AndyJ

Perhaps naively I rang Ticketline to try and purchase a ticket as near to the start line as possible; thinking that something must be available in the 8-11 range. All they could offer were L29, M16, U16, U17 and U25. Seemingly only certain blocks of tickets made available to them. With Ticketmaster no longer offering the tickets via online sale am I correct in assuming that the best chance of acquiring a half-decent ticket is (in person) from the WRU Store at the stadium? Anyone had any success in buying a decent ticket on the day?

I've sent you an email Rob (just in case it lands in your junk mail)

Early 90's Kirky Lane with Kelly Moran, Joe Screen, Jason Crump and Tony Rickardsson. A track that these days is widely condemned but, having grown up with Hyde Road and shed a tear in the belief that nothing else would ever match it, I've got to give Kirky Lane some credit for some amazing racing over the years. Kelly Moran stalking and passing Hans Nielsen 4x in one match if I recall correctly. Joe Screen in his first spell with the club and regularly deserving standing ovations for some of his passes. Tony Rickardsson was involved in some of the best races I've ever seen- can't recall if Joe or Jason were the ones duelling with him. Tough call selecting just 4 with Andy Smith, Kaj Laukkanen and Jason Lyons also absolute legends at Kirky Lane.

Question: has anyone else taken out a Eurosport Player subscription (http://www.eurosportplayer.co.uk/contact.shtml) in order to watch the GPs via PC or tablet? If so, any complaints? I cancelled Sky in the mistaken belief that the GP coverage wouldn't be renewed and have no desire to re-subscribe. Looks like the £2.99/mth option for Eurosport could be a great alternative- albeit having to also pay separately for Android or iOS versions.

The hyperlinks to the Chart Wizard appear only to work for the person creating the survey....

Nobody tempted to chuck a few quid, at 101-1 odds, on Belle Vue's (as yet) un-named septet claiming the honours? Right now, and based upon recent history, it is perhaps more likely that a can of dog-food will win the 2013 Grand National -BUT- stranger things have happened....

How very true. Perpetually squeezing the pockets of the (dwindling) hardcore does look to be a rather doom-laden strategy. It'd be intriguing to know the equivalent inflation for competing entertainments- such as Football (probably Division Two/Three most appropriate given the comparable crowd sizes), Cinema, etc.

I think that or is the link Tsunami referenced (electric bike demo involving Muller and Smolinski)

Sky package finally cancelled after raising sufficient enthusiasm to endure the expected lengthy phone conversation. Surprisingly the call only took 10 minutes (although suspiciously was terminated whilst on-hold awaiting the operator to complete the cancellation). Also surprising was the fact that no further questions were asked after I cited the reason for my cancellation to be the cessation of the Speedway GP coverage. Maybe enough have cancelled to warrant this now being a recognised reason? Either that or this particular operator couldn't be bothered fully qualifying the reason..

There is always good old British Speedway Sliders (link as per my signature)- an overhead racing game that works on PC, Mac and Linux and allows people to race online against each other. Now in its 7th season we still have over 100 active fans regularly racing- with ages ranging from teenage to 50-something..

40 minutes?!?! Was that 35 minutes of on-hold music, bouncing around the various options, listening to pre-recorded messages, etc, and then 5 minutes of negotiating with the Sky employee trying to persuade you to remain? Or more like a full 40 minutes of full-on negotiation? I'm likely to be making the same call tomorrow (with very little interest in retaining the package- no matter how big a discount) and intrigued to know the size of the upcoming chore...

I understand that a colleague of mine has endured pretty much annual 'cancellation' calls with a favourable outcome each time. Perhaps if you have the inclination to do this their cancellations dept are still empowered to negotiate repeated sweeteners. Personally i detest how difficult Sky make any reduction in package- whereas additions can easily be sorted online. This may well be effective for maintaining profits but it doesnt half leave a sour taste.

Cancelling Sports imminently as a direct result of dropped GPs (until the discussion arose the full Sky package of £65 pcm was departing my account without any serious thought). Only got movies due to associated price so may as well cancel this also. With only basic package remaining (plus HD and Sky+) very tempted to cancel the job lot and go with YouView or similar.

You mean you actually managed to jump through all the hoops to actually reach the solitary cancellation line?!

Got to consider that they pay a reputed £1,000,000 a year to the BSPA for the rights to televise the EL. They then spend quite a large amount for filming/editing each meeting. Advertising revenue when Speedway is televised is probably relatively low too. They'd need to lose well over 1,500 full-fee paying subscribers per year before any decision to drop EL Speedway would have any adverse business impact. EDIT: just realised this topic is specific to GP racing Oops

I'd never really considered the Sky monthly payment to be too bad until, with Speedway's future in question, I took a proper look at the bill and actually thought about it. £65pcm = £780 per year = Not that Twitter is the most trustworthy of sources but methinks the onerous task of trying to cancel Sky will soon be attempted....

Looks to be a wealth of information on defunct tracks such as Barrow at http://www.defunctspeedway.co.uk Holker Street : http://www.defunctsp...o.uk/Barrow.htm Park Road : http://www.defunctsp...w Park Road.htm

Hmm.. so using something like http://www.wristbandconnection.com you ordered 100 of these for approximately £100? If you've sold 30 already @ £4 then you're already in the black (which in Speedway terms is pretty impressive!)... Thanks but no thanks...

Have you tried using Google Chrome? It is great for auto-translating foreign websites..