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i know the new co promoters are having to quickly find their feet but it would have made sense to make sure the grader was actually available before announcing in the press that said grader would be in action during this fixture break

Thank goodness for that .......i initially wondered if it was turn 2 at Poole.

I suggest that the BSPA ,BT Sport Poole Speedway do us all a favour and switch the TV match to either of Kings Lynn v Ipswich or Swindon v Belle Vue.

As a first time visitor to Ashfield, I have to say that it was an enjoyable evening. The promotion have clearly devoted a lot of time, money, effort and love in bringing the stadium into the 21st Century. Signing the stadium all the way back to the motorway junction made it far easier than expected to find the track. It would be fair to say that the racing got better as the meeting went on, with some cracking races e.g. Iversen v Lambert and Covatti v Aarnio. My impression of the riders; Berge - V. poor. Not interested and comfortably beaten by Bickley in Heat One. Tungate - Three exclusions and one point. Enough said. Andersen - Evidently took a chance on his shoulder, but after struggling in his second heat, he wisely decided to withdraw. Cook - 15 point maximum. Not quite as electric from the gate as I expected, but controlled and super quick when behind or in front. Smektala - Biggest disappointment of the meeting for me. Apparently didn't practice and rode like a novice in his first two heats. Two heat victories and a last - another Polish gating tart? Aspgren - Biggest surprise of the night but a deserved qualifier - comfortably held off Iversen, Lambert and Holder in his first three heats. Aarnio - Battled hard all night, with great races against Covatti, Nicol and Thorsell, but not enough speed to trouble the top scorers. Iversen - Controlled and ruthless. Got better as the meeting progressed - cracking race against Lambert in Heat Fourteen. Nicol - Impressive. Looked quick and took a deserved third to first victory in Heat Eighteen. Moi - Pleasantly surprised. Only one point from his first four rides, but he looked better than expected. Took Iversen from the back in Heat Seventeen before being repassed. Probably needs more meetings either in Sweden or UK to progress. Lambert - Two comfortable heat victories and three second places. Looked quick and deserved to qualify. Niedzwiedz - V. poor. Still surprised he was selected by the Polish federation. Never got to grips with the track. Easily passed by Moi in Heat Three. Covatti - The best of the non-qualifiers in my opinion. Attacked the track and looked quick. Not afraid to mix it - e.g. race against Aarnio. Holder - Not quite enough. His bikes didn't look quick enough - held off Aarnio in Heat Thirteen, but comfortably beaten by Cook and Lambert in Heat Twenty. Riding his brothers bikes as at the SoN? Smetana - Decent UK debut. Went somewhat backward as the meeting went on and the track produced better racing. Thorsell - Disappointing. Gone backwards since I used to regularly see him ride for Wolves. Comfortably passed by Nicol and Aarnio in Heat Eighteen. Biggest positive of the night - having the pleasure to speak to a range of speedway fans over the course of the evening; especially the two elderly Glasgow fans sat next to meet in the grandstand. Genuinely nice people, welcoming, knowledgeable and very tolerant of my over excited five year old!

Just as well it`s not the day before as he would have missed his Polish championship semi-final

Ellis deservedly named as rider of the month for May.

I understand, and wouldn't want him at Eastie and you're probably right, but if he does ok for Redcar other factors could have had a hand, starting at 1, track, management etc. Glad Eastie have the other Birmingham cast off by the way, think he'll do a good job for us in place of Tom Brennen in his correct position at 3 or 4.

Yeah the irony is that when promoters cheated, riders took bribes and illegally used nitro we had big crowds. Can't help wondering how things would have panned out if we had had social media in those days. Throw in the fact that narrow tracks produced poor racing and then we wonder where it all went wrong.

What would be the point of track covers, if as you say "it's fine here" at the moment? (assuming the "here" you refer to is Gorton?) If the latest weather forecast is correct that it's now 80%+ going to pee down at 7pm and 8pm, again what would be the point of track covers? Do you think they can race on top of track covers? In view of forecast heavy rain from 7pm and 8pm onwards, and a depleted Mildenhall team, I'd suspect it works out for the best to postpone and restage with a full team on a nice dry day.

How very dare you!!!!

How do you 'fluke' a top 3 place in the final? Surely you must 'fluke' your way through the other qualifying rounds as well. That's a lot of fluking. If riders can't beat those you deem to be an 'embarrassment' then they don't deserve to qualify anyway.

Riders alway say that they are happy to ride for such and such team they are just happy riding `anywhere rather than being left on the shelf

Barker could fall out with himself

I agree. He is a Reading fan who has moved to Swindon and who posts regularly on the Swindon Robins Facebook page using his real name.

Nobody has sufficiently explained how davies has attained that average. Interesting. You would assume that Bailey would’ve appeared in the declaration once those two’s averages go up! Phillips has achieved that from 4 meetings also. All NL riders get a new average from the first 4 league meetings of the season if they ride in all 4. Phillips has 31 points from 17 races.

That was close

Seb Fraction

I remember them turning up at Wimbledon short handed. Ivan was raging in the pits before the meeting. Fully justified.

Deffo right call Bob. Started raining about 6pm and not stopped

This bloke knows the forecast and how track covers wouldn’t work in this situation. He’s a troll and just wants to try and have a pop at Belle Vue again. Yawn. Block him!

Copied from Col's post....I knew I couldn't spell it!

When Google Translate started changing his name when going from Polish to English He's definitely still Loktaev (or Loktajev or Loktajew, however you want to do the cyrillic conversion)

Hole aint big enough

Errr. When? He wasn't in Peterborough's (or anybody else's) in 2018 or 2017 when they visited Newcastle. The last time I can find Ostergaard at Newcastle was 21/08/2016 when he scored 2+1 from 4 rides. Hardly earth shattering. He may have guested since for someone but I couldn't see or find any instances.

Perhaps because he isn't as blinkered as you and acef who cannot bear a bad word said about belle vue? and for the record i don't care for the shade of red used for the aces kevlars this year

After 4 rides. 1 Martin Smolinski - 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 = 12 2 Aleksandr Lokoksiev - 3 - 1 - 3 - 3 = 10 3 Kenneth Bjerre - 3 - 3 - 2 - 2 = 10 4 Paweł Przedpełski - 3 - 3 - 3 - 0 = 9 5 Timo Lahti - 2 - 3 - 1 - 3 = 9 6 Jurica Pavlic - 1 - 2 - 2 - 3 = 8 7 Linus Sundstroem - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 = 8 Milik & Wright no longer in contention, both failed to score in their fourth rides. Edit, sorry Milik finished 3rd in his 4th ride, but still not in contention despite a rather easy looking heat 17.

Get Guy Nicholls on the case - he will be able to supply one!

Lambert surely has a chance of top 8 as well. Can't see a situation where he doesn't race almost all, if not all, of the GP's (barring him getting injured himself that is)

A group recently occupied a site by Workington harbour side which has planning permission for houses. The rubbish they left behind was disgraceful and included multiple empty gas cylinders, garden waste /tree cuttings, multiple burst black bags containing all sorts of waste debris, building waste and a large tyre. They just seem immune to prosecution.

Slightly surprised there isn't a touch more enthusiasm towards Kennett signing. He was one of the few Championship riders who would come and regularly lower the colours of Ipswich hero Danny King, he has comparable Championship averages to the prodigal son (both home and away) and has formed a good partnership with Richard Lawson at Eastbourne so could form a very potent 1&2. As for Bomber just seen that his actual 2019 average is 4.92. I hope he comes round after the next home meeting and gives every paying Ipswich fan a tenner back as he has been ripping them off all season.

Mostly you would suspect unless someone steps in and offers Gilkes a mega bucks deal to jump ship? He is now officially the most in demand unattached 2.00er

is there somewhere I can see the items online anywhere?

Matt Ford is in denial over the track condition at Poole and has been for several years. He’s lost some good sponsors because they feared for rider safety and, refused an offer from another to buy the shale needed to rectify the problem. The problem goes back at least to the Chris Holder and Darcy Ward era when both would be openly critical of the track..

Bang on. You will see unattached riders towards the end of the season are very hard to come by (if they have any sense). Not unusual for a rider to score 2 points from 3 rides with a little fortune, do that 4 times and presto and average of 2.67 and nicely frozen out. It was a crazy idea in the winter and now that the holes in the barely considered idea are becoming apparent its an even crazier idea now.

No offence to Ulrich, but he'd be one of the last riders I'd want the Diamonds to sign

Looks like all three Under-21 Finals will be live on Eurosport.

That was a very enjoyable meeting especially as I got to see speedway with my brother who is no longer the regular he used to be. He'd not been to Arlington since the Elite days there and was very impressed as was I with the whole show. Some decent racing on a well prepared track, plenty of passing with Kennett and Lawson especially impressive. Bukhave deserved more points for Diamonds and looks worth persevering with. The announcer and meeting presentation there is top notch and I was told by locals the Cardiff GP guy Kevin Coombes. Parade at 7.25 sharp and first race at 7.30, some over fussy referring and a few falls delayed things but no tractor races and they go on with it pretty well. A big crowd by modern standards it looked like as big if not bigger than their Elite days my brother reckoned; and on a par with crowds there when I've been with brummies this season especially after the rain and it was cold. Decent grub and the only minor quibble is the 1950's toilets but you can't have everything. The best thing there though is their Community work, looked like 100 + kids there tonight being shown round and then having pictures taken before the meeting, mascots. which I had not seen in earlier visits and the impression this is a Club that is grasping the Championship and trying to make speedway popular and accessible to new fans. Well done to the promotion there and lessons others could learn. "We'll be back"

looking at me and the crowd around me in the old grandstand it would be almost impossible not to be "younger and prettier" !!

I think there are enough Australians already in CL in particular and some Clubs seem unable or unwilling to give British talent a chance. May be we should get all capable British riders a ride first and then seek Australian permits and then EU riders. Some clubs are bringing very young Australian riders over who have very little 500cc experience in Oz whilst some good NL lads would be far better options.

Why do I have to be glass half full,,

Everyone’s entitled to their opinion of course, but I think you’ll be in a minority here. 13 meetings and averaging 4.40. If Kennett doesn’t improve upon that average I’ll be staggered. We’ll see.

Simon Rambo Lambo enjoys the wide open spaces of The ShowGround

We are going to put in a water jump on the third bend to spice racing up a bit

Same with the change to 2.0 riders, meant the Couzins, O Keefes etc left out in the cold.

All that does is once an unattached rider has 4 meetings and inevitably gets a 2.something average, it stops then being able to ride as an unattached rider! But generally aren’t considered good enough for a full-time place!

Leon Flint will be second reserve for the GP Challenge event at Glasgow tomorrow. Fully deserved after his efforts last weekend.

Ask Zagar Racing. He got one right once!!!!!

Agree with a lot of that. We've barely got any GP riders left anyway so why are we continuing to ride on two midweek nights like Mondays and Thursdays too? You'll only ever get increased attendances and attract new fans long term if you race on the weekend/end of the week, maybe Friday and Saturday nights - allows people to make a night of it. Football for example is a day out for many, Speedway can't be when it's on a Monday night and most people have work the next day. I guess the only problem is that clubs don't have access to their stadiums whenever they want if they don't own them - but maybe this could be renegotiated?

For a start, the promoters would need to prepare a decent racetrack to give those riders on a handicap a chance to pass.

It was the same meeting Paul. The ref chucked Tom out for arguing before a wheel had even been turned. According to Neil the tape hadn't actually been altered in any way. Neil some how managed to put a length mid section of the tape up his sleeve unseen by the referee and Newcastle management. It's promoters like Neil and Ian Thomas the sport is in dire need of these days.