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Disappointed Tiger heading home , but today is why speedway is the best sport in the world , the best two teams in the league served up a classic on a brilliant track .

I attended Birmingham Speedway 2 years ago and quite honestly I was made to feel like a second class citizen. To be fair the Greyhound Track control the venue but the restrictions on the paying public was disgusting. It was made clear not to drink or consume you own food which we ignored or you could purchase anything as long as it was chips washed down with a £4 + pint of Lager from a hole in the wall. It was a freezing cold night and no admission was allowed in the main building unless you were someone important. Sorry but speedway is 'dead in the water'. Supporters need to be attracted to a venue also on a day or night that is normal i.e. Friday or Saturday oh sorry our wonderful foreign riders have European commitments. In a nutshell what a mess of our own making. Reading the posts on here there is a lot of denial but the truth is unless something very radical is undertaken then there is little chance of speedway surviving in it's present form.

Wow !!! If you like classic speedway, then this treat served up this afternoon by two excellent teams was all you could ever have asked for. Nip and tuck all the way culminating in a marvellous climax in heat 15 Bears pinching it at the death. Charles and Jake putting in superb performances, backed up by Tofty getting somewhere near his best. The top two teams in the league were on show this afternoon. And they came up trumps. Privilege to watch them today.

Had to laugh at Barrie insinuating that Allen got a flier from the green light starts,and to wait and see what would happen with the tapes working again,only for Jake and Anders to out-gate the Bandits pair and away into the distance.

Place will shut down anyway if they continue to abide by silly rules. Most of the people that enter Speedway / Dog track stadium are mostly older members of the public who've been vaccinated twice.

Ditto every club in the league when the government lie about a need to extend restrictions.

Remember visiting both Exeter and Newport and dodging the shale and Olle Nygren passing me within inches as he was so far back I had forgotten about him as I stuck my head over the fence at Exeter!

Injury news regarding Josh Auty seems more positive than it could've been, after scans that have back all clear he will now sit out the next nine days due to a concussion.

Give it a couple more meetings and believe we will start to become the force we are on paper. Have to say impressed with both the Thompson lads really developing fast breath of fresh air. Bates is a worry down to confidence as on his day can beat 80% of this league but time is running out to keep his place. Did any one notice after the incident the heats went very quickly 2 mins on pretty much after the previous race had finished why can’t this be the norm... only negative that frustrates me all we see is clubs in trouble crowds down but Leicester continues to be strong. Why is the no longer a proper rider intro, riders at the start line with bikes interview both captains and managers before meeting. Riding round intro is poor. Also riders should be told win heat lap of honour get the atmosphere going. Any way onwards and updates. Roll on Redcar.

I don't think I've ever heard Dick being described as retiring

Where did I say I believed them? No, quite the opposite. I'm attempting to hold them accountable. For all the good it'll do. Where is the passion that was shown in 2006? Why aren't we fighting the council and developers? We appear to have rolled over and given up. The long game we always knew they were playing appears to have been successful. It might help if the Robins owners could convince us that they really do wish to run next year and there after. Because it really does look as if they've given up too.

Well the dark art didn't work and that was by admission of Leicester's own management! The track was slick and dusty and hope that the management can sort it out bit better the next time. If lessons are learnt then that's fine by me. On to a cheerier note I thought the crowd was good considering. It was nice to see a range of ages too which seems to contradict the impression sometimes given on this forum. Teenagers, young families at us oldies Leicester is the nearest track to me now Brandon has gone. It seems a nice club - all the people I interacted with - car park, gate, ticket office were very friendly and helpful. It was so good to be back at a speedway track again despite the problems. The best thing to say is - I'll be back!

Unfortunately the 'slippery guys' are still there. Somehow a semi professional version of speedway may be the only long term option but financially that would be difficult. There have been many instances where tracks have closed under a 'cloud' unfortunately many are brownfield sites perfect for prime residential housing. Government policy and potential profits rule the day. To name a few Cradley, Coventry, Leicester, Rye House, Perry Barr, Belle View. Oh George what character he was very slippery at the tapes.

Too many Berwick men throwing in the towel after a couple of laps .IMO Not good to watch.There again maybe they are just not good enough against tough opposition.

We will beat Newcastle.... granted.. but any other team with a decent top 2, especially if we are very tight near the end, will get us in 13 & 15. Even though Palm Toft had a mare up till heat 13, I said to the hubby that they would get us there! And so it proved! Again, IMO, the only 2 exempt from criticism are our reserves. Quite what is going on with our top 4, god only knows! But thank the Lord for a week off next week... On the Redcar team, they clearly smelt when the time was coming to get us... and Jordan Jenkins.. I admire these young British lads but is he likely to throw in another performance like that?! He could certainly tell our team how to gate, attack the track and generally hold your lead... rather like Charles Wright who produced what a no.1 should produce! We need to pull our fingers out our arses... be ruthless... doctor a track that suits us! Stop being the nicey nice brigade! Or there will be several more home defeats to come!

Berwick have a team built that should be unbeatable at home and do naff all away. Fact they've lost twice now round Shielfield shows the team ain't working. At the very least they need to replace Garcia, is that enough to turn round their misfortunes? I'm not sure...

DeliverCoo Ahem... I'll get my coat

Might be a good idea if as many as possible email Eurosport ukcomms@eurosport.com politely asking if they will be showing the re-arranged speedway SEC 1st round on Wednesday at 6pm on their main channel live ?

Not being wise after the event, Most Teams agreed to start the season without knowing what attendance limits there local councils would impose on them, the main issue being they have to put out a fixture list, Clubs/Teams found it difficult if not impossible to sell season tickets due to the Covid situation, now we find that the opening up is more than likely going to be put back which will probably put the completion of the season into doubt, or at the very least force some clubs to curtail the season. Some fans are still in denial about Covid but stop and think, the Pandemic has already cost this country billions upon billions of lost revenue, billions of pounds paid out in furlough payments and other schemes, all of which will we will be paying for over many years ahead, yes maybe things could have been done differently but the fact remains Covid is still with us and will be for the forseeable future, until the World gets a grip on this pandemic the uncertainty will remain and the future of our Sport needs strong leadership with difficult decisions needing to be made, but one thing is for sure Clubs/Teams cannot carry on sustaining losses week in week out..

And we have a council who, despite being told how it would all play out given the past form of the stadium owners, allowed the houses to be built with zero progress on the stadium. SBC have been played for complete amateurs. Or are complicit in what has gone on. Either way they've had a hand in Swindon losing yet another amenity and source of entertainment. Without shared experiences and reasons for the town to have an identity we are diminished as a community. And it seems to me that the council are just fine with that. Shame on them. And shame on the stadium owners if all of their talk comes to nought but so many lies.

Aye just don't bother that it's one of the measures to assist in reducing the spread of Covid. Still so long as it ensures you can keep riding, and so what if you have been infected and then pass the virus on to some other poor sod

I’m not sure where this new signing is. Bandits must replace Garcia who isn’t gonna be here anytime soon. Rumoured signing taking an age to appear. Needs to be pretty sharpish before the season peters out. You can’t have your top two scoring 10 points between them. I have no idea what’s happened to Nikolaj. Looks a shadow of the rider I saw at Rye House when he first appeared in the UK. Summers ain’t much better. Doubt this’ll be the last home defeat on this showing.

I doubt if his confidence is shot. He has been desperate and dangerous for years.

Redcar used a different model it was the one favoured by Charles and Jake.

... And others

Plus, with no dispespect to him, he's a shadow of his former self, the injuries have taken their toll. IMO he needs to retire sooner rather than later, get out in one piece

Extremely well put and the first of the Objects for which BSPA is established is to "protect and represent the lawful interests of the Members" This is not me making it up but is from the Articles of Association produced when the BSPL was formed. You could say that they aren't doing a very good job but like us they have been battling with Covid keeping their own businesses going, as well as trying to run the BSPL. This may come as a bit of a surprise but I do have some sympathy for the "Top Table", because trying to plan your way out of Covid restrictions has been difficult but in my view there was no better time to shake the tree and come up with something new. Barry came up with an idea to liven up the 2020 NT competition but it was rejected as being too difficult or something like that. We have ideas on how to change the look of speedway as we are also very conscious of the criticism of the "same old same old with tractor racing" and I think with our team challenges, Best Pairs, 3TT, Handicaps etc we were doing a pretty good job. Yes we sometimes did have problems with our track but we normally filled the interludes with news, interviews or action for the kids. Nothing works 100% of the time but if you don't try, nothing will change. Martin Widman

Sorry " Ringitsneck", but history has shown that UK speedway administrators have repeatedly failed to change the sport to attract and entertain new spectators to the sport, failed to attract new investment into the sport and failed to provide a fair, transparent and democratic leadership structure. Any attempts of new ideas brought in by "others" have always been debunked. They are still marketing the same old 15 heat 4 laps a race clutch start 7 man team format for every meeting , all riders messing around endlessly before every heat. TIRED is one word that sums up the entertainment offer. They have sensibly made their group a Limited company, in anticipation of the day when they have to wind up. You would have thought that the admin. would bend over backwards to ensure as many clubs line up to tapes every season ...... but we see a steady loss of venues and the remaining "clique" of promoters just shrug their shoulders. Will the Premier League complete the 2021 season ? We started with only 6 and might only have 5. The lack of action on the top table to promote and market the sport in the UK is reprehensible. Speedway will survive IMO, but run by a disparate group of promoters who will rent a venue on an occasional basis for individual invitation meetings, with token prize money offered (just like UK grasstrack). This perhaps is not dissimilar to the ideas of the IoW promotion .... but this is where the sport is heading, and what the public will pay to watch in numbers. People want an afternoon/evening out, to be entertained, with plenty of track action, and not be be subjected to 15 drawn out heats of tyre warming , 2 minute warnings, separated every 3/4 heats by tractor racing.

Reading some old speedway stars the other day got me thinking about what I really miss most about going to meetings back in the day, and whilst there is loads of stuff I think one of the things that was wonderful for a kid was to be able to stand up against the solid safety fence and feel the speed of the riders as they came past.. except on the bends when you had to duck down at the last minute to avoid a face full of shale!

Just seen on Auty’s Instagram that’s he’s had a scan and is ok just got to miss 9 days for concussion which is good to hear edit posted this as screm above did at the same time !

Thank you

Thankyou very much.

Don’t really agree with the rising star system in general. If you’re good enough you will get a spot anyway. some of the star ratings are also questionable and the guest ruling atm for them is there to be abused. Hume and flint who Glasgow have used the last 2 meetings are head and shoulders above jack smith and of course are going to score way more than he would. We benefited the exact same way the other week using palin for lawlor.

It was blaring at the end of the back straight last night,too loud for me.

Opole 69 Wittstock 21 pathetic performance from the Germans (with the exception of Laukas Baumann 10 out of 21)

Do you spend a lot of pre match days watching track men water tracks ? Your comments suggest not! It’s a dark art and unless your involved in such activity the average fan has no comprehension on the difficulties involved in preparing a track to suit good racing, the fans and the weather.

We all know the weakness in the Berwick as it the same weakness we have had over the last two or three season. Whether it will be addressed is another matter, home defeats leads to disillusion in the fan base and then dwindling crowds. I`m sure there will be a charm offensive this week from the official site, even anyone actually reads that anymore, but another home defeat to Glasgow could be to much for some.

Live now on https://landshut.niederbayerntv.de/mediathek/video/niederbayern-tv-landshut-livestream/?fbclid=IwAR1-zv_uvx3KmDAPSDlPvfrpHrWCAcaYM644xoiraXlZdmmCP1c2HNMZ5Lw

Berwick managed 41, we’re pish

Absolutely shocking that they havn’t replaced Garcia yet

1984 to 91 and 1996.

Fair play to Redcar a far stronger team last night, beat Berwick at their own game with a high scoring reserve. Does anybody know when the new averages will kick in? Will it be 1st of July? By then you would think Leon would replace Coty in the main body and Berwick would lose any facility for him. Need to find a replacement by then if he is not coming.

Unfortunately (whether certain people believe it or not) this is a poor side. Built to a very clear budget with 1 main aim (you assume) of winning the home matches. You wonder how long the crowd will hold out watching the ineptness of that 4 for much longer. I do wonder if changes may be looked at shortly. NBJ, Summers and Gappmaier could have no real complaints imo if they got the boot.

Firstly, I sent my best wishes to Josh Auty, and hope any injury sustained isn't major.. Racing got better as the night went on... track prep in hot hot weather must be difficult, well done to the lions track staff... Scorpions did themselfs proud tonight, not many teams will get 40+ at the lions den oh, the chippy was quality too

Know how you feel, I’d do Wimbledon, Hackney, Canterbury, Rye House in the same week, all long gone

Speedway - Plans, cunning or otherwise? Baldrick a True Genius compared to ...but ........

Yep, totally agree.

You don't have to be located at the stadium to do telephone sales... there's these wonderful new things I've seen called mobile phones... they don't have a wire attached to them or anything! I'm gonna get myself one

After over a year of preparation during enforced lockdowns , and all the positive messages in the speedway press stating everyone was ready to go for 2021 in May, sadly for the fans this has been proven once again to be just propaganda . Birmingham couldn’t have opened in a more disastrous fashion, failing to have a rideable track prepared for their opening meeting, failing to complete a fixture in front of a reduced capacity sell out crowd. Poole beset by problems with their landlords, “discovered “ their grandstand was being used as a covid 19 test site! and their car park was being used to run a profitable business. Wolves seem to have just got their calculators out yesterday and discovered that they are either paying their riders too much or not charging enough for admission into what must be a very small stadium. All the BS about stadium capacity , ( and we still aren’t told what the stadium max capacities are) and surprise surprise one by one tracks are now finding their sums just don’t add up. Where was all the planning that they made when deciding to re open? All the talk of being prepared to reopen and raring to go...... sadly preparation and planning has been shown to be inadequate. Should restrictions not be lifted on 21 June the entire season will likely be suspended. Even if they are lifted - withe the current product being offered I can see a few clubs still struggling to complete 2021.

Yes this is correct.... we wanted to introduce to the 2020 NT 2 new innovative rules. 1. The team manager of each side could choose two heats in which to select 1 rider from the oposing team to put on 15m in two heats which may not include heats 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 13, 14 and 15 and it cannot include a previous heat selected for 15m handicap. The away team manager would chose the first heat, home TM 2nd, away 3rd and home 4th heats. A brilliant yet simple rule to inject more action to the racing and a rule which is already used (tapes rules) so confirmed as OK for safety and every UK track. This for sure will feature in our meetings this year should we find ourselves in a position to actually race. 2. When 6 points behind the team manager can choose gate positions. Again a simple rule that could have a great affect on the match. Note - during the AGM it was AGREED to introduce both these rules by the NL only for it to then be stopped at a later date saying no clear rule could be written. !!!!!! Or was it a fear that this was the NL once again leading the way forward However, even with these great enhancements to the show, along with all the other ideas we will implement, I also refer to Poland. They use the same thing (all be it with different rider positions) but 4 bikes, 4 laps, 15 heats. The greatest part of going to speedway in Poland is 100% the atmosphere - the crowds 100% back their team, chanting, applaudings, scalves, massively sponsored, rider interaction with fans and what does this all equate to....... a show, theatre, drama....... all what is missing in British Speedway save for the play offs. Perhaps controversially, the Polish squad system works well in my view too, forcing rider to ride to the best of their ability or be dropped as opposed to virtually guaranteed a team spot regardless of performance due to lack of riders. I am not saying our riders do not really put their best efforts in, they do, but there is not consequences for behaviour, or poor performance. Finally another huge difference is ethos.... In poland is club, club, club - one for all and all for one... yet in UK is about the rider who rides for a club... If a team makes a change (which none take lightly and for Martin and I we would do anything to avoid it because of the fan / rider relationship) the club get totally hammered online and the rider complete sympathy - but I can assure you there have been occassion when riders behaviour would disgust you all but to protect the club and to a degree the rider it is hushed up and the club in general takes the negative PR on the chin. Then sponsorship... in Poland it the club and brand where most sponsorship is directed where as UK its, in general, rider related. Even when clubs get sponsors, riders do their very best to get in there with them which in turn reduces the club sponsorship money available. As a club that relies heavily on our brand and sponsorship this is something that really hurts us both in the bank account and credibilty when it goes pearshaped. We did introduce something else at that AGM too, we asked to have a promoters end of season dinner (yes that is right little old IOW) to celebrate all the great in speedway much like the WSRA dinners. Of course it was immediately shot down until we offered to organise it, Mark Lemon seconded it.... then the BSPL agreed to stage and organise the dinner and it was a HUGE success. Anyways... Now I am off to study Mr. Godfrey's statement in the speedway star and I am sure we will be responding with some clarity #truths As I always write support your club they need you. These are troubled times and stay positive / constructive and we will all come through this. Stay safe and all the best,