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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 .

yes it seems that way. just shows common sense is disappearing . your just looking at it from a individual point of view. its a team event if one of your team fs up it shouldn't also benefit the same team.

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.

That’s just silly, how is a rider being knocked off or colliding with a team mate who’s had an accident gaining an advantage?

Yeah I don't know who makes these rumours up! It was just a few of the guys (and girl) whizzing round the mini track

Sucks not having a team anymore…even more so now the season has started in earnest.

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.

Around that time changes were made to the track. The official distance for four laps of speedway actually increased from 1234 yards to 1274 yards but the alterations led to faster racing.

I`m not sure what the fuss is about or the debate, there are no circumstances where I see a team going anywhere near Garrity, licensed or not.

I have often wondered if this had been considered. Yes, as soon as I saw someones kitchen window right next to the pits I knew the Robins were knackered

Not just me then. Kept me amused all night. Not the brightest idea having a red display either.

Gates open to public 10am. Entry by donation to new air fence fund. Season tickets available to purchase and collect. Only home straight and bends 1 & 2 open. Public access to pits allowed for fans in a cordoned area prior to riders taking to the track at approx 12pm. Rider bike warm up and pits closed to public at 11:45am. Meet the riders from 7pm in the Waverley hotel

On another note Anyone confirm details for p&p tomorrow Sure I read it was free entry If so I hope they have a bucket for donations

Not when mugging an elderly lady at knife point he doesn't. Have to be absolutely crazy to put him anywhere speedway again imo. Although if he does sign for Plymouth when they are at Poole, the Police station is near the entrance to the stadium, so he won't have far to go if he does anything!

And clearly one rusty referee

Let's not forget the 2 decisions that possibly went Leicesters way.

Woffy looked good. He also got on the mic at the end and said how good it is to have Oxford back and what a good job everyone has done (I think the centre green presenter was a bit reluctant to see what he'd say ).

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!

Surely that is a declaration for the new season not a re-declaration.

Not the only rider who did not feel well for one reason or another when traveling north, the said jailed turd failed to turn up at Edinburgh a couple of times., after hearing a tester was abiut, allegedly

Big balls Tarasenko!

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

He's come across as a poundshop version of Conor McGregor in the last few years. The only time he's shown any aggression on the track since his last WC is when he upended that Polish lad from behind who had got on the track.

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

Language!

All rider here except for musielak Tarasenko Pawlicki and Doyle even Hancock shown up. so that’s more than I though would show up

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.

NO APPEAL FROM BRANDON ESTATES! As posted by the SCS group. WE have now received official confirmation that stadium owners Brandon Estates have not chosen to pursue a High Court challenge to the outcome of the recent planning inquiry. The appeal against the refusal of planning permission, arising from the November 2022 Planning Committee decision at Rugby Borough Council, was dismissed by inspector Helen Hockenhull in mid-January, after evidence from all parties had been heard last autumn. The remaining option available to the appellants would have been a Judicial Review based on a legal challenge (rather than a challenge to the decision itself). We understand speedway and stock car fans, and local residents, have been eager to know what might happen next, and there has been plenty of speculation; however, we had to wait for a six-week period to expire, which was the window in which the High Court challenge could be submitted. Recent correspondence with the Planning Inspectorate has confirmed there has been no challenge. We are naturally delighted that this marks the end of this particular part of the process, and also that our approach to each stage has been vindicated. We must once again place on record our thanks to everyone from the sporting and local community who stepped up in such spectacular numbers last summer to assist us with the cost of legal representation. Anyone who watched the planning inquiry, and will therefore now understand the way it was conducted, will have seen how being represented in this manner was crucial to our chances of success. Likewise to our witnesses and those who spoke in support of the stadium at the inquiry, your honesty and passion shone through under difficult scrutiny, and it is sincerely appreciated. There is now much for us to consider as a Campaign Group, doubtless with further meetings to be arranged over the coming weeks. At this stage it is too early to give any clear indication over what is to follow, or any timescales, other than to say that at every stage of the planning application we have worked through potential scenarios and considered our strategy under every likely circumstance. We thank everyone for their support – it has been hugely appreciated, and never more so than during the time of the Appeal – and can assure you that with this huge hurdle cleared, we retain an unstinting commitment to get speedway and stock car racing back to their rightful place at Brandon Stadium, and finally bring this saga to an end for the benefit of both the sports and the local community.