Speedway is currently in the grip of the rumour-mill with every single day throwing up a new story regarding this or that rider.

I don't think this is unlike any other sport but it is very, very frustrating to be part of this farce.

I'm sick of hearing that I've signed for another club!

This close season has already been particularly bad because of the one Grand Prix rider per team ruling, which is likely to be brought in by the governing body at the end of this month.

This has caused uproar among the riders.

Quite simply, the problem is that there aren't enough clubs to go round to accommodate all the GP riders if there's only one allowed per club.

And Poole, more than any other club, have been affected by the seeded placings given by the GP authorities last month. Krys Cegielski and Greg Walasek were both given GP places, which pretty much rules them out of the Pirates' side for 2002.

But there are some big names sweating over team positions for next year.

Our old friend Mark Loram is one of them.

He's out of Peterborough - but there aren't many clubs left to go to.

In fact, there has also been talk of Mark and other riders going ON STRIKE, which is an amazing and unique development in speedway.

The biggest move of the week has been world number two, and another former Pirate, Jason Crump's transfer from King's Lynn to Belle Vue.

My calculations of possible GP riders out of work make interesting reading, with each team now having a GP rider, apart from Eastbourne.

Belle Vue have Crumpie, Coventry have to shed two GP riders from Greg Hancock, Billy Hamill and Andreas Jonsson, Ipswich have Scotty Nicholls, King's Lynn now just have Nicki Pedersen, Oxford have to lose two out of Leigh Adams, Todd Wiltshire and Lukas Dryml (what a shame!), Peterborough have Ryan Sullivan, the Pirates have Tony Rickardsson and Wolves will retain Mikael Karlsson.

That's a pretty scary statistic. There's going to be an awful lot of good riders without an Elite League place for 2002.

I bet you, Jon Cook's telephone at Eastbourne has been red hot!

Of course, the riders can obviously decide to opt out of the Grand Prix.

I know Greg Walasek has been contemplating that and riders like Todd Wiltshire, Lukas Dryml, Andreas Jonsson and Nicki Pedersen will have to do their sums and work out how much money they will lose by not riding in the Sky Sports Elite League.

The British Speedway Promoters' Association have yet to rubber-stamp the one GP rider per team ruling so it could all mean nothing, but it seems this will be brought in.

Ultimately, it does mean that I did the best thing possible by NOT qualifying for the GP from the GP Challenge.

I went all the way to Slovenia with my mechanics Triggy and Gibby, and I rode like a donkey - just as well I did!

It's a strange old world.