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I have never been a fan of using play off's in speedway to decide a league winner, but I have been a lone voice on here over the years. I accept it may have worked in the past to offer some good finals, let's be honest it relies on luck as much as anything. Let the league winner be the team that finish's top of the league. Right now we are seeing 'luck' being the factor in the play offs. Luck that the weather plays nicely, and come late Sept/Oct in the UK it's not something you would put money on. Instead of the league winner being the team that have been consistent from Apr-Sept, that team could have bad luck in one match and lose the title, so the league winner to some degree relies on luck in the play-off's. Recent years we have seen play off matches full of guest riders, and riders who only sign on once their lucrative Polish leagues finish. The biggest farce of all this season, there's only seven bloody teams in the league. If we the TV deal insists on this farcical play off situation, with just seven teams let's just make it that the top two in the league contest a play off final and let that be at the first week in September when we may still have acceptable weather.

Just to let everyone know, all that can be done is being done. We have had unprecedented amout of rain this month. Last Fri I pumped off any standing water, Saturday I let it dry , was best to stay off the track, you can do more harm than good if you try and work it while it's to wet. Sunday I worked the track for 6 hours, it was bladed several times, wheeled many times, spun in, then graded, finally packing it for an hour with the lorry, if I knew how to post a pic of how it looked on Sunday I would, it looked really good. Monday and today we have had nothing but rain! My pump has been working since a week last Sunday. Sam has been up today to get any surface water off, horrible job in the wet and cold. As soon as is possible the track will be worked on tomorrow and Thurs, we are trying, very hard !!

To think, in my heyday of watching speedway.....all tracks had at least 25-30 home meetings.......

The risk of another bang on a clearly deeply concussed brain in the timescale since his massive crash the week before last massively massively overrides any possible reward of racing this week, next week, any time this season in my opinion. How many of the scribes on here (aside from the few ex-speedway riders or possible rugby / motor cycle typs sports competitiors, boxers ) have ever suffered from a concussion.??? I had a mild one playing Rugby in my teens, believe me, it's something I've never forgotten and the affects can be dormant and long term. He is a decent young man with the best days of his career ahead, far better for him to show up and spectate, take his deserved adulations as a team member and contributor to the respective ultimate trophy wins, and get himself off back home, some rest and relaxation and come back as recovered as he can be next season. I sincerely hope that is the outcome!

I think that's a bit below the belt, considering she is suffering with stage 4 terminal breast cancer. I'm sure you didn't mean it like that though.

Poole 26 Ipswich 64 (Elite League - 1998)

Sadly the crowds we got at Wembley in the 60’s and 70’s are no longer there. As someone who attended every Wembley WF 1965-1981 I find it very sad. I am not a fan of GP’s, particularly with the current scoring system. Give me a one-off WF every time.

So they will still get to the GP challenge even if it is postponed. I'm sure they would all prefer a safe dry track next week. The weather down here is horrendous. Would rather see a raceable track than a 'rideable' one.

You get two legs with a pair of trousers! Can anyone tell me why a jumper with two arms isn't called a pair of jumpers?

I'm desperately trying not to be pessimistic here! It's raining heavily four miles from the track. The forecast is for the heavy rain to continue into the evening and then light rain is forecast until the early hours of Wednesday. The forecast is much better for the rest of tomorrow and Thursday but it will take a miracle to get the track rideable, let alone raceable! I fear that, if the meeting goes ahead, it will be farcical!

I thought Sophie Blake was excellent.

In which case, he'd have got to Scunthorpe around 7pm - around the time the meeting was finished 🤔😄

Then you give Ashton a call about 5.05.

I would get yourself a soft drink j2ohh and calm down.🤣

I think he is trying to be funny and saying what most people think,, BTW Flint and Stark are/were the guests

Anyone seen this vs Scunthorpe (BSN Final Leg 2) 2/10/24 7.30pm | Speedway Updates (proboards.com) Have we forfeited the 2nd leg although the updater is Fozzie.

Was the SGP really created for all those rounds at small permanent tracks? And an endless supply of Polish meetings? They really should bring back the world final, shouldn't they... Have it at London Stadium every year!? As a Wembley replacement.

Why not start a petition to have Russia withdraw from Ukraine? You'd have as much hope of success, but at least an ethical reason for organising it.....

I think the time has come to bin them off at this point, play offs have done more harm than good for the sport as a whole. Devaluing a whole seasons worth of meetings for a 2 legged final is ridiculous, especially when there are 7 teams in the premiership now. A team finishing lower than halfway in the league table winning the league? Absolute nonsense.

Really Bitza ? will be close I think

For commercial reasons maybe they should let ipswich and Sheffield race the second leg,

Artem is basically saying he wants to ride in the GPs, but he wouldn't feel comfortable taking the spot of another Polish rider. Zmarzlik is very uncomfortable and keeps stuttering. I sense fear in Zmarzlik's voice.

if he rode for Poole Wednesday he would have to ride for Bellevue Thursday, dont think he will.

Must say she annoys me keep giggling when interviewing like a silly little girl

Suzi Perry was great, but probably under-appreciated at the time as she was still cutting her teeth in the business when she did speedway. When Speedway was on Sky, she'd be interviewing riders walking back to the pits after they'd been brought off. I remember Jimmy Nilsen saying he would get revenge on Joe Screen while stomping back to the pits. It's great telly. Now, if there's a crash, they cut to a bunch of over-60s eating their sausage and chips because they don't want to upset anyone. Also, instead of cutting to some interesting conversation between races, we get long shots of stadiums with a tractor going round or race-re-runs with repeats of the races to the same old music every time. Every time that comes on, my 6 year old complains that it's "that again" and that it's "boring". Kelvin does his best, but it is a lot to expect an ex-rider to carry the whole programme - and his self-confessed maths problem is a major flaw as it's pretty key in the context of a meeting that if you are 10 points down then two 5-1s aren't going to get you a draw. I must admit, I do find speedway on Eurosport a hard watch at times and don't always get to the end of a meeting. But it's Eurosport. It's always been poor for as long as I can remember. There is a lot of space between races at a speedway meeting. The key is how to fill those spaces.

Does anyone have any news on what retired riders are doing now? Adam Shields seems to be doing well as a personal trainer in Oz and as far as I know Dave Watt was working as a carpenter of shopfitter. Last I heard Robert Mear was still digging up roads but doing quite well on continental grass tracks. What about the likes of Stuart Robson , Hans Andersen, Steve Johnson, or Tony Rickardson and those like them? Anybody know what they are up to these days ? I think we all take a bit comfort from knowing that various old favourites are doing ok in their retirement.

Edinburgh had a Team of 5 pt riders though .😂👍

Fully agree if the weather forecast is correct then no excuses for this not to go ahead Thursday. Let's have confidence in Leicester to get it on.

I have always called them the P.Offs (and you can guess what my P means. Totally ridiculous driven only by the TV folks who want to televise the two meetings that decide who is the " top team" in the season. Decided on wet tracks in early winter, teams patched up with gusts due to injuries, all decided on a one off (or two off) set of meetings. Fine if its the KO Cup thats a knock out meeting, but teams performances over the season count for nought. With postponements and racing on off nights the meetings are a nightmare to organise. Rule fiddling to get fixtures P.Offs meetings agreed before the league fixtures are completed, Leicester's boglands track always seems to feature, Poole demanding that they have the second leg at home ...all causing fixture planning havoc and frankly devaluing the entire season jsut to win the P.Offs. If your are unlucky enough not to qualify for the P. Offs (its not easy with only 7 teams starting out in the race) then you season finishes some time in August . They'll never go cos' the TV people demand that they have a P.Off to make good viewing .. but why not still have League Champions, and the P.FFs could be renamed the TV Trophy or summat similar??

i wonder how much you have lost poole in revenue through the rotating gate ? i remember Workington overcomming a 28 point loss to Edinburgh in a 1st leg meeting . but we pulled it back with a team of approx 6 point riders and a 2 pointer at reserve . F.Y.I. its not over , till its over .

We've had about 50% of the entire months rainfall in just one week and twice the amount of what Manchester has had for an example. It's been the wettest September in Leicestershire for over 20 years. I'm not entirely sure what people think we could do realistically to make it any better?

FYI I wasn't trying to be funny. I'm stating the obvious. The meeting is very much still on but basically over as a contest.

With no doubt the Aussies in both teams will be eager to return home ready for their summer season. So if cancelled Thursday it could end up a farcial situation.With both clubs operating with 6 man teams or guest riders

i would like to think this is blip in the system . i would have thought that this meeting/fixture would have to be run . has godders hit the wall and is giving up the speedway game/position in speedway . maybe there was a small clue was when he had Aston in at 1 V poole ! if not , the BSN owes all championship play off subscribers around £4 each .

There can hardly have been anyone in the UK and central europe, over the past few weeks, who hasn't been directly or indirectly effected by the need to cancel or change travel plans.

About 3 months ago.

Reason ??? fine dry sunny days forecast weds / Thursday? track can't be that bad ?

I wouldnt worry too much, i would say there is around 5% chance the meeting even happens Thursday (or takes place at Leicester at all for that matter)

Would you not hope that the outcome is he's already recovered & 100% ready to finish the season?

Be massive money to entice Brennan or cook .. better get more raffle tickets sold at the end of season do

Sidcup Auction Rooms. Fri/Sat Oct 4th/5th.

Did you read David Howes explanation?

who makes that choice then ?

I would tend to take the opposite view, why rush him back in a dead rubber essentially, let him get fit for the play off final

One way were hoping😂😂👍

Yeah, what Carter done at the end of his life wasn't dangerous at all. I would put him down as a far bigger scumbag than Jason Garrity and that is saying something.

I would have thought you could rent hotel rooms by the hour near Belle Vue 😂

She's just knocked out another babby 👶

There's a lot of miserable b'stards on here😃. I'm just glad to be able to watch it on TV as I would never attend that many meetings. Eurosport put the money in (I'm sure the BSP are glad they did) and the presenters do a great job - I can forgive the odd mistake, life's too short.

Hope your right with one of these.