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Ford should be thinking about himself.. He is a business man.. He has made it clear the club is up for sale if the right offer comes in, and has been for a long time, however no one has come in and bought it.. Maybe 'the fans' who want to stay in the Premiership should buy it? Too many 'Promoters' run their clubs as an expensive hobby and it shows in the way they run the sport... "Sustainable losses", supported by other parts of their business, seems to be an accepted year end performance for too many.. As you say, he has been good for Poole and hopefully made money, therefore as a business man if the model you are using suddenly stops working then you need to change it and see if something new does.. Fair play to the guy for doing it as far too many run with the same plan every year with the inevitable same results..

Was Anders Rowe ready? Was Leon Flint ready? If they're good enough, they're old enough.

F1 has about twenty races a season where points are awarded. SGP has 10? meetings a season when you can do up to 70 races and/or wins. Its totally different. What a load of zh1t to mess with the scoring.

What a load of rubbish. Complete throwback to the way they used to award points, which was abandoned for a reason. EVERY point should count.

What's wrong with 16 year old Palin riding in the 2nd division. 16-year-old Peter Collins, Chris Morton, Michael Lee, Kenny Carter, Andy Smith, are just a few riders I remember riding in the 1st division.

Buggered the SWC and now done the same with the GPs

Don’t like this at all . so win all your heats 15 pts last in final take hom 14 scrape through to finals on 7pts win final take home 20 bloody joke

WHY WHY WHY What an absolute joke. A rider can have 6 perfects rides (18 points) and finish last in the final and get 14 points. "IF IT'S NOT BROKEN"

Somerset have done it having almost bankrupted their club after one season in Premiership. MF hasn't got a bottomless pit of money. Much of Poole's top level success has come on the back of much hard work in and around the local area in getting big sponsorship deals. The season just gone has seen not only the new, last minute main sponsor going into liquidation and costing the club around £35k but also saw the departure of 3 'major' club sponsors before the season started - one expected because they were at the end of their 2-year deal and 2 others due to a shift in their own respective business development plans. No club can afford to lose a six figure income from their bottom line without it having a major effect. To operate at a level which has - according to MF - a 25% lower cost base at a time when he is also less 'hands-on' due to his developing new business interest abroad, is a very sensible approach when leaving the day-to-day running of the club to his son Danny! Resuming 'local' derbies with the likes of Somerset and Eastbourne (and maybe Plymouth and Kent too) and seeing some other different opposition is all good as its all about the racing and the atmosphere for me - and many others it would seem.

You've identified one of the fundamental problems with British speedway - it doesn't understand who its target market is. Speedway tries to target children by doing into schools, having face painting and bouncing castles, but when you actually go to a meeting the average age is over 55 and the presentation is like something from the 70s. Kids don't want to listen to AC/DC and fill out paper programmes with a pen, they want Stormzy, Fortnite and an app to keep score with. The solution is in fact quite simply. If the majority of your customers are over 55, then market speedway at... wait for it... yep... over 55s! Its not rocket science people. You can also align the sport with sponsors who want to target that demographic adding some much needed credibility. The other benefit of course is that over 55s are likely to have far more disposable income than youngsters.

Jordan has a higher NL average than Kyle Bickley, Connor Bailey, Danny Phillips, Jack Smith, Luke Harris, Drew Kemp, Ryan Kinsley, Jason Edwards, Joe Lawlor, Tom Perry and Connor Coles. I think he might be ok.

A thoughtful parent who has createdfurther opportunities for his child which will been entitled to dual nationality/freedom of movement between AUS & the UK yeah those true colours are disgusting.......sometimes there is a whole lot more to life than speedway.

I bet they send their new official photographer...

No champagne, fireworks or hot showers either. Not like it’s the first time either.

Yeah he is ready like I said a few weeks back that he'll be well capable of keeping the 2 point average & could possibly put a point on around the EWR & a half a point away at some not all tracks.. the lad had a great family behind him & also a good mentor in Wayne carter.. definitely 1 for the future as will young Archie Freeman & Danny Smith also Ben trigger & apologies if I have forgot to mention more but the future is looking good for GB SPEEDWAY

You are 100% right. The GP series, when it was introduced, had one feature which countered the "how can a rider who has one good meeting, be considered WC?" effect. Well, what better way to prove that the WC is the most consistent rider across the season that to make every race and every point count? A 3rd in your opening ride should not be considered a bit of a slip, to be caught up later. It's 2 lost points, lost for good. And what about "I've qualified for the semis, so why try hard to win further races" under the new system? We want riders making every race meaningful don't we? Pushing for every point, not making judgements about their likelihood about their qualification for the later stages of the meeting. This is a fundamental mistake and ignores simple psychology. Think on. At Torun this year, we were following the destiny of the championship from race 1 and throughout the meeting race by race.

They finally get the scoring system right after years of tinkering and then go and balls it up again.

Piss poor decisions , yet again.

My comment has nothing to do with the racing just see it as a negative step ps yes i know its his money but we give it to him in the first place

I agree with that financially it makes sense but as a fan it doesn't sit well, we have been so long in the top league it seems sad to me to have to drop out and I think despite all the flak we get we will be missed. I know MF has worked very hard to make the club viable but maybe not being here on a day to day basis and leaving running of the club to his son hasn't worked.

I'm not a fan of this if it is true. As I said earlier, a rider may score 15 points in the Qualifying heats and finish third in his S/F for an actual total of 16 points, loses 4 points in the new format, being 'awarded' 12 points. Another rider may qualify for the S/F with 8 points and finish second in his S/F actually scoring 10 points but gains 4 points after being 'awarded' 14 for finishing last in the Final!

Clearly Scunthorpe seem to think so, Palin needs to take his career forward and moving into the Championship will do that.

Great night..Razzer Rider of the Year...Gater-Batch...Bonus King Doyley...Unsung Heroes Track Staff. Only Tobi and Doyley not there. Great to see Leigh Adams message on big screen. Over 200 there. Hope trophies are still in one piece!!!

It may be sensible financially but dropping down a league is not brilliant, we are the most successful team in the modern era, one bad year and we jack in the top league,i will still go but it won't be the same. Teams in most sports do everything they can to stay in the top league, we just give it up willingly.

complete twaddle. If you're good enough, you're old enough. NDL likely to reduce is quality and quantity, he could double down anyway, let him race older more experienced riders and he will learn quicker. Didn't do Peter Collins and Michael Lee any harm did it??

Why?

Fingers crossed , it's good to see the council standing up to the property developers dodgy tactics.

You couldn’t run a bath so stop talking out of your arse.

What do want the final to be ? you want Swindon to make it close ? Maybe Man city in the fa cup final should beat Watford by less goals . brain dead post .

Hope you're wrong........

Think it's a good time for this thread to disappear.

Wonder how Mikkel M feels? Wins SEC gets overlooked through politics and logistics then gets informed in future SEC winner gets a spot......

Ri W to the Monarchs

My first post here as only recently discovered speedway even though I'm in my late 40s. Coming at it from a newcomer I can see the point of concentrating on the target audience of the middle aged. However I would assume the majority of these people discovered the sport as kids so I still think kids should be targeted more. I have been going for last 3 months with my two daughters (13 and 9) and they absolutely love it. They dont understand or would be bothered that most races finish as they start from the gate. They love the smell, the roar of the engines and interacting with the riders afterwards. By the time they are older and are more aware of the politics behind the sport they will already be hooked. To a child this sport is still very exciting...as long as they know about it. I asked my eldest to bring her friend to the last meeting and they were instantly hooked too even though the races were poor.

Really? Lawson and King would be fine replacements for Jensen - how do you know he wasn’t a one season wonder? Even if he wasn’t , it’s hardly like he was that far ahead of King or Lawson in the final averages .

Well it is his bloomin' money, up to him what he decides to do with it! I definitely do not see it as being as bad as Ray, FB and SS make out. I've seen CL racing before and tends to be a lot better than PL.

The two riders who finish 3rd in the Semi's are ranked according to their Qualifying points/countback, as are the two who finished 4th.

The worry i got if we lost money this season what happens next season if it happens again will they walk away .19 yrs being a success 1 yr losing money and we drop a league ? Just my opinion

I know you are a regular away supporter will you still do it next season ? or will you wait and see . I am the same as you not happy with this at all .I thought it was ok in the beginning but thinking about it no

That has always been the case and will continue to happen, on the other hand, if you keep them protected too long they tend to stop at that level.

To be fair, the same can be said in many ways for Football, Cricket, Tennis, F1, Moto GP, Superbikes etc etc etc. The admission costs particularly have ensured a much older demographic are their main followers.. 20/20 Cricket in particular though do a great job in attracting families though cheap tickets. And they do this to create the atmosphere that any sporting occasion needs to be memorable and addictive.. The truth is many teenage kids don't want to go anywhere near where their parents frequent as it's all 'a bit sad'.. Mobile phones, Play station, X box, catch up TV, and Social Media give them all the entertainment they need without ever leaving their rooms... Getting the many, many thousands of 40/50/60 somethings who have left the sport over the past ten years or so to return would be far easier than getting a younger demographic through the door... But if those who run the sport don't see any issues to resolve, and can't see why so many have left, then that simply won't happen. ..

Steve Pugh

No, I seem to remember for instance that Jack Keen from Kent was also a contributor on the Proboard group. Have you forgotten or was that the real Jack Keen ?

What's wrong with that? He obviously wants his child to have dual nationality. So what?

Practically they are 100% why Somerset Speedway are in existence, nothing technical about it!

Great meeting with proper racing in most heats,congrats to Leicester on a well deserved aggregate win. I was sat next to 2 Leicester fans whose first visit to the NSS sent them home very happy. Full of praise for the NSS. Come on promoters, give riders tracks that give them confidence to race,and see whats happens to the attendance.

To pull back the 18 points was always going to be a big ask, congratulations to Leicester who deserved their win but what a superb meeting passing and close racing throughout, racing wise this meeting put a lot of the Premiership racing shown on BT to shame, a great advert for National League racing and for speedway in general, great value at £10.00.

From what I've seen at Kent, Drew doesn't gate consistently, which on a track that in my opinion doesn't lend itself to much passing, has severely limited him. Having said that, seeing Max Clegg and Leon Flint both take him from the back by riding a wider line on his home track suggest that either he's not 'dialled in' at Central Park, or that he's not as good as we expected. He also went through a spell when he seemed unable to get through four races without an error/crash in one. He is only young, and it may just be that Central Park doesn't suit his style. Last night his first two rides were very ordinary, following home JJ and Jake after poor gates, but then he rode an excellent heat 13 to beat the Leicester top two off of gate 3! It did seem last night that if you didn't gate, you struggled to make any headway. Dan G tried all he knew at the back but made no impression on the fast gating Ryan TD in heat 5, and then Hume, so impressive first time out, likewise could not trouble JJ, who rode a good line in heat 6. Did JJ change bikes for heat 13? Why, he barely got out the gate on that one! Also, did Rob not deserve to go out in 15 rather than Dan? Pity we could not win the match, even if the Lions deserved the trophy. Right from the off all the young Kings - plus a very entertaining skipper - were worth watching in 2019, and one or two hopefully will go far.

It's good that GP organisers constantly look to tweak and improve the product. But I do think in terms of the scoring, this is an area that needs leaving well be. Through trial and error over several years, they have arrived at a format that provides an exciting climax to each GP, but is also fair and rewards consistency across the series. It's right the winner of the Grand Final, the winner of the hardest race of the night is crowned the night's winner, but it's also right that the night's most consistent performer goes away with the most points. I'm all for change, but not in this instance.

And a General Election.