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Whilst I am sure the racing matters, for me the lack of any atmosphere generated by having so few fans st Speedway meetings is what's killing it quicker. Perceived poor racing in front of a big crowd always seems so much better, and vice versa, great Speedway comes across as much less than it should when played out in front of 'one man and his dog'.. Hardly any away fans, and a home fanbase quieter than a Library, means a very flat atmosphere, and ultimately suggests the meeting isn't one that has any value and therefore not worth your continued patronage.. Unfortunately poor crowds are a self fulfilling prophecy... As why should you attend when hardly anyone else does? And slowly and inexorably the rot sets in.. Maybe collectively the sport should agree away fans get some special deals to encourage their attendance..? Fuel costs now are far different from 20 years or so ago meaning an away trip can be an expensive night out.. To help offset these costs, maybe charging just a fiver entrance to away fans would be worth it? Tickets they have to purchase from their home track direct on match nights in person, so as not to allow any 'non away fans' to jump on to the offer by post or via websites.. "Buy a ticket to tonight's meeting and get in to the next away match for a fiver"! Hardly any away fans go now so selling tickets for a fiver wouldn't do too much damage to profits I would suggest, and it may just deliver a better atmosphere... Which may also deliver a more positive self fulfilling prophecy?

My 15 year old enjoys speedway a looks forward to going if I suggest it. Five pounds doesn't break the bank, but I don't go regularly - just when the mood takes me. I do think that letting under 16s or under 18s in for free would be a good strategy to get kids interested and parents attending, particularly if you are going to attend regularly.

Why is it a shame that we dont allow foreign riders in the British National Development League?

I’m sorry but does Hans have to have 4 rides? If not Carl Johnson needs to take some of the blame for the poor end to the meeting. Because if Summers was going to go in heat 14, which he did, why did Hans go out in heat 13, we knew before heat 13 that Summers was out in heat 14 yet had not ridden since heat 7. So the track was going to be completely different to then, surely common sense for a team manager is to replace a rider who is so obviously off the pace with a rider, who was going well in the beginning of the meeting, therefore giving them a better chance in heat 14 by having a run out in the heat before?

We seem to do moaning on here better than any other clubs supporters unfortunately. Some of it justified but the vast majority really not.

Having, Howarth, King and Proctor, a think you have a good start, a lot will depend on how your other 4 take to Brough. Newcastle have not been impressive at home yet, but its probly still like an away track for most. Hope Newcastle can start to click, but I wouldn't be suprised if it was a Sheffield win.

Agree- wouldn`t argue however no 8 should be Polish U21 rider not a foreign rider who then is not used in an injury situation- he is used to get around the regulation that says each team must have 4 polish riders in 1 to 7. Now one of them is named but doesn`t ride !!!

So many people want riders sacked after just 2 or 3 meetings. Its ridiculous to manage that way, all riders must get a fair chance of 10 meetings minimum. The team won. The league hasn't started.

My point is this team is not good enough..and Johnson was suggesting we are..which I disagree with.

So I called it smack on at heat 10. The writing was on the wall that early. As Lynn struggled at hom in their first meeting, so did Pirates tonight. But a pretty awful meeting in all honesty. The first thing was just before parade Tony Steele said a section of air fence needed replacing as it had a small hole and was not fully inflated. I noticed this yesterday at P&P. Why leave it until tapes up to do something about it? On a cold night the start was delayed until 8 pm due to this. Amateur hour. Then the scoreboard malfunctioned. Amateur hour two. Poor. The racing was poor. Mostly gate and go bar two heats. One where Proctor got on it and passed mobile chicane Holder and then Josh G. And in another with Poole on a 5-1 and Palm Toft snuck up the inside of Klindt, who was going to slow. The other heats were mostly from the gate. In heat 13 Kurtz knew he had to make the start but touched the tapes. In heat 15 he knew he had to make the start but Riss slammed the door and that was that. A deserved win for Lynn. Luckily it was won in the first leg.

Looks like Poole have more to worry about than new kelvars

Hope your internet goes down for a while

Speedway had it's boom times before the advent of race suits tbh. Race jackets are fine imo and certainly don't stop you winning the title

Not at all. Was up against a couple of the better reserves in the league I would suggest. Just hope a blank scoreline doesn't dent his confidence. Great start from everyone else with a special mention for Valentin who looks good on a bike. His 0's were not through lack of effort. Hopefully this form will follow us away from home too.

Reading the Speedway Star, and looking at the admission costs listed for each track, I thought I would see what the cost would be for me and my 15 year old lad to attend each circuit.. These teenage years (last year at school) seems to be the ones when 'kids' drift away from the sport, just at the time you would want to keep them interested as they are only one small step away from being potential paying customers themselves.. With the SON being just £22.50 for me and my lad to get in, it certainly puts into perspective some of the admission charges being asked for, and may also give some steer as to why terraces are hardly full to bursting. Some real disparate numbers for 'the same product'... Fair play to Buster, his three teams are by some way the lowest charging in the Premiership.. £27 - Glasgow, Edinburgh (Booked Online pre match day it's £25 at Edinburgh) £25 - Poole, Belle Vue, Wolverhampton, £23 - Swindon, Kent £22 - Redcar, £21.50 - Birmingham £21 - Scunthorpe, Somerset £20 - Newcastle £19 - Cradley £18 - Kings Lynn, Ipswich, Peterborough, Plymouth, Eastbourne £17 - Berwick £16 - Sheffield £15 - Leicester £13 - Isle Of Wight, Mildenhall £12 - Leicester Cubs £10 - Belle Vue Colts..

Weather is set fair for tomorrow. Both teams full strengths. Kings Lynn need to make up a ten point deficit from the first leg. Can they do it? Poole have their first meeting of the season and Holder, Busk-Jackobsen and Covatti need time to settle into their new track. Pirates could be vulnerable if Lynn fire on all cylinders. Will it happen? Will it hell. Poole easy winners.

Thanks-still think the whole no 8 thing stinks !!!! but i suppose the Extraleague know best !!! Riders like Jakub Jamrog and Norbert Koscuich are just cannon fodder and don`t deserve to be pi$$ed around !!!, Pawel Przedpelski was treated awfully by the rule last season, and as a result Torun have lost a decent Polish rider.

Are you sure it's not Hans, as the Andersen at Peterborough has scored zero points from four rides

Thanks!

Absolutely, I made the trip down last night and to be honest I was really pleased driving back up the M5. I never thought we would keep them so close, especially with the top 3 they have. Its gonna be tough everywhere we go but as long as they give it a go and keep the score respectable thats all we can ask. Ashley Morris rode so well last night, Zach again having a solid meeting to, thats a good pairing at 3 and 4. Ulrich was more on the pace, Castagna won two races again to prove the haters wrong and Shanes scored his average. Good night all round

No it doesn`t matter but its one of the reasons Speedway is on a downward spiral. It portrays a poor image.

He might even have had a pay rise !

Likewise, especially at reserve. Cant think who would have tapes problems!!

Id be stunned if Wright averages more than Harris and definately Scheiln this season.

It's not as easy as you think Naj, I know, as I try every year and getting small businesses to sponsor/advertise with the club is getting harder by the year. Whilst getting supporters to fund the suits sounds great, and might work in Glasgow or Leicester where you have a much larger conurbations to gather support from, it's a lot more difficult in somewhere like Somerset, you only have to look at the kind of support you get when asking supporters to support events at the arena, away from normal race night, even when the cost is negligible, it's the same old small hard core of people who attend & spend the money. As to your point about it not being appealing to sponsors, the club attracted several new sponsors last season and that was without race suits, as they were more interested in the hospitality side to entertain their clients and staff. One of those sponsors have increased there spend on sponsoring with us this season and the lack of race suits never entered the equation with them, they just wanted more visibility at trackside and around the arena, in addition to the hospitality side of things. If you speak to new sponsors coming into the sport, in my experience, it's more to do with networking & hospitality, somewhere to bring clients or potential clients as a way to tie up their business. If you and others want to come forwards and offer to buy the race suits for the team, and to keep for yourself at the end of the season, then I'm sure the promotion would be very happy to talk it through with you and anyone wishing to do that. If you look at the reasons the promotion took the decision to take the club back into the Championship, you'll realise that it was done to safeguard the long term future of the club, and not to take a huge financial hit that would see us in the top league, only to have a limited life span. It was also a decision that was taken at the actual AGM, and not beforehand, as the intention was to run in the Premiership again, but decisions made at that AGM made it financially impossible for that to happen and for the club to continue into the foreseeable future. The promotion's ethos is to ensure they don't do anything that puts the club in danger of big financial losses, so if that means that we run in the Championship for now, and no race suits, that fine by me, as I would rather the club survive, than join the likes of Rye House, Workington & Lakeside on the proverbial speedway scrapheap. Next year is another year, and if the terms are right, I'm sure that the promotion would look at moving back to the Premiership (If there is one to move back to that is), and if they can be funded, I'm sure race suits would be on the agenda, but until that happens, we are where we are. I know for a fact, because I've talked to him at length about it, that Garry sorted out a really good deal for Wrighty, and I know how it was going to be funded. Wrighty stated at events he attended at the Oaktree, before the season, that he wanted to come back, he virtually told the fans he was coming back and had accepted the deal Garry put together. He agreed to rejoin the team, and it was the best deal he could have got from us. However, a team that came to the AGM, and pleaded abject poverty, saying that they couldn't run if they didn't get a 36pt team building average agreed by the rest of the promoters, then went and offered him far more than we had offered or could afford. So despite the fact that you feel he will be a top rider in the league this season, which I don't disagree with, he is not at Somerset, and that isn't the clubs fault. I'm not saying it's Wrighty's fault either, as riders will go where the money is, but when a team tells you it can't run unless you dumb down the product to something that is totally unrecognisable, and then acts like that, something's very wrong with this game.