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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.

Wow when Jordan Frampton gets a paid max you know we had to be awful.

According to my forecast the last rain fall will be around 11am tomorrow morning in Leicester. Should this be true maybe a few volunteers can bring their wives hairdryers so we can help dry the track out 😁

The Swedish league operates a squad system of sorts and is in worse financial state than British speedway. Agreeing a Swedish contract and then either being dropped or not used can often mean not getting paid either!! Plenty of examples of that.

You'll be lucky if you want it Thursday. Plenty of rain here over the last few days.

The National Sports Stadium at Crystal Palace would be ideal. Far enough from high density housing, can accommodate 24,000 and has modern facilities. Could a temporary track be laid inside the 400m. athletics track?.

He should have been in place to cover Howarth if needed but Howarth rode so they did not need to use him.

Been saying this for years now, the play offs should be on the bank holiday weekend at the end of August and then run Cup competition/individuals after that weather permitting.

She had her knockers....

If they need the hoo-ha finale, why not just have it as a one off Grand Final with 1st vs 2nd at a neutral stadium?? 3rd vs 4th home & away for something like the Craven Shield?? 5th - 7th have a creative 3 team tournament, once at each track??

In case you hadn't realised, Middlo does the southern tracks Havve does the northern ones, been like that for a few seasons now

I was thinking of 2003. Unless I have gone too far back 😂 Seems like Poole vs Oxford is turning into a similar rivalry!

And still we won the 1st leg with ease

fricke kurtz Lidsey have all re-arranged their plans to get to czech republic for GP challenge it's a joke if the meeting doesn't go ahead !!

We had many great meetings between us, it was a terrific rivalry.

Very Well Said, Such a sad way how this season is ending. Not a good look for our Sport, far to late in the year for any Finals like this. I sort of see why they did it, but with only 7 Teams it is a bit of a farce.

Don't think you're a lone voice..

This lot caught my eye, which is in an upcoming sale at my local auction rooms. It includes what I imagine to be one of the bulletins posted outside the stadium during the period following Tom's tragic accident.

That doesn't make sense. It was pretty obvious that Mulford would come into heat 11 to replace Blodorn (or could come into heat 12 or 14 to replace Vuolas). When Cook was injured, it meant Mulford had to ride in heat 14, so there was no need to bring him into 11 or 12. Had Lemon panicked and put Mulford in heat 9, he'd have ended up taking 4 rides.

Doyle hasn't qualified for the challenge ....

I was watching an old SGP on youtube the other day, think was Prague 2002. Had Millard and Tatum commentating and in all honesty the whole presentation was streets ahead of what it is now. And everyone (myself included) used to slate Millard! Tatum is IMO fine as a back up but needs a proper commentator ahead of him. Pearson was superb IMO and is very badly missed. Pearson's excitement along with his excellent knowledge of the sport was brilliant and wont hear anyone tell me different. Pundits, presenters and commentators make errors in all sports at all levels and thought the people each week slating Pearson were a bit harsh. Granted Millard was a bit of a plank but still streets ahead of what we have now. Watch an old SGP or Elite League meeting on youtube from 20 ish years ago and watch a modern day one and you'll see what I mean. I find Chris Louis a very informative guy but he is as boring as they get when commentating. When you had Pearson & Tatum commentating, Johnathan Green and Louis/Johno in the studio and Sophie Blake interviewing in the pits, it was pretty good.

Just caught up with their coverage of Monday night, it was terrible as you'd expect, but they couldn't get off air quick enough, although scheduled to finish at 21:30 they cleared off at 21:00 without speaking to either of the team managers!

Natalie Quirke was the best

Louis and Nicholls do a brilliant job.

They were separate points. However Phil Morris's role in creating a better premiership has been to severely weaken the championship. That's affected attendances which imo has led to some promoters choosing less meetings as will lose less money. So in a way yes, I'd say he is to blame

I don't care what level of racing we have at Glasgow next year, but 11 home meetings a season is a joke. With the millions that have been invested in the club and facilities it would be nice to showcase it more than once every third Friday. It's always easier to spend other people's money so the Facennas will make the call. On the attendance nonsense. Glasgow raced midweek this year and between that and Friday nights I didn't see a collosal difference. I am positive that if the club decided to double up and Oxford have shown that it can be done, Edinburgh fans would be there to support the away teams for sure to see the superstars in the league.