marko

Been saying it for years. Reduce costs on the bikes and riders will be able to take a points money pay cut and still earn more than they are now. Thats less money for the promoter to pay out so they could use that to reduce admission prices or keep the prices as they are BUT put that money back into the speedway by way of track covers or improving the drainage etc We have to get more youngsters involved but they won’t with the costs needed to get setup, if we had more youngsters coming through some will turn out to be good riders and fill the teams out better or possibly take the place of a average riders who requires a lot of finance to travel from abroad.

They should wait for new averages then replace Nathan Stoneman, I don’t think he is good enough for the second tier or ever will be.

Indeed it was 89, no internet back then but the fans were saying he might have lost the bottle to race after the tragic accident at Hackney where Paul Muchine lost his life, RIP

It’s the risk we all take or once took for those of us who no longer have a team to support. Never used to take any notice of what was forecasted, if the meeting was still listed as on, I would check the real time rain radar and make a call from that based on how heavy it was raining, the area it was covering and direction it was heading. A promotion with all the good intentions of trying to run, doesn’t mean it will be able to run or be completed.

You known where you are with BSN, you will get at least one meeting a week subject to the weather where as Sky etc only show meetings when they can be bothered, that might mean a gap of several weeks and no recap of what has been missed. Stopped subscribing to cable tv two years ago and don’t miss it, BSN covering the prem this season is a well worth it bonus.

They better sort that pronto, first match of the season, big crowd, you serve them up a mess from the start, you won’t get them back.

Another shout for BSN to show the Ben fund meeting, you could charge more with the extra profits over production costs going to the fund itself. I am sure a lot of fan would be prepared to put their hands in their pockets to support this excellent cause.

Burned too many bridges I think, too many times he has let clubs down, and not simply by having a bad night, but just just giving up and not even making an effort, whilst no doubt still drawing a wage because promoters are dumb enough to pay a downside guarantee to him.

They might have started on Thursdays? I get involved watching speedway from 88 onwards and then Arena was Saturday at 7pm I think once Hackney folded in 91 it opened up Friday nights, when Arena went top flight in 92 that was when the switch happened? When London Lions opened in 1996 they (London) raced on a Thursday night and Arena Essex raced Friday nights. After that it’s always been a mixture of Wednesdays, Fridays or Saturdays, but mostly Fridays (top flight) and Saturdays. But always recall Stuart Douglas saying that “racing on a Wednesday night was akin to throwing a suit case of money off the QE2 bridge” every week. Friday the M25 was always busy but that’s why Arena adopted an 8pm start time to allow more time for fans to make the journey. I don’t know or want to argue about how many fans came from over the bridge but out of my group of 10 plus people, only one had to travel from South of the river.

Yes I know I replied to her letting her know exactly my thoughts on the matter. Basically came down to leave Arena Essex alone!

Sounds like a complete mess but is summed up by the fact they want to open a new club but use the history of another club which has no connection to it other than by nickname. Guess what? When Arena Essex was born in 1984 and named the Hammers, they didn’t inherit all the history and success of the West Ham Hammers, and neither should they of.

The council don’t really need to spend any money, just force the developer into making changes to their plans. Simple solution would be to give the speedway stadium and large part of car park back, volunteers and sponsor backing could handle the rest.

For the sake of 0.08 out and they could have had Bowtell back, that would have made them very very strong. Instead Alfie will have to start in the main body of a fairly poor looking team.

Actually Vlad did ride for Hackney in 91 and was in the Hawks team that visited Arena Essex in the Gold Cup. The Hackney team that day was Tony Olsson Michael Warren Pavel Karnas Vladmir Kalina Paul Whittaker Roland Pollard Dave Hamnet

Everyone knows what Roynon and Newman are capable of, but always a big question of actually doing it, I thought Kyle was going to be Hammers 4th heat leader in 2018 but it just didn’t work out for him. Poole have once again nailed the art of building a side on paper, a great top two with strength then down the order, that in turn might see Thomas or one of the Cook brothers drop to reserve at some point.

Plymouth is small but it’s deceiving because it’s narrow so looks smaller than it probably is. Apart from its issues with being close to sea level, there is nothing wrong with that track, just because your typical throttle jockey finds it hard, doesn’t mean it’s a bad track, riding track that size requires skill over fast engines.

I could well be wrong but I always thought that once a foreign rider had accumulated enough meetings to get an average, that was the figure that would be used for team building purposes etc I imagine the same principle would apply then if a Prem team signed let’s say Wiktor Lampart on an assessed 8.00 but he only averaged 6.15 then he would remain on 8.00 until he averaged above that, but for how long would that apply?

Crazy that he is saddled with a four point average when really he is a two point man, Brummies straight away taking a two point hit in the team total. What I will say though is that because James is from Australia, there is more emphasis on him to make it because it’s a long way to go home if you don’t make it. Justin is a good rider, I like him from his short time at Lakeside but he’s not a second heat leader in the traditional sense. Birmingham might get away with it at home but I think they will have some drummings on the road and not pick up any bonus points.

I think you know what I meant, Eurosport shows a meeting once in a blue moon, where as even if BSN miss a week, they will show two the following week to make up for it ;-)

All in for the BSN packages, discovery/Eurosport et al can go do one, they show the sport only when they feel like it, at least with BSN they show a meeting every week or sometimes two meetings over 14 days. If there was one other provider I would consider for a speedway fix it would be prem sports as they cover a ton of Polish and Swedish meetings.

Glasgow look quite good but a few sides that could be up there, Plymouths with one rider left could be the main challengers, they have a very good balance and if Barker hits the ground running, him and Starke will be a strong engine room, then it’s down to their final signing and how Dan reacts to his layoff, if they have a great number six changing places with Dan or maybe Starke if he starts slow, they will have an ace up their sleeve all season. Any team with. Solid top four and one flying reserve will always do exceptionally well. Only team that looks weak to me is Birmingham.

My criticism of Plymouth is purely down to the track, not the size, not the shape, or the standard of racing, just its seemingly bad rep for having rain offs based on how much disruption it caused to the Championship last season which I grant wasn’t helped by the promoters arranging the season as they did. Lakeside used to get far more criticism for being a poor track, not because of rain offs but because of its size and home advantage and your quite far away from the action, that’s the way it was though, track didn’t care, it didn’t have any feelings.

How is that ironic? Do you realise that despite the name, the track at Arena Essex was much higher than any water table in the area? But even so over the years the drainage was improved upon so that the venue wasn’t so vulnerable to rain offs which can cost clubs a lot of money. on another point though, why are you always so defensive about Plymouth when your own team is Birmingham? A track which itself has come under scrutiny plenty of times over the years.

If that’s the case why wasn’t the track built higher? They must have know before the track was put in that susceptibility to unfavourable conditions was likely to be high and potentially very costly as a business model.

Are you saying those of us who have lost our tracks are no longer proper fans? Even though many will continue to buy the speedway star week in week out and watch as much of the sport online or on telly as possible? Very strange considering the fragile nature of your own clubs future.