ITEM: Regular readers will know that I'm something of an enthusiast for British riders. This isn't born out of any sort of jingoism or patriotism, but out of necessity and practicality - using local lads often brings increased interest from sponsors, the media, and fans, and a smart promoter will find them cheaper than flying in riders from overseas (and paying for vans, mechanics, hotels...). There's also the pay-off down the line - more British riders means more chance of better British riders. Better British riders means more fans and sponsors and media coverage, and the cycle continues. I can often be single-minded in my obsessions, and Alun Rossiter last week called it as "crusade", and perhaps he has a point. But, like all crusaders, I firmly believe I'm in the right, and so I'll continue - for the time being - to campaign for the likes of Workington, Ipswich, and Somerset to back British instead of being predominantly foreign in team make-up.
With all that in mind, I've compiled a list of 114 British riders that I expect to be in and around team spots in the 2014 season. Most already have places, some look to be sitting out at least the start of the season, and others haven't quite reached a league level but should kick on pretty quickly. I've split it into leagues, with the aim of an average of 4 Brits per team in the top two divisions, and 7 (obviously) in the National League. Already some sides (the aforementioned Comets, Witches, and Rebels) have dipped under that 4-rider mark, but others may pick up the slack - Rye House, for instance, have announced 6 Britis for 2014 - and 48 across the league doesn't seem too much of an ask. Anyway, on with the list...
114 FOR 2014
EL only: Lewis Bridger, Chris Harris, Danny King, Scott Nicholls, Tai Woffinden
EL/PL: Olly Allen, Josh Auty, Ben Barker, Ashley Birks, Lewis Blackbird, Craig Cook, Jason Garrity, Kyle Howarth, David Howe, Edward Kennett, Lewis Kerr, Simon Lambert, Richard Lawson, Kyle Newman, Adam Roynon, Simon Stead, Andrew Tully, Richie Worrall
EL/PL/NL: Josh Bates, Max Clegg, Adam Ellis, Joe Jacobs, Ben Morley, Ashley Morris, Stefan Nielsen, Tom Perry, Ben Reade, Lewis Rose, James Sarjeant, Paul Starke, Steve Worrall
EL/NL: Daniel Halsey, Robert Lambert, Lee Smart
PL only: Steve Boxall, Jason Bunyan, Andre Compton, Richard Hall, Ritchie Hawkins, Leigh Lanham, Chris Mills, Stuart Robson, Chris Schramm, Derek Sneddon, Carl Wilkinson, Charles Wright
PL/NL: Robert Branford, Liam Carr, Brandon Freemantle, Oliver Greenwood, Jake Knight, Darryl Ritchings
NL only: Richard Andrews, Jon Armstrong, Josh Bailey, Matt Bates, Ryan Blacklock, Dan Blake, Scott Campos, Luke Chessell, James Cockle, Connor Coles, Benji Compton, Luke Crang, Reece Downes, Kelsey Dugard, Adam Extance, Tommy Fenwick, Tyler Govier, Nathan Greaves, Dan Greenwood, Luke Harris, David Holt, Ben Hopwood, Kyle Hughes, Danyon Hume, Gareth Isherwood, Brendan Johnson, Steve Jones, Jack Kingston, Adam Kirby, Martin Knuckey, James McBain, Ryan MacDonald, Darren Mallett, David Mason, Arron Mogridge, Connor Mountain, Michael Neale, Lee Payne, Danny Phillips, Luke Priest, Liam Rumsey, Liam Sanderson, James Shanes, Rob Shuttleworth, Daniel Spiller, Danny Stoneman, Nathan Stoneman, Shaun Tedham, Ryan Terry-Daley, Danno Verge, Tim Webster, Chris Widman, Matt Williamson, Ben Wilson, Tom Woolley, Alec Wright, Tom Young
Lets see, shall we?
ITEM: Talking of British riders, there's a new one on the block, hotly-tipped for success, and with an individual title under his belt already. So why isn't there a hubbub over his arrival on the scene? Probably because his brother has been over here for a little while already, largely stinking things up in the second division, and also because he wouldn't be able to find Britain on a map with a very large BRITAIN stamped on it...
Brady Kurtz is a very talented young rider. Those who obsessively follow overseas speedway will have marked him down as one to watch as early as 2009 when, as a 13-year old, he made the A-final of the New South Wales under-16 championship. Since then he has continued his upward climb, winning the under-16 title in 2010 and 2012, and competing in the under-21 championship as a 16-year old. He spent the 2013 season in Denmark with Holsted, where he raced twice in the DanskMetal SpeedwayLiga and competed in every meeting for the club's Division One side, racing with and against Rasmus Jensen, Claus Vissing, Ulrich Ostergaard, Claes Nedermark, and Kenneth Hansen, and ending up with a CMA of 8.97 (ostergaard, by comparison, averaged 9.12). Young Brady completed his stellar 2013 by taking the NSW senior title at Kurri Kurri on Saturday night, setting himself up nicely for the 2014 season at Somerset.
Somerset did want to use Kurtz in 2013, but were denied using him on the bargain average he’s since been given because patriality – the back door into British speedway for a certain generation of Australian riders – doesn’t kick in until your seventeenth birthday. He’d have made a mockery of the 5.00 average he’d have started on, anyway, but the Rebels – as seen by their ditching of Stefan Nielsen for Charles Wright late last season – don’t like to take chances, and so he was off to Denmark to learn his trade for a year.
Come 2014, though, and with patriality now a factor, and he’s installed in an already powerful looking side on a basement figure. But should he be? The patriality regulations are there largely to aid those with a tenuous link to the UK become active players in this country. It’s usually expected that, by using the patriality loophole, they will become – to all intents and purposes – British, but the Kurtz family have already snubbed their nose at that opportunity once, with Todd turning his back on the education he gained as a National League rider at Newport to represent the country of his birth. Put simply, why should we help Australia train the next generation of speedway stars any more than we are now?
I’ve no doubt Kurtz jr will be an asset to the British speedway leagues. But he will be as much an asset to the speedway scene as a whole – if not to Somerset – on his correct average. While patriality enables him to avoid the 5.00 starting average that Max Fricke, for example, had to begin with, his participation in the Danish professional leagues should, in fact, see him begin on a 7.00 average, and should override any other consideration. To leave him on a 3.00 is a leg-up to Somerset, a hindrance to their rivals, and ensures he can take a place that, rightfully, should be held by a young British rider. In a year when we’re Backing BritishTM in the top league, it would be disappointing to see gamesmanship used to hinder them in the league below. Over to you, BSPA...
ITEM: From the stars of the future to the stars of the past, and the decision of Tomasz Gollob to turn down a Wild Card for the 2014 SGP series. Although reported widely last week, it wasn’t confirmed until the weekend, and now discussion turns to who replaces him in the series.
Before we get to that, however, let’s look at why Gollob might have turned it down... Firstly, and there’s no getting away from it, he’s not getting any younger. Although Hancock is older, by a year, the strains of competing at that top level for a further twelve meetings alongside his league campaigns, must have been a consideration for Gollob. He withdrew from the 2013 SWC despite recovering from injury in time to compete, and has had some serious injuries in the last few years. Secondly, he’s been World Champion and is unlikely to repeat that performance. Although, as a Monster-sponsored rider he must have earned more than the average SGP participant last year, money isn’t everything to someone who has made himself very wealthy through his speedway endeavours, and it might have just lost its lustre for him. Lastly, and probably most importantly, he’s chosen to do the European Championships instead...
The war between OneSport, the Polish marketing company behind the European Championships, and BSI has been brewing for some time. Recently the FIM – one would assume under pressure from BSI, although they, of course, claim otherwise - declared that it intended to restrict riders from competing in both the SEC and SGP. Nothing has been put in the regulations but the Poles has reacted furiously to such a suggestion and Gollob, if nothing else a loyal, company man, might be the first shot across the FIM’s bows that making riders choose will have unfortunate consequences.
Whatever the reasons for his departure from the series, Gollob will be missed by a good proportion of SGP fans, and his replacement can only – for the time being, at least – lessen the series. If the regulations are adhered to, that replacement should be Chris Harris. Nominated as first reserve, the rider occupying that position is supposed to replace anyone who drops out after the SGP line-up is published, as it seemingly was on October 22nd. However, as Gollob was a Wild Card, and with the deadline for applications from those qualifying and chosen to be in the series not until last Monday, BSI could easily go against their own regulations and install another Pole in Gollob’s place. Miedzinski, say, or Dudek. It’s all very unclear at the moment.
This is the downfall of a series where only 3 riders actually qualify by merit (although four of the 2014 line-up did, through virtue of Niels-Kristian Iversen’s belt and braces approach), but it is what it is, and people seem happy to go along with that. I expect we’ll get a decision soon but until then all the talk should be about what “Mr G” achieved in at the very top of the sport.
ITEM: There are times when I can be a right miserable sod, but - on the whole - I can see the positive side of most things. And as a Bees' fan, I've witnessed my fair share of whining and moaning about my speedway team's fortunes, and there are some for whom Mick Horton will never put a foot right, even if that foot is climbing onto the Elite League winners' podium. But nothing that even the most cynical Bees' fan can conjure up can match the bile emitting from the Leicester area right now.
The return of Leicester to the sport after 27 years was a success. Yes, there were things that you or I might not have done were we in promoter David Hemsley's position, but we are not in Hemsleys position - we didn't put in the hard work or front up the cash to ensure that the dreams of the Leicester Speedway Supporters' Club (who did so much in the intervening years to keep the Leicester Lions name alive in the city) were fulfilled and that bikes were sliding in anger once more in the LE postcode.
Not that all that gives Hemsley carte blanche to run a dictatorship at Beaumont Park - a club can only thrive and survive with the complicity of its fans - but as a interested observer there seems to have been more positives than negatives in their short history - even allowing for Ilya Bondarenko, a rider I once saw fall off twice in one race. Yet to listen to some of the more vocal "fans" on the British Speedway Forum you'd think that Hemsley was deliberately running the club into the ground, contrary to the wishes of everyone in red & yellow (even the thousand or so I saw at the East Midlands Bowl in October?), and won't stop until he's driven the last fan out of the stadium.
It's natural to be concerned when something you care about isn't being taken care of in a way you approve of. But there's a bigger picture, and an ultimatum at play here. Stories aren't told in one day, one week, one month, or even a year. The tale of the new Leicester Lions is very young, and has a long way to go, and has only just reached chapter 2. As a fan you have to assess just what the club means to you - if you cannot accept what has been done so far, and don't think it will get any better, then maybe Leicester speedway isn't for you any more, and unless you have the financial backing to buy Hemsley's share in the club, you may want to find something else to do with your Saturday nights. On the other hand, if you're a patient sort, you might want to wait it out a while, see how the story develops, and then make a decision, fully in possession of a flavour you may or may not find to your liking. To poison the efforts and enthusiasm of others is just spiteful and doesn't help anyone, least of all those who inject the venom into the situation.
Leicester speedway will succeed or fail on its merits, but it needs the backing of its fans to do stand a chance of success. It's far better to encourage and cajole than accuse and throw tantrums. Work from the inside, don't throw bricks from the outside. Try that, and you might find that you can enjoy your speedway again, whatever the results on the track.
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