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And who categorises them? There was so many discrepancies in standard of rising stars and the grading. A fair points limit and let the teams build accordingly .

When I'm on a night out in Peterborough, I wear my Panthers polo. I get a few nods of appreciation.

It’s a competition. Nothing patronising. Best two teams are in the final. Let the best team win.

I would call that play off challenging, certainly not title challenging, it was evident every time we met Poole during the season we were never going to beat them over 2 legs as we could only beat them the once over 1 leg over 6 meetings. As good as the twins are, especially at Leicester, they're often found wanting away especially with Dan at 2, that's what Perks gave us, consistency home and away, you were never going to get that from Josh Bates Just my opinion

The Rising Star scheme should increase to '2 per team' only in the Championship, with the Premiership remaining at 1 Rising Star! Just my opinion.

With the AGM only a few weeks away I guess everyone will hear something then?

Thought on the "rising star" situation. Why not just create a list of riders considered to be rising stars (Josh bates need not apply) and say that every team has to consist of at least 2 of them but based on their CMA and new riders come in on a 2.00 from NL? Means for example Berwick can keep flint and bickley, Leicester the Thompson twins, Edinburgh kemp and Edwards, Glasgow Bailey and Brennan but without drastically weakening the league. And will allow same riders more spots in the top league, if there is one

Interesting points but if your suggestion that every club should run ‘ second teams ‘ next year just where are the clubs to find these riders ? British Youth Championship field isn’t the size of pre 2019 levels especially youth 500 level ( less than 6 riders ) Amateur meeting entries are down at the few tracks that run them ( 3 or 4 tops?) especially in the youth and 125 categories on pre COVID years, half of the entrees aren’t upto safe ‘ racing ‘ standards ( not decrying them but some are old timers just having a ride , others are complete novices who can’t slide around a complete corner ). There simply isn’t enough competent new riders to make up such teams and there’s been no new flow of kids getting on speedway bikes in the last two years for obvious reasons. whilst a structured third tier is essential, let’s be realistic about how many new riders are taking up the sport….very, very few.

I am sure Mr Black will be the first to admit he is not as white as white there have been various incidents during Glasgow v Edinburgh matches over the years including a famous motorway incident.

Walking back and forth from Denton it seems

Think I remember reading on here that Poole may be struggling to sign him next season, due to the Wednesday race night clashing with Denmark? If Friday availability is any better, I'd happily take him! As Gr8scot said, no meetings left. Just my poor attempt at alternative humour ---‐‐‐---‐----‐------- In other news, I would also like to add my congratulations to Mildenhall on their National League title win. No need for play off nonsense. Always good to see. Hugely impressed with young Nathan Ablitt. The lad can't gate for toffee but he's good to watch. Decent lines, very aggressive, attacking the track. Nice wee style too

Cracking rider and a lovely kid as well, glad to see he’s made his mark this year after a couple of bad knocks

Still lots going on ...so the doom and gloom merchants can perhaps be patient and wait to see the outcome of the interest as these things are not just completed overnight .

What you doing on here trackprat, didn't expect that with paul winning earlier today, glug glug

You need it supporting Edinburgh!!

Could it be because only fans get worked up about it? I’m not sure what there is to test. Riders ride where they want to ride and teams holding their registration can’t stop them. It has been challenged within BSPA, one of the times was Adrian Miedinski wanting to ride for Poole when Swindon held his registration. The rider got his way

And fan.

It's not 150 people though. £10 stream means £8 after vat. There's then payment processing costs and the stream running costs. The £1500 is purely for the production team. The profit would be closer to £5-6 per stream. Meaning you now need 300 people. If championship clubs are only getting 500-800 to actual meetings then 300 buying an away stream is a big ask

The biggest problem with streaming is cost. Unless you have a very dedicated and knowledgable team of volunteers willing to run it for you then you're looking at £1500 minimum per meeting for a live stream. The revenue from that wouldn't change anything, not once other costs were taken into account

I have just started reading the new book from journalist Andrew Edwards. In it, Peter Collins opens up about his ongoing boycott of Belle Vue and the recent promotions. All this is such a shame - it's difficult to comprehend why after all this time, PC can't find it in himself to bury the hatchet and get back to Belle Vue where he belongs. PC must be nudging 70 by now and life is just too short to be consumed by bitterness. PC, if by any chance you get to see this post, the thousands of fans are surely more important than the few individuals with whom you have a grievance. You are Belle Vue's greatest living legend and would be guaranteed an overwhelming reception at the NSS.

We could sign Heeps and only use him at Armadale for no other reason than a blobby meltdown.

There is interest and talks are continuing . Until everything is in place and everything agreed there will then be full details released . Talks have been made with the landlords and the BSPL know the current position whilst the interested parties have to conclude arrangements over assets and equipment with the current owners. All this takes time .

Great thing to have Gazc. Benefits of owning your stadium.

I think the demise of Proctor and Bates kind of forced the Lions to rebuild the team to have four heat leaders, due to a large extent on who was available, on what average. But I don't think that having four heat leaders really did any of them any great favours individually, or the team as a whole. Go back to the three heat-leader model, find one reliable second-string, one second string who can put a point or two on his average, one reserve who will challenge for a 1-5 place, and one promising youngster. And never, ever, even think about trying Josh Bates again. And maybe consider one of the Thompsons riding elsewhere for a season.

I am talking about Max.He is getting a fortune to stay with Zelina Gora,if he is not in Sweden can see him picking up his pocket money here like Bewley and Holder.

Yeah fair point about 2 point riders as well i agree with you

There is a travelodge next to the bus station that is handy for the Stadium. Definitely worth a try

Swedish speedway in financial difficulties and have state that a lot of big name riders will be dropped.Probably why Max fancies Uk return.

Said years and years ago, 42 points for every league and leave it alone for 3 seasons, everyone can team build at the end of the season knowing what next season will be. Too simple and won't happen though.

Replied to the wrong post edited.

As a neutral observer I feel reserves may hold the key to the play offs. Basso is some rider to have at reserve. Novak and his clashes are going to be interesting.

Nobody knows what the Ekstraliga will decide to impose on riders in that league, which will largely dictate if any more top tier riders will return to British League. That said the way Elitserin use squads, if a rider wants to be busy (which some claim they do) our league maybe a better option. Can't see Poole returning to top flight if they can't ride on a Wednesday.

T20 is great for the kids, it's exciting and quite cheap for a good entertainment package, I can't see how speedway can compete when other sports offer far more for the kids, I don't know what could be done to attract a younger generation, ask any kid a famous footballer he will reel off 20-30 names, ask him to name a famous speedway rider I bet 99% would not be able to name one.

Yes, it will be a complete rebuild, Thanks Ian...

Jason Lyons?

We could cover going top heavy with 1 signing really in troy bachelor on a 5.5 average. Sheffield can make or break you as a rider and sadly is broke him. But If at belle vue I reckon he could put 2 points on that average easy. If not more. Bewley Lidsey Batch Richie Fricke Brennan Blodurn

Dan Bewley said in press conference thst he would like to return next season. Max fricke in the press conference said he wants to ride at belle vue next season. do belle vue have a hard choice or will we go super top heavy

This might be worth a try: https://www.cranborne-house.co.uk/

I dunno what Workington fans gripe is with Glasgow fans these days. I always got on with them up until the takeover then atmosphere seemed to change. Shame

If I'm thinking of the correct race, Masters and Schlein had another game of tiddlywinks (second one in two attempts). Nobody down on that occasion but the 'incident' occurred just before Kemp fell, hence all 4. Strange afternoon. Felt nothing at all like a national cup final. No cheerleaders, no fireworks (ok, I get why that wouldn't work in the daylight!), no pipe band, half empty terraces. Just an ordinary day out. Another dismal failure by our top 3. 5 race wins out of 14 may well have been an improvement on last night but it's still unacceptable. Quite honestly, I wouldn't let any of them wear the Monarchs race jacket at sunny Armadale again in 2021. Star of the show was Benjamin Basso. He and Danyon Hume drilled another couple of nails in the trick track myth. Hats off to Poole. Always pleasing to see Rory on track. Happy retirement when the time comes

They said on the news that Scottish independence would be worse than brexit!

Kemp fell clearly on his own and ref all 4 back. Shocking.

Completely forgot this was a 2:30. Might have taken a trip across to cheer on Poole if I’d remembered. I’d like to see them win one trophy but definitely not the other one!

I’m not sure what I should be seeing. There’s a man booing like a child at the pantomime and Glasgow’s team manager waving a fist at him? Perhaps I should follow Mike Hunter’s lead and say “There’s a man booing like a child at a pantomime and Glasgow’s team manager APPARENTLY waving a fist at him?”!

josh hasnt stayed in Scotland this season although I would imagine all 7 would have stayed overight somewhere. Hopefully they all have somewhere to work on their bikes as most seemed down on power last 2 matches. huge match for the Monarchs be great to win the cup, i'm hatching a plan to get to Poole on wednesday although midweek probably means 3 days off work. Shame they can't stream but it takes a pretty decent setup so not something easy to just do. Monarchs stream has been a godsend for me, having to isolate this week for Covid meant i've missed the 3 biggest meetings of the season. As they have the stream i haven't missed any of it, brilliant and very impressive service I hope everyone gets on the stream today for a national cup final. out of quarantine in time to go to poole. i watch the stream on my tv through the firestick on the Amazon silk internet browser, has worked like a dream for both matches so far. I would have went mental without it this week

might be worth a look at Kemp, reckon he'll be after a bigger track next year

I do understand that but I can't help but feel the Promoters have kinda caused their own problems. If you think back, each track had their 'base' crowd. The hardcore. The Mr Campbell's of this world could sit down each Nov / Dec and think, "right, we've x season ticket holders for next season. That's £y. Now, we can have a directors' meeting and decide who we want to sign and what contracts we should offer those riders." Back then, the base crowd was larger than it is today. Now, I'm aware there are several reasons for this but I can't help but think that one of those is that the integrity of the sport remained intact. Every League meeting meant something in the grand scheme of things and the table toppers were crowned Champions. Even sides at the bottom didn't race in front of empty terraces. Changing that mindset to allow a team below first to lift the trophy also changes the paying customers' philosophy towards the sport. Why buy a season ticket when only 2 or 3 fixtures truly matter? And instead of routinely turning up, some may now think, "hmm, Berwick this week. We usually beat them and we're almost certain of finishing in the top 6. I'll save my money and go to the important meeting next month instead." Now, when that fan then repeats their thought process to their mate(s), they in turn then think, "och, Mike's not going on Friday, I'll probably give it a miss as well" and, before you know it, your floating punter numbers have nosedived. Lower season ticket numbers also affects the thinking of Mr Campbell and his friends. "Our base budget is a lot lower for next season. I don't think we can afford Jock McTavish, which is probably just as well given the lower points limit. We can blame that if anyone asks." This then leads to the floating punter thinking, "look at the points limit. How low can you go? What are they doing to the sport? I'm not going to watch rubbish. I want Jock McTavish back. At least he was top quality." And so it goes on and on. Let's just hope it's not too late for some kind of salvage operation.

It baffles me all this It has been on the Leicester fixture list all season as a reserved date for play off’s so if you buy tickets to SON you made the decision to potentially miss the Lions in the play offs. Leicester is a Saturday night track so why would they diverse from their regular race night when it’s not needed for what will be their biggest meeting of the season & it will severely hit crowd numbers running on a non Saturday. You may pick 1 or 2 people traveling up-to Manchester if you ran Friday but you will gain more fans by running on your regular race night which has been proven in the past. Would you see Poole running their leg any other night regardless of what is going on elsewhere not a chance . This can be added to the list @iainb can complain about to the club enjoy SON #neverhappy

It is solved by going back to making points count double in the final. Every points would still count, and winning individual meetings would matter to the title chase because six points is a lot to give up to a rival. It had to be embarrassing for them when Woffinden would say in interviews he did not care about winning meets so long as he kept picking up title points. A problem they created by getting with of double points, then they went from one extreme to the other with the current system making most of the meeting irrelevant. As to the World Cup, the meetings will be the same as before but over five days instead of eight. So something like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday Saturday instead of Saturday, King's Lynn, Friday, Saturday. The press presentation did say it would feature nine teams, which I took to mean the hosts still going straight into the final. But the news story today only talks of "the eight highest ranked nations," which may mean the best eight other than the hosts, but it is a bit ambiguous.