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It was the right call, the forecast was horrendous. Anyway it’s raining in Alwalton now, not a lot, but it is raining. Riders often have a rain off guarantee written into their contracts (if they’re smart ) to cover any wasted travel costs should they arrive in the country before a meeting is postponed. It used to be (not sure if it still is) that if you call a meeting off post midday you still had to pay rent to the Showground. It can be very expensive to call a meeting off after midday. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

The hindsight weather forecasters will be disappointed to learn that it’s been chucking it down in Alwalton since 7:30pm.

The Poles have it right. Ring fencing their bottom two positions for U21 riders.. And that is in their top league as well as others.. The 2nd and 3rd tier over here should do the same with the top league, given a so called lack of riders, running six man teams of "established" riders Meaning a glide path to follow for the GB U21 riders into the top tier, and some surplus "established" riders for Div 1 replacements... Those "special U21 talents" eg Dan Bewley, could just simply be a Div 1 rider, which would also free up a place for "lesser lights" in lower leagues..

Reading what everyone is posting is very interesting how ironic that the club that has done this to a young English talent who was very good against my team last Tuesday is run by the person who is the chairman of British speedway I feel sorry for joe Thompson I really do.

Like you say they will be at the “Top Table” dominating the sport for many years to come.When you look at the Multinational and Conglomerates sponsorship involved in the backing of the sport other Countries have very little chance of competing financially at the top of the sport,and they are making sure that the best riders will be there in the future.When you see the presentation and the Media coverage they involve in EVERY meeting you can see why.Very Professional.Some of the racing might not be any better than GB,but the credibility is there to see.

You would like to think that it was also the "common sense" way of doing it.. Putting young lads up against some of the World's Top 10 without giving them the safety net of not being dropped is ludicrous to be honest.. Putting career pressure on young lads to score points against the likes of Doyle, Emil, Bewley, Fricke, and Holder simply helps no one, neither team, nor individual, nor watching fans.... I often hear Promoters bemoaning all the advantages the Poles have re their continued "conveyor belt of talent", and I get that owning their own tracks and/or having access to them at anytime is an advantage... But I can pretty much guarantee that if four U21 lads rode at 6 and 7 in every single 2nd and 3rd tier meeting that took place over here, with 3 rides a meeting each guaranteed like the Poles do, you would have a much larger "conveyor belt of talent" over here.. You could even add to the "ring fenced mix", those aged 21+ riders who are "newbies" to the sport, as some of top riders down the years didnt start riding Speedway till well into their 20's.. I thought the Covid break would have given those who run the sport a huge opportunity to implement the radical change in operating model that is so clearly required... Sadly they passed up the chance to move the sport forward long term, just like the promoters did when the Sky money was just used in the main to pay for GP riders, rather than increasing the awareness of the sport through marketing, and setting up a proper development programme for young riders.. Ring fencing four U21 lads per meeting to take a minimum collective 12 rides out of the 60 on offer, just may, (will), unearth GB riders to fill places in 1 to 5's down the line in the 3rd and 2nd tier's at the least.. And it also wont throw them in at the deep end without arm bands to help them float like currently can happen..

The Poole leg is still in the fixture list but Leicester need to sort out a new date for theirs. This feels familiar from last season!

Great post and is totally the right way to go

Don’t know why they would drop Thompson a promising young Brit to accommodate Clegg a journeyman reserve who has been round the block a few times.That’s GB Speedway though,all these so called training days then nothing at the end for the youngsters.The up and coming talent will be heading for Poland like the young Aussies,and giving the GB a miss in the future.

Call it off

Me to so the younger lads get to compete against there piers . Sport really missed a trick in 21 after Covid should have made huge changes for the future but sadly didn't. Never mind though we can always get a 27 year old Aussie in the NDL on a 3 point average and support it

The club is clearly following The Four Stage Strategy as explained in the first episode of Yes, Prime Minister - we're at 3.5 now: In stage one we say “nothing is going to happen” In stage two we say “something may be going to happen but we should do nothing about it” In stage three we say “maybe we should do something about it, but there’s nothing we can do” In stage four we say “maybe there’s something we could have done, but it’s too late now”

Unlucky but don’t think it would have made much difference to be honest.Alcock talks a good story but doesn’t produce.

Get cleggy back,guaranteed double figures every meeting and pairs up superb with Ben.

Good stuff but,,, it fell down in the first sentence, ("common sense").

Anyone else bored of the silence from the club now, no number 1, everyone saying we need to start kicking up a stink regarding show ground re development but the club haven’t even said anything about what exactly they want the public/fans help with regarding this. If they want to tackle it on their own that’s fair enough but at least say something ! We’ve got to the end of this week to get a number 1 or the season is all but done, I know we will keep getting a facility for nicki blah blah but surely you want a team of 7 and not 6 plus who ever is available on the night, it’s getting pathetic now

Which is the wrong way to do it and makes it look like a load of points have gone missing. If a rider is ineligible and wins three races, your penalising the rider who finishes second each time when actually he’s WON the races and you’ve taken 3 points off him. Just ignore anything the ineligible rider scores and promote up each rider behind him, simples ! or even better….don’t use an ineligible rider ! Theres a reason the MDL is virtually dead and the NJL has been running for 13 consecutive years, get with the times, get 125 kids involved, there’s so many about now the BYC class is having to be split into separate rounds !

The forecast has been wrong most of the last 2-3 weeks. It was a guess

The thing is the changes we talk about are easy to implement, but nothing will happen until the ppl tht run the sport change sadly.

I do..but not as much as I used to when I see such lack of effort leading us..

I believe Bobby Schwartz is still racing in America

There's probably not more than 25,000 semi-regular speedway fans in Britain nowadays, and that's being generous. There's an ever diminishing number who 'used to go' - the Cardiff GP would suggest 10-15k, plus a properly promoted Wembley might get the interest of a few thousand new spectators willing to give it a go. I'd agree London is much more accessible and arguably more attractive to foreign fans, so you'd probably also pick up a fair few more there too. But I don't realistically think you'd get more than 50k, maybe 60k absolute tops. I'd agree with you about the air of hostility in Wales. I don't want to over-generalise as I go to Wales a lot and only once have directly experienced any issues, but there does seem to be an underlying air of menace in even small towns there. I don't think it's particularly directed at the English because the local youth mostly seem to want to abuse each other.

As well as the risk of a reduced crowd I expect clubs/promotions don't want to risk flying riders over for a rain off and the costs incurred by that. These early decisions are becoming more and more common and I'm pretty sure it's all about costs.

Proctor out and Joe Thompson in

Admission prices for the meeting on Saturday 13th May. CASH only if paying at the gate on the day. Adults £13.00 (18 and over) Child £1.00 (over 5) Child FREE (under 5) Family £25.00 (2 Adults + 3 Children MAX) Children MUST be accompanied by an adult

I'm gradually losing complete interest in a sport I used to love. I think the surface of our track can't absorb much water now that Chapman has put all that crap on. Proper shale drains much better, but of course that's more expensive. Enough said!

I didn't think you cared

I think there is potential for a big crowd to attend a Wembley GP, on the following basis: 1. London is easier to get to for most people than Cardiff 2. International fans can easily fly into London. Cardiff airport, surely, has limited destinations 3. London has more tourist appeal (in my opinion) than Cardiff 4. I have only attended Cardiff once, the first, and when I left the stadium, walking through Cardiff, some Welsh men seemed quite hostile. I was with my wife and felt a bit threatened, although nothing happened. Yes, that could happen in Wembley, but in my opinion, unlikely 5. Wembley stadium must carry more prestige than Cardiff's 6. I'm sure the riders would love to be able to say, they have ridden in Wembley stadium 7. With good marketing, I reckon it could at least equal 1981's gate. I won't be going to Cardiff again, but I would definitely go to Wembley!

David Howe didn’t actually

It riles me up on Facebook with all the happy clappers saying they are tired of all the moaning..I'm sick of the radio silence and to make it worse it's the same at Lynn...there's a common denominator here..

When he is predicting Weather forecasts from 300 mls away, perhaps better just to accept the situation( whether right or wrong.)His intended visit to Scunthorpe proving what could happen regarding the weather.Len Silver often made the same decision regarding the weather.

Great minds L-C .. Great minds....

Every youngsters ambition is get into Poland as soon as possible nowadays.You can’t really blame them.But it’s tough gig and not many will survive IMO.ThePoles look after their own unlike us.

No that's a darts player

12.05.2023 (Friday): training day/ qualification before ORLEN Warsaw FIM SGP of Poland • 4:00 pm - open entrance for fans, gate number 2 • 5:00 pm - speedway training/ riders qualification • 6.15 pm – the end of the speedway training/ riders qualification • official event’s programme is an entrance ticket to the training, zone D12/13, gate number 2. There will be limited number of places (max 999). PROGRAMME SALE for ORLEN FIM Speedway Grand Prix of Poland - Warsaw will be conducted on Friday (12.05) by the Sale Point in the front of the gate number 2 at the PGE Narodowy. Programme price: 30 PLN. EXCHANGE VOUCHER TO PROGRAMME ORLEN FIM Speedway Grand Prix of Poland - Warsaw will be possible on Friday (12.05) at the Sale Point in the front of the gate number 2 at the PGE Narodowy. TICKET SALE for ORLEN FIM Speedway Grand Prix of Poland will be conducted on Friday (12.05) by the Sale Point in the front of the gate number 2 at the PGE Narodowy. SALE POINT in the front of the gate number 2 at the PGE Narodowy on Friday (12.05) will be open from 1:00 pm to 8:00 pm. https://www.pgenarodowy.pl/upload/editor/file/informator-kibica-13_05_2023-ENG.pdf

Managed to find an Irish screwdriver to fit the gates, only now to find the screws sent are too long and are sticking out the other side. Still can’t run as now it’s become a health and safety issue.

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/forecast/gbvn9cv4h#?date=2023-05-12 Makes sense. Thunderstorm on Tuesday. Sunny on Friday. Looks like a good decision.

With discounts I think he was a fraction under

When I first attended speedway I was 12 years old and gained entry without an accompanying adult.

So tactically it could be argued that tracking an ineligible rider could be a bigger advantage than RR? Dissapointing showings from the two eligible NL riders, obviously Fellows still has poor equipment and Woods has come a long way to block a team place....

According to the met office no rain predicted today......sometimes it's best to wait.

Made it to Wroclaw last night, great racing.

We're speedway fans. You could make a Harold Macmillan reference and we'd still be of THAT age.

So because Nicki did 2 bends Peterborough can use guests same average as Nicki whereas Scunny and Wolves could only for 28 days! Crazy. Maybe rule should be changed to 'complete a meeting'.... at least!

There was a certain irony in that the meeting I wasn't originally planning to go to today, and the one where I ended up got rained off, while the one I was originally planning to go to could have taken place! But at least Scunny put in every effort to stage their meetings - they will only call it off early in the day if the weather is truly dire. It means you build up a level of trust. Of course, there's still the odd wasted journey, but that's all part of speedway. On the other hand, while I'm not going to cut off my nose to spite my face and miss Glasgow v Oxford when it's re-staged, my plans to do Glasgow v Scunny the day before Workington v Oxford have been shelved today. What's the point in booking days off work, booking hotels, etc, when the Glasgow make no effort to put on meetings and seem to call them off due to rider availability rather than the weather? Sadly, I've lost all faith in the Glasgow management after today's shenanigans. I used to think they are a shot in the arm for British Speedway, but sadly no more.

Great Post!

Change the manager too. Birmingham could/should be looking at a longer term approach and if they can tempt riders who will commit to a few seasons and become fans favourites they will be rewarded. Brum have incredibly loyal fans and the golden boys can walk on water. The twins, Bowtell and Hume (for next season) with some experienced heads to help them develop on would be a fair starting point. Then bring in Will Pottinger to be both tactically aware, look after the team and deliver honesty in feedback to the fans.....

The Twins in for Proctor and Nielsen would be a start for Brum, don't know what the shoulder injury is for Wright but if it means his 28 day facility is coming to an end and now reduces by 25% then another signing in his place would be a no brainer, they really need changes to stop their season ending after it's barely begun.

Good suggestions... probably would be cheaper too! I don't believe that the manager has the balls to do it though! Kemp and Joe are no brainers right now!

Live stream from all events this year: https://www.fim-moto.com/en/news/news-detail/article/long-track-to-be-live-streamed-for-the-first-time