Leaderboard

The most progressive development in UK speedway in recent years was the building of the NSS, which took more effort and determination than anything Matt Ford has achieved and if you're looking for promotions who have raised their game you may want to consider Glasgow, Isle of Wight, the present Belle Vue promotion and maybe others as well. They have managed it without creating the controversy that always seems to surround Poole and are trying to move the sport forward in ways that benefit not just themselves but the sport at large. Matt Ford has done an excellent job for Poole but little to benefit UK speedway.

This is completely the problem and why many speedway supporters dislike Poole. The attitude that as long as Poole win, hammering the sport as a whole into the ground is an acceptable cost.

Spot on.... Watch any of the PDC darts streams from the 'floor tournaments' that take place almost weekly around the country as qualifiers for other TV tournaments. Many have no commentary at all.... Many are played in sports halls in front of 'one man and his dog' and sometimes played out in front of no public whatsoever. If a stream has any commentary it is often just someone detailing the scores.. It can very often be therefore mind numbingly dull, with the only sound heard being the match score announcer and the 'thud' of a dart going into the board. There's no way on earth watching that would get you 'into the darts'... Then equate that to watching darts on Sky and ITV... The SAME 'sport'. The SAME players, MVG, Anderson, Cross, Wright, Lewis, Wade etc etc have to play these 'floor tournaments' but its millions and millions of miles away from exactly the same thing played out on a Thursday night in the PL, in front of huge 10,000 crowds with commentators shouting out loudly what's happening above the ear splitting crowd noise. .. Tatum and Pearson bring their passion to the Sport, and as it's a high adrenaline, high octane Sport, there is nothing wrong with trying to impart how exciting it can actually be to a (often ignorant of Speedway) watching nation.. More power to their elbows (and vocal chords)...

When I saw the title of the thread I feared Philip Rising had fallen on hard times.

And reading the last few posts you wonder why Poole fans get defensive about our club. Say enough rubbish enough times and people actually start to believe it! Here’s a fact for you. Poole use the same rules as every other club. The problem is, the majority of the other clubs are owned by promoters who just don’t have the same savvy/money/ability/dedicated time to compete and that’s why over the last 20 years Poole have become the most successful club. Nothing will change because there’s currently not another promoter out there as dedicated to the sport as Matt Ford. It’s a fact. It’s his full time job and he demands success. As Middlo said at P&P, many clubs would see making the playoffs a successful season, but to Poole it was abject failure to bomb out in the semis. It’s up to other promotions to raise their game. If they were all of the same ilk as Ford the sport would be in a healthy state in the UK.

Just joined this forum as I’m sick of reading the dross people keep posting. Newcastle have signed 7 riders willing to try their best for the club and as a supporter that’s all we can hope for, a rider going to try their best in every heat they ride. It’s time people get behind the club instead of keep stating how much they are going to struggle, stay positive as paper teams never win the league anyway and get behind the lads and support the diamonds.

If Ford had his way the league would end up with Poole A,Poole B,Poole C,Poole D,Poole E,Poole F,Poole G,Poole H and Poole J.... He must be the most diss loyal promoter in speedway.Win at any cost.Sign as many agents as he can.The rules are there to be (broken) manipulated..In his book. The worst bit is 90% of their fans don't want to,can't see it,or don't care.

The PR side over the winter has been terrible truth be told. This promotion have been getting away with it far too long because they are 'new.' They're not new anymore though but people are still cutting them slack. I actually think the club has regressed on the communication side since Len Silver left and I never thought that was possible. Press and practice is a good way to get fans excited for the season. Not much happens granted but as it is free you get floating fans in attendance. The sound and smell, the new riders etc. can convince someone who may not be thinking of attending many/any meetings otherwise. Have been falling out of love with the sport for some time now, it's a real shame as I'm a stone's throw from the track. Don't feel like I'm being offered anything from the club to make me even consider attending at the moment. And for anyone who wants to wheel out the 'if you don't use it you'll lose it' argument then save your breath.

IT is that time of the year again ... Speedway Star's "big issue'" it's pre-season special, is available from Thursday at no extra cost despite being almost three times as big as the usual weekly format. It will be available at tracks over the Easter period and from all the usual outlets ... newsagents, supermarkets, etc. And, of course, via a subscription. The digital version, online at 12.01 am on Thursday, can be purchased with the Speedway Star app for just £2.49 from the Apple or Android stores. Or you can call Dave on 020-8335 1113 and have it delivered to your door.

As we celebrate 70 years to this day that the club rode its first ever match, they have also announced that we now have a team sponsor for the season in staggs bar in Musselburgh.

Shush! That means Shovlar is accusing Matt of smoke and mirrors.

Unfortunately, we only have other promoters and at least one rider's word against My Pairman's. There is also symantics at play here, there may not be a "GP Rider Rule" but that doesn't mean riders haven't been re-assessed. As I said, it is the lack of transparency which annoys me more than anything. It just seems to often go in Poole's favour.

How are Somerset going to hammer us then? No chance of that happening unless there are catastrophic crashes. Poole are a far superior team this season.

Talking of drips, another cracking contribution

TBF it looked quite a bad injury. He couldn't even walk on it. So fair play to him for riding on for Somerset. Would have been easier to duck today. Shows his commitment to British speedway

Personally, I don't see that Matt Ford or Poole do a lot wrong. In many ways Ford reminds me of the late Ian Thomas as both tend(ed) to upset people (but not worry about it) due to: pushing rules (which are the same for everyone) to the limit, signing the best riders available to them and wishing to do the very best they can in order to promote their club(s) and make them successful....

So basically the usual cash flow issue which kills many companies. Their fault.

Used to have the odd lunch with Stewart a while back and saw first hand how much the club meant to him , the man bled red & white this must be a really difficult decision for Stewart to make. All the best in whatever you do Stewart and hope you can still attend he will be a big miss.

Wow...... All the best to Stewart, always said hello even tho’ I’m a “beast from the East”

That has come out of the blue , i hope it's not health issues resurfacing .

You don`t think you are replying to he of the multi usernames.

Is it though? Why are Zagar, Woffinden and P Pawlicki a 9, but Kildemand returns on his old average? Why are the riders above re-assessed but other non-GP riders, who just happened to have sign for Poole, not re-assessed? I agree it sounds like a conspiracy theory, but without any transparency from the BSPA about how rules are applied, I can understand how some fans think it looks like favouritism.

Didn't a couple of teams try and 'up their game' not so long ago. How did that end up for the speedway family?

If someone tries to take the corner at Peterborough like they do at Lakeside they will be in big trouble lol.

Bit of a rip off to pay to watch someone so far off the pace that the only question is which 3 pointless rides they take. That's not Bowtell's fault, it has applied and will apply to plenty of other riders (Panthers included). It's the structure that allows it that's wrong.

hence being a new dad

I HAVE been a vocal and vociferous critic of many things in speedway for over 50 years and could come up with a long list of things that are wrong with the sport today. Nigel just screams, sounds like a monkey, doesn't use any words. Do you actually read what you write? Of course, he is not everyone's cup of tea, no one is, but your comments are so ludicrous that no one will take them seriously.

Nothing wrong with Pearson and Tatum on TV. Much prefer there exuberance.

He'll say he's in But then pull out In out in out mucking teams about He does as mummy says and let's you down and fans they get a clout Oh Robert Lambert Oh Robert Lambert Oh Robert Lambert Knees bent, arms stretched loading a van van van

THINK you are on a different planet to most of us ... planet of the apes by the sound of it.

Entertaining meeting for a challenge match, not amazing but still entertaining. For Leicester Andersen, King and Pieszczek were excellent with Newman aiding with his 7 rides. Vaculik was poor considering but he will improve. R/R and Sarjeant were the let downs. Get a replacement for Bates and when Vaculik gets going, this is a very good Leicester side. For Somerset I went away very happy as an away point would have been achieved in a league meeting. Doyle, Holder and BWD were the pick of the bunch for us. Especially BWD beating Andersen in heat 4. Jeppesen was out of shape in heat 2 but unknown track for him, was never off the pace. Allen, Wright and Lawson were very inconsistent throughout the meeting.

A new sponsor in a pub 32 miles from the track what happened to the Black Bull I would have thought that would have been a better shout I can't see many fans dropping in for an after meeting pint

Seems with anything that the ruling body do it might or might not be a rule and probably forced thru by the minority. Anything seems to make no sense with anything they touch, I'm at the point where I'm ready to give up trying to bother.

Well I do like to try n do me bit bruv

Nice plug for the site Ruff - Sue will be pleased

He should go better this year, he's invested in new push bikes

And don't forget to go to Foxhall first, make a day of it. I'm pretty positive there will be hundreds of ipswich fans at the Arena.

He does fit. If he wanted the spot then surely he would’ve been there from the start.

Looking forward to picking this issue up on Thursday. Speedway season is truly underway when that hits the shelves. For those who have it delivered, get your pets well away from the letterbox for when that comes through the letterbox.

Some might, then I hear it's onto spearmint rhino

From what I was told by a good source and backed by conversation with a rider, the crapping upon was initially in the other direction. Berwick's promotion deserve support from any fanclub using their name and surely speedway supporters clubs exist to do everything to help keep the sport alive in their area. Donations towards a promotion's expenses are surely vital to this.

We've not had that many daytime meetings so it's difficult to judge. I haven't noticed any difference in the standard of racing but as you say many prefer the spectacle of racing at night, particularly under lights and it is often said that it can be more difficult to prepare a track for daytime racing. We may get a better chance to judge this year with a number of bank holiday daytime meetings scheduled.

It's not how you start the meeting that counts... it's where you are at the finish!

You go on about how good your team is,if it's that good it shouldn't matter to the riders whether they are riding the track for the first time or the 21st time.Somerset isn't a tricky track like Wolves.Good riders will ride whatever track is there to ride. It seems you have got the excuses in early again just in case Somerset do beat you.

No press and practice for fans to watch does seem a bit ominous, still only a week to go till get get to see new referees box and any other improvements etc assuming the snow stays away. After the winter we've had I reckon the car park won't have improved.

Not writing him off Stevebrum, first meeting or not he bottled it every time someone came close, not a good sign for Wolverhampton. We've seen it many many times with rider's coming back from serious injury, they're slow to get back any confidence and form and probably best not to sign for at least 12 months

Sarge will be fine , he scored paid 4 and yes he has a bad habit of tape breaking that needs to be curbed but i am sure he will up his average this season, he was happy at Glasgow last time and fans will support him this season too, no point on getting on his back after 1 meeting.

Everyone is entitled to a social life or personal life. When you are a professional sportsperson or in the public eye it's likely that others will comment on what you do. It's part and parcel of being judged as a professional.

100% spot on Iversen rides in 7 rounds and comes in on plus 9 Pedersen rides in 2 rounds and comes in on 9 Kildemand rides in 9 rounds but can convert to 7. Please how on earth is that fair..................oh yes its Poole

Why watch then nothing wrong Nigel and Kelvin !!!