Leaderboard

But surely Plymouth can't go on without Wallinger? They will have to close the club down.

For a sport that is reliant on averages... says it all about the 'sport' when the governing body can't even add up 7 figures correctly

Sssssshhh

Did you really say that Sarjeant could beat Wells? That is some leap of faith. He’s got to get past the tapes first.

Give it time

So . . a confession from Mr R that televised speedway DOES affect attendances trackside I’ve said this all along, and I still see no benefit to the sport in having league matches televised live in the UK It’s not as if it’s a great product to advertise to the wider public in the current format Much better would be a carefully edited weekly highlights package - just show the races, and sensible interviews post-meeting instead of the gap-filling chats as at present Put together a package that just might attract new spectators and ex-attendees to the tracks

This is what we are missing!!!

I really do hope that the BSPA see sense and do not allow Eurosport to get the British Speedway broadcast rights as it will be a budget production gone will be your UHD coverage with multiple camera angles they will look at doing a more remote production with around 4 cameras and commentary done from London to save costs. As much as it pains me to say it but BT sport have done a good job in broadcasting Speedway since taking over with new innovation and fresh sense of broadcasting

Top riders don't need to have ridden a track before.

THJ should be a solid signing, although I still feel we are 1 rider short. Wells is struggling at times which would be a big concern for me if I was Matt!

Meeting preview http://www.swindon-speedway.com/news.php?extend.3324 With Nick Morris guesting for Tobi, is this a test for Nick on the track for 2020 ?

oh ohh . scunny struggling for guests on a Friday . thought godders had sorted all that stuff out ..

A full list of all the team changes this season are available to view as I keep the SGB Premiership, Championship and National league pages upto date on Wikipedia. SGB Premiership https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGB_Premiership_2019 SGB Championship https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGB_Championship_2019 National League https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_National_League_speedway_season

Musielak rides in Russia on Thursday in a FIM pairs event. We are entitled to use a guest so no big deal.

WRONG! Jonasson has scored 11 points in a GP, 9 points in a GP and 8 points in a GP twice. Berntzon's best GP tally is 7. Thorsell's is 4. GP averages: Jonasson 90 103 4.58 Berntzon 15 12 3.20 Thorsell 15 7 1.87

PROBABLY three times as many people watch British speedway on television than actually attend. TV is good for general awareness that speedway still exists and for sponsorship both with riders and tracks.

I blame forums like this as much as anything for team changes. There are loads of pages full of "we need to replace xxx".

Those who already go are probably best suited to introduce new fans. I was introduced by a current fan. I introduced my youngest brother when he was 11, giving him a blank programme and showing him how to fill it in before he even attended a match. As he has said a few times, if he didn't know what it was all about and didn't know the scoring, he'd probably have not returned. That is why live matches on TV might not be encouraging new fans. It is a great spectacle but after a while, even cake becomes boring. New fans have got to understand the scoring system. Forget the rules, as they would have new fans running to the hills.

Both the top 2 flights should have 2 young (ish) reserves who stay there for the season. The draft idea was a good one just poorly implemented. And if persevered with and tweaked into a more workable model, then British speedway would be 3 or 4 years further down the line of development.

It is a major FIM-Europe event, recent past winners include the mighty speedway nation of Italy! ( and most of Italy's points were scored by an Argentinian)

You would, yes, but whatever the Bates' says goes at the end of the day at Sheffield. I would just caution against singling Simon out.

Time to Grow up .

The ambition was evident when we started the season 3 points below the limit

Scored 11 on last visit, has Harris scored that at home this season? And I don't mean by adding all his scores together.

If Worrall is seeing his Consultant this week, he could be cleared to return for this. But even so, it could be worth getting his brother in for this one, nobody would notice the difference.

OR it could be that tracks racing on a Bank Holiday hope for bigger than usual crowds and don't want TV to affect that.

I'll be travelling to this. I have full belief in the Panthers to win this, and string a run of results together, to make the top 4.

Interesting, when the multi platform sports broadcasters need to fill Summer airtime they turn to the live minority sports instead of utilising tertiary rights to fill the schedules. Eurosport Events who are bidding are backed by Discovery/Disney and as you are aware are not a secondary or tertiary rights outlet like UK Eurosport consequently I expect a big enough budget to retain the current production team although I agree 4K would be history. If I was in a position to influence this in any way I'd stick with BT who are steadily building their audience from a co-funded fragile start just like Sky and the BSPA did the difference is that BT are offering fees that are relative to what Speedway can deliver and not creating 9 or 10 shopkeepers who think they have won the lottery so that they can go out and blow it on the equivalent of Rickardsson, Gollob, Adams, Hancock, Crump, Wiltshire, Pedersen etc. £120,000 a club of Sky money bred complacency and avarice whereas £20,000 (est) of BT money now plugs a bit of a hole but nobody goes out and gets pizzed on it. Yes everybody you read that right, the BSPA and TR covered the broadcast costs in the early days for Sky and I don't believe either have ever had the credit for that.

Looking at the Plymouth website you would think that they have closed down! The latest league table is from May and the latest news item is from the start of August. The news about the two new team members is on the BSPA website but no mention on the Plymouth website. Maybe changing the name of the team to something about an Essex Banger Team from Devils which everyone in Speedway had got to know proved too much for the webmaster.

Some of his merits: 7x Individual Swedish champion, 5x Swedish team champion, 9 grand prix wins, 3x Speedway world cup gold medals.

ONLY 60,000. Is that bad? I basically only with BT for the speedway, it doesnt cost much for a BT TV box, and we watch "normal" tv programmes through freesat. When you say they had bigger audiences on SKY. Maybe, but SKY didnt want British speedway, fortunately BT picked it up. I not willing to pay £20 plus travelling (an hour each way) to my local team no matter how good the racing is there (BV). In fact, if only the GP's were on BT then I would still subscribe. The other benefit of me being with BT is I am one of the 7% in the UK who get fibre to the house. I went from 1.2mbps to 52mbps (and more if I wanted to pay for the speed).

Very similar to TK from a Coventry viewpoint and potentially being a World Champion. Charismatic, Dependable and capable of beating anyone in the world day in day out. Happy Retirement AJ

I think this will be a close meeting myself. I don't know when NKI last rode Foxhall ? I wouldn't expect to much first meeting. But he should be better in the 2nd half of the meeting, once he has some sort of set up and had some laps. Maybe 9- 10. But should be going better by heats 13 and 15. Sarj may not score. I don't expect any more points from the 2 new guys than KP and Eddie would of scored first meeting in, if i'm honest. But it will make Ippo stronger in 13 and 15. While Allen will drop to reserve, is Allen and Sarj any better than Cov and Wells at Foxhall..? We will see. NKI's arrival should give the other riders a much need lift, and pull a few more fans in. I'm expecting a big crowd and a close meeting. Hard one to call and I think the bookie's odds will suggest the same. Will be rooting for the Witches in this one... Did I just say that

This is a very civilised and quiet thread so far, expected far more childish bickering

We need 3 points in my eyes to get in the play offs and this is our best chance Josh goes well at Foxhall but r/r should be ok with riders like Covatti able to take the rides...............Ipswich have lost Heeps and thats a bigger blow to Ipswich than the loss of Josh is to Poole...........so the injuries pretty much even out so no excuses from either side One rider missing from each..........Poole fans had delight in gloating after winning at Foxhall with a weaker team last time so Thursday they are favourites to take at least 3 points form us but hopefully the Witches can dig in and get the points they need.......a real backs to the wall effort required Poole won easily at ours with no Kurtz and the potent at Foxhall Covatti..........also had Newman with a zero KP and Kennett got 11 between them that meeting............NKI and Sarjeant will need to score more than that between them for Ipswich to have any chance.........in that same meeting Lawson and Allen only got 7 between them.....thats where we need improvement THJ should weaken Poole in this match but even at reserve he should beat Sarjeant Big nights needed from Lawson and Allen i feel..............ive given up on expecting more than 5 from Harris Poole will be strong favourites to win this one but hoping the underdogs can pull it out of the bag.....the downside if we qualify is that Swindon look likely to be top and they will pick us

With a common denominator........

Except you've conveniently overlooked Berntzon's 2018 stat of 1.753. Overall these stats demonstrate that there is little in it between any of THJ, Thorrsell, Berntzon, Sundstrom and Nilsson, and that none of them has exactly made a sustained major impact ( and of course these figures do not take Into account performances outside Sweden.)

Gavan getting wound up about Poole surely not!

Think we should adopt Polish style for British youngsters.

Only because the SCB had bollocks as well as teeth then, they've got neither now!

Hope they can come back always enjoyed my visits there

Good on you

Err, no. It’s like choosing which of the seven dwarfs is the shortest.

Interesting that I am only doing what Swindon fans do on Poole threads during a course of a season back ( + winter) and you don't like it. 1. HS doesn't like it if i ask Batch and JD if they lost at Poole. 2. None of you like it if I ask if Vissing is your weakest rider? Simple enough question really. Every team has a weakest rider. I bet you're pretty quick to say who's Poole's is.

Me and you same...I've being saying it for years. Who is the target audience? Those who already go or to attract new fans or indeed new sponsors?

Well you've brought "oystercard" back so you may as well bring Lambert back as well.

If that happens, the sport is finished.

Possibly something to do with a no show and late notification?

To late to turn speedway in this country enjoy it whilst you still can, also anyone comparing football to speedway is a prat!

Saga Magazine this month(shows my age ) full page Speedway article(GP and domestic) "armchair sport! by John Aizlewood(award winning writer). Decent article, he obviously did some research about the history of the sport. couple of quotes With BT Sport`s coverage seducing a new audience, it`s ticking over very nicely , thank you. Dirty ? yes smelly ? yes loud ? yes. And rather wonderful ? oh, yes