Leaderboard

Drove to Glasgow on Friday for a meeting. Drove back Saturday (8hrs+) to Leicester. Didnt see a meeting. And both rain offs were the right decision at the time they were made. The forecast was bloody awful (weather warnings on all weather apps for LE4 on Satrurday) when the decision was made and I would rather have the opportunity to make other plans rather than stand in the drizzle, watch second rate racing (due to track conditions) and possibly see a rider pick up an unnessary injury. But the one that I really hate, is the scrape to Heat Ten and get a result declaired on a track that should never be raced on. Remember you go to a meeting for a nights entertainment.

The NL was (in my opinion) deliberately dismantled by 2 individuals who had their own agenda. It was the ONLY league which was 80% solvent...Len Silver warned his fellow promoters about this..backed up by Barry/Martyn and myself..Now look where we are There are many many riders out there who can "put on a show"..they have been discarded..and in my personal opinion time will show how much damage to the sport in this country has been caused by these misguided actions. It is not too late to totally refigure the League structures..almost too late ,,but it needs a brave far seeing group to seriously re-structure the leagues. fans are not interested in speeds..how much is spent on engines,clutches,tyres to make the sport quicker..and more expensive and subsequently less entertaining..Equally they don't want a sport of "wobblers"..There is a medium....All riders should be contracted through the holding company...teams constructed like Denmark of graded riders.racing against riders of equal grading from stars/medium/juniors...and 3 races at the end of a meeting on a similar basis We have to start somewhere...sooner rather than later

Whilst this doesn't come as a surprise, it would be nice if Eastbourne actually communicated this rather than just surreptitiously removing the fixtures from the fixture list. Ian Jordan likes to go on about openness and transparency but there hasn't been much of either in the last couple of weeks.

hope Fabulaz comes on the thread tonight

Must be so frustrating for the riders to have what they do so well, so undermined by the infrastructure that exists... Unless of course they are happy to ride as much as possible for all and sundry and earn the money it brings? As for sponsorship? When I stated watching football my local team was owned by a scrap metal merchant and a car salesman.. The team I follow, (even then regarded as the biggest in the world) was owned by a butcher who had several shops in the Manchester area.. Advertising hoardings around the pitches were of local businesses with a few national ones thrown in.. Then clubs started to bring in CEO's, and Marketing people, and the top league broke away with its own CEO who wasn't affiliated to any team, but whose sole role was to bring revenue into the game by negotiating TV contracts and to bring in huge blue chip companies as sponsors... In short, Football brought in independent "white collar" experts in sports administration and marketing, who got paid by the success they brought in, which was measured in £'s... With many other sports doing exactly the same and moving forward hugely as a result... Speedway still uses well meaning "blue collar" owners to try and attract and negotiate with potential sponsors... However, to be fair, selling the sport with its current operating model, and ageing demographic of what is a very small fanbase, would be a huge challenge for even the best of marketeers.. I think there is a clear reason why Poland would never dream of running the sport like their UK counterparts do and that is simply if they did, the TV coverage would diminish, the major company sponsors would disappear and the fans, brought up on following a "proper team sport" and the tribalism that comes with it, would disappear too... A shame that what can be a tremendously entertaining spectacle is allowed to be undermined by its very own operating model....

Agreed speedway clubs do need every paying customer they get. What happened at Kings Lynn Thursday hasn’t done speedway in general any favours what so ever.

Given the fickleness of speedway fans these days the promoters have to call off meetings if the forecasts are poor! They need every paying fan they can get through the turnstiles .....

Personally, I would always prefer an early call off so that I do not start my journey. These days, my guess is that promoters cannot afford to chance it and maybe run in front of a low crowd and I'm sure that this is a major reason for early call offs.

Wow... You really think you are something special, and think that your opinion is remotely important - including your view of me and my life. That is not on - seriously. You reckon I'm not worth talking to? Look in the mirror... I am not the tw*t that you clearly think I am. My wife is seriously ill (I've almost lost her a couple of times), and hasn't worked in over two years. She has NO income. I work two jobs, and both have been greatly impacted by covid. The one good thing is that I have been able to spend more time with my wife. And you reckon I should put in a year back in Britain? I come on to the BSF for fun, not to deal with ignorant trolls like you. I'm done...

Just thought I d share what I posted on Facebook this morning about last night. Massive shout out to the Edinburgh Monachs, staff, fans and management. Never has a speedway club been so welcoming, with everyone thanking us for coming, doing anything they can to make us welcome. Stadium owner insisting we stay until close and filling us up with homemade cake. locals plying us with beer, and then doing running races around the track with thier young fans at 11pm.... And even after the taxi never came back to collect me and Kieran, the guy locking up the stadium took pity on us and drove us to the hotel. If carlsberg did speedway. ..... These guys are right up their with the IOW Warriors Way.

Superb work by SCS, this whole profiteering planning charade from Brandon Estates quite frankly makes me effing angry. The stadium was my second home from the age of eleven right to my mid twenties when I eventually moved back to Northumberland for work. Fifteen years gone if BE win and destroy my step on the back straight. Loads of pocket money and wages went into that stadium. The whole stadium is still in a prime position to be a real motor sport centre again . Would be good to see a few more glory years for the Bees. We can only hope. Good luck guys and thank you for your hard work. It really is appreciated.

He s probably hoping his team sign that Australian called Tai Woffinden lol

Everything that speedway should be. Great move by Pawlicki .... a move worthy of winning a match.

Be interesting to count all the similar posts on here from the likes of Sings ,ianb ,lefty, Barry etc and loads from me stating the same or very similar, every post that goes on makes me more and more annoyed that the selfishness of a few may have finished speedway off for good on this country.

As with Freeman gilkes is riding in British under 19 championship at mildenhall today

I think that's a bit unfair and disrespectful of Bowtell personally, if you look at his career in the Championship he had last couple of months with Newcastle, a season with Lakeside and then had a large chunk of the season riding at 3 for Eastbourne and now this year with Plymouth. Even when he rode for us you could see he had a bit of something about him and his scores this season have been quite good and riding with Crump & Pedersen weekly should improve him. He's still only 23/24 I think so has plenty of time to improve further imo. And I for one hope he does.

There seems to be a large and unfair balance in the guest reserves,,do not fancy Kents chances ...The rules are ridiculous...

You really are a pr*ck then? All the f*cking years - and money - I've put into speedway over the years - including the time since I've been gone - and you just think I'm a worthless piece of sh*t...

The problem is these new fans become regulars who read the programme, the Star and forums such as this. They learn about the constant rule breaking or reinterpretation of the rules. They visit a track, wait in the rain for an hour and then get told it’s off, etc, etc, etc. UK speedway hasn’t just lost fans, it’s actively driven them away.

To be honest the poles are just making the most of the fact they have a product that the general public & big business alike want to be part of & they have the TV baking to make it work. Let's be honest British had the same opportunity in the 70s & 80s & again in the early 2000s with the sky input but did absolutely nothing with those opportunities. Don't blame the poles hats off to them for knowing how to run speedway in a professional manner

Star Lady put it in a nutshell for me earlier. I have said before that - even in the glory days of the 1960's and 70's - only the top boys (Nielsen, Olsen, Penhall. Jessup etc) were full time speedway riders and, for most, it was little more than - as the former Reading and Coventry rider Mick Bell once put it - 'a good paying hobby'. Tom Owen, for years an NL kingpin, always worked at his plant hire business during his racing career. The blight on the sport that is uncontrolled doubling up is there for one reason : so that riders can be full time (in the season at least). it needs to change if the sport is to survive.

If only we could get our Speedway as intense and as meaningful.. Or even half as much... Amazing atmosphere, great full on racing, and a fantastic finish to the season.. Let the play offs begin...

2 cracking good matches today. Fabulous entertainment. Well done GKM.

I probably only saw Jack Young ride about half a dozen times or less and as I was only 4 years old in 1951, I can't really comment on his World Championship win.

Douglas at reserve shouldn't be allowed. The reserve spots are designed to help young riders develop. Teams are abusing the reserve position.

I was more laughing at the point you think anders Rowe is the only one with any hope . Even though he is a decent rider palin flint and several others will go further

What's the point of calling off meetings on a clear Saturday night in the summer and then having to run loss making double headers to cram the fixtures in to qualify for play offs and a show piece final that will most likely be held on a wet track in the last week of October? Fixtures very rarely used to be called off before 6pm on race day after a track inspection. If this is the new world we are living in these meetings that are cancelled should not be restaged, just like in cricket, another fairweather sport

Headed to Glasgow on Friday for the Leicester match and consulted 4 different weather apps. 3 said wall to wall rain and 1 said 45% chance at 4.00 p.m. then clearing up. Based on that info., the decision to call it off would appear to have been the right one. As it turned out, it wasn't, although I understand that there was heavy rain about 5 miles away from the track. Same yesterday at Leicester; the weather seems to be more localised and it's very much the luck of the draw as to whether or not the predicted rain will actually fall on the track or 10 minutes away down the road. Given riders expenses etc. getting to a meeting, there comes a time when a promotion has to make a decision. Your damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

It's truly amazing & unbelievable however at the same time 100% correct. Ignore everything around it and just watch the racing is what I do now. Although this approach has ment at best I attended once a season. The problem is without the rivalry between the competitors, clubs & supporters it becomes 4 blokes on bikes. Which sadly for me Makes it extremely boring!! If you're running a team sport, those in your team cannot ride for every other club at some point during the season. You can't make any type or rivalry and form any form of attachment to 'your team' if those in you team might be riding for the opposition tomorrow or some one from the opposition is in 'your team' next week. Speedway as a proper team sport or as an individual event can still be on its day the best sporting event going & highly marketable. However the UK version at present is a very poor version of what it could be, because you really do have to 'just watch the racing' which sadly makes it very dull & boring!

He did have two really good years at Swindon, put well over 3 points on his average in 1976 a really good year in 77 to.At Hackney he was not quite the same and Vic being killed must of affected him.Bobby along with Ian Cartwright, John Cook ( averaged 4.17 at Hull over 8.5 the next year .Not to many riders put over 2.5 to 3 points on there average there must be a few over the years but those three named come to mind.

Write to Gaming International at Swindon Stadium - you never know you may get a reply?!

To be fair to the promotions they are caught between a rock and a hard place as to when to call off a meeting. Do they chance it on an iffy forecast hoping firstly the forecast allows for the meeting to go ahead and secondly enough people turn up for a wet meeting without them losing a fortune, or do they call it off early enough to save riders and supporters the time money and effort in getting to a stadium only for it to fall victim of the weather.

Jesus Christ....blah,blah,blah,give the bloke a break....sad...!!!

Maybe they can borrow 'Mystic Meg' the weather expert from Eastbourne. Great at spotting clouds, not so great at spotting financial ineptitude....

It would be great to get an update on the Swindon situation, I'd certainly want to be knowing if I was a Swindon fan!

I don't... Then again, it's a little difficult when I live 4000 miles away. However, if I could, I certainly would. When I was making regular trips back to the UK, I was taking in as much speedway as I could. Even though I haven't been in a few years (I haven't been back in a few years), I still follow the sport. I watch it live whenever I can, and I spend a lot of time watching stuff on YouTube. Despite having a lengthy career in another sport, speedway always was - and still is - my favourite sport. While I was still in the UK, I would drive all over the country to take in meetings. No, speedway is not what it was - nothing is - and particularly in the UK, we have ALWAYS had a tendency to shoot ourselves in the foot. Having said that, a lot of our major problems aren't actually speedway-related. Not owning our own stadia has obviously been an issue, and unfortunately, what was very much a city-centre sport (visible to everyone) has now been forced out into into the sticks. Plus (and we have discussed this on here before), speedway is no longer "cool". I have always been a very tolerant person (idiots excepted), and can overlook the niggling things that apparently seem to drive fans away, like tac doubles, helmet colours, kevlars, gardening etc. I still view it as four blokes racing, and just because it isn't always fantastic (it never was ALWAYS fantastic, a fact borne out by watching YouTube vids), it is still worth it.

Think you could be looking at another 60+ score .. Was at Redcar last night and Benjamin Basso definitely looks a good prospect. Spoke to him after the meeting and his English is brilliant and he seems to have what it takes to get to the top

Who says it was Stewart's call all by himself? Calling meetings off is a case of not wanting to risk money when the forecast is against you. I'd think there'd be more than Stewart involved in that decision!

watch it on catchup, that way you can fast forward the racing and watch the adverts

It is somewhat emblematic of speedway's state that its most prominent owner announces his decision to sell, not after poring over a business plan, but in an emotional outburst worthy of a six year old.

Slightly ironic that Buster is now fed up & wants to sell up, when much that is wrong was implemented during his time as chairman.

I doubt he’s too bothered - he’s under contract for another year at Częstochowa so will be a nice pay off if they bin him off and I doubt he will be short of other offers afterwards.

Yes most certainly- Daugavpils were in league 1 for several seasons.

That is all very well but they will be relying on Autumn weather rather than summer!!!

Some "proper hard racing" on view.. Great to watch..

Think you need to check what’s going on before you make idiotic posts.

Really hope Eastbourne can pull through, their first home fixture, if there is ever another, and if I can attend, no work commitments etc, I'm going straight down, the support people from all over the country showed the Diamonds for the double header last week was amazing and now it's time to repay the compliment for a fellow team in struggles I sincerely hope Eastbourne pull through as they're an amazing club, with a full British line up!!

We were down at Kent and you guys made us very welcome too.

It just adds to the thought I've had for a while now, that Polish speedway will wipe out speedway in other countries. What is the point of having a youth policy if any decent riders coming through will be off to ride in another country and you are left with nothing to show for it?

PLANNING RESPONSE SUBMITTED - Save Coventry Speedway It's a long item so will just put the link (above). Some Stirling work being done (once again) by the SCS Committee!