A MEETING of Sittingbourne Speedway Club's committee failed to reach a decision over next season's participation in the Conference League.

Many in the speedway world had expected something concrete to emerge from the meeting of the eight-strong committee, but in the end they were left disappointed.

A spokesman for the Old Gun Site committee said: "The meeting was really about reviewing the activities, resources and finances of the club as a whole. Business was dominated by looking at end of trading year matters like the accounts.

"We’re happy that the club is thriving at present with a number of long-running issues that have a major effect on how we run meetings - like planning consent – having been advanced nicely through 2005.Other key issues though, like the number of volunteers required to put on a meeting, remain problems.

"We also, of course, ran in the League for the first time in nine years last season, but we cannot make a decision on whether or not to carry on, until the Conference itself makes announcements about the shape of the division in 2006, number of teams, competitions and how things like gradings will work."

Matters had become confused in the run-up to the meeting.

Fellow Conference League club Wimbledon Dons had requested to share Sittingbourne's track as a stop-gap in 2006 after they were served notice to quit their home of 77 years by their landlords in October.

However, this was withdrawn when it became apparent that insufficient dates would be available for extra racing at the Iwade track even if Crusaders were not to commit to a full league campaign.

Further meetings are planned for January 7 and 15 and the committee hopes to be in a better position then to make more definite plans for the future.

Meanwhile, there has been further bad news for Sittingbourne with the announcement that Rider of the Year Mark Baseby is signing for long-time rivals Mildenhall.