Leaderboard

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 I cant have 10 year old out of date information on a public forum without any dates Please send me a DM I would like to invite you and a friend as my guests to help re-assess your view.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.

The BSPA were never going to be able to keep the World Final for their own exclusive benefit though, especially once the Swedish, Danish and then Polish leagues started to take off. They should have seen the writing on the wall with private attempts to promote a GP-type series, and got together with the other major countries to ensure they got in on the act and the potential benefits. That would have become easier in the early-90s with the rise of satellite and cable television that was looking around for cheap content. How Saturday GPs would square with Friday and Saturday night tracks would still be a matter of conjecture, but at least the revenue could have compensated those circuits.

Neither Poland nor Sweden used to ride on a Saturday, whereas Britain had the virtual backbone of their League(s), Coventry, Cradley, Eastbourne, Swindon, Bradford, King's Lynn to name a few, who had to lose their traditional (and most lucrative) race night.

The loss of weekend racing undoubtedly was a blow, but to not then do something about it was simply hari kiri.. It was the usual lack of clear, decisive, leadership, and instead, a cobbled together, make do and mend, halfway house, half arsed plan, of appeasement was delivered... (And continues to thlis day).. I truly believe many Promoters thought that the GP's were a 'fad' and that when it "inevitably disappeared" everything would go back to normal... What it should have done then, and subsequently many times since, is plough it's own furrow, and be in charge of it's own destiny.. Instead promoters have spent 20 years or so, bending over backwards to accommodate riders who have become friends rather than employees in a lot of cases, and changing fixtures all over the place to allow them to follow their own individual ambitions... It needed then (and still does today), some hard nosed business leadership that ensured tracks ran on the best nights to get their best crowd and their employees understood that they needed to be there... Or ultimately decide to ply their trade elsewhere.. I can imagine there are still some in UK Speedway who blame the GP's for its demise, even around 25 years after it was launched.. I dont imagine Polish Speedway hold the same views, nor Sweden.. Both if which have done "more than ok" in the "GP Years"...

Especially when it is only Tuesday

But again, the SGP was a missed opportunity for British speedway. Instead of allowing a private promoter to skim off what little cream there was in the sport, the major professional leagues could have run the competition for their own benefit. The demands of international cricket mean that the top players have rarely appeared in county cricket for the past 20 years, but at least the millions that the England team generates largely goes to the counties. Speedway isn't in anywhere near the same league in terms of revenue (maybe a million or so in profit per year), but precisely nothing came back from the SGP to compensate for the loss of Friday and Saturday racing.

Nice backtrack skid. This is the thread for Poole v Newcastle so people presumed you were talking about this meeting. Any riding order will be on a different thread ie; Birmingham v Poole when that is introduced.

Seems they aren't making the same mistake. Seen Doyle and Laguta have signed new contracts according to the Speedway GP website.

I think with all the 'stuff' over the last 18 months ( covid and the continuing ineptitude of the people who 'run' speedway)it feels like you've been continually hit with a cricket bat in the face one way or another and it almost has got to point where what will be will be, hence the silence from the fans. I've got to the point where it's easier to see what is announced tomorrow than worry about it and comment beforehand, probably a lot feel the same.

No problem for the British youngsters to ride on a saturated track in Germany a couple of weeks ago.

No one with half a brain would invest in a speedway track run under the current structure. Sadly a few owners have dragged the sport down to a point where the only survival route is probably amateur riders racing on open licensed tracks and a maybe a mini league. The BSPL had the opportunity to do something different this year but decided on a tried and failed product formula. If the stories are true and you have the futures of Swindon, Birmingham, Newcastle, Eastbourne, Peterborough, Kings Lynn, Poole (track ownership) and possibly one or two more in doubt then sadly speedway in the U.K. will be a shadow of its former self and possibly resemble France in terms of league racing and Belgium/Netherlands in terms of individual events. The fans and supporters are not to blame, many turn out each week but are pissed on from a great height by club owners and the governing body is solely responsible for systematic failures including squandering t v revenues and pricing the sport beyond those who would have given it a go as well as looking down its own nose on those from grass track etc who may have given it a go. None of those in charge have the balls to come on this forum and be answerable to the supporters. Gentlemen and Ny Ladies, you are cowards and much more you have driven the sport to the point of dying out completely. Your failure to even acknowledge the punter whose hard earned cash you take each week is a disgrace and you should hang your heads in shame except that you have no morals. To the directors, board and whatever you call yourselves on the BSPL you are a disgrace to the sport.

I live locally and can confirm that nothing has happened. No one is surprised to be honest. Tomlinson (local MP) has stopped answering questions when you ask him anything on twitter. He couldn't wait to come out and say he had saved speedway in Swindon but now he realises he has been made a mug of by Osborne he isn't saying a word. I suspect enough houses have been built now that they have made a tidy profit so they can afford to let the land go to ruin for a few a years and then appeal to the council that they may as well build more houses up there at that point. It was the plan all along no doubt. Feel sorry for the speedway people like Rosco and Lee Kilby. Speedway is finished in Swindon.