manchesterpaul

Without a doubt the best edition ever (unless there was a better one in the 90's when i was away from speedway). Yeah i noticed the average age of the fans has come down from the usual prerequisite of being within a year or two of receiving one's telegram from the queen. Some of us did point that out last year lol. Nothing against our elders at all their views are as valid (even more so at times) as anyones but it goes against the grain of making a sport look exciting/appealing. Not me being ageist there, it's just the way of the world of promoting and advertising. It's rare indeed i find fault with the Speedway Star i have praised and defended it to the hilt on many counts throughout the years. The request for an index or alphabetical order was raised last year and again this year (not just by myself) and all credit to Philip RIsing who followed through upon when he said he would mention the matter. Ok that's my only quibble....and i do agree totally. Usually when there is a tv match on or ahead of a Belle Vue match i glance back at recent issues to see what's been going on etc. As it now stands it just monotonous blocks of text that one has to plough through (uh oh left myself wide open for someone to say 'exactly like my posts' lol....tough i beat you all to it lol lol lol). Additionally with articles about a club being spead over multiple pages one has to thumb through every page, very poor design. Again though massive thanks and appreciation for a superb editon crammed full of meaningful content. I certainly reckon there is more detailed insight this year. They seem to have taken on fans comments and wishes regards desired content. Best addition of the lot is the excellent 'Track Walk' feature. Awwwww! not sure why it is limited to just the Elite League tracks though. But again it looks like a case of listening to fans requests as (again not just myself) it was mentioned last year that some of us would prefer the space allocated to the fans view be given over to a review of the racing surface. Hopefully this issue is available at all tracks for a good month or so alongside the current weekly issues. They deserve to get every penny possible for the hard and fine work put into it. Footnote for (obsessed?) followers of my musings, i'm not going to be around to post much at all this season as i've got a lot of good things going on elsewhere. So this a rare-ish dip into the forums for me this season and it made me chuckle away to see mention of me already lol, sooooo haven't got the time to look around for more. That's a shame as you know i like the right of reply hee hee. Oh well life goes on regardless I never get tired of mentioning the considerable saving on the cover price one gets by subscribing, so they can up the price heftily as far as i'm concerned a subscriptioin is well value for money.

FREE NEW ZEALAND Grand Prix Racecards - Auckland, New Zealand (Saturday, 23rd March, 2013....3am GMT/UTC....4pm Local TIme) AVAILABLE as of NOW! You can directly download them from the top of the following page. MiniMax Racecard 2013 New Zealand Grand Prix Basic Version MiniMax Racecard 2013 New Zealand Grand Prix

It's to be hoped that this awful tragedy doesn't affect the relative boom in speedway in Argentina. There is a very entertaining six minute promotional clip for the sport here http://www.lanueva.c...411/116686.html

Lol apologies i had to respond to puerility and an all too typical response on here consisting of nothing constructive or counter-argumentative instead a mere hurling of a one word derogatory reply. In fact the reply was truly 'baffling'! i'm guessing i've fortunately missed a winter of misery and discontent on here where most of the threads have consisted of personal vendettas etc attacking anything but the post and honing in on the posters.

You couldn't be further from the truth i speedily set them up (Friday night out looming), put them online and get about my daily doings lol. Hardly 'another swipe', and i've repeatedly mentioned until i'm blue in the face that all the various cards are indisputably the best cards for those who download them. There can only be a '(another) swipe' if there is a fault surely? As mentioned before just out of momentarily mundane interest i have a quick glance at each card at the start of the season to see what formats and features (if any) are copied etc. Maybe my memory is poor but i do have recollections of a passing thought last year as to what on earth happens when riders are replaced during the meeting with several of the cards - i thought it was all but i stand to be corrected if not. Cards that i remember had absolutely no space to fill in a replacement. Additionally there was one card that claimed 'innovation' at having the riders heats listed as well as the scoregrid. Laughingly the scoregrid was one of those bizzarely split into three or four sections!!! and not as with the MIniMax a single grid, plus of course the MiniMax cards have had both the grid and the heats from the start years ago. So not sure of where the definition of innovation arises from. Don't panic or burst a blood vessel i'm not saying it was your cards, i can't recall which one it was. Oh yeah quick, don't let him miss out, someone alert Andy P that i've made a post - that the clique without a life will hastily descend on - so he can hurriedly add his little 'i like' tag lol lol. Ooooh if i was small-minded and bored i could point out instances of the shaky ground that some of the 'i like this post' taggers are on due to their blunders. However, yawnnnnn, whatever byeeeeeeeee. ANYWAYS BACK ON ORIGINAL TOPIC >>>>>> That's excellent news. There are more than a few that appreciate little inclusion, and for those who don't well hey whatever it won't affect your life so try and calm down lol. Glad that this year is the first i continued my subscription all through the off season so i don't have to sweat about resubscribing at the exact time the bumper season preview issue is due.

Oh the sheer tragedy of it all, where were you last year when i released for FREE the epic copy and print out index for last season.........look and marvel at the original post........ "no i don't have OCD hee hee. I just want to go to heaven and i don't half end up cussing when i repeatedly go past or plain can't find a team section in a hurry lol lol. 28 - Belle Vue 46 - Berwick 18 - Birmingham 90 - Buxton 14 - Coventry 84 - Dudley 22 - Eastbourne 60 - Edinburgh 54 - Glasgow 40 - Ipswich 92 - Isle Of Wight 20 - King's Lynn 88 - King's Lynn (NL) 12 - Lakeside 52 - Leicester 82 - Mildenhall 44 - Newcastle 24 - Peterborough 62 - Plymouth 10 - Poole 48 - Redcar 56 - Rye House 96 - Rye House (NL) 50 - Scunthorpe 94 - Scunthorpe (NL) 58 - Sheffield 38 - Somerset 86 - Stoke 16 - Swindon 26 - Wolverhampton 42 - Workington Got to admit i was well chuffed that the index i pasted above came in superbly. I may get to chat up all the lady angels in Heaven after all now as i never swore once when referencing the season preview issue this season. Please give us an index in 2013." Not sure what your perpetual issue is with the Minimax racecards (hopefully i got permission to paraphrase SCB and duly observe that that is some wierd fascination you got there for sure Iris), maybe 'get a life' is a good tip to offer you?. There are plenty of alternatives out there to suit all tastes, although i've just realized that astoundedly the MIniMax ones seem to be the only ones to give you space to write in a replacement in a race!. If you are not one of the thousands who use them well absolutely all cool and do try not to obsess yourself with something you don't use. Life and the MiniMax cards will go on i can assure you.

OMG the Horror! i thought you meant Ghostwalker for a moment there lol!

Why on earth is it a waste of space? Takes up very little room. I always keep hold of the preview edition during the season, especially for televised matches. Unless you have some kind of photographic memory i don't think any fans can particularly memorise where pundits have (mostly unsuccessfully) predicted where teams will finish. Obviously no biggie at all in the grand scheme of things. Just that it's a basic staple of most similar features in the printed and online world from epochs ago lol. Takes up no space at all. Ok i off to eat me din-dins.

Sorry 'it' not back at all yet, just a quick offseason dip, but soooooo hold on to your fire i will be back in time for the new season. Noooooo poor 'Tsunami' my girlfriend had a hard day at work and we eating Chinese takeaway tonight........fortune cookie say......."it is ok to attack me for i am MAN and if you wound me and i shall live i will kill you! eeeeeek!" LOL

???? YAWNNNNN PLEASE EXPAND? OR WAS THIS JUST A LONG AWAITED CHANCE TO TRY AND POST AN IINSTANT NEGATIVE RESPONSE TO ANY POST OF MINE? LOL TOUGH LUCK THIS A RARE DROPPING BY IN THE OFF-SEASON BY ME. AWWWWWW SHAME. WHAT'S BAFFLING???????????????? WHAT ARE YOU UNABLE TO UNDERSTAND?

The originals are NOT Excel based but use the similar OpenOffice.org applications which has many of the features, and more superior ones than Excel, available for free. Apart from the emailed ones via Premier Sports the pdf versions are available online at http://speedway.manc.../racecards.html Just click on the Swedish League link at the top of the page. GHOSTWALKER IS THE ORACLE FOR ALL NEWS OF SWEDISH THINGS (OK HE DOES HAVE AN UNFORGIVABLE EPIC FAIL IN NOT SUPPLYING ME WITH AGNETHA ÅSE FÄLTSKOG'S PHONE NUMBER).

Or tune into the frequently 'HD' quality free feeds online. £200 why on earth pay that? I'm going to be a little annoyed if, despite subscribing to every known Sky channel to man, i have to add yet another subscription fee in order to watch my favourite sports because an online official channel might be the only way one could 'officially' watch the series in 2013. It was bad enough with the ESPN and Premier Sports standalones. It might be more frugal to invest in a Polish language course so i can watch the online streams. I think i'd get more understanding of what is going on by listening to the commentators in my limited 'pidgen Polish' than our usual screaming duo anyway. That is a great shame we've had a couple of years now of superb entertainment with the GP's.

And HOPEFULLY you forgot to mention that you will fall in line with pretty much every sports publication preview in history and provide us with an index this year? It a bit irksome to have to cobble together one's own every year. Alternatively just do each league in alphabetical order? Hey let's make it a sticky of the highest order. I'm even considering having a tattoo advertising this superb annual edition emblazoned across my chest. Glad i not done it yet as it's pretty heavy sleet in Manchester today to be strolling around bare-chested in the name of a good cause. Seriously though i think everyone should do their utmost to advertise this issue on behalf of the Speedway Star. Only downside (yeah apart form the lack of an index) is the wierd traditional fans view where it seems that the qualification of 90% of the fans is to be over 85 years of age. Instead of the fans view can we not have a promoters view or a description of the track regarding racing lines (or 100% lack of them) etc. One of the most richest sports in the world NASCAR doesn't hold back from describing a tracks race-ability or lack of. A technical insight on the way to ride/race a track - as the Speedway Star often touches on in it's GP previews - would be far preferable than this fans view we have at present in the precious space allotted..

My heart just leapt joyfully when idly browsing to see the betting prices for this seasons GP on William Hill and saw this 2013 Speedway GP Series World Championship Starts 31 March - live on Sky Sports Chris Holder will attempt to do what no man has done since 2008, successfully defend the Speedway GP Series. Nicki Pedersen was the last rider to win back-to-back titles, will he provide the biggest challenge? Oucheeee! though, check the date obviously a remnant from last season. Oh well at least Billy Hill provides us with LIVE 24 hour speedway that you can also bet on. The various camera angles are very good, the commentator is ok albeit a bit exciteable. It's also heartwarming to see such good crowds in attendance. Above all the quality of racing is excellent. Check it out at http://sports.williamhill.com/bet/en-gb/virtualworld/VWSPEEDWAY

There was a superb 'speedway' edition of the very popular American website Bike Week Radio Show ahead of this meeting http://www.bikeweekradioshow.com/sounds/BWRSwk28.mp3 There was great praise for the sport of speedway from the presenters. Greg Hancock and Billy Hamill were excellent to listen to. The latter is doing great things for the future of speedway with his training academy.

Probably my only off-season post but on the subject of TV coverage it's great to see EUROSPORT giving LIVE coverage to the revamped Speedway European Championship meetings. Nicki Pedersen, Tomasz Gollob, Emil Sayfutdinov and Andreas Jonsson already signed up for the series. http://speedwayeuro.com/index.php Hope not counting chickens before they have hatched mind as maybe we should keep fingers crossed, as 'Eurosport UK' can often differ in it's live broadcasting deals and hopefully they will receive the live transmissions? Part of press release... "One Sport Ltd. as the exclusive organiser of SEC ensures great promotion of the competition, mainly thanks to contract signed with Eurosport, which will be official LIVE broadcaster to 59 countries. Official broadcaster of Speedway European Championships in following years will be Eurosport. Thanks to 3-years deal, this TV with unprecedented, 59-countries range, will show all 4 tournaments LIVE on its main channel – We are very happy that speedway, so important sport for Polish fans, will finally find its place on Eurosport. Thanks to our co-operation, speedway will be present in 59 European countries and Meditteranean area, including so important markets like Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Great Britain and of course Poland."

Going by the updates site with 'FTG' tagged on to the majority of heats (including at least 8 of the first 10!), and the possibility of the few changes in position being due to engine failures or falls, i think it would have put newcomers off going to speedway. Great to hear of a good crowd though.

Further clashes in the SWC/SGP calendar from the dates i've seen given at the moment are; 20 May World Cup Qualifier & Grand Prix Qualifier. Not seen which teams are involved in the SWC meeting yet other than Hungary but a possibility of a low teams clear top rider or a middle grade rider being involved in both? not sure. Saturday 15 June Speedway Grand Prix Gorzow & SGP Qualifier Debrecen, Hungary. Would mean a middle or lower end GP rider needing to be placed into another GP qualifier.

Me too it was a massive downer when i read it.

Duhhhhh! of course i knew that regarding 16 heats everyone meets everyone else lol. Don't know why it didn't sink in at the time of posting. To be honest the first 16 heats 'all meeting all' is great, sometimes tradition is good. Then i guess that this year's change to have the 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st top scorer races was quite a nice touch too. Don't know if it really needs tweaking to nominated line-ups though. Above all the sickest thing is the continuation of the Joker. Never has anything been so aptly named and without a doubt it's well worse in the sheer abonimation stakes than Batman's one!

Got a mental blank right now on something i should know as a matter of course. Isn't it the case that at the moment the format allows for each rider to meet every other rider once as in the standard individual formats?. Managers nominating the last four heats will totally trash the previous fair way of doing things. Regarding who nominates riders first they may well let the fourth team decide first and so on. Cue an advertisement break as with the SGP series when they work out who is in the top eight lol.

UPDATE BECAUSE WHILST I WAS POSTING I SEE THAT...... NOOOOOOOOO! i can't breathe for laughing the whole CREW is here making an appearaNce now. Wow i guess there have been a few phone alerts flying around the....whole clique is gathering LOL.....hey there Arson not had the pleasure of your company for a few threads Ok been fun got to go second half of the Champions League matches about to start and i trying to watch more than one to say the least.

How did EVERYONE know? How did those MANY Ipswich fans who not unnaturally go to their own club website and don't go looking out for Rye House press releases know? How did fans who were looking for a similar BSPA 'Premier league news' item that have been issued for previous instances of clubs abandoning fixtures and competitions know? You now mention Sheffield mentioned they were struggling to find a date for their Ipswich meeting. I live in Manchester should i expect to find out Manchester news by going to a neighbouring city and buy Liverpool's newspapers?

Don't know why you are trying to create such an inane angle that i should be told. It's a pretty feeble attempt at trying to manufacture a campaign against me as you have tried to in the past on various scores. You need to hurry to come up with a good one, whilst unlike last year i'm not dashing off on a three month holiday in the first week of November, i do stay away from the forums during the off-season. It matters not a jot to me as i was never going to attend the meetings, i never paid to attend prior meetings in the presumption that they mattered in the chase for a competition much trumpeted by the authorities and clubs. But surely even you can understand it's not acceptable that, as one example, the Ipswich club site totally ignores that they were in the midst of a chase to the final and then it's erased out of history lol lol. Tsunami and Squall come in combination to mash up the nation hee hee.

Don't forget as with the other smaller/tiny speedway nations we would have a British rider at the British Grand Prix courtesy of the Wild Card. So those who only go to cheer on a Brit more than going to see the world's elite ride would be ok even without a regular representative in the series. Incidentally to be honest i'm one of those who simply do not see Tai as a Brit at all. However, that's been debated to the death many a time so fair enough, i think we're all deeply entrenched in our opinions on that. Also, in the modern age of sportspeople flying a 'Flag Of Convinience' speedway is no different. I still can't get over how many of the England cricket team have spoken with deep South African accents over the years. The USA seemed to snap up any eastern european Tennis player or gymnast amongst many other sports too.