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Blimey..I’ve been watching speedway since the 70’s and I’d say GP speedway is currently better than any speedway I’ve seen, and Zmarzlik is just the most amazing talent with the most incredible balance and style.

Due to the new (confusing) GP point system introduced by the FIM , it seems that the heat races are not contested with the same intensity by the riders anymore, knowing that the points they score in the heats do not count for real in the world championship. A rider can affort to drop five or six points in the heat races, which will still be enough to make the top eight. Poinst scored to not count in teh end, so why shoud a riders take any risks in a heat race. That lack of desperation to go for every single point was quite obvious last night. The important races are only the two semis and the final. The heats have become rather dull now. Also, the gap in points with the new scorign system has become huge already. And with only the top six (instead of eight) qualifying for next year, there will soon be a lot of riders below the top ten riding the SGPs without much motivation.

Give them the right track conditions and these Speedway gladiators always give an amazing performance.

Still not a lover of this points system .for me it devalues the heats

Excellent meeting all round. How many people are aware of the absolute nightmare they had getting riders there? On Wednesday, Wightlinks new and largest ferry Victoria was put out of action due to a mishap. Almost every rider booking had to be changed, some being switched to Lymington Right up to about 4pm, there were still problems. Fortunately, everyone made it in time. Even on the last ferry back, we were all sat round chatting. Barry? Going around everyone thanking us for coming etc. 28 races on just over 3hrs, including a track repair hold up and 3 x ambulance visits Something for everyone. A complete contrast to your 'normal BSPL' meeting of 15 Hts...... now go home. KIds were involved from start to finish. Barry even apologised that due to holdups, he couldnt hold the kids running race. They are working their socks off to produce something you dont normally see. Breaking the 'established mold'. They are succeeding and Im sure the BSPL are watching everything very closely. Long may it continue.

Great to watch and could truly become one of THE all time greats. Only concern for that is his riding style... Very often he seems less than a split second from disaster and finds gaps that others don't see (because he makes them up)... If he 'calmed down' he may stay much longer at the top, however, maybe conversely, his edge would be gone too, which could prevent him from dominating the sport for the next fair few years like he clearly could. .. Fantastic entertainment when he is on track, long may he keep showing it...

You could be expecing a wean for all we care.

Firstly wish Jye and Dany speedy recoverys,but a tremendous effort from the other 5 can't have been easy for them knowing Jye was going to hospital.All deserve a lot of credit and tried their best , special mention to Danyon who was an impressive guest and the imperious Cookie good luck to Glasgow, will never know what might have been.

I was told that when they checked his DNA it came back as the same as that of Marmite. Does that help.?

Another example again when track is drier and slicker the racing is better as riders have to hunt for the grip on different lines.

They do hold all the cards but by all accounts they won't listen. It's a private old boys club who live in the past. A few select of that club hold all the power and run British Speedway as their own little fiefdom supported by their minions who aspire to be top dog themselves one day. It will never change until the BSPA or whatever it's called now is ripped out root and stem.

Woffinden certainly doesn't look the rider he was and it is hard to see him reaching those heights again but all top riders have their day. It just makes you appreciate just how good the likes of Crump were - was it ten successive seasons in the top 3 of the world standings including three world titles for Crump?

We've been twitching half the season!

Much more difficult than you are making out I'd imagine. I think he knew he had to make a good one against those three riders and his relative inexperience showed, although Madsen twitching on gate one really didn't help . He will have learned massively from it I'm sure.

Tai will continue to make a very decent living at league level in Poland and Sweden for as many years as he wants and will probably be in SGP for the next few years but I don't see him being World Champ again.

Our ratio of 'false starts' and first bend incidents must be much higher than Polands where start marshals seem to weild some power (supported visually and audibly by the referee).. Riders dont fly off in all directions like they seem to do over here, with their bikes strictly aligned straight, and their front wheels practically touching the tapes (akin to cycle speedway), meaning no roll backs to help preempt the start.. And the 2 mins is sacrosanct. If you are not ready you are out.. 'Professional' is a good word to describe it..

I hope I am the not only fan who has noticed that only one promoter has had any input to this thread! I also noted that the promotion concerned left the BSPL after being treated like dirt by the powers that be in the run up to this season. Well done to Barry Bishop and the Warriors promotion for all the hard work they do to put on entertainment that speedway fans can enjoy. From all the reports I have seen the first two meetings have been a success from the point of view of entertainment value and good crowds which is very good news. All I now need them to sort out is South Western Railway and Wightlink so they run the late boat from Ryde and the late train from Portsmouth so I can enjoy the racing and get home to Wimbledon after the meeting. Sadly the local council allowed a football stadium to be built on the Speedway and Stock Car track in Plough Lane that I enjoyed both sports from August 1957 (6th October 1962 in the case of stox) until the last car meeting on 26th March 2017. After what happened at Wimbledon I know one firm I would never buy a flat or house from.

Referee had 3 decisions to make and got all 3 wrong. Woffinden one was ridiculous, dropped it miles after any contact, so much room to stay on. Madsen, there was contact but it was minimal and there was a delay till Emil realised he should drop it. The final, look at the line Janowski took, he was so tight going down the straight he was riding over gate 2! He was never going to have the correct angle to turn it in time with another rider alongside him and ploughed into Emil. Crazy decision to exclude Emil.

Three weeks ago against Edinburgh the Berwick riders were criticized both individually and collectively and rightly so, there can be no criticism tonight. To a man they gave everything and giving the circumstances they found themselves in gave a great performance even in a match they lost. All credit to Glasgow on their win and best wishes for the next stage of the KOC. And the decision to exclude Anderson rather than Wells was a complete shocker.

Well done to Danyon Hume with an excellent paid 10 tonight. Good practice for this time next week.

Fantastic ride from BZ in the final. All in all a pretty decent night. One thing though, I don't really like Leon Madsen for some reason that I can't put my finger on. Can anyone help?

I was thinking the same thing, although maybe not 25 points as that would be too much in my opinion. I'd say 20 points for winning the meeting - which couldn't be bettered but could be equalled - and then use individual points for the others.

Yeah, Woffy is finished...

I think that’s a very good point and this years first ten or twelve heats have generally been a trapping competition and then follow the leader. I can understand the organisers wanting the winner to get the most points on the night, so just the give winner 25 points and everyone one else gets what they scored in the qualifying heats and semis. I am still of the opinion that when every ride counted the qualifying heats were more hotly contested.

So Batch average manipulation finally pays off.Did he tell Sheffield I wonder. Only in Speedway. As farcical as the rising star scenario,which will be a total mess by the end of season.IMO

It’s a farce. Just set a half decent points limit and let teams build accordingly

Done via email. Dear Ms. Buchanan, I write with regards to the above application and the proposed redevelopment of Brandon Stadium, Coventry. I am not a local resident, I live in Sheffield, but I was a regular visitor to the stadium before it was closed by the owners and stripped back to the sorry state it is in now. I am a speedway supporter and have followed how the owners of the site have made repeated attempts to redevelop the site for housing and make millions of pounds in the process. This stadium was opened for speedway back in 1928 and I made my first of many visits in 1976 as an 8 year old with my parents. The stadium was one of the best speedway stadiums in the country and it was fantastic to see it packed with fans, hosting World Championship meetings, test matches and British Finals. It could be a great place to visit again and I know that speedway fans in the area and further afield would love to see the sport return. On looking at the latest application, a 3G football pitch is a poor effort at maintain the site for sporting purposes and I feel strongly that a stadium steeped in history and with the potential to be returned to its former glories should not be allowed to be demolished. I object to the proposal submitted by Brandon Estates. Please do not allow this to happen as it would be tragedy for many people who would love motorsport to return to the site.

Career Record - 2013-15 Coventry (NL), Redcar 2014, Berwick 2015 - has only ridden for three years.

Iainb....Hi my friend ...This is Johnny from Jaybea Designs here.........Just want to point out to you that the Champions merchandise we had after the 2019 win were actually on the website...They were Champions.....Jacket.....Fleece.....Polo Shirt....Hoodie...Beanie(3 sorts)....Baseball Cap(2 sorts).....Lions Champions Badge.....Cubs Champions Badge......Scarf....Key Ring...Fridge Magnet....Drinks Coaster....Pen.....Lions Programme Board.....Cubs Programme Board.....Lions Photo 6x4 to 12x8......Cubs Photo 6x4 to 12x8....Champions Calendar for 2020.....2 different mugs......They were all availble from November 2019 and through 2020.....After the Covid situation we decided to start afresh for 2021 as only 1 rider remains from that champions team......My sister Bev is at the shop tonight...If you wish to pop into to see her tonight and chat all things Track Shops she will be more than willing to maybe open your eyes on all things merchandise

Does age have to be a factor though? I think Luke is more entitled to be in the rising star category with three years of experience, than Bates or Bacon who had three times that. The scheme is a good one and is yielding results already - Brennan, Palin, Flint, the Thompsons - all making good progress. In the early 1970s they didn't really need a rising star scheme because there were more tracks and no foreign riders in the Second Division, but John Louis didn't start until he was nearly 30 and would have been entitled to be a rising star by today's standards. He went on to finish on the rostrum at the World Final.

We had pretty much that at Peterborough, my father was Start Marshal and I wore the blue overalls. We only had five in the team as 'red' acted as assistant during the race. We used to rake our gate after every race too.

My memories of Canterbury in the late 60's were a team of start line crew who used to line up behind all 4 riders, plus the start Marshal and assistant (to hand him the flags obviously) plus numerous track rakers on the bends and pit staff to push the riders out... all volunteers presumably.. I think if you had that now they would outnumber the crowd!

The only time I've ever seen a start marshall get a rider up to the tapes was at Bradford (could have been Peterborough) when the starter grabbed John Jorgensen's handlebars and physically dragged him to the tapes, he was not happy about it

The trouble with that is that the Start Marshall is provided by the home club and will probably be a member of the supporters club and be regaled from head to toe in club merchandise (if available ) under their stripey tops. They'd have to be "supplied" to each meeting in the same way that an "impartial" referee is, much like in Football with the lino's.

Seriously I think they should be an extension of the referee on the track... what they say at the start goes and if ignored they have the power to exclude, no point otherwise..

Yep...An awful night of work from the ref. I thought the Woffinden and Sayfutdinov (semi final) incidents were pretty similar....There was contact, but the rider contacted took the slight hit and had plenty of time to gather it up and race on, but they chose to just bail out well after the contact. It's hard to argue with their choice when refs side with them, but it encourages riders to do just that, and that is NOT the sport that I know and love. A bit of barging and banging side by side is what makes the sport great. If it turns into a sport of "I got touched, so I am slowly falling off long after the contact to get someone else excluded or get back into the restart" then the sport is done for. The final was a different situation, but I find it hard to see how Emil was to blame. He races a "normal" line but gets wiped out by someone using a really weird line...As a home track rider, maybe Maciej had some special knowledge of what would work and so maybe I am doing him a disservice, but as an outsider, it just seemed like he steamed into an impossible line and collected an innocent who was using a normal line. As I have said, I don't think Emil deserved the place in the final based on his semi final bail out, but I am very glad that he walked away from the crash in the final...I was worried for a while after that.

Thought Leon should have been in Heat 8 given the start he had to the meeting.

Thanks for taking the time to reply, Barry. I did hesitate before making the original posting as it seemed a bit negative but I am glad that you feel you are getting good crowds and long may you continue to do so.

I really don’t know why people continually bang on about one big league because it isn’t going to happen, primarily because of a lack of available riders and two the fact that quite a few clubs cannot or won’t put a competitive championship side together. Their is still a difference between the leagues but it’s definitely getting closer.

I remember Peter Collins winning a race at Hyde Road after his handlebars snapped, he won holding the forks with his left hand

Free parking,still the same.

Will happiness be 52-38 ? . Well in the words of Eminem Will the real Jye Etheridge please stand up. We all know he is capable of scoring big points hopefully tonight is the night. We also need Kyle to reproduce his performance for the Bullets last week as whereas Monarchs reserves scored paid 17pts i don't thing Tigers reserves will get anything like that so reserve points could swing the meeting. Track needs to be prepared to benefit the home team, not to help boost the away riders pay cheques so get some shale/dirt/material whatever it is called on it Playoffs look out of our reach so a nice cup run would please us fans, as 1989 when we beat Poole seems a long time ago . And as usual wishing all 14 riders a safe meeting.

You’re daft you like, you’re defending a 34 year old 4 pointer to the hills, I don’t care about him pal, just laughing at you, Edinburgh got a good team and would be a real title contender if they had a hungrier rider, hungrier for points mind you, no pies

Effortless maximum for the bullets in his 1st proper meeting back in 5 years! Okay there is a jump in leagues but I’d think he’ll get you some points every meeting.

Would help keep a Mexican Wave going though....

Too many points thrown away last night which could come back to bite us. Seems to be a recurring theme from us.

If we get the improvement at Brough that we’ve seen from him at other tracks this season then I will be happy… There are a few ifs in this meeting… IF spud and NBJ can perform With the same fight and gusto shown last night at Glasgow… if Jye can score as he ain’t that great at Brough… if RR will benefit us, particularly now we will have Kasper dropping down to reserve from Sunday.. could go either way!

Fantastic final. Lets hope they prepare the track a little different for tomorrow because in the main tonight for a bore fest!

I’ve never printed tickets out? You just show the QR code

I've just been reading Birmingham's statement from this morning. I really feel for the Brummies owners and hope things turn around but their statement has three points which I think relate to what's going wrong. Firstly - Kent are visiting with the legendary Scott Nicholls. Is that meant as I've got to go next next week because I get to see Scotty Nicholls ride? No disrespect to Scott but I saw him ride 20 years ago when he was at his prime. If it was Tai Woffinden or Bartosz Smarzlik in town then maybe yeah - I'd go. Secondly - Fan can now pay on the gate so there's no excuses from here not to come - Goes back to my point of you can't just open the gate anymore and take your customers for granted. Thirdly - One last chance for the people of Birmingham to show us they want speedway - I want to have a pub in my village but if they served flat beer and crap food I wouldn't bother going.