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The heat had not finished, it does so when: when 2 minutes have elapsed after the leading rider has completed the heat (12.1.21) That being the case 12.1.14 applies: The Referee shall immediately disqualify any rider who they consider indulges in foul, unfair or dangerous riding. If, in the opinion of the Referee, such conduct produces an advantage to the rider involved or affects the chances of one or more riders, the Referee may stop the heat and order a re-run. If any rider is unable to cross the finish line as a result of foul, unfair or dangerous riding on the part of another rider who, inconsequence, has been disqualified, the disadvantaged rider shall be deemed to have finished the heat in the placing held immediately before the foul, unfair or dangerous riding and allowing for any advancement in placing following the disqualification of the guilty rider. A similar system shall apply for a rider who, in the opinion of the Referee has deliberately laid down their machine or has left the track in the interests of safety. So Kemp should have been excluded and Thompson awarded second.

I'm sure Steve Worrall, as a speedway rider, would be highly offended to be tarred under the same brush as any of the alleged above. Considering last season when his testimonial meeting was cancelled he collected together all the food he had arranged and donated it to the local homeless shelter. There are many, many wonderful speedway riders out there and I'd love to invite anyone below with similar stories. Let's change the next few pages into something positive and not rats who mug grannies and get a few years with a free bed and breakfast paid by the tax payers, eh? I'd love to know who the nice lads of speedway are.

Great first night performance Emil said afterwards his first bike going back to the manufacturer lol… got stuck on the kerb trying to shepherd Ellis home and Bewley blasted round the outside … and as always after the meeting he hung around signed every autograph posed for every picture what a credit he is to British speedway King was awesome tonight and Dan T did so well boy he can gate Jordan after a duck egg in the reserves race did well after and Ellis did very well and a great signing if he maintains that Rew was ok not spectacular and Scott did a good job with 7 from 4…. Think Doyle would have had at least 10 though For Belle Vue Kurtz and Bewley looked awesome early on but faded especially Kurtz Lidsey Cook and Bailey were the let downs for Belle Vue but Mountain rode very well One last point had a good chat with Bewley after the meeting … said he actually loves the Ipswich track but he wasn’t riding great last season but feels he has his mojo back …. Level headed a pleasure to chat to and had time for everyone afterwards … again a credit to British Speedway … something Tai and Lambert could learn from

To be fair it’s been like that at Oxford for the last two seasons in the championship, good crowds and top class entertainment, what’s not to like.

Reading that having a quick 5 from work with a cuppa while the sun is blazing is making me more jealous of a PnP than I have in years! Enjoy it Comets fans, hopefully a great season ahead watching some top young prospects at what appears to be a great little set up!

7 years in jail could change a person everybody deserves a second chance and Pretty sure Mark Courtney got released for drug offences and the next month he was riding for Glasgow

Short answer yes! To win by 12 with no Doyle & Emil having a couple of iffy rides by his standard early on is impressive. Emil was pure class in his last 3 Ellis looked a real upgrade on Riss. King was superb & had real skippers ride in heat 12 Rew looked better than last season improving for sure. Nicholls good value as always however Doyle would clearly have got at least another 5 or 6 points Jenkins solid start think he will come on leaps & bounds. Will really benefit from being around Doyle. Thompson picked up where he left off before injury a real trier. All in all very happy & certainly wouldn’t swap this Ipswich 7 for anyone else.

Probably still tangled up in the tapes somewhere

https://x.com/speedwaygb/status/1771237514889605389?s=46 Fantastic from Bewley.

I don't know why these developers like to create so much conflict. If the land is so valuable for housing, why doesn't the developer work with the action group and the council, so a 3 way committee, to find a piece iof land, unsuitable for development, but ideal for a speedway track and build a stadium similar to Workington. Yes, a track in field, but what has been achieved at Workington, I think is marvelous. That way, BE get to build their houses, the council get more council tax and speedway gets Coventry Speedway again.

Did Uncle Bob Dugard know this?

Citicise Tai all you like, but ask yourself this question. Which rider at the Premiership Media Day made a comment that resulted in a speedway story getting into yesterday's copy of The Sun?

Good and bad in every walk of life,and steve Worrall is a shining example of one if the good guys.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the real source of entertainment. That being the two minute clock. You'd have thought they would have checked it worked correctly prior to the meeting. Repeated attempts to get it stop from starting at 3 minutes were successful late on only for it to then to insist on starting from 40 seconds. Ironically, I felt the meeting did actually move along quite well.

You've just narrowed it down to not plenty of riders there none worthwhile anyway. Need a thrid heatleader

he is never not rusty, bloke is useless and has been for years

The clock and riders being ready to race before the 2 minutes expire is a uk thing, a welcome new rule.

I'd suggest Lynn had the roughest end of the pineapple in terms of the MPT/stating pole incident and Kemp clearly touching the tapes but Leicester probably just about deserved to win, there were clearly several rusty riders on show and I'm satisfied enough with a five point deficit.

I watched it courtesy of BSN who I am pleased to say again made a very decent show of it. The track was dreadful, the starting area was just ridiculous, gate four was so good nearly everyone won from it, you could count the number of genuine passes on one hand and gate 2 was as bad as gate 4 was good. Clearly both teams were suffering from match practice and it was close so it kept the meeting watchable. The Referee “Dave Watters” had three decisions to make all night and cocked them all up big time, the first when Kemp totally locked up and was collected by Thompson in heat 2 was frankly embarrassing, how on earth that wasn’t Kemp excluded, Thompson awarded second and Wojdylo third is anyone’s guess. Then we had the starting gate pole left out on track in heat 3 when it clearly obstructed Palm Toft, my understanding is these are not allowed any more, so that was missed by the start Marshall and the referee who both should have known that. Interestingly it wasn’t used again after that. And the third cock up was Kemp hitting the tapes in heat 14 which should have resulted in his exclusion but again the referee did nothing. BSN announced a FIM referee was also watching near the booth and was approached for his comments but declined to comment, I bet he did. Clearly the previous days weather didn’t help track preparation but why isn’t this track ever a decent racing strip which allows some kind of passing and close racing, despite many years and quite a few changes. I was also surprised that their didn’t appear to be too many watching for the first match of the season.

If they don't try ,they will never know. First proper media day for many a year. Small steps .

Who makes the mistake/causes the crash is irrelevant when it contributes to bringing someone else down. There was nothing Joe could do to stop that and he shouldn't be penalised when he was in full control and about to complete his race.

he’s gained an advantage as the referee has awarded him points when he failed to finish the race. the opposition riders were not the cause of this, one of his own riders was

It would be sensible solution for all concerned if land can be found

SCB press statement on the SCB website today stating the referees decisions and incidents are being investigated.

you could argue it wasnt foul, unfair or dangerous riding as Kemp simply locked up with his chain coming off. Also Thompson didnt deliberately lay down his machine or leave the track. he took avoiding action. dont want to sound pedantic but i dont think this is as clear cut as some are making out and ultimately the ref was at liberty to make the call he did. at the time it wouldnt have been obvious what had happened to kemp's machinery.

It does appear that a much more professional evolution is beginning to take place - this is good! irrespective of Tai's comment or getting the sun etc. Lets hope that this continues. I actually thought the programme at Ipswich was very good last night too, it was a glossy production with a much wider outlook to it, more pages and more like a football programme, or at least how I remember football prgrammes used to be - I haven't been to a live football match in England since about 2016. Again if this is a sign of the sport modernising and becomming more professional then I am all for it!

This is why I love watching Tarasenko - great style and balls of steel. He really is a classy performer.

Maybe the light from the clock was blinding the ref, that's why he didn't see the racing.

If he became 'available' he would NOT be granted an ACU licence. He might get one from NORA, however. Which wouldn't help Plymouth, but thankfully keep him away from our leagues.

Not a surprise to me, they were the best two riders at the Championship best pairs meeting held at Cowley last year.

I remember that around that time changes were made to the Wimbledon track to accommodate stock car racing. I may be wrong, but I thi9nk that at one time they changed the track shape so that cars and bikes shared the straights, but the bikes had their own bends on the inside of the stock car track. However, my aged memory may well be at fault. If so, I am sure that somebody will correct me!!

That is correct. I hate to bang on about my own favourite gripe, but the only chance of dealing with "uneven" gates during a meeting is men with rakes.

Vadim Tarasenko made 2 stunning passes in heat 13 alone, proving that there was nothing wrong with the track and if your setup was right and your balls big enough it was more than possible to make a good race of it. People are often too quick to point the finger at the track when maybe their attention should be concentrated elsewhere.

And clearly one rusty referee

Struggled initially as Kurtz and Bewley started the meeting so well, big difference to last season (so far its only one meeting so lets not get too carried away) was the solid middle order - Ellis seems a very decent no 2, Rew did enough at 4 and the Reserves both were solid / promising. Heats 12 and 14 were often a weak spot for the Witches last year conceeding 1-5's but tonight it was 4-2 and a 3-3. Kurtz and Bewley aside Belle Vue were fairly weak - Lidsey was a surprise never seemed on it tonight. Nicholls wa s asolid guest - yes with Jason the Witches would probably have won by more Enjoyable first meeting, decent crowd 2k+ I would say and one or two very good races. Give Bewley his due he found a lot of speed to go from 3rd to 1st over a couple of laps in heat 6. Once Emil started winning tho it was all over. edit - a Great Performance from Danny King too!

Strange one to leave Boughen in heat 12. Would’ve thought Kerr would’ve been brought in with the match being so tight.

It seems to me that Drew Kemp mentally beats himself up far too much. On the face of it I'd say he had a pretty decent night tonight, 6 points and a great heat win from reserve despite his off in heat 2. Yet he was still beating himself up for coming 3rd in his last race after the meeting. At this stage of his career he really needs to lighten up a bit imo

Comfort break? Remember NKI on the bog at Peterborough once lol

I think KL could run Leicester very close tonight and if both Basso and Taresenko enjoy good meetings then they could spring a surprise!

It's a tricky one, I wonder what Wroclaw fans thought about the possibility of guests last season when they were heading into the play-offs without Woffy & Magic and with Connor Bailey & Charles Wright? It made the final if not a farce, certainly a foregone conclusion

Ipswich redeclared over the closed season.

I'm sure you are right about that. So, for some of us at least, the NL/PL split was a great blessing!

Stay real? Have a word with yourself. If that was the case then every Sky Sports interview post match would be full of expletives, especially this season with the state of VAR. There isn't, those professional footballers check themselves in front of the cameras, anybody with any level of common sense would. Swearing is not 'staying real' it's embarrassing in a professional media press day. As others have said, in the heat of the moment after crashing you forgive them to a degree if emotion gets the better of them when a camera is stuck in their face. But, in that setting yesterday no, and with Woffinden I actually get the impression at times he does it deliberately, which is also not 'staying real' it's pathetic. Now don't get me wrong, I swear all the time. especially at the City Ground, but I check myself when appropriate, i.e. kids around or I am doing media interviews (done a few).... it's not rocket science.

Tai has always been one of those riders that's like marmite. Love or hate. I didn't mind the swearing but I understand why some fans will dislike it. I respect anyone who doesn't pretend to be someone there not, having said that he does come across as abit of a knob sometimes. I'm no speedway rider but I'm am a performing musician which has some similarities to speedway. The amount of ass kissing I see in speedway winds me up rotten, just like what I see and hear in the music industry. ' You've got to say this instead of this and never offend anyone' which is a line I hear alot in my industry and its so degrading. Its refreshing to hear someone just say it how it is and not pretend to be someone else. Anyone that goes out there and says what he thinks rather than what they've been told to say always has my respect. When he was at Leicester last year he was ever so friendly to my dad and friends signing autographs. He didn't have to come out to the supporters for a chat, he did cause he wants to, which is what I like to see.

Go watch lawn bowls I think. It is speedway....not an interview for a place at Eton College. Sport in general, including speedway needs to lose the utter nonsense that restricts characters due to them being polished robots to suit the corporate image of some brand sponsor. We need characters like the days of James Hunt, Barry Sheene etc etc. Sport should be breathing space from all the corporate crap that is forced down our neck every day. Well done Tai Woffinden...more swearing please and stay real mate.

Always good for a few sound bites is Tai... It is what the sport (in this country) needs... Some spice and tribalism to get the fans (and atmosphere), going...

Without knowing the detail of what really went wrong, I say that his only mistake was not paying closer attention to the history of who he was dealing with and not getting a contract in writing and signed first before playing the social media game.

Hate to be a negative nancy but I'd just give up now tbh, Life's too short to cling on to a pipe dream that's never going to happen. It's time to face reality imo and two obvious things make it impossible for a return even if the council did help the Panthers out as it'll just be another Brandon Stadium situation at best. 1. Tomalin's mouth can talk the talk but he cant walk the walk, Never has someone said they're going to do so much whilst producing F all. 2. Buster is an AEPG insider who wouldn't sell the club anyway due to AEPG keeping him sweet with brown envelope money and they'll continue to do so (If needed). Buster doesn't want Speedway at Peterborough full stop because it'll just cost him money and he knows full well that the vast majority of happy clapper Panthers fans will end up at KL on a regular basis to support all the faces they've been seeing for a good few years at Peterborough.

Absolutely "spot on". A tremendous achievement by all concerned in the Battle to keep Brandon away from the clutches of developers and maintaining hopes alive for the eventual return of Stox & speedway. Unfortunately, the war has yet to be won so no doubt more fights will arise. However, it does look like, at least, the end of the beginning as been established!