Nostradamus nails it

L’avenir du speedway britannique n’est pas Vissing, Riss, Cook ou même Crump mais investir et encourager ceux de notre propre terre avec la volonté et l’ambition de vivre le rêve

Say what you will about Nostradamus – and I know many Bandits’ fans, especially some of the more godless in the posh seats and those on the third bend, have strong opinions on the subject – but I yield to no-one in arguing that he nailed it by foretelling the revival of our beloved sport from its Covid-induced 2020 coma.

When not prophesising famine, plague, pestilence, the assassination of JFK, 9/11, election of Donald Trump and Sunderland’s permanent banishment to English football’s third circle of hell, the French seer penned a quick quatrain on how domestic speedway should first take stock and then rebuild.

It’s fair to say that Nostro was not at the front of the queue when it came to the plain speaking tongues being handed out. Indeed he could give politicians a run for their money when it comes to evasiveness, opaqueness and general flip-floppery and flim-flamery.

You need to read between the lines to get the true meaning of his treatise.

But search and there it is – buried between the end of the world (1991), a panic-inducing pandemic (2020), shrinking Waggon Wheels (2002), the ability to make millions of dollars attributing modern events to the ramblings of a 500-year-old Gallic Russell Grant and the fall of the English monarchy (TBA) –  Nostradamus tells us that the future of British speedway lies not with Vissing, Riss, Cook or even Crump but in encouraging those with the guts, the will, the wherewithal and ambition to chase their dream.

True it actually says: “It is the circuit of the great deed when the name of the seventh is that of the fifth; when the third, even greater, the warlike stranger will take Paris, nor will Provence save her” but his meaning is crystal clear. Indeed read on and you’ll discover that Leon Flint ends the year as a Championship heat leader, Kyle Bickley the Shielfield track record holder, racing against French teams will benefit no-one and we need to order WD40 to open the lock on the stadium trophy cabinet.

Only a lucky few were able to enjoy the start of this march to enlightenment –  6.30 last Saturday evening when the instruction went out to “start your engines”. A glance around the newly extended, and Covid-compliant pits revealed a pair of Pijpers, menagerie of McGurks, more Flints than you could shake a stick at, Bickleys, Watsons, Blairs, Douglas’s, Martins, McDonalds, Rathbones, Harrisons, all overseen by a cornucopia of Courtneys.

Smile for the cameras. Strike a pose. The future is right here: the first ever Berwick Bullets/Academy press and practice night.

To be repeated at Armadale, Newcastle, Eastbourne, Leicester, Mildenhall. Not forgetting the Northern Junior League and its southern counterparts, the Premiership Junior League and the British Youth Championships.

Finally it seems that the focus is on tackling the underlying problems of British speedway and developing one of the now compulsory roadmaps to recovery. Edinburgh’s announcement on Monday that they are building a training track on the Armadale centre green and an inflatable mini-track along with regular training days at Redcar, Scunthorpe and Sittingbourne is evidence that the penny has dropped. Murmurings of a potential Workington revival based around the Northside training track adds to the feeling that we are finally on – pun fully intended – the right track.

But it is only a beginning. There is still much to do if we are to revive a sport which has tied itself in knots over the past couple of decades and slowly starved itself of oxygen.

There needs to be a clearly defined path from novice to professional, via junior and development leagues into the Championship,  then the Premiership and beyond.

That means a root and branch change of focus and desire for the sport’s owners to work together rather than simply protect their own best interests.

We’ve already seen evidence that what the majority subscribes to may not suit all. The Isle of Wight did not like the way the NDL changes for 2021 were announced and, noisily, left the fold. Apparently Smallbrook’s future is to stage re-enactments of “Once a Jolly Swagman” and in a fitting tribute to the film’s co-star star, Bill Owen, Warriors’ owners affiliated with the NORA Batty Appreciation Society. WARNING: This information has been gleaned from postings on the British Speedway Forum and not been independently fact checked or verified for any semblance of truth. May also contain nuts.

Fundamentally I have no problem with Eric Riss, Jason Crump, Broc Nichol, Sam Masters or anyone else for that matter making money from racing in Britain. However, I don’t understand why they are allowed to fill team places in two different leagues. Not just those from overseas. It makes no more sense if Craig Cook, Danny King, Scott Nicholls or James Wright do it.

Riders should choose – as did they had to up until the late 1980s – whether to compete in the professional Premiership and beyond or the part-time Championship. The only exception should be under-23 British riders who can – indeed should – be allowed to double up.

In the same vein only Championship reserves – or British under-19s – should double down to the NDL.

There has to be opportunities for the ambitious to step up every year and the financial incentives – and team places – for them to do so. That way each new wave of riders has room to develop while others enjoy their sport at a level they can enjoy and afford.

In the near century that speedway has been running only 36 riders have become World Champion. Tens of thousands didn’t but that didn’t make their careers any less worthwhile – or them less entertaining to watch.

Anyway back to Saturday’s practice action.

If we ignore two closed-door practice sessions and a British under-21 Final then, rather like Sandra Dee, there is still a virginal feel to the widened, reshaped, reprofiled and re-shaled track.

Even club veterans such as Luke Harrison – who has been lapping Shielfield since he was knee-high to a grasshopper – had to re-evaluate angles and interrogate new racing lines.

Speaking of Wor Luke he is proof that if a week is a long time in politics then over a year is an eternity in adolescence. It wasn’t just the Covid masks and senility-linked fading eyesight causing identity problems for some of us on the safe side of the fence. Because since we last clapped eyes on them – around 18 months ago – it would be fair to say that Master Harrison, the McGurk boys and Ace Pijper in particular have waved farewell to the shiny cheeked beaver look and grown up rather dramatically.

On track? Well practice is practice.

Out solo, in pairs a few splutters and a couple of tumbles. Sam McGurk came away relatively unscathed from his induction into the legendary second bend tractor gate club while Stewart McDonald and Greg Blair slid along the third/fourth bend banking in rather less dramatic fashion, Mason Watson and Kieran Douglas bounced with energy, Championship skipper Aaron Summers was on-hand for advice in addition to videoing the early laps of the next member in his family racing dynasty, Messrs Flint and Bickley looked fast and focussed and Jye Etheridge sneaked in a couple of quick laps before heading off to find warmth on a typically balmy Northumbrian April evening.

It is just the beginning. The best is yet to come.

For 2021 Nostradamus predicts a Bandits/Bullets/Academy treble and Zombie Apocalypse – so something for Sunderland fans to look forward to after all.