Hawk127

I think that the 2021 team had nothing really to prove as they had all seen it all and it is a very long time since we have seen a group of riders who have honed their craft, have in depth experience and actually seemed to be enjoying the day job and it showed in their determination in each race. Because of who they are and well respected, it was almost a throw back to when fans could relate to the team of riders with individual characters who made it fun again. Thanks Peterborough.

Not necessarily but I answered the question.

I think he is better than Lambert.

That seemed a bit underwhelming for a major speedway event. Predictable from the Poles and the rest can fight it out for the minor placing. I think that this would have been a good opportunity to try Bewley which at least meant that you had one home grown rider who plied his tried in British speedway this year. Let’s hope the track and racing produces a tad more excitement tomorrow. On this showing it will be a long time before GB host this event as it is not exactly a TV spectacle.

Well done to the four teams who made it this far. The final should be a cracker and good luck to both teams, a well balanced bunch of racers and hopefully a safe two nights of racing. Look forward to next week.

You really do spout a load of bollocks. You neither know my age or preference when it comes to the sport and I would far rather see up and coming youngsters competing in individual meetings without the pressure of team racing than the contrived crap that is put on today as so called entertainment. You seem to have little ability to grasp the point being made but I can live with that. Each to their own.

T V has changed the top tiers sports schedule whereas in years gone by the sport and the meetings dictated the result rather than contrived fixtures. How can you seriously believe that a club who is fourth at the end of the league campaign meaning each team has raced against each other once or twice can then become champions because of the schedule and a change in rider averages which coincides with the play offs. Important meetings took place in October but that was after a full summer of racing, not the intermittent fixture list that exists today. The point is that with six teams in a league and not twelve or more, the sport should not be in a position of holding play offs in October. Yes I can remember meetings going to the wire in late October but not with a piss poor league of six clubs.

The purist who only sees league racing and refuses to support the speedway as a spectacle has killed off these meetings because no club will risk putting on racing as opposed to league meetings yet if you have an international meeting many speedway fans may well travel to see riders not plying their trade in the domestic league. The fickle fan and the fickle rider are the root cause are one of the reasons why Speedway is on its knees in this country

Clubs are spread out across the UK and ten pounds of petrol will not get you that far plus battling traffic, roadworks and mid week fixtures because clubs won’t run on weekends means fewer travelling fans so why won’t clubs stream. Some you win some you lose but I guess many a supporter would like to see a meeting that in normal circumstances they would never travel to the track but you could add a few more of the supporters of both clubs taking part. It will not happen but we live in hope

They did but they did not have play offs pandering to T.V. schedules and before the play offs those top of the league were champions. Cup matches, 4TT and individuals were end of season fixture fillers. Those were the days and what a spectacular the 16 Lapper final at Ipswich was. Even the individual end of season meetings at Rayleigh were entertaining as was the Essex Gold Cup between Rayleigh and Romford. Today it is so clinical and not as much fun or entertainment. No longer a show for the fans but a turn out for those riders who can be bothered to turn up who are few and far.

Currently 2065 following the updates. Says it all really. Stream a meeting at £10 a pop and that is not bad. Accept not all would join the stream but those not on the updates might so it’s swings and roundabouts. Given the way the sport is going why give it to Discovery, do your own thing BSPL and FIM sell it direct to the fans if as it seems the only way we will get to watch it is on-line.

Six clubs and they still drag the season into October. Makes you wonder how they managed when they had twice as many teams in the same league. Covid and all the other excuses are just that, excuses. A major restructure is needed otherwise shut up shop and let each track do its own thing unless a few clubs can get together for match racing. Clearly the current custodians of the sport are not up to the job and they should stop pretending everything is OK. Hey you lot in charge, it is crap, get a grip and sort it.

This will teach the administrators of the sport and the clubs to sacrifice meetings in the summer months rather than get on and complete this summer sport in August or early September. Unfortunately meetings are driven and dictated by DU riders and those riders who think only themselves in order to screw out the maximum income out of the clubs they ride for without consideration for the fans. Sooner or later these riders with inflated egos and think that the sport owes them a living will be unemployed and then they will wake up to their failings. No wonder this sport is a joke, mismanaged by inept promoters and tail wagging dog riders. They deserve each other.

Why do Discovery/Sky make it so arduous to get a simple App to watch Discovery Plus. Faffing about with Sky Q and mobile device is a pain. Netflix and others are simple on Sky Q but this one is anything but. Cannot be bothered to waste time just to watch future live speedway, meetings. it really is not worth the hassle. Well done those in charge of the sport you know how to alienate your audience.

Nice touch by Bartosz to appear on Canal+ alongside Mr Gollob the best rider that has ever graced a track. Well down to all the riders and good luck in 2022

Totally agree. Like you I started following the sport many years back and still remember delivering the Evening News newspaper when they carried the Lokeren disaster on the front page. A dark day for U.K. speedway. Condolences to family friends and colleagues, another sad day for the sport.

The only thing going for the BSPL in this scenario is that they have found people more stupid than them who have bought a pup believing that it is a serious sport with professional racers who believe that they are that good and can command a t v audience. It beggars belief that some so called professional broadcaster has been duped by a cross between second hand car dealer and insurance company selling policies that cover sweet fa and never pay out when you need. Didn’t realise that professional broadcasters did not do the due diligence on the governing body and could have the wool or the Kevlars pulled over their eyes but then again you only have to look at the BBC to realise that anything is possible.

The BSPL have sold out to Eurosport and you will find sooner or later that screening U.K. racing will not be on the mainstream channel but on some App with highlights shown at 2.00 or 3.00 in the morning. If it was an option to show live racing or highlights why did they not go for highlights and manage a streaming service themselves. If these people in charge of speedway in this country had a brain they would be dangerous. They are inept and have single handily dragged U K speedway to the point where any chance of a credible product to sell has long gone. Speedway GP’s are not immune from the changes and dragging the sport into territories where it has little support or is worse still is not known seems foolhardy at best. Take a long hard look at the sport and it needs radical changes to format, racing and machines with a bit more of a level playing field so that riders have to hone their skills and not rely on rocket propelled bikes and ever increasing costs to make the riders think they are good when in reality it is who can hold on the best. The punters are not interested and yearn for close competitive racing not gate and go merchants. You can watch greyhound racing if that is all you want and look what is happening to this as a sport.

Well said. How many empty race nights in the summer months with some clubs having just two meetings in a month of June or July or even August. Again those in charge seem totally incapable of getting to grips with what is a summer sport (unless you are an Ice speedway fan) and running crucial meetings in late September and October when the chances are that the weather will be adverse. Riders moan about track conditions etc. yet they are the main culprits causing the problem with DU and fickle attitudes to racing conditions. Years gone by riders got on with it even with a layer of sawdust, today, the cat or dog can wee on a track and it is unsuitable for racing. If the BSPL do not make drastic changes to ensure it survives and attracts new punters, then you have nothing left. Go back to the 60’s and 70’s when you had enthusiastic part time riders with character who did not need rocket propelled bikes to make racing exciting or competitive and it produced local icons and international riders who competed against what was put in front of them. If a club reserve claimed the scalp of a heat leader all the better. Today is bland by comparison when it comes to entertainment and I am not just talking about the racing. All too clinical today with not much going for it. Think on those in charge, you do not have much time left to rescue the sport.

Four races in Forty odd minutes notwithstanding the track sums up why so few can be bothered to follow a sport that is just no longer appealing. Slick is a word that those in charge don’t understand and as a spectacle it is dire.

Those who have honed their craft showing how it should be done. Really sad that the top tier of U.K. speedway has come down to this with 1300 plus following it on updates. No credibility left. Good luck to Peterborough and I really hope that they end up Champions and do not end as a club with a trophy but no track in 2022. Go for it Panthers.

Perhaps if tracks put on meetings that included different classes of bike so that youngsters could look at coming in at an entry level of say 80cc or 125cc. Apart from those in the know many potential riders know nothing about the graduated levels which might be more affordable to start off and if the existing tracks marketed the entire range to encourage youngsters it might just be enough to trigger a younger following. As it is most see the sport ( I use the sport word loosely) 500cc machines costing a fortune on top of everything else you need to get started which in the early stages is funded by families and relatives. Make it cheaper for youngster to try it out and go back to encouraging grass track bikes or short track bikes to participate. Make the entertainment an event not just a meeting. A few clubs run some of the meetings with a range of classes but the majority of the main tracks/speedway promoters do themselves no favours by sticking to a boring 15 heat format with riders who dictate the track, grading etc. Why not start an event with some different classes building up to the main event making if you must, the league meeting as the final nights entertainment. And don’t mention about the weather and potential call offs if conditions change, so what, set the bikes up to race in prevailing conditions. Speedway really needs to up its game or simply close down, the current format is old hat, slow presentation, gardening, riders that rarely go straight back to a start if the ref calls them back but instead pit gates open and both riders and mechanics who fart about which could in effect give a rider an unfair advantage. Speedway needs to change but seems incapable of helping itself.

A selective response to an overview which in my view has accurately described the sad state that speedway finds itself in and has little chance of recovery without a major sea change. Let’s face Speedway has lost its way, promoters, club owners, managers and local sponsors are delusional and what you had way back in the 70’s and beyond was entertainment with the elite of world riders gracing U K tracks plying their trade and offering entertainment with up and coming talent given the chance either through second halves or via a reserve spot to take on the great and good of the sport. The training and honing your track craft is lost on the current crop of gate and go merchants. One thing that is indisputable is that the sport in this country is in serious decline and we may well lose, for a variety of reasons, the likes of Eastbourne, Swindon, Peterborough, Newcastle, Poole, Birmingham and who knows which other tracks that are under the threat of housing development etc. and/or are for financial reasons borderline cases to continue in 2022. I like many regret the sad state that speedway finds itself in and having been to meetings since 1968 it has had its peaks and troughs but it is a simple format which can entertain except that the riders are not committed to the clubs and the promoters are held to ransom by the riders whose interest ceases at the bank account. That is fine but most riders treat the supporter/customer with such contempt they do not deserve the following. Most of the riders in the upper echelons are so far removed from reality and that state of speedway in the U.K. that they need to get real.

Mikebv sums it up nicely. Anyone who really thinks that you have a local team is in the main deluded. You have individual riders who are self employed and financially need to look after to number so will ride for anybody anywhere as long as they are earning. Individuals who rarely team ride or look out for their partner in a heat. So you have individuals who conveniently link themselves to a club name for their own benefit. No loyalty no local input, rarely out and about locally promoting their’ club and dictating when they ride, the type of track and not forgetting the weather has to be perfect. If a cat or dog pisses on a track, let’s abandon the meeting. People wonder why no one wants to be a major sponsor and TV uses the sport as a filler. Wholesale changes needed but it will never happen. It has lost its way and can never be compared to the set ups in other countries. It has fallen on its sword.

Noticed that the above programme is on Freesports. Has anyone seen it? I guess it is road bikes but probably does not help the general using Speedway in the title when most would expect the conventional form of racing.