weatherwatcher

I may be wrong but I think they need to look very hard at King, even after all his hours of practice around BP he still can't get to grips with it. Bjerre, was never good enough when the had him in the EL side, for the short while they had him, he has not made what they said his expectations where going to be, not a top grade rider, Ayers always tries but there are far better riders out there who could fill his place at reserve and get the points to win the meetings. As things stand, the lions will be losing most of their home meetings and all their away ones too. Changes need making and making soon, the fans will soon start to lose interest after all that was promised by the new management at the end of last season, what went wrong. The fans will be talking with their feet, then we will get a repeat of DH's days that the fans are not supporting the team, what do they expect, people to cough up hard earned cash to go watch a team that they know are going to not just get beaten but totally humiliated as against Wolves. But that said who do you put in their place. With so many riders doubling up it is hard to find any decent ones who will not miss that many meetings that it becomes the fascicle guest riders 4 home team 3

Somerset have soon gotten shut of Paul Starke, maybe time to make a move to get him back at BP, he certainly did no wrong last season riding for the Bees.

All I can say is that these days it is more like Magic Roundabout, than seeing a team stay together for a full season. Bring in Mr. Rusty or Dylan at reserve.

With most of the stadium in this country rented from someone else, the choice of race nights is limited to when the owners, let them use it. Is there a team in the top flight that has no double uppers, I have not looked, with so many racing for 2 or 3 teams, there is always going to be a clash of fixtures somewhere along the line. Gone are the days when you knew who your 1 to 7 where and you could follow them nearly every meeting. Now as is the case with the Lions, it makes you wonder sometimes who are the actual team members, with have been getting some many guests and r/r. That it makes a farce of picking a team, may just as well letting the clubs pick from a set number of riders for your meetings and forget having a team, because so far that is all that has been happening. There where meetings that the Lions should have won easily, only being let down by bad guests and the fact that the team are not actually riding together, to get to know one another. It is not just Leicester that has had to suffer this, it is a blight of all the clubs. They will have to get things sorted out and soon, because fans from all the clubs had just had their fill of guest riders, they thought that this year, it would make things better. It seems that it has only made matters worse. Things where looking up for the Lions at the start of the season, with a half decent team put together, with a chance of finishing up the top half of the table, the way things are going for them now they will be sitting at the bottom yet again. The fans where hoping for things to change, and change they must and soon before, people start walking away again, after being left disillusioned.

There are riders from Europe, young riders who would love a chance to be able to race over here, plus we have a few young British riders some who have deserved a team place this year and been left out of the reckoning, the 2 from Coventry fit that bill, will they get a chance when things start to change next month. How young lads from over here can be overlooked to help them bring on their careers, beats me. We need to get then riding at top level speedway not sitting there twiddling their thumbs. But the way they have set things up this year, this has got to be the weakest ever, top league they have ever managed to give us. The top league is no better than last years lower one. Gone are the days when we used be the pick of nations to ride at. with all the big stars in every team, then things started to change the riders got greedy, the promoters almost went bankrupt trying to pay them, with not enough coming through the gates to cover for it. Then the promoters told them they where only going to pay them a maximum fee. What did they do they, left our shores like rats from a sinking ship. Without what British speedway did for them, they would have struggled, to make a living. One day soon we will see the same things happen in Poland and Sweden, where clubs can no longer meet the wage demands. What would you do if you was a promoter and they came running to you with their tail between their legs asking for a place in the team. I for one would say sorry but our team for next year has already been chosen. It works both ways. it would be a case of we don't need you but they need us.

I never retaliate with a slanging match, if someone doesn't like what I post then that is their opinion, and until things start to get a little better at BP then I am afraid, that we will be staying at home. Hope things do improve as I have followed speedway from a lad at Long Eaton, be following the Lions since they started racing again at BP. Thought last years league was bad but no where near what they have dished up this year. Can't see why they just didn't make one big league, it would have saved on the double up riders.

No Gem, I did not make it to any meetings last season and very few the season before, due to having a hole in my toe that went right down to the bone, it was touch and go if I was going to have my toe removed. As for this season, I can't do anything until it starts to get really warm, as the cold plays havoc with my toe and i would end up coming home early. With it costing me around £60 a meeting with admission and fuel cost to get there I am not prepared to waste the money. What I see of thing so far this year it has been far worse than what we have had to put up with since the day things started up again, not only have we got a very watered down league, we have a team of riders, that can't even make it to the tapes on any given race night.We where told at the start that they would not be using any double up riders because of all the problems it causes with riders missing. So what did they do they got rid of 21 riders to be replaced by 2 double uppers. So now out of a team of 7 we have 5 that ride in the other leagues. Not a very good way to choose a team. So what happens on a given night when all 5 have to ride for their other clubs. 2 riders and 5 guests. There was no thought put into this new league structure at all. Or should I say there has been very little thought put into looking into what rider races for which teams and sorting race nights to make sure that there are no clashes with the clubs. This to me is one of the worst years that the B.P.S.A/S.C.B have managed to put together. So as far as my grandson and I coming to BP this season, we will wait a while and see how things play out a bit. I for one can't afford to waste the money to come and watch a team of guest riders week in week out. At least they have a few weeks to get the shale brought in and get some put on the track as they have a few weeks before another home meeting. I had great hopes at the start of this year with the new management, but I am beginning to have my doubts now. No this is not just me having a gripe, this is me looking at things and facing a few hard facts. Get a team together, that you know will be the same 7 when you come to watch them bar injuries, then it may make a few fans want to come back, as things are going, there are quite a few who have had enough of it already, not just home supporters but quite a few away ones too.

Every Lions fan should no the truth behind what as gone on with Glyn. He slogged his guts out getting the track re-shaped only to be given the old heave ho. Would be fine if he has not got a clue what he is doing with the track, but he knows it inside out and preps it the same for every meeting unless the weather is taking control and he has to do what ever is needed to make it fit to ride on. The idiot who now sits on the tractor has not got a clue and he never wil have. Where do they get them from. Things looked like that had turned around under a new management, but it seems we are swiftly heading back to the dark, tell them nothing attitude.

Nice to hear Glyn that you would still come back. The sooner they come to thier senses and get you back on board the better. They can't have whoever it is prepping the track as it has been done, as I said a farmer plouging his fields.

Why oh why do we have to suffer this age old problem of doubling up riders. It has already been found out this season that it just has not worked with the new leagues. The teams are now made up of mostly riders who all ride for clubs in the lower league, this has been shown with the way the riders have been missing from the Lions team start right from the first meetings. If two leagues can't get together and work out which rider is riding for what team on a given night. Then plan the meetings around who will be missing, then either change one or the others race night, so that all 7 riders turn up for your team then something is terribly wrong. It just needs a bit of planning. As for getting rid of Glyn, this has been the worst move the club has so far done since the new guns took over, he could make the track work, what ever the weather, he knew every lump and bump and he made sure that the track was always fit to race on. He worked his guts out getting bends 1/2 done before the season started and all he got for thanks was to be shown the door. To be replaced by some unknown farmer, who only knows how to plough and harrow a field. Don't think we will see Glyn back again think he has had enough this time around. Only thing is though, they need to get someone in place who knows how to prepare a track

The old Elite League was used by riders from abroad to make a few £ notes before the season over in Denmark Sweden and Poland started up. We have seen it year in year out where they come over here and when things start up over there they have gone, we saw it happen a few times at Leicester, plus they don't even have the Gaul to tell the management they are going, usually making some half hearted excuse say they are injured for about a month, only to find they have already been riding for teams over there. Will it happen this year, with a watered down league. We will have to wait and see, until all the oversea leagues start up again.

Just looking at BT Sports speedway coverage and here are the meeting being shown of the Lions. Mon 17th Leicester v Swindon Mon 14th August Somerset v Leicester So that is about twice the amount of meetings that Sky showed last season. Not a bad start.

The amount of times I have seen riders take a short cut to get to the tapes and not be pulled up by the ref are inumerable. You even see it happen in the GP,s. It is something you see at most meetings where you see them nip around the back of the tapes, rather tahn go the long way round. It has either got to be enforced at every meeting or make sure that the riders know, when they can get away with it. Because iot seems a lot of refs turn a blind eye to it.

It happened last year with Woz at Leicester. They said if he did not stop ridding for the Lions then they would stop his Polish contract. They the Poles where the ones who wanted him to come over here in the first place to get some track time over here and klearn to ride different tracks, then when it suited them they called him bac. But what they are now doing is taking things a stage more and making any riders in thier top leagues no matter what country, that when they shout you drop everything and go running. They know no rider will say otherwise as they are the ones paying the silly money to them. The day will come when they find that clubs are closing because they no longer have the funds to continue the powers that be can't just keep bailing the clubs out, we have already seen clubs not paying riders, would you keep going back again knowing you would not be getting paid week in week out, speedway riders must be a silly bunch, because it seems to happen to them on a regular basis and they still carry on racing for clubs that don't pay them. I know I wouldn't.

It sounds like a few clubs are going all out to make sure the Bees keep riding this season. It would be great news if every club would find track time for them. Even a few meetings against the Premier league, just as long as it keeps the Bees team in the limelight. To big a name to lose to the sport. The last thing they need is to be out on a limb for 20 years are the Lions where.

I not only feel sorry for the Bees fans but 7 riders who have stuck by the club all winter with some of them now finding that they will have very little chance now of finding a team place and a chance to earn a living. The club in my mind is now owned by the clubs loyal fans, I hope you will all get together at a very very large meeting. Bees fans from all over the UK. Get a committee together to take over the running of the club, someone out there a true fan must be able to stand as the clubs promoter. Go to as many meetings up and down the country wearing your Bees shirts and jackets with pride. I am sure that you can think pf plenty to put into a flyer that you can hand around. Don't stay idle, keep bugging the council, find someone out there locally with enough money to make the club viable. There is land about get the council to make sure that they make it available. There are grants from the sport council to help build facilities. You need as many money men as you can find. Make the dream, your dream happen. Make sure that you all get together every couple of weeks. Get people to give talks much like the other supporters clubs do that have no teams. Don't let your love of the Bees fall by the wayside, keep together and make sure, that this famous club makes to the tapes again sooner rather than latter. But this time around make it happen in your hands. Not Sandu or another like him or for that matter no Horton. They all knew what was going on and I think they have know for quite sometime. This has just been a way of keeping all and sundry happy until it was to late to do anything about. Make sure you make your dream work. Keep proud and keep busy

What a sad day!!!! This should never have been allowed to happen. A huge blow to the sport in this country to lose a club like the Bees. Just hope that things get sorted and we see them back again next year. Don't hold my breath though

The new management have done the club proud. They have only been running the show for a few months and more has been achieved, not only with the track but also with giving the fans some much need future hope. Well done keep up the good work.

How much is actually coming off the corners as you enter and exit the bends a tidy chunk I would hope. Hope you have better weather there than we have had today in Newhall. Lots of broken trees on the road, I hope you where all hanging on to your hats, but with how the winds have been here I should think you would need your digger roping down

Glyn. How much is coming off the apex of the bends. Because to me that always seemed to be one of the biggest problems coming off the start line and then on the exit of the bend. All it managed to do was through the riders other than the one who gained the ground first into the fence, one of the reasons for so many of the first lap restarts. Where 2 riders ended up tangled up together and hitting the air fence. From the look of things if that gets taken away then they will have far more lines to take and we should have some decent racing. It used to show how demanding the track was when the MDL raced as they always struggled when it came to getting around the bends at either ends. Some where slow slow coming in and out of the bends they where almost in another race. Looking forward to all your hard work. must say it looks a bit wet and sticky underfoot there.

Don't think I will make it at the start of the season unless it is warm. It plays havoc with my toe I had all the problems with, it hurts like hell when it's cold. Glad to hear that the track work is coming along well. Raining here now quite heavily, hope it missed BP but doubt it would be nothing worse if it turned the track into a quagmire, easy to do with big diggers and lorries moving around on there. Hope it goes well and it gets relaid and get some bikes round there to bed it in a bit before opening day. Still no one know if there is a press and practice day being held or does it all depend on the work

Are they having a press and team introduction day this year, hope so, that way we will be able to see the work that Glyn has done on the track. If so is it going to be a joint venture day with the Lions and the Bees teams on display for the fans. The weather is looking a bit naff here at the moment, but there has been a slight and I mean very very slight rise in the pressure. It has hopefully hit the end of the low that has been over this part of the country today, the wind has picked up and now turned to the SW which usually gives us rain, we have had a few light showers, not sure what is happening in Leicester we are only 20 miles away but the weather is usually totally different. Hope it stays fine and the rain keeps off so the work can be done a quick as possible, without constant breaks for rain. Be nice if Glyn had a couple of weeks of fine weather so the work can get finished in double quick time. Once done there will still be a lot needs doing to get the track race fit. Who is going to ride around the track for a few hours a day to get it ready for the grand start to the season.

It is a shame that things got so out of hand when the work was started. You would have been far better to put DH in a large canvas tata sack and left him there until all the work had been done, then we would not be in the mess we are now.

That sounds very posative for all the Bees fans. Can't grumble at a fiver and a free programme. Now that track changes are going to start on Monday. Hope it makes for some better racing. We should know more what is happening after the meeting at the weekend to what they plan doing. It sounds like something on the lines of what they did at the other end, time and money is also another factor.

Some news on the track alterations There are 3 big drains on the corner 1200 galls each. If the track is taken to far then the drains will need to be moved, also move lighting would be needed at an extra cost. What can happen is the same thing that was done at the other end, that is take it up to the drains, the fence can also go back another metre. If the straights are shortened the start gate will also have to be moved another extra cost. It all adds up to have we enough time or enough money to do anything other than what was done at the other end. It worked quit well at the other end so it should make quite a big difference when done.