Leaderboard

But this is where it yet again goes back to the clueless rule makers. in 2012/2013 when the titanium ban was lifted everyone consulted, told them, it's not needed, it will just drive up cost, so what did they do? allowed it back in, what did it do? drove up cost. They consulted on Rev Limiters, then go and set a limit that changes nothing regarding servicing requirements and cost. If you want to stop the Karger type ignitions, then ban them. Unfortunately, the technical knowledge that is around is ignored in favour of those making money out of the sport. UK speedway will allow itself to die a slow and costly death whilst ignoring what is obvious to most of us. They are terrified of actually making a bold decision and would rather keep putting a Band-Aid over a malignant tumour hoping somehow a miracle will happen BTW speedway riders being like sheep have largely ignored the Karger ignition since it came out as most didn't understand how it could be used. Everyone jumped on it after Anders Thomsen won his GP on one earlier in the year. They'll be back to buying their £300 clutch levers soon

Having spoken on the subject to some of the members of the Save Coventry Stadium group, I can appreciate that they are fully on top of things so I think it best not to complicate things for them by e-mailing individual councillors. The group have done a great job so far, and will continue to do so, so the campaign is by no means over just yet.

With the cut-off date having been set as the conclusion of fixtures on Thursday September 22 and the meeting with Ipswich next Monday having been cancelled, I'm guessing that the match with Ipswich won't now take place at all. The ridiculous prospect of having to organise a last-minute 'double header' (or determine final league positions on the toss of a coin!) just adds further hilarity to the laughing stock that is premiership speedway. Between April and September there have been 26 Thursdays and 26 Mondays, yet the league management and Owlerton hierarchy have conspired to make a cock-up of fitting in ten home league matches. Considering the vast length of week-after-week inactivity that have dogged us throughout the summer, it is yet another shameful spectacle that we should encounter such a backlog of fixtures at this late stage. But the season's not over yet.... as well as the Ipswich fixture, we have home matches with Kings Lynn and Belle Vue also to fit in, and just nine days to do it! What's the weather forecast for this Autumn period?

Mr Gillias will have to declare an interest and withdraw. He won't have any choice but to do that, but he can be useful in making his views known to his colleagues. At the Perry Barr planning application, we initially obtained a three year temporary planning consent and before we applied for full planning we invited the members of the planning committee to come and watch a meeting. Only one of them accepted the invitation. She came, and she loved it, but the downside was that she then had to ask the chairman whether or not she needed to withdraw from the planning meeting. She was asked why she had accepted the invite to watch the speedway and replied that she wanted to see what it was all about before she made a decision. She was then asked whether or not she had given any indication of which way she intended to vote. She replied that no, she hadn't but that she had "jumped up and down all evening because it was so exciting." She was then told that she must withdraw but before she left the chamber she called out in a loud voice: "It was wonderful, wonderful." " I loved every moment of it." It was a very powerful influence on the other members of the committee, and was I grateful to her for this.

No- no relegation play-off. Winners only promoted.

He messed up last year at Scunthorpe when he tried to bring a TacSub in Heat 8 which is a protected heat ?? The Plonker

Not being able to squeeze in 10 home league fixtures in the best part of six months is truly shocking although it is not that surprising given the way Speedway is run these days!

Kings Lynn are not much better, and results could affect final position - home against Wolves on 22nd which will be ok if weather plays ball, but also have home against Belle Vue which was Monday 19th. The way I see it KIngs Lynn and Sheffield both need double headers on 22nd, both including Belle Vue - I'm sure BV could send half a team to each match and fill other half of each team with guests (using guests from Wolves/Ipswich as appropriate) - all in the best interests of the sport of course...

What Dean says is true; in the old Weslake days speedway bikes revved to around 9,000RPM, now they often rev to 12,000 or more (!), which is too much for a 4-stroke single cylinder engine. A bit like riding a regular i.e. not sporty, bike on the road or driving your car in 1st or 2nd gear all the time. There was an excellent 'lockdown interview', could been by Lee Ashby ?, with Shawn Tacey and one of the posted questions was if 'speedway bikes rev more and produce more power, why aren't more track records being broken ?'. Tacey said due to the higher revs and modern tyres the back wheel is spinning so many more RPMs faster, I forget the actual figures quoted, & tracks are slicker to cope so not producing hardly any more speed, if any. I recall a series of Speedway Star articles on the Czech Golden Helmet meeting in Pardbuce (sp?), the 'Star' interviewing winners like Jeremy Doncaster & Jason Doyle. I forget which it was but one said he was amazed that the winner's times in the older 2valve JAWA days with spindly telepscopic forks and lower power outputs were not that different from more the modern machinery of higher revvimg GMs with leading link forks, better frames etc. Think this was when Ole Olsen semi-seriously suggested changing back to 2 v JAWAs, I don't think the Pardubice (sp?) track has changed since it was built, possibly a bit slicker surface ?. So, yeah, as Dean said; spend more to stay the same....

He got personal, he said councillors were in it for themselves. I was a Councillor. Therefore he is implying I was in it for myself. So who's getting personal?

Absolutely no way this meeting would have been any good. Rained pretty much all day and currently raining. Good call

Bar Bandits were very welcome, as well as noisy, visitors to Berwick last month.

Enjoy the trip up and make as much noise as you like as I imagine the journey back will be quite quiet! :-)

Poole will almost certainly win both legs, far too strong for the Gladiators but I think we've probably got as good as we could have with who is available. What will make it interesting is which Sedgmen and Summers turn up. Either of them are as likely to score 0 as they are to get a max as they basically gate or they come last. If they gate, we may get close, but I'd still expect Poole by 10-12 tomorrow and by 20+ at Wimborne.

Like everyone else, I am shocked and appalled at the one-sidedness of the Planning Officer's report and recommendation, but the decision will be made by the Planning Committee and they do not always go along with their officer's recommendations. I was very involved with the battle to get planning a planning consent to bring speedway back to Perry Barr so I know this to be a fact. Birmingham's planning officer Alan Orr recommended refusual at every turn, but we eventually won the planning committee round by making them aware of the strength of feeling and the huge level of support we had, and the eventual decision to give us full planning permission achieved a 14-1 vote of support. Perhaps the Save Coventry Speedway Group have already contacted all of the Rugby Planning Committee members individually to make them fully aware of the situation, but if not, it would surely be worth them doing this, and if it would help, I have looked up the contact details of all of them. They won't reply to messages as they are not allowed by the rules to enter into correspondence or to give an indication of how they intend to vote, but it will at least put them in the picture and might even sway the issue for those members who do not appreciate the unfairness of the current position. These are the e-mail contact details for the committee members concerned: The political mix (if this is relevant) is: Conservatives 6, Labour 3, Lib-Dems 2. barbara.brown@rugby.gov.uk adam.daly@rugby.gov.uk peter.eccleston@rugby.gov.uk anthony.gillias@rugby.gov.uk eve.hassell@rugby.gov.uk bill.lewis@rugby.gov.uk becky.maoudis@rugby.gov.uk neil.sandison@rugby.gov.uk john.slinger@rugby.gov.uk tim.willis@rugby.gov.uk ramesh.srivastava@rugby.gov.uk If someone from the Save Coventry Speedway group can confirm that they think this worth a try, then I'll be pleased to e-mail these councillors myself, but I'll hold fire at the moment rather than interfere in something which might have already been done.

Ed Kennett to return to Eastie as No 1 (R/R)?

Different RR (ZZ)rules and considerably tighter than other leagues- must be in top 3 of averages( injuries) and anyone can take a ride. The averages normally cover rounds 1 to 8 and then a new issue 9 to season end.

Can't argue with that! Belle Vue aside, the PR and hype from the league has been dreadful for the pairs. Lineups and previews often not published until the day before at the earliest as they would for a normal league meeting! A real shame as both myself and a casual speedway fan I took along to the Wolves round really enjoyed it and found it a great format, that moved along at a pace and kept the interest throughout. Hope the BSPL make a proper go of it as a series next season, get away from this mentality of 'it's just a filler fixture for each club to give to their fans to make up the season ticket numbers'. I don't think they will, but would like them to prove me wrong!

Poland are as concerned as we are about the bikes getting more expensive, more specialised, it’s just not needed, as with 95% of bike mods in speedway over the last 30years we have multiplied the cost x5 to achieve absolutely nothing, same speed same racing if not worse, it’s not worth it, the cost is ultimately passed on to the fans and we don’t care about what bike it is, i am the biggest speedway bike geek out there, I have many of them, all ages and love messing with engines but it’s a def no no from me

I think that's why he confounds and annoys a lot of fans.

That's your opinion if she 'deserves more' . In mine she deserves a nice send off and that's it . Let people celebrate her legacy by enjoy British speedway . Bet she would appreciate that more than everyone supposedly mourning

Well there is no way Pepe will get a big fat zero on his own turf

Terrible result for Krosno in Ht 14 that's silenced the crowd. That was a real body blow.

Just says light rain in afternoon on met office.

If one of Fricke or Tungate falls away then Krosno wrap this up tonight. Tonight's meeting is identical to last night's Ekstraliga first leg where the away side were relying on a couple of riders to keep them in the contest.

Already confirmed.

Looks like Dudek's staying at torun?

Yellow deliberately fenced himself on purpose to get the race stopped. Referee should award Krosno a 5 - 1

Great race to start the meeting off. Well ridden Tungate.

Delighted to say that I’m making my first trip (for speedway) to Wimborne Road on Wednesday evening with the rest of the Bar Bandits from Plymouth, minibus of us coming up to Dorset for what should be a good meeting. Can’t promise we won’t make noise though

Twitter is more up to date. Was advertising this Weds meeting yesterday.

Well I imagine one member won't need persuading. But I suspect he will have to recuse himself.

You're looking at the August averages (both 8.40). For September, Kennett remained on 8.40, while Barker dropped to 8.00. The guest assumes the average and team position of the rider he's replacing. Looks like a typo.

Could be a typo but Garry May is very shrewd I don’t no the rule but I’m pretty sure he would.

Idk about that. But averages won't allow them to use Scott at Poole.

Poole have been promoting it since last week. To paraphrase Eric Morecambe, they have the same 1-7 but not necessarily in the same order!!

You'd be surprised. It certainly isn't uncommon for an applicant to present the less savoury comments from the objectors on local community forums and the like in an effort to undermine opposition. And I can assure you that morons wittering on about brown envelopes did not endear me to their point of view when I was considering applications.

I'm keeping fingers crossed, but I'm a bit fearful with the current economic climate etc etc. Main thing is to make sure a comeback that's viable, to me it needs a re think of current levels, we need a league/cost at a level of the NL when we were 'forced' to leave it back in 2019, whether that's NL plus or Championship lower than now, but.......

Similarly 'Northside' alienates three other 'sides' particularly us from the South! It could have been called Westside'. .. but that's another story!

Nothing retro about them, they are up to the minute fashion

Have you asked yourself why we have had so few summer meetings? Could it possibly be that our promotion fulfilled their obligations to the league and cup campaigns and got the meetings completed in good time, and are now forced to wait for the other teams to play catch up, or for the boss of the B.S.P.L. to sit on the fence for months so that he could stretch (needlessly) his season out so that we could then progress? I guess that a few Saturday's were "earmarked" to cover rain offs which, if my memory serves me correctly, only happened once so far this season. Don't forget we have also had the Cubs to support who have right royally entertained us!

Let's cancel all the remaining fixtures this season and go into a 2 year lockdown, wear Queen masks and get 'vaccinated' with gin. It's what the Queen would have wanted.

Complete nonsense to cancel events except for yesterday and the funeral day. Why cancel the last night of the Proms? Stage it as a tribute, cancelling is costing the BBC (i.e. license payers) a bomb. The World's a very different place now, why are customs employed in an age gone by, being applied now? What are people going to do - draw the curtains and sit at home in the dark for two weeks?

The Queen Dying and having lost a number of relatives recently it feels to me in more ways than one like the end of an era. Cancelling all these events to me is not paying respect but making a difficult situation worse than it need be.

Must be a lot of clueless people out there then, who "know or understand little". All those working today, going out with friends tonight for a night out, going to gyms, those running in the GNR this weekend (jealous I'm not running this year, great atmosphere there), all the comedy shows still going ahead, concerts on over the weekend, even the Royal Opera, rugby league and union matches. Loads more besides probably. All these events will have a minute's silence and people "getting on with life". The way it should be.

You are pretty clueless about this whole thing, aren’t you? Suggest you educate yourself on who Queen Elizabeth 2nd was, and why it’s wall to wall coverage and will continue to be. She was not a celebrity. Your dismissal of her with a minutes silence and let’s get on with life shows just how little you know or understand.

Once again you make completely unsubstantiated comments. Legal substances taken to excess are not illegal drugs. Legal substances taken to excess is stupid, dangerous and wrong. Hence the ban of way less than 2 years. Where is your evidence that illegal drugs were taken. People in glass houses should not throw stones. That applies to the past and present of riders you are quite happy to support. Riders you are happy to support have done far worse and been accused of far worse. No need to go further on that matter on a public forum. People who know do know, people in the sport do know, people affected do know, no need to name names, let's leave the hypocracy to you.. and you are a complete hypocrite to not see that fact.

Said the same thing on the Swindon thread. Its an absolute joke.

100% Dean... However. Never understand why the BSPL never seem to fight these issues as a collective... Edinburgh and Swindon two cases in point. Every club seems to go it alone when fighting for their lives... Surely some kind of structured responsive process is needed? It isnt like it is a new thing is it? Do really some think "they close I get their riders I want off them?", and that is why no collective response is forthcoming? Surely not, but given so much self interest rather than collective growth always appears to be the policy you never can be 100% sure...

I always find the naming of these roads and developments as the biggest piss take going