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If you could get down to Plymouth Shovlar you could dry the track with all the hot air you spout.

The kids summer holidays should almost be a festival of speedway, as many meetings should be crammed in as possible. As others have said having outstanding fixtures in the middle of September in a six team league is unforgivable. I don't know who but somebody needs to grab British speedway by the scruff of the neck and run it properly, it's a shambles.

Track covers are fine beforehand for keeping the track dry. But tend to hinder Racing if left on once the meeting starts.

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!

What was the point of the track covers.If you are going purely on weather forecasts.

Judging by the announcement placed on the Tigers' website today, it would appear the home PL fixture with Ipswich will take place AFTER the play-offs. The announcement seems to suggest that Sheffield can still finish top of the Premiership table ahead of the play-offs if they win both of their remaining meetings at Owlerton against King’s Lynn and Belle Vue this Thursday and next. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but six points from those two matches will give us 43 points, matching the 43 that Ipswich already have in the bank. In other words, the outstanding (as yet uncontested) home match with Ippo would effectively be the decider, but it can't happen until AFTER the play-offs! In those circumstances, how will they decide which teams will race against each other in the semi-finals with finishing positions undecided? If I was confused before, my mind is now completely frazzled. Whatever else happens, I'm still betting the Tigers v Ipswich match will be quietly forgotten (or decided BEFORE the play-offs by the toss of a coin), once again short-changing the Sheffield paying customers. After all, when the play-offs have taken place and the league champions have lifted the trophy, what's the point of a further league match that can't have any impact on the result? Considering all the Thursday nights throughout the summer when there's been no action at Owlerton, this position takes some believing. You can't make this stuff up.

In Plymouth now and the rain is definitely making the ground wet,didn't know you could get dry rain. Steven Christopher Shovlar it's pays to be nice sometimes amazing what you can find out about people on the Internet

In 2018 when the comets won the treble, mid season attendances fell to around 500 well below break even level as the cup finals got near attendances get better near to break even levels, then at the very end of season had crowds of around 1500 to see the trophies lifted, but could/should have been more, forced to run late October often with only a few days notice so very little promotion get done, we all know what happened then the comets closed. Fast forward to 2022 matched getting postponed right left and centre KO cup still to run many matches, can see it being a dash to complete the season now autumn is well on its way, speedway will never learn and get most of the matches completed by the end of September

At the time, it was just the National League, in effect a Third Division. The racing was just as good as the higher leagues; indeed the Eastbourne/Birmingham playoff final were some of the best speedway matches I have seen. However, the BSPL in their (?)wisdom have destroyed the (invaluable) MDL/SDL and downgraded the NL to the NDL.

I suppose Plymouth and Poole could decide the old fashioned way , shovlar could do the tossing …. If he is allowed into the stadiums

Plymouth win by 16pts then.

If it goes past the deadline it will revert to the overall score of when the 2 teams met in the league fixture , same as the individual meetings

Cut off isn't the problem, it's the weeks on end with no speedway tht should be filled with a fixture

Clearly never been too Brighton then?

The powers that be will sight many reasons why they could not run ten home meetings in six months but will miss the obvious one, utter incompetence by each and every track to work collectively to make it happen. It is a further endorsement that can added to another thread headed British speedway is a joke . When you take into account how it’s affairs are managed and the lack of respect each and every track has for its punters it is a miracle anyone bothers to turn out in September and October after all the fine weather had this year in the U.K. It is a mystery and the only way those in charge will learn is if the punters vote with their feet but that will not happen because for some reason many think they owe the club some debt of loyalty but I doubt each and every team owner thinks that way. So it is a Christmas festival to resolve the who will be champions. The weather should be fine, ask the club promoters, they are good at using a crystal ball.

So you want another few hundred people to fork out to go somewhere when there is not a cat in hells chance of the meeting taking place, in the remote possibility that it could that it may be dangerous for riders, be a terrible spectacle for supporters and be a financial disaster for the Club as everyone living within 30 miles would not bother going as they would have been watching rain fall for hours.

He can't get in to Cornwall on the A38 - His head won't fit in the Tunnel!

Thing is, a meeting should not be called off until it is guaranteed to be off. There might be a risk of rain later today, but it might miss. Too often meetings have been called off early only for the rain to miss/fail to materialise, leaving a dry evening. Plymouth are not even attempting to give it a try.

If they haven’t got track staff to sort out a wet track (with overnight covers down) they need to take a close look at themselves in the mirror. Swedish clubs can fix wet tracks in an hour. Natural drying during the day should do it. They could pop around the local farm and buy some hay to burn.

Steve it's so unlike you to be slagging off another team

Very sad, but could see it coming as I said before , unfortunately until the BSPL get their heads out of the sand won't be the last to go, or find a relaunch too expensive and unsustainable.

The play off semi will be 2500+ If the Witches make the final you will see 4000+ What is needed of course is to find the trick to turn a good proportion of these extras into regulars.....

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?

They say that every year.

If more come back as rumoured. There will be less doubling up. Whether it be enough though. I don’t know

So that's what you do in your spare time!

Would not surprise me if Plymouth doesn’t stage another meeting this season, and come the end it will be announced that the sport is no longer viable at the current location and the promotion will move lock, stock and barrel to Eastbourne for 2023

Steve could put you in touch with a few that could help I’m sure

I don’t understand why the Dugards won’t allow NDL speedway at Arlington. As long as the rent is paid what’s the issue? Unless they just want the stadium to go for a period of non use so that planning permission for houses can be put in as no one wants to use the speedway stadium?

You have obviously googled it,so you're no different the more you bang on about it the more you're bringing people attention to it. Keep it up.

Love this, just googled, wow.

Or Kennett

When Hull Vikings won the treble in 2004, the attendances hardly went up at all, staying at circa 1,100 - 1,200,. Like with the Comets I'm sure the amount paid out for higher points in 2004, as all those hugely enjoyable home & away pastings with trophys won almost for fun had to paid for, had a huge & similar impact on the club the following season. Think the final speedway crowd at Craven Park in 2005, when the Vikings closed with 2 matches outstanding, was around 650 ....

This does need to be tho a complete reset, fixtures so few and far between in all leagues is losing fans all the time

Good run of tipping form as of late. Tonight's tip is MATEJ ZAGAR Over 8 @ 11/10 (Matej is riding at reserve tonight for Rospiggarna and I would be shocked if the Team Manager doesn't use Matej to full effect by giving him extra rides)

Apparently the cut off is next Tuesday, so they will have to go ahead then.

Eff off p1llock

No hate from me. All the crap comes from Plymouth fans. A very abusive bunch down there. And yes, I go to nearly every Poole away meeting.

Any truth in the rumour Friday was a no-go as Danny was popping over to the Chateau so that papa could cut his hair?

Need more hay and fire

So the track was perfect yesterday, covers were put down, and we had a little rain this morning which is now clearing away. Plymouth are so so desperate to get the second leg they call the meeting off when the rest of the day is forecast dry. Are they that inept at getting a race track in rideable order? Pathetic.

I made a point at the start of the season saying meetings will be taking place in October as usual but was countered by another poster saying there is only 6 teams in the League and matches will easily be completed before October .

I presume that, in the interests of Speedway, October will be extended?

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....

Example 12,315 of why an independent body or person should oversee such matters.... Rinse and Repeat... Next AGM going to be the most important ever?

Standby for the Poole fans to tell you otherwise!!!!

How on earth have you brought 'woke culture' into a debate about speedway tracks????

A common denominator with all of those you mention is Heritage/Ethnicity... I don't think it's any coincidence that Tai gets the same

I thought that was farcical appeasement given their 'ban' was because of state sponsorship of doping programmes. To then allow them back to compete as a Russian team, however it was dressed up, was no sanction at all. No particular problem with Russians continuing to compete as independent individuals (e.g. tennis players and speedway riders), but teams and individuals officially representing Russia should not be allowed. Life isn't fair. When the UK left the EU, British citizens immediately lost a lot of rights regardless of how they'd voted in the referendum, and that wasn't even about starting a war.