Leaderboard

Agree 100%. Nonetheless I'm sure you are exactly right ;-) The Monday and Wednesday race nights suited Poole & Wolverhampton but could kill other tracks. I suspect Rue House will soon be in trouble. They were reportedly getting great crowds early last season, but that was when they were racing reliably on Saturdays. I doubt whether a fragmented series of Wednesdays and the odd Monday is going to work. The point about trying to use talent that can't be afforded, it looks like our crowds are now down to the level of semi-pro football, say their National League or its lower regional divisions. Can you imaging those clubs filling their teams with players commuting in from all corners of Europe! It's the economics of the madhouse. 'Names' may count amongst speedway supporters but the people who we need to attract don't know them. It's time to wake up and fit the costs to the revenue, then re-grow so that both will rise enough to start allowing the higher-ranked riders in due course, assuming we need them and their luxury costs. Some riders seem to want the lifestyle of F1 and Moto GP racers. You don't get that in front of 700 people in Manchester.....

Exactly, I think a lot of people are delusional about the quality of the sport back in the day. Tend to only remember the good bits and believe that's how it was all the time. I've watched loads of old meetings on t'internet and it's very evident that the quality of the racing is very similar to today. There's old World Finals, Continental Finals etc with 60,000+ in attendance yet barely any good racing except for 3-4 heats. I would happily say that top level Speedway today (SGP & Poland) is as good, if not better than most of yesteryear.

Why do we seem to be going after foreign riders who’ve shown no sign of improvement when riding over here but you’ve got riders like Nathan Greaves and Ellis Perks without a CL spot surely we should be going for one of these who will improve? Especially the seasons both of them had it’s ridiculous they are without a club this season.

And your point is??? I was off work Monday not feeling well but was okay to go back on Wednesday!!!

Maybe he was carrying an injury but I find it hard to believe that BWD hurt his knee colliding withJye as he just seemed to take his leg away with his front wheel he never got out of shape or even looked like pulling up when the ref stopped the race!!! Still that's speedway.Tonights racing was poor IMO most races sorted out by back strait,will give Ref benefit of doubt regarding NJB,but how she excluded Jye is beyond me and probably 99% of the crowd terrible decision IMO.

The price to attend vs. The standard on offer is the biggest stumbling block. £17 for 15 x 1 minute races no matter what way you look at it isn't great value for money. As a comparison it makes the 2nd division even more of a rip off as they're getting a lot less of a standard for around £15. In answer to the original question though of how is fixed race nights working out, I think it will benefit Somerset. Whilst it was nice to end the week at Speedway instead of mid week, the traffic and surrounding areas on a Friday as a nightmare at the best of times. I can't see any reason why crowds would drop at Somerset, they should only prosper.

Agree with school the next day as well

Do not understand why this is a 7.30 pm meeting, the last dog race is 2pm and with a nice sunny day surely a mid afternoon start time would have encouraged more families who do not want a late trip home.

Was Mr Newman Sr there.. . ? Was very shy and retiring...

I'm aware of that, but originally it was to be rolling averages after the first greensheets. They now changed it to rolling averages including 2017. This is keeping Poole's team average almost 3 points higher than their actual averages for 2018. This has now stopped Poole bringing in Holder for Shanes. The Pirates management are now having to have a total rethinking, hence the short term signing of Nielsen.

Just a reminder about the coverage this evening- wouldn`t want anyone to say "would have watched it if I had known it was on " !!!!!

Yes shambolic but I'm not sure why your suggesting the referee had some part in this. Jack Thomas came out in correct blue helmet colour well on time and lined up at right gate, gate 2. Sarjeant came out late also with blue helmet colour. Someone runs across centre green, don't know who but wearing tigers colours so presumably a pit member of some sort and rips off jacks helmet cover and replaces it with a red one. al this with the clock ticking down to zero. Thomas wearing the red colour then gets told to move to gate 4 and sarjeant goes into gate 2. by now the 2minute clock has expired and the ref has no option to disqualify both as they had wrong helmet colours and in the wrong gate position. A pity jack is just a young lad as a more experienced rider would have told the guy changing his colour where to go. And to compound the farce Jack is the one that gets taken out of the race. So sarjeant makes mistake , pit staf make mistake in changing Jack's cover then team manager basically shafts jack. I hope the promotion/team manger/sarjeant or whoever compensates Jack because at least he would have earned something from the race by getting the third place point!

people see meetings different maybe there wasn't much passing but I can get entertainment from watching a couple or group of riders trying hard you don't have to have passing to have a good race there was a mix of decent racing and gate and go heats tonight

So I assume you will now be attending the meeting rather than reading updates seeing you’ve got the change you wanted.

Cant believe Poole have got rid of Shanes. Build a top heavy team and then expect a 2 pointer to get 5 or 6 a meeting because the top end isnt performing. Ford says its for a month then Shanes might come back in................if i was Shanes i would tell him to stick it where the sun doesnt shine and concentrate on Sheffield

A photo showing all 7 riders wearing similar suits may look good, purely as a team photo, but it's worth bearing in mind that speedway *isn't* football or rugby etc. By which I mean the whole team is never out on the field, as it were, 'in play', at the same time. Just two riders from each team, in each race. For which there are helmet colours and starting positions. The modern trend of covering racing suits in adverts/sponsorship baffles me. Does this advertising really work? Does anybody read these markings? They're a distraction.

Film just showed on the Talking Pictures channel - but can be found on Youtube - called There is another Sun. Some speedway from Walthamstow - a complete 'race' near the end - 1951.

To be fair she had dropped a ball of wool on the floor when that incident happened

We seen 9 heats since start time in 115 minutes. This is not making speedway, this is killing it. Things happen and all off them have, but the ref is rubbish.

Divided opinion then , some blame the rider , me and others blame the team manager . Surely the manager is in charge of what's happening in his side of the pits . Lets just be thankful it happened once the meeting was won , and that it is never repeated

The problem with British speedway is its a professional sport being run by amateurs.

As Ric Frost said before he quit in exasperation BSPA not even competent to operate a burger van

old but not wise

M1992 - Kyles 'victory' laps may have been something to his dad sitting in the stand with the Witches Massif whilst celebrating his birthday Always good to see Mr N Snr

Still trying your luck I see

you i recall were delighted when he was signed as i and many other poole supporters were, unfortunately it didnt work thats sport,like a few im not convinced the reasons for his failings were 100% down to kk

Because we need someone around 7.5 to 8.5 not 3.00 to 4.5

That was probably the most enjoyable meeting that I have attended at the Dale in a long time. There was some great racing with Scott Nicholls in particular showing his class around the small track. He was a pleasure to watch. I hope we see him back up here much sooner than his last visit It's also worth noting how swiftly the meeting was run. IMO, this is how every meeting should be. Obviously there are times when incidents and accidents make that impossible, but this should be the aim. As for the Monarchs team, it's still looking a bit shaky but there are encouraging signs. Joel looked much better than the last time I saw him, although his style still looks very awkward. Erik had a bad night. He looked like he was maybe missing the heavier surface of the early meetings. Josh offered some great entertainment, but really needs to sort out his gating, and maybe also work on his inside line. If someone is already on the outside he doesn't seem to have an answer most times. Heat 14 was a good example of that, with a clearly slower rider in the way, and that was his team mate! All in all, a very entertaining night, though...and it's not often I've said that about my Armadale experience recently!

The meeting ran smoothly with no delays and my cheeseburger was divine.

No doubt he will be o/k to ride for Somerset at Rye House on Monday night.

So are we going to prove all the bookies and pundits wrong now - or shall we wait til the end of the season?

Im talking about some of your fans....one in particular who 100% said this was the best Poole team assembled and would walk the league. As i said it compares to me the same as last seasons original 1-7 and the hopes back then and look how that turned out. KK, Holder, Kurtz, Newman, Andersen, Klindt and Shanes looks a better 1-7 than the current team

The question to me is what are the rules after initial declaration? It suggests anything goes if you read it that way and hence why rules get changed ad hoc to suit as the season goes which is where all the problems are. A clear rulebook with transparency would cut that out but as we know the BSPA don't want anything clear as it gives them the option to makes rules up as they go along during the season. Which makes the points of view that the 1 over 8 rule was done purely to cut costs which is madness if you can sign as many over 8's as you can (or expensive under 8's in some cases) in the season. Utter madness.

ash morris in for wilson dean ,

It was more to do with pulling perfect starts back something we were told would be relaxed on. Perfect example twice last night Richie and Claus, Richie made an absolute perfect start no movement just text book, upshot she pulls it back warns Richie for anticipating the start. Now i may be missing something but i would have thought it was part of a riders job to anticipate the start,why bring in a rule if these clowns don't adhere to it. Also hoping Paul Starke is ok was a real nasty one he took, Young Jack going for a gap that wasn't there and totally wiping Paul out no malice just inexperience.

I don't think the promotion don't care if kids come,they want as many people there as possible surely.The start time is a hard one to call really.7-45pm start suits me perfect when i am working until 6pm as it would do many others i would assume.7-30 pm is good to take the kids along.But i don't get the talk from adults "i have to be up early in the morning",does 15 minutes really spoil your nights sleep.When i work until 6pm it's a bit of a rush to get there then i still have to get up for 4-30am the next morning,no big deal really.Now if it was a 7-30pm start i may miss the start after finishing at 6pm along with many people now that work a 24/7 schedule.

This is the 3 time this season I've heard of his happening, personally I don't understand why it's allowed to happen team managers surely tell the rider which gate they're going off or the rider has it marked in his programme , and finally they should check before they put the helmet on

If it was a 3pm start would have made the journey for this one being a Bank Holiday missed opertunity I feel to get a bumper crowd.

Felt sorry for Jack. He'd done nothing wrong; he was in the correct gate with the correct helmet colour on. Then, despite the team being 20 points ahead with the match won, he's not given the 15m restart with an almost guaranteed minimum of 1 point for his pay packet. As you say, what was that all about?

I think it's clear enough that you can have as many 8 pointers as you like as the rule states the 1 over 8 only applies for the initial team declaration

Scorpions outstanding... Redcar chasing shadows. Wasn't all from the gate though, Scunny lads had to pick off their opponents. Great viewing for us Scunny fans, demoralising for Redcars. Rob dodged a bullet with Stewart!

And I thought Newcastle had a bad team hahahahaha

James Holder, what are you on about

So do I, especially bold uncluttered ones. Those Sheffield kevlars above make the team look like car mechanics.

Although of course, if you drop a rider they can't be broughht back in the same season.... unless we're ignoring that rule. The rule of course is there for this very reason, to stop a team dropping a rider, waiting a month for the averages to change and then fiddling him back in.

I can see the thinking, as a short-term move that may bring a few more points from that reserve slot. Then it will be a matter of working out the permutations once the averages have kicked in, at which point Shanes might well be back. Of course, missing those top-flight matches will hardly help him in the interim while being dropped is not exactly a confidence booster either. And, as alluded to elsewhere, it's a bit harsh when a top-heavy team fails (so far) to perform and it's the two-pointer whose neck feels the axe.

We know what that means - the kiss of death.

In my humble opinion nothing beat the old Mildenhall Fen Tiger team leathers back in the day - simple but brilliant.

Sorry, Salt. Please accept our unreserved apology for any upset caused! The proof-reader has been shot.