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Encouraging to see both Connor and danyon score some good points tonight in NL challenge - 12 from 5 and 10 from 4 rides respectively, should be a good confidence boost for them to get the season going!

You just have to look at the Poole v Somerset thread for your answer tbh. This morning calling for it to be off, then it was called off, now they are crying, forecast has changed so perhaps wrong to call off. By their very nature, it would appear speedway fans are weird. If a promoter calls off early, you will have conspiracy theories winging about, and if they try to get it on, but get defeated by the weather, they get it in the neck for putting money before fans. Can't win, springs to mind

So you have a decent holiday crowd in who have paid full price to watch 15 heats of speedway. "Okay, folks, the weather's beaten us. Hope you didn't mind the riders' problems in staying on their bikes. Don't worry, if you're new to speedway the racing's usually far better. No, you don't get any money back, but hey, we GOT A RESULT!" See you next week!" Too many people believe getting to heat 10 makes it all worthwhile. You get the points and the cash, but what about next time? Isn't it time that giving the paying public value for money counts more than getting a result while we still have a paying public left?

2009. “I think he’s found his level in the NL”. 2012. “Cook is just a top tier second string, he’ll never be anything else”. 2014. “Did well to make the rostrum, he just doesn’t have the mentality or skill to clinch top spot”. (British Final) 2017. “Can’t see Cook troubling the scores today”. (GP challenge). 2018.............

If they can't get 15 heats in then they shouldn't start the meeting....

To mark the start of the new season ITV News Anglia have done a feature with Len Read who celebrated his 100th birthday in January. There are links to a little taster below feel free to share it. The full piece will be on our 6pm programme tonight. https://twitter.com/itvanglia/status/979279219070062593 https://www.facebook.com/itvanglia/videos/2308155269198544 Cheers David Golley ITV News Anglia

Credit to the track staff for getting it on, looked bleak when we got in and it started raining again but after a tentative first couple of heats which cleared some of the surface water it held up pretty well. Promising for the Brummies, Davey's hot start for Swindon looks like no fluke and he was absolutely miles ahead of everyone, reminded me very much of Adam Ellis at #1 for us and Eastbourne a couple of years back, wouldn't shock me at all if he's got the highest average in the league come the end of the season. And he's going to be backed up very well by Danyon Hume who was also flying, he'll make an absolute mockery of his starting average if he stays fit. There's going to be some very good heat 13's (when Mitchell gets to #1) and 15's for us with those two. Bacon looked good too, had most of his success at #4 last year and not as a heat leader but hopefully with a couple of big hitters above him this year it'll take the pressure off a bit, hard to see a better HL trio in the league even at this early stage. Flint is definitely the real deal, going to be very exciting watching his progress this season. Cupitt looked like the rider from the first half of last season not the second, and 10 points from number 2 is very encouraging. Good to see them both get the outing in heat 15 whilst the rules allowed it. Walker a little disappointing, but plenty of leeway given for the tricky conditions and it being his debut, as long as he can chip in with 5 or 6 at home from that position then that'll be fine, and he'll probably end up at reserve once Flint's average goes up which will let him rack up a few more. Butcher unsurprisingly well off the pace (led Halder for a lap though) but that was all expected and we just need him to stay on his bike and pick up the pieces if anyone comes off, which he did to get his second place. Coventry were disappointing, Mountain will be a reliable high scorer, and Halder rode well, much like I expected him to when he guested for us last season and flattered to deceive. Armstrong and Harris the biggest disappointments though, Armstrong well off the pace and Harris has impressed me around PB before, so surprised for him to get 0 from 3 rides before winning a relatively low calibre heat 14. Not many Bees fans, not a fantastic turnout of Brummies either, not massively surprising with the weather I guess but hopefully now people have seen the Mason's will do everything to get the meeting on then it might encourage people to chance it a bit more in the future.

Looking more closely at the video the stadium looks a real mess. They have bought in a shipping container in place of the scaffolding on the home straight and there is a new (refs?) box on the floor nowhere near in line with the tapes. Anyone in the small stand in front of the pits/bend 1 won't be seeing a thing of bend 3 & 4 with the humps. Anyone who used to stand at ground level won't see a thing. There was a problem with there not being enough viewing positions last season & will now be even worse as everyone needs to be up high to get any sort of view. What an absolute shambles & embarrassment.

What the &*+# is this monstrosity? Must be a wind up with April 1st near? Who the hell puts a motocross track in the middle of a speedway track? Must be illegal. The view was diabolical last season with scaffold stands etc and they come up with this now. Joke of a club.

Massive improvement to the official BV website, and an online shop in the pipe line Happy days !

Didn't think anything was allowed on the centre green and there had to be a 4m and 10m zone from kerb that had to be kept free? How can the ref see the entry into the 3rd bend? Looks like Bye bye to the speedway in the future....

Is that mess on the centre green legal? Where are the paramedics going to sit? How about the track staff with the red flags etc I thought they all had to stand about 4 metres from the track when a race is in progress - will they have to stand on top of a pile of mud? And as someone else said people on the back straight will need a ladder to stand on to see the starting tapes. Sorry but my opinion is this is a disaster waiting to happen.

Think Poole pulled the plug after seeing Somerset put in a decent performance at Leicester. They will be hoping to fit them in later in the season when the Somerset riders are not available so riding against a patched up team.

Surely with all the rain around today it was the right decision. Having it in the morning doesn't give them a lot of time to sort the track out.

Osdal boy.. I know the meeting happens on april fools day but its too early for them jokes atm

Owners haven't changed as I understand. Downers Management(I think that's what they were called), the consortium that Mike Bowden, Per-Axel Warensjo and Steve Park are a part of, still own the club with Terry. It's just those with a day to day involvement that have changed around from what I can see, and this happened last season.

People aren't daft, they know why the happenings of winter 2010/11 occurred. Ford was made to look very silly on national TV in the Grand Final and by fair means or foul wasn't going to let it happen again. The guy is like a mafia boss, he runs everything from the shadows.

A little early in the season for a fishing trip surely.

Spoke to Colin at Birmingham tonight and he confirmed that it is indeed his older brother Terry and that they rode together in a pairs meeting.

Daniel just put it all to one side and give it another try you are obviously still are passionate about your speedway and the sport needs supporters like you.The sport pi..... me off like hell at times but i have to go habit i suppose but i see a few good races and i suddenly forget all the other crap just give it another go.!!!

The winter of discontent was caused by MF falling out of his pram after losing to Coventry and then seeking vengeance and retribution..

With the Polish season just around the corner I decided to get myself sorted sooner rather than later. Last season I used Wijka.tv and never had an issue. Streams were high quality, didn’t buffer and were always online when I wanted to watch. But a few have said the service has gone downhill. So I decided to look further afield and was told about Goldvod.tv I downloaded the app to my kodi box, then registered. As a test I have just paid for a 30 day subscription. It was easy I just clicked the 30 day ebay voucher link, paid the equivalent of £7 and was instantly sent an email with a code link. Put the code in the box, press the button and voila! l logged on to Kodi, put in my user and password and I have full access. All the sports channels are there, nsport. polesat sports, elevensports, cana+ sport etc, plus a ton of other chnnels I won’t be watching. Just checked through the sports channels and all are working in HD. You also have an sd choice. This is a hell of a lot easier to subscibe to than my number one viewing channel, Sportsmania, which is excellent but only takes bitcoin. A right palaver buying bitcoins though I worked it out. will give a further assesment on Goldvod after next weekends action.

individual in 2nd half involving the 8 riders

thats way too easy to put into practice !

i hope you see a great meeting after coming all that way .. as topaz says . bring your coat ,gloves, scarf and dont forget your motorcycle . you will be back .. NEW ENTRY ROUTINE @ DERWENT PARK . PLEASE SEE OFFICIAL SITE FOR DETAILS . so we have to park the car . get entry tickets . double back from entry gate . re park car and then Q up again to show that you have paid to get into the stadium .. is that correct ? thats on par with head in bra charging 18.50 . folk will soon get sick of that and not turn up so it looks like it will be easier to park the car on the spare bit of ground OUTSIDE the speedway ( saving £2.00 ) and just Q up once . is that correct dan .?

Ah! days gone by...the Easter 3TT involving Oxford, Swindon and Reading. Oxford on Good Friday, Swindon on the Saturday and Reading Easter Monday. Those were the days!

Yes Mark I will- as I did when they announced the 1st 3 rounds recently. This is quite good for the Nice and div 2 news https://www.pzm.pl/zuzel/komunikaty

I said last year that Ford would not be around for much longer in speedway and I was right - just heard he is off to replace Darren Lehmann as Australia coach/manager!!

Would make even more sense now bit of a strange move Mark Lemon didn' do this to start off with.

Am proud to sponsor Leon Flint, and am really pleased about his first performance at Birmingham. He will get a lot better as the season goes on, I promise you that, very confident on his machinery and very confident in his ability to improve. This is a rider who needs no pressure, he will do that himself. TAFFY

Considering the financial situation at Newcastle, they are lucky to be running, and the fans should be pleased at that

Someone needs to be making money, be it a rider, club or promoter. If a promoter is making money, thats good because he then has the desire to make things happen.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but it’s OFF. Snow was on the track yesterday and the forecast isn’t great for the weekend

I think that Rye House have a real chance this season. They got a excellent team of riders that are more than capable of scoring well away from home. And they do have a home track that provides them with a clear advantage against their opposition, if their riders are on top form.

I see once again we are charging the highest admission prices for under eighteen year olds not encouraging family's as usual

Ive been thinking along those line too, if the GP,s become a struggle it could have a negative impact on his league form, he got into the GP on merit but it is a big step up, lets hope he can make a success of it, if he can the opposite could happen and his league form improves considerably, only time will tell.

But you conveniently ignore the fact that it would never have got to that point if it had not been for the actions of Ford in the first place. The league is a much poorer place for absence of Coventry and Peterborough, 2 teams who have always brought excellent away support. Who knows, maybe Poole could have afforded race suits this year if they were both still in the league!!

The stadium supporting 62 jobs and bringing £3.1m to the local economy seems wildly optimistic. Does anyone have a link to the actual report? It does appear to be good news though and reading between the lines the council seem to be lining themselves up to take over the stadium.

Just seen on Facebook Trees that you guys have been to the QE2 hospital with both Lewis' and Kasper giving away Easter eggs in the children's ward, fantastic stuff and well done to all involved.

Definitely , but as i stated , he's earned this opportunity to test himself against the best, Wish there were more British riders with Cookies attitude

You obviously are not aware of the new drainage installed over the winter then by the Town Mayor and his team at the OTA! I reckon if the practice was this evening on track it would have happened but typically this year they change it to the afternoon and the weather still wins. Track looked pretty good this evening at 7pm.

AS MAGNUS SAYS , SPREAD THE WORD. good to see it is also comets season ticket holders as well . taylorj will be well chuffed . so bring yer cash and a hot water bottle , i am . CANT WAIT . edit 29/3/2018. so looks like Jordan Stewart will miss the Cumberland open due to the good OLD FASHIONED postal service . in todays modern era , why o why cant they use other methods . cost cutting by British speedway once again . maybe we can get Richard Hall in as a replacement ? what a shame for laura and co. they put together a bunch of great riders . G.P.O. eat my crud .

Should also mention the indecent haste that another luminary of the sport rushed to take the 30 pieces of silver

I wonder how long it will take maintenance to realise I have nicked this engine out of his lawn mower.

Better Amendment served no purpose. It didnt save time and didnt add anything to the meeting

As well they should have been. The club stepping into the top tier for the first time since reformation will have piqued interest. The fact that our nearest top flight club from the season before, Lakeside, dropped into the third tier will have brought fans who wanted to watch top tier racing from there. Coventry folded, their hardcore fans will have wanted a speedway fix and conveniently our side contained (and still does) a big ex-Bees contingent. Rye was also a new track for fans of many visiting clubs which will have put a few on the gate I'd expect. The crowds earlier in the season were better than later on though, we can't expect people to turn up. This season Lakeside are back in the 'pro' ranks in the second tier and to be perfectly honest, their side isn't much weaker than ours. Coventry also have a team back on track albeit in the third tier and based at Leicester, but it is closer to Coventry than Rye House is. The novelty of top tier racing will wear off for other Rye fans too. I'm not being a doom and gloom merchant, it just feels to me that over the winter more could have been done to get fans excited for what is to come. But it isn't 'crap' or 'bile' it is opinion, and one that others do share.

What posts are you referring to as 'crap' and 'bile' out of interest? The trouble with the 'take it or leave it' approach is that people are leaving it. In a world when there are so many alternatives to going to Speedway people don't have to just get behind the team because that's the way it is. Very similar comments lost us a lot of fans when Len Silver made them a few years ago when he dropped Jason Doyle in favour of Steve Boxall.

Aye, but you cannot blame the fan for poor management, and you cannot blame the fan when poor management depletes the entertainment. I still think if Scott had continued in the way he said he would, there was a possibility of success, it does appear however that recent history has reappeared, and it does make you ask the question 'who is pulling the strings'

What?

i heard a bit o craic that the new speedway bikes will have deep fat fryers built into the frame where the fuel tanks used to be .