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100%. Just plain selfish of Kildemand to go and get himself a concussion. Should have thought of the fans before doing that.

That can't really be helped like...

National League is quite often more entertaining than the dull top leagues

That is the direct copy off Facebook. "we" is Berwick. Nothing to do with Mrs Steve Park (if she existed, which she doesn't). https://www.facebook.com/BanditsSpeedway

I don't think that there is a single poster on here that doesn't understand, or would dispute any of that. If the event was financially unviable at Cardiff, then it had to go. I've no problem with that, I don't expect anyone to suffer financial loss for my convenience. It has to be said though, that Belle Vue has a similar problem to Cardiff, in that it has to hire a substantial amount of temporary seating, which has made ticket prices significantly higher than Cardiff. After hearing lots of "good riddance to rip off Cardiff" comments, the alternative that these people wanted has been proved to be more expensive, in both accommodation & ticketing costs. Imagine the meltdown on here if Cardiff had raised ticket prices to £120 in order to make it work with 20k people. Yet, because Belle Vue have managed to sell out a 1800 seat grandstand at that price, we've got people on here saying that it proves that they've got the pricing right. The original intention when putting the GP's in big stadiums was to raise the profile of the events and bring it to a bigger audience. Initially, It was successful but ultimately it has failed. For me that's sad, and the question has to be asked, why? Is the product that bad? "Fans just want to see close racing on properly prepared track" we're told. If that was the case, Belle Vue would be packed every week, but unfortunately it's not, and can't justify a permanent increase in capacity. Something is obviously badly wrong when the Principality gets 40k people to watch some pickup trucks with big wheels, driving over obstacles, but a world championship Speedway event is relegated to an audience of 6400. There were more people at Dean Court last week to watch Bournemouth's women's football team. Moving the event to Belle Vue may be a necessity, but I'm with IainB on this one, it's beyond me how it can be seen as a positive.

Bit of a shake down for the Comets riders today at the press and practice, frazer bowes looked very impressive, and the new viewing area on bend 3+4 gave a good view, so now if any dust on bend 1+2 you can now escape it. The new toilets are ready to use, the GT tyres northside arena is looking even more impressive UTC

And Lambert is as popular as a turd in a swimming pool in Suffolk.

I must have received a knock to the head 😵

It was the hypocrisy of it after Belle Vue fans spending the previous 6 years whinging about Wolves bringing Tai in.

Enjoyed my visit to Oxford, the result of course helped. Magic, Gusts & Wright were lively but other than that, thought Oxford were disappointing. Stars looked solid again. Six riders with a win or paid win. Bomber, Jan & Richard all good value but the pick was Niels for me. Looked like the rider of old. Best I’ve seen him ride for years. BTW are Bomber & Ashton guesting for Oxford next week? Plenty of fans on 3rd/4th bends kept shouting “see you next Tuesday”. Strange, can’t see a fixture listed 😂

He's very welcome at the NSS 🤣

Interesting to see a Wales v England women's 6 Nations rugby match on tv at the moment. The crowd looks a lot smaller than for the speedway gps, yet it is on at the Millenium Stadium and shown on Prime time BBC.

Impressed with all the riders today. I know it's only practicing but I thought everyone looked quick. Bowes took to the track really well. The improvements to the facilities are top notch. The air fence, refs box, new toilets, and expansion of the viewing is impressive. We now have the best track in the league and with a few more improvements it could be the best overall.

It is an impressive set -up ,what’s been done is first class.Plus a great racing track.Hope the fans turn up in numbers to support the Promotion they deserve it.

It's taken from Sportowefakty apparently and although it does state "rumours" there's generally no smoke without fire and the SGP series is undeniably on a downward trend. WBD dropping Speedway early could be a blessing in disguise.

If the M181 is still closed the A18 runs parallel to the M180 and will bring you out at the end of the M181 i.e. Next to Tesco Extra. Alternative is to go past M181 junction and follow Scunthorpe East , but this is a longer route.

Pairs Saturday, CLRC Sunday

Team building:

What a strange hill to stand on, I’d be more concerned about his partner for the event.

Robert Chmiel and Oliver Berntzon next riders to be announced - just 1 to go

I cannot see where the press release mentioned Craig Cook... or when you say "we" do you mean you and the good lady MrsStevePark?

Well, the "dilution of the event" has began already !! It seems that Peter Kildemand will not be participating due to a concussion injury sustained at Oxford ? Wonderful (NOT !)

Kurtz and Bewley to keep it somewhat respectable but King's Lynn to win by 10+

Taken (copied and pasted) off Berwick Facebook: 𝗣𝗞 𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗢𝗙 𝗕𝗜𝗚 𝗪𝗘𝗘𝗞𝗘𝗡𝗗 Winter signing Peter Kildemand will miss next week’s Cab Direct Championship Big Weekend after suffering concussion riding for Oxford Spires last night. We expect Drew Kemp to now partner Craig Cook at the Pairs. Full Story - https://www.berwickspeedway.com/news/pk-latest/

Hoping for a win to get the league campaign off to a good start. Stronger middle order and reserves should see us through. Kurtz & Bewley will of course be a threat, but they’ll need more than that to win. Stars 51-39 Aces is my prediction.

Cook and kemp for Berwick

Was very noticeable around bends one and two and apparently bend three even more so but couldn’t really tell from where we stood. Louis explains what they’ve done here https://x.com/ipswichspeedway/status/1905277612299096223?s=61

You’re probably facing them at the worst possible time. They’ll all feel a bit embarrassed by that humping at Foxhall and will have a point to prove. Lemon will insist on some sort of reaction so not an ideal time to face them I don’t think. Good luck though I’ll be rooting for a Stars win! 😉

3 points ain't bang average... it's pish poor!

The cost of paying for SON tickets did adversely impact the Aces crowds last season so it wasn't a surprise to see the crowd impacted on Monday.. BSN also covered Mondays meeting so it would be interesting to see if it was well watched.. It was though the KO Cup too which isn't always a crowd puller until the final... The good news was that the Aces at least reached the quarters....

Just for clarity, are you referring to temporary bars at the fan zone when you say 15-20 minute walk? If you quoting 15-20minures for 0.7 miles to the fan zone in Cardiff, then it's over an hour to walk into Manchester for the city's bars and restaurants. I think the point being missed here is that it's not just that people want to get beered up. In Cardiff, the Speedway had a presence throughout the city on GP day. All the bars & restaurants full of fans from all over, street vendors selling merchandise on street corners etc. Speedway took over the City for the day and people enjoyed that celebration of Speedway with fellow fans. With the limited capacity and distance to the stadium, I can't see that being recreated in Manchester city centre. I've only been to one other GP venue other than Cardiff. We went to Prague, and yes, there were bars and restaurants galore, in a beautiful city, which we loved, but apart from one advertising poster & seeing Kelvin Tatum in an Irish bar, I would have had no idea that that Speedway was happening. At least the metro system made it easier to get to the stadium though. It lacked the atmosphere created in Cardiff and both myself & my wife (who isn't a fan, but always wanted to come to Cardiff) felt that it fell a bit flat compared to the Cardiff experience.

I can and I will, it's not just about British Speedway... We've gone from Copenhagen to a track in the middle of an industrial estate, we've gone from Berlin/Gelsenkirchen to a field somewhere in Germany, we've gone from Gothenburg/Stockholm to the middle of a forest in Sweden, we've gone from Cardiff to the slums of Manchester! WBD have destroyed the SGP as a spectacle

Having it at the NSS may very well be good for the purist but as a showpiece event, the biggest Speedway meeting of the year in the UK it won't get any attention outside of the Speedway world at all, as it never did when it was held at Hackney, Bradford or Coventry WBD have absolutely run the whole event into the ground, no showpiece events anymore, except for Warsaw, a bunch of mediocre riders at a provincial stadium and costing a bloody fortune whether you decide to attend or watch it on TV. The sooner they are out of our sport the better!

Mrs got tickets this morning for her and my lad but I said don’t get me any ,if they still got some left on the day/s I might go but belle vue just doesn’t inspire me as a GP venue, I’m not knocking the place it’s great and all that for league racing but I want something different from the GP and belle vue just doesn’t offer it imo

Love Adams, brilliant rider in league speedway. Stylish as they come. However, calls of him being the best rider to not win a world title are a bit off. He really never looked like winning one and was in the GPs for a long time.

I for one am grateful that Scunthorpe are back again for another year. Whether they win or lose is a mute point because normally you are guaranteed a great night of racing. Too many on this forum (across all teams) are negative and critisise everything including general issue related to speedway, that also includes Rob and the management team, but I and every real speedway supporter who goes to Scunthorpe knows that Rob will do everything to keep speedway going irrespective of where it is. Lets get rid of the team blinkers and remember that speedway was and can be again a great family sport where everyone can go along, feel safe and enjoy some excitement on a track that is conducive to racing. Don't keep being negative, it does not help, if you want to critisise offer a solution, it's easy to moan.

When we had tracks in London, I regularly attended Wimbledon, Hackney and Crayford. You knew which night of the week they ran and didn't need to check the fixture list as they ran every week. Len Silver made a point of 'Make it a date, Friday at eight' and that is exactly what the fans did. The same weekly format was the norm throughout the country so it meant riders were on average racing one home and one away meeting every week during the season. How the promotions get things back to that is a major problem to which I don't have any real answers. Back in the 60s and 70s supporters would arrive in equal numbers for league, KO Cup, local derby challenges and individual meetings. These days many are only interested in league matches and don't even support a second team in a lower league (Oxford being a notable exception).