Leaderboard

Perhaps if Belle Vue’s crowds are down on last year they might need some cash. Matt needs to get on the phone and make a decent offer on the youngster. Would come on leaps and bounds riding at Wimborne Road.

Fantastic Dan Bewley again.

From what has been said, I'm assuming he was taking the Riga flight to East Midlands Do you really think that getting a flight that is due to arrive in East Midlands at 13:25 for an evening meeting at Leicester is cutting it tight? He could have had a several hour delay amd still made it fine. It's just unfortunate that the flight had a huge delay.

Define “common sense”. Reward a team who can’t get all their riders to a meeting by allowing a guest of equivalent ability? So what’s to stop any team from saying a rider who struggles at a specific track had flight problems, so they’re bringing in a replacement who just happens to go well there? To me, common sense is penalising the team that can’t manage to get their 1-7 to arrive on time

Most people took it in the spirit in which it was written.

A big crowd at Stoke last night, but those who stayed away missed another Speedway Extravanganza at the Stadium of Wonky Light. A dodgy-awfully prepared track sent entertainment values soaring. If you blinked you might miss another faller. Stoke delivered on their aim to have fallers into double figures (10 at the last count). Where else in world speedway can you see 7 out of 15 heats awarded due to falls? Fantastic stuff. Why don't other clubs booby-trap the track in this way? Stoke convincingly won 8 falls to 2, which excited the crowd so much that they lifted the roof off the grandstand (at least I presume that's why parts of the bar ceiling are falling in). But despite winning on falls, Stoke lost by 7 submissions and numerous knockouts (mostly knockout blows to the credibility of the sport). Back to the beginning, Stoke started with a minute's silence for Roy Smallwood MBE (since he had worked at Stoke for over 40 years, an MBE seemed most insulting. He should have been given the George Cross for acts of heroism in extreme danger). I don't know if Roy was a good man or a bad man, but even if he is now in hell being tortured for all eternity, we can feel content that he is in a better place than Stoke. Roy was pictured in the programme in a 50s Teddy Boy suit. The picture was taken the last time the Stoke electrics didn't fail. Despite being dead, Roy was still in the programme's officials' list as the Pits Gate Manager. Then the announcer. It was his first time. Not just his first time announcing, but his first time at speedway (possibly his first time out of the house). He had no idea what was happening. Remember the taxi driver interviewed on BBC by mistake? It was far worse. The poor sod tried to hand over to a centre green presenter, but the presenter had no microphone. So the confused newbie had to read out Belle Vue names he'd never heard of all by himself, such as Ken Dicken and Joe Lola. The hapless announcer must have thought he had been duped into the Jeremy Beadle show, except for the fact that Beadle has been dead for 10 years, and is now presumably working as the Stoke Pits Marshal. Heat 1 and novice O'Keefe leads from the far better Clegg and Perry. He realises this is wrong and throws the bike at the fence to become first faller. SUN BREAK Heat 2 and O'Keefe becomes the first rider to cause an awarded race. Heat 4. O'Keefe retires and Shuttleworth inspects the "shale" to give BV an awarded 5-0 (Shuttleworth's first of 3 track inspections). SUN BREAK Heat 5 All 4 riders finish. This is to be an extreme rare occurance. Heat 7 Awarded again as the hungry Shuttleworth eats more "shale" Heat 10. Alcock falls, and Clegg goes an unexplained splat while in a comfortable lead. Awarded 5-0 Heat 13 Smith is the first BV faller, trying to use the outside on the first bend. (You can't do that). In the re-run tired Shuttleworth needs a third lie down on the track. Awarded Heat 14 Who else but O'Keefe falls. The ref puts on the red light and fuses the whole stadium. He's been over-using the red light. (Remember in the 70s when it got cold and you had to switch off the TV before you could put on the second bar of the electric fire, or else risk fusing the whole street? The City of Stoke still runs like this). The referee is warned that he must not use the red lights again. To do so would damage the flux-capacitor, destroy the space-time continuum, and we'd all be stuck here in 1955 with Biff Tattum, and Roy Smallwood playing Johnny B Goode whilst dressed as Stoke's answer to Showaddywaady..... Shoddyshoddy. The ref agrees that when the inevitable awarding of heat 15 happens, the race will be stopped by hand signals and the shouting of the moronic announcer, which will alert members of the track staff to wave red flags (the ones that are still alive anyway - Roy and Beadle are excused duty). Heat 15 and an actual race develops between Atkin and Lawlor. Perry is a distance back in 3rd, Clegg further back stone last. Lawlor chases Atkin and just gets ahead up the back straight. Atkin faces being moved into the outer part of the 3rd bend track (here be dragons) and tries to resist. The two collide and the race needs to be awarded. (the 3rd awarded race in a row, 7th of the night). The Announcer then announces Perry (who was minding his own business back in third) is excluded. The win awarded to Max Clegg (who was stone last). The announcer returns minutes later (possibly with a referees hands around his throat) to change the exclusion to Lawlor...but still has the awarded places wrong. After a further few minutes it is changed again. The MDL match is cancelled and everyone leaves, completely unsure on the final score or the final awarded decision of heat 15.

I remember years ago when we came as a family, Although children's admission was free, it was more then made up buying them Flags, Hooters, Sweets, Drinks, Burgers, Chips, Tee Shirts that they was always on offer and regularly required... I am in no doubt, Cyril and Alan made more profit from our kids going, than he did from what we spent on ourselves . The knock-on effect from that is both our off springs are still interested in the sport, and frequently go.... So free Kids are very important to the viability of our sport...... When thinking of the program for the night, finishing early should be of paramount importance enabling families to get their kiddies to bed. Dragging meetings out just to feed the takings is a false economy and does more harm then good...

Its no good spending the best part of a million quid to bring new fans through the turnstiles, if the product on offer is do poor it can't even hold on to the existing fanbase. Unless and until the governance and management is put on a sound footing its a waste of time spending money to bring in fans that won't stay.

Has Davey had an affair with your Misses, just get off is back, name someone who could replace him.

Man of the Match...... the Track Man it was oh so hot but NO dust it just shows it can be done

Like the new ruling re riders who deliberately stay down to get race stopped when team mate in 3rd.its not harsh at all his mate gets penalised for this.imo,and should not be amended in any shape or form

Wolves have a good team for home meetings at Monmore but doubt they will win away all season without Freddie. 4pts for your no1 is never going to end well. But I guess that's where cost cutting gets you.......

Expected result from Wolves. Plenty more of that to come this year as the decision to leave Lindgren out comes back to haunt them. Their home form should be enough to keep a decent % happy but chances of trophies are slim to none. Great to see Bewley continuing to develop.

It you knew the frequency of his engine problems, the rare events that have happened to key parts in his engines, the number of engines he has bought, the money it has cost him, the tuners like Wilson who are working for him at the moment, well last night things worked very well for him and we had a true Ludde performance. Long may it continue, and hope his engine problems are over. if you don't like guy fair enough, but for christ sake respect the fact that he is doing his head in trying to sort it out and last night he did it. Rant over.

Really enjoyed that meeting. A special mention to Josh Pickering , edge of your seat stuff. He was superb

Against my better judgement I found myself at Loomer Road last night and was disheartened to see that the place was even more dilapidated than when I last visited a couple of years ago. Surely somebody can at least work a lawn mower? It took the best part of an hour to get the first 4 heats away due to the sun being in the wrong place but at least we were able to marvel at Mr Tattum's tractor driving skills. Sadly, the centre green announcer couldn't make it last night so instead he sent his brother whose knowledge of speedway seemed a tad sparse. When it was announced that Ken Dicken was coming out for the Belle Vue Aces in heat 2 it kind of signalled that the guy perhaps wasn't a great follower of NL speedway. It could have been worse, he could have announced that it was Ken Dodd who would be riding in white. We had a minute's silence for Roy Smallwood who had apparently gone to a better place . Happy to say that they didn't bother playing music through the period of silence as they did when Mr Plinge witnessed a similar "mark of respect" at a previous extravaganza at Gloomy Road. Interesting to see that the deceased was still listed in the programme as being the evening's Pits Gate Manager so perhaps they were hoping that he would be there in spirit at least. Moving on from the depressing and farcical to rather more serious matters. I think it must have been heat 14 when William O'Keefe once more carried out a close inspection of the air fence. The referee switched on the red lights and immediately all the track and stadium lights went out. Fortunately, the riders survived being plunged into a diminished light situation without incident. After a few minutes, the lights flickered back into life and no mention was made of this failure by the commentator. As the riders were approaching the gate for heat 15, the commentator puts out an urgent call for the clerk of the course to contact the ref. Whether he did contact him, I know not. The race gets under way and Lawlor and Atkin come down heavily at turn 3. No red lights come on but the commentator is shouting at the the corner marshals to put the red flags out which they do after a few seconds delay. Now my questions are these:- Were the red lights not turned on because the referee knew that if he pushed the switch then the track lights would probably go out again? Did the referee know before he started the heat that there was a fault with the warning lights hence the urgent call out to the C of C? If the referee was aware that the safety systems were not in place then why was the race allowed to start? Perhaps there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for these events but I would be interested to know what it might be. Electrical failures appear to be a common occurrence at Loomer Road but the referees and the SCB seem to take no heed of these potentially catastrophic defects. I just hope that it does not take a rider getting seriously hurt before action is taken to remedy the situation. I see no mention in Stoke's own match report of any of these failings and it is shame that they didn't take the opportunity to apologize to the customers for last night's failings and give an assurance that they would get things sorted out. A win for the Colts but numerous crashes, interminable delays and some genuinely frightening incidents mean that it wasn't one of my most enjoyable speedway jaunts. I spoke to a family (grandfather through to grandchildren) on the terraces who were attending speedway for the first time and asked them if they would be likely to come back again. Unsurprisingly, they indicated that they would not be returning and after last night's show you can understand why. Speedway is a better sport than this.

Brilliant afternoon of racing. Just brilliant. 2 teams make a match and the score doesn't reflect how wolves rode TBH. Is our lead big enough. I'd say I don't know. Going to be close one

That's certainly something to bowl at, all credit to the team. Perhaps predictable that heats 13 & 15 would be tough with no Robert but a six point loss is turnoverable. Not bad at all.

Having seen all three meetings over the weekend at Workington, Berwick & Belle Vue he was disappointing at the first two. I should point out, though, that he is an inconsistent gater and there were more passes in one heat today at NSS then in 30 heats at Derwent Park & Shielfield. Such a rider will always have problems if the surface simply doesn't permit overtaking. Give him a track that he can pass on and maybe things might change. His overhauling of Sam Masters was simply brilliant (its on youtube).

plus side though not much dust and good racing - think there were actually 7 attempts to start heat 9

Looking forward to seeing whether this Poole team really is plop or whether they are in fact on the fiddle! After tonight I will have attended 1 more Poole meeting than MFF ever has.

One has to ask, how come Lambert cant get back from Polish meeting, when there were others who did. Sam Masters rode in the same meeting on Sunday but arrived back in plenty of time for Wolves 's 12noon meeting with Belle Vue... There were plenty of riders who raced in Poland yesterday and are down to compete in the UK today, Is Lambert the only one caught up in the late flights ???? I find that very strange. The Stars missing their best inform rider... He has in effect ruined Lynn chances in the KO cup this year.... What a shambles...

I would like the governing body to carry out a safety audit at Loomer Road to ensure that the facility is fit for purpose. This would include testing of all electrical installations by a correctly qualified and registered electrician. The eventual outcome would be that the necessary work is carried out and the venue can be brought up to an acceptable standard whereby nobody's health, safety or well-being is detrimented by any factor which might be reasonably foreseen to cause such detriment. That's pretty reasonable don't you think, Adonis?

leaps and bounds eh ! is that due to the bumpy track then ?

It's like a freak show on here, same old drivel from the same few trying to point score off other, and some don't even support the team. No wonder speedway has troubles finding new young fresh fans, when's it's currently followed boring sad gimps

Thinking like that, you must be a Speedway Promoter, At least, a member of the BSPA ...

Whilst there are many problems, the single biggest problem is the cost. I know many people who are interested in going and when they hear it's £17 to get in are horrified.

Using the "new rule " for 1st/2nd bend incidents is a bit harsh though.. How many times do you see a rider fall and stay down after a tight corner..... lots of times the ref will put all 4 back, which is not always the right decesion but in the past it's generally been the case. Not many riders would jump off in a first corner when still have most of the race left and wouldn't know where team mate was? When does the ref decide that it's a 5 1? Coming off bend 2? Going into 3? And surly as so little of the race has taken place the 3rd place rider wouldnt be that far out of contention?

bloom89 - what are you on about lindgren was only beaten by schlein who is a class act around brough 3 reserves .... did you see pickering ........... hes about as much as reserve as Ashley morris is and riding at 4 is completely different to riding at 1and 5 ........... at 1 and 5 you face the opposition 1 and 5 twice !!! at four you only meet them once .......... if you think riding heat 14 against the opposition 4 and 6/7 is the same as riding heat 13 then that probably explains your other daft comments and as for our 'super number one' ........... beyond belief ........... everyone has commented he's not a number 1 AND he has never claimed to be .... the lad maybe be an enigma but hes riding out of position through no fault of his own

You could look at is as, he only dropped points to Schlien, who is no mug. I think there was other areas of the team that let us down tonight.

Some people just will never be happy with Ludvig... He scored 17+1 and beat a very fast looking Rory Schlein and you're still criticising him... Point is, he beat the riders in front of him tonight and that's all he can do, whether that's a team of '3 reserves' (I'm sorry but I only saw two) and a hitty missy Ben Barker

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.

Needless to say I have never been invited to "Desert Island Discs" (or anywhere else come to that)-but songs I associate with sixties speedway, and were played at the tracks were "From the Bottom of my Heart' -Moody Blues, "Hi Ho Silver Lining", Jeff Beck, "Heart Full of Soul" Yardbirds, "In the Middle of Nowhere" Dusty Springfield (R.I.P) -if I ever hear these songs again it takes me back to Newport 1965-1968. Anyone else have similar memories.

Everybody else made it, Hans Andersen made it, he hasn't let his team down

Kyle Howarth has been selected for the GP Qualifier at Abensberg, Germany on Monday May 21, along with Craig Cook. Robert Lambert and Dan Bewley are in the Qualifier at Slangerup, Denmark on May 19. Congratulations Kyle.

Delayed flights happen, that's life. Nobody's fault, just circumstances. But why should the paying public suffer?

KL do have form in mugging off the paying punter at Leicester, the 2 times they rode at Leicester last year they turned up with 4 guests and R/R and 2 guests and R/R If they can't be bothered why should I?

Well if that does not bring people back for more nothing will.Everything you could ask for in a speedway meeting even the Wolves fans must have enjoyed the racing if not the result.

That's rich from someone who thinks what happens in the Aussie Champs is a good indicator to what happens in the British League!!

Good meeting from a racing point of view with the Diamonds grabbing a point when it looked unlikely. Poor night from Wethers and Doolan, and I would wonder whether he should give him any further guest bookings myself. Possible not the first choice anyway, given that Ipswich had a job getting a guest. Interesting about the new rule which I agree with, and the race was stopped when the leading two Diamonds were leaving there forth bend, and Pickering a distance behind them. He never got past our riders in the rerun so why would people think he would have in the first race. I think it was just the right decision, but not by much, and I hear there might be a Supplementary reg to be introduced because of this decision. Pickering was superb and unfortunately so predictable with his outside runs, it's just a pity that the home riders didn't try more blocking tactics earlier on cos I think everyone in the stadium knew what he was going to do and where he was going. Have him as a guest anytime and on a canny average. Didn't agree with the ref, and think he should have excluded Schlen when he blatantly pushed Tero off on the first bend. Nowt to do with first bend bunching. As others have said, it was a good meeting to watch and makes you wonder how Ipswich are/were vulnerable at home ( excluding of course when we were there). It was only the reserves that let them down in this meeting, but Hume showed a liking to the track and worked hard especially in heat 2. Connor looked a bit reckless and clearly didn't take to the track the same as Hume. Top man was obviously Schlein with his usual inside runs, but special praise for Heeps who has never ridden our track with any distinction. He looked a man on the bike last night when previously he just looked a boy. Good to see and watch. For the next meeting against Berwick on Sunday the 20th May, we will learn who the new septet are going to be with rumours of possibly two new signings. Very interesting, but I hope we are not going to sacrifice a performing rider for the sake of averages and hope the rider dropped is because of form. George will always do what is best for Newcastle and the team. Nasty crash in the second half when the Gems took on a Bob Hughes Welsh select team at NJL level. Dean Douglas was drafted in late to the Welsh team, because of Russell Barnett's engine problems, and in his second ride could not avoid the fallen Dale Pate and took a heavy tumble. Whisked off to hospital and has posted he is in hospital with a broken arm, a broken foot and possible ankle ligaments problems. Get well soon Dean, the friendly meeting was called off due to the then absence of the Ambulance.

2 attendances published from the weekend Grudziadz 5500 Leszno 12500

Yep,was a bit hairy for the lad as young stoney shut the door on him. Didn’t faze him though

Again, very wise words. The sport in Britain needs a thorough rebuild from the bottom upwards. Get the foundations right then focus on building the top layers. Making the sport value for money, or to leave the customer believing they have had value for money is fundamental. A credible structure with a solid, respected rule book and a focus on the customer is a crucial start. Giving the customers credible teams with minimal absences, racing to make them want to return and a regular and reliable fixture list is the next layer. Once you have a sustainable product then start shouting about it to the world. To even begin to follow that path there has to be a massive change in attitude in all corners of the sport. Somehow, despite all that has decayed so far I don't think there is the will, intelligence or integrity to tackle the job .... yet.

Honestly. Some people need to take a chill pill. Just because everyone doesn’t understand a turn of phrase, doesn’t make it offensive. Have you ever called someone a berk ? Cockney rhyming slang..... berkshire hunt ... cu you get the picture. Just relax. Stress isn’t good for the health.

I seem to recall just after I joined the BSF a particular Poole fan posting this when another club made an early change.

Danish league Esbjerg v Region Varde Wednesday 2nd May

Just published today - the prequel to Pie 'n' Mash, "Cracked Eggs & Chicken Soup." "Cracked Eggs and Chicken Soup" is about growing up in the East End of London, around the Whitechapel and Bethnal Green areas, between the Wars. It is the memoir of my father, who came from a large family and talks about what it was like growing up in poverty during that period. But as well as being a family story, it is also a social and political history of its time. There is much about the shops and stalls of Petticoat Lane, Brick Lane and surrounding streets, their owners and stallholders. The itinerant street vendors and street entertainers. Also the rise of the Blackshirts and the fear amongst the community, culminating with an eye witness account of the Battle of Cable Street that turned the tide. But in spite of the difficult times, it is also a story of the love and community spirit of the East End and above all, the book records with affection the area and its people as well as now-vanished aspects of everyday life. The story is full of hardships but also of the hope and pride that defined the working class families in the slums and Buildings of the East End. There is even the odd mention of pre-War speedway too!

The reports for Glasgow and Leicester meetings refer to him being excluded in those races, even though the heat details do not record it. They don't actually say what the exclusion was for but tapes is inferred. I have completed programmes from a few of those matches including the Leicester and Wolves home match; but on every occasion the notation used tells us that he was excluded and replaced by someone else but not WHY. The 2 minutes exclusion at home to Wolves is surprising. Ivan not ready for heat 1? ... that would have been worth noting whereas tape breaking was quite ten-a-penny that year. That meeting was also his first appearence at Hyde Road after winning his second title and first as an Ace, There was all sorts of presentations done before that meeting ... so whether it was tapes or 2 mins quite an anti climax in heat 1 for the new champ! Someone must remember that. In my own defence I was only five at the time so have an incomplete memory and had a slightly unreliable programme filling technique back then

And neither did Philip Rising