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Still missing my point i think.Whilst i said speedway is mainly a points game,it's also about entertainment.I also said i would take Pickering on a 9,even though he probably wouldn't maintain that average his entertainment and everything that goes with him atm is worth it.Of course it's always nice to win,but the people i have spoke to after our home meetings haven't mentioned the wins just the about the great rides Pickering has had.As i said in a previous post too,atm newcomers to the sport want to see great racing they are not necessarily concerned with wins atm.Pickering is probably the main reason why the newcomers around me have come back again.It's hard to get kids of 14/15 out to speedway now but they have come back for more. If i was Sheffield i would have took Pickering over Ellis for the reason Sheffield would have still been the team to beat.Plus they would have one brilliant entertainer in their team.That's a brilliant recipe for getting people back.

Oh shut up!!! Its sad that Josh was injured but he was not riding to entertain he was riding because he is paid to do so!!! Doesnt matter on the figures he doesnt do to entertain!!! Anyone who thinks that is an idiot!!

Indeed.... If they did it for free then that is "for our entertainment".... For so many it is their only job so they are professional sportsmen investing in very expensive kit to deliver a much greater return in earnings.... A "risky profession" no doubt, but so is Boxing, MMA, Skiing, Other motor sports etc... Not to mention Firefighting, Police, and the Armed Services... None of the above anyone does "for our entertainment"... Some do it for the money, some for the adrenaline rush... No more than that. ..

Pretty awful track conditions tonight led to a dull gate and go meeting. Far too slick and underwatered. They were watering the track before the meeting but it needed more by heat 8 and nothing. Just grading. Got quite dusty at the end and some riders were far from happy. Get the water down. Sod it if riders moan. The paying public come first.

As usual it's a rule which is far from clear and could be interpreted a dozen different ways and you can understand why some might be disgruntled by the signing. For me it's ok because Allen was declared as a temporary signing, because the league hasn't started and because Zagar enhances the product and will put more bums on seats.

Because it was worth shouting about after the processional racing Bandits fans have been used to in recent seasons

A might get the young-un to mention that to the teacher today.

All this seems rubbish. Aces signed Allen on a temporary basis, no league matches have even been ridden. So Allen was only in the team for the Northern League Cup fixtures. What is the difference in what Belle Vue have done & Kings Lynn? Iversen isn't sticking around much longer is he?

You certainly won't be in the Q Mr scatter cash NOT

Sure it wasn't him doing his hair?

75-15

Brilliant experience for young riders. We really should thank the Poles for training our future(we hope) riders , and giving them wider experience and knowledge of proper quality speedway tracks.

RULE 012.4 A certain Premiership team can make up their own rules as they go along if they wish to do so. RULE 012.5 All other Premiership teams must abide by the rules that were set at the AGM.

010.3 Rule quoted in previous posts is the key factor as to whether BV have broken any rule. What actually is the start of the season ? in my view it is the first official meeting of the new season be it Cup or League. Therefore BV have broken the rules. Surely if they get away with this, this season everyone will follow suit next year, and put a trial rider in at the start, and change it if they are not successful.

And some may enjoy the speedway and badger their parents or guardians to go again.... "It's free for me Dad" was always music to my ears.... When they are not there now, there is no loss to giving it a go... And when you own the food and drink outlets, the higher the footfall the more chance you have of taking money..

I’m from Manchester and not a City or United fan but no doubt United are a way way bigger club than City …..sits back and waits for the abuse !…true though its obvious Belle Vue had signed Zagar before the season start and were waiting on visa confirmation so signed Jake Allen on a 28 day contract to cover the delay….I can’t see any rules broken and surely it’s better for all supporters to see a rider like Zagar visit their track …I know I’m really pleased to see riders like Jason Doyle back and riders like Musielak ride here and for me the more real top level elite riders ride here the better

Ah the old for our entertainment rubbish again

Aren't you being a bit cynical, Polish league is where its at, even Under-24 level, I applaud Bickley for giving it a go, surely putting himself out of his comfort zone of British league can only do him good.

What a beautiful day here in the south west to give the scorpions a good hiding tonight cannot wait.

Sorry Can you repeat that Please

An amazing find by Stewmac is this video library- there are folders for Extraleague, E Winner, Div 2 etc https://vk.com/video/@speedway.portal?fbclid=IwAR06VXjb1Nzli-EGnhuFgY0dqERA6s5WXP5l0zjBAVMJYASb3OD3GxJzyZw

Spot on... The Aces team is within the average that all teams should be built to so no issues at all... The sport hamstrings itself with all sort of nonsense and given the rules it allows to be used it almost commits Harakiri rather than giving itself an opportunity to be taken seriously... The more "top riders" over here the better, and everyone seems to recognise that more riders are needed, so getting more quality over here has to be the perfect solution to that problem.... If they ever want the sport to be taken seriously then EVERY team should make whatever changes they want as long as it comes within whatever the designated average is.... If that means seven changes after a month then so be it... If nothing else it means that the League is seen as something worth winning rather than "as long as we win at home" being the mantra... Use the League Cup as a competition to assess how you are doing then (if you wish), make as many changes as you want (depending on the average allowed and rider availability of course) for the "main show"....

For at least the last 10 years he has stood outside the season ticket turnstile gate .. so unless you sneak in under the fence I am surprised you have never seen him at home meetings

Very poor PR. Might come back to haunt them,at least if crowd levels don’t improve they dont have to look far for answers.Themselves.

I was told at Lakeside some years agi that Lawson didn't like being v in heat 1 so would seek to let teammates win and pick up the bonus point when possible and safe to do so. The rumour was that he was often late because Mrs L took so long doing her make up. So Heat 4 was his favoured first race.

Team will change for Tigers. Broc Nicol to reserve, Danyon Hume goes up?

A point from armadale would do me. Hopefully ulle doesn't have any issues first time back, basso was very good there for Poole. Second strings probably decide the outcome

So maybe all riders should be signed on 28 day contracts in future... Nothing in rules to say this not allowed and then a team can make as many changes as they wish...

Think that our reserves should seal the deal with this match.

It's on the anniversary of when you signed up - so will expire 29th May. Shame you didn't sign up a few weeks back when they had a years pass for £29.

There’s no doubt Poland is the place to be.It’s a tough gig though.

They would still be behind you in the queue

That might be to do with having more close races, rather than “gate and go”

I going to stand level with the start line.

So as Kildemand is injured,Lynn can take Zagar from under Belle Vue's nose Think Lynn are sorted anyway

The rules just say this: 010.3 TEAM DECLARATIONS Teams must be declared prior to the start of the season. 012.2 A Premiership Transfer Window opens after 25% of the League fixtures are complete and closes when 75% of League fixtures are complete. This permits changes to the team on 2 occasions, except for proven long term injury. It doesn't say anything about being able to change the initial declaration prior to the league campaign.

In general the guest facility will remain as long as the rider is injured. However if a rider retires or withholds his services a 28 day facility is the most likely outcome.

If the "25% of meetings completed rule" had been clarified publicly then I am sure everyone would understand why things have happened the way they have.. Not like British Speedway to lack clarity in the rules it brings in is it? .. First time for everything...

Two pages of how to decide who crossed the line first and lots of suggestions on what should be done. Why don’t you just ask me and Sidewinder who crossed the line first, we always agree ….

What you are talking about is the accelerometer on the bike, which is different to a transponder.

There is a slight difference between the two. Lynn signed and declared a full 1-7, and then lost one of those declared riders (Kildermand) through injury so picked up an injury replacement short term to cover that rider. Belle Vue on the other hand signed 6 riders and then signed a rider on a short term deal from the get go while they continued to either play the waiting game and shop around, or wait for a particular target. Nobody seems to know the full ins and outs of this new 25% rule, and I doubt we’ll ever know. If the rules allow you to declare a full 1-7 by the time of your first league meeting then there isn’t an issue, but if it’s a case of no changes allowed until 25% of league fixtures have been completed once the season in general has started, then signing a rider on a short term deal seems a bit of a cop out. For example, I know for a fact Chris Louis contacted Klindt again during the winter to enquire about his plans, and he wasn’t available, so built a side without him. Now I know Belle Vue have signed Zagar, if they hadn’t and they’d quickly snapped up Klindt now he’s been dropped by his Polish club and is suddenly available, would that be fair? Is it right that a club who signs a temporary rider to play the waiting game, suddenly has a bigger pool of riders to choose from than those who built their sides before the season started? Again I’m not saying Belle Vue have done anything wrong here. The rules might permit any club to change their whole 1-7 if they so wish as long as it’s before the league campaign gets underway. It would just be nice to get some clarity on this rule, and rules in general! As ever, we all seem to be left in the dark.

Cheers for the heads up, saves Saturdays match clashing with the first GP of the season

Good point for Scunny, I thought we were going to get another beating.

There will be a fair few missing this week from what I've seen. What's not going to help is,, first league meeting against a strengthened Belle Vue,, lose that and it will be a case of here we go again. Me personally I would at least try and strengthen,, pull off the win against belle Vue,, totally different story

Thanks for the condescending clarification. As I said, I hadn't read the rule's wording - and, I agree, it would be pretty daft!! But then, as Patryk Dudek says to begin virtually every interview, ....'this is speedway'. I know Mark Lemon attracts quite a lot of criticism - and I haven't agreed with his decision-making all the time - but has he broken any rules by taking so long to finalise his team? Obviously not if the signing of Matej Zagar has now been ratified. So, what exactly is the different kettle of fish entirely? Whilst the lack of concrete information coming out of the NSS might well have been frustrating for the Aces' fans, Lemon obviously chose to bide his time as he wasn't under any 'deadline' pressure to complete the line-up. We do know there were discussions to try and bring Dan Bewley back into the team (as Lemon himself discussed in full in the matchday programme) and also Tai Woffinden (as Tai himself went into great detail about more than once at the PCMT meeting). It must have then been decided to approach Matej Zagar, but his availability was subject to him obtaining the necessary visa - so Lemon signed another rider, Jake Allen, for a 28-day period to fill the team place whilst this was being processed. All within the rules it would appear. The League Cup has seemingly been 'sacrificed' so that all this could happen, and the Aces slipped to two home last heat decider defeats. Jake obviously hasn't had the start to the season he would have wanted – but other riders in the team have struggled to find consistent scoring too so far. So, in fairness to him, the losses haven't all been down to Jake's scoring - or lack of. Anyway, we now wait to see if / when the other 5 teams start getting the same kind of criticism that has been levelled at Belle Vue, and Mark Lemon in particular. If we find one or more teams making a change after 25% of their league matches, then maybe they'll attract criticism for signing up poor-performing riders so quickly, and some might say that they should have taken more time to assemble their team in much the same way as Belle Vue have??

First and foremost… they’re both Bandits fans! Appreciate the fact that the No.1 of their team pulled off a race like that! Can’t blame either of them for getting excited!

Matcham's Park held speedway style "Mini Longtrack" meetings from the late 80s to 1993. We went to the first meeting of 1993 (IIRC Ringwood v Rye House) only to be turned away at the entrance. Never got inside, although I'd seen F1 stocks there previously, but it seemed they had put a speedway type track around the outside of the stock car one but leaving the fixed car fence in place on the inside. Sadly a sidecar passenger had been killed hitting that fence during afternoon practice, causing the cancellation and I assume, an end to the whole project, as no bikes seen there since. In later years the complex was subject to a Great British Rip Off with people being charged up to £40 to enter a "Lapland Wonderland" leading up to Christmas. This included seeing 2 plastic polar bear models, several chained up huskies, labelled as wolves, and a "magic tunnel of light" made up of a few "Poundland" Christmas Tree lights, thrown over some garden netting. Santa was seen having a smoke next to the "state of the art" Portaloos before handing out potentially hazardous plastic toys to children who had queued for a couple of hours for the privilege. To top it all a naturally irate parent was seen punching an "elf" in frustration. Like at speedway tracks I assume they had an "Elf Warning" on display at the entrance. Regarding the possible return of speedway to Southampton, the stadium/track plans produced are amazing and professionally drafted, so it would be great if it happened. Good luck to all involved.

If u had ur own business......from a customer service point of view, if u had a car park on ur forecourt the same as Leicester's stadium car park would u expect customer's to park in someone else's car park if they didn't like it and walk the same distance? Able bodied or otherwise! I'm sure u r David Hemsley now! Also the unused areas around the stadium were in the plans for BMX 5 a side etc to convince the council it was a community project, I guess the car park was also stated to be tarmac but none of these av materialised but somehow Hemsley is seemingly getting away with it. Yep, great to av the speedway but it makes yer wonder how many strokes were pulled.

Aside from mobility issues when it's been raining the holes fill with muddy water which is not a great when u put ur feet out of the car into one. This is hard to avoid when there are so many! If I was a promoter I would not expect people with mobility issues to walk even further, as ur suggesting, from the shopping centre. Why do u think supermarkets etc av disabled parking near the entrance to the supermarket. And they then would still need to walk through the car park at the stadium! The buggy at Leicester is a great idea but maybe that shud start from the shopping centre car park upon ur suggestion! Are u sure ur not David Hemsley in disguise? P.s it may only be a couple of mins walk for most folk from the other car park but the opposite is true for those with any disability not just mobility.