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Such a shame there's so much bitterness and sniping building within this thread, no need for it really, on Monday we were treated to what has been described as one of the best meetings in recent years, the scores are finely balanced and fingers crossed we will get more of the same tomorrow evening. Whoever wins will deserve the victory, Peterborough have had some tough luck but so have Belle Vue, that's speedway. As far as I'm aware no team has cheated their way to the final, as unfortunate as the injury to Hans is it occurred after the final had commenced, just like if it had happened tomorrow evening, the final is underway and both teams just have to make do with whatever changes they can make that fall within the existing rules, no special dispensation should be allowed imo. Would say the same whichever team I supported. Obviously the usual trolls chip in with their stupid comments, one even claiming the Belle Vue doctor isn't a proper doctor and that Hans should ride in the 2nd leg, if he was knocked out then he cannot ride, it wouldn't be fair on himself or any other rider taking to the track. Here's hoping we get to see some great racing in front of a bumper crowd, whoever wins will be crowned champions and will deserve the accolade.

2 days for 40 and over

When every British rider in the Premiership and Championship this season plus our two GP representatives started in the third tier of the sport, it was complete nonsense to suggest that the NDL needed to 'get back to its roots'. If truth were told, it was already there. Whatever the make up of the league it was admirably and extremely successfully doing one of the jobs for which it was created. I think its absolutely clear now - although as you rightly say many do not need the benefit of hindsight - that the decision to cut the points limit was an extremely poor and damaging one provoked by nothing more than the self interest of the top two divisions.

Zach cook probably scored more than neilsen so that's lady luck for you Shovlar

Give over Mike, I hope he gets a big fat zero.

The majority of supporters would like to see the Premiership expanded to 8 or 10 teams, but if this does happen, there would have to be a pretty drastic reduction of operating costs (or a big increase in admission prices - which nobody wants!) and there would also have to be a dramatic reduction in team strengths in order to make the new entrants competitive. People always jib at any suggestion of weakening teams, or "watering down" as it is usually described, but in reality, there isn't an alternative - we have to accept that team strengths can only be levelled downwards - not upwards! As far as doubling-up is concerned, it is my firm opinion that allowing this to happen in the first place, has been the damaging decision that the BSPA has ever made, and we are left in the situation of now finding it totally impossible to get rid of this, or even restrict it. The riders now consider themselves to have a God-given right to belong to more than one team, and any attempt to do away with doubling-up will be savagely opposed. I detest the rule myself, but I just don't see any way of getting shut of it.

This thread is full of trolls and wind up merchants unfortunately. Do yourselves a favour and ignore rather than bite.

Showing as Thursday 21st on SpeedwayGB site.

Craig will give 100% for whatever team he rides for

You can talk some amount of Sh*te at times.

Probably the Peterborough supporters were still driving around trying to find somewhere to park that was safe

So why didn't we get a guest on Monday and likewise for Belle Vue then. Wouldn't be the first time the chuckle brothers got something wrong.

Stewart Dickson as said that he didn't want to discuss his intention to use a guest against Poole and r/r against Scunthorpe before last night's meeting because he didn't want to be disrespectful to Scunthorpe. Talk about double standards, the club are being disrespectful to the SON! Hey well the Pirates will just kick ass tonight and make the 2nd leg irrelevant!

Yes It states on official recacard on Bspa site he was withdrawn due to concussion. So this weakens Peterborough massively and no adequate replacement available. I have no idea why you would have a rule stopping you from using a rider from a team that was beaten in the semi final therefore no longer in the playoffs.

You are quite right that the NL of a few years back wasn't perfect but it was thriving. There was pay disparity between some teams but that exists across all the leagues. What did exist was a widespread league which offered opportunities to new and developing riders. Whats more is that there was often a development league running after the meetings putting riders on show, offering precious track time and supplying a genuine conveyor belt of talent. The conveyor belt being that you had to be good enough to get a NL place, reserve spots didn't come easy and were even harder to hold on to but that meant that those who did were of sufficient standard to boost the league. As plenty could see at the start of the 2020 season the NDL had been pushed down as it was far too much of a competitive and viable product compared to the higher tiers and rather than take this approach on board and really embrace it the Board decided to squash the threat to their own businesses with the narrow minded viewpoint that they would get the few riders they needed through the diminishing youth rounds and could continue to ship in overseas riders to bolster the rest. The genuine board held belief that for a sport to thrive the top tiers must take priority is simply short sighted, narrow minded and selfish. For any sport to stand a chance in the short, medium and long term it needs to be built from grass roots up rather than the current approach of letting the (insert expletive here) roll down hill.

Talking out of your backside again …. Harris so much better than Andersen lol Harris scored 8 tonight Hans has scored 6 and 9 at Poole this season Hmmm please tell me how 8 is much better than 9…..Oh and Zach Cook scored more than Nielsen would have done so how the heck can you say Poole were weaker Nice to see a Poole choke though

Oh so he is going to claim injury for sat night then, interesting.

Don't respond to the helmet!

It's a final Mike, let's be honest I want Belle Vue to win I don't care about being entertained on Thursday. I want cook to have an absolute nightmare of a meeting, 4 engine failures will do me fine lol

Well, whatever rider shows up, whatever the outcome (although I hope a Panthers win), let's hope for a meeting similar to Monday.

Yes but at least he's funny and a bit of harmless fun. Peterborough one is just annoying.

Long John Silver?

Are Belle Vue fans sticking around for the Panthers title celebration tomorrow night? It wouldn't be fair on the coach driver if he has to cut his break short due to an early departure from the EOEA.

I thought the same reading it , there maybe more to this saga to come especially as it stated more info on riding order to follow on match day

But you did, and you are all taking the bait...

Hope you live to regret this post!

Even more so in a sport that allows riders to ride for all and sundry all season on an adhoc basis, and both finalists will no doubt have benefitted during "qualifying" by using any other teams' riders when the need arised... "Completely Contrived" or... "Not quite as Completely Contrived"... Doesnt really make much difference does it? Therefore just get two seven man teams out using the rules that have been used in getting both teams to the final.. Be sad if the final ends up one sided due to injuries, especially after leg one of The Final produced so much..

I understand why some fans are upset at Lambert’s selection over Bewley, but there is - with the greatest respect - a huge difference between beating the likes of Danny King, Richard Lawson and Sam Masters week in week out when compared to competing with world class riders like Zmarzlik, Janowski, Madsen, etc. As has already been mentioned, Lambert is on form - he’s made the last 3 GP semi finals, his Ekstraliga average is approx 1 point per meeting higher than Bewley and over the last 4 Ekstraliga meetings Lambert scored 20 more points than Bewley. And he has experience at this level. Bewley doesn’t and the pressure of performing at that level could impact negatively on a young rider. As we saw last night, on track prepared for the home team, Bewley was still beaten by MPT, Scott Nicholls and Chris Harris. No disrespect to those riders, but as has been pointed out the track won’t be prepared as Belle Vue riders like it so any home track advantage will be very much reduced. Bewley didn’t win the British Final on his home track, so he’s likely to fair less well against much tougher opponents. Bewley is a great rider and given time will hopefully become one of the best riders in the world. But he isn’t there yet. it was a tough decision but Lambert is the right partner for Tai IMO.

It's mind blowing that some are angry at the selection of Lambert. He's in the top 10 in both the GPs and the best league in the world. He was top of his team's averages whereas Bewley was just about 4th. He's has had a good season but Lambert has the experience of top level events. We all know the FIM track prep virtually removes home track knowledge so Lambert is a no brainer for me

Robert Lambert really does get some special treatment doesn't he. No reason to pick him over Dan Bewley at all.

If Sam is involved in the commentary for the GPs next year, I'll be watching the Polish coverage online.... I appreciate Sam as an ex rider, and he used to have some good input in the studio back in the Sky GP coverage days but he is, without doubt, THE WORST commentator I have ever heard for speedway on National TV...Eurosport's commentary team for their coverage of the SEC and U21 this year has been horrible. The first round of the SEC this year had a technical issue which saw no commentary provided....That was sooo much better than the following rounds and the U21 rounds where they got it sorted and I had to listen to their dreadful comms team. Please, Discovery, give me NIgel and Kelvin next year and not the horror that is Dave and Sam....

Could Edinburgh fans please post all relevant information on forthcoming fixtures at Armadale against Glasgow here rather than on the Edinburgh v Redcar thread or are you all too embarrassed?

FS we're actually losing a rider for SON on Saturday night n still Poole fans doing all the bitching about daring to run a meeting against it lol

Rob Godfrey has an unused one

How did we choke if we won the meeting and 6 was the most we were leading by all night? If anyone choked it was Leicester, after all they had a 2 point lead at one point.

Well first of all well done to Leicester who held us to a very measly 6 point advantage. I hate to say I told you so but a treble mistake was made. First of all in picking Leicester when they were the last time to ride here. No way were we going to get close to what we scored last time. Their riders would have known setups etc and would be at it from the first heat. And the fact that some of our riders are stale while Leicester rode last night showed up clearly. Secondly having the first leg to ease other clubs fixture congestion was a bad error. Doing favours for clubs doesn’t help us as it’s never or rarely reciprocated. And thirdly, why the hell didn’t we pick Edinburgh? I know a Derby for the Scottish clubs means bumper crowds for their clubs but this is the title at stake, not helping rival clubs at the pointy end of the season. Their riders would have had to travel down all day and we could have smashed them. I have said all this over the last week and my predictions have been spot on. Back to tonight and our staleness at the gate was clearly evident. Lions heat after heat having a bike length heading into bend one. Poole battled hard but if you give riders like Morris, Harris and Howarth a lead they love the track and are almost impossible to pass. Some very good races tonight as Pirates attempted to pass and stay in the meeting. Is 6 enough to defend? No, if tonight was anything to go by. Not having track time showed riders like Danny King to look a little rusty. He tried all night but never saw a lead in any of his heats. Advantage Leicester to go through to the final. It should be very tight but riders like the Thompson twins, who were nowhere near a point tonight, are likely to score, as is Kennedy who battled tonight. Well done to them.

Well I know it's not good form to quote yourself, but if I was slightly upset by this clash before tonight, think how I feel now we're going to beat Poole on aggregate? I guess the only consolation is a final to look forward to..... Not another trip north of the border! 4 times in one season is bit much.

What's your problem you are out of the playoffs so on comes the Poole haters. Stupid childish post and don't think next year Poole will ride as badly at the EWR. Chill out.

Be fair, that's quality from the nutjob

Agreed! Simple 'Google Job' - Someone with a concussion might be knocked out (this is called a loss of consciousness). But a person doesn't have to get knocked out to have a concussion. Signs and symptoms of a concussion include: headache So yes, he could have been knocked out, but doesn't necessarily mean Concussion (I thought if you were knocked out, it's bound to mean concussion).

1. MPT 2. Cook 3. Andersen 4. Nicholls 5. Harris 6. Pedersen 7. Palin Even a couple of Polish Ekstraliga sides wouldn't beat that 1-7.

Quite probably somewhere out of the way where most of the riders don’t want to go.

Cook will be for Hans and RR for Ulrich so all to choose from IF Hans isnt riding that is as i wouldn't count him out completely yet until Peterborough actually say hes out , i expect him to not ride but !!!!!!!!

Bizarrely Craig couldn’t guest for Hans in the championship as he is too good. Rub of the green once again going against the Aces. What next? Must ask Rob Lyon what his lottery numbers are. Congratulations to the Panthers and commiserations to the luckless Aces.

Seems barmy why they can't... I get it no 'dispensation' allowed for teams in sports where The Final means something from a large positive financial point of view, and was going to be watched by millions which brought massive publicity for the teams and sport, or meant one team moving up a division to a higher, more lucrative level... But unfortunately for Speedway it means none of the above... Therefore just follow the rules set down which are used every single week of the season and have a close entertaining 2nd Leg .

Peterborough have gained advantage from having rr for oystercard all year, There should be some sort of maximum limit of matches you can use rr, especially if it's known there season is over.

I would be VERY surprised if he does... Not in his make up I would say...

Interesting but not allowed as rides for play off team!

I’d like to think drew and Edwards will out score Bailey and the pole if he turns up.

Robert Lambert?, this must be a wind up. Has he ever rode at BV?,FFS. That will cost us a place on the rostrum. Which effing clown has made this decision?. OMFG. Can't be arsed Woofy i can sort of believe, but no Bewley?. Criminal.