Stoke Potters 2017

[Baldy 69]

I don't know what the fuss is about.. Any sport needs compeitive sides going against each other regardless of age, which unfortuately for me speedway no longer has but thats my loss not theirs. This league should be full of youngsters of the same ability but we haven't got them hence the sides we see put out because i would not go to watch hammerings every week, either from a giving or taking side. No fun at all. Do we think we will ever get similar stand riders riding against each other or the lobsided teams we see on show today.

Edited February 21, 2017 by Steeplejack

[FAST GATER 853]

There is the point that these riders will be good for the league from the point of view that the inexperienced and younger riders may just learn a thing or two both on and off the track .

[uk_martin 1,606]

There is the point that these riders will be good for the league from the point of view that the inexperienced and younger riders may just learn a thing or two both on and off the track .

 

There are plenty of better riders that the youngsters can learn from in the higher leagues when they double up in them. Old crocs telling the youngsters how great things were back in the 1990's etc when "everything was so much better" are hardly going to do the kids any favours. And how many "young" riders are going to benefit from the older riders at Stoke? If there was an "Antichrist" team in the NL then the Stoke Potters are it.

[Sings4Speedway 3,247]

 

There are plenty of better riders that the youngsters can learn from in the higher leagues when they double up in them. Old crocs telling the youngsters how great things were back in the 1990's etc when "everything was so much better" are hardly going to do the kids any favours. And how many "young" riders are going to benefit from the older riders at Stoke? If there was an "Antichrist" team in the NL then the Stoke Potters are it.

Not every rider is going to double up so who do they have to learn from. It's also not only young riders that need assistance.

However as seen time and time again all the words of experience and knowledge are useless if they are ignored

[uk_martin 1,606]

Not every rider is going to double up so who do they have to learn from....

 

For the sake of British Speedway on a global scale, we need to focus on those youngsters who are good enough to make progress, and who will be doubling up. If a riders own abilities can't get him onto the first rung of the ladder then maybe there isn't the potential there to devote resources on, to climb the ladder further. We have scarce resources in this country, they need to be used effectively. Having senior riders trying to nurture a kid to maintain his position as a #6 in the National League, I would suggest is not a wise use of what coaching resources we have.

 

... It's also not only young riders that need assistance....

TBH, if a rider is in his 30's and is still only a NL reserve, he should be looking for a career elsewhere. If they are just treating speedway as a hobby, they should stick to Amateur speedway and leave the professional leagues to those young riders looking for opportunities.

 

This may be controversial, but IMHO the NL should be looking for, coaching and developing the British versions of Bartosz Zmarzlik, Patrik Dudek, Michael Jepsen Jensen etc...young kids with big futures ahead of them. We've done it in the past with Tai Woffinden, and to Australia's eternal gratitude, with Darcy Ward, so when applied properly, the system can work. It won't work however if resources and efforts are wasted on go-nowhere riders playing out their mid-life crisis's.

[Sings4Speedway 3,247]

 

For the sake of British Speedway on a global scale, we need to focus on those youngsters who are good enough to make progress, and who will be doubling up. If a riders own abilities can't get him onto the first rung of the ladder then maybe there isn't the potential there to devote resources on, to climb the ladder further. We have scarce resources in this country, they need to be used effectively. Having senior riders trying to nurture a kid to maintain his position as a #6 in the National League, I would suggest is not a wise use of what coaching resources we have.

 

TBH, if a rider is in his 30's and is still only a NL reserve, he should be looking for a career elsewhere. If they are just treating speedway as a hobby, they should stick to Amateur speedway and leave the professional leagues to those young riders looking for opportunities.

 

This may be controversial, but IMHO the NL should be looking for, coaching and developing the British versions of Bartosz Zmarzlik, Patrik Dudek, Michael Jepsen Jensen etc...young kids with big futures ahead of them. We've done it in the past with Tai Woffinden, and to Australia's eternal gratitude, with Darcy Ward, so when applied properly, the system can work. It won't work however if resources and efforts are wasted on go-nowhere riders playing out their mid-life crisis's.

 

Whilst im not against the point that we should be trying/hoping for the the next big stars the fact is there are simply not enough youngsters of sufficient quality coming through to flood the NL with them. In addition all the riders didnt get team places based upon age they got them because they are good enough. Personally i feel there is becoming a conveyor belt of riders from the youth rounds straight in to the NL just because they are young.

Personally if you are good enough you get a place simple, if there is a rider better whether they be 15 or 25 its the quality of rider that is required to enhance British speedway and restoring the need to be on your game to acquire/retain a team place with age being irrelevant.

[FAST GATER 853]

There is only "one" Tony A and he is not tootling round he is racing and justifying his inclusion in the team ,let a better rider step up and push him out of the team eveolution is the finest barometer in the end.

Edited March 7, 2017 by FAST GATER

[uk_martin 1,606]

Young Adam Isherwood has been brought in to the Potters as Assistant Team Manager.

 

Well with all those young brats in the team, Malcolm Vasey needs all the help he can get.

 

Seems that Adam Isherwood has ridden grasstrack and has also been to speedway training schools. So who knows, if there's a rider missing one meeting, someone could just toss him a spare race suit and ask him to fill in... He'd certainly fit in.

Edited March 7, 2017 by uk martin

[Triple.H. 1,986]

Greg Hancock would be good if they can fit him in.?

Based on the Harland Cook average fiasco at IOW

GH would have to come back from the dead in a century or two to get his average lowered enough to ride NL

[Simonh 18]

Got to admire TA's staying power, his debut as a Potter 34 seasons ago......1984

[WalterPlinge 657]

With the weather being nice yesterday I took a trip up to Stoke for the Pride of the Potteries which used to be a top individual event years ago.... what a mistake to make!!!

 

The Stoke stadium continues to deteriorate. There are huge tractor tyre on the centre 'green' in contravention of the speedway regulations, and you can't see through the mesh safety fence on the home straight anymore as huge mounds of earth have been piled up against the outside of the safety fence (another health and safety hazard).

 

The track appeared to have had no earlier preparation, except a considerable amount of water had been dumped on the track in various places not long before the start. The first bend looked dusty. The 3rd and 4th bends a very wet skating rink that looked like it would be very difficult to negotiate.

 

There were no racejackets for the meeting. However the Belle Vue riders wore BV racejackets with the correct numbers on the back. The Birmingham riders and most of the Stoke riders wore their club racejackets, although they had their normal club numbers on the back, not the riding number for this meeting. Paul Burnett, Ryan Burton, Tony Atkin, David Speight, Tom Woolley, Sam Woolley had no race jacket at all (although Atkin has a Stoke logo on the front of his kevlars).

 

The riders ambled out to the start line to be announced to the crowd, and to their credit got into 1-16 number order. However the bod in the box could only announce 14 of them as he didn't know who Burton and Woolley were. (They were changes to the programme and he clearly hadn't been given the names and didn't recognise who they were).

 

The centre green presenter then asked for a minutes silence for Gary Towers who passed away during the winter. Unfortunately as Mr Centre Green stopped talking to observe a minutes silence, the bod in the box took this as his cue to play the music again. He eventually realised and stopped it, so Mr Towers did get 20 seconds of silence after 40 seconds of pop music.

 

The racing started as we eagerly waited to see if anyone could negotiate the 3rd bend skating rink. They couldn't. As they reached the 3rd bend, 1st lap, leader Darryl Ritchings fell, and 2nd placed Rob Shuttleworth close behind him also fell. Ritchings remounted, and actually got 2nd place because Chris Hay could only two-wheel his way around.

 

Daniel Greenwood fell before the start of heat 2 as he tried a practice bend. Then all the electricity went off and the airfence deflated.

 

When we resumed, Ryan Burton was a faller on the heat 2 ice rink. The track started to dry out and kick up dust, but there were still fallers on the poor track.

Normally the track is graded after heat 4, 8, 12, 16 in individual meetings, but no tractor or water cart came out after 4 or 8, even though by heat 8 the dust was very bad.

heats 8 and 9 were awarded due to heavy falls for Speight and Greenwood.

 

Then after heat 10 was an interval. No tractor, but a misfiring water cart dumped water in random places and the track was back to diabolical.

 

In heat 11 Chris Hay gave up, Layne Cupitt fell, previously unbeaten Luke Priest two-wheeled round slowly for 2nd place, and Paul Burnett won in a time over 11 seconds outside the track record.

Rob Shuttleworth fell and remounted twice in heat 13 but still got a point ahead of Ryan Burton who fell and remounted only once.

 

By now Dan Greenwood and Chris Hay had had enough of bent equipment and withdrew.

Heat 19 finished with just one original starter, Ryan Terry-Daley, who beat the only other competitor - meeting reserve Sam Woolley.

 

We finally got through 20 heats and Mitchell Davey won, Luke Priest 2nd, Darryl Ritchings 3rd. Dave Tattum took to the microphone to tell us what great racing we had seen....so all was OK.

[bruno 1,790]

They don't seem to get it do they. Haven't been to Stoke for a few years because it's a shambles. Should be a decent track but it isn't . I know some fans say if you don't support the tracks they will shut but to be honest some of them don't deserve to be running. Since we came back I can't remember one meeting Monmore Green where it's been run poorly. There's been a couple of times where the track could have been better but in every case there was understandable reasons for it. As far as I can remember there's only been the once at Perry Barr where they got the track wrong

[WalterPlinge 657]

They don't seem to get it do they. Haven't been to Stoke for a few years because it's a shambles. Should be a decent track but it isn't . I know some fans say if you don't support the tracks they will shut but to be honest some of them don't deserve to be running. Since we came back I can't remember one meeting Monmore Green where it's been run poorly. There's been a couple of times where the track could have been better but in every case there was understandable reasons for it. As far as I can remember there's only been the once at Perry Barr where they got the track wrong

It wasn't just the state of the track and the stadium... nor the electric going off.

 

It was the whole shambles. Playing music through a minutes silence was disgraceful.

 

No presentation, no racejackets, an announcer who didn't know who two of the rider being introduced were (and once he found out who Ryan Burton was, he still called him Ryan Burnett) etc etc..

[Mike.Butler 601]

this is most unexpected based upon what I read in the star's stoke column recently..

[pete cc 322]

How long will Speight be left in the side? He gets no better & maybe a 15 year old novice may be better.