CountArthur

Also, I would have paid £22 to watch Sayfutdinov ride round on his own. Probably one of the best performances from a visiting rider in my 49 years of watching speedway and the first time he has ever seen the track. Absolute genius.

It wasn't the most exciting of meetings in terms of racing for sure, but it retained some interest in the scoring and seeing if Sheffield could build up a big enough lead for them to hold off the Witches big guns in heats 13 and 15. I don't think Sheffield's track is as suited to modern day speedway as it was in the past, especially at this level with riders being so fast and not making as many errors and 10 of the 15 heats tonight were won by riders who are world class and rarely get passed. Another issue must be the long dry spell which has made track preparation everywhere quite difficult, especially when it's been as hot as it has. The racing has been ok at Owlerton this year. Not brilliant, but entertaining enough. Any sporting occasion can be boring. It's the nature of sport. But it's not quite as boring as some of the f**kwits who seem to make up a large proportion of the posters on this site that can't wait to decry speedway at every opportunity.

Really sorry if this has already been posted elsewhere.

And another one...

I don't think I need to copy and paste any of them, but some of the comments on here are just embarrassing.

They do. I'm not sure how many teams there are but Morizes, Marmande, La Reole and Miramont de Guyenne completed in round three of the French League a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure what sort of crowds they get but riders like David Bellego, Adam Ellis, Dmitri Berge, Steven Goret, Dan Gilkes, Theo and Ace Pijper and the Tresarrieu brothers took part. There would be a cost of travelling to be considered but the riders are flying all over the place anyway and I'm sure something could be worked out. Just a thought, and as I say, might not be feasible at all.

This might be completely unworkable, but with the number of British tracks on the decline and a number of riders unable to get a team place, could it be feasible for any French sides to join the British League? It already happens in Poland with a German and a Latvian side in their league structure and I went to watch the Sheffield Eagles a couple of weeks ago in a second tier Rugby League match and the opponents were Toulouse. Is this something that British speedway could consider?

That was a treat, thank you. I've never seen any real footage of Sun Street before. Speedway was certainly different then and I don't think it can be compared with modern day speedway. I think we might look back through rose tinted glasses sometimes.

Just a quick question. I'm thinking of travelling down from Sheffield next Thursday and will be making a couple of days of it. I know that Foxhall Heath is a bit out of town but its nearly 40 years since I came down to Ipswich and can't remember much about it. Is there a bus near the stadium that would go back into town after the meeting? Thanks.

It's really interesting to read some of the comments on here, especially looking back over the past few days. I was at Sheffield last Thursday and it was a fairly comfortable win for the Tigers and, yes, Kasprzak looked awful. But it's early season, things are just settling down and riders are getting back to fitness, getting used to new machinery and, in some cases, new tracks. The reaction to his first two meetings was typical of much of the society of today - an over reaction. Reading this forum sometimes is like listening to the stuff football fans come out with when they want a manager sacked after a couple of losses. It's a horrible culture. Riders getting stick for being better at home than away is also becoming more common. I'm not sure how certain riders from the 70s and 80s would have stayed with clubs for as long as they did if internet forums existed back then. I remember one season at Sheffield in the 1970s when the Tigers had a 100% home record but failed to pick up a point away from home. Riders like Craig Pendlebury and Arnie Haley remained popular even though there was a big disparity between their home averages and their away averages because they were loyal servants to the club and put the effort in. Further back, Billy Bales had a great home average but struggled to score a point away from home for a few seasons. I think he would have been hounded out in today's need for instant success. I was really pleased the Stars won last night and really pleased that KK got a maximum. I just hope the fans can show a bit of patience and a bit of tolerance, rather than all this bed wetting nonsense that gets posted in week 1 of the season.

Good luck to the Panthers for the rest of the season. I hope they manage to rebuild the side and feel sorry for the management that the Pedersen situation hasn't worked out for them. I hope the Panthers fans stick with the team and continue to give them your support.

Good meeting in the end after a bit of a processional start, not helped by a shower just before start time. Tigers just about deserved the win and Musielak was man of the match. For the Aces fans who didn't make it - Bewley was far better than his score suggested and there was no way back for him in Heat 1 when he missed the gate. Kurtz was his usual self - several brilliant rides and a couple of duff ones. Wright looked sharp and will have a good season if he stays fit. Very impressed with my first look at Lidsey - tidy rider and pretty quick. Brennan will be fine and Blodorn is going to add another point and a half to his average I reckon. I was also very impressed with Mulford who rode brilliantly in heat 8 and didn't make a mistake in the four laps. Play off certainties for me. See you Monday, weather permitting.

I think it must be a bit localised. I'm at Hunters Bar and we had about 10 minutes of rain, not particularly heavy. It's dry again now. A few scattered showers forecast for this afternoon but the good thing is that the wind is pretty strong and it should move them through quickly. Fingers crossed for tonight.

I can see it, I just don't think that gimmicks is going to rescue it.

I've watched a bit of The Hundred on TV and got the chance to go this afternoon to Headingly. No thanks. Grown men and women in pyjamas having a slogging competition, five balls a set instead of six an over, fireworks going off when someone scores a boundary, some unknown singer on a stage... God help us if that's entertainment. I'm not saying that the sport needs a freshening up and more thought putting into the presentation, track preparation, endless spending by riders to gain a tiny extra amount of speed which is unsuitable for most tracks etc, but some of the comments on here remind me of when the kids were little and it was a party where you had to fill the three minutes between pass the parcel and the magician turning up. For me, speedway is the entertainment that I pay for. In between races I read the programme, chat to my friends who I stand with, watch the activity at the pit gate and I'm happy. I don't need a Take That cover band and mascot racing. I would be even happy chatting to the stranger next to me if he wasn't at home on a keyboard telling everyone that speedway was dying.