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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

This is now broken record syndrome. It’s like that movie edge off tomorrow eat sleep repeat continually going on about a now sadly defunct club that won something 3 years ago is now very boring and yesterday’s news.

And why aren’t fixtures completed? Because deadline extended to suit other clubs.

I agree. Why "categorise" when you have a self categorising system called averages that's exact to 2 decimal places. A fair points limit as you say and build to that limit.

No worries. I do also agree with your underlying point, I guess more than one way to skin a cat.

Oh for a team of Aussies with British parents and 3 strong heat leaders

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

Why not look at Bournemouth far more choice of accommodation and only a short cheap trip on the rattler away from Poole. Train station in Poole ain't too far from the track

Only 42 points per meeting. Averages based on 4 rides per rider per meeting. For heat 15 a riders average is usually divided by 5 (5 races instead of 4). Scoring 8 points from 4 races is the same average as scoring 10 points from 5 races.

Before moving down here we usually stayed at The Antelope, just off the Quay. About a 15 minute walk to the stadium, around £100 per room

Can't help thinking should've just held 1st leg today looking at the sun out my window n just had heeps at reserve for Marcin. Don't see any breaks in the weather after today for it to be held

Suppose depends how many teams in top league. Of the rising stars in championship not there now that might hold their own Thompson twins, Jenkins, bickley, Thomas bowtel, bailey is getting there. Might be enough to keep it competitive. I'd say if do have 2 in top league should have 2 protected reserve races

Whoops meant Rob Lyon

Don't see any doom and gloom here, just a basic question, it would be nice for the club to make some sort of statement regarding the state of play. When is the cut off date for clubs to announce to the authorities the intentions for 2022 whether they are racing or not, what league teams are intending to race in, time waits for no man, of course things are not done overnight we know that. I am involved at Perry Barr greyhound stadium and nothing is coming through in regards to the speedway for 2022, I fear we have seen the last of the Brummies, but hope that someone can come in and rebuild what Tony Mole and Brian Buck fought so hard to bring back to Birmingham.

You say Championship teams had 4 heat leaders. Glasgow had only 2 heat leaders until Ostergaard got injured, and after that only 1 heat leader. The rest have effectively been second strings and reserves. And Glasgow finished the season in 2nd spot in the Championship table. So not as if with only one or two heat leaders they finished in the bottom half of the table. Sorry but your point that Championship teams have 4 heat leaders this season doesn't seem to hold water.

They do like a polo at the Blue Oyster.

Premier inn is 5 mins in the car. https://maps.apple.com/place?q=Premier Inn Poole Centre - Holes Bay&ll=50.725266%2C-1.991289&auid=11602194221114231704&lsp=9902&address=Holes Bay Road%2C Poole%2C BH15 2BD%2C England

I’m glad that’s over. 3 freezing meetings with nothing to get excited about. Thanks to the team for getting us there but the wheels came off just when it mattered Congratulations to the Pirates. I can’t see anything but the silverware belonging to Poole on Wednesday ....... but ........ you never say never in Speedway Also congratulations To Mildenhall on wrapping up the National Development League Championship this afternoon too

Really what a childish post. Pathetic and unjust and typical of some on this forum.

And a next level that doesn't have the majority of riders that ride as heat leaders in the top tier... The level currently from step three to step two is too big, as basically in reality it's not far off going from step three to step one in one move... Having one or two experienced old heads from the tier above in most teams brought the riders on and gave them an idea of what the next level looked like... Now you can go from learning your craft, gradually improve and move up, and be facing riders who just represented Team Great Britain in a test match v Poland...

Our boys could be rusty. Which one is it ???? More excuses than a dead horse has flies.

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

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

A fair summary. Let the best team win? As far as I'm concerned, the best team already won - the league that is. I don't believe in the playoff system, the league shows that Poole won the league and are league champions, Glasgow runners-up.

Not a fan of Matt I don't think! Imo!! How it comes across anyway.

Ashfield dry and slick at the back end of October? Good luck with that thought.

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.

As neither the BSPL Chairman or Vice-Chairman thought the biggest speedway event held in Britain this year worthy of their attendance, it’s no wonder that the belated press release - nearly 14 hours after the event was completed - gets it wrong. Having overseen the near collapse of the NDL, the league that was one of the things that helped all four of the GB riders find their way in the sport, they should now bow their heads in shame and walk away. The disastrous last few years, with problems accelerated rather than caused by Covid has shown that vested interest in decision making is dragging British speedway down the road to ruin. The new GB Team operation shows what can be done with skill, initiative, forward planning and total commitment. They deserve to be supported by people who understand about sport at the highest level and what it takes to be successful.

Sadly I have heard from more than one source that he is not the same man since a brain haemorrhage some years ago. And if that's the case, then I think people in the position to do so, should be careful what they put into print from the PC of today, should it tarnish the reputation of someone who has made an immeasurable contribution to the sport and given so much joy to so many people in speedway.

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.