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Well it’s a pity that the meeting wasn’t streamed as that was easily the best meeting at Redcar this year on a bitterly cold night. Lions deserved their point and it could have been closer if Morris hadn’t dropped points with and EF and the, quite frankly, ludicrous decision to award Riss the win in Heat 11 (awaits someone to tell me they were right in line and the ref was right) For the Bears the top 3 were as consistent as usual but it was Andersen picking up a decent score that tipped it Bears way. For the Lions Morris, Worrall and Rowe were excellent value but a disappointing return from Jorgensen cost them. Some cracking, close racing on an excellent track, Heat 15 in particular was a fantastic race. Meeting rattled along at a good pace and was over in less than an hour and a half, which was much appreciated considering how cold it was.

On the subject of Ambulances and Paramedics it would seem that with our NHS in the state its in that the only resolution Speedway can have is to have 2 x Ambulances and 2 x Paramedics and other medical support at each Fixture. I won't hear a bad word about the Paramedics at Perry Barr though as there is at least 1 rider in the past few years whose life was saved by them. (Mitch Davey) That awful incident though casts a light on just how unforseen accidents can happen in Speedway that CAN'T be legislated for and for that reason I won't attack the Promotion for the sake of it. My recollection of that night was that whilst Mitchell's life was being saved another rider was being treated for a significant broken bone injury. So in that context even with 2 Ambulances and 2 paramedics and teams; a Meeting would still have been abandoned as both crews would have been working independently and both going asap to A+E. That's an extreme scenario but no doubt a few bashers would still have found fault with it. With regards the refund policy the Club have abided strictly to the letter of the BSPL regulations as they stand. In my opinion they are WRONG to do so and a small amount of common sense and customer relation skills would have quickly come up with an alternative. My question though would be - if the Club deviate from the BSPL specific Rules would they be penalised? Would a memo come from the Ivory Towers to tell them they can't do that as it sets a dangerous precedent. There tend to be 2 types of Speedway promotion in this era, the ones that stretch the boundaries with a customer slant are all too often frowned upon by the powers that be and the ones who act like they don't give a fig about supporters and abide rigidly to the BSPL rules are seen as glowing lights. There are 2 sides to every story and 2 sides to every coin. Strictly speaking Birmingham Speedway have followed the protocols. By all means attack them if you wish but we don't know the full facts and until we do I will reserve judgement. I will be writing to the Management politely to ask these questions and hopfully I will get a reply. I think with a businessman like Nigel in charge who will understand how important good customer service is, I will get a reply. Too many Speedway tracks are closing, we are all rejoicing in the return of Oxford and quite rightly and in Jamie Courtney there is one of those more forward thinking Promoters that are bucking the trend, but lets not forget HOW LONG it took to get Oxford back and how long it took Brian Buck to get Birmingham back too from the wilderness years. Thank You

Awful take, watching riders struggling hitting ruts and lifting, letting other riders pass isn’t good racing. Some fantastic racing at Berwick this season so far, not just Bomber, who’s had a fantastic start to the season for Berwick and Peterborough, the two teams he actually rides for, maybe if you had a number 1 and didn’t have to borrow everyone else’s it wouldn’t matter.

Have to say I thought the "tribute" that was done for Nigel Pearson was appalling. It sounded like it lasted ten seconds which York felt he had to yap all the way through.

Well yeah we the diamonds got beat... But for god's sake I know the team are struggling at the present time but if fans want speedway at Newcastle keep turning up if we win or not coz if the fans don't turn up & the club promotion can't afford to run it & it closes.. that's the end of the diamonds so let's get behind Rob & his hard working staff & keep speedway alive at Newcastle

Some tremendous racing tonight ,certainly no lack of effort from the Bandits riders,we were just outridden on the night, very entertaining meeting.Not one re-run or a faller in the 15 heats.The one thing that was proven though is the present Berwick reserves are not the strongest in the league.

It’s not hatred,it’s pointing out that their treatment of the paying customer is poor.It will no doubt affect their business with new fans can’t see the value for money.Irrespective of print rules in the programme fans on Wed deserve a full refund or free admission to another meeting.IMO.

Great result for lynn last night, with picko flying and worrall at reserve you could be a tough team to beat at home this year. Lawson had a relatively off night compared to normal last night and you still ground out the win. the only question now is what happens next week when PUK leaves. I see sedgeman is looking for a ride in the UK

For anyone interested, ITV journalist, Nina Nannar has written a book about the history of the ambulance. It's a great read by all accounts.

OK 48 hours on.... I usually stop throwing my toys after 24 hours ...apologies its taken longer Moving forward.... Wednesday happened due to the club's short sightedness..... maybe? Surely, something will have to be in place for the next meeting to avoid this happening again ? I'm happy to contribute to a monthly 'fans lottery' (as mentioned in a previous post by Bandits4eva) somebody from B'ham speedway needs to get this scheme set up. I'm happy to forfeit my entrance fee from Wednesday, but I wont be attending again unless something is in place for future meetings. I hope this reads as a fair and balanced view..... Hope I'm forgiven for spitting my dummy out! More importantly.....Best Wishes to Josh for a full recovery ASAP!

Oxford put a good team on track, just beaten by a better team.

Berwick were better than the score suggests, some really good racing , especially Cook and Harris passing and repassing in heat 13, man of the match for me was Connor Bailey, outstanding from the young man

Just through the door, by god that was magic tonight. Might be the adrenaline still pumping but I can't remember a better league match than that. Heats 10, 12 and 13 were out of this world. Team looks solid from 1-7 all capable of winning heats. Fair play to the bandits they all got stuck in final score a wee bit harsh

For a club with one eye on its finances I would suggest not "too bad" a result... Win 46-44 on Sunday and the icing on the cake..

Nice to see Eleven Sports mentioning Nigel Pearson's passing...

I thought they'd have to pay you to watch that!

Just heard the the former Norwich rider is coming up to 100 this month- feeling fine and has just had his driving license renewed-his brother is 106. These speedway guys seem to last a long time-must be something in the smell of Castrol R. Proves there is hope for us all.

The double tap option isn't available but you should be able to scroll through the timeline? We also have been cutting highlights of just the races to save people who don't want the faff in between. I'd say the handover Comms to pits was much slicker for the Oxford meeting as we knew that was an issue. It gets better as it gets darker as they have a light to tell them they're live it's just hard to see in daylight On your first point, do you mean a little like the Polish coverage where two cameras are visible at once? We can clip up replays fairly easily, from different camera angles and different speeds too. The hard part is we don't control the meeting pace like Eurosport do so getting the replays in between races can be tricky. As a whole we just want to bring a product that makes most people happy. We understand not everyone likes the same thing so finding the balance will be key. We want to push ourselves as much as we can, the more signups means the more we can add onto our production for equipment/staff etc. My messages are always open if anyone has any ideas they'd like to put forward.

I personally am just happy to have a local team and have enjoyed both the meetings so far win or lose as have new people I have brought with me that have never seen speedway before I think we all knew we would be up against it this year as did we also know that Poole would be a tough ask home and away so for me that home result was not only a big learning curve for some but also the track staff (yes I agree it was extremely dusty), so all in all even with a loss I was happy with the result

Think it must be a long time since you visited then, that's an old chestnut and far from true about the current track.

I don't think Ray is being disrespectful in making a what he thinks is a valid point. I also think that if someone dies that you don't respect or like for whatever reason, justified or not in the opinion of the majority, that the most respectful reply is to say nothing at all. Thats all I have to say on the topic.

Nice tribute on Sky's Darts coverage last night

2019 when the powers that be thought it was a good idea to use social media to engage with a younger audience.

Spot on. The promotion can’t afford to lose fans so early in the season especially as they have rectified the track which was one of the reasons for poor crowds last season

Let's hope there aren't any draws, then the stupidest regulation since the Tactical Joker will not have an unnecessary impact.

Nobody want to see Birmingham gone, but then nobody wants to spend time, money and effort going to a speedway meeting only to see it abandoned due to a problem that should've been covered by the Birmingham promotion.

That's the most enjoyable evening at the AFA I've had for years. Who doesn't love a heat 15 full of passing when the result of the meeting rests on it. Thought we threw away several points tonight so to still grind it out was pleasing. Also pretty clear to see that Basso's absence on Monday was a significant factor in our win.

Perhaps the camera angle isn't great but that move didn't look that bad and nothing that Hans wouldn't have done in his pomp.

Reflecting on this now having absorbed all the tributes and comments, it's clear that speedway, in the modern age, has lost its greatest ever promoter. I can't recall such an outpouring of grief and admiration for someone involved in speedway who wasn't a rider. Nigel spent years promoting nothing but positivity in so many aspects of speedway that his contributions were quite extraordinary and surely without precedent. Crikey, he even ghost wrote Kelvin's recent book(s)! This really is a case of you don't know what you've got until its gone. A truly tragic loss.

You can probably give Etheridge a pass if he's not 100% fit but Bickley has made zero progress. It's sad as he was a brilliant youngster but it just doesn't seem to be working at senior level.

However the short term deal was announced Belle Vue will go into the league having made a change But I'm sure if others want to make a change it will happen as all 6 clubs need to keep each other sweet

Totally agree re the if's and but's. Which is why I mentioned Scott Nicholls having a bad day at the office. But Foreverblue was more or less gloating that Poole has a Conference Leagie rider at reserve while completely forgetting Oxford also did. Maybe the dust obscured his/her vision through their blue tinted spectacles.

They don't want to waste money entertaining the opposition's crowd, knowing they'll get hammered anyway . Save face and have a Guest at home to entertain your own fans.

Kubera was very similiar to Pedersen's crash he had in Denmark on wednesday. Airbags done their job.

Oh yeah, sorry. I forgot to quote the bit I was replying to!

But Poole were built using a CL rider at reserve Oxford were not. Still it was there choice not to get a guest so you can’t really moan about it.

I thought he did too! lets hope he can do a few more. - Paul

Than Sedgemen? Absolutely.

I was thinking about Iversen's situation hes only there for next week

Ta-ra!

In what universe is that a good team? Missing 4th in their averages and a CL rider guesting at reserve. Everyone knew given the circumstances Oxford were up against it

Neither of them would solve Newcastle’s Team problem IMO.

Quite chunky. It's a rest in peace thread not a debate about if you liked them or not

I went on Sunday and heard the announcements on the back straight. Everyone seemed very helpful, all the volunteers were welcoming. The ref was too slow keeping things moving along. I understand that the air fence was given to them by Len but without blowers. Apparently the blowers they used were nearly new and all tested and working on Saturday. Equipment failure happens, it’s a shame it happened at their opening meeting. There was a wait for food which needs addressing but they were friendly and very apologetic. Perhaps some changes to the food offering is required. I went to the ladies loo on the way in. They are in a portacabin type structure, very basic and a bit tired but they were clean, there was loo roll, hot water and soap. I went again a bit later and there was a broken loo seat which meant we were using only one loo. They were a bit scruffy by then but that’s partly down to the users who had dropped tissue and rubbish on the floor. Would have liked to have had a bar, a half or two of cider always goes down well at a meeting, and agree it was a bit dull between heats, think a roaming presenter is what’s needed, someone with a bit of energy and not a monotonous voice as one of the previous kent announcers had. All in all, the racing was close, Kent won, and I am just very grateful to have league racing in Kent. If we keep on supporting them then hopefully they can improve the facilities.

You are missing the point, in my opinion There were many on here who slated his commentary and Kelvin's. Those very same people might be saying 'RIP etc etc'. Diamondboy pointed out that there have been negative comments in the past and was berated for saying so. Therefore, when someone is alive you can slate them, but when they pass away and especially at a youngish age, they suddenly deserve respect. Sorry, but I find that weird! Nigel is not going to hear/read those positive testimonies, but he might have read the negative comments about himself, when he was alive!

On another note, yesterday was the first time I watched Josh Pickering live. Lynn fans are in for a treat this year, what an entertainer!

Not saying it because he's no longer with us, always loved his commentary. Sky Sports in general had that tendancy to be over the top in their presentation and Nige certainly was of that ilk. As previously said on here, speedway commentary where there are long gaps to fill, followed by quick bursts of action, is a thankless task and he did it with absolute aplomb. Due to my friendship with Phil Rising I had the pleasure of a night on the Guiness with he, Nigel, kelv and a few others. Nige was as enthusiatic in the boozer as he was in the commentry booth. But more importantly , super polite, respectful and just a lovely guy. Speedway has lost a very hard working ally, but the world has lost a bloody decent bloke. Rest east Nige, enjoy having the best seat in the house for all futre GPs.

Back to kent and huge credit to those where its due. Si Kellow has stepped up and delivered a competitive team at a venue at short notice when speedway in the south east looked buried. Graham at Iwade has transformed a once patchy bumpy track into a smooth fast surface with multiple lines. The volunteers who helped along every step of the way must all be delighted with the opening crowd and if most keep returning plus visitors then numbers should be strong throughout the year.

Leszno v Gorzow Sunday April 17th https://vk.com/video-81427162_456239160?list=b05a986140b90fa45f&fbclid=IwAR0iI-yQCRcL8ep1kcQ7UFEMCoKKjPdalOdqPZSjeic4X1Ky7KqurPmCozo Great meeting do not miss !!

There was no dust at all. Not sure why it is being bought up. Track is in great condition, no ifs, buts or maybe’s.