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I read all your comments with interest and I thank you all for them. One of the things that determined this years team for us was a hunger to come to the club. In seasons past, we have struggled to get people over to the island and this has narrowed our opportunity for rider selection. The very young 15 - 18, normally have school during the week, so reserves the opportunity to the next hot shot to their local or weekend club and they remain quite a challenge to find. Although, as a club we have never prevented starlets coming over and indeed encourage them as part of the GB Young Lions. I have also invested time and support to various young riders including Drew Kemp, Kyle Bickley, Chad Wirtzfeld and James Shanes to name but a few, because I believe in them as much as I believe in the riders we have selected this season, all of whom can progress this year. The second aspect we want are team players and all of the riders announced so far fit that bill perfectly. We want unity and a belief in the common goal.... which I know is always easier when you have a winning side for sure, but with strong, fun characters in the team along with very capable heat leaders and experience the combination is there for success. The other factor for us is pay....simple as. We cannot afford to pay the requirements that some riders have asked for, nor we will get into any price war. We have a scale and thats that, and the core objective remains the same... be the best we can be and hopefully that is trophy winner, while remaining viable, providing a fun filled family night out where our guests are valued and get value, while developing riders via the school and our NDL/SDL Teams. #comeonyouwarriors .

DID the BSPA design the new aircraft carrier

Yeah, but no fun watching films in black and white!

We need riders who understand that it is not enough to turn up ride a bike for 5 mins load up and bugger off to the next gig. Holder and Batch were poor signings in hindsight, did either really want to be there ? I think not. They showed total contempt for the Club and the supporters. Mug punters we are not and won't be treated as such.

50% of Poole's team is currently former Somerset riders - what's your point?

Surely the answer is to have rules and them stick to them for several years. Constant tinkering and change has cock up and self interest written all over it. Same old crap about a positive meeting to take speedway forward before the realisation of the detail sinks in and the arguments start for the next few months.

Jake is a racer, and always goes out to win. He did not thrown away points when a match result was at stake. Always push as hard as you can, riders make mistakes in front and you need to be in as position to capitalise. As you get older you get smarter and are able to do this as second nature without making mistakes. All part of Speedway. I watched Jake a lot this year and have to say that his passing ability was top draw. His 15 point max at home to Brum was stunning, and not all from the Gate, As a ex rider I applaud Jake, he has always just got on with it and done the best he can. As his Father I am proud of him, always worked and raced and can hold his head high. Very unfortunate not to get picked again for Eastbourne, but hey that's Speedway. Richard

Looks more like a Poole A team compared to who Poole have announced - with the difference that most fans would want to see them do well

Agree - just disappointing (if not surprising) that it wasnt all in order before team building was officially started for any team let alone completed by some.

shambles ain't the word looks like a long long season ahead ,said it the other year when they cocked up , sign a decent no1 and a decent reserve before anything else

So why didn't we have our team sorted

So we had the Hokey Cokey cup, now we have a Hokey Cokey team, shambles.

I havent posted in quite a long time as life is pretty hectic, but i have just read through a shed load of pages on this thread to catch up - Seems everyone is freinds as usual! ;-) Its a shame it looks like Hans wont be back - Nice guy and very experienced. As for CH seems thats looking doubtful - I was chatting with a customer of mine who has helped him out over the years and he said he doubts he will be back at Poole - disapointing as he is on a bargin average for the amount of talent he has - Shame to see his personal issues look like they have got in the way over the past few years. As for the first 4 signings they look pretty good - Poles tend to be a risk but like many i remember the year matt had Hans and Krystoff Cigeilski (SP) at reserve (from memory) and that panned out alright! Nice to see Josh back - very nice lad and has a good racing head on his shoulders - Hopefully Matt can pull a "Big" name out the hat to take the pressure off Brady. Andy

Exactly, we like to make them unhappy ourselves once they've arrived!!

Some men might see that as a win win. A night away from the wife and being able to go to a proper race track.

saying she is an " employee" skids implies she is paid ,just wondering?? ps her work looking after sponsors partys on racenite is excellent she is really really great with everyone

You can’t compare the great CO with the current owner ,he is not fit to tie up Charlie’s shoes. One would be a successful blue chip company executive the other a rug salesman in Morocco. charlie would not be in North Africa

Yeah, because Jason Doyle can't ride big, fast tracks. He was hopeless in the Aussie GP this year, wasn't he!

It may be a risk but the fact that Danno (and Ben Morley) are showing the ambition to improve their all round riding skills, even though it may cost them in the short term, should be applauded. It is the sort of commitment that should make them popular with fans. I hope it works out for both of them. (Last year signings of Campos and Portwood raised a few eyebrows, but both were very popular - so it is clear that such left field signings can work for the Warriors).

Ah, love the archives! Got one from Poole last winning the league?

Charles Ochiltree was respected and, in turn, he respected his customers, the fans. As a youngster in the 1960s, I once went into the office to ask if a race card was available (one of those long ago occasions when the stadium was so full, they sold out of programmes!). I was quite concerned when I saw him in the office but still asked him. Ever the gentleman, he responded to a young lad with the same politeness as to any adult and told me to wait whilst they xeroxed some spares, handing me a copy before I left. Very powerful man in the sport at that time but never lost touch with reality either.

Unfortunately the inclement weather has delayed any progress these last 5 years.

I've said it before...rules should have a minimum of say a 5 season cycle....that way everyone knows where they stand....clubs, riders., fans. A ten year cycle would be even better...clubs may then invest in young riders more.

He never bailed out last year ?..he got sacked for pulling out a meeting because yet again he did not fancy the track ....you can debate if the Kings lynn track was ok to ride or not but yet again the common denominator of a so called poor track and a rider pulling out or showing no effort Is Troy Batchelor ...it's not just bad luck or chance that he is always involved .

Very good news...hated having to rush to a bank on a Thursday to get some cash for the speedway. That moves foxhall stadium into the 2000's ...only another nearly another 18 years of catch up to go

Agreed, until they announce rules in 2-3 season stints, we will always have this, same old questions every pre-season

If only they did. Testing something new to its limits and finding any faults before bringing it into service. Never mind the long history of disastrous decisions that weren't thought through they've managed to do the same this year with the only one over 8, that only applies in the PL so a CL team could have a stronger heat leader trio than a PL team, the reassessment of GP riders who didn't race here in 2017 but not other riders who didn't and the abandonment of the 2 British riders rule. They did introduce fixed nights, Swindon excepted, but cancelled out one of the major advantages by reassessing those GP riders.

SIGNING ALERT Thursday morning... the jigsaw is complete!

Cannot see Kyle back in Comets colours.

And they want help and support off others the arrogance is quite unbelievable

Only watched the DVD of the meeting the other day. Absolutely brilliant watching Steady leave the rest way behind in heat 1.

I reckon May will have some surprises up his sleeve

Where can I get hold of one of the DVD sets Gem?

That really is how it was at Brandon Stadium around the same time under CO and was was usually home in Northampton by 9.30 ( and on one memorable occasion by 9.15 pm after a match ). This is NOT a rose tinted dinosaur fan glasses long ago memory.

From my reading of this, Aces 2018 will be Cook 8.45 Tungate 6.18 S Worrall 6.77 Fricke 7.39 Bewley 4.71 Smith 2.00 35.5 Leaving 7.00. Do they splash the cash on a new 7.00 International rider, or with no TV deal find a cheaper option. Kennett, Lahti, Hougaard many options... as yet unsigned.

Booked for Wroclaw v Torun meeting on August 19th, have got some questions if anyone can help me out, like has anyone have any idea of how the fans are at this meeting, are they a friendly bunch, because looking forward to seeing the Olympic Stadium for the first time, is it easy to get tickets for this meeting, certainly looks big enough stadium so should not be a sell out. Any help would be welcome, booked in at a City Centre hotel, so should be easy to get to the Stadium, and finally what time do the Meetings start. Flying out from East Midlands airport on Friday the 17th then home again on the Monday 20th, before flying out again for the Gorzow GP the following weekend.

I’m his mechanic, I know where he and Mikkel are riding

If anyone wondered why I bang on about Isle of Wight all the time, there's your answer. Most promoters treat members of the BSF as g'bs*ites, trolls, ignoramuses and keyboard commandos. They regard us with contempt, spite and aggression and as 'completely without credibility'. This one treats us as speedway fans. Ps Go there and have a chat with the Big Man, but aside from his fabulous (and I mean fabulous) curry, never eat anything he gives you

And,for the many bees fans who grew up with the C O running the show, the last five years at Brandon, watching the club being dragged down year on year, the pain is even greater.

Exactly you only have to look at how he behaved on that particular night when others refused to ride.

‘He’s mad. He’s mad! He’s madder than Mad Jack McMad, the winner of last year’s Mr Madman competition.’

Did they do ok? They got lucky (and unlucky at times, as well as self inflicted damage). If the 4TT wasn't at the EoES then they probably wouldn't have got out of the group, let alone winning it. The KO Cup speaks for itself when your TM says “But I told the Ipswich management and riders that they didn’t deserve to lose the final", and we all know what happened there. They must have done ok in a business sense because Rathbone decided to run in 2018 so they must be doing something right as he says? The mantra usually is that we only want riders who want to ride for the club, such and such can add a point to their average (because that's the way that you win the main prize), and the final chestnut is "that's the team we wanted". Having said that, looking at the 2017 table, Panthers were not far away despite finishing 6th but more of the same will bring the same result, or worse possibly, looking at some of the teams so far. You are right though in that a good no1 can make a whole world of difference but not too sure that it can save what we currently have?

For me, personally, the period it started going wrong was in the 90s. I remember being passionate about speedway even then, although there were times I started questioning how loyal the sport was to me, the average fan. It was about 1994, a run-of-the-mill Four Team round at Kirky Lane that had to be delayed while riders were held up dashing back from Swedish commitments the night before. I had turned up, like the other thousand or so that night, in sufficient time before start in case I missed something... and yet the full cast wasn't there as scheduled. To me, at that time. I was merely part of a crowd that was supplementing another paynight for the riders who were en-route, and I questioned their true one-club loyalty. Riders had other irons in the fire - not on the individual front, but for other teams, other countries.That the Polish and Swedish leagues were now importing what had been primarily British-based riders didn't seem right to me. How could riders be team mates in another country and yet opposition over here! That wasn't the rivalry I grew up thinking speedway was about... from now on it was simply riders earning a crust, whenever and wherever, getting the best out of being self-employed (as Scott Nicholls described himself recently). They were putting too many fingers in too many pies. Then over here we had the ludicrous doubling up and down, here, there and everywhere rule, which further took away my belief in team speedway. Even when SKY began doing live matches in 1999, I still adored the sport. My adoration continued being smacked about though. The Golden Double, in which riders purposely slowed down to allow a team mate through and so to earn the double points, the World Cup in which Pedersen and Crump tried to stage-manage their race position so that one country couldn't operate the Joker in the next heat. The last 10-15 years have made me realise that speedway and its ethics have placed a huge cloud over my belief in the sport. Riders spreading themselves too thinly have taken away the true value of a team sport. Thankfully the double points rule has been confined to the sport's tried-but-failed old-rules shelf. albeit 15 years too late.

This quote intrigues me, as it imo, proves what is wrong with Speedway. When you say 'better his career'...how so? Individually or as a team rider? What are speedway riders...individuals looking out for their individual glory, or team riders wanting to be the best rider they can for a team? For me...this is the biggest problem in speedway. How many riders early in their career, focus on being the best team rider for a Club? Or do they dream of individual glory, and doing their utmost to use teams and clubs, to further their career in Individual pursuits like the GP's. It's confused thinking, and tantamount to the downturn in Club speedway over the years imo...which after all is what most fans watch weekly. I personally wish Speedway never ever had Individual world Finals or the GP series. I'd prefer World team Cup finals and Test match series. The focus in speedway is too much on individuals rather than teams imo. It's all about teams and Clubs for me...either International or domestic.

who owns kyle now then ? bit of a silly statement there saying worky dont own him . so who owns him . it was kyle who brought the whole thing up in saying , it depends on workington . so if we dont own him, why did he say that ?

Don't underestimate her, she'll go to sleep when she spots Peter York or kick off if she sees Sandhu or Horton !!!!!!!!!!!

Poundland

One rider from last year isn't returning due to work commitments which could be either Ty or Matt...if we go with Ty and Kyle Bickley that will leave 14.31 for last two riders.. matt finished on 4.85 leaves over 9pts for the final rider and aint no-one out there with that average !! Surely we will be looking to use up as many points as we can and getting 2 riders to make up the 14.31 pushing Mason to start at reserve ...the guessing gets interesting now

Just being selfish. I'd much rather have a league with 8 closely matched teams than one or two teams running away from the rest at the top of the league. Closely matched teams are also more likely to produce good racing and that's what it should be about.