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Halfway there last season - they got battered most weeks

There seems to be a conscious effort to engage with supporters through social media much more this year, can't be a bad thing. I've read the story and I can't say I found it particularly offensive or desperate, perhaps it could have had a better title but its a few words from a new signing in February, not the worst idea anyone has had.

It's getting more suspicious

So pleased for all the worky fans,,, great bunch.

But you said "It would appear that the promotion use you as a mouthpiece," which is not the case.

It's good to see from the pictures that the new Promotion want to get the track right from the start. Birmingham can be a good racers track when preparation is good.

Hi Jarekosc, I live in Scotland but I'm a big Leszno fan - see my car plate in the picture - and I'll be driving over to Leszno at Easter for their first meeting v Gorzów.

I bet Cheryl Cole hasn't forgotten it.

take your welders goggles off and read it you lazy ?

They are, we will be 4th

Basically it's a venture by a local businessman and passionate Speedway fan Andrew Bain. He has ran the Northside training track site since 2017, from which he was running Amateur meetings and Training days on. Since the demise of the Comets in 2018, there is an obvious gap in the market for Speedway in Workington. So plans to expand the track and site were drawn up with the support of the local council and it's grown from there really with Steve Lawson since getting involved to design and build the new track over the current training track site. When I spoke to Andy plans are in place to run Open meetings this summer with the backing from Rob Godfrey and the BSPL, with certain local riders earmarked to ride. Other plans for the site include riders being able to book the track for practice days, with campsite type facilites including a workshop to prepare and strip bikes, and also hot wash facilites to wash bikes on site.

Was gunna suggest THJ, but seen they mentioned 'brief account' and thought otherwise.

There will be whole sectors of the economy facing huge challenges... With the 'entertainment' sector in particular being hit massively I would suggest.. "Fortunately" for Speedway its demographic of mainly "grey pound" spenders might help it deflect some impact? In the past, the country it has been said, has "sleep walked" into recession... No one is sleep walking into what is ahead... For many, families in particular, after food and clothing, mortgage/rent, utility bills/council tax, car, mobile phones, broadband, sat tv etc etc have been paid for, not much will be left I would suggest for a lot of families. (Maybe not enough even exists in the first place).. They may even need their "grey pound" spending relatives to help... Not sure paying people 12 months money for working 6 will be too sustainable to be honest, (if it ever was)...

Alsvenskan is Wednesday, and pretty well all the Swedes bar Freddie double down. Also note that not a single Swede rode in the UK last year, or as presently stands this season too. So unless Birmingham can offer a more attractive deal than other clubs (or re-instate airline services that have been shelved?) I doubt Swedes will prove to be the answer.

Are there relegation play offs this season !!!!

Value for money. Yes, people will be tightening their belt, no doubt about it. We started couple weeks before Xmas, glad we have hide a long stretch of mild weather. Instead of turning on the heat we put extra jumper on. A smart run meeting would be a good start, meetings 2+ hours is not on at any time, never mind a cold wet March/April night. Keep the pit gates closed if tapes broke etc, riders straight to the tapes. By all means sell a full program, but provide a race sheet only for a nominal 20p or free.

If it wasn't for the Poole contingent on here, this thread would be non existent...hardly any B'ham fans make any comments? There doesn't seem to be many of us mate. Poor Lisa makes some interesting comments IMO and she seems to get pushed around quite a lot.... Bit mean IMO.

Except when you scroll down the home page to "A word from our lads"!!

Doyle - arguably the leagues top rider King - ended last season as No1 and now No2 Batchelor and Riss both started last seasons as No1 Heeps now 5th - last season heat leader Starke and Rowe both in top 5 at times last season

Could you give me the lottery numbers? No on second thoughts you'll probably get that wrong too.

HI, I thought I would create a thread where individuals can list the names of Speedway Podcasts that are currently available - some are regularly updated although some are not. To start with: Humans of Speedway, The Five - 1 Speedway Show, Memories of the Coventry Bees, No Brakes, No Fear - The Official Podcast of British Speedway, The Speedway Podcast, Talk Speedway Podcast, Tatum & Pearson, The Inside Line. The Speedway Tavern, Speedway Chat Show, Talk Speedway, The Grasstrack Banter Podcast.

Keeping this . May be worth it

Well actually I like the way they have changed the website and it’s certainly not crap

Nope, not everybody! I have erased it from my mind! Anyway 2003 is the bigger comeback so therefore much better.

Was that the 'Rosco admitting cheating' year?!

iris123 has already posted some info about Bremen http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/91176-bremen-hansastadion/ and I will add some info about Oldenburg: The Oldenburg Speedway operated for twelve years from 1952 until 1963, but they held only fifteen speedway meetings in total. The venue was the "Viktoria Kampfbahn" at Osternburg, which was a quite narrow 400m cinder track surrounding a football pitch. Here are some old photos http://www.oldenburgermedienarchiv.de/detail/media?page=1&mediafilter=all&container=tag&cid=1144 The inaugural speedway meeting at Oldenburg on July 21, 1952, was a four team event, with a packed 12,000 sell-out crowd in attendance. This meeting was won by MSC Neumünster (59 Points) from MSC Oldenburg (57 Points), MSC Bremen (44 Points) and MSC Hamburg (37 Points). Oldenburg's local hero Hans Jäger set a one lap track record (from a flying start) averaging 62.2 kph. For all the other fourteen individual meetings held at Oldenburg, these are the dates, the winners and placegetters: 2nd Meeting (July 19, 1953): 1st Hans JÄGER (Oldenburg), 2nd Fritz RINGEL (Hamburg), 3rd Hermann HUSS (Neumünster), 4th Walter GERNERT (Hamburg). 3rd Meeting (June 17, 1954): 1st Alfred DANNMEYER (Hamburg), 2nd Hans JÄGER (Oldenburg), 3rd Fritz RINGEL (Hamburg), 4th Hermann HUSS (Neumünster). 4th Meeting (May 19, 1955): 1st Heino RODICK (Oldenburg), 2nd Sedan GRAF (Hamburg), 3rd Walter GERNET (Hamburg), 4th Hans ZIOLKOWSKI (Hanover). 5th Meeting (July 29, 1956): 1st Hans JÄGER (Oldenburg), 2nd Paul CORDANG (Holland), 3rd Hans ZIERK (GDR), 4th Fritz RINGEL (Hamburg). 6th Meeting (July 28, 1957): 1st Hans JÄGER (Oldenburg), 2nd Hans ZIERK (GDR), 3rd Fritz RINGEL (Hamburg), 4th Nico VAN GORCUM (Holland). 7th Meeting (May 4, 1958): 1st Marian KAISER (Poland), 2nd Fritz RINGEL (Hamburg), 3rd Hans JÄGER (Oldenburg), 4th Ray HARRIS (England). 8th Meeting (September 14, 1958): 1st Hans ZIERK (GDR), 2nd Horst FEIST (Bremen), 3rd Manfred ZIERK (GDR), 4th Fritz RINGEL (Hamburg). 9th Meeting (May 3, 1959): 1st Ray HARRIS (England), 2nd Tommy SWEETMAN (England), 3rd Nico VAN GORCUM (Holland), 4th Hans JÄGER (Oldenburg). 10th Meeting (August 16, 1959): 1st Kurt W. PETERSEN (Denmark), 2nd Erik KASTEBO (Denmark), 3rd Fritz RINGEL (Hamburg), 4th Hans JÄGER (Oldenburg). 11th Meeting (May 8, 1960): 1st Kurt W. PETERSEN (Denmark), 2nd Erich LUTHER (Austria), 3rd Ray HARRIS (England), 4th Josef BÖSSNER (Austria). 12th Meeting (May 7, 1961): 1st Han VAN DER SLUIS (Holland), 2nd Erik KASTEBO (Denmark), 3rd H. P. BOISEN (Denmark), 4th Kalevi LAHTINEN (Finland). 13th Meeting (September 23, 1961): 1st Han VAN DER SLUIS (Holland), 2nd Alois FRACH (Oberhausen), 3rd Fritz RINGEL (Hamburg), 4th Kurt SCHWINGENSCHLÖGL (Austria). 14th Meeting (May 6, 1962): 1st Kalevi LAHTINEN (Finland), 2nd Bo HAKANSSON (Sweden), 3rd Han VAN DER SLUIS (Holland), 4th Alois FRACH (Oberhausen). 15th Meeting (April 21, 1963): 1. Poul WISSING (Denmark), 2nd Kurt W. PETERSEN (Denmark), 3rd Erik KASTEBO (Denmark), 4th Glyn CHANDLER (England).

Agree and actually think Holder is now ahead of Doyle and definitely Fricke as well, Sheffield look much better than anyone else ta the moment

Thanks for that. In the past, Ufa's streams have been OK, but not exceptional

Buster would be wise to invest in proper fish and chip fryers like mildenhall have.

The financial crash of 2008 had a marked effect on attendance at some tracks but the impact was softened by interest rates reducing to near zero putting money into peoples pockets. Sadly that’s not going to happen this time but let’s hope their savings will compensate for this!

Welcome to the forum Jarekosc. We have regular poster Stewmac as a big Leszno fan- he might post a photo of his car reg plate.

We'd have a good guest for them meetings...isn't that how speedway runs these days

Thank you.

Sarcastic head on today then?

Birmingham won't be riding away at weekends then? Redcar,Glasgow Scunthorpe,Edinburgh,Newcastle,leicester LR and Tolley said team be pushing for Playoff.

With the rising costs in utilities , petrol, food, etc will this have an affect on Speedway attendances and the entertainment industry in general with people having to decide even more so to pick and choose which if any meeting they attend. What more can promoters do to attract people through the gates on an already tight budget.

From the club Twitter: King’s Lynn skipper Josh Pickering is ready to book his flight back from Australia to the UK for the new season. That really is wringing every last ounce out of a story. He's ready to book. Do people expect in February that it has never crossed the rider's mind to book a flight?

Witches have the best no.1 and the best rising star in the league, people talk about Brennan but before his injury Rowe was touching an average above 5 riding in the main body of the team or at 6, I believe his average in both leagues would have improved if not for injury King at no.5 is up there domestically with any other 5 on his day and his day comes quite often he only seems to have the odd off night Much depends on Batch, Riss I would say Heeps and Starke will both struggle riding at 2 or 4, or 3/5 as you cant rule out what young Richard will do with the riding order Both Heeps and Starke however should score well at reserve so one counter balances the other They just need to identify through the season who is better at reserve and ensure that rider is there come the play offs

The problem, John, is that you have admitted yourself that you lost interest in speedway in the 1950's. Since then, while you have had an "association", you have had very little interest or knowledge. If you concentrate on the period about which you DO possess interest and knowledge, it would be so much better for EVERYONE, not least yourself.

Just talking $h1! as usual

Do the riders get any say in it?

How long do you think it'll take to get a md's drivethru sorted,,, or kebab shop?

Poole fans taking over the Birmingham thread again !

Maybe does, but if you use a nickname you might as well use the right one.

I think it’s july, August initially pencilled in . Good turn out for Aunty Sues funeral, with a Speedway bike on a truck leading the procession after the church service and Radetzky march played on leaving the church.

Based on some tweets today it's looking like the Discovery Group are going to partner with BT Sport going forward rather than DAZN buying out the BT Sports business. That could be good news for those like me who want to watch speedway and MotoGP.

The latest measurements hot off the press (and I will be back round with the wheel next week to confirm it again) Inside Line on the kerb 299 metres Outside Line on the boards 410 metres Straights 13.5 metres wide Bends 18.5 metres wide Camber on Bends 8% All subject to (minor) change of course but its about where it is going to be... So if the riders want to go round the boards they will really have to go full throttle at it and wind it on... Should be a really fast track with plenty of racing and passing lines that is for sure... Here's hoping... Regards THJ

I finally found the track width info about those tracks (provided by the SCB): Ipswich: Length: 285 m Home straight: 10.7 m Back straight: 10.6 m 1st and 2nd bends: 16.0 m 3rd and 4th bends: 16.5 m Redcar: Length: 271 m Home straight: 12.0 m Back straight: 11.0 m 1st and 2nd bends: 14.6 m 3rd and 4th bends: 15.6 m Scunthorpe: Length: 285 m Home straight width - 15.0 m Back straight: 13.0 mt 1st and 2nd bends: 16.0 mt 3rd and 4th bends: 16.8 mt Redcar is shorter than Foxhall, and also not as wide on the bends - so any banking must help? Scunthorpe is the same length as Foxhall, with similar bend widths, so again the banking must help - the extra width on the straights is possibly a factor in enabling different lines into and off the bends? I've asked the SCB if they can publish this info for all of the tracks.

Excellent research. Many thanks for that.

I heard about crowds of 17000 at The Abbey, people locked out, Brits being top of the world, then the Americans and Danes reigning in the 80s. Riders such as Nielsen, Gundersen, Penhall, Ermolenko, Crump. Who was this Les Collins guy?When I returned 30 years later Wimbledon, Ackney, Mauger, Briggs, Olsen, had disappeared, Poole and Coventry were top 2, and you couldnt buy year bars or rosettes anymore. GPs at a stadium in Cardiff instead of one'off finals!