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I actually agree with the professional, serious sport bit. But what that says is sticking to the same old methods and formats - that, frankly, are clearly not working. As examples, Newcastle and Birmingham have been to the brink of closure this year. I am reliably informed that Eastbourne are in serious financial trouble. In sharp contrast, a friend of mine who has watched speedway on the Island since it opened in the 1990's told me that the last two attendances at Smallbrook are amongst the biggest he has ever seen there. The Warriors are definitely doing something right and if that is what it takes to get people in, lets do it. One final thing. Speedway is a serious, professional sport but it most certainly has not been run like one for years, and that is one major reason why it is on its knees. Seeing is believing, Steve. I have been banging the drum for the Isle of Wight promotion since a cold April night in 2016 when I went to the second meeting after they re-opened and was hugely impressed with the enthusiasm, professionalism and hard work put in by the promotion to ensure that I, as a paying customer, had a good time. In all the meetings I have been to since - and that's a large number considering it is nigh on 250 miles from my home - they have never wavered. One rather obvious point : Barry Bishop is on here, engaging with paying customers, giving his viewpoints and hearing ours. How many others do that ? First of all, I'd remind you that Barry Bishop promoted Isle of Wight for 4 full NL seasons from 2016-19 and this is first time he has run a truncated programme. In doing so, he clearly took account of Covid restrictions - something the BSPL and the rest of the clubs effectively ignored and which has cost them very dearly indeed. I am sure Barry would do very well as a Premiership or Championship promoter but as part of his philosophy - unlike certain Championship promoters - is that income must cover expenses (or, at worst, that losses must be sustainable) he's never going to do that on the Island. The very fact that he has that philosophy marks him out. My understanding is that Isle of Wight's last two meetings finished at 9pm. What you want is one thing - and I am sure that there will be many who agree - but what is best for the sport could be something very different. What seems to me to be certain is that you want to carry on exactly as before regardless of the fact that we know that simply isn't working. In terms of attendances, Isle of Wight have been hugely successful this season (my friend told me that the food outlets ran out on Thursday). Not to give consideration to their style of format would surely be foolish to the point of madness.

I don't if you deprive the paying public eventually there'll be no paying public Any arguments the Eagles have are behind closed doors with their owners not the Leicester public

Perhaps they used a drill bit instead of a needle for his Covid jab

the points system is so flawed losing interest in the gp with this scoring system

Well done to Newcastle, they fought hard in every race, shame that there wasn't more home support to enjoy the win, there was plenty Glasgow support . That is the best that I have seen Adam Roynon race, which is good to see considering how many awful injuries he has had. For my team, it was frustrating to see them so twitchy at the starts,the ref was holding the tapes for ages, again well done to the diamonds, hope you can consolidate and build some more support, would hate to lose another team

The club have to shoulder some of the blame for that, I'm afraid... We've had two meetings start late because the tapes failed, "15 minute" intervals that have stretched to 40, incessant bouts of tractor racing (and a tractor demolition derby), a reserve who'd rather sit in Poland not racing than turn out for Eastbourne, a "full MSDL second half" with no opposition that consisted of Abilitt racing a couple of junior riders who couldn't broadside and lapped slower than I could run it, an NDL fixture with half a team, a double header that wasn't far off running into the following day...etc, etc...is it any wonder that only the die-hards come back week after week? My sister has two small boys who love motorsports, and who I'm sure would love speedway too, but it's becoming increasingly difficult to recommend it to her when I can't tell her what they'll be seeing, or reassure her that she'll be able to put the kids to bed at a reasonable time. For my part, myself and my wife carried our 2020 season tickets over to this year in good faith, rather than go for a refund. Lord knows we could have used the money at various points over the last 18 months but we wanted to help the club, particularly considering how well run things were (on the whole) during 2019. We bought our 90th anniversary tickets the day they went on sale, plus the extra merchandise that they were flogging. Sadly at this point in time it's increasingly seeming like a poor decision and, even if the remaining Championship fixtures are fulfilled, we'll be significantly out of pocket compared to paying for meetings on a week by week basis. If the rumours regarding the financial situation are true I dread to think what's happened to the money from the air fence fund...and with no air fence there's no Eastbourne next season regardless of the outcome this year

Add to that some very ordinary racing and the same bloke winning every year and its not gripping viewing for me unfortunately.

It might work at a seasonal holiday venue, but it could never replace regular mainstream speedway.

You want to know my question? Why does every individual meeting these days need a final (and often semi-finals)? Why can't we just use race points from 20 heats?

If that figure is true, how on earth has it been allowed to get to that. Seems crazy to me from both sides.

First went to Arlington at the start of the "modern era" when Dave Lanning relaunched the Eagles into the then "2nd Division" (late 1960's ?) Occasional trips then as we were West Ham Supporters. Certainly never been a regular Eastbourne visitor - seen some good meetings there in the past with the likes of Jessup G Kennett M Dugard and the effervescent Dave Lanning running the show. Memories. You only have to look at the fixture lists nowadays for speedway and wonder how anyone can make a succesful business out of an outdoor summer sport that has such a disjointed fixture list with hardly any meetings in the kids school holiday period (and peak tourist season on the south coast ) With both Saturday and Sunday options and 2 teams operating for EB , just dont see why there isn't a meeting every weekend at EB during the peak summer months. Just 2 scheduled home fixtures in August, and one of this was rained off (called of 4 days early !) The alarm bells rang for me when I heard that to be honest. Hope they can sort something out, and make their landmark 90th year in speedway.

It's not so much the fact that Ed Kennett wasn't there for me, the bigger issue is that this news was hushed up until 18:55 and at that moment the whole match became a non-event. They basically mugged off everybody in the stadium... I'm lucky I only travelled 3 miles and not the 380 miles a lot of Eagles fans did. I'm sorry to say this but the sport doesn't need promotions like this... but of course, some will say, we need to be grateful to these people.

Tom Brennan is a talented rider, you have to remember he had a bad break to his leg missing a season and then he had the Covid season so almost had 2 really important years lost of his development. so going off the back of virtually 2 years out he’s an outstanding talent, head and shoulders above his age group

The middle tier of British speedway seems too strong to me, especially with the likes of Andersen, Crump and Pedersen riding in it.

Quite a few tracks seemed to able to run comfortably in the old NDL...

Preferred the days of NDL when run by Connor Dugard. Good fun, loads of youngsters and low running costs.

For me, injury replacement only as unfair on riders who helped get the teams into play offs. And like for like only.

Ignore him with a bit of luck he might go away

And it’s been caused by the new points scoring system. If every race counted it might improve things.

I don't have Bt sport anymore, and can't say I've missed the gps, was getting boring and predictable, and reading comments from this year's series sounds like it ain't getting better, time for a revamp.

Correct. Two seperate companies.

The last half the meeting was good racing, but half a meeting wasted waiting for the track to come to the riders. This is the world championship, the pinnacle. The riders deserve something better, the fans who have paid good money to be there deserve something better, the tv viewers having paid good money to view deserve better, and so do the sponsors of the event and riders alike. Malilla is a better race track then we got last night. I know track staff will have worked very hard to get any racing on, and I appreciate that, but it would take not a lot of effort from a load of juniors doing different racing lines for 10 or more laps just to help the track along.

I thought he opposite actually. I thought the way Zmarzlik turned it all round was great and I saw that as a positive. I think I prefer the old scoring system, but I did like the turnaround in tonight's meeting.

I think tonight has highlighted the fault in the scoring system like it’s not been highlighted before.

I think it’s worst telling a non fan someone scores 8 in the meeting then gets 20 for winning one race .the gp in my opinion as gone downhill

I agree . I am losing a bit of interest it was for better when all the points in every race mattered.it makes the races 1/20 less important not as exciting . It was nt broken before so why try to fix.

New points scoring is pathetic, 8 points into 20 with 2 extra rides! And people ask why others aren't interested in the sport

The new points system is not doing it for me. Zmarzlik, 8 points before the semis, Laguta 14. After the final, Zmarzlik 20, Laguta 18. In two heats Zmarzlik gets 12 points, Laguta 4.

You mean there isn't a 5 year plan? Whilst ive hated the drop in averages and especially how it was managed/imposed it would be worse if it was a 1 season wonder. Everyone who has championed it needs to reap what has been sown. Riders will be jettisoned, new blood (ready or not) will be brought in and the reduction continues. Might not be a pretty product but its what everybody wanted right?

Your team manager isn’t blessed with the best tactical brain it would appear.

Worrall looks to have saved you from a hammering no? I think you need to be looking to your no.1 - he shouldn’t be losing a heat in that company.

Couldnt have put it better myself... barely any fans there again... but a cracking meeting, one of the best for years at brough imo... Connor beating Steve so comfortably for the second week in a row and Adam's outside pass down the home straight were the highlights for me

Great result for the wee team from Newcastle against the multi millionaires of Glasgow.

How is it fair one can score 14 points over 7 races and end up with 20?. I also do not like this system.

I go to away meetings and possibly over think my journey and I get to near the location of the track at least 90 mins before the first race and then get a snack or coffee etc , I’ve traveled up and down the country with work and for example it states 3 hrs to destination doesn’t mean it will be 3 hrs give yourself time and add more time onto your journey it’s better to be in the stadium early rather than miss some races . Don’t blame Scunthorpe speedway for you not been at your destination on time

I know we all have our own preferences, but I am amazed at how people ignore the flaws in there own preferred World Championship system. Yes, EVERY system has bad flaws, but it just depends where we choose to look. The old World Final system was the most flawed of all, and most of the time, was NEVER designed to qualify the 16 best riders in the world. That - obviously - is the biggest flaw of all. Different riders competed in very different numbers of meetings and rides to reach the World Final, based on their nationality. The title could be lost because of ONE poor race, and engine failure, or a fall. It was possible to win the World Championship without ever winning a race. The GP system is fairer for everyone (everybody has the same number of meetings, and rides against the same opponents), and my personal favourite was the points system used before the current one. However, that was badly flawed too, the biggest of which was the fact that the winner of an individual GP was not usually the highest scorer on the night! As has been said, how can the winner of a GP lose ground on those who finished behind him? It was also possible (and please don't argue this, as I have repeatedly proven this) for a rider to win every GP, yet not finish in the Top 8 at the end of the year! This is largely because of my first point. While the current system seems to be pissing off everybody, let's look at it like this. The winner of the GP gets the most points. The second place man receives the second highest points, and so on. The problem is that people are looking at things the wrong way... With the old World Final system, the sole idea was to qualify from one round to the next, and it was quite possible for riders to scrape through, and then put on a good display next round. That is EXACTLY what the current system is like. The difference is that each GP basically comprises two rounds; a qualifying round, and a finals. The opening 20 heats is nothing more than a qualifying round for the finals (semi-finals and final). It doesn't matter whether you get a 15 point max, or scrape through as the lowest qualifier, the main thing is that you qualified for the next round. This is just the same as qualifying from the British Final to the British-Nordic Final, or the Commonwealth Final to the Inter-Continental Final. You qualify, and then you all start the next round from scratch; what you did the previous round matters not. So, why was that okay then, but not now?

And yet for some reason that was deemed a negative thing by the powers that be (or an alternative viable product to the higher leagues) and therefore dismantled.

Probably the most enjoyable meeting so far this year. Only on three occasions there wasn’t a “from the gate” comment on the updates.

Not for me.

Pleased to see BT sports did a bit on him before gp last night. Lovely words from Scott.

Great reply from Jason when asked if he was having fun at 46:. "What's more fun than winning Heat 15 at Berwick on a Saturday night?" A class act.

The club and the stadium are separate entities now, Eastbourne pay (Eric Dugard, I think) to hire Arlington for meetings.

When a track closes down most of the tracks regulars stop going to speedway completely, a fair few may take in the odd meeting elsewhere and only a small percentage become regulars elsewhere! - I saw this in the 60's when my first track Norwich closed. - Many went to King's Lynn initially until slowly drifting away while Lynn eventually built up a large following of locals from their area rather than the Norwich area. Its looking a more than reasonable chance that speedway could return to Oxford in the near future years but I just hope that Oxford speedway reopening is not just a substitute for Swindons non return?

I don't get it with Drew Kemp, he's very highly thought of but I've never seen him have a good meeting

Zmarzlik inner belief just amazing, the moves he can make astonishing

I'm glad Scott Nichols explained for viewers, "who are not too sure", that the tapes are computer generated and not operated by the referee, as I don't think Nigel Pearson has ever mentioned it.

One of the biggest myths in speedway that fans of closed clubs they go to watch or support other teams ... hardly anyone from Reading ,Oxford ,Newport or Cov have ever gone to Swindon each week Sadly when Your club Closes down and that might happen at Swindon you give up and you don't go again

Congratulations you must be the first person to manage to use the words Swindon, Posher and Middleclass in the same sentence

I agree, every race and point counting was much better and easier to understand. Also heats 1-20 were more keenly contested, riders now seem happy to accept 2nd and 3rd places after missing the gate. The meeting doesn’t really come to life until heat 17.

Some really excellent work going on at the stadium, which I’ve been proud to be apart of. For those not following the progress on Facebook, here is a recent image of the current status of the track