Speedway for the layman + Aces to Crumple?

Here's a long overdue first on my United City blog, a post about one of the most exciting but most under-rated spectator sports in the UK, namely Speedway. As a sport I've fairly recently got into (thanks to Sky Sports it must be said), I think it's about time I write something to illustrate what I find so interesting about it.

To the uninitiated few this may at first seem like a strange 4 lap procession around a tiny and shabby looking track (often dog racing tracks!) on a motorbike that can't seem to go in a straight line. In reality the subtle skills of the riders, and their downright craziness in some cases, makes for some thrilling racing.

4 riders (2 from each team) line up on the starting line, the tapes go up and they jam their throttles open in a drag race to the first left hand corner. The leader through the first corner often wins so it's down to who keeps the bike on the deck and holds their nerve, whilst making a sliding turn and avoiding the barriers around the outside. With 3 points for a win, 2 for second and a single point for third, and 15 races in all, you can get some incredibly close matches, or absolute mismatches.

The way in which the British Elite league and the world championship work in parallel also makes for interesting sub plots throughout the season. The weekly rounds of the Elite league are usually weeknights, often Monday for Belle Vue, and then the world title rounds are Grand Prixes held across Europe at weekends - in the same way as Formula One.

A big issue for British Speedway is that we've not had a World Champion since Mark Loram in 2000. There are a few promising riders coming through, but the fact that not one Brit has qualified to automatically get a ride in the GP series next year doesn't bode well. There are a couple (Harris and Nicholls) who should get picked (much like the Ryder cup wildcards), but the situation needs to improve - it reflects badly on the UK as a Speedway competition.

This decline in British Speedway is highlighted in a recent piece of news affecting my local team. Manchester's Belle Vue Aces, the most famous name in the UK's Speedway competition. They've had some of the world's great riders in their side across the years, winning British titles and seeing their riders become World Champions.

The latest in the line of supremely talented riders to grace Belle Vue's stadium is the Australian Jason Crump. Twice world champion in his first spell with the Aces, Crump returned this year in time to prop up an ailing side which couldn't seem to put the same squad of riders out for 2 races on the bounce.

It's been announced that we won't be seeing Crump race in the UK Elite League next year, he feels he's racing too much (competing for teams in Poland and Sweden as well), and needs to cut down if he's to reclaim his World title. The fact that the UK ride is the one to jettison is a major blow for the Aces and British Speedway as a whole.

The Aces will have to build a stronger team now they don't have Crump to rely on for 12 points a meeting, and UK Speedway will have to work out how to claw back ground on the Scandinavian nations, (Denmark's Nicki Pedersen dominated the last 2 world championship GP series), and ensure that our stars have the opportunity to flourish on the world stage.

For what it's worth, from a personal perspective, I have no issue with Crump, he's a fantastic rider and seems a down to earth character, so will (hopefully) deservedly reclaim the title next year.