E I Addio

I think they have about a £30,000 bond which a promotion forfeits if they pull out. I understand there is at least one other PL club. Looking seriously at CL next year .

It's still there. Still basically the same old echo chamber with the same old three or four moaners making the same old blah-de- blah complaints about meetings they never go and see. Still moaning because it's not like Hackney where the team was full of "characters" , and every race was packed with excitement, every match went down to the wire, and everyone went home poisoned by fumes from the Boake Roberts chemical works next door.

Roughly an hour later than normal. Around 10.40 ish . Normally finish around 9.35- 9.40

In fairness , I think both the incidents involving Gappmier were pure racing incidents. Emotions run high when a rider gets hurt, but as I saw it both Alfie and Dany were going hell for leather for the same piece of track, they may or may not have touched, I couldn't be sure , but Gappmier lost control and T-boned Kyle who was just ahead of them. Didn't look deliberate to me, but he have got carried away and been riding above himself.

To be fair , only the referee can dictate the pace of the meeting. All the team manager , pit Marshall and clerk of the course can do is make sure the riders are on notice when they are out for the next race. Almost all the delay can be accounted for by repairs to the air fence when Lawson went under it , and more significantly waiting for the track doctor to return after treating Kyle. Those are delays that are unavoidable in this sport. Persnally, I can't remember the last time a Lakeside meeting over ran by this amount or anything like it . It must be at least 10 years. It's not ans if it's happening every meeting.

That is a very fair post and IMO a very fair assessment. I grew up watching speedway at a big track and it took me some time to adjust to Arena but as you say its in the eye of the beholder. According to Stuart Robson, it was the most physically demanding track in what was then the Elite League, and according to Kelvin Tatum and Neil Middleditch it is a very mentally demanding track . Of course that gives it both plusses and minuses as a spectacle but unfortunately some want to dismiss it without looking for the finer points. However to see someone like Peter Karlsson performing his famous cut backs at Lakeside or Wolves is really a special aspect of the sport that you don't see at many tracks. One thing Kelvin said, is that many riders are beaten in their minds before the racing even starts. They convince themselves they cant ride certain tracks so don't overcome the mental challenge, especially if they know they have a track the next night that gives them a big payday. Of course there are the narrow minded armchair experts who never will get there minds round the fact that different tracks have different qualities, but personally I think we are very lucky in this country to have such a variety of tracks to enjoy. Its just a pity that most of them are in such dilapidated stadiums

Hash tagging words like naysayer and nonbeliever doesn't add to the validity of your argument. According to your assessment Cardiff at 285 metres is not a "proper " Speedwáy track . Poole , at 299.1 metres is not a proper Speedwáy track in your estimation but if they extended it by one metre it would be according to you. It may have escaped your notice but we don't have enough new or developing Speedwáy tracks in the pipeline to be fussy about size. There are many, many factors that create the spectacle of a Speedwáy meeting, one of the most important being a presentation that heightens the anticipation of the crowd. If the presentation is right and the right atmosphere created poor racing will seem good. To demonstrate that point you only have to look at some of the YouTube clips of the old World Finals. The racing in some of them was very ordinary yet people have fantastic memories of them because of the atmosphere and experience. I guarantee that if a state of the art stadium , like Belle Vue were built with a 260/270 metr track, properly prepared, with good quality material on it. you would see some very good racing, providing the riders were all of roughly the same standard. Of course , you don't often get riders of that standard all in the same meeting.

Do you seriously believe the comments in S/S came from people who were not there?

See Wolfie 456's post immediately above yours.

You have obvious ly never seen Jason Edwards , then, a product of Lakeside's Academy, still only 15 and raising more than a few eybrows in the NL .

Word of praise for two of Lakeside's lesser lights. Firstly, Congratuations to Kyle Newman on his first paid max for the Hammers. After a steady but solid start to the year he I'd starting to kick on now. With Kyle naturally on the inside line ans Adam on the outside they are becoming a formidable pairing. Secondly , Alfie Bowtell still finds it hard at this level , but I notice he is becoming a very good gater, particular off the inside two. Off the outside gate he seems to lose his way on bends 1&2 a bit but that will come with experience. Two points is better than 0 and if he can extend that to 3or 4 by the end of the season he will have done well. The crowd love him because he is a trier.

There was Olle Nygren who always had plenty to say for himself, the immaculate Ken McKinlay, who variously rode for both England and Scotland as well as Great Britain, Les "Atom Bomb " McGillivray, and while talking about hard men we must not forget Clive Featherby whole apparently had an extra long footrest so he could have people off. His catchphrase was "Speedwáy is for men, not mice ".

Morris and Lawson have shown hints of inconsistency lately. Alfie Bowtell is still on a learning curve, so Lakeside are to all intents and purposes a six man team. They have it in them to win but recent form suggests they could fall short.

In those days the British Final was one of the World Championship Qualifiers so Aussies and Kiwis had to ride in it to get to the next round. It was a World away from the meaningless Mickey Mouse thing it has now become.

Funny thing about riding styles. To my mind, nobody seems to have a more awkward style than Stuart Robson, yet for most of his career he has been a pretty reasona able top league second string. Then we have Lewi Kerr who could hardly complete four laps without falling off when he first came to Lakeside, now look at him, a very good CL second string , probably on the way to being a heatleader. I do agree though that an NL place will do Alfie's confidence a lot of good, and hopefully we will see him come into his own at the business end of the season. Can't fault his enthusiasm or determination, so it would be great to see him succeed. Well done to Ben also winning heat one on Saturday. Good to know there is a number two capable of winning heat one and getting us off to a good start when the heatleader gets blocked on the first bend. Ben is another one that has made slow but steady progress and is now beginning to establish himself solidly at CL level.