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Not so strange once you understand how riven with self interest speedway is.

The first match which James Wright missed through his injury was Birmingham's offiicial opening fixture on April 19th. Therefore, since last night's match at Plymouth was 27 days later, the Brummies were perfectly well entitled to hire a guest in line with Wright's average, and would indeed if they wished, also be able to use a similar guest in this evening's home match against Edinburgh, after which, the 28 day dispensation period would expire. In the light of this, I don't see how anyone can claim that Birmingham have breached any rules. Plymouth's Team Manager is widely regarded as a very astute man who rarely misses a trick, but in hindsight, he probably blundered in opting to use rider replacement for Howarth rather than employ a guest, so he will probably be pilloried for it! In truth though, he was still able to use Plymouth's best on the night riders, Worrall (twice), Barker, and Gilkes in all of Howarth's scheduled races, so it was hardly Mr May's fault that these lads only managed four points collectively in their extra races.. To suggest that Birmingham only won the match because Plymouth were so poor is insulting. The Brummies won through some determined teamwork which helped overcome the first race loss through injury, of Stefan Nielsen - and although some of the usual contributors to this forum will continue to look for excuses as to why Birmingham won a match which they were confidently expected to lose, I think it was a thoroughly deserved win from a team which has not deserved the criticism it has received in recent times. Well done Brummies and thanks Plymouth for an enjoyable match.

Is Eddie Kennett available?

Were you at the track or watching BSN? Don't know how you could tell from the stand but on TV Steve was nowhere near the fence when he got off his bike, hence it then bounced on top of the fence. Lawson took his line, nothing to do with Danyon.

Really pleased actually, Ben brings a lot to the team, no jokes please.

Tow a caravan, leave a calor gas cylinder In the road and you are guaranteed free parking! Road tax is optional as well.

All ties over two legs = no tac subs

The race night issue certainly did not help, the club lost a huge amount of money at the end of 2018, had they been able to complete their fixtures at home they might have been in a better position to maybe work with Rye House the following season in order to carry on in the short term. Fact is, it seems there was no reason to stop the racing at Arena after 2018 as the site has remained untouched since, it would have been better to have the site used than sitting there doing nothing.

Worrall bailed out very early... I would have thought a rider of his calibre should have been able to save that, I've seen riders touching the air fence on the 1st and 2nd bends at Poole as that's the only racing line later on, so why he bailed out so early on turn 3 is a mystery

Maybe agree to disagree, my feeling is he could have shut the throttle off but he is a racer so not in his nature.

Maybe riders need to take that into account too.

Some of us support more than 1 local team in different sports, mind you maybe I should have stayed at home and watched the stream! Good effort that from an under strength Bears team and much better than I expected. If the Bears can get a decent performing guest on Saturday they have a chance to go through although I still have Poole as favourites given how they ride our track.

It was a racing incident, Steve came off so was cause of the stoppage. There was no contact between any of the riders just all going for it full throttle. Should he just have shut off because a Poole rider was trying to pass him?

Danyon did nothing wrong. Lawson tried to come across him he stood his ground, Lawson went bit wider because of that and Steve bailed out

Wolves Speedway owners are in talks over a potential new home after the team was given notice to leave Monmore Green. Under-threat Wolves has been told its tenancy agreement will not be extended beyond the end of this year, leaving the riders homeless after nearly a century of racing at its historic home, in Sutherland Avenue, Wolverhampton, which it shares with greyhound racing. The club is remaining tight-lipped over the unnamed location, but team promoter Chris Van Straaten told the Express & Star: "There is a site which we are investigating, but it is the very early stages of consideration and we're unable to say any more at the moment. "We have had a lot of interest and have received a lot of help from MP Pat McFadden, councillors and others. We are working towards a site and we're quite confident about and hopefully it will come to fruition within the next few months."

I would suggest our youngsters getting experience abroad is anything but pointless.

An Amateur League? With Bowtell, Morley, Atkins etc riding? I think not.......!

It should be comfortable but not as comfortable as some think.

But there's no riders around......

Maybe not running meetings when so many riders are missing might be "in the best interests of the sport"...

Will there be a TS option? Thought in these matches much like play offs or KO cups be no TS

R/R swing it massively in Poole's favour imo, both versions! Be hoping danyon hits his Poole form and will have 3 form riders to take the rides

Lucky if we hear the sound of silence. Now let's hear how bad plymouth were to get BEAT by Birmingham.

We had dates available. If we didn't want to race, why did we manage to arrange races with Poole in the playoffs? Surely that would be the competition we'd want to win more, and be awkward about dates... Yet we managed to provide a banged up 7 regardless. If we could provide 7 for that, I don't see why we'd make it a problem for the cup. So it doesn't make sense to me that we were the awkward ones. We are the most flexible team on dates. We own our track and I don't know of any local restrictions. Regardless, the real fault is with the speedway authorities for not organising things properly at a central level. It shouldn't be up to any club to dictate things. Set the date, tell the teams to turn up, or forfeit. Easy!

Steve decided too get off IMO,He hadn’t lost total control when you watch it on BSN.Rightly excluded IMO.

It has made it onto speedway shambles twitter page. Oxford played the ref! Brilliant

I suspect its going to be a case of which teams don't win at Brum this season rather than which teams do.

Steve was favoured because he is friends with the management and he was going to get a testimonial, Danny King knew that which is why he made sure of a team place elsewhere,

Tough meeting for Plymouth, but can only beat what’s in front of you I guess. Scott Nicholls continues to roll back the years - his pass on Ben Barker was brilliant - and Sam Masters never looked threatened. Henry Atkins also seems to be getting better each week, and Ryan Kinsley certainly wasn’t outclassed. Felt sorry for those Plymouth fans, though. The ones that made the trip were fantastic. Fair play. Oh and heat 15 tonight was one of the strangest things I've seen in a while.

Finally in the lead! Can we scrap H15?

That's the spirit!

The best of any realistic options For any faults he has (and you can't hide the fact there are some, and not insignificant either, in his past) Ben is a hugely likeable character with fans and a good team member Will take some pressure off down the order

Should really be Miss

Redcar could have used a Premiership rider who doesn't ride Championship with an average below 5.49 (8.24/1.5). Jaimon Lidsey 5.16 would have been an option as Belle Vue are racing tomorrow.

Think we’ll carry our current form with another defeat.

What no tequila kicking around?

Yeah Riss got 11 at Poole last season, so hard to cover for. Also different weather for last two meetings as well. I expect to be back to being slick. I thought in the rules it says no TS for two legged ties which is what this is! Plus earlier rounds were a mini league. I'd be surprised if you can use one.

We were on the way back home from holiday and popped in to the Scunny match and it was a bit dismal compared to how it was when I last went which must have been about 9 years ago when they were in the top league. They used to have the people way back who did Coventry and Belle Vue for a little while, they were djay’s I think and spot on presenting wise with songs for the riders and it was a great party atmosphere even involving the away fans. I don’t think they do speedway at all anymore though?

I’d love to see speedway back in the capital

999, if someone sets BC on fire

And maybe those who run the sport could stop planning in fixtures when the global FIM calendar clearly states that their meetings are taking place.. When they organise meetings on those dates, inevitably using RR and Guests, then it sends out two messages.. One being that even the promoters dont take their own competitions seriously.. And two, the over riding priority of the sport in the UK is simply to provide riders with as much chance to earn as much money as they can, regardless of impact to its credibility.. The only other sports I can think off that have their competitors elsewhere when clubs compete is RU and Cricket, however, they run large squads, rather than share employees, and have large sponsorship to afford those squards.. So much of UK Speedeay's issues are "self inflicted" which is baffling given so many of them could so easily be avoided with just a bit of planning, organisation, discipline and leadership.. .

I always used to plan my cycle speedway trips with visits to speedway tracks on the way there / home, rarely do that now due to the more frequent call offs. Speedway has become a home crowd & streaming event, mostly.

Good win for Brummies,but why they persevere with Nielsen is beyond me,does he finish a meeting without an injury.

Turner protected, Trigger protected, Barker walks on water. The core of the Plymouth team is rotten and even with some track experts the morale will stay low. Mark Phillips defiance is both admiral and foolhardy.

Found it , then see you had sent the link thanks anyway

When does the 28 day facility begin though? Birmingham's first official fixture was 19th April, Is it possible the 28 day facility started then? It would have been pointless for Birmingham to be using a faculty before their season started!

Extraleague is top rider for RR. Div 1 and 2 is top 3 still for RR.

He seems to have come out of the crash reasonably okay. He has apparently been signed off for 9 days due to concussion protocols. There are some pictures on the Royals Facebook page showing the lead up to the crash, and also some of his bike, which appears to be a write off. He commented on Facebook. "I’m okay, going for checks today as lower back has tightened up."

Trouble with Leicester I’m told is the track is the lowest part of that area so when it rains all the rain rolls down to the track so not easy to fix when had lots of rain

You jest, the likes of Bob Dugard, Jon Cook pulling stunts? never.....