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I have seen that Brennan has been to Plymouth a couple of times and was with the Eagles at King's Lynn. I'm not sure what Leon has done this year but full credit to him for going. He will have learned loads...as Tom did when he did the U-19s a couple of years ago. Riding in Europe is the way forward for these youngsters as has been shown by Robert Lambert; an extraordinary talent who has raced in the hard leagues of Poland where the promoters are, to coin a phrase, Ruthless.

HackneyHawk and Fromafar say some very tough and some would say harsh things, BUT they are true, NOT doom and gloom but realistic. The owner/promoters are totally to blame for the demise of the sport, in particular over the past few years, when it’s gone from bad to worse. The management of the BSPA, Godfrey, Chapmen & Co are woefully poor and fail to see that if people stop buying your products, it’s more than likely the product that is wrong NOT the customer, it’s as simple as that!! The Covid crisis is only speeding up the inevitable closure of Clubs as many were ‘zombie’ businesses staggering along and ready to die. Speedway is currently financially unsustainable and Clubs are running up huge debts that can not be repaid, the result will be disastrous. Only a lunatic, with more money than sense, would invest in speedway. Sadly but truthfully the people running the sport have proved to be clueless clowns and do not possess the acumen to turn things around.

Worst I've seen the track . Hopefully just down to lack of water on track on a very hot day

I was correct then

Bragging again

Some of the very best racing I have seen at the NSS has been delivered by the NL lads.. The days of 'wobblers' and 'all fall downers' are long gone... And a very reasonable admission price point too..

"The best"? Workington were in the second division. Anyway, I can assure you that when Birmingham went into the NL in 2015, the racing was excellent, and served as a springboard to return to professional racing. Anyone who refuses to watch NL racing is merely cutting off their nose to spite their face.

Tom Brennan 4th in u21 semi today. Qualifies for the final. Well done Tom. What a result.

The government have an impossible job but while thousands are allowed on to beaches there is no justification in not allowing some sort of crowd who are marshalled properly at a sporting event.

From a personal point of view, i am doing nothing different than i was at the height of the lockdown. I social distance, regularly wash my hands, wear a mask when required and avoid crowded places. It's not rocket science, is it?

I'm not sure these riders are securing highly paid jobs in the city, I think the chance of earning a few hundred quid to a grand a night compared to minimum wage driving a van is a pretty easy decision to make.

I've not gone all through this thread but one thing I was wondering today is what if most of the riders who race in the British Leagues have now found themselves decent paid jobs this year to make a living. Come 2021 (if we are back to normal then) Will the same riders think "you know what, I'm quite enjoying having a steady income and not have to worry about the expense of running 2 bikes". Will the occasional spin in a Amateur meeting at Scunny be enough to satisfy their desire to race? Of cause I am only talking about the bread and butter riders here and not the top international one's who have lucrative deals in Poland or Sweden. Will be interesting to see what happens.

Poland is certainly an interesting case. I like many have held Poland up to be as the holy grail in what league speedway can be. The interesting thing is having watched several Polish matches on TV the quality of the racing isn't as good as I thought it would be. So that begs the question why is it so successful? I personally think its because the people who run it have made the show slick and ensures that it is ran in a highly professional manor. There for they have a product that the general public and business alike want to be involved with. The crowds generate a superb atmosphere. The combination of the atmosphere and the slick presentation makes the product cool regardless of the quality of racing. I guess the UK was once in that sort of position having watched racing from the 70s and 80s on you tube it wasn't all passing and excitement far from it. However you had the crowds the banter between Fans and the atmosphere that generated. Unfortunately as the sport became more and more micky mouse the fans started to drift away which ment less and less atmosphere so the quality of the racing became the focus wrongly in my opinion. For me I walked away because of the constant rule changes the vaslty over use of the guest rule. The double up and down rule finally saw an end to my picking and choosing meetings. Now I go once a year to catch up with friends who like me used to go. As a guy in his early 40s with young kids I was and should be part of speedways future. However until they can run the sport as a professional product or run it purely as an amateur sport and charge fiver to get in away I shall stay,

It may not completely stop the decline but if those in charge had the opportunity and the balls to hold their nerve, they would start addressing some issues including standardising the machines for league racing in this country. All rides have a choice as to where they ply their trade. In the U.K. we have nothing to gain by paying top dollar. A number of options are available to have standard bikes and if you get away from the expensive machinery you then are not held to ransom by riders over money. Riders to be classified according to their average and then impose a fixed fee per point and start with bonus paid for team riding a partner home. Review the average every two months. Until you get a grip with the variable costs of rider pay rates (fixed costs I would class as stadia, medical, insurance, track staff, referees etc all of which are probably standard and non-negotiable’ ) they are on a hiding to nothing. Control this cost and it might allow the promoter to fund the promotional side and perhaps offer incentives to the paying customer. The club owners may be to blame for many of the failings but the riders are a huge expense and this will remain out of control as long as the riders go for more and more expensive equipment. If you cannot get around a track on a standard machine and use your track craft and skills to win races rather then being a throttle merchant, then perhaps they should look for another job.

I remember being taken aback by the admission price too. Awful track, awful viewing. I recently bought a London Lions highlights dvd to see if the racing was better than I remembered..It wasn't!

I went to Glasgow for the PO Final last year and from the moment you turn up at the stadium it feels like you're going to be watching a professionally run sport, it's the standard all other clubs should be aiming for... it's just a shame they can't make it pay! I went to the first GP at Hackney and started off by standing on one of the "grass banks" until being moved on... then the best viewing position I could find was actually below the track and we stood there looking up at it, never went again. They should have called themselves the London White Elephants

The London Lions in 1996 was a tenner to get in. Astonishing, considering most tracks were charging £6 at the time. Despite all of problems at the stadium, i only missed 2 meetings there that season. I must have been mad!

Hackney 96! Yes what a disaster that was from the word go, countless issues with the stadium, the back straight stand never once opened, we started standing by the pits area but then suddenly after a few weeks got told we can’t stand there anymore, the general viewing was rubbish, one evening there was a power failure and even though there was a enough light to race they had to abandon because the main stand was air conditioned as it’s only source of proper ventilation. Over the years I have often grown tired of dry under watered slick tracks, poor presentation and sloppy time keeping and a hugely irregular fixture list, but even then I still kept going because so much of my life had revolved around the sport, I was at Arena Essex every season (not every meeting but 90% of them) from 1988-2018 the only season I didn’t go was when they went into the NL because I remembered the disaster of trying to run a Hackney side a few years previous along side the main Lakeside team, and if Arena was still running I would go, even if it was NL because for all it’s ills I miss the good things, the noise, the smell the sheer sight of bikes being thrown into corners sideways at speed.

It's grammar not spelling. The spelling was correct.

The spelling on this forum saddens me. It's Inquiry, not enquiry. Inquiry - Formal investigation Enquiry - When you enquire about something

Hackney Hawk, Like you I have endured experiences with rude and arrogant modern day "promoters" that made me wonder why I bother. Nil entertainment.... endless delays.... shabby stadium facilities and never even the decency of a reply to any letter sent. Some 3 seasons ago I gave up attending. My grandfather first watched speedway at Crystal Palace in the the early 1930's ... sadly I have ended the family tradition. Still take the Speedway Star and Classic Speedway magazine ... still watch speedway on TV , but you will never get me to visit another UK speedway track. I have great memories and prefer to keep them as great memories. Sadly from my personal band of speedway "diehard" supporter friends, many of them have passed away, and must be watching their speedway from afar.

last night meeting from poland full of young people and families not a dogs chance that happening in this country .i am a die hard i find it so depressing

Nah, they will just pick Chris Harris.

Black Lives Matter should have been All Lives Matter, everyone is equal.

Imagine if speedway crowds took the knee, most would never get back up again