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How very true.

I got hooked in 1964. Speedway, of which I new little or nothing, arrived in Sunderland in 1964. The Sunderland 'Saints' were born. I attended the first Meeting not sure what to expect. From the first race I was captured by the noise, the smell (Castrol 'R') the excitement, the thrills and the spills. What a Sport, I thought - this is for me. Nine weeks later it was all over. Granted the weather was not very kind to us, however we had no rain offs. The 'Saints' closed because of weather and lack of support, so the Promoters said. However, the Gates were not that bad - I know because I was there at all of the Meetings. The Promoters though had a hidden agenda. Newcastle 'Diamonds' who were third in the League took our Ken Sharples and the Wolverhampton ''Wolves' who were bottom of the League acquired Jim Airey, Gordon Guasco, and Colin McKee. That Season, Newcastle finished as League Champions with Sharples scoring well for them and Wolverhampton finished in third place thanks to getting our riders. Promoters Bridgett and Parker claimed that the crowds were too low. The penultimate Meeting had an attendance of 6,000 (source - Sunderland Echo). No, it wasn't crowds or weather that closed Sunderland, it was the fact that both Promoters wanted to strengthen, what they regarded as their premier Teams. Sunderland was sacrificed purely in the interests of Newcastle 'Diamonds' and Wolverhampton 'Wolves'. Am I bitter - well the answer to that is a resounding YES. Even after fifty six years, it still leaves a sour, nasty taste in my mouth.

Exactly why it’s important these young riders have someone to help them build the right mindset rather than break their existing one down. I’d argue mindset mentorship as opposed to skillset mentorship would be more beneficial to those naturally talented youngsters. The current Rushen or Cairns debate is interesting. Of course it’s natural to discuss who is better, who will be better etc. on the forum and social media, wouldn’t it be great to see both make the absolute most of their potential though. They can learn from each other now and push each other through their careers if they have the right mentorship. We’ve all been kids of that age, there can be a certain end of the world feeling to even the most minor of setbacks. That’s where they need an arm around the shoulder to tell them it’s all about the experience and to keep their feet planted and chins up. That goes for all young riders.

Thats social media though.This a Forum so nothing likely to change.Thats Life these day in any form.

Make that the "1 Big League" then. Leave Belle Vue, Ipswich, Sheffield, Leicester & King's Lynn to come up with their own NEW format for a potential "Super League." What I would like, it's inventive:- 5 man teams for the regular season, home & away x2. Now, the invention 😬 An "All Team Tournament" x2 at each stadium, where a 'World Cup' style format can be used & the points also count towards the league table. Points can be standardised, like: Regular League: Win 3pts, Draw 1pt, Lose 0pts ATT: 1st 6pts, 2nd 4pts, 3rd 3pts, 4th 2pts, 5th 0pts

indeed, there are certain posters on here who cant help but have a dig at Boughen.

Social Media can massively mentally impact these kids today... Resilience and a "who gives a f**k what you say?" attitude are in much shorter supply these days given the kids are exposed to non stop feedback and, sometimes, trolling... Getting things "too easy" in life can also dilute ambition and sacrifice, which can also prevent growth, desire, and development... Any semi decent kid seems to be the "next Woffy" according to too many, with the reality being that to get to World Class level, by the age of 18 to 20 you are usually beating World Class riders if not regularly, then at least more than occasionally... It sometimes appears that any 16 year old kid that can beat riders of the same, or similar age, gets expectations well above what his level truly will be... Which can only put unrequired pressure on... Joe T in the play off final is a clear example of pushing these lads into top tier team places that they are not ready for, and can do nothing for his confidence, however, hopefully he will put it into context and continue to show gradual improvement to reach a decent level in the sport...

But would that not mean the 50 riders of lower quality were more likely to be competitive? Lose the top 50 and gain the bottom 50, or vice versa. Either way, there’s a pool of 100 riders to choose from? Regardless of the standard of racing, there are enough riders riding in the second and third tiers to fill one big league.

Scunthorpe 😂

Too close of contact sport for Ashton.

At least if the footrest does break he won’t be affected

1 league would see a good chunk of rider's knocked off that list as they'd be unavailable due to Swedish and Polish demands, maybe also Germany & Denmark. I personally feel 1 league will be disastrous

The part re guestfests and DU's, I 100% agree... And "one league" would bring variety... Unfortunately fans of teams used to watching Kurtz, Emil, Bewley, Holder, Fricke, Doyle etc, and paying around twenty five quid to do so, are going to have to see a significant reduction in admission costs to watch some of the riders mentioned, (if the riders who ride in Poland are not there).. And even if they do sign these riders up, they will miss so many meetings every week on Fridays and Saturdays, that it would make the league a complete farce... The top two division clubs seem to average between 500 to 1500 or so, and their rents won't be dropping, nor will their expectations of their riders to spend quite frankly ludicrous sums to compete, therefore admission costs cannot drop too much I would say... And any reduction in admission wouldn't see enough increase in attendances I would suggest to cover all the costs, given the dilution of the riders on show... A true conundrum for people who have demonstrated many times that they may not have the skill set required to sort out the issues...

I understand a similar situation happened with Ashton in Motorcross spent hundreds of thousands then a few things didn’t go his or dads way they then moved onto Speedway now it appears same has happened again

Throw in Sean Wilson and Matousek for fights in every other episode.

They could deduct a point from the team whose rider caused the abandonment.

Would make sense I don't know what some of the prem heat leaders were on at Oxford but if your talking maybe 3-5k per meeting the numbers will never add up.

The current attendance issues are due to fans not liking guest fests and doubling up. Both of these rider problems dilute the sports integrity for so many fans. Lots have abandoned ship because they have seen too many teams use three, or more in some cases, guests. I often talked with Workington rugby directors, who were anti-speedway, and referred to the sport as having a strong likeness to that comical one called WWE (or is it WWF?)...anyway they said guests undermined the sport big style - and yes they were/are correct. Personally I just think the one division would bring more variety to a quite stagnant round of fixtures. And so what if Poland claim the best, every race has a winner, and loser. We used to have wobblers yes fifty years ago but shouted encouragement to one and all....let's do it via one league again !!!!!!

Gorzow in big trouble. Bank will grant the required loan but only with the city's guarantee (which they have previously said they won't do again). The club is once again having to write to the city's councillors and asking for help. List of liabilities (in Zlotys): Commercial 4.5 million Riders 2.8 million Bank loans 3.8 million Employees 1.1 million Leasing 0.7 million Receivables 3.9 million

My heart skipped a beat when I saw the announcement, I have great memories of that place and missed it dearly. As soon as I saw they were coming back I got in touch to see if I could help them in any way - to which they accepted! I know the name isn't everyone's cup of tea but I'm the guy who designed their new bull logo (see below) I can't wait til tapes up now - I'll be there!

I sense that the management's main grievance is the enormous guarantees paid out in return for modest performances. That would suggest to me that if the current structure remains a Championship team is more likely.

Fair point. Over 100 of those listed regularly raced in the top two leagues, though, with people expected to pay £20+ already. Although that could also explain the current attendance issues! 😃

It would be a challenge to get enough people to lay out circa £25 to watch some of those riders... No disrespect to them, but the admission fee would need to be around £15 to watch them ride and that wouldn't cover the "best riders" fees... My lad plays semi pro football as an amateur, (£10 to watch), and it would be like the league was set up to allow him to play against Mo Salah.... That tenner to get in wouldn't pay Mo's wages....

5-1 & 3-3=8points to 4 4-2 & 4-2=8points to 4 as all points were equal over the two legs they went to heat advantages. 2advantages to 1advantage. Simples 🤷‍♂️

I'm not sure the rider shortage is as bad as everybody makes out. Yes it's not 200+, but I still make it 150 riders who competed (or were declared in a line-up at the start of the year) in 2025. Yes, some are very junior/inexperienced, but everybody has to start somewhere, and there were definite mismatches in the 1970s. 1. Nathan Ablitt 2. Jake Allen 3. Ben Barker 4. Troy Batchelor 5. Luke Becker 6. Dan Bewley 7. Ollie Binns 8. Norick Blodorn 9. Owen Booth 10. Bastian Borke 11. Ashton Boughen 12. Fraser Bowes 13. Alfie Bowtell 14. Tom Brennan 15. Max Broadhurst 16. Billy Budd 17. Arran Butcher 18. William Cairns 19. Paco Castagna 20. Jacob Clouting 21. Connor Coles 22. Ben Cook 23. Craig Cook 24. Zach Cook 25. Kenzie Cossey 26. Mitchell Cluff 27. Luke Craig 28. Jack Crewe 29. Joe Crewe 30. Harley Driscoll-Freeman 31. Kieran Douglas 32. Ryan Douglas 33. Jason Doyle 34. Jason Edwards 35. Adam Ellis 36. Joe Etheridge 37. Jamie Etherington 38. Harry Fletcher 39. Leon Flint 40. Vinnie Foord 41. Jack Franklin 42. Lasse Fredriksen 43. Max Fricke 44. Dan Gilkes 45. Jonatan Grahn 46. Liam Greens 47. Francis Gusts 48. Sam Hagon 49. Jamie Halder 50. Nathan Hargrave 51. Chris Harris 52. Luke Harris 53. Luke Harrison 54. Cameron Heeps 55. Freddy Hodder 56. Chris Holder 57. Jack Holder 58. Jacob Hook 59. Kyle Howarth 60. Danyon Hume 61. Ryan Ingram 62. Niels-Kristian Iversen 63. Max James 64. Maciej Janowski 65. Jordan Jenkins 66. Jonas Jeppesen 67. Michael Jepsen Jensen 68. Elliot Kelly 69. Drew Kemp 70. Declan Kennedy 71. Zaine Kennedy 72. Lewis Kerr 73. Peter Kildemand 74. Luke Killeen 75. Danny King 76. Jack Kingston 77. Daniel Klima 78. Nicoli Klindt 79. Jonas Knudsen 80. Brady Kurtz 81. Jan Kvetch 82. Simon Lambert 83. Richard Lawson 84. Jaimon Linsey 85. Jordy Loftus 86. Kryan Lyden 87. Matt Marson 88. Caydin Martin 89. Sam Masters 90. Mitch McDiarmid 91. Harry McGurk 92. Sam McGurk 93. Eli Meadows 94. Calum Mitchell 95. Nick Morris 96. Ben Morley 97. Connor Mountain 98. Luke Muff 99. Jake Mulford 100. Tobiasz Musielak 101. Villads Nagel 102. Scott Nicholls 103. Michael Palm Toft 104. Victor Palovaara 105. Mark Parker 106. Max Perry 107. Danny Phillips 108. Josh Pickering 109. Ace Pijper 110. Stene Pijper 111. Oskar Polis 112. Ben Rathbone 113. Keynan Rew 114. Laylen Richardson 115. Darryl Ritchings 116. Harrison Rogers 117. Anders Rowe 118. Adam Roynon 119. Erik Riss 120. Cooper Rushen 121. Emil Sayfutdinov 122. Jody Scott 123. Justin Sedgmen 124. Jack Shimelt 125. Mickie Simpson 126. Charlie Southwick 127. Tom Spencer 128. Sonny Springer 129. Jack Smith 130. Paul Starke 131. Senna Summers 132. Dan Thompson 133. Joe Thompson 134. Tobias Thomsen 135. Kye Thomson 136. Ben Trigger 137. Rohan Tungate 138. Ashton Vale 139. Antti Vuolas 140. Kai Ward 141. Mason Watson 142. Morgan Williams 143. Chad Wirtzfeld 144. Charlie Wood 145. Dayle Wood 146. Sam Woods 147. Steve Worrall 148. Charles Wright 149. Matej Zagar 150. Tate Zischke