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mikebv

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Posts posted by mikebv

  2. Posted

    11 minutes ago, Fromafar said:

     

    Not many this season,even then a couple of points in Poland Is good money Compared to GB.

    And I wouldn't be surprised if they keep the "guest' system next year too as it gives sides greater flexibility and puts pressure on riders to perform..

    Obvously it's not the same blight on the sport as our guest system is as its really doubling up which will provide a fair few riders with dual income..

    Very good dual income..

     

    • Like 1

  6. Posted

    9 minutes ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

    His gating has always been poor but he has the brain to pick his lines right in the first corner 

    He used to at least be around second at the first turn, now he is often third or fourth..

    That cut back he does in the first two turns has paid many a dividend over the years but you cant keep relying on it working.. 

    Expecting it to work against 3 top lads is a high risk strategy if you want success at a world level..

     

  7. Posted

    Woffy's gating has been truly appalling for the past season and a half at least..

    Miss gate, then blast around the boards is his regular tactic these days..

    Great to watch when it comes off, but against top riders regularly hitting the first turn third or fourth wont deliver much success..

    I would suggest he is maybe just still in the Top 10 in the world but not in the very top echelon anymore..

    Bikes and talent still good enough, but starting simply miles off..

    • Like 2

  8. Posted · Edited by mikebv

    1 hour ago, Dave Goddard said:

    That was flippin' awesome.  Loved every second and well done Lublin.

     

    Maybe the almost "we've got no chance" attitude when teams race Leszno is starting to unravel a bit?

    If you wrote that septet down on paper not many I would suggest would read it and think "Wow! They must be the best in the world"...

    They are though, it appears, "a team" which several of those with a higher proportion of "world class riders" dont always appear to be..

    The Smektala/Kubera combination at Junior level was always a strong plus for them which no longer exists, so who knows, maybe this year whoever they go head to head against in the play offs will fancy their chances..?

  9. Posted

    22 minutes ago, Mr. Clemens said:

     

    Looks like Leszno's turn to go to sleep 

     

     

     

    As has been said in other Leszno meetings, as a team they dont have any truly World Class riders other than Emil.. 

    Yet seem to pull out great team performances with different riders on any given night stepping up to the plate when needed.

    And heavily relying on Kubera..

    A few teams going 'head to head' should feel they have a chance against them this year..

    • Like 1

  11. Posted

    1 hour ago, iainb said:

    I suppose the question is are you running a fun entertainment night out or a professional team sport competition and there's absolutely no reason why it shouldn't be both

    I think that is the sports dilemma (over here)..

    The IOW seem to promote EVERY meeting as if it was a one off event, which with some of their fans on holiday it very well could be their only chance to impress them..

    And for their regulars 'something different' regularly will keep it fresh..

    Team success (as in winning the league) almost appears secondary to the success of providing their customer base a 'great night out' and given the lack of kudos and financial reward for winning any UK competition, I would suggest it's a very good operating model..

    UK Team Speedway is basically a busted flush if you measure success by the numbers who attend, with many who have fallen away over the years basically giving up on the concept, hence no longer bother attending..

    (But often still remain as very interested followers of the sport in their several thousands)..

    Therefore it's dilemma is can it run itself successfully as a 'Team Sport' concept (and bring back some of the lapsed thousands), or does it need to do 'something different'?

    The old adages though of "always doing what you've always done will only deliver what you've always had" and the definition of insanity being "doing the same thing over and over again and each time expecting a different result" is something that those who run the sport should have written large on their meeting room walls..

     

     

    • Like 2

  12. Posted

    2 minutes ago, cityrebel said:

    The bounce might not happen, if admission prices are at their current rate. We are in a world wide recession and the cost to the public has to reflect this.

    Agreed, but if a lower grade of rider on offer, and no flight costs, hotel bills, van hire, uk mechanic, etc etc etc, to be factored in by the rider when he is negotiating points money, then maybe the entry price point will drop commensurately?

    • Like 1

  13. Posted

    I actually think that an amalgam of the 2nd and 3rd divisions could be the way forward for the sport..

    Whether it will attract many overseas riders I am not sure given the money on offer will need to be relative to the standard of rider....

    But, for British Speedway, and the oportunities it would create for British riders, and their development, it might not be a bad thing..

    It would also mean a fixture list being driven by customer availability, and run to a timetable when they can get there, and not when riders can get there when it suits their global agenda..

    My team get decent crowds for 3rd tier Speedway and if a team made up of 2nd/3rd Div riders was the only team they had to watch, I would suggest crowds would be pretty much on a par that the 'first team' get now..

    And much cheaper to run obviously..

    UK Speedway is pretty much down to its die hards who go and watch 'any speedway', and hardly any 'crowd puling top names' ride here so there is a minimal amount of fans who only go to the see 'the names'...

    And when (if) this bloody pandemic ever finishes, every sport should get a 'bounce boost' at the turnstiles when it returns. .

    So, if there ever was a time to restructure from the bottom up to build a better future then surely it is now?

    • Like 3

  14. Posted

    4 hours ago, Steve Shovlar said:

    Yes it’s poor. Far worse than what we get in the U.K. where teams are better balanced. A shame but just better than nothing.

    Really?

    2019

    Top 2 - Poole 52, Swindon 50.

    Bottom - 2 KL 31, Peterborough 20

    2018

    Top 2 - KL 53, Somerset 47.

    Bottom 2 -Wolves 34, Leicester 23

    2017

    Top 2 - Swindon 66, Wolves 63

    Bottom 2 - KL 29, Leicester 27

    2016

    Top 2 - BV 64, Poole 59

    Bottom 2 - Coventry 33, Leicester 21

    2015

    Top 2 - Poole 66, Coventry 61

    Bottom 2 - Wolves 28, Lakeside 27

    And that's with a max of just 8 teams per league in some seasons and seven in others..

    And the same huge difference between top and bottom goes back regularly from 2015 ad nauseam..

    Before every season when the teams are known,  the 'cannon fodder' gets predicted on here, and those predictions are very rarely wrong..

    Some balanced league. .:D

  15. Posted

    23 hours ago, dontforgetthefueltapsbruv said:

    It's all very well saying it's all in the past but that's exactly what someone will form their present opinions from

    If you feel severely wronged by someone or a situation even if it was 10 years ago then it's no surprise if you have a little safrican american when you see something going awry with the perceived perpetrator 

    Edit (its seems to    s n i g g e r    is no long allowed :rolleyes:)

    :D

    I have been on forums where you cant type Scunthorpe. ..:D

    • Haha 2

  17. Posted

    Just now, Fromafar said:

    Do you really think he will even be riding round Monmore in a couple of seasons!!!
    Poland and world speedway is all about fast starting and fast bikes these days .IMO

    It's the Speedway equivalent of Football's "I'd like to see him do that away at Stoke City on a cold Tuesday night in December"...:D

    • Haha 3

  18. Posted

    11 minutes ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

    I would argue that Częstochowa have on paper a stronger team than leszno and both Częstochowa reserves are better than slauderbach, the problem is Częstochowa are badly under performing, who is the better rider Doyle or Lidsey ? You would have said Doyle at the start of season but lidsey has out performed Doyle, that’s not the league’s fault, infact lidsey who wasn’t even put in the team at the start of the year has out performed every Częstochowa rider apart from madsen 

    Spot on..

    A team that has three out of the top seven best riders in the world from last year shouldnt be getting smashed this way..

    The system in Poland is fine..

    Teams not performing some days is sport...

    • Like 2

  19. Posted

    Just now, KingoftheTrack said:

    This is sad to watch Doyle ride like this. Leszno boys a few bike lengths in front before he's even got out of the start.

    One of my favourite riders but if we're being honest it's British racing that still makes him look like top dog in the sport. 

     

    His 'sudden rise' after so many years of average riding is being mirrored by his 'sudden demise'...

    Strange, ,

    • Like 1

  21. Posted

    20 hours ago, iainb said:

    No the flag on top of the car is to commemorate the battle of Sedgemoor in Somerset, when the rebels defeated General Lee, coincidentally the name of a general also fighting in the american civil war... everybody knows that :rofl:

    Yeeeeeeeeee Haaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!

    • Like 1

  22. Posted

    3 minutes ago, E I Addio said:

    The Elite League was already on the way down before that. Ipswich was already dropping to the lower league , and as I said before allegations of Poole cheating were in the air a year earlier when the SCB completely failed to investigate in any meaningful way, plus the TV meetings that got to heat 10 with Poole in front when the track “suddenly “became dangerous . They were appalling decisions and nails in the coffin which were unrelated to the winter of discontent.

    However there were other things that contributed, like Belle Vue lying about their flooded track, and Kings Lynn cancelling a match because it was supposedly going to take 3 days to change a fuse. Most of them played a part in the decline, which got even worse when Chapman and especially Godfrey got control. As for Coventry Sandhu’s game always was to shut the place and in his words “ cover it in tarmac”

    All fiddling whilst Rome was burning around them....

    It is wasn't so sad given the way they have so negatively impacted the sport by their actions, and driven so many fans away, it would be hilarious to list every piece of nonsense dreamt up..:rolleyes:

     

     

     

  23. Posted

    Imagine being a major company who wanted to get involved sponsoring the league and gaining access to this thread and reading about the way the sport self governs...

    Fred Karno's circus would be a better bet for them..

    Did Matt Ford manipulate the situation? Well, if he did, (and who will ever know?), it was because he could...

    And that is the biggest nonsense in all of this..

    A local Darts and Crib league would be embarrassed to run itself the same way.. 

    • Like 3

  25. Posted · Edited by mikebv

    13 hours ago, steve roberts said:

    The demise of "World of Sport" was a major factor in my opinion...although not probably seen as that at the time. The likes of Briggs, Mauger, Collins etc were names that many outside of the sport had heard of as they plied their trade on national TV.

    Interesting how the names of the riders were very well known yet their domestic teams were seldom mentioned..

    Many is the time when I mention Speedway that the response is the usual "I used to go", but the next line invariably only mentions certain riders they remember, with any mention of where they watched their Speedway very much a secondary consideration.

    Almost like the teams they watched were very much secondary to who they were watching ride..

    I would suggest a similar apathy to team racing that exists today for many fans who just go along now to watch 'the racing' rather than having any large emotional stake in the outcome of the match..

    Yet promoters have for a great many years tried desperately to put one over their rivals to be 'successful', using all sorts of various wide and wonderful ways too numerous to mention, but we all pretty much can name them..

    They, at least, seem to still take it all seriously, but sadly, by their very actions, no one else can..

    And no 'team sport' can ever be successful if you don't have any emotional attachment to the team you follow..

    Sort that and maybe UK Speedway could start to rise again..

    • Like 2
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