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Ford should be thinking about himself.. He is a business man.. He has made it clear the club is up for sale if the right offer comes in, and has been for a long time, however no one has come in and bought it.. Maybe 'the fans' who want to stay in the Premiership should buy it? Too many 'Promoters' run their clubs as an expensive hobby and it shows in the way they run the sport... "Sustainable losses", supported by other parts of their business, seems to be an accepted year end performance for too many.. As you say, he has been good for Poole and hopefully made money, therefore as a business man if the model you are using suddenly stops working then you need to change it and see if something new does.. Fair play to the guy for doing it as far too many run with the same plan every year with the inevitable same results..

Was Anders Rowe ready? Was Leon Flint ready? If they're good enough, they're old enough.

What's wrong with 16 year old Palin riding in the 2nd division. 16-year-old Peter Collins, Chris Morton, Michael Lee, Kenny Carter, Andy Smith, are just a few riders I remember riding in the 1st division.

Somerset have done it having almost bankrupted their club after one season in Premiership. MF hasn't got a bottomless pit of money. Much of Poole's top level success has come on the back of much hard work in and around the local area in getting big sponsorship deals. The season just gone has seen not only the new, last minute main sponsor going into liquidation and costing the club around £35k but also saw the departure of 3 'major' club sponsors before the season started - one expected because they were at the end of their 2-year deal and 2 others due to a shift in their own respective business development plans. No club can afford to lose a six figure income from their bottom line without it having a major effect. To operate at a level which has - according to MF - a 25% lower cost base at a time when he is also less 'hands-on' due to his developing new business interest abroad, is a very sensible approach when leaving the day-to-day running of the club to his son Danny! Resuming 'local' derbies with the likes of Somerset and Eastbourne (and maybe Plymouth and Kent too) and seeing some other different opposition is all good as its all about the racing and the atmosphere for me - and many others it would seem.

You've identified one of the fundamental problems with British speedway - it doesn't understand who its target market is. Speedway tries to target children by doing into schools, having face painting and bouncing castles, but when you actually go to a meeting the average age is over 55 and the presentation is like something from the 70s. Kids don't want to listen to AC/DC and fill out paper programmes with a pen, they want Stormzy, Fortnite and an app to keep score with. The solution is in fact quite simply. If the majority of your customers are over 55, then market speedway at... wait for it... yep... over 55s! Its not rocket science people. You can also align the sport with sponsors who want to target that demographic adding some much needed credibility. The other benefit of course is that over 55s are likely to have far more disposable income than youngsters.

Jordan has a higher NL average than Kyle Bickley, Connor Bailey, Danny Phillips, Jack Smith, Luke Harris, Drew Kemp, Ryan Kinsley, Jason Edwards, Joe Lawlor, Tom Perry and Connor Coles. I think he might be ok.

A thoughtful parent who has createdfurther opportunities for his child which will been entitled to dual nationality/freedom of movement between AUS & the UK yeah those true colours are disgusting.......sometimes there is a whole lot more to life than speedway.

Clearly Scunthorpe seem to think so, Palin needs to take his career forward and moving into the Championship will do that.

Great night..Razzer Rider of the Year...Gater-Batch...Bonus King Doyley...Unsung Heroes Track Staff. Only Tobi and Doyley not there. Great to see Leigh Adams message on big screen. Over 200 there. Hope trophies are still in one piece!!!

It may be sensible financially but dropping down a league is not brilliant, we are the most successful team in the modern era, one bad year and we jack in the top league,i will still go but it won't be the same. Teams in most sports do everything they can to stay in the top league, we just give it up willingly.

complete twaddle. If you're good enough, you're old enough. NDL likely to reduce is quality and quantity, he could double down anyway, let him race older more experienced riders and he will learn quicker. Didn't do Peter Collins and Michael Lee any harm did it??

Why?

Fingers crossed , it's good to see the council standing up to the property developers dodgy tactics.

You couldn’t run a bath so stop talking out of your arse.

What do want the final to be ? you want Swindon to make it close ? Maybe Man city in the fa cup final should beat Watford by less goals . brain dead post .

After the recent GB test match v Denmark, with somewhat weakened teams, I wondered about the selection of Team GB for a test match. What would your selection be for a full strength seven man team? Assume all riders available and on reasonable form. No particular track in mind, so no horses for courses, and no tactical switches such as putting best rider at number 7. I will make my selection. 1 Woffy 2 King 3 Cook 4 Wright 5 Lambert 6 Ellis 7 Bewley.

Wouldn't say its so much of a family sport, it's more like a pensioners special.

Steve Pugh

and if Desperate Dan had've found a way past Teesside Tom in ht2, things might have been a lot closer. Not to take anything away from Wright's ht13 btw

Dead right! If you want your speedway to continue at your local track, year on year, set the limit lower, keep the promotion's losses down and let the sport be there for you and your friends.

That’s irrelevant and entirely a result of team selections through the season. All teams started out with a limit of 38 and after the first matches the combined average was a bit lower than 42 (due to some races finishing with two riders). Subjective team changes were then made during the season due to loss of form and injuries, generally with lower averaged replacements coming in, so the combined average went another bit lower than 42. And so we ended up with 41.3. That will happen practically every season but it doesn’t change the facts that 42 is the objective limit and an above figure can bring in more higher averaged riders (from the PL or abroad) and a below figure can move higher averaged riders around, exclude some of them and reduce costs.

Practically they are 100% why Somerset Speedway are in existence, nothing technical about it!

To pull back the 18 points was always going to be a big ask, congratulations to Leicester who deserved their win but what a superb meeting passing and close racing throughout, racing wise this meeting put a lot of the Premiership racing shown on BT to shame, a great advert for National League racing and for speedway in general, great value at £10.00.

From what I've seen at Kent, Drew doesn't gate consistently, which on a track that in my opinion doesn't lend itself to much passing, has severely limited him. Having said that, seeing Max Clegg and Leon Flint both take him from the back by riding a wider line on his home track suggest that either he's not 'dialled in' at Central Park, or that he's not as good as we expected. He also went through a spell when he seemed unable to get through four races without an error/crash in one. He is only young, and it may just be that Central Park doesn't suit his style. Last night his first two rides were very ordinary, following home JJ and Jake after poor gates, but then he rode an excellent heat 13 to beat the Leicester top two off of gate 3! It did seem last night that if you didn't gate, you struggled to make any headway. Dan G tried all he knew at the back but made no impression on the fast gating Ryan TD in heat 5, and then Hume, so impressive first time out, likewise could not trouble JJ, who rode a good line in heat 6. Did JJ change bikes for heat 13? Why, he barely got out the gate on that one! Also, did Rob not deserve to go out in 15 rather than Dan? Pity we could not win the match, even if the Lions deserved the trophy. Right from the off all the young Kings - plus a very entertaining skipper - were worth watching in 2019, and one or two hopefully will go far.

Love a lot of what TR said .. quite clearly and quite rightly we can't keep the same 7 thou . What I don't like is rules that stop you tracking the riders you like with only one rider over 8 etc . Make a limit and let all sides work to that in any way they feel fit .