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That would be good . We could use him at Sheffield as a replacement rs for josh Bates lol

Eric Boocock mentions in his excellent book "Booey, Around In Circles" that he once saw a lady fan climb the ladder to the refs box at Halifax to protest his exclusion. He later found out - it was his own mum (!) ....

Was the best meeting I've seen at Foxhall for some time with two teams prepared to race and the track having more than one line. Congrats to all at Ipswich Witches. For the Crump moaners on here, he was injured, tried to ride once and was clearly not fit and he hasn't ridden since. Therefore a guest is perfectly legitimate and a team will always choose someone in form.

But then you'd have to endure them in audio form from Michael Max!

Eric Boocock could fit the bill for someone who retired too early ? Further to Falcace's point, you could argue no one who walks away fit and healthy from Speedway has retired too soon.

Tricky one...it's not a sport anyone should dabble in. If anyone's having doubts, then they are safer out. Penhall is the obvious name. But the older I get, the more I see how he got his timing spot on. He was never going to top winning the title at Wembley and defending it in his home city. He got out healthy, wealthy and with a rare career opportunity in front of him. Anyone with half a brain would have done the same in his boots. Ron Preston was a quality performer and seemingly had a fair few years left at world level. But I understand he had good reasons too. Lewis Bridger, I think everyone can agree, could and should have done much more if he hadn't kept retiring! Also, not the same level, but Jamie Luckhurst was a quality rider at NL level when getting out quite young.

Meeting sold out now

Absolutely. Come on young Archie!

Why bother having a National League team when you replace the main team's number 7 with a guest, when there's 2 riders in the NL team of a similar standard? Thought the point of having an NL team was to develop riders for the main team?

Probably the same interpretation that saw Berwick replace Coty Garcia with Kasper Anderson, only for him to be replaced by Coty Garcia so Berwick were able to get R/R last week. Now back in comes Anderson to replace Garcia.

Probably reduced to 3 months covering Nov to Feb

I heard it is 12 teams for the play offs , therefore we should just do away with the normal league season and move straight to the play offs.

Good to see the threat of a ban has been lifted, Nicki is in the line up tonight in Poland

I said a long time on here,”best to go and just enjoy the racing” it can’t be compared to football or other team sports. The rules, way it’s run ….etc. Good to see a few ex Comets doing well. Rules……..agh!

One of the better meetings I've seen at Foxhall for a few years,,, first full max from an ipswich rider in top league for a while,,, awesome from Cook,,, and Starke is a proper racer trying his heart out. Masters was a decent guest. Kurtz, Bewley and the Worralls all had their good races, and Brennan was impressive for an RS rider.

75-15?

Correct

55-35 is respectable enough.

Another good effort tonight hope Leon and Kasper are okay after their falls.Well done Edinburgh hopefully we can get a home win tomorrow night.

Putting a tac sub in against Cook. Smh. Might get sacked

Good call Ron Preston. Saw quite a bit of him at Eastbourne during his last year riding in the UK and he was a particular master around the first two bends.

No doubt still beat Simon 'one track' Lambert in heat 1 though.

It never rains but it pours will we ever get a full team of 7 .

Reading some posts elsewhere you'd think it's gonna be 75-15 for every match for the rest of the season

Good luck Archie

I can see the similarities but I don’t think those who run the sport are as bright as those who ran the sport in the 70s, 80s and 90s, so consequently the ideas for change are not properly thought out and how many 5 year plans have we had that only last 1 year. (Rising Star Plan being the latest) The rule bending unfortunately still applies ( but it does appear not quite as regular) but the saying, the answer depends on whose asking seems to still apply. I did smile when I read Jitendra Duffil’s rant the other week, I can still remember the fall out following the Redcar v Glasgow fixture a few years ago, a little bit of selective memory there. This sport’s history is littered with young promoters who arrive on the scene promising to do change everything and do things properly and leave a few years later disillusioned having done nothing but make things worse. Covid hasn’t helped but the collective desire for a better run sport just doesn’t seem to exist. Although the SCB and Under 21 development is now starting to show some progress.

Still absolutely spot on choices though Steve, albeit different eras. Always a puzzle to me why Knutson went while at the top of game, while still a relatively young man. Maybe Norbold can throw some light on this? Bjorn was I think, only a few months younger than Ivan Mauger and I feel he could well have snatched a couple more world championships from either Mauger, Olsen, Michanek, or the Pole that cheated , before age started to catch up and retirement loomed.

Exactly and it also applies if the SEC champion also qualifies by finishing in the top 3 in the challenge.

Oh dear... hearing on the grape vine a small change for the Diamonds at No 7... I wont say rumour because that stupid Mackem Ringitsneck gets his knickers in a twist... however JPB not very well so looks like he will be replaced by Archie Freeman... Be a tough one for young Archie and definitely a "Baptism of Fire" but good luck and stay safe... Regards THJ

Think Allitt needs to take most of the flak for the starting 7.

Betts, Ashby, Wilson ,and both the Boocock brothers all underachieved on the world scene but we all know just how good they all were.The era then was so strong and to travel abroad on foreign soil was not an easy task then either to see all them ride as geniune number 1 riders was a real privilege.

Tomorrow at Leicester Danny King replaces Adam Ellis who is on international duty

The classic 1953 children’s film, Skid Kids, is being shown on Talking Pictures this Saturday at 10:05 BST. It features some excellent shots of cycle speedway, and provides a great example of life in post-war London!

Well I enjoyed that last night, I know for one night only Sam Masters was a witch but he was a decent guest. With no camera's Jake was a lot better and a faultless Cook gave the fans something to cheer. Well done Belle vue for keeping it close. Also Jordan Stewart was spannering for Sam so was nice to catch up with him. Next meeting should be back to pre covid rules so to mask or not is a personal choice and you should all be able to reclaim your seats.

Nicki posted yesterday that he got a call from his lawyer to say the ban was lifted and he had a few tears on his eyes

I don't have an Iron in this fire but to be scrupulously fair Crump was at Glasgow last Friday night and would have ridden for Plymouth but for the usual Glasgow summer weather.

I nearly mentioned the maximum in Mike Keen's Testimonial. I remember Mike Keen going onto the second bend with a hosepipe and watering the track in the midst of a rain storm!

Dag was brilliant. So classy. He was virtually unbeatable in the wet. I always felt that if he'd rode in 1977 and reached the rain-soaked World Final he would have won it.

Spot on... The 19 people who run the sport in the UK obviously 100% know that the way they run it won't ever get any cut through with a wider sporting audience, nor get any mainstream coverage, nor bring in any large companies to sponsor it with big money, however.. They seem more than happy with what they deliver, so what we have now is simply what we will always get... The downside to it is the obvious one of over time, you will inevitably lose more fans than you attract, but the upside is that 'ringers' getting brought it will, in the vast majority of meetings, keep the score close, and the racing very watchable... A perfect storm for me personally, as I can watch UK Speedway on Eurosport "just for the racing" not caring who wins, and just "enjoy it", and with the money I save by not regularly attending, get to go over to Poland to watch "Real Team Speedway" several times a year, as well as attending a fair few FIM events... (Hopefully a soon to return scenario, with a Wroclaw play off and possibly a final on the agenda)... A 'win/win' for me in modern parlance I believe.....

I'm a fan of Nicki too, have been ever since he ran an Interspan training school at Newport which my lad attended. World Champion at the time he was out in the pouring rain all day and nothing was too much trouble for him, he was working on kids bikes, pushing them to get them started and explaining everything to them with a smile. Very different to a couple of the riders generally perceived to be 'nice' who did the minimum to collect the money. One of the nicest guys you could ever meet with no hint of the aggression he can show on track, to be fair there are many times you wouldn't want to be an on track opponent but off track a great bloke. As for arguing with the ref, they should get a bonus not a fine. Same with punch ups between riders which will always get spectators through the gate for future meetings. As far as I'm concerned the riders should be allowed to get on with it but any non rider or rider not in that meeting hitting a rider should be banned from the pits for life.

I recall a spectator being tragically killed at an F1 race, I believe in the early 2000's, when following a pile-up an errant wheel went through a gap in the armco barrier into a spectator area. It was such a multi-million to one occurance: imagine on a speedway track part of a bike going through the one gap in each and every every speedway fence, the small 2" - 3" gap where the tapes pass through to the outer starting gate post. That is the equivelant of what happened....

And i remember one rider known for his visits would stand there waving his arms asking how the refs kids were, it used to be part of the show. But with sgp things have become too serious

If I was in the North East I would but I can't get owt like that in Maryport unfortunately... I begrudge paying my TV liecence over there because I can only get BBC Scotland on the telly... and I don't have an internet connection either so am stuffed really... Just seen the above post from Marshall7 and I like Micheal Max great guy very knowledgeable and done a great job at Worky when he was there... So updates will be ok and to be honest I think it might be a bit one-sided to be fair... and I don't want to see grown men cry when the Diamonds win... Bazzinger... Regards THU

Genuine question, do you ever stop running the club down

Honestly Score... 59 - 31 just saved from the 60 point mark by and astute tactical substitution by the Diamonds 76th team manager Steve Pate... Should be a formality for the Tigers but if it ends up squally on a damp track with grip on the bends and slick up the straights; a south easterly breeze and the temperature doesn't get over 15 degrees (so a hot summers day for Glasgow) and a referee who had his leg over in the afternoon and the Tigers team all have a touch of "Delhi Belly" off the curry the night before well maybe; just maybe 48 - 42 and the Diamonds sneak a point... Oh dear then a woke up; the day dream was over and had to get back to work... never mind... as long as its entertaining and everyone enjoys it and of course no one gets hurt... and the beer is cold of course which goes without saying really... enjoy... I will follow proceedings on the updates... Regards THJ

Dag Lovaas was only 25 during his final British season (1976), having reached the world final in 1974 and won the league with a 10pt+ average in 1973 riding for Reading. He also averaged over 10 for Hackney (74) and Oxford (75). I believe his retirement was complete and he did not ride domestically after leaving British speedway.

Big fan myself but understand not everyone's cup of tea. Still banging in really good scores in Poland and was a pleasure to watch for Eastbourne. Plenty of other hard riders out there (Lindgren springs to mind) but think it's amplified by Nicki's character. If you hear him interviewed and talk to many riders in his peer group he's actually a really decent bloke, just a tough little so and so on the track. As was said on a previous post, if we had a few more Nickis in speedway then it would certainly increase crowd numbers, love him or hate him, he's box office.

excluded 3 times and 3 times he shouldnt have been excluded, the ref had it in for nicki that night,

Get Garry May as Team Manager, he woud soon sort them out!!

On the other hand....This is what Bartosh Zmarzlik, double world speedway champion wrote today on his social media site. Tears, joy, happiness - this is how I felt when I entered the finish line in Toruń, in the final round of the Grand Prix in 2019 It was then, for the first time, that I won the title of the Individual World Champion Now, for the auction for Nina, I am presenting something extremely important to me, which I dreamed about since I was a child and which I was striving for step by step - it is a gold medal for winning the world championship I decided to pass the medal on the auction to help Nina, who is at the start of her life and also has her dreams. Let us help her (on https://www.siepomaga.pl/en/nina) so that she has a chance to fulfill them