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It's really interesting to read some of the comments on here, especially looking back over the past few days. I was at Sheffield last Thursday and it was a fairly comfortable win for the Tigers and, yes, Kasprzak looked awful. But it's early season, things are just settling down and riders are getting back to fitness, getting used to new machinery and, in some cases, new tracks. The reaction to his first two meetings was typical of much of the society of today - an over reaction. Reading this forum sometimes is like listening to the stuff football fans come out with when they want a manager sacked after a couple of losses. It's a horrible culture. Riders getting stick for being better at home than away is also becoming more common. I'm not sure how certain riders from the 70s and 80s would have stayed with clubs for as long as they did if internet forums existed back then. I remember one season at Sheffield in the 1970s when the Tigers had a 100% home record but failed to pick up a point away from home. Riders like Craig Pendlebury and Arnie Haley remained popular even though there was a big disparity between their home averages and their away averages because they were loyal servants to the club and put the effort in. Further back, Billy Bales had a great home average but struggled to score a point away from home for a few seasons. I think he would have been hounded out in today's need for instant success. I was really pleased the Stars won last night and really pleased that KK got a maximum. I just hope the fans can show a bit of patience and a bit of tolerance, rather than all this bed wetting nonsense that gets posted in week 1 of the season.

actually i do believe him as he has aiways seemd to me to be to be very honest with his statements - guess the fall gave him a big reallity check and perhaps he should quit altogether (but obviously his decision) as it was an awful crash he had last year - good luck Niki no hard feelings from me

For those that remember Steve Schofield he reminds many Pirate supporters of him.

It’s not about disallowing him it’s about him being given the average he got after riding 4 matches

KK has made it interesting now, He WILL absolutely have some more shockers this season, the last 20 years have shown exactly that. He will also have nights like last night, where he wins at a canter. I'm hearing he was to be sacked last night and his replacement was already waiting in the wings. What do the management do now? You know what you are going to get with KK, or at least if you follow any speedway you do. Getting your knickers in a twist after Wolves away and an away meeting where he clearly had some bike problems initially, then we all know his head will go after the exclusion. You got to take the rough with the smooth with him. He'll win meetings for you and lose them in equal measure. For Lynn this year he will provide excitement and despair in equal measure. If you don't want that, they shouldn't have signed him. It's not like it's a surprise to any of us really is it?

Logically surely Speedway should be SUPPORTING License Application for other Events and getting Poole Supporters to actively CAMPAIGN for it! Stadium Owners want / need to increase Stadium use and Rentals! Speedway CANNOT AFFORD to be sole income Stream as Rent would be impossible to afford, hence Poole Speedway are sounding out alternative options Surely Music / Entertainment Events will only act as Marketing opportunity for Speedway bring people in to Stadium who have no idea its there! Speedway is fast becoming a 16 - 20 week a Year Sport, even if someone wanted to Hire Stadium for say a week, including Wednesday, Speedway could easily work around it. Race away fixtures at Oxford and Birmingham those weeks being blatantly obvious option. Chance for Speedway to embrace these plans not oppose them, that's the wrong mentality.

Not sure I can agree with all your points. When Stoney qualified for the GPs the top 10 from the meeting qualified (he finished 3rd) so it was easier to get in, plus the field was 24 riders, so the lower end of the GPs wasn't as strong. However I reckon both Stoney & Cook should be applauded for qualifying as Premier League / Championship riders. Also Cook would've qualified again if the qualifiers were as they were in Stoney's era (i.e no wild cards) as Cook finished 4th but was overlooked for those below him. It's tough to judge if the 2nd Division was stronger in Stoney's time or not. For example heat leaders in the 2000s would only be reserves / second strings in the Elite league. Whereas now Premiership heat leaders also race in the Championship. Does this mean the current period is stronger, or that the top division is now weaker? As there is no definitive answer, all I can go by is the stats! Even if people still feel Stoney / Wilson were better division 2 riders than Cook, they must admit there's not a lot in it, saying Cook "isn't fit to lace their boots" is far from the truth!

WTF.

According to that there will be just a Spittal of rain.

Drugs are bad.

Behave yourself.

Just to add,i'm surprised nobody has said the meeting was done and dusted in 1hr 20 mins.That should please some i hope

Probably the same reason nobody wants Craig Cook or Troy Batchelor

From experience of visits to compost corner for many locals the answer is ..... infrequent

I think its important to recognise that the application is for a change to the Premises Licence ie. when and for how long they can serve alcohol. It is NOT an application to change the terms of the lease to run the stadium. The lease still requires a minimum of 2 Sports and/or Leisure Activities. Any talk of 'decamping to IOW or Eastbourne or wherever' is pure conjecture - or at worst simple $#!t stirring..

There must be a reason teams seem to be avoiding Kemp/Rowe...

iMO .2nd Division was stronger then and the Top Division is a lot weaker now.

Do I believe him? If he wished me good morning I'd go and look out of the window to make sure it wasn't dark!

I think it was a fair result really. Every rider team has bike problems and neither team deserved to run away with it. If Nicki was in the team I doubt the scoreline would have been much different. Also that was the first laps any of the the Leicester riders had done at on that track. So it was always going to be fairly close throughout. I expect a similar scoreline at Peterborough with it being fairly tight all the way through. As a lions fan I'm delighted with that result as this was a potential banana skin kinda meeting and we won.

The number of bike problems was quite a mystery and as you say, somewhat frustrating for us and I'm sure, the riders involved. You can't really blame the weather/track conditions. In England, neither are usual. Hopefully a temporary problem eh? It was one of those slightly odd meetings, in that the track continued to improve throughout the night despite the fact we had no track grading whatsoever. The absence of tractors was quite refreshing actually. Especially as I started to get quite cold towards the end of the night.

Gotta disagree with the last sentence, if it was a 5 point reserve like Jakobsen or Kerr then yes, the team has been built to score well at reserve. But you can't just pick a lower averaged reserve & expect him to score well just because he's stronger than the RS! Also Ipswich wouldn't have needed so much from Hume, if they gave him a stronger reserve partner!

Jason Doyle has changed his mind about retiring from team Australia and now says he will ride if picked.

Well said Ian, the stadium landlords are a business and need to make a profit, which seems to miss a lot of Poole fans.

To me this seems fair enough, and I’d say good that they are looking at alternative uses for the stadium, rather than looking at shutting it down. I guess if you were applying for a license you would want it to cover as much as possible so you have the option. Speedway doesn’t run for almost half the year, or even every single Wednesday in the season. So if someone wanted to hire the place out you’d look a bit daft saying, ah yeah you can’t have your event on a Wednesday because we don’t have a license. Stadiums need to have regular use to make them viable, 15 or 20 speedway fixtures a year is barely 3 weeks of the stadiums year, and I think this is a positive sign of interest in keeping it going in a way that accommodates speedway rather than the other way around.

I often wonder why team managers very rarely swap the riding order around based on the opposition or track they are racing on. The anti- Richie Worrall crowd are almost suggesting Richie only did well because he's a Leicester track expert. So why didn't Peterborough use that to their advantage by swapping riders around? If Peterborough's riding order is based on having the stronger second string (Basso) at 4, why not swap them around so the stronger second string at Leicester (Worrall) rode at 4? Or they could've put Richie at 2 so he'd get his r/r in heat 13 (or put NKI at 2 & RW at 5, so they'd both still be in heat 13?). I find it a tad dull that 90% of team managers make no changes match to match! Look at Wolves, Nicholls at Monmore Green vs away is a very different rider, but they've just stuck him in Luke Becker's team spot & as far as I can tell put no real thought into it?

Wouldn’t argue with any of that. Eleven last places in a home match is always going to leave an uphill struggle. And the way the team is built, probably the one rider you don’t want to lose to R/R is Riss.

Kasprzak was sublime tonight. Fast and smooth from the gate, he was never headed after the second bend and won his races at a canter. Would have been interesting if he'd missed the gate to see how hard he tried to pass. For all the carpeting he received last week he deserves absolute praise for tonight. Thought Wolves were poor and we really should have hit 50+. There are still inconsistencies and teething troubles to sort out in the Lynn ranks which were clear to see tonight, get those ironed out and those team should be competitive against most sides home and away.

This could already be his season highlight. Expect him gone by June.

Just don't expect it from any of the Danes though, especially if they want to be in the world cup team!

Richie's won me over after the interview he gave about Nicki.

Worrall deserves to stay in the team based on his honest interview after the meeting today.

Worrall pulled no punches about Nicki in his interview after the meeting. Fair play to him

One good meeting out of three. You do know he has a history of inconsistency ?

First time visiting Leicester tonight for me. And I tell you what. That’s a lovely little speedway venue they have there, and there’s nothing that would cost an absolute fortune to make. That is the type of thing pboro should be looking to do. Forget the big grandstand etc. what Leicester have is a perfect speedway venue

Really enjoyed reading that, and completely agree with all you say. I was impressed to see that Sir Sidney liked it. Who the hell is he, and where has he suddenly popped up from, as I've never seen any of his posts on here????????????????????

There is a bus stop about 10 minutes walk away on Bell Lane (there is a short cut through the trees & houses but if you don't know where you're going best to stick to the road) which is the No.66 service which goes to/from the town and the railway station.

i beieve matt will pull out of speedway all together if the facility is not viable to race at the stadium!!!

That's basically what i said to my friends last.It seems KK needs to be confident with his bikes,if he knows they are faster on the night he will take some stopping.If he feels they are slow he will have a poor night.It showed last night,we wanted him to miss the gate and he did in ht14 but he had the confidence to go around the outside of Douglas.We thought he may shut off but he didn't.It just showed last night that he knew he was quicker and had the confidence to just breeze past him on the outside.

He's not a number 1

Totally agree with you, Speedway can't demand Wednesdays be left for them every week from March to October when they only have a minimum of 11 matches this year (will be more once Poole qualify for later rounds). A multi-use stadium has to be the best chance of surviving!

Morris also passed Puk in Heat 11 with a lovely move. Maybe the problem was with the new floodlights... I was expecting a vast improvement and if anything I think they're worse. Maybe after a bit of alignment they'll light the track up instead of the centre green and shining directly into @bigcatdiary's eyes

Fair enough. One thing Lynn need to address this year is winning at home regularly and KK needs to stay in the team for that reason alone IMO on the basis of last night.

I clearly remember Harris, Morris, Lawson and Allen all suffering engine failures so I'm not quite sure why you only saw the Panthers breaking down

Difficult track for the riders last evening, but all the riders gave it a good go. With no possibility of track grading it was always going to be a case of limited racing/passing - but there was some so both track staff & riders deserve recognition for their efforts to get the meeting on & completed. Well done guys (& girls)

Totally agree with all of those comments. one defeat early on is not a disaster. The one thing I would add is that Rew needs to get the confidence to mix it on the first bend. From what I saw last night he was in a decent position on a couple of occasions going into the first bend and took the option to back of a little which cost him dearly. I think he has the speed but has to get the elbows out on the first bend or he will struggle .Hopefully he will get this sorted sooner rather than later and he will be fine. This team will only get better but we do need Riss back as he is a key member of the side the way it’s been built. And I do agree Joe ,through no fault of his own is out of his depth but who would you bring in to replace him as Chris doesn’t seem keen on the obvious replacements. I think Joe needs to have a little more time to get up to speed. One good gate in the reserves race and a win could transform his confidence

I wasn’t. Didn’t buy in to the nonsense pre meeting. The way Ipswich are built you can’t miss a solid middle order rider when you have a tail like Ipswich have. R/R is a tall order. I still thought we might win the meeting mind you but it wasn’t to be. Despite early season wobbles Belle Vue are a good side which everyone said they were. They’ll have riders that will improve even more than they showed tonight. Play off certainties.

That Nicki Pedersen had let them all down

From MT on Facebook: “Just as an update from my perspective and my perspective alone the NP debacle has been an issue, something none of us expected however we will react given time to measure the next step. In regard to the overall position with the Speedway I’m keen to understand the options. Let’s just support our team who we all love dearly and let the rest go through the process. As I have stated it ain’t over until the fat lady sings”

Stop talking crap and grow up.