Rename The Conference League

[Kevin Meynell]

We also need a free-for-all policy as was the case years ago when great teams like Wembley and Belle Vue evolved.

 

I certainly wasn't around then, but I have read a lot of speedway literature from these periods The general consensus seems to be that a lack of team equalisation resulted in the National League being down to a handful of teams after the post-war boom subsided. Wasn't the need team equalisation one of the driving forces behind the formation of the Provincial League?

 

No other sport has it - look at football - and the clubs survive.

 

Many other sports have it in various forms - football is the exception and the clubs are only barely surviving outside the top flight. Of course, the current system of punitive points limits is perhaps not the right way to do it, but some form of team equalisation is absolutely necessary in a sport where the difference between the best and worst is magnified much more than in other sports.

 

Men like Ronnie Greene, Johnnie Hoskins and Fred Mockford to name a few ran speedway much better and with more dedication than those "organising" it today.

 

I suspect the difference was that they ran speedway as their living, whereas most of today's promoters do it as a hobby of sorts.

[Guest speedyguy]

I certainly wasn't around then, but I have read a lot of speedway literature from these periods The general consensus seems to be that a lack of team equalisation resulted in the National League being down to a handful of teams after the post-war boom subsided. Wasn't the need team equalisation one of the driving forces behind the formation of the Provincial League?

Many other sports have it in various forms - football is the exception and the clubs are only barely surviving outside the top flight. Of course, the current system of punitive points limits is perhaps not the right way to do it, but some form of team equalisation is absolutely necessary in a sport where the difference between the best and worst is magnified much more than in other sports.

I suspect the difference was that they ran speedway as their living, whereas most of today's promoters do it as a hobby of sorts.

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Good points but I don't remember any equalisation when the Provincial League was formed in 1960. That was very much a free for all in regard to signing riders and brought back many who had been forced out some six years earlier by the mid-1950s slump. I'm certain eqalisation as it now dominates speedway is something from the late 1970s or even early 1980s. I am hazy though on this.

[Kevin Meynell]

I'm certain equalisation as it now dominates speedway is something from the late 1970s or even early 1980s

 

I'm certainly not old enough to remember, but I understood that Mike Parker introduced some form of rider control in the early-1960s.

 

I believe the points limit dates from circa 1977.

[SCORPIO]

How about calling it the Junior Academic League?

[Kevin Meynell]

How about calling it the Junior Academic League?

 

How would that fit with late-20 and early-30 somethings riding in it?

[SCORPIO]

How would that fit with late-20 and early-30 somethings riding in it?

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By going back to what it was meant to be for.

For bringing up the younger lads and giving 'em a reasonably decent start within the sport.

With all these late 20 & early 30 somethings competing, to me it makes a joke of the original concept. But that's just my opinion though.

[mark boardman]

just a thought........

 

with some CL tracks struggling crowd-wise, might it be an idea to rename it? when people think of conference they think of the football conference; which with no offence is considered a lower league. when people see the word conference they may think "oh, must be a lower league, doesn't sound good, don't want to go to that". but when they here elite or premier they think "ooh, they must be the top leagues, think i'll go to that". so if we renamed the CL something like 'Super League' or 'National League' it may be more attractive. it may not make a difference, but it's just a thought.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Jeff,

good points Jeff. Conference league does sound rather like an amateur

part of the sport. It may well be, but the excitment it at times produces, perhaps then, it does deserve to be re-named. How about 'super league', or 'primary league', or, 'first league', or, 'principal league'. Just a thought good buddy.

I'm a Belle Vue fan, but love watching Buxton in the conference. Its good honest grass roots racing, and as you say, the title 'conference' does little to portray all that it is so wothwhile about that level of the sport. Whats in a name ? hey !!

Mark de Bus