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Have to say well done to Swindon on their gating show. Left us for dead at the tapes and on a track not fit for purpose it was game over by the second bend. It got so bad riders were disappearing from sight viewing from the main grandstand. Possibly the worst meeting I have attended in the last ten years, and I have seen some rubbish in that period including 62-28 drubbings at Arena! why did the bowser only come out once before heat one? It should have been out every few heats. What’s the excuse? Glad no rider got injured. In the last few heats riders were pulling up as they couldn’t see where they were going. If we now don’t have the track staff to prepare a racing track for a mid day meeting, why not move it to ~good Friday evening? I am sure the crowd would still be big and conditions much better.

Amazing that Steve Shovlar complains about other tracks & their conditions when Poole is the worst of the lot.

If properly watered you shouldn’t get dust, it probably wasn’t watered yesterday to get it into shape. No excuse for clouds of dust, poor track preparation and maintenance.

The track is the most important part of the business, but the majority of the promoters just don't get it.

3 I know money is tight at Poole but that's embarrassing Do they seriously expect people to pay 18 quid to watch that. The sport is on its way out !

Just got back from the National League meeting at Belle Vue. 1 p.m. start. Hottest day of the year in Manchester by a mile, but the water browser was out about every three heats (for just a few laps) and the meeting was completed in one hour fifty minutes. No dust at all! It can be done.

Jack will be fine, I'm not worried. Season has just started!! Ridiculous.

Perhaps the national league riders don't dictate track preperation

And he wouldn't need to throw his dummy over his kevlars either

Perhaps it needs some more engine oil on it?

LOL

Do you want to have another guess

If you like to sit in the warm and watch the meeting there is no better track around than Perry Barr the grandstand is tiered with plenty of tables and seats that can accommodate approx 800 people although the stadiums wiki page states it can accommodate 2000. Toilets and clean and tidy both upstairs and downstairs .There is a bar for drinks both upstairs and downstairs which is very pricey £4.30 a pint .Food outlet is located downstairs does hotdogs,burgers,chips etc again over priced not eat much from there but its pretty standard for events cantering .There is now a small hut on the terrace outside where you can buy club merchandise and race programmes (which can also be purchased at the turnstiles) . overall all the facilities are decent . The prices at the bar and food outlets are set by the GRA and we have tried numerous times to get them more affordable but they wont budge. The temporary stands ,pits area,merchandise hut , turnstiles ,changing room ,junior pits,track,kick boards and all the machinery are Maintained and owned by Birmingham speedway and a lot of hard work has gone in over the winter by officals and supporters to maintain these. Would you care to expand on what was so awful about the facilities and we could pass it in to the management .They are always after feedback and are always looking to improve the supporters experience.

Two national league meetings today both using RR sorry this is a development league clubs should use a unattached rider to fill the place.

So after all the hand-wringing and gleeful doom-mongering from people only taking a passing interest in what has been going on with the Abbey Stadium saga, believe it or not the opening night on the modified track went pretty well. Not that that would be of much interest to some of the idiots on here. Firts half of the meeting might as well have been on the old track it was so dull, but in the 2nd half the racing got better and better. Crucially, there were no signs of it cutting up or becoming tricky to ride at all. Credit to Ron Russell and everyone else for putting in the hours to get it ready, especially as it sounds like Tuesday’s test didn’t quite go to plan. Particularly pleasing to see it go well in front of a huge crowd. Proof that there are still plenty of people out there who want to come out and pay to watch speedway. Hopefully some of the more casual attendees last night were sent home happy after watching a great few last heats racing, a tight score line and a tense finish, and are planning to come again soon based on the evenings entertainment. Thankfully this forum barely represents 1% of most speedway crowds. Reading some comments on here you’d think everyone would be avoiding the meeting for fear that the track would be unridable, and those that did attend would have been sent home disappointed after watching another National Stadium disaster unfold. Thankfully most attendees don’t think like that, they just want to turn up and watch some blokes bang handlebars for 4 laps at a time with a close score line and hopefully a home win. It’s not that complicated. The big crowd did create its own problems with getting in which the promotion really need to sort out. The car park was full by 10 past 7 (not a lot they can do about that admittedly), but the queues for the turnstiles were huge, with only two of them open, and there was no signage (that I could see) saying where people should go. I assumed as with previous years, pre booked tickets should go through the cabin at the top, but that apparently wasn’t the case, and it was being used as a normal turnstile, which I assume everyone queuing up for the main turnstiles didn’t realise. They were also telling everyone in the queues that they would be delaying the meeting by a few minutes to get everyone in, only for the tapes to go up 30 seconds later. Thankfully it sounds like Lampart got a late memo about the situation and decided to lay the bike down to buy everyone another 5 minutes. That aside though it was a decent evening. It shows that with some decent weather, the crowds are still there and not everyone has been put off by the daft rules or politics of the sport, we just need to try and make them come back as often as possible. Again, it backs up my theory that as long as the club is running with healthy attendances, it’s much harder for Osbourne to come up with excuses for not sorting the stadium out and trying to get rid of us completely. Well done to the club for getting the meeting on with their hands effectively tied behind their back until the very last minute.

Have you Poole boys thought about getting Lawrence of Arabia in as a heat leader? Could be a decent point scorer, particularly at home.

Well it doesn't help when other fans try and start getting Poole fans to panic about the team.

Unfortunately it says a lot about so-called Poole fans when it takes the Swindon manager to publicly back Jack Holder and for people to get off his back so early in the season! See facebook .

Not much chance of him being at Poole - not if his main sponsor has anything to do with it!!

Up until a few years ago Swindon couldnt buy a win in Dorset. Now its their favourite track!

Nice to see us back at 4 point road. That Blackheart don't half post like some other pest who used to be on here.

That’s the same Craig Cook that gets abuse from Poole fans whenever he races?

Nobody has blamed the track as far as I’m aware for Poole losing - they have just commented on how bad the track was.

I don't think we need a knee jerk reaction to one bad meeting. Several riders didn't perform on a badly prepared track and no bowser during the meeting didn't help either difficult to see most races certainly couldn't see some of the track with all the dust, just not good enough. Swindon have a good side but we made them look better than they are. Only a couple of our riders can be given any credit.

Craig Cook

The wide open spaces of Belle Vue and Petebrough are a lot different to Foxhall. Bewley struggled on the tight grippy circuit.. but great to see him back on a bike again.

Swindon have a good top three who when riding well are hard to beat. Yet last night at Swindon Poole looked a far better 1-7 than Swindon, who managed to grab a draw at the death. No way on God’s earth should Jakobsen be sacrificed. Today means nothing. It wasn’t league. And I will bet anyone £100 we will be in the playoffs. So please, no headless chicken posts over the team.

Seems to have been passing in some heats Swindon seem sharper out of the gate Poole have a weak side at the moment but no doubt will change a few soon. From 10rides Holder and Kurtz have 11 points..... no excuses at home that is awful. Fair play to Klindt doing his job and attacking the track unlike others and beating Doyle And from someone who is there it appears Brady was guilty of trying to hard nothing to do with the track How pathetic to blame the track........Klindt is doing it why cant the others? Pooles number 1 beaten by Lampart sums it up.......is Jack average fiddling it seems that way

Gaters paradise and going to be very dusty. Swindon boys leaving us for dead plus have reserve who can score.

That will happen quite often I fear. We’ll pick up the odd point here and there but I’d be very surprised if we win an away meeting all season. The team has good home riders in it though and a good home season will suffice for our first season back in the top flight. On Belle Vue, I fully expect them to be much better next time around and it’ll be a tighter meeting I expect.

Big crowd here still queuing to get in.

Good friday is traditionally such a big payday, I'm sure they'd rather run with a few absentees.

Any rider who misses a championship fixture on a championship race day because they were riding in a premiership fixture should receive a ban and only be replaced by a three pointer during that period.

And? He can’t pull out because it might not be financially viable to make as much money. He only shouldn’t be riding if it’s impossible to be in two places at once. It’s been proven it isn’t impossible so he should be riding.

Crikey that will be Acef on suicide watch.

Yeah Gavlar got that well wrong. Hadn’t factored in a Bewley zero. Had him down for at least an 8. Belle Vue will come good once Bewley is up and running and the Aussie kid finds his feet.

This meeting could be decided by the form of Sedgeman. It was a risk to sign him and Edinburgh are not the first, or will be the last, to try and give him the opportunity to get his career restarted and he has not so far this season.The beauty of Monarchs/Diamonds meetings is that the are both capable of winning at each others tracks. A few years ago I think that happened in a cup meeting. I think we just won at Armadale, and the Monarchs, after getting an early TS ride, went on and took the tie. Could be close is our 3 heatleaders are on form with Max throwing in a good contribution. Here's hoping. Don't forget to stay behind and see a cracking mini meeting between the Gems and the Dales Devils in a NJL meeting.

Rules are CRYSTAL CLEAR...PL have priority Monday and Thursday and CL other days. When the Fixtures came out Birmingham were away at Eastbourne on Good Friday at 3pm. Poole decided to run an "off PL day" so face the consequences, well done for once to the BSPA for playing fair.

Going by the above, what are you predicting? A 50-40 win for Scorpions?

Well deserved win for a very solid Leicester side who just about all contributed to a good away win. Nicholl's best meeting at the STMP by a long way and excellent back up from RTR, Douglas and Perks (lucky to get a second chance in Heat 1 though). Special mention to Connor Mountain who was very good to watch. For the Bears the meeting started badly and never got much better. You can't win with just one Heat leader riding well - Wright was as excelllent as usual but Barker had his worst home meeting in a very long time and MPT is a pale shadow of the rider who rode so well as a visiting rider here over the years. Stewart picked up after a slow start and the reserves battled.Hope Tom isn't to badly hurt. Still some cracking racing (a lot of it by the visitors) and it least we get some entertainment. Results like this will happen to this Bears team because we have a very fair and good race track.

Intrigued to know how you think the facilities are 'awful'? Birmingham has a superb grandstand with excellent viewing, toilets are always clean and indoors, and the eating area is always clean with plenty of seating.

Naaaaa I’ll stick with that thanks

If we can find the Sedgy of 2014 and 2015 (particularly at home) then we are on to a winner with him at second string. He hasn't shown that form since moving away from Edinburgh so hopefully a return to us can help him rediscover his best. I remember that cup tie well, a classic! Looking forward to my trip down to Brough Park for the return on Sunday.

He was Armando Castagna’s mechanic for a while at Reading (I think). Good news on the new track - to be fair it can’t have been any worse than the old one!

Yes. Never known him to favour any team.

I think you may of been caught out here pieman little bit sad really . So you went last year but a week ago you was enquiring what the facilities were like hmmmm.

Probably score the same amount of points whether he races at Edinburgh or doesn’t turn up anyway.

WTF? He has the Samaritans on speed dial !!!!!!!!

Do think this will be the toughest test of the Season for the Scorpions, but think we have enough in the tank to win it... just! Be happy with a 47-43 or 46-44 win to the Scorpions... but be even better if we sent the Penistone Prowlers back without any points!