being better riders first and foremost. Surely perfecting your style, going into the bends faster before shutting off will gain you more time and make you faster on the track than spending silly on shiny bits. An extreme example but I always remember watching Tony Rick at his heights powering into the bends where other riders were still shutting off, only Jason Crump was anywhere close to being as fast, then watching after the meeting juniors shutting off halfway down the straight to enter the bends. Like I said an extreme example but there's a lot of time to be made there and no doubt the junior riders would soon be thinking about spending money on kit that probably isn't going to make them go any faster. I know nothing though, I've never sat on a bike. Can you enlighten me?

Personally I've not lost interest, far from it, just not interested enough to attend much anymore. Recently I got into a YouTube link clicking session and was watching some of video from the early 80's, which is the era of the sport that first got me really hooked and I have to say it was no where near as good as I remembered it to be. I think part of the problem is that the GP's are so entertaining these days the BL looks so poor in comparison when you see what it could be

I think what'll happen is what happened before, can't remember who it was, maybe Newcastle and Glasgow? But let's wait for it to happen before slamming the BSPA.

it says on the Leicester website that there will be a playoff, whether the 2nd league winner of successful gets promoted is another matter... Didn't it happen before a few years back when the winner declined to be promoted?

no I don't... But Leicester are mentioning it in their press releases so I assume it's still on good question because he has been doing guest appearances in the 2nd league... When was this allowed to happen?

erm No! Riding in a league where they may meet themselves in a promotion/relegation fight

Horton should have known this 4 years ago when he got his marching orders but decided to ignore them in the empty hope racing would continue at Brandon. I hope he gets something sorted but on his past track record I await to be pleasantly surprised

personally I've never minded guests so much, I understand that riding speedway involves a high risk of being injured and the money isn't there and never really had been to run a squad of high enough calibre riders to replace any injured riders with. I also feel less short changed when a guest rider turns out for my team instead of the risky r/r or the complete sham of a junior rider, if I'm paying top dollar I want to see a competitive team. Doubling up is like a self imposed injury on the team and indeed a double whammy as not only are you depriving your team of that particular rider you are then also replacing him with a guest... The worst of both worlds!

Troll

... completely, I don't think too many people thought there was much wrong with it when it was originally brought in, a good idea in fact to help progress British youngsters. But that was the thin end of the wedge and anybody that thinks that what we have now with riders milking the golden twit of speedway is either a rider or doesn't like sport

I think 70-80% indicated in the poll (not pool) that the current situation is unsatisfactory. The poll (not pool) just asked a question, it didn't pre-suppose any opinion... and it's Rickardsson

I'm not really having a go at Steve Worrall, maybe I am a bit... but is he a Speedway man? or a Johnny come lately from Motocross, that can see that there maybe money to be made from Speedway? Having said that though, given his progress, he is exactly the type of rider we should be encouraging to progress further but not at the expense of the whole sport. Perhaps, and get ready for this... maybe he should be on a central contract with the BSPA, much like they do in cricket and was brought in to remedy their doubling up problem they had with the conflict between county matches and test matches... probably too forward thinking though.

True, this is the way it'll inevitably end up MotoX or Grasstrack style. I was listening to an interview with Simon Lambert (I think) at the farce that was Peterborough vs Newcastle and he was saying how he likes to do all the meetings as it keeps him busy and is an opportunity to earn money. This is a line you hear all too often in speedway these days. You have to question a riders involvement in the (so called) sport, is it just a job or are they in it to be part of a team and win things? These days probably the former. In an ideal world it'd be both. I wonder what the attitude of the riders were when they first started speedway... The sporting aspect or the "fame and fortune"?

Neil, as this is the only news about Coventry in recent weeks/months (and not from the Coventry club) what else are fans to think?

So Poole have signed Kacper Woryna on a full transfer from Cov... I think this tells you all you need to know about how hard Mick Horton is trying to get the Bees back on track

this is not how it happens now

I remember trying to get Bruce Penhall's autograph at a meeting at Poole back in the day, trouble is I didn't know what he looked like with his helmet off and apparently I was pestering his mechanic... I was only a wee boy

Why has the sun delay just started in the last few years or so though? Seems like if a rider can think of an excuse not to ride they will. Perhaps some of them are in the wrong game?

I started going to Speedway as a young child in 1977, Leicester Blackbrd Road, on and off for a couple of seasons before getting hooked. When Leicester closed down at the end of '83 I started going to Coventry and got well and truly hooked to team Speedway during the Championship winning seasons of '87 & '88, in fact as a kid I'm not even sure I was aware there was a league until the Bees won it. Since then I've pretty much followed the Bees home and away, I also started following Long Eaton in the then National League, regularly at home and a lot of away matches when I could. Also used to pull in loads of individual meetings, test matches etc. and regularly attended Cradley Heath and Bradford on Saturday nights when Cov weren't riding and Sunday afternoons. Probably attended 60-70 matches a season Since Cov have closed down this year I've probably been to about 4 or 5 live Speedway meetings, this despite living about 1 mile away from the Leicester track... fed up of joke teams, constant restarts, sun delays, pretty poor racing, poor viewing, double points etc etc etc