In the bleak mid-Winter

It seems that Justin Sedgmen is feeling under-valued.

Arguably not since young Peter R realised that Mr McGregor was no more a Lagomorpha lover than a world-renowned speedway referee and the carrot patch in his garden was to produce garnish rather that rabbit food has a bunny been less happy than the man from Mildura.

Last week’s Speedway Star exclusively revealed that the best chance of seeing Wor Just next summer is socially. He took aim and let rip with both barrels at promoters not prepared to pay his self-assessed worth and at riders who are prepared to sign for “stupid” money, thus robbing the true giants of the sport the opportunity to earn their corn.

There’s one last chance for promoters to dig deep otherwise we face the very real that 2022 will be the first time that British speedway has had to face a season Sans Sedgmen since … well 2020.

He also revealed that some of the offers received during the winter were – holds onion under nose and sniffles – less than when he first set foot in the motherland as a tearaway teenager in 2009.

Since then Just’s turned out for 14 clubs in both divisions – most notably a three-season stint at Edinburgh 12 years during which his average has rocketed from 5.16 to 6.79.

Now I’m the first to admit that Winter can be a bleak time if you’re a professional space filler. Nothing happening live locally to report, a combination of budgets pared to the bone and Covid nixing the opportunity for a jaunt to Argentina or Australia, too bloody cold and insufficient interest to boost the ice racing coverage, teams for next season pretty much nailed on and announced but still copious amounts of space needing to be filled.

One piece from each club PR – check – some nice big pictures – check – couple of historical features – check – a couple of the less bonkers letters subbed down to a vaguely handleable length, caps-lock sentences removed, red-highlighted words back in black – check.

After that it’s anything goes from Polly Filler to the Ohwo Ismeo articles such as the thoughts of modern speedway’s most auto-corrected surname.

Desperate times means searches through the e-mail sub-folders for contacts and story steers. The Deffo file has been milked, the MFU (Must Follow Up) is likewise bare, the rainy-day folder as dry as the Gobi, the SBB (Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel) trawled. All that’s left is the biggest and bleakest folder – the NUHFO (Not Unless Hull Freezes Over).

Once you get past the inevitable BSF posts apportioning yet another heinous crime to Rob Godfrey, I’m not sure that the Mildura Rocket garnered a great deal of sympathy from speedway fans currently celebrating Brexit Bonuses such as rising National Insurance, out of control fuel, heating and council tax bills, not to mention the squeeze on MPs expenses which meant some of them were forced to instruct civil servants to bring their own Dom Perignon to work during Covid lockdown.

He may claim he was misquoted, taken out of context or the usual fall-back position of an interviewee surprised by the lack of love garnered from a “come and get me” interview.

More than one acquaintance has been moved to comment that “Justin Sedgmen’s in town tonight, must make sure I don’t miss that,” is a phrase rarely to have passed the lips of a speedway fan.

Which is in stark contrast to former World Champion and, as the son of a Bandits’ hero, all-round good egg Tai Woffinden, who also had a little nibble at British speedway this week.

The fact that he did it under his own name via official social media channels means that it should accurately reflect his views and not be another dastardly plot to discredit poor riders and divert attention away from the real blame for failure by the Hades-dwelling, unicorn starving, Labrador puppy squelching epitome of all things evil that masquerades as Chairman of the British Speedway so-called Promoters’ Association Limited (copyright British Speedway Forum).

Now Tai it seems would quite happily ride in Britain. As long as it only involves him turning up at Belle Vue. On a Monday night. In June, July, August and, at a push September. Thursday could be negotiated – if it doesn’t clash with a decent story loop on Corrie. Money wasn’t mentioned but it would seem a good bet that, rather like Justin, Tai would be looking for a fair bit more than he got when he was starting out.

Now anyone who has been to one of the Woffinden talk-ins knows that the engaging Mr W is aware of his worth and not afraid to point out the failings of those unable or unwilling to meet that valuation.

But it’s hard to deny that his route to the top of the European and World tree has become the blueprint being followed by Robert Lambert and Dan Bewley and lights the way for the next way led by Tom Brennan, Jordan Palin and Leon Flint among others.

He also has some interesting, often valid views, on how to improve the set-up of British speedway and prepare future generations for glory.

So when he suggests a squad system with GP riders sharing a team’s number one bib, he makes a valid attempt to bring some of the sport’s big names back to the Premiership.

The only thing lacking is a realistic financial model for that to happen.

What is more interesting is that having switched from Sweden to Denmark as a second home this year, Tai is obviously sounding out just how flexible British speedway is willing to be should his earning power in Poland start to wane. The trouble with being at the top table is that it is too easy to, as those famous east coast speedway promoters Simon and Garfunkel warned, get up to wash your face and return only to find your place taken. Then he needs to have a fall-back position. Part-time, one-track, top dollar in Britain would be tickety, boo, fandabby and dozzi all at the same time.

British speedway did it once before allowing Ivan Mauger to race home meetings only in 1984. From memory that was the only way that Exeter could be persuaded into a British League Division one struggling for numbers in its 50^th season. Newcastle and Oxford were also encouraged to move from the National League to bolster the struggling top tier along with Wolverhampton, returning after a couple of years in the wilderness.

It was a farcical, short-term solution to bolster the travails of a top league increasingly unable to balance the books, one which seriously damaged the credibility of the sport. And was probably Rob Godfrey’s fault – even though he was only a teenager, didn’t run a speedway club and had nothing to do with the decision.

As far as I can see encouraging the National League to develop, hopefully expand and create a pathway through the levels for British talent is the way forward.

If that means some must ride for less than they were offered a decade ago or sit on the sidelines then so be it.

In the meantime Bandits still have one space to fill in their senior septet. Wouldn’t it be funny if …