Leaderboard

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.

Perry Barr's surface isn't good even when the sun is out.

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 😁

31 i think including the CL pairs

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.

Just move it to King's Lynn and get the season done because the weather isn't going to improve at this time of the year. Chances of Leicester pulling back the defecit are slim anyway because not only are they 18 points down but they also won't have any Home track advantage after the amount of rain the track has taken over the last week. Belle Vue would have to do one of the biggest chokes in Speedway history to throw this one anyway imo.

One day poor old Fozzie will actually crack it and manage to be funny.

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?.

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

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

Dry weather only means no rain forecast, probably won't be warm enough to dry anything out sufficiently for the meeting to go ahead, or if it does, won't be a great spectacle

id be looking to get play offs completed before kids go back to school personally should be achievable with 12 home meetings (less in div 2) then run cups/trophy in sept & oct the trouble this time of year is that tracks struggle to dry out with shorter days and lower temperatures massive gaps for teams before finals isnt good

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.

If Ben was to do championship it would be at Poole. Don't see Tom doing Champ either, think he only did Poole this year incase he got dropped in Poland or not used much in Sweden so still had the meetings.

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'm not convinced that the GPs are a financial benefit to the riders - the prize money isn't life changing. The "risks his life for entertainment" trope is tired and meaningless.

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!

Got to admit can’t stand her either, she also does polish league for eleven sport

Let's be fair here, it's not at all Abi's fault. She's just doing her job. The nonsense chat is usually requested from directors through an earpiece. Man or women, it's irrelevant. Even Tatum & Louis (whomever is partnered with Kelv) chat absolute s#!+e most weeks. The discovery team as a whole has no idea what the watching viewers want to hear or see. Camera work, commentators, trackside presenters, the lot is absolutely dreadful. Terrible to just out the Lass, just doing as she's told.