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What does the league table matter? Surely, first of all, you go to watch the speedway racing. If there’s a meeting on, it hardly matters whether it’s for the Gold Cup, European Cup, League Title, Grand National or whatever. At the end of the day, it’s 14 riders battling it out on track with no brakes. Why cut your nose off to spite your face, just because the Mickey Mouse league title is out of reach. Support your club, pay your money, help to secure a future, enjoy the racing.

Of course they can... they can explain on what has happened when they have spoken to Gi i guess they have seeing no stadium is being built after yet another broken promise. even if Gi have given no reply to there questions . if they are not trying to contact them then that is even worst . its hardly a lot to ask . The lack of pressure put on Gi by the club the press and the local mp has been shocking to be honest . Looks like yet again another con by Gi is going to work with a barely a wimper of oppo

Obviously Godfrey running down the transfer clock.

I certainly hope Jordan has not been 'neutered'...would make his eyes water!!!!

Given some of your replies on here, it's odds on that you are the single one.

And while there are many issues with British speedway, one of the biggest remains current promoters sitting on the committee. It's completely shambolic and has been for years. Until a genuinely objective committee sit at the top table our sport will always remain a joke. Ex-riders / referees with an objective not speedway official should look after the sport to ensure decisions are made by people without a vested interest. This of course takes away from the incredibly sad news that is another institutional brand in our sport has gone. I only hope the Eagles can find a way back to the tapes in 2022.

Only if they've been indoctrinated that winning is everything. Plenty of regular attendees (note l don't say fans) go to a speedway be entertained, to enjoy a night out in convivial company and to watch a good contest, good racing and a thrill and spill. Your team wins, yes that's nice too, but it shouldn't be everything.

Time to renew or begin your love affair with the island then in my view. I cant have 10 year old out of date information on a public forum without any dates Please send me a DM I would like to invite you and a friend as my guests to help re-assess your view. All the best

How much is Panthers success this season down to Rob Lyon. Its clear to see that all the riders have the ultimate respect for the guy and the team respond accordingly. Team spirit is high and its great that the club are percevering with Jordan Palin. The boy has obviously got talent and needs to be neutered. He will come good. Past seasons Panthers have tended to loose patience with some of their younger riders if they don't immediately produce the goods.

Can never understand why some sports owners choose to punish those that get their in plenty of time by making them wait for those that got their late.

You will love it, lovely little setting

The British scene was never going to sit comfortably with the Grand Prix which began to make demands domestically and weekend speedway at the higher level was hit when a Grand Prix was being held and the regularity increased as the GP series expanded. Losing Friday/Saturday night speedway proved decivise for many promotions with the non-availability of riders.

Getting any team to agree to a challenge match would be just about impossible IMO especially at this point in the season, and an individual meeting just as impossible, not unless you are offering mega money of course. Berwick`s promotion are at least putting on a meeting so credit to them for that, but I do agree with you about charging full whack for what is not much more than a practice session.

That seems to suggest that the promoters 'trouser' a nice little earner from speedway, when reality is, most, if not all, lose money. The biggest problems for speedway over a fair number of recent years, is crowd levels have gone down, while costs for promoters have gone up. That circle can't be squared. Maybe some promoters do lack charm and appear to have a 'take it or leave it' attitude, but if you are losing money, I think I might be a bit cheesed off! It's been said so many times, the riders are paid too much, which will be the promoters biggest overhead. Yes, the riders deserve to earn good money, as they are the ones on the track, but if the money isn't coming through the turnstiles, why should they bleed the promoters, the fans (with constantly increasing admission charges) and the sport dry! The riders need to get back to being semi professional. Yes, one bike strapped onto a bike rack, on the back of a Ford Focus!

Problem is 'Trees', your type of blind optimism of 'carry on regardless' has given promoters licence to simply continue down the crumbling path the sport now finds itself on... They have treated punters with disdain for years, as they believed they will still blindly turn up each week and suck-up whatever dross was chucked at them under the guise of 'professional team sport'

Thing is though how good could all of those been had they been able to get regular experience abroad from a young age, and a foot in the Polish door in their teens? This Polish U24 league could absolutely be what the current crop need to fulfill their potential, the U21 years are absolutely vital in a riders development and just riding in the UK and becoming an expert on our tight tricky tracks is no good if you want to be competitive internationally.

I think it's pretty much the case TBH. When Buster took over Peterborough and they weren't doing good, Buster got blamed on here for everything from team selection, crap track with no passing to a cobweb in the men's bogs. Now they are in general pretty happy. Lynn's fans have supported the club pretty well this season at the track, where it counts. The atmosphere was great when we got our first home win. It was like we had won the league lol. This forum is only a tiny section of Lynn fans. Maybe half a dozen might actually go to the AFA on a regular basis. I'm hoping Buster keeps on going until a new promoter is found, which won't be easy. Before that happens he might get his appetite back. I'll be there Thurs cheering the team on as usual.

Whilst i agree that a sensible distance between the two leagues needs to be achieved part of that would be helped by increasing the standard of the NDL again. Ive also always been an advocate that if you are good enough you will make it. There will always be those who can make the step up and beyond and those that can't, making it easier for riders is not the answer, keeping the bar high and making sure riders work to achieve it is the only way the sport will be able to progress.

The middle tier needs to be far closer to the NDL to allow riders to progress! Even riders who can get maximums in the NDL Crang / Mulford / Smith, often score 0 at Champ level! How can a NDL rider know if he's ready for the Championship if scoring maximums at NL level isn't an indicator?

Following the postponement of the Eastbourne matches, the Berwick club have worked hard behind the scenes to still present an evening of speedway -- with a bit of a twist on Saturday 28th. An FTS Bandits select will go head to head with a Bullets squad for a true Berwick Speedway showdown! Two 6-man teams will be managed by Gary Flint and Scott Courtney and 15 heats will take place under a new race format which will see an emphasis on managerial tactics with four of the races requiring a tactical rider nomination -- although each rider can only do one of those rides each. In very tricky times for the sport throughout the UK, your promotion are excited to take this opportunity to still provide the riders with a payday and the chance to enjoy riding their bikes while entertaining the fans and we are looking forward to next Saturday! Team line-ups will be announced during the week but you can look forward to seeing your FTS Bandits and Bullets stars take to the track under a slightly different set of rules. Tapes will be rising at 7pm.

Can only see a home win.

Good old KKS, still living in his mothers basement, stealing her wi-fi and paying no rent.

Some of us saw the problems. Others were either too narrow minded or short sighted to see them and pressed ahead regardless unfortunately.

...problem was/is the GP series creamed off the money that otherwise the BSPA got to see when they lost the one-off final and associate meetings and the money generated which proved invaluable to many promotions. The BSPA, as usual, were slow off the back foot and couldn't see the damage forthcoming and ignored the signs and only woke up when it came too late to do anything about it.

Never mind the reserves who wants to watch the first team .

Not when someone has a masters degree in complete bollox.

In answer to your first question quite a lot.

Table - https://www.svemo.se/Sporter/Resultat/Speedway/Serier/BAUHAUSLigan2021/Serietabell/

Give me elite league speedway over middle tier any day. Sunday's were good but there was always the Poland issue

Needs more meetings against Lakeside!

Precisely. Jack Smith signed on as a 6.5 averaged rider, given current form/opposition he is likely to finish on 8-9. Should the league stay at the same points limit he could be forced out. Should the limit be largely increased again to accommodate all the increased averages its more likely that those with falsely inflated averages like Rothery and Spencer will be pushed out. Everyone heralded the idea at the start and just couldn't see the problems coming. I guess the state of the NDL at present / future will gloss over the mess created by lowering the points limit.

My first visit to Plymouth. Me and my eldest are looking forward this. Up the Brummies.

I'm not being negative, just realistic.

You are always so angry with and bitter about anyone who sees UK speedway in different light to you. That is sad. There was me thinking that a forum could look at all aspects of the sport that we enjoy, from all points of view. I still absolutely love GP speedway on TV and watch domestic matches with some pleasure too. It's not free and I pay to still have that choice via BT. I just feel domestic UK speedway has lost it's way so much and at the heart of that are people who believe that it is all right as it is and little needs to change. But the facts are that support for the sport in the UK are diminishing, less and less people attend for hatever reasons. We have met and I cannot believe that you really want this Forum to be all made up of Happy Clappers? Even you have expressed to me that Mr Chapman - some years back was not getting it all right at King's Lynn! That lind "adoration" is for the Facebook pages, is it not?

I've watched speedway for a decade or five but along the way had eight years buried in the grasstrack world. During that time I did form the view that grasstracking might well be a very good and inexpensive route to a speedway career for young riders (even girls - just teasing, honest). Seriously, there are lads and lassies out there plying their trade on the lawns of England that could well make it into a shale career. And they wouldn't complain about a few bumps on track when they got there either.

The top 6 are so far clear any lack of matches raced will not change the top 6, maybe make a difference to the top 2! The biggest issue will probably be so many matches being raced after the cut off date for the play-offs, or even after the play-offs themselves, which could be hard to convince fans to turn up to watch!

Birmingham & Newcastle were open & honest with the fans & asked for help! Eastbourne chose to kept it quiet (I certainly had no idea they were in trouble till riders missed rides at Leicester) until perhaps too late!

I watched two of the last three meetings at Skegness. The track was awful. A rutted dust bowl. Impossible to race on. The worst, though, was the Derwent Park track Glasgow rode on for three-quarters of the 1987 season. I watched probably 60 per cent of the meetings. Nobody did any work on the track between matches. It resembled a Moto-X circuit. And who can forget the water-bowser-filled-with-slurry, August Bank Holiday Monday meeting against Middlesbrough? No surprise 'Workington Tigers' were kicked out of the National League that season. So many complaints from visiting teams. Never liked Exeter - far too narrow for decent racing. I worked in the city for a short time - 1998-99 - and was picky about which County Ground meetings I attended. The opposition was usually beaten before the tapes rose on heat one. Lots of one-sided, processional thrashings. Once you'd become accustomed to how fast the riders went at Exeter, compared to everywhere else, that was it. Hardly ever any passing. Craven Park, Hull. Always a beautifully prepared track - Tony Swales's handiwork? - but its width and shape weren't conducive to good racing. Went there a number of times when based in North Lincolnshire. Often wondered why I bothered. Brough Park, Newcastle? Long straights and tight bends. Used to go there fairly regularly - 1992-97 - whilst working on Teesside. One of very few tracks where the riders seem to shut off going into the corners.

I was sceptical Doris loved the Abbey with its long straights BUT it had been mainly poor as a spectacle for a while .2019 to change the track was a huge step for the management and the racing was very very good the odd blip along the way but that new track had different lines and the racing was good.

I said at the time it would soon become a choice for riders to compete in either the British League or the GP's and for Promoters to best adjust to that scenario. There was the year when a rule was implemeted that decreed only one GP rider could ride for one particular team...it lasted the one year!

So that seems to be it, why the BSPL have asked them to delay the announcement is beyond me, obviously they want to give riders time to get fixed up NOT, ohh i forgot Scunthorpe are in the running for the Piss Ups..

30 year break Sid..early 70s Swindon, starting going again 2004.

they were last week

Maybe because it was the organisation that was the problem. If last night was anything like the Belle Vue meeting there last time it was terrible trying to get in. 2 queues with no indication which queue was what, if wanted to pay on night there was just 2 people with clipboards, if needed change they had to go to hut and get it each time.

Given the current home form and the fact that they seem to have solved the dust issues (dust free last week), lovely weather forecast too, this should be another really good contest and probably the last chance to see 3x World Champion Jason Crump up close at Perry Barr. Be great to see him in person in the pits and get his autograph and a photo. Throw in another GP winner in Bjarne Pedersen and exciting youngsters in Ruml and Keleher and its a good meeting in prospect. I'd certainly be favouring a trip to Birmingham than watching West Brom reserves any day of the week....

Problem is trees those who love watching speedway are reducing every year and nothing is being done to entice news people in

I always use 1990 as a benchmark for the decline in UK speedway. My first full proper season as a fan aged 12. I have been looking back though the archives. 1990 saw 26 professional clubs split into 2 leagues the old British league 9 clubs & the national League of 17 clubs. The British championship was contested by 48 British riders starting with a quarter final stage. Compare that to today. 18 professional clubs & a British championship where 16 riders are put straight into the final as there aren't enough to do any thing else. 1990 182 team spots with no doubling up 2021 126 team spots where I believe 123 of those are held by doubling up riders. Also let's not forget that in 1990 those 26 league clubs all had junior League teams with an additional 4 spots per team. 1990 plenty of opportunity to ride, speedway in various formats alongside the league format eg 4 team championship & best pairs. I think that season my track Ipswich had 30 home meetings. Oh what happy days. The only real beacon of hope in that time was the early part of Sky's involvement I think by 2005 so 6 years in with sky it was clear that there wasn't any plan or indeed desire to do anything different....what a missed opportunity!!! Although on the decline it's been the past 10 to 15 years where the real damage has been done.

Need more finals by the looks of that list And without wishing to labour the point... oh look Peterborough's 2nd most important meeting of the season (the final would have been, if they'd made it) being run on the penultimate Wednesday in October... The final, the biggest match of the season in the league, held 3 days later, abandoned after heat 13. 2nd leg the next day on the last Saturday in the season... and I won't even go into what happened in the Shield!!!

So to clarify clubs should only field local riders if possible, using upright machinery that is 'reliable'? Obviously they will have time to visit schools with the bikes as most of the riders will be of retirement age! Reliability is a joke too as most are donkeys years old running on parts that are no longer manufactured and therefore are breakdown galore. Once speedway is dead and buried in the ground can a new sport with new machinery be brought in, until then no rider be they young and upcoming or established are going to sell their current suite of machinery in favour of 'standardised' upright gear. The on track action has always been largely credible when its between matched riders. What sinks it is ridiculous rules. However most have said before many don't care a jot about rules, regulations or even guests but thats because they don't even know the sport is happening on their doorstep.

If the beer is watered down then yes youd hundred percent want to pay less.