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Over the last decade the Elite League/Premiership has significantly weakened the product on offer and as a consequence crowds have dwindled. Therefore, the evidence suggests that a "watered down" league will only hasten the demise. Three clubs have gone from last year. Of those three, Lakeside rode on Fridays and Workington rode on Saturdays. Therefore I am not sure weekend meetings are the panacea you think they are.

One question I have to ask after reading Dave Peet's comments on the Scorpions site “Leicester haven’t been in our league for a while, so some of the lads had not ridden it before, and we spent most of the meeting trying to get dialled in, while the track was a bit grippy early on. “In the end, it became a stepping stone for our league meeting here later in the season. Next year we come back, we’ll be dialled in.” Which guys haven't seen the track before? Auty and Garrity rode for them. Allen rode in top flight last year so will have been to Leicester. Coventry rode their NL fixtures there so Bailey and Kinsley will have rode for Mildenhall and List rode in the ben fund a couple of weeks back. Got to wonder if he does actually have a clue

Speedway in this country must stop being dictated to by Poland.If it is to survive,the best race nights for family's are Friday and Saturday with Sunday early starts. My team Belle Vue have never had Monday as a regular race night in all the years i have followed them.Just tell all riders to decide were they want to ride Poland or Britain so we can still have speedway there will be a watered down league standard because riders will have to be moved up into higher leagues to fill any gaps.But i would rather have that situation than no speedway.Three clubs have gone from last year how many more from this year,we cant let the current situation carry on or soon there wont be any clubs left.

Many of the tracks in my golden era of speedway were dangerous. Many tracks like Hackney, had lamp posts with the lights hanging over the track. Yes Hackney's track was perhaps a bit too fast especially when the 4 valves came in. But we all know the riders new the risk they were taking way back then and indeed still do in today’s modern era of speedway, although of course still extremely dangerous safety has become paramount in modern day speedway. Probably the safest track in the land at the time was London rivals Wimbledon. The catch fence [which of course was used in modern day Rye House under the reign of Uncle Len] had no posts and if a rider was unlucky enough to fly through the fence there were no nasty surprises. Even the fantastic old Hyde Road track at Belle Vue wasn’t without danger. It had manhole covers on or near the track and Peter Collins famously rode in the 1977 World Final in Sweden with a bad leg injury after the manhole cover was dislodged and clouted PC in the leg. Yes in post war Hackney there were fatalities at The Wick and one pre-war with Dusty Haigh. Two certainly post war were as a result of the lamp posts, one wasn’t. I’m not sure on young Alan Clegg. These guys paid the ultimate price for entertaining me and many thousands of other speedway fans at Waterden Road. The Len Silver era had top quality riders from around the world and racing was excellent. I have to say the Russell/Pavitt era had very good racing to. Scofield, Galvin and of course Thommo were brilliant when they missed the gate coming from the back. Going back to the sixties and seventies so were Banger, Middleton, Plechy, Thommo [that man again] Lord Morton of Hackney and numerous others, but the track was different and had far more dirt than in later years. In 1996 I’m so pleased they were called London as the track and viewing was awful and they didn’t use the name Hackney, because Hackney was a brilliant race track despite its danger and produced far better racing than any other track in the country.

There is one main reason Lakeside and Workington closed and it's nothing at all to do with Friday and Saturday's. The fact they had to ride so many Fixtures in October mostly against each other was a huge factor. The other factor ROB GODFREY - cancelled Lakeside Fixtures in summer as them riding on a Friday stopped him booking Guests for Scunthorpe and cancelled some Workington matches too. The success of those sides unfairly affected them. Had Godfrey not cancelled Lakeside matches at a few days notice they would have ridden fewer Fixtures at Rye House and not lost huge amounts on last few matches there. Also a fact they lost their Track to developers, that would have whatever day they race on. We absolutely need ONE BIG LEAGUE of 14-16 Teams giving variety and whatever level that finds can and should be marketable until the Polish bubble inevitably bursts and Riders have to accept that "getting paid in UK" is better than not getting paid 5-10x more in Poland...". Some sides are having a real go at PROMOTING the sport, others are living in denial and negativity.

I think most Leicester fans will/would ‘put up with’ and actually love a season of easy home wins with good racing like last night, after 8 years of near bottom of the league stuff :-)

and an even bigger mouth . last time i heard of one of his tweets he was abusing a top cage fighter which is so brave from a computer sitting in a wheel chair. even his sugar daddies at poole seem to have got fed up with his "f**k british speedway" comments every time something happens that he doesn't agree with as i haven't heard of any darcy ward benefit again this year.

It’s all about opinions and mine is you’re a keyboard warrior!

We invite you to view the trailer for our Memories of Hackney DVD here: Only £16 (post-free in UK) from us at https://www.retro-speedway.com/homepage

I noticed the management out there when the queue got long. That's the way to do it. Will be nice when things settle down for the management to walk round the stadium and mingle with fans during a meeting. The guy who ran Swindon a few years back used to do that -- sadly, I cannot recall his name right now -- and people appreciated it. I even remember him doing it at Arlington and talking to the home fans as well as mixing with the Robins fans. All went well last night at Arlington. Good atmosphere is generated when you get a crowd like that. For H. Gould the meeting presenter was Kevin Coombes -- he's been missing the last few years but was the man on the Mic for many a long day at Arlington. Knows his speedway. He also does the British GP at Cardiff, or did when I last went. All in all, I thought it was a good advert for British Speedway, especially as the races came quickly in batches. It does keep the interest going. So, well done to the #neweraEagles. Long may it continue and grow.

No surprises, as 'home' track advantage was definitely the deciding factor...not the 'BIG' home win that nearly everyone predicted? A 14 point loss at Eastbourne is no disgrace..... Well done Paco....hope you keep managing to silence the doubters!

That's good to hear. He was being chased very hard by Richie Worrall and tried to cover his run round the outside of bends 1 & 2, unfortunately he got the exit all wrong and bailed off just in time at high speed into the fence at the start of the back straight.

Well, it wasn't to be. After Bachelor broke the track record in heat 1 I couldn't have imagined they'd then be forced to abandon the meeting. Unfortunately I have almost come to expect these situations, having seen it all too often in the UK. Łódź riders simply didn't want to race. Tungate and Andersen, as well as the young reserve who did the track test were adamant it wasn't safe. Today I'm off to Leszno. With great weather forecast, I'm confident we will see great action there ...

A really good meeting . Some good team riding & passing in most races. Seems Stewart has managed to get some consistency in the surface, I fear for Scunthorpe on the road they have a very long tail end. Only downside from tonight is i didn’t have the courage to ask the attractive young female Scunthorpe fan in the Grey hat on bend 1 for her number :-(

2 things I wish for tomorrow at BROUGH is that when it says tapes up at 18.30 let's do it & a diamonds win

Poor old Stewmac is there- hope they sort it so he sees some decent action.

Maybe, but It’s Cook that needs replacing. Woryna doesn’t score the points Cook would.

Three of those offers came in one phone call.

We have peanuts and Barry

As long as fingers are no where near a keyboard I think we are all happy.

Fair play to Paco - I was quite blunt about his inclusion. Two good wins in the first meeting is already more than I expected he would get in the first month He is a great character and if he continues to add a few decent point hauls to that would certainly justify his place I wouldnt be unhappy to be proved wrong!

Got a car full susposed to be coming up from Workington (others planning to come up some are flying up on broomsticks !!) But don't know of any names/riders been announced yet, has anyone got any more info ?? Don't fancy watching the likes of sarj dodge the tapes all the time !!

He's just a simpleton with a big ego...

I think it would be quicker to name the riders who Nicki hasn't upset down the years! Saying that he's had a raw deal the last couple of years with refs excluding him purely because of his reputation and riders (Woffinden and Janowski spring to mind,) overreacting after barely being touched. You know they wouldn't react like that if it were any other rider. I for one will miss him in the gp's this year because he's the last remaining character and he stirs things up. It's all gotten too chummy with all the fist bumps and high fives..We need another Penhall v Carter type rivalry!

Honestly You are a total plum I am far to good looking to be confused for Steve W, plus I usually wear long trousers not shorts. However speaking to "In the Know" Tony in the Vatican (Maryport) I think there is going to be a bun fight. Looks like the dirt is coming up and getting dumped round the back of the pit area and the Rugby club are going to bill the Speedway for the pleasure of putting it there along with a charge for removing the fence and storing it round the back and a charge for the containers with the Tractor and air fence panels in. It may be going legal so I cant say to much however to omens are not good. No as indicated above Tsunami its getting piled up round the back of the electronic scoreboard stand and billed to the Speedway for sitting there, It is a disgrace the most successful west Cumbrian team of all time are just getting absolutely shafted, the Leader of the Council who said on TV we will support the Comets in their endeavours and back them to the hilt has gone to ground, help!!!! what help?, its a disgrace how the Club the Fans and the Promotion have been and are being treated... Not sure what can be done now I am absolutely gutted Regards THJ