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Did nobody clock the crowds at Belle Vue and Peterboro last week? These massive roll-ups will have doubled, even trebled, the respective promotions' revenue over a regular meeting. Similarly, what about the huge interest in the soccer play-offs each year as clubs battle for promotion in their various leagues? Or the full-house attendances at ice-hockey play-offs at Nottingham every season? The revenue from being involved in play-offs is a massive boost to any club's financial year, and in some cases could make a difference between failing or surviving. Regardless of the "fairness" of it, they are here to stay, and the season-long league table is a qualification process, no more, no less. It is up to the promotions at every track to make their regular matches bright and entertaining enough to keep them close to their budget, while aiming for a shot at glory in the play-offs to put icing on the cake. Yes, speedway is a sport. It is also a business. Run a straightforward league with only one winner and see if you can stay in business. Money talks.

By the sounds off it so does Jan.

Their fans are tiresome and seem to think they’re down here doing us all a favour.

Just for the avoidance of doubt Marcin Novak is not “apparently” getting married on Saturday (copyright Edinburgh Speedway Official Website) he IS getting married on Saturday. Just want to be clear on that point - and while we are at it this has been arranged for a while and not just since last Friday - yes I know it’s hard to believe that a wedding can take longer than 8 days to arrange.

Some of these Polish riders are massively overrated. They wouldn't cut it in the Premiership.

What a joke from Glasgow! Discriminating against their own! Foreigners get it for 1/3 of the price of us how the hell is that fair

On reflection, not sure what I enjoyed most? GB winning (simply coz I'm not used to it...) or the fact that we stuffed the Poles for a change ? It's great to 'shut up' their bullish following!

Can't see Poole leaving Championship yet

British speedway fans. Absolutely no pleasing them. It's Glasgow in October ffs of course there's going to be rain about. Delays were completely unavoidable so all this could've finished is nonsense

They were getting on with it, but they'd already had a delay for one crash, and another delay for Miskowiak to receive medical attention (and there was a paramedic require with a fan at that time too). So yes, there were delays, but they weren't really avoidable. Outside those, the referee was very quick with the two minutes and track work was brisk. There were at least two other restarts too.

Most probably intends to start by avoiding signing riders with guaranteed earnings

That's all well and good but take the example of the 2003 season... Edinburgh won their first ever title. We went top of the league at the end of August after a victory at Glasgow (sorry Weegies, I had to mention it!). The following Friday (5 Sept), we raced IoW (or PoS as I used to call them) at sunny Armadale and the place was packed. From that meeting on, 'til the season finale on 31 October, crowds were well above 'normal' levels. 9 meetings' worth of barely being able to move on the terraces. Compare that with your play-off scenario above. 2 home meetings. 3 in the Championship. And also add in the fact that you've diluted the League programme into qualifying skootaboots, it's hardly surprising the casual punter doesn't turn up 'til the 'business end' nowadays. It wouldn't surprise me if the play-offs actually cost clubs money every year which, in turn, leads to the dropping of standards across the board at all levels, which in turn leads to even lower crowd numbers, etc., etc. Poole Pirates - the people's Championship Champions 2021.

Yes in my mind they are. Were significantly better over 2 days and for example could to lose it due to an engine failure at the gate. That's highly unfair IMO I understand the concept, but do the top 6 in the gp go into a head to head over who is world champ? Do mercedes and red bull have a race off in F1 to see whose world champions? It's an Americanism which may work in some instances but in Motorsport is something I wholeheartedly disagree with.

To be honest some of the stuff being written on here about Dale Allitt is pretty unpleasant and uncomfortable to read, of course the frustration is understandable after a dreadful season but do people really need to slag him off day after day?

Of course not, the Stars season ended way before the Panthers, why shouldn't he celebrate, he was involved afterall .........

Why not have the play-offs at the start of the season, than have the league to see who should've won?

This is what gets up peoples noses.He claims he is only concerned with Lynn.Yet every time you see him at Peterborough he is dressed up in all his Peterborough attire.If he wants that fine,stay there. When I have seen Rob at Lynn,on quite a few occasions he's not in anything Lynn he has his Peterborough cap on.Does Allittt not realise he's pissing a lot of Lynn fans off by doing what he does.Then again I suppose he doesn't with the way he has spoke to some. Peterborough fans you have it all to come,don't disagree with anything he says or else you may feel his bitter tongue.

What's the difference ray c ? Same riders in both league's apart from a few . And it costs a lot more to ride in the so called premiership, so I understand Poole staying where they are, more teams in the championship.

No, we don't want Poole .....

Just checked on the result again.. Still says Great Britain won.. Poland were second And Denmark third.. No mention of who beat who, and by how far, and how many times they did it in the qualifying races leading up to the Final... A Final which ended, Zmarzlik, Lambert, Bewley, Janowski... GB 5 - Poland 4... I suspect as the years go by and it passes into the midst of time it will still only say.. 2021 Speedway Of Nations 1st Great Britain 2nd Poland 3rd Denmark... How it all unfurled will be but a side issue...

What you say about Woffy, Lambert and Bewley is true (and you can add that much of British champion Adam Ellis' formative experience was on French grasstrack). BUT To survive British speedway needs to produce its own riders. The NDL plays a vital role in ensuring that we have the second strings of the future. Without the NDL to provide opportunities to learn would riders like Paul Starke, Danyon Hume, Alfie Bowtell and Simon Lambert still be in the sport?

100% Agree.Just unlucky with the last crash or the meeting would probably got to the end.

Whatever you may think of previous meetings at Ashfield, the 'delays' this evening were purely down to racing incidents as already detailed above by the more astute members of this forum. Mr McGregor had the 2 minutes on after the finish of every race other than when a rider had 2 on the trot.

I feel the Championship needs to be weaker, 1) to encourage the likes of Poole / Glasgow / Leicester to step up 2) to shorten the difference between Champ & NDL for riders trying to step up! At the moment riders can score maximums at NDL level but not score a point in the Champ! Makes it tough to know if you are good enough to step up! 3) if it makes the Champ a cheaper league to run - bonus!

Hopefully we’ll have some more test matches next year would love to see the polish team at Sheffield

Meetings tend to drag out at Ashfield.

https://speedwayupdates.proboards.com/thread/20590/great-britain-poland-glasgow-2021

Who knows goalposts continually moved it is also been known for me to scan read things and pick it up wrong as MDs reply indicates .

And I thought it was the Scots who had supposed to be canny I wonder if there will be many Scots there cheering on "Great Britain"

Outdoors standing the limit is 4000 before Covid passports. Even then they are only checking larger crowds at random despite the narrative.

Fine with us

Yes and Kings Lynn

You actually sound like you could be him,dick.

When are Poland riding at Redcar do you not think that this meeting is costing the Glasgow promotion more than it costs Redcar to put on a CL meeting

He he!! Never mind @JanAndersen you'll just have to learn to chill a bit more.

The Blackbird Brothers...some sort of record?

Rules: http://www.scbgb.co.uk/download.php?view.9246

Speedway clubs should produce calendars that run March/April - March/April and use the photos from press and practice imo ......

Dale is more than welcome at Peterborough. He's the proud owner of the premier league winners trophy too.

The photo they posted looks like they put covers on an already wet/damp track, that's a big no no, can sweat badly and be a mess under there with no air to it.

The rules are set. why have a semi final and then a final ? Simple, it guarantees that Tv and the crowd gets a climax at the end of the meeting in exactly the same way as in the GPs have a Grand final race to decide the champion. I agree that we were helped by Janowski’s mistake..but the same would have been true if the roles had been reversed. It was great to see GB get a world team title.

What is? The World Cup returns in 2023 and will held every three years. The Speedway Of Nations will still operate in the other seasons. Can't believe the moaning on here. GB win for the first time in 32 years and people still find something to moan about.

I think that the BSPL dont have any input anymore to Team Great Britain do they? If that is correct.... It probably goes a long way in explaining the success last night...

Spot on Gordon Pairman and the point about vested interest is worth mentioning again, until we have people with integrity and complete honesty the sport in this country will continue to get worse.

I would say that the BBC is irrelevant to most sports fans

So that's 1 million a day... and they're probably all tuning in to listen to the looney stories the BBC love to cover... while the rest of the 65m population carries on living their real lives.

Unfortunately, a lot of the competing countries don't have 4 capable riders at that level.... Certainly didnt feel sorry for the Poles ! Regarding those that say we were lucky? Tell me what was lucky about losing one of the best riders in the world on day one?

So what... nobody watches or listens to the BBC any more

Naturally I thoroughly approve of this issue and highly reccomend Backtrack anyway, it's a great, informative & enjoyable read....