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Opening meeting SOLD OUT

I raise you Justin Elkins.

Could it just be that people think he talks crap

Very lucky with the weather. Rain arrived just after heat 15 and any delays would have seen the meeting ended before then. Some very decent racing for Bjarne. Zack Cook possibly the pick of the riders on display being unbeaten until heat 15 when he was shut out. Thanks to Bjarne for serving up some great racing over a long and successful career.

Leicester may not have the best race track in the UK (there can only be one of them) but a more accurate statement would be "people always use to say it is the shape that causes the problems" - Given the changes made over the past few years to the shape, length and banking of the track , the only folk who now continue to cite the track as "poor" or "wrong" are those who have not attended a Leicester meeting in recent times or expect something which frankly speedway never deliver's anywhere - ever - i.e. 4 laps of racing with many multiple passes in all races. Meanwhile those who have attended meetings at Leicester will have seen comparable racing/passes to that seen at most UK tracks and not just for the front two places but also for the minor (but just as important) third place.

Last few hours where I am. Proper blizzards too. Merry Christmas everyone!

Glad to hear that. Watching the Diamonds is a big enough pain in the ass . Sorry couldn't resist but really glad to hear in all seriousness that the Redcar promotion have listened to the fans in this respect. One of the reason's I lost interest. Takes all the momentum from a meeting.

I have now amended my prediction. Glasgow Redcar Leicester Berwick Oxford Scunthorpe Birmingham Plymouth Newcastle Edinburgh Poole

Glasgow Poole Leicester Redcar Scunthorpe Plymouth Berwick Edinburgh Oxford Birmingham Newcastle I think some people are overestimating Oxford and Berwick and underestimating Scunthorpe and Plymouth.

I am pretty sure he turned up for the Craven meeting, T Kurtz meeting & the L Cup meeting!

Game set and match to you !!!

There was a Good Friday when some of Leicester team couldn't get to King's Lynn because of snow blocking the A47, I've read. It gave Mike Lee a chance which he grabbed with both hands.

Any sceptic (me included) is thinking that if Kennett does line up for the first meeting it will be the only time. Now mouths have been opened would the mafia allow it to happen when its pretty clear its a dodgy deal.

Good luck to all the riders, and in particular for me Hans Weber. Been catching up with some of the Russian domestic stuff and Weber really has proved himself as competitive as I've seen anyone with the Russians. If he becomes champion, ignoring debates about the credibility of a win without the Russians, he most certainly would be worthy.

Whilst it may be cold at the speedway,you would save a fortune by going and not putting the central heating on.

Would Zagar cost more than Bewley, or even Woffy?. And how much could it cost them in lost gate receipts if fans stay away thinking they are not competitive enough?

Getting a losing point for getting within 6 at away tracks.

That's good!

Was going to come down for this but have changed my mind and will order a stream. Will venture down for the league meeting. The stream for £11.99 is a bargain and when you consider the price of diesel at the moment plus entry and program, a trip to Plymouth would see a spend of approx £80 plus half a day. No brainer.

Yes all our home matches are being streamed.

This a wooosh moment lisa.

https://www.eurosport.co.uk/speedway/speedway-grand-prix-2022-what-it-is-how-to-watch-race-calendar-who-is-taking-part_sto8867362/story.shtml Eurosport2 then.... HOW TO WATCH? Discovery+ will provide live, ad-free coverage of every race as well as interactive services. Race action will also be live on Eurosport 2, with highlights and reaction on the Eurosport website.

Afraid your looking back at speedway promoting history through rose tinted glasses.

The fans might get behind him but most of the riders will be in front of him unfortunately.

I think that Speedway in latter times has been a closed shop run by and for what in my opinion is a bunch of spivs and wide boys. They effectively forced Frost and arguably Sandhu out of the sport and probably Ged Rathbone too. In days of yore the sport was in the hands of hard nosed business men who however had standards and honour and integrity.

Great news for all at Plymouth that Kennett can continue in the side. The other signing seems to have hit snagging problems in that he is already riding over here in the Premiership aswell as abroad and was veto‘d on that reason. Seems crazy when there is a rider shortage as there is without blocking teams further. Not to worry for Plymouth fans, as on the face of it they have a fantastic team, especially around their home track.

Yes,,, winner winner, my record stays intact a bit longer

Under the rule “in the best interests of the sport “ no doubt.

It's a complete waste of money renewing equipment every year, it's a trend thing and nothing to do with performance. Covers, fair enough if your sponsors have changed massively due to moving to a new area of the country. Josh has always had the same colour scheme, lots of riders do eg NKI, Nicki P.

We did not have a internal. Only breaks in proceedings were for track work and when riders had two on the trot. Redcar have a policy of no intervals after listening to what fans wanted last year.

Top scoring apparently.

Brass monkeys out there alright! Supposed to be pretty windy today too so factor in the wind chill and it’ll be pretty painful standing around tonight. Please just crack on with it and don’t pi$$ about with a bloody interval..

There isnt thats true Im sure that if anyone of the team isnt pulling his weight then a change will be made if someone is available that is but until then you just have to give them another chance after last season when they all did there bit to make it such a good season

Kennett has changed his mind! It's on the website on latest news!!

Why anyone would want to make an issue of this is beyond me! So what if Joe Thompson (or Lewis Kerr) never rode for Coventry? This wasn't to have been any kind of official fixture - just a challenge match, and as Coventry haven't raced for the last 6 years there is bound to be a declining number of their former riders still available. Surely the objective was to put out a team which would have been competitive and would have had a genuine chance of winning - so if it had included a couple of guests, so what?

Because right at the outset in the Torun press conference they said so- and why do you think the UK is any more important to them than Poland ?. To be fair apart from when Eurosport had the GP contract for a couple of years when SKY pulled out and BSI were struggling to find a buyer for the UK it has always been on subscription with SKY and BT.

Where are the riders going to come from ? Belle Vue can’t get a full 7 this year

Crang rode for the NL side and Joe T was a mascot I believe. The match is Vs "Coventry select" no mention of bees Want to pedantic what was Richard Lawson doing in a "Brummies past and present" side at Wolverhampton?

Not technically the same Peterborough !! but the select version, every team has a second select version do they not , Harris maybe riding at Poole now as the team member replacing the guest who was replacing an injured rider who was guesting for him

It was announced this morning that following the success of the Monarchs Speedway Academy an additional team would join the Northern Junior League. The team are named the Armadale Angels. Introducing the Armadale Angels | News Centre | Edinburgh Monarchs Speedway | Official Club Website

Yeah I totally get that, he's been and still is a great servant to British speedway and when he's on it is definitely one of the most entertaining riders in this country. Now this is going back to his gp days it's just frustrating when he's being interviewed on tv and still says he's searching for the right set up etc if he hasn't learnt it in 20+ years hes's never going too.

Nice to see a solid all round performance from Kent ,,Looking good for an enjoyable season..

And i suppose your association with Terry Lindon was spotlessly clean

Not pilot or pit crew related then...... Mustve had quite run of bad luck with fuel over the years then

I fear a good tonking for the Brummies. Will Ellis be in France, Poland, his back garden or timbucktoo? If he is there will he have one of his better bikes. You certainly need a motor round Berwick. I think Proctor and Pijper are astute signings tailor made for that very exciting banking. Flint is reaching undoubted potential now and in Bomber and Wells 2 proper heat leaders and Etheridge is a PL reserve too and like Bickley a track specialist. As for streaming, a great initiative I wish well but is it really going to attract new support? I'll be happy if it keeps existing support enthused enough to keep supporting at home and may be entice a few previous fans to try again. No point getting new fans in if old ones are drifting off in greater numbers or cherry picking matches. Berwick under the Courtney's are bucking trends and succeeding in growing the sport. Good luck to them. I look forward to watching the stream.

For the years of racing experience Harris has, the amount of mechanical failures he has is ridiculous! You barely see him go through a meeting without breaking down once.

Well I've waited and waited to do my Championship predictions, waiting for 11 full 1-7s and it's the end of March and it's still yet to happen. So I am just going to go ahead and do it now anyway, sick of waiting!! 1. Leicester - In my opinion the team that looks the strongest for a full season. Easily unbeatable at home with home specialists throughout the team and the second strongest heat leader trio in the league, particularly at home. Connor and the Thompson twins also know Beaumont Park like the back of their hands and Anders will only get better I'm sure, he's a good prospect down at reserve. I think over the course of the full season they will be the strongest team and will take some beating. 2. Glasgow - Have a solid team through 1 to 7, have decent enough reserves and a very good number 1. Ben Basso and Ulrich should provide endless amount of entertainment and Broc is a very decent number 2 alongside Cookie. Don't think they're quite as strong as Leicester, but they will probably go unbeaten at home and get many points on the road also. 3. Poole - THE strongest heat leader trio bar none in the league, the only thing that lets them down is their second strings might struggle on the road, they're not the strongest and don't have the most experience of other tracks. Nathan Ablitt is also a bit of a question mark for me, I think he should do alright at home on a track he's riding week in week out, but away on tracks like Shielfield and Brough, he may struggle, is it a year too early for him? Time will tell. Poole however are my favourites for the end of season tournament we all refer to as the playoffs (vs Leicester). 4. Redcar - Very solid heat leader trio and two decent second strings, I was gutted when Adam didn't resign with my beloved Diamonds. Kasper Andersen will surprise a few this season I think and the two lads at reserve, particularly Jordan, should fly at home this season. I predict a very good season for the Bears this year and I wish them all the luck in the world, being our nearest and dearest, should comfortably make the playoffs imo and all four of the top 4 I have named are a class above everyone else. 5. Oxford - Have named a solid enough team for their return season, Scotty and Troy should be able to beat anyone in this league and provide all the experience needed for the younger riders in the team. Kyle and Cameron is a decent 3/4 partnership and I am interested to see how Jack Thomas kicks on this year after coming on so well last year. Josh MacDonald and Dillon Ruml is also an impressive reserve partnership, I think Oxford should make the playoffs this year. 6. Plymouth - Quite hard to tell without them having a complete septet however, based on the six they have named so far if they can add even an average rider as their final rider they should be a pretty strong outfit. I think Dan Gilkes and Henry Atkins will be 2 of the most overlooked reserves in the league this season and I feel they will both be pushing for a position in the 1-5 (oh well, just means Alfie Bowtell at reserve instead!!) Ben Barker and MPT will provide years of experience and plenty entertainment and Hans should be a solid enough number 1. I expect Plymouth to be the underrated dark horses of the league this year. Would love to see young Ben Trigger getting a couple opportunities at reserve if the chance arises also, think he's one of Britain's biggest talents coming through and looked just as good, if not better, than Henry at the P&P already. 7. Berwick - Yes yes, Jye and Kyle is the best reserve partnership in the league as every Berwick fan likes to keep reminding me and I do agree. However, they do have a couple of ageing riders and a couple who have a lot to make up for after disappointing season last year. Ricky Wells is not a number 5 and whoever the hell Chris Allen is?? He's not a number 1 either In all seriousness, other than Leon and Chris (Harris ) all the 1-5 need a downgrade in the team really (Ricky 5 --> 3, Theo 3 --> 4, Ty 4 --> 2 etc...) Berwick look ok, and maybe they will push for the playoffs, but I don't see them quite making them. 8. Edinburgh - Another brilliant top 2 by the Monarchs, Sam Masters and Josh Pickering is brilliant for this league. Joshie Pickering is probably the most entertaining rider in the league. However beyond this, the Monarchs offer very little for me. There will be a lot of pressure on Kye and Paco to help along the team, taking pressure off the 2 new lads (Lasse and Jacob) and heaven forbid either of them two turn out to be terrible for this level, Edinburgh could find themselves even further down the table imo. Sam and Josh basically need to go unbeaten in even meeting just to take pressure of the incredibly long tail that Edinburgh have almost become famous for. I do generally like the Monarchs, so I hope I'm wrong. 9. Scunthorpe - Scunthorpe have gone for a very familiar team, they've got decent reserves and Ryan Douglas should be a brilliant number 1. Hopefully Jordan Palin can carry on how he finished last year, another pretty average team for the Scorpions who do admittedly have the potential to finish higher if all the riders click. 10. Birmingham - Pretty bad looking side by the Brummies, although who can blame them due to their circumstances, it could have been an awful lot worse for them. There's a lot of pressure on Ashley and James (Shanes) to perform as second strings most of the year, although I feel Stefan will probably want one of they spaces sooner rather than later. James Pearson looks like a good prospect, but there should hopefully not be too much pressure on him while he finds his feet over here. Adam Ellis and Claus Vissing is a very good top 2 considering what it could have been at one point. All of this being said however, I don't see them finishing any better off than the teams above them in this list. 11. Newcastle - I'll always be as positive as possible and as optimistic as I can be about my Newcastle Diamonds, however in this list I have tried to be as honest as I can be. We are so far under the limit once again and our team is pretty disappointing tbh. Yes, we have had some difficult situations over the winter and I am as delighted as anyone about actually having a team to support again when it wasn't looking likely at one point, however we haven't constructed a team as good as we could have done imo and for that reason, I see the same situation planning out next winter too. I'm sorry but BWD as number 1 doesn't impress me at all. Positive point about the team however is James, Matty and Max are always pretty decent value for money at home and Paul Starke is a solid rider also (yet not really a number 5) Will be interesting to see how Lee Complin returns, he should be fairly entertaining and hopefully George can ride well at reserve, although early signs at Redcar don't look as promising as I thought they could be. I predict another bottom of the table finish unfortunately I seriously hope I'm wrong... I have tried to be as open and honest as I could be with this list, please let me know what yous think, what yous agree/disagree with. Will be an interesting discussion Thanks for reading my post, the length of which @TotallyHonestJohn would be proud of.

Glasgow Redcar Poole Leicester Berwick Oxford Scunthorpe Birmingham Plymouth Newcastle Edinburgh

Laguta Sunrise by Black Sabbath

Having been a supporter of Hackney and Rye House for many years (both unfortunately gone now) Having recently moved to Lincolnshire, I was impressed with the track and met some lovely people last night. Ryan and Terio looked good. looking forward to coming to back and adopting Scunthorpe as my new team to watch. I wish all the team well for the new season.