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Shale Snapshots 2009 (pt.1)
A single random image has been chosen from every speedway event I attended in 2009 (every British speedway track was visited).
Observer Sports Books of the Year 2009 – “honorary mention” for Quantum of Shale
06/12/2009
“Finally, an honorary mention for Jeff Scott’s Quantum of Shale: More Tales from the Shale (Methanol, £20). Scott writes extensively (one might even say obssessively…) on Speedway and Quantum is of his usual high standard. Needless to say if mud and noisy bikes don’t interest you then neither will this, but if they do, Jeff’s […]
Speedway Grand Prix 2009 – Rider earnings
30/10/2009
The fastidious Charles McKay has now collated the cumulative Speedway Grand Prix prize money totals earned by each rider during the recently completed 2009 season. They make pitiful reading for many riders concerned and also their accountants (but do accord with the derisory levels set by the FIM rules and regulations). Based on these figures […]
Promotion/Relegation Meetings 2009
21/10/2009
Congratulations to the Edinburgh Monarchs for triumphing through the Premier League Play Offs for the second successive season to again take part in the promotion/relegation meetings that could potentially see them join the upper tier of British Speedway. They certainly look to have put together at team that, on its present top-notch form, could stand […]
"Speedway is broken" claims Matt Ford
11/10/2009
Far more relevant to the future of the Elite League level of the sport and its overall reputation than the Internet debate over the post Heat 15 goings on at Arlington last night*, Matt Ford’s interval comments appear to have attracted little consideration or attention. In a wide-ranging chat with Kevin Coombes, Poole Promoter Matt […]
More Kleenex Venues Rumoured
03/08/2009
After the borefest of the Latvian GP, it’s hard to get excited about tittletattle in the Star claimed to be “whispers from the corridors of power” that trails notionally ‘exciting’ news that the SGP might expand into Russia in 2010 and, in as yet unspecified years ahead, to “India, Asia & Australasia”. All these countries […]
Irene Best
30/07/2009
The charming and friendly Irene Best has sadly passed away. Proud to be from Newcastle and even prouder of Newcastle Speedway, Irene typified the warm welcome you receive in the speedway office portacabin at Newcastle Stadium (aka Brough Park). Even more importantly, her love and dedication to the sport typifies the unassuming modesty of so […]
“We are all entitled to an opinion though, in some cases, it is better to defer to those who know best…the riders”
26/07/2009
For those of us outside the charmed circle of speedway bigwigs and journalists who receive press releases from the BSI Press Office, we have to suffice with the thin informational pickings provided by the cleans whiter than white SGP website. Occasionally the SGP Press Officer, Philip Rising, selectively responds to real or imagined comments about […]
Kenny Smith 1954-2009
14/07/2009
From Scunthorpe Press Release 13th July 2009 Kenneth Ian Smith 1954-2009 R.I.P. After a near three-year battle against throat cancer, Kenny Smith, the Scorpions’ Team Manager, died on Monday morning at 6.15 a.m. at his home in Yarm. Over recent weeks his condition had deteriorated but after being told he only had days to live […]
Sometimes I watch the Speedway Grand Prix whether I want to fall asleep or not
14/06/2009
Riders and some pundits have rightly complained that the Speedway Grand Prix series organisers (“BSI – an IMG Company”) wish to stage the various meetings on sub standard tracks that sometimes verge on the dangerous. There have been some real shockers, so thank goodness last night that round four of the Speedway Grand Prix was […]
Elite League Reverse Ferret?
26/05/2009
It’s not that long ago that the tablets came down from the 2007 BSPA Annual Conference mountain. We then learnt that the Elite League promoters were to self administer some tough tasting medicine to address both team strength inequality but also build a more viable long term future for the upper tier of British speedway! […]
Even Cheesy Costs Too Much in 2009 for BSI Speedway’s Showpiece Event in Cardiff
30/04/2009
A snippet about entertainment at Cardiff that appeared in the lengthy coverage of the Prague Grand Prix (the first of the 2009 series) in this week’s Speedway Star inadvertently yet again reveals the desperation of the cost-cutting measures that BSI Speedway appear keen to undertake. Arguably, it also signals they have already planned for 2009 […]
Unanswered questions & secrecy mar launch of 2009 Speedway Grand Prix series
24/04/2009
The new series of the Speedway Grand Prix is about to get underway but, arguably, finds the glamour of its start marred by cost-cutting, secrecy and prevarication. Sadly, the fanfare over the arrival of a new website for the Speedway Grand Prix fails to paper over the vexatious issues and unanswered questions that still beset […]
Savage 83% Super Prix Prize Money Cut Announced
02/04/2009
It was only last year that the Speedway Grand Prix ‘organisers’ boasted on their website about the ludicrous concept of the Super Prix events. It was another of those new fangled revolutions that nobody had asked for or could really see the point of, despite hollow protestations that this “finale” would add to the drama […]
Selected Highlights from the 2009 British Speedway Regulations
09/03/2009
They say speedway is a simple sport. Basically, four riders on four bikes racing four laps around an oval track. The dense type and complexity of the 64 page speedway rulebook says otherwise and, though it laudably aims to outlaw cunning and manipulation, each year yet further amendments arrive. Nowadays this rulebook often confuses the […]
Return of the Blunsdon Blog
02/03/2009
It’s back! Older but wittier and wiser after it’s much needed sabbatical. Though the shale never really left his shoes, Swindon speedway blogsmith Graham Cooke is back at his keyboard to take you behind the scenes to, once again, see the rich tapestry and cast of characters that is the Wonderful World of Track Curation, […]
Unresolved Legal Issues Cloud Gelsenkirchen Post Mortem
15/01/2009
Widely seen as the man with the real brainpower in the team of all talents that makes up the BSI management team, Paul ‘Really Important’ Bellamy (Managing Director BSI) has kindly deigned to be savagely quizzed on the SGP (including the Gelsenkirchen fiasco) in this week’s Speedway Star. Billed on the front cover of the […]
No Room at the trough – SGP Rider Pay Rates frozen in 2009 (at 2005 levels) again
05/01/2009
The recently published FIM Speedway World Championship Grand Prix Regulations 2009 make interesting reading (listed as regulation 077). Unluckily for the riders, their pay rates remain frozen for 2009 (just like they did in 2008, 2007, 2006 and 2005). The FIM have again produced an extremely comprehensive 39-page document that covers everything from the specifics […]