Leaderboard

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..

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..

Steve I think you'll find most fans think that Speedways ill's are caused by Poole problems.

I’m not against an early call off based on a weather forecast, but again, at least wait until the morning of the meeting to get a much more accurate forecast. Are we now at a stage where we’re all accepting and happy for meetings being postponed more than 24 hours in advance based on a ropey forecast? Never used to happen.

https://www.berwickspeedway.com/news/jye-update-2/

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

No that's a darts player

Kenneth Bjerre Peter Ljung

3 will qualify indeed.

It rained for most of the morning (not heavy, but constant light rain). It stopped about 1-00. If the meeting had been scheduled for tonight, it might have had a chance, but not for a lunchtime meeting.

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.

Only other sales are pre purchased season tickets at this stage.

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

Yeah...Proctor has been on the slide 4 years ....

The forecast has indeed changed, as often happens. When you postpone meetings more than 24 hours in advance you always run the risk of that happening. The first band of rain that was due to hit lunchtime isn’t now predicted, but rain IS still set for late evening so they may yet be proven correct, not that it really matters now. The forecast yesterday morning did look dreadful to be fair.

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

Clegg & Ablitt coming up with 1pt between them what a poor start from the pair of them. Absolutely certain Joe would have managed to get at least 2pts so doubling their woeful debut efforts. Robs dropped a clanger with these changes. Give it 28 days and we will be making more changes because the team average will tumble. Of course that means that June will likely be a write off away from home for us. If Dillion Rumls kit is in the UK I would see if he fancies it ? Or what about Geno Manzares hes already in Sweden is he not ? For me I would much rather watch Joe Thompson develop at Scunny than have Clegg or Ablitt who I have no allengence to at all. Might as well fill in with guests very disappointing.

Two things about this story... 1. Peter Oakes has a nose for a story and is still highly effective at shoe horning speedway into the tabloids. Top work 2. It's absolute balderdash. Speedway will not be returning to Wembley. We (speedway fans) are a dying breed. It would do well to get 40,000 into Wembley. The crowds are shrinking and the average age of the crowd is rising. The numbers don't add up. Wembley gets repurposed to put on days and days of Harry Styles/Ed Sheeran/Adele type gigs and gets 80k turning up night after night. It's low risk, high return. Does anyone seriously believe they would repurpose Wembley, including laying of a track for one night of speedway? There might have been a chance when the new Wembey opened around 2007 and they were desperate to recoup money. Not anymore. The Principality is as good as it will get for speedway in the UK.

Where i stand mostly XXL

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.

It did the Panthers/Prem a favour at the time i think.. Nothing whatsoever for Lynn though. When it was announced i thought oh FFS, but i understood why Buster did it at the time. Still felt like a kick in the teeth for us loyal Lynn fans, who have been turning up week in week out for god knows how many years, well it did for me anyway.. What gets under my skin is the Panthers fans moaning after their 1st meeting. Their team looked better than ours !! I get they haven't started well (Take a bow NP), before they start. Guess what neither has Busters " beloved" Stars... Before i get pounced on, they have every right to complain after the start they have made.. Being there every week( AFA) in 21 when the Panthers won the league was sole destroying for me and i'm guessing many more. We won our only meeting late on it the season that year, and i remember Allit jumping up and down on the track, fists clenched, while the riders walked the through the crowd getting pats on the back and fist bumped. Almost the same pic we saw when he won the league with his other club. I wonder what Panthers fans would think if it was the other way around?? Anyway it looks like Lynn's faithful may have had enough, looking at the unusually crap attendances at this stage so far. And before i get the "well if you still go then you are the problem" brigade start. If the die hards didn't then there would be no speedway, and do true fans really want that... Time for Buster and Co to pull something out of that hat.. And fast!

A true legend...brilliant stuff!

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