mikebv

We have already had an NDL match hastily replaced with a Premiership meeting on Bank Holiday Monday, due to a Polish rearranged fixture, which will now need rearranging.. And, I am confident, given history, that others, particularly nearer the end of the season, will get replaced as the top leagues rush to cram their fixtures in... These NDL meetings will therefore, more than likely, take place with guests who can make the restaging's, replacing those who cannot... Therefore. Another quickly arranged NDL meeting using guests, wouldn't have been a huge issue would it?

If it had been called off due to rain, with two full teams expected... It would have just been rearranged like all other call offs... Meetings get called off prior to the day of the meeting due to a "dodgy" weather forecast, so why not call them off due to a "dodgy" team full of guests? They run "guestfest" meetings like this simply because they can... And that is fine when fans pretend with them that it is a bona fide competition.. But those promoters, and those fans, cannot then moan as the sport slowly disappears due to the lack of sufficient crowd numbers.....

I am sure you would have been delighted to have been on the receiving end of that Dean..... "Never mind young man, all good"...

A "bit" reckless... He wasn't in control from quite a way out, and needs to protect his fellow riders who cannot see him... Gives 100℅ which is what we love, but needs to learn a little track craft... Laying it down might have been the best result...

Roll Up! Roll Up! Form an orderly queue!

Broken ankle for Magic?

Luckily Magic didn't land on his head but flipped over.. PHB out of control..... Racing hard and racing reckless is a fine line..

Horrible crash....

Bartek was voted "Sports Personality Of The Year" a few years ago... You only have to see the national companies advertising on TV using Speedway riders to see how these lads are well known amongst the wider sports watching community... Similar to how the top riders in the 70's over here were recognised as "top sportsmen" at the time.. As I say, Poland won't screw up the sport like the UK promoters did, and still do...

A proper "no, no" amongst riders...

Poland has a perfect "how not to do this" model to ensure that they don't follow... The UK had the best riders and had great mainstream TV coverage in the 70's. Built on a hugely successful national team.. With the domestic leagues living off that interest . They then decided to bring in journeymen from all points of the globe to take up places UK riders used to get, thus, the conveyer belt of UK talent ground to a halt, and teams were no longer made up of "local lads" but overseas riders who got replaced like for like using a revolving door.. With the result that mainstream media dropped their coverage as the national team stopped winning. Beaten by riders the UK trained.. And domestic speedway crowds dropped accordingly.. Move forward to the late 90's and guestfests and doubling up/down started to became rife, because of the lack of riders, due to the fact UK lads were not coming through anymore due to the restricted chances of the previous decade.. Then the GP stars cleared off when the Sky money stopped and left clubs scrabbling around to make enough "decent teams". But inflation busting admission fee increases still took place year on year to see inferior riders race. As fans stopped going, those left, got charged more.. (a great plan).. Poland ensure that their national team is always "in the mix" as they know that this is what keeps national interest, and also ensure that their "conveyer belt" of talent keeps coming through by protecting places in every team for Poles.. They have even launched an U24 league to ensure they get the pick of all the best talent from around the globe, just in case not enough Poles come through of the right level.. Covering all bases in a controlled way.. What the UK did (and still does), Poland will avoid like the plague...

Ridiculous that Wroclaw have to use Zach Cook tonight to replace Kurtz... They should be allowed to have used Zmarzlik, Jack Holder, Lindgren or Emil as a guest... Like a proper Speedway league would...😆

A completely different operating model... Over there, TV pay a hefty sum, through a tender process, to get coverage rights, with advertiser's specifically using the breaks to hit their target market, meaning they need to keep TV very much onside.. Over here, the TV coverage is very much a "filler" for TNT . Sponsors too, are national companies, not "speedway fans with a business", therefore being associated with a credible, professional, brand is extremely important..

He who pays the piper, calls the tune...

What a prat... There was never going to be any hope of anything other than a 5-1 in the re run...😁

Ratajczak developing into a very good rider. Steady progress....

Hopefully they can all share the same taxi back...

If a doctor has signed him off then all OK for tomorrow...... He can decide to ignore the "fit note" on Friday if he thinks he can ride....

The biggest issue facing the sport... The promoters know that winning at home keeps a crowd level which is enough to, at worst, keep costs within budgeted losses.. And those fans who stiill take the results and competitions seriously, (who are usually the "die hards"), want to see their team win, (regardless of who 'ad hoc' represents them).. The "other fans" however, are the ones who can watch a meeting and just want to be entertained and for them the result is very much secondary. (Win or lose it makes very little difference to them due to the size of the prize).. The "other fans" though nowadays form a much larger percentage of the crowd than ever before, given the drop off of fans who are emotionally attached to a team, therefore their money is key given the "die hards" don't ever seem to grow, but do seem to reduce in numbers... Getting these less regular fans of the sport attending more regularly is fundamental to the success of the vast majority of tracks.. These people know you exist, but to get their money more often, you need to entertain them... Getting the balance right between those vital home wins, and that vital entertainment level, is a very difficult task to achieve for most of the tracks..

And the "big crowds" were largely driven by being able to watch the superstars, on one of only three channels racing in top level individual meetings or the World Cup... Nowadays there is a myriad of "entertainment" things to do which didn't happen back then, and also a huge amount of day to day living costs which, again, simply didn't exist 40+ years ago, which means today's disposable income is far more stretched... "Mickey Mouse" rules in a professional sport could be got away with in the days of no 24/7 information and instant communication.. Losing 100 punters a year was affordable in crowds of 5,000, however, it started happening year on year and nothing was done to listen to those fans as they walked as to the reasons why... The operating model simply just doesn't stand up to modern day scrutiny and has created "lazy" practices.. Not enough riders? Then simply run with less riders per team... How many per team? It depends on how many riders you have and how many "spare" you envisage you need.. Instead we have "let's plan this fixture in for this date, even though we know both sides will have key riders missing, as we can simply have a "guestfest".. The outcome being? Social Media spends the days leading up to the meeting ridiculing it, and, post meeting, those same promoters who planned it in, will scratch their heads trying to work out why the crowd level wasn't good.. It's 2025, not 1975, and, as with any business, (especially one that is struggling), you simply cannot run with the same operating model you used 50 years ago and say "Well, it worked then, so why not now?"..

I went to Newcastle one evening several years ago, and there were nearly as many in the pits as there were on the home straight!!!... Amazing that they closed...

As it always has been...

The RS's are, with all due respect, miles out of their depth generally, so shouldn't even be in the top tier.. It works in Poland due to their "juniors" being of a much higher standard at U24 level, with their tracks being a lot easier to ride due to their size, shape, and track prep... We see over here even top riders sometimes struggling to get around, so expecting young inexperienced lads to compete consistently against some of the worlds best is frankly ridiculous... Unless of course they are, on that rare occasion, "real talents" who don't need an RS position to deliver their career, as their talent will do it for them... They would have been better off with six man teams in the top league and saved a wage, or, if they didn't need to, given the six riders more... Replacing them with a "genuine" number 6 shouldn't be allowed.. Either have them and develop them by protecting all their races, or don't.. They shouldn't be used as tactical cannon fodder..

I didn't even know they were racing last night until I read a comment about the "top 3 losing" and saw that Leicester beat Sheffield, by some distance too!...😮 I have noticed that the NDL meetings don't always seem to have their own thread, and understand why, but it says a lot when no one can be arsed to start one for a "top league" match...😃 Hope the food was good.. 😁 Edit. Just seen it wasn't a "top league match" but a "KO Cup Semi Final", no less....😵

They need to fill him up with water during the afternoon then.... To be fair, comparing anything UK Speedway presents against what Poland delivers is not a fair comparison... I switched off last night, like I usually do most UK meetings, around heat five or six.. After watching weekends of Polish Speedway and the GP's, and the level of intensity these meetings are raced at, plus the crowd engagement in the events, it is difficult to summon up the same level of enthusiasm when watching on a Monday evening.. Even more so when you see opposition managers and riders stood alongside each other watching the generally poor racing, laughing and joking together in the pits...