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I know the word legend gets thrown about far too easily nowadays but the guy is an absolute legend of British speedway! I know it’s a bit of a standing joke of who is Harris guesting for tonight but one thing is sure the day he retires speedway will be all the poorer for it.

Sadly because it fits an agenda used by a minority of the people on this platform. Sadly, this minority won't be happy until they see another club fold and close, without realising the knock on effect of such a decision. It would leave an entire region, not just a city/town - the whole of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Gloucestershire without a team. Just let that sink in for a minute? Millions of people without a team to support, they'd rather that happened than see the Gladiators make a good go at things. I really feel for Mark, he's constantly getting battered from all sides (including by riders from other clubs!) despite doing what he can with what he's got. People are more than entitled to their views I get that, hence why we are on a public forum discussing it however most of the time, it's not constructive, it's not helpful and it's hurtful what people say about the Gladiators.... However, it's us against the world and we're going to embrace that!! "No one likes us, we don't care... We are Plymouth..."

You seem obsessed with men's helmets!

Fancy Berwick to just sneak this 61-29.

i had one and was in that much pain wife went to stay at her sisters, she came back though guess it was a case of abscess makes the heart grow fonder

That document on the PCC planning portal that gives the AEPG rebuttal of the speedway at the EoES is very telling. The obvious anger in the tone of it shows how much Butterfield is hurting and how much the fact that he had no idea at all about anything to do with speedway was in his mind all along.. The fact that he didn't even understand the position of speedway in the sporting hierarchy of the country is an obvious open personal failure on his part. It shows that he has had no intention at all of even considering speedway as a part of his thinking when he used the standard proforma approach to the development planning structure. That exposed level of incompetence has become personal now. In that document he has exposed the extent to which he was intent on only considering the bog-standard development type carbon copy that has succeeded when used by others in the past down south. That hollow personal crusade approach makes it very clear that the sort of activities that have made the EoES so valued by the community were never going to line his pockets to the extent he thinks he needs to survive. That makes him simultaneously both dangerous and vulnerable. The AEPG approach is to make a significant point in the low number of times a section of the EoES would be used for speedway. On it's own that simplistic outsider understanding is obvious in every part of the Butterfield plan. No separate proper spectator sport can ever hope to get close to making a profit without becoming a part of a shared multi-use volume occupancy. Even the new Spurs stadium has been designed to take in American Football, Women's Football and huge pop concerts plus more. Moreover, if you are shouting your mouth out about only allowing one more year of occupancy to anything, including speedway while you draw your plans up was always going to make sure that having more than one speedway team riding at the EoES was going to be impossible to justify. The lack of speedway in Peterborough is solely down to one misguided outsider. Any multi-use sport facility of the kind that anyone with a single brain-cell would contemplate to future-proof the continued community value of the EoES would have to be designed to accommodate a wide range of sports, both inside and outside. The areas under the grandstands could be able to house gym-type sporting facilities, squash, badminton, martial arts and so-on. The centre green could be used for grass type sports like local school football and hockey championships and so on. Add that to the fact that the local plan only approved 650-ish houses by including the LP30 sections because it was making sure that there were proper large spaces to carry on the EoES legacy of events rather than the Butterfield concrete jungle of houses, the hotel/pub that no brewery will ever want to take on and daft posh-boy psuedo-sports concrete shells, mean this ill-conceived pile of dross should be consigned to hanging on a piece of string in the smallest room so it is at least doing something useful.

Yes it is called Turnupandwatch it works really well

I have a holiday caravan in South Devon and, as well as following my home town team, I have followed Exeter Falcons and the Plymouth Devils/Gladiators as well as the Somerset Rebels. At the Arena I have seen some cracking meetings over the years including those when Plymouth started up again and were in speedways third tier. The track might be a bit tricky but I've seen some spectacular overtaking and there's no time for the riders to get strung out like I saw at the NSS on Monday. If anyone reading this is having a holiday in South Devon or North Cornwall this summer, I urge you to go to the Coliseum for a good night's speedway. There's plenty of free parking in the Coypool Park and Ride Car Park and plenty of seating!

He's attached in the Premiership though which I'd have thought makes him eligible.

Yeah thats another crazy thing. Fans are quick to complain about lack of value at speedway yet when promoters agree to delay 15 minutes to give fans as strong a meeting as they can they get hammered for that too. I cant believe I am sticking up for promotions but in this case I think they are getting unfair stick (and unlike some I speak out when I think someone is being treated badly)

The only criticism you can have about Polish speedway is the lack of atmosphere...

Why do Plymouth get so much grief (on various sites) for their rain-offs? Currently they've raced the same amount of home fixtures (0) as Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oxford (Cheetahs), Redcar & Workington. Plymouth can race on Tuesdays & Saturday, whilst clubs like Edinburgh, Oxford & Redcar also have to fit in 5 NL fixtures. Yet still many act like Plymouth will be the club holding everyone up etc. I just don't get the negativity towards Plymouth?

What a night! After some bad luck in the first heat it looked like we were in for a long night but the Comets dug deep and really impressed especially with limited experience around the STMP. Great to have plenty of supporters making lots of noise!

Cookie only gave his own honest opinion which he is entitled to do. The difference is he's not hiding behind a keyboard like many others on here do..

That was a top night. Big crowd and a great meeting. Passing in most races. You can see why Woffy praised the track, smooth as you like. Made me feel even more gutted about the demise of my own team but its good to see Oxford doing so well. If only we had top league local derbies to look forward to. Nice to see a Swindon number 1 wrap the points up against Oxford though!!!

It is the annual "Leicester already need to make changes" thread.....

Have I missed a forum directive that members have to put their holiday details on the forum?? Surely this would be of no interest to any other poster and pointless!!

In other words there is nothing wrong with it this season. Especially now they have improved it with the extra banking.

Done on both. Sanitised, de-personalised and re-pointed.

I fully expect to be six up after heat 2.

No rain forecast, been dull and windy all day. As has the weather

John Louis was a good servant to the club in 83/84. Very sad his passing wasn’t acknowledged.

I have paid £169 for tickets then £273 for the Premier Inn at Manchester Denton for four nights, I consider that to be good value.

Your own!!

it will only get worse as the lower limit is going to falsely inflate averages so the leagues "better" riders won't be as good as they were 10 years ago and the competition at the bottom will become poorer for it. British Speedway needs strengthening from the bottom up not top down if its to have any chance of surviving.