I've decided to give speedway a rest.

It's been part of my life for more than 40 years but I've lost my enthusiasm for the sport.

Maybe, come the spring I will get the bug again but the way I feel now is that I watched my last speedway race at Sunday's Brighton Bonanza.

So farewell from me - and from this blog.

No surprise that Edward Kennett will not ride for the Eagles in 2007.

If you read between the lines at what he said at the end of the 2006 cammpaign, you would have come to that conclusion.

There's no doubt he does need more experience on bigger tracks if he is to make the breakthrough.

After his first time with Eastbourne he went to Rye House in the PL - another small track. With the degree i hindsight, it is a pity he didn't go a big track at that stage of his career.

So where will he end up in the EL in 2007?

The smart money says Poole.

Great news that Lewis Bridger will be riding for the Eagles in 2007.

He's the hottest property in British speedway and it would have been a disaster for the new promoter, Bob Brimson, had he lost Bridger.

The progress made by Bridger in the last two years is quite amazing.

Of course, he has a huge advantage - he is a motor-cyclist and has agreat sense of balance.

It's  a long time since Britain had a world speedway champion (Mark Loram 2000) and the feeling is that the current crop of GP riders will fall short. Many say, our next world champion will be Lewis - I hope to be there to see it.

Earlier in this blog I wrote:
Welcome to Jason Bunyan as the No8 for Eastbourne Eagles.
He's a big track rider and has been scorching round the Isle of Wight this year.
His arrival will certainly be useful if Eastbourne can get him on track in the right place at th eright time.

But he never turned a wheel for the Eagles!

No doubt the speedway promoters will be sitting down this weekend to thrash out a blueprint for the sport in 2007.

I was pleased to read yesterday in several of the columns in the Speedway Star that team bosses were calling for stability.

They are the sensible voices and I hope very much they hold sway at the conference. Speedway needs stability and certainty and over the years this has not always been the case.

It's a simple sport: four riders, turning left for four laps. First one to the chequered flag wins.

So how come the rule book is to so big and complicated? One thing the promoters should do is have a bonfire of rulebooks and then come up with the rules on one side on an A4 sheet of paper.

Doubt they will go that far this weekend. But I - and many others - hope the tarnished tactical rule is ditched, or at least restricted.

It affected the destination of the league title in the Elite League this year. That cannot be right.

It is always been said that the rule was introduced to keep Sky TV happy with close matches. If that is the case, use it for ordinary league matches but ditch it for the play offs and for matches that are decided over two legs - eg: the KO Cup.

We managed the Craven Shield without tactical rides and I thought that was a pretty fascintating competition.

It was a case of damned if you do and damned if you don't for Eagles co promoter Jon Cook.
He took an enormous amount of flak a few weeks ago when he called off a meeting on the basis of a very poor weather forecast.
The forecast said heavy rain and he postponed the meeting early on to prevent people travelling from Wolverhampton and Ipswich. Of course, it didn't rain at Arlington.
On Sunday, a decision on whether to go ahead with the final of the Craven Shield was delayed until nearly 3pm.
Both decisions have been damned by supporters.
Surely it is a case that circumstances alter cases.
In the first instance, a re-staging date was readily available and there was no need to chance running a meeting in front of an appallingly low crowd.
Sunday was different - the speedway season ends in about a week.
Re-staging dates were hard to come by for Sunday's meeting so it was best to hang on until the last minute before making a decision.
It's annoying, especially if you have made a journey to Arlington and found the meeting off.
However, most speedway fans are well aware that meetings are called off beacuase of rain.
I've travelled all over Britain only to find a rain-off. It happens. It's upsetting. You get annoyed.
Which leads me to - why cannot speedway tracks be covered?
That would prevent many rain-offs - unless there was a downpour during the meeting.
Air fences were brought into the Elite League on the back of the riders donating their wages from two meetings in each of two seasons.
That was huge step forward for safety.
Can something similar be worked out for track covering?

It is off to Arlington for one last time this year to see the Eagles of 2006.

They bring the curtain down on their season with the Craven Shield - weather permitting it should be the second leg of three matches (Coventry tonight,Friday) and Poole next week.

It has not been a wonderful year for the Eagles and they certainly will need to ride out of their skins to take this trophy.

It looks - on paper at least - if the Eagles' Craven Shield will be nearlygood enough.

That's been the story of the season. Good enough at home but not good enough by a long chalk away from Arlington.

We will see what new owner Bob Brimson does with the team for next season. He's promised not to throw loads of money at the Eagles. Thank goodness for that.

Teams have huge problems when a new owner takes over and throws money at it. The problems comes when the new owners gets tired off the toy and wants to off-load it.

The way to guarantee speedway for next year and the years to come is to ensure that the sport runs at a profit.

Put it simply, if Eastbourne Speedway makes a profit, there will be money to invest in the future and it will be a business that others might want to buy in the future.

Bob Brimson needs to get more people though the front door in 2007 to watch a great night's entertainment.

His background in the music industry means he will not be short of ideas. But as in all sports these days, he will need a winning team.

Any way good luck to the Eagles on Sunday afternoon. Fingers crossed for the weather.

Welcome to Eastbourne Speedway's new promoter Bob Brimson.

He seems, from what I have been told, to be a great fan of our sport, of the Eagles but also to be an excellent and creative businessman.

I guess he hasn't got a bottomless pot of money to throw at the Eagles but the club will benefit from having an owner who has noother interests in the sport.

Don't take that as a criticism of outgoing owner, Terry Russell.

It is just my opinion that a club is best served when there is one man at the helm and no other interests in speedway.

Terry, of course runs Swindon, and it must be difficult to keep your eye on two clubs - plus other interests. He came to Eastbourne at a tricky moment in the club's history.

He certainly took the club forward and by and large we have thrived. Of course, we have not quite won the league but we've made the play offs, got to cup finals; so all in all it is not a bad record.

The other problem of one man owning two tracks in the same league is the perception that there will be behind closed doors favours.
I think we can safely say that has not been the case with Eastbourne and Swindon. In fact, the rivalry between the two clubs has become more intense since Terry has been the owner of both.

I wish Bob Brimson well and look forward to seeing the team he and Jon Cook puts together for 2007.

It  would be a good farewell to Terry Russell if the Eagles could clinch the Craven Shield in the last few days of this season. And it would be a good welcome to Bob Brimson too.

Come on the Eagles.