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Where to start on these moves by the Witches management? Slightly harsh on Jeppesen but as soon as Mark Riss was released, it was expected he would end up at Foxhall. Feel for Jeppesen though, hasn't been treated well in the UK so far. With regards to Connor Mountain, a crazy decision in my eyes. It has to be accepted that Connor hasn't done as well at Foxhall as expected this year but I would argue that the strength in depth of sides in the league is a lot stronger this year so what is truly expected of Connor at Ipswich? Should he really have been beating Rasmus Jensen last week, I'd personally say no. The fact that he has been released for Coty Garcia is laughable. No disrespect to Coty but he hasn't really achieved anything in the UK and I can't see him improving the side. Connor was doing more than enough away to warrant staying. The reason given that Connor was released due to his home form, whilst possibly fair, is a lot to do with the fact that Heeps isn't doing enough for the side. All in all, Connor has been very harshly treated at Ipswich in the last two seasons. On the flip side, hopefully a move will be the best thing for Connor and he'll improve. Would've liked to see him at Peterborough but obviously there isn't space for him there at the moment. The most laughable change is bringing in David Wallinger. Signing a rider and praising his attitude when he's walked out of one club this year is an interesting comment. I understand he's just in until Drew Kemp arrives but you can't possibly say there aren't a number of better two pointers in the National League that Ipswich could've used as guests. Tom Brennan was superb in the British Under 19 Final, surely he was worth a shot? Similarly, Ryan Kingsley is having a fantastic season, he is far more deserving of the opportunity than Wallinger. I'd also make a case for the likes of Nathan Stoneman and Josh Bailey (should his average fit). These decisions stink of the management giving up on the season and planning for next year. Care must be taken with Drew Kemp too. Whilst the hype is deserved and he is clearly a huge prospect, just looking at Kyle Bickley this season shows how difficult the step up is. Kyle should gain huge respect from the sport for his desire to keep going when times are tough but I would suggest his struggles show the difficulties of the move at first.

In my opinion the problem with Matt Ford is that he has failed to see the bigger picture and to realise that the long term success of Poole is entirely dependant upon the success of the sport as a whole. The lack of credibility is one of the major problems responsible for causing many fans to turn their backs on the sport and which has led to much of the main stream media doing the same. Matt Ford by manipulating rules and situations to his own advantage has played a significant role in creating and perpetuating this problem.

i feel saddened when any brit loses a team place,i know some people will say theyre running a business and need results,but these "so called" business men are in charge of british speedway, when are they going to try and put the great back into britain, dicarding an up and coming young brit on around 3.5 avge,and replacing him with an argentinian journeyman with around a 4.2 avge does nothing in the long run for british speedway, we should have a rule that both reserves should be brits with a combined avge of around 6.5/7 pts, that way openings would be there for our youngsters to develop and improve instead of stagnating at national league level before finally realising their ambition has been taken from them and hanging up their kevlars. these guys running our sport are the ones killing it, we need an independent governing body.

Developed into what ? Bikes that don’t work in the wet or on anything other than a billiard table of a track, if tracks need to be like BV then why are the crowds so low ? Even the poles are looking into engines, tracks have worked before with different engines, and people who think big tracks are the answer are wrong, 2 big tracks in poland are Gdańsk and gorzow, both get big crowds both have poor racing . I don’t think people are grasping how close other teams are to going the same way as rye house and it’s nothing to do with the size of the tracks or the engines being ridden, but unless costs are addressed the riders are going to be well out of pocket

I can't get my head around the Wallinger signing even if it is only for half a dozen meetings. I'm sure somebody in the National league could have been persuaded to gain a bit of experience at our level for a few weeks. Being a regular at Mildenhall I would have given someone like Ryan Kingsley a try, he can gate as well!

Hope you are not pinning too much hope on Kemp when he starts. Huge jump to the CL from NL. As you can see from Bickley's scores this season.

Unfortunately the big winner in all of this Heeps. The run of injuries and the need to make changes as a result has only served to mask his continued failure this season. In truth he is the one who should have been replaced had the rest of this mess not occurred. This years team was built around a strong top 5 and to an extent carry the reserves whilst they were given time to improve. Heeps poor performances has put the focus and unessessary pressure on the reserves. No doubt he will return a score against Redcar but these aren’t the fixtures where we need him to deliver. It really is his (last) chance to deliver.

e management were damned if they do damned if they don’t! There isn’t an abundance of riders available, it’s clear with the guests available for danyon and mountain at reserve we weren’t going to get the points we needed! while I’m not bowled over with the changes made the simple fact is riss should do as well as Jeppesen and in truth should score more, Garcia will score more than mountain home and away and when kemp gets in he should get a few points too. for me the big pressure now is on heeps to do his job and get a minimum of 7 away from home and 9/10 at home every week - if he carries on getting 3 away from Homeetc. Then it doesn’t really matter who’s staying or coming in you can forget it!

There’s no way we should drop anyone, other than perhaps Jack Smith as he is not an asset and has not performed well enough. The only thing we need to do is replace Bellego if he will be out for injury for longer than we can manage. We should stick by all the other riders and show some loyalty, regardless of how that affects our chances of winning the title this year. I do not want to adopt Poole’s approach of buying the title with mercenary journeymen who have no connection with Swindon.

Oh the irony!!! This is sure to split opinions.......many people view Matt Ford as the anti-christ, and many view him as a God. It's beyond reasonable debate that Matt stretches the rules to the limit in an effort to benefit his team, and I really can't see too much of a problem with that, as that is his job. As a result he is often criticised for gaining an 'unfair advantage' over the other teams, when it can't be unfair as the same rules are there for everyone to either 'exploit' or 'suffer'. I am of the opinion that if the other promoters had been as 'astute' as Matt over recent years, British Speedway would be in a much stronger position than what it finds itself today!!

Next Monday the BT sport schedule is showing that Swindon v Leicester is the TV match. Please do the sensible thing and change that to Kings Lynn v Poole( or even Wolverhampton v Belle Vue)

Simple solution... make both reserve berths only for British riders under 21 in the Championship. They stay there all year regardless of averages. If an injury occurs to a reserve like with Hume then another rider replaces them that meets the criteria. No longer would you get the likes of Garcia or Jensen being at reserve when they shouldn't be.....if they food enough then they should be in the 1-5

Oh no...the old what if no speedway line. So people should support and be positive and overjoyed no matter what. If speedway goes down the pan it's because whats on offer doesn't appeal to people, maybe for a change it should be put appealing speedway on and people will stay and so will the speedway.

Not impressed with the changes made, but time will tell if they are for the better. Just don't judge this team on the two meetings against Redcar as they aren't exactly the strongest team out there. Will be interesting to see if Garcia can get double figures at Lakeside like Connor has both times.

I assume Heeps must be a golfing partner for CL or RH? And I assume Mountain doesn't play golf?

Gino is a top bloke his confidence is in bits , now is the time to back and support him as I’ve seen what he did earlier in the season. We will alway be carrying a two point rider but that is how the team was set up , I gave Gino a handshake at Peterborough in the pits and donated some money to him , he needs a kiss and cuddle not to be hounded I’m confident once our side is back up to strength with our own riders Ginos scores will improve . Fact speedway riders get paid by how many points they score and don’t go on track to score zero points . We’re still in with a chance of two trophies so yes everyone is entitled to there opinion but support whoever puts the Scorpions race jacket on please

That's what happens when the sport is run be insiders It's biased towards the ones organising things

Over powered machines, riders with no track craft and inflation making it far too expensive for riders and punters. Promoters who no longer promote and took the easy money from TV. All gone wrong at roughly the same time. As one politician once said ‘back to basic’ and that is where it needs to go before it can move forward.

Then later show Swindon -Poole where Swindon will stuff them

Sportowefakty have published a list of Extraleague attendances in 2018 which makes interesting reading columns are ave/matches/total. unfortunately there isn`t a comparison to 2017 however i`m pretty sure figures are up this season over last. forBET Włókniarz Częstochowa 13 600 5 68 000 Cash Broker Stal Gorzów 13 204 5 66 020 Fogo Unia Leszno 11 620 5 58 100 Betard Sparta Wrocław 11 512 5 57 558 Falubaz Zielona Góra 11 100 5 55 500 Get Well Toruń 10 756 5 53 778 Grupa Azoty Unia Tarnów 7 100 5 35 500 MRGARDEN GKM Grudziądz 5 760 5 28 800

Kings Lynn v Poole would make a super tv meeting.

I did say this might happen. King's Lynn are a good team who had several track specialists who certainly showed the Leicester riders how to ride their own track.

Nah, we’re trying to throw a few matches so your wobblers can catch up! Who’s riding for you this week?

As frustrating as these fixture changes are, you can't get away from the fact that the root cause of all this was the lack of fixtures earlier in the season. 5 competitive home meetings April - June? Far too disjointed, and not for the first time.

That’s utterly bizarre. Don’t get that at all.. ”Awaiting BSPA approval”. I hope they get it this time! As this is the second time in consecutive years Mountain has been dropped. Can’t see him agreeing to come back again somehow. Getting rid of the Dane so quickly is another strange move. Not injury related, just a “victim of the numbers game”. The poor sod has only done two meetings!! From the little I saw, looked a gutsy entertaining rider. Disappointed The only real plus I can see is getting an earlier than expected look at Drew Kemp in Witches Kevlars. Was always going to be a Witch despite obvious enviable glances from elsewhere, but was expecting it to be next season. Good luck Drew. Best of Luck to three riders released and I hope Mountain in particular, gets snapped up quickly which I’m sure he will.

I don't mean to have a pop at you, Pantherssteward, or at anybody involved at Panthers, but it just goes to show what a load of bollox this H&S thing is...

In all my years that I have gone to wolves that has to be one of the worst matches I have ever witnessed, it was dreadful

For the first time ever or at least the first time in long time (I can't remember it happening before) there are scheduled back-to-back rounds in Elitserien. There have been postponed meetings before that have been held the day before/after (or even on the same day) as a scheduled meeting and there have obviously been post-season meetings two days in a row but not scheduled league meetings. Round 9 and 10 is the same teams meeting each other on both nights. R9: Dackarna – Vetlanda Lejonen – Västervik Eskilstuna Smederna – Rospiggarna Kumla Indianerna - Masarna R10: Vetlanda - Dackarna Västervik - Lejonen Rospiggarna - Eskilstuna Smederna Masarna – Kumla Indianerna Round 9 Preliminary line-ups: Dackarna – Vetlanda #Focus meting Dackarna 1. Greg Hancock 2. Pawel Przedpelski 3. Oliver Berntzon 4. Patryk Dudek 5. Maciej Janowski 6. Hans Andersen 7. Joel Kling Vetlanda 1. Artem Laguta 2. Tomas H Jonasson 3. Leon Madsen 4. Brady Kurtz 5. Bartosz Zmarzlik 6. Robert Miskowiak 7. Filip Hjelmland Lejonen – Västervik Lejonen 1. Chris Holder 2. Maksym Drabik 3. Jaroslaw Hampel 4. Rohan Tungate 5. Piotr Pawlicki 6. Timo Lahti 7. Viktor Bergström Västervik 1. Nicki Pedersen 2. Mikkel Bech 3. Peter Ljung 4. Bartosz Smektala 5. Peter Kildermand 6. Anton Karlsson 7. Grzegorz Zengota Eskilstuna Smederna – Rospiggarna Eskilstuna Smederna 1. Fredrik Lindgren 2. Pontus Aspgren 3. Michael Jepsen Jensen 4. Krzysztof Buczkowski 5. Niels Kristian Iversen 6. Mikkel Michelsen 7. Linus Eklöf Rospiggarna 1. Jason Doyle 2. Max Fricke 3. Robert Lambert 4. Jacob Thorssell 5. Andreas Jonsson 6. Kenneth Hansen 7. Samuel Masters Kumla Indianerna - Masarna Kumla Indianerna 1. Vaclav Milik 2. Victor Palovaara 3. Piotr Protasiewicz 4. Kenneth Bjerre 5. Anders Thomsen 6. Christoffer Selvin 7. Adrian Miedzinski Masarna 1. Linus Sundström 2. Kim Nilsson 3. Tai Woffinden 4. Artur Czaja 5. Antonio Lindbäck 6. Emil Millberg 7. Joel Andersson Live streaming at: https://www.speedwayplay.com/elitspeedway Live results as always at http://www.svemo.se/sv/Grenar/Speedway/ http://www.elitspeedway.com/liveresultat/ https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/live/zuzel/elitserien Elitserien can also be followed at https://sverigesradio.se/sida/gruppsida.aspx?programid=179&grupp=7514 (web radio in Swedish) Heat schedule: http://www.svemo.se/ImageVaultFiles/id_14025/cf_44/K-rschema_2-15.PDF Weather forceasts Tuesday : Smw-Ros Hot (>30 degrees Celsius) and sunny/partially sunny-cloudy Dack - Vet overcast but warm Lej - VVK overcast but warm Ind-Mas Hot (>25 degrees C) and partially sunny-cloudy Wednesday: Ros-Sme cloudy but warm Vet-Dack thunder showers/rain/clody but warm Vvk-Lej overcast but warm (<25 C) Mas-Ind overcast but warm (>25 C) Smederna and Indianerna tracks might suffer quite allot from the very hot (>25-30 degrees C) the past week(s). Smederna's track was exposed to a very intense rainfall for about 1 hours on the past Saturday. Once the rain stopped the track was back to super dry after less then 30 minutes so.... For the focus meetings, both meetings should provide excellent racing if the outside factors (weather and etc) cooperates.

The main league ? Strange as it may seem , we only give token attention to the so called main league . We have our own version and are quite happy with our lot . Our teams are trying to build the best possible sides that budgets will permit and we all have weekend slots in which to follow our sides home and away . We dont view our riders as doubling up , theyre just guesting in some other league as a way to earn extra cash . It only affects us when one of our boys , sadly Lewis Kerr , gets injured whilst moonlighting . As for moving up , get real , we're all weekend tracks , why would we want to race on a Monday and Wednesday , look at poor Rye House .

Watch out Wallingers coming to get ya!

I was at the head office of a well known high street name today and as I was walking across the car park, someone came scuttling out to tell me I had to stick to the designated walk way as it was too dangerous to walk through the car park. Heaven knows how I've survived this long.....

Couple of decent races from Swindon meeting, there were plenty more.

Good old KKS...... same old , same old......

Having spent the last 2 hours going through this whole thread (yes sad isn't it?!) and also reading the SS every week, it seems to me that the sport will never reach a true concensus for the way forward even if it managed to get views from 75% of its patrons - and by 'patrons'' I include sponsors, advertisers and fans as well as riders/mechanics/tuners etc. IMO the average fan wants to be entertained and get value for money. We must also accept that some fans (and clubs) both current and lapsed will also want what they deem to be 'top level speedway with top stars competing' whilst others will simply want regular good racing at a decent price. As life in general - and speedway in particular - is all about compromise and choices, why not try:- A 'One League' model comprising all current PL and CL clubs (plus a seperate NL as now) at around or slightly above the current Championship level, possibly split into regions; Teams comprising 5 or 6 riders only, and featuring only those riders who are based in UK for the whole season. 13 heat format, with some form of engine restriction/moderation for the bikes. Adult Admission no more than £12; with very good family ticket prices. PLUS - for those clubs/fans who have a history of and feel that they would only support a strong top league, let them form a 'Super Elite League' if they feel it would work for them. So what if it might only have a handful of clubs and fixtures, but it features a good number of 'top' riders, if it works for them at whatever admission price would need to be set, then let them do it?! Some sponsors would definitely support it! If it doesn't work then th'ey can still fall back to the 'One league' option the following season.?

So will you change your tune - or even the thread title - when Swindon announce their 2 or 3 changes tomorrow?

Yes, they certainly should. I hope that rule is brought back in next year.

I never said you were looking through rose tinted glasses, but people always trot out the if people don't support the speedway it will be lost line, so I'm just flipping it, give the people something they won't want to miss. Most supporters I know want to see riders that give it all they got, to me we had 2 riders last year just like that, and one was a total crowd pleaser. Shouldn't have got rid of Nathan or kyle for starters.

I didn't say it wouldn't be sensible to change. I said it wouldn't be changed, so this was therefor a pointless topic. So --- up yours, mate!

Just checked the calendar and it's not April 1st, but good luck with it anyway.

Dream on! He means Mark will be averaging about 8 next season. Super rider, great style, lovely bloke. Got you into the playoffs last season!

One thing is for sure, rr weakens us and Heeps really does need to step it up. Will the presenter come back over and ask what the chap interviewed last week thinks of the changes...that could be funny.

I don’t think there was anything wrong with the track last night hence the track record being broken 3 times the racing was very fast and Kings Lynn riders loved it. It was the poor performance of some of the Lions riders that was the problem you really cannot have your No1 scoring 5 at home on regular basis,Kurtz can only ride Leicester when it’s slick and KP has lost his confidence and looks dangerous now. i can foresee some changes before Monday depending on averages but a very difficult game as trying to find riders is problematic. If you looked before the meeting you could see the track was well watered and now has quite a bit more dirt on it with more added each week. With regards to watering during the meeting it can only be done if both teams agree and referee says ok which often they don’t as they have their agenda to get meetings completed as quickly as possible. As seen at all tracks to water it you need to give it an extensive grading as can’t water the concrete and at this time of the year it dries out so fast. As far as I am aware at present there is no trouble with sourcing water at Leicester

I don't know about 'tea and biccies' but the idea that you would find any sane person willing to invest in a single new speedway track (let alone dozens) is 'pie in the sky'

“Bringing Mark in should benefit us in the long term” interesting comment from Hawkins. Already in for next season? Or maybe part of a bigger plan to bring brother Erik along with him next year? What ya think Scotsman?

Hmmmm Not quite sure what to make of these changes. Potentially even less points from reserve for probably 6 weeks anyway. Only real bonus is getting Drew Kemp on board when he hits 16. Mark Riss was dumped by Edinburgh for a reason, let's hope he can find the form he had at Foxhall last year. Feel sorry for Jonas as he looked to be a real tryer. Also feel sorry for Connor but he has never mastered Foxhall, always looking very uncomfortable. His liking for other tracks should see him fixed up hopefully. With our aspirations of silverware being pretty much over already Im just hoping to see some decent speedway between now and the end of the season.

No - Garcia 4 Connor 3.7ish

Congratulations Ipswich for making some awful changes there. Honestly, how meh! You could have used Kemp as your number 8 and give him some rides when old enough.

Watching a recording of the Leicester v Poole mtg and caught this lovely quote from Numpty Pearson. "and at the National Speedway Stadium the Aces have won. They lead Belle Vue by 46 to 32 with two races to go." First and second in the same meeting then... ;-)

Just out of curiosity Neil, where do you get that from? The reason I ask is because from what I remember of the Green Guide (Govt's official Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds) the relevant section that covered stewarding referred to a typical ratio of one per 250 of the anticipated attendance. That was merely 'guidance' though; not a legal requirement. So if Panthers are anticipating a crowd of, say, 1000 they'd need four stewards, i.e. the head-steward chap plus three who are either NVQ level 2 qualified or who are training for it. And so on. That does, of course, beg an interesting question: what sort of attendances are Panthers actually getting? But I guess that's opening a totally different can of worms - so probably best not to pursue that one The Green Guide also acknowledges that the stewarding plan will always vary according the the stadium layout, the sport involved, the profile of the spectators, etc etc. And it also talks about the need for a risk assessment. That will obviously take all those factors into consideration. The whole thing was, and is, geared up for sports events that have biggish crowds - primarily football. Speedway is way down the list in terms of numbers and 'risk' of incidents. And it leaves the door open for a degree of commonsense. So it leaves me wondering where this latest nonsense comes from. The Govt leaves the issuing of the requisite safety certificate to the Local Authority, so the finger points at the H&S bods at the PCC (and, to a lesser extent, at the EoES management). It was never an issue until those busy f*ckers spotted an opportunity to stick their self-serving oars into it. I suspect that they're choosing to interpret the Green Guide to suit their own agendas and bollox to commonsense. Anyway, I hope that Panthers management aren't simply rolling over without delving a bit deeper into the legislation/guidelines, and possibly challenging the PCC.

We must have been bad for Joe Screen's double to get double figures from reserve.