When
the league was introduced in 2005 it was so that riders aged under16 could gain
team riding experience and a short season of 8 heat matches were held as second
half events at various tracks during the school holiday/weekends.
The
league consisted of 5 teams and due to various problems associated with the
availability of riders, or mainly due to their age their drivers/parents, some
riders rode for a number of different teams but as the whole idea of the league
was to young riders team riding experience no one was too concerned. At the
start of the season a list of fixtures was published in the Speedway Star but
as with all speedway fixture lists it was subject to alteration, in fact more
so than normal due to problems of availability of riders, and no revised
fixture list was produced so it was a matter of pot luck or knowing someone in
the know if you wanted to see a meeting but the Star did give limited match
reports so you knew how the league was progressing.
So
after the learning season of 2005 the signs looked good for the Academy League
in 2006 but rather than going forward and building on the foundations laid in
the previous season it went backwards.
News on
the league was non-existent. The BSPA web site did not give any information on
the league, the Speedway Star gave no details on the league although we got
information on the Short Track Championship and the Speedway Sidecars and the
only source of information on the league was from various postings on web site.
From a fixture list that appeared on one site it appeared that the 10 match
season was scheduled to be run over a three week period in late August –early
September and that the number of heats in the match were reduced to 6, or fewer if the track had problems with a time curfew.
Even now in late December I doubt if any one apart from the league organiser
has details of all the meetings that took place judging from questions being
asked on various web site about the league.
I
didn’t see an Academy meeting in 2006, the Belle Vue
meeting was rained off and Buxton were prepared to have a meeting but were not
asked, but judging from reports on the British Speedway Forum on the meeting at
Swindon maybe this was a good thing “ Teams were not announced and the
announcer gave only intermittent results /details of riders with a number of
increasingly tetchy comments about the lack of info he was getting from the
pits … lead to complete confusion and turmoil for the Swindon staff/crew and
the riders were rushed around like a flock of lambs”
Reporting
the BSPA annual conference the Speedway Star of November 25th 2006 said that :
“
Promoters
continue to be concerned about developing British talent and, to that end have
reintroduced the British Academy League”
Lets hope that the promoters and the
press show more interest in the 2007 version of the Academy League than they
did the 2006 version.
This
was introduced to the Conference League in 2005 following sponsorship from Bert
Harkins Racing but towards the end of the 2006 season it all appeared to go
pear shaped.
Ben
Barker of Stoke Spitfires was the holder of the title in mid September and when
he rode at Buxton on the 17th September he successfully defended his title
against Ben Taylor. The next Spitfire meetings were away against Cleveland on
28th September and Buxton on 1st October but he didn’t ride in these meetings
due to Premier League commitments. As no rules regarding the Bronze Helmet are
included in the 2006 SCB rulebook one assumes that Ben didn’t lose his title by
default and so he should have defended his title in his next appearance for the
Spitfires which was at home on 8th October against Buxton. Unfortunately this
meeting was abandoned after heat 12 due to rain. Bens’ next appearance was at
Stoke on 14th October against Scunthorpe but once again no match race was
possible due to the 9.30pm curfew at Loomer Road
although the curfew didn’t stop Christina Turnbull the SCB ref ordering heat 15
to be rerun after the curfew or for junior riders to do practice laps? Buxton
were the visitors to
MCM