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Let us celebrate the beginning of something bigger than petty squabbling. When all else has gone, history will show that Great Britain raced against Australia in a Test match today. This is no small thing and if GB weren't good enough to take home the honours, then bloody well improve. Oz take the bragging rights today and if that hurts (it should) come back fighting all the harder. Feel the desire, because sure as hell the Aussies ain't going to make it easy. And why should they? We have the makings of an international side, but there is a long way to go. There's the need, now want the right outcome. Well done Glasgow. You did a good thing, even if the wrong team won (just kidding!).

This weekend is the one weekend of the season when all FMNR`s have priority on their riders. PZM or any Polish club for that matter has no say where a British or Finnish rider rides this weekend, he rides where his FMNR says he rides. This is why we have the finnish, swedish, polish and danish finals this weekend. All agreed last winter between the big nations.

Mate, it is a big thing. Every single clash between us and your lot is a big thing. As someone said before, if it wasn't an official international, Chris Holder wouldn't get a visa to ride in it. I'm in Glasgow now, nice city. Bring it bloody on!

So I guess Aussie won - so what, why not. Its the first test match in years Team GB has been in (Great Britain is too long so I gonna keep calling them Team GB or even GB). The youngsters have got to start somewhere and now they done it. Its a yardstick been laid and that's a good thing.

Definitely Perhaps because often the view of a good race is one of their teams riders making a pass which is more likely to happen at their home track

With regard too how good or bad the racing is at different tracks...One things for sure posters opinions are nearly all biased towards their own tracks ..and I do include myself in that observation......

Couldn’t disagree more. I support neither club but now living in Colchester and recently retired, I visit both quite frequently. Ipswich is a much better race track IMO. Having been to both venues Thursday and last night it was night and day. Respect your own personal opinion of course. We all have an opinion and what we see. I’ve seen Covatti for example pull of moves at Foxhall in recent weeks that he’d never have a chance in hell of pulling off at Lakeside.

Hope its a huge success.

They must have moved the inside line out to the fence when Nick Morris and Scott Nichols were out then because that's wher e a lot of their 13 points each came from. In fact Scotts two defeats both came when he was off the two inside gates and couldn't get get out to the dirt quick enough . Nicks win in heat 13 was aff gate 4 and he blasted right round the outside of both Scott and Rory.Alfie Bowtell only knows one line and it's not the inside one . His heat win was right round the fence. I though it was a good meeting myself. Highlights for me were Zach in heat 10, going from 2nd to 3rd, back up to second then just taking the win on the line, and heat 11 , with Nick and Rory passing and re passing, several times often so close it was difficult to tell who was in front. It takes two sides to make a decent meeting and I thought Rory and Scott both rode like the quality riders they are, Scott in particular was in find fettle for a 40'year old.

Must of just been me then but I enjoyed the meeting and I thought their was plenty of passing. Looked to be a very good crowd and they even had the fans back on the stock car track. Some encouraging words from Cook regarding the clubs future so fingers crossed what he said they are trying to do comes off.

I enjoyed that today.... well done Glasgow. Well deserved win for the boys from down under Just as I thought pre meeting, it was very difficult choosing who to cheer on with 5 X Monarchs split between the teams so I changed my allegiance from race to race Love or loathe Tai Woffinden, I have to say he makes riding a Speedway bike look so easy. He looks like he’s sitting in an old favourite armchair Big crowd, big noise.... nice touch with the free horns and flags Hope the collection for Lewis Kerr went well, get well soon lad

The problem today was that Lambert refused to ride for his country, deciding he would rather have a holiday, and Rosco chose the wrong Worrall. Why choose an out of form rusty one when Richie is banging in the points? Made no sense.

I think we're going a bit far here by wanting other forms of entertainment. It's speedway ffs and there should be no reason to attract people for any other reason than watching a properly run sport. Speedway is thrilling, but the thrill goes for the newcomers the longer they have to stand around waiting for the next race. waste of time trying to introduce newcomers if you're going to instantly lose them. No gimmicks like double points, no teams being near the bottom after a few months and then signing a few better riders and coming good just at the right end of the season (I didn't even mention Poole). It's like Popeye eating some spinach and growing big muscles. The qualifying matches for the Play-Offs allows this. As long as the team gets there, even if they just scrape it with a much better side than began the season, then they are quids in. Belle Vue lost some fans that they managed to win back a few years ago when Wolves brought in Woffinden to eventually come good in the PO Final after BV had made all the running. Ridiculous. Get the rules right, make it simple, fewer gaps between heats and fewer restarts because of a rider getting a quicker start. There is nothing worse on a cold night than gaps between heats. Nothing worse on a cold night than gaps and having to watch someone trying to entertain you with another form of a show while there's a speedway match going on. Again, the latest BT Sport matches have overrun. Why? 120 minutes to do 15 heats and we still run out of time. It's wrong to make the public think they're getting value for money the longer they're out of the house, but most of the time is spent wishing they'd hurry up with the next race.

There is a reason Tai does not ride in the U.K. Lets face it if he did then he would be scoring maximums every meeting but would it make him a better rider, no - its competing with the top riders in Poland, Sweden etc. that keeps him sharp and at the top of the game. Only one in the Aussie team double up here the others are abroad and until the GB riders do the same we will never be at their level consistently.

That's a fantastic idea. I've never worked out why the promotion here in Ipswich don't do more with the cycle speedway club. When I was a kid I wanted to be a speedway rider but never had the opportunity however I found out about cycle speedway and I did that. They could have a rider at the club in Whitton every week and then open up the Foxhall track once a month to the any kids who want to come along and use pedal power. Hats of to ipswich thou on the tie up with the football club that is great promoting.

My lad plays Sunday League Football... His Club has teams from U8 to U18... There must be around 200 lads/girls in the whole of the Club.. They play in a League that has 40 teams per age group over Four Divisions.. Thats approx 400 different teams in total... That's approx 8000 lads and girls.. Many of the games are played on adjacent pitches so three times on a Saturday and on a Sunday all pitches are full of kids playing football, coaches coaching football and lots and lots of parents, guardians, friends, relatives etc etc of the kids watching football.. Why dont Speedway clubs sponsor their local League and set up 'roadshows' at the various game venues each weekend..? They could either do giveaways or flog £5.00 tickets for adults with kids free.. (These people invariably are not attending Speedway now so hardly any threat of loss of revenue I would suggest).. Plus you would get 'teams' turning up together which can only encourage further visits as individuals won't be 'the only kid there' which looks to be often the case currently.. (As BV have a football pitch in the middle of the track maybe they could even put some short games on during the interval or maybe a longer game before the Speedway starts)? It costs approx £3000 to pay for the end of season prize giving day trophies... My team (BV) must have circa 20 different football Leagues in and around the Gtr Manchester conurbation, in towns such as Stockport, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Inner City Mcr, Bolton, Wigan, Tameside... A huge amount of U18's to be made aware of the Sport and targeted... Add to Football, you have Rugby, Cricket, Hockey, Lacrosse and even Cycle Speedway Leagues, (many U18 riders of which don't attend Speedway)! (?)... There are lots of opportunities to get Speedway noticed in its local community with many not costing the earth to do so..

No penny dropping required here. My history of criticism of our promotion's BS over the years is well documented on the forum.

I wasn't there so can't comment on it..but some people class good racing as riders being close all race and some would say that's rubbish as riders can't pass. As long as the majority think it's good and turn up the week after then happy days. I personally try not to visit some tracks , because I don't like what I see, but will travel the other end of the country to what I think is good. We all see and want different things.

Very difficult to go there and score points on a one off visit when home riders are so dialled in even if he used to ride there, one could argue that his score proves how tricky a circuit Armadale is. Even Cook has posted modest scores there in the past as a visitor. Just like Poole in the top division Edinburgh look to be revitalised by a couple of changes and seem to be the team to beat now.

isn't it amazing how we see a meeting differently!. I thought there was a lot passing, good close racing and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Surely representing your country in an actual meeting is more important than practice?

He has started crashing on the way to meetings now, I knew he was prone to the odd accident well several accidents but doing it on the way is taking it to a whole new level.

Not a fine, but there's a big presentation made to Stoke every year they manage to complete their fixtures. Not sure what the presentation consists of because I haven't seen it, as I have only followed the sport since 1956

I have been “lambertlasted” by mostly Kings Lynn fans for having the temerity to say Lambert should cancel his “holiday” to ride in the meeting. To cry off as tired is feeble in the extreme, especially for a kidof his age. Very poor imo.

The day after Toruń GP great charity meeting will take place in Bydgoszcz. "Aces for Tomasz Gollob" - World and Polish TOP riders will ride in individual tournament to collect funds needed for the rehabilitation of Tomasz Gollob. In addition to competition on the track, ex-riders who have had the opportunity to fight with Tomasz Gollob for the world's highest laurels, will also be present at Bydgoszcz stadium. During the tournament, the promotion will have a book about the career of Tomasz Gollob authored by Jerzy Kanclerz, the fans will also have opportunity to buy occasional gadgets related to the hero of the competition. Start in the "Aces for Tomasz Gollob" tournament has already confirmed: * participants of the Speedway Grand Prix Tai Woffinden Maciej Janowski Emil Sajfutdinow Bartosz Zmarzlik Greg Hancock Artiom Łaguta Patryk Dudek Przemysław Pawlicki * competitors from outside the Speedway Grand Prix Piotr Protasiewicz Krzysztof Buczkowski Szymon Woźniak Janusz Kołodziej Adrian Miedziński Intense conversations with riders who complete the start list are ongoing. The sale of vouchers for the competition will start on 20.08.2018 and will take place only at the club's ticket office. It will be possible to order vouchers via e-mail biuro@polonia.bydgoszcz.pl or by telephone: +48 726 365 777 or +48 601 681 644. Ticket sales and exchange of vouchers for tickets will start on October 1, 2018 and will take place at the club's ticket office and from October 3, 2018 at the stadium ticket office. TICKET PRICES * numbered seats Grand Tribune - 200 PLN sector B - adult - 35 PLN sector B - discount - 25 PLN * unnumbered seats sector C - adult - 25 PLN sector C - discount - 15 PLN Discounted tickets are available to pensioners, women and youth up to 16 years of age. Children under 7 years - free admission. Further details about the competition will be published on the official profile of the competition: https://www.facebook.com/AsyDlaTomaszaGolloba/

That`s just wrong, just plain wrong.

The meeting did not count in that it was abandoned that is true. However Webster did make an appearance that is also true. The Plymouth co-promoter says we have a facility so I'm happy with that. Even with R/R Kent start as firm favourites, but then I thought that when the Brummies came unstuck a couple of weeks back.

Cricket was selling out international matches with crowds of 10,000+ before T20 was invented and has always attracted plenty of media attention. It certainly wasn't dead even at county level.

He won't be wearing a Team GB race suit as it is Great Britain v Australia. Team GB is sooo yesterday! Do keep up!

Exactly, and surely that’s the point of it all. Supporters want to be entertained, that really is the first thing that needs to be sorted, tracks need to prepared for racing not boring boring gate and go processions. Highlighted by that superb advert for the sport at Swindon last week live on BT.

Can relate to this, we had the same thing in our PL days especially 2003-07 when teams couldn't get round our track smoothly because of the grip and when they did make the gate (grippy starts) they would invariably make mistakes and get picked off. Some very good sides were made to look ordinary (75-15 . against eventual champions Sheffield in 2007). Bike set up was very specific too meaning we were often way in front after half a dozen heats. Eventually it turned into a mental issue for away teams, they were beaten upon driving into the stadium, Carl Stonehewer was the most high profile rider who appeared to not want to know. And of course got a bit boring for the regular punters.

It seems that 2500 homes are to be built on the site between the services and the go-kart track, if it gets all the necessary planning permission. This link shows all phases of the proposed development: https://www.essexlive.news/news/essex-news/lakeside-shopping-centre-become-new-1840782 Let's just hope that Jon, Stuart and the rest of the Hammers management and helpers can find a way to help us continue to race for many years to come at a new stadium or venue in the local area. Fingers crossed everyone!

Fines can be applied if a team does not complete their official fixtures by 31st October and have been in the past.

But according to yourself, it's OK for Robert Lambert to be excused for a prearranged holiday break Personally, if a rider declines a short notice booking for whatever reason, that's their prerogative

In summary Cooks comments were ,- The Woodroffe family that owned the site sold it to developers last year but remained as tennants rather than owners, They now want to move out completely. It was disingenuous of them to try to blame falling Speedway attendances in their press releases based on last years National League crowds because since coming up to th e CL attendances have trebled. The site has provisional planning permission for houses but that is conditional on the being a Speedway track as well as schoolsetc incorporate,d on the site. The new owners are interested in retaining motor sport on site and Cook will be talking to them a bout this. If some othe t motor sport development is involved ok will try to strike a deal with them for the continuation of Speedway. Cook cant guarantee Speedway next year but there are avenues still to be explored and he and Stuart Douglas will continue fighting for it. It seems to me the biggest obstacle is probably Rob Godfrey.

But at least they tried something different. If things fail then fair enough but at least have a go.

They are the only team with the resources to keep changing riders when it's not working too. Like Man City I have no problem with that, you get rich and poor clubs in every sport but they really should be winning in every year. Massive shock (or choke) if they don't win it this year with the seven currently declared.

I have to take back what I said. I assumed that DK had the same as us where the position in the final as the decisive factor. DMU twitter says Jacobsen 3rd. DMU U21 DM FINALEN OUTRUP 1 Andreas Lyager 2 @JonasJeppesen3 3 @JakobsenRacing

Like city rebel i have never seen a good meeting at Ipswich in the 60+ yrs of involvement with Speedway ...But then again my visits are only occasional..No track has great racing every night including Lakeside where i do not miss a meeting,,but mostly i think the racing compares favourably with all the other tracks i have been to in my life.....

In the last match both Craig and Max were missing with Jason G withdrawn from the meeting. Expect an Aces win and hopefully Mark Riss will have a good debut

RW's average was 7.26 but for some reason or another they decided to bring it down to 6.36.

A good crowd saw an excellent nights racing,,Morris back to his best ..Lawson somewhat unlucky not to score his usual,,Solid from Ellis,,some battling passes from Morley and Zach..Bowtell improving especially when nursed round by Morley for a win in heat 2 ...,,Newman is looking a little short of regular racing but chipped in with 4 points.....For the Witches Nichols battled hard for his 13 points but little back up except for Schlein 10 points ..Score 52 -37 ...Plus some encouraging words on the future from Jon Cook ...we will just have to wait and see what that will be,,,Fingers crossed........

On the subject of this “24/7 BV” access that you talk of, I don’t believe this to be true. I personally know and have worked with one of the “new owners” and, I can tell you the contract he has in place will be as tight as a drum and he will only pay for what he needs in terms of access etc.

Eh? He was being positive about the Poole track!

You are either on a wind up or being extremely obtuse. Niels has ridden in the UK for fifteen plus years and will have ridden Poole dozens of times, his views on the state of tracks in general not just WR should be listened to and not fobbed off as sour grapes which is nonsense. And he wasn't backtracking at all, just clarifying his comments. Unfortunately you are the same as many Poole fans in that you only care what happens at your track and to hell with the sport in the rest of the country, as long as you are winning all is good. And if anyone says anything critical it is swept under the carpet as meaningless and sour graoes. Fortunately those of us without our heads in the sand can see the bigger picture.

Official video from the event

You must have been standing next to me because that is exactly what was said .... our supporters were superb again last night backing the team. The riders all wanted to thank them for the long journey they had made midweek to back the team, and thats why they came out to celebrate with them after the meeting Really good close meeting and a warm welcome from our hosts ... NLSpeedway as it should be

So lets exclude all riders that double down and the full Belle Vue team it doesn't leave many options for the teams does it. But I am guessing as you feel uncomfortable with the whole idea of this meeting you will be staying at home I have a rubber ring that you can sit on as you watch Bargain Hunt on the TV

WHATEVER the pros and cons of Pardubice, the fact is that Prague is a huge favourite for fans with the stadium just a tram ride from the city centre.

So you're asked if you'd "like to" represent your nation, the World Champion will be there, even bloody Tai is riding for us (God Bless Him) and you pull not even with a sicky but to have a rest? Not on in my view. I was considering a near 12 hour round trip drive to see this very special meeting. It makes you think twice. I'll say more.... This is a very special meeting, designed, in part, to capture the public's imagination. Those of us who remember test matches of old know precisely what I mean. For the newer fans, don't you want to beat those Aussies? I for one, don't want to be playing the "What if" card if we lose. We don't want to leave anything out there do we? This is historic.