Coventry_Bee

The way the teams have been built just shows how strong the reserve position is going to be. Then you take on the Number 2 position with Lawson vs Jenkins but then you have the Doyle/Emil factor so the averages have to work positively where. The top 5 for Leicester is really solid. As a neutral I think it’s great to see Emil and Doyle team ride, Saying that I doubt Doyle knew on heat 4 that his teammate was behind him as he was gone and never looked back but that heat 15 and Emil’s control of the bike and where he constantly looked where Doyle was made for great speedway. Danny King and Adam Ellis is a strange pairing as they just seem to be where the other one wants to be. Overall a really enjoyable close meeting. Roll on the summer when it’s a bit warmer though !!

I was just wondering the other day that where in British speedway is the next Scott & Bomber? Looking back at the loyalty to British speedway and the rivalry they have shared since around 2006 time. The British finals and epic races against each other giving each other racing room but passing and re-passing was top quality. Unfortunately they are at the latter part of their careers but still are out of season helping promote Oxford speedway at the football match vs Reading and maybe it’s just me but on British speedway basis I don’t think there is the same affinity with say Tai, Robert Lambert and maybe it’s a little early to judge Dan Bewley. Obviously as a bees fan I’m quite biased towards Scott and Bomber but I think they have been really pivotal for so many great moments over the last few decades and will be greatly missed once they retire.

Did anyone else have Heat Leader for the spectrum? Think it was around 1987 time, many a hour spent Leading Coventry to victory.

I thought the Council and SCS have excellent closing statements, I listened a bit to Goatley but his voice goes through me. I’m glad the council gave special mention to Phil Morris. Given all the evidence I still find it hard to fathom how anyone could think a 3G pitch is suitable replacement for the stadium. Having that 2 faced cretin Osbourne will back fire on B.E but no matter what no more could possibly have been done to save Brandon.

I do find the use of averages still a completely unnecessary system where teams that are successful are ripped apart. Teams are built to a decimal off the daft points limit and then we see multiple team changes throughout the year. Riders should be graded and throw the calculators in the bin.

Lambert will forget what he said come August next year when he comes waltzing back. He’s ridden Kings Lynn for years so to moan about Ipswich is a bit of a p*ss take. Regarding the league I’m sure the tv deal with have some bearing and read about Birmingham but with better attendance numbers at Oxford would they be tempted? Or stay where they are and keep Nicholls & co for another season?

Look at Man City, they announce capacity attendance with lots of empty seats. :-/

Well I think once the final bits are sorted in November the inspector will have a lot to think about. It’s such a tough one to call as if it was purely B.E vs SCS it may be different but is also the council’s position here that the inspector has to consider. The actual framework for the appeal goes much deeper than spectator or participants and lack of numbers in terms of attendances. I think Phil Morris’s opening statement really set the tone in my view that speedway has a future. Did anything B.E say really convince that the 3G pitch is a suitable replacement when you wheel out a potential buyer, a speedway promoter and nobody but B.E want the build. The locals or 96/4 against it too! The tick box of the pitch and the convenient damage of the stadium used to argue the viability to reopen the stadium! Luckily the inspector seems surprisingly a very down to earth and switched on person.

And I thought the talk about the pitch was absolutely drivel. It’s almost laughable the argument that Brandon Estates are putting up for 3G pitch and affordable housing. Like they are doing the area a favour and as mentioned it’s a necessity for the affordable housing not because they want to do it, same as the pitch was never on original plans but is now because it ticks a box. Mr Goatly is annoying, he’s paid lots of money to be so and try and get any attention to the inspector to try and undermine the council and SCS. It must however get to a point where it’s like is that all you have ? His derogatory comments are purposely done and will continue to be I’m sure as the facts are that nobody but Brandon Estates wants this housing estate. Council, cross party support, locals, fans of both sports… the list goes on but to try and convince the inspector he’s going to be as condescending and try any trick possible. I hope the way Oxford have gone about their business and incorporated school visits etc is mentioned at some stage, and in what other sport I’d say do you get the chance to meet and get photos with your hero’s as easy as it is and especially with speedway who have massive role models and how a football pitch comes even close to being comparable is just beyond logic? It’s a shame Scott Nicholls couldn’t have been used, our most successful captain and I’m sure he’d have given a good account of what being a participant in winning leagues in front of thousands of fans at Brandon was like. This deferential from participating to spectator is just odd, anyone who watched football on tv when it returned after covid will see exactly the effect it has.

So after finally catching up on most of the weeks events it’s quite apparent that this will go down to the wire with Brandon Estates and the council along with the SCS group really showing how evidence is cross examined and my word a few of the guys had a tough time. I have seen comments about when will the state of the stadium come up but as it’s a planning issue being looked at and in the councils opening statement i don’t think it actually matters in the context of this hearing however in the broader evidence that will no doubt be looked at by the lady appointed by the Secretary of State it’s quite clear and I’m sure has been seen many times the woeful neglect of the stadium will be clear to see. Phil Morris was absolutely brilliant and after the hard time Neil Allen was given I was fearing the worst but then after seeing it when the tables are turned it’s clear to see that anybody being cross examined gets equally a grilling and water is sipped at quite a rate. The surprise from the SCS group was that the lack of action plan when Mr Hunter was asked as such but then as mentioned with no access to the stadium and the condescending way it asked about structural engineering backgrounds etc. But B.E don’t have much to go on so anything is going to be tried to give them any kind of advantage. Mr Eady spent most of his time in the cross examination so far back you couldn’t hear him or so close it was hurting my ears listening. When he was asked questions most of it was “if that’s what he said” or ask someone else further down the line. His back up for viability was sketchy at best and again it’s all centred around speedways viability and not the fact stox is the main money earner is totally irrelevant to B.E funny enough.Not knowing how many riders in a team, not knowing about Oxford and the best bit was trying to fluff his way through the Swindon question. The 3G pitch saga nearly sent me to sleep on many occasions but funny enough considering the way Brandon Estates speak about it and how it’s so good for the local area, well it obviously wasn’t on at least the first 2 plans they submitted as it’s not included it’s only when that box needed ticking that they decided to do anything so it’s clear they’d never in a million years have bothered unless that had too so they have no thought still for the community only making millions of pounds. Looking at the latest plan, the football pitch is on the left hand side of the site as you enter from rugby road but at the back of the houses already lived in. So these houses will potentially have 7 day a week noise from football pitch, floodlights and car noise right at the bottom of their back gardens. Nice touch ! I hope the guy from Bradford is able to make it and also Matt Ford, it will really need people with some presence in the cross examinations as the guy for Brandon Estates will be as annoying as he was this week. Phil Morris gave him as much as he got and as much as the legal teams try to be pedantic the facts are the facts and being strong and confident during cross examination is all important. No doubt Mr Osbourne will have some obscure reasoning behind the Swindon venture but hopefully the SCS and especially the Council legal team will be as good as they were this week. The man for the council I think is especially good and he will need to be the same next week as the closing statements will hold be massively important in trying to get the appeal to hold up our way.

That was a tough watch but it’s still early days and of course B.E are going to dig at anything at all possible to get an upper hand even though I found it bizarre that the cost of reinstating the stadium was mentioned when what’s coming is how it got into that state?. The witness for the council in all fairness kept his cool as he was spoken too quite poorly at times and was asked questions they knew he wasn’t going to have answers for. B.E will soon have plenty of questions to answer themselves from the campaign group as B.E are still hell bent on separating speedway and stox. It was never going to be plain sailing and no matter the outcome the campaign group could not have done more and I’m pretty confident that when given their time to speak they will go hell for leather to paint Brandon Estates for what they really are.

If you took starting line ups from March to now there must be only a handful of riders who haven’t been replaced throughout the league. As a Coventry fan I don’t have the same issue but I look back on my favourite sides and we had a settled team, and you had an affinity with riders and this tosh about team spirit they try give these days. It’s a merry go round with no loyalty from clubs.

Not many riders turn down the opportunity to earn a living, but it’s certainly not been a good move all round. From sacking the captain who made it clear he didn’t want to move so I don’t think you’ll find many people feeling sorry for the mess Leicester have found themselves in.

I said the absolute crap written on here sometimes, as in the forum as a whole and you can take your pick on a fair bit of it I’d say.

I’m sure Cook hasn’t traveled 100’s of miles to perform below par on purpose, anybody who rides a speedway bike deserves the upmost respect as we have seen careers ended or worse so the absolute crap written on here sometimes needs putting in perspective. anybody watching Craig tonight can see his confidence is shot, he’s miles and miles away from where he was and the struggles he has it’s not nice to see the demise of his career. I’m no particular fan of his don’t get me wrong but this evening I really did feel for him and he’s been put a little into the firing line in being hired by Leicester. This well maybe have been an unpopular opinion but I doubt he’s feeling too great himself driving back up the motorway. If Morris hadn’t have been a complete idiot the team would have looked a lot stronger still.

Doyle and Emil were a class apart and I must say the view you get at Leicester is so good, so close to the action. Bomber is far from past it, the track prep just doesn’t suit him and if the meeting was up for grabs i honestly think he’d have been much harden on Dan, but take nothing away from a great ride but bomber was a little too fair. great meeting but Leicester need to sort out morris situation fast as Troy isn’t the answer.

It’s a shame the top British riders can’t make it, would really make it more of a fight than anyone seriously trying to get near Bewley. Not really surprised about Nicholls, the venue really isn’t suited and unless he’s going to be in the mix he’s obviously looking ahead with his TV career. Those Wolverhampton British finals with Nicholls and Harris were certainly entertaining and no inch given. I do think a change with the danish style that takes in different venues as it gives the technical track craft along side just being 8 stone dripping wet trying to hang onto the bike full throttle around Belle Vue but that’s just my personal take.

For Joe’s own sake I hope they make a change. He’s got no confidence at this level and he’s scoring well for the lower league Leicester team but he was looking really wobbly going into the corners with his handlers twitching all over the place. As a neutral it was good meeting to attend and Emil certainly showed his class, Doyle was constantly in his way in heat 13 but at least it goes to show Doyle was putting the effort in as with a GP at the weekend and the meeting lost he could have just gone through the motions. It certainly is different going to a meeting with no particular affiliation to a club, great to see so many ex bees riders of course but viewing wise you don’t get much closer to the action than at Leicester.

Overall it was an ok meeting, passing was limited and even then that was due to riders getting bends 3 & 4 wrong. Saying that heat 13 was brilliant, hard but fair racing and that’s the way it should be. like I said it was a fair bit of gate and go and I’ve seen much better racing up at Leicester so it may be just a one off but with riders such as Bomber and Lawson in your team I personally felt that the track didn’t do them any favours in being able to do what they do. Saying that Bomber did make a few good starts though and always good to see Nicholls do well, shame Rory had an off night as always a soft spot for our ex Bees.

You get the feeling Harris wants to be as close to Coventry as possible this season.

Well it’s certainly a shock signing, some of the comments a little harsh but time will tell. I can only imagine that his fiancée hasn’t settled and they are returning to the uk? You’d imagine they had a plan to move to Australia once Rory had finished Speedway, if the move hasn’t gone as planned and Rory has the desire to race still then fair play to him and don’t forget the work he put in with British youngsters so I wish Rory and his family all the very best on returning to the Uk.

I found the meeting really interesting in the way it all progressed. Of course a massive well done to the committee for the thousands of hours that has ripped apart anything that Brandon estates has tried to put through. One of my thoughts just around a process like this that was suggested by the planning officer (twice in theory) yet the council unanimously threw it out so how does it get to both sides being so far apart? the details or actual facts obviously that supported our stance in it being a complete joke and any appeal will throw up the same facts vs fiction again. This before the trial in Rugby borough council vs Brandon Estates and this again will be interesting to see what they try and come up with to protest any innocence. The photographs and Jeff has supplied plenty of them only tell one thing, The land owners failed the local community, then the council and then decided to ignore them again so hopefully this will be yet another nail to really make Brandon Estates think enough is enough.

As a neutral I found it entertaining but if I’d have been a fan of either team I’d have been annoyed with some of the decisions over the 2 meetings. The inclusion of Lambert is another debate and for me personally it should have been somebody who’d ridden here all season or at least bothered with the British final , not turning up on these shores once your meetings have dried up and it suits but like I say that’s just my personal take on that one. Speedway in general seems hell bent on excluding riders, some racing incidents don’t always warrant an exclusion yet somebody has to be excluded? As paying public we want to see hard racing and fair racing, in these circumstances it would be great to see an option where the ref could put all 4 back In but it will never happen and we’d probably have about 7 re-runs per meeting and with curfew times it would be a nightmare but it really does annoy me when a great race stopped by a rut that’s fired a rider off the bike or close racing and somebody comes off. Sometimes exclusions are as clear as day but for a referee to have no option to put all 4 back in is one thing I’d certainly like to see changed, I mean where does the first bend bunching rule actually end?

Bets on another maximum from Robert Lambert ? Made it a farce as if you think Fricke would get the points Lambert has the past few meetings you are mad. Edit - Bets are off, but he’s still outscored Fricke by some distance.

I think it’s a good move, they have obviously done the sums and have good backing with JCB so why not do it. Saturday night speedway with everything else you can do these days even before you think of the grand prix’s is worth the risk. You lose some fans but you also gain some, plus once a few have calmed down and see the team they put out maybe they will have a change of heart. It’s a well run club and I’m sure they won’t be short on riders wanting to join, Dan Thompson is definitely worth keeping and it just depends on the rest of this years team who double up as to what they want to do. Personally I think Nicholls would be a bargain, especially at home as he won’t be at Peterborough next season. Interesting times and to the unhappy Leicester fans just count yourself lucky. Being a Coventry fan I miss Brandon and my speedway up there, I go to Leicester now and again but it’s not the same. They are not my club, and I’m sure Swindon, Lakeside, Eastbourne.. the list goes on would agree. Enjoy what you have in front of you.