Leaderboard

Comets have a fair number of what I would call occasional supporters ie will come sometimes but don't need their speedway fix or love it as much as the hardcore fans. By hardcore I mean fiercely loyal and will turn up whatever the weather or circumstances. If Speedway country wide continues to decline it is partly because it is not attracting enough people to cover the current costs. Those running the sport have to acknowledge this as a matter of urgency and take action to lower the cost base while making the sport more attractive to supporters. Current fan numbers at many clubs generally struggle to cover costs such as rider demands, travel expenses, medical costs ( around £1200 per meeting) Insurance costs, Stewards costs etc etc. I wouldn't be surprised if Workington would have liked to build a stronger team but were very mindful of the losses incurred at the back end of last season when crowds dipped. It is a catch 22, fans want a competetive team , the management have a certain budget probably based on expected break even numbers through the gates. If the fans don't turn up in these expected numbers on a regular basis then not as much money is available for team building. Offers to more capable riders are more likely to be bettered by lets say richer clubs. If the signed up team turns out uncompetetive or underachieves then this affects the numbers through the gate as the fickle won't come to watch a losing team. This increases financial loss even further putting a clubs ability to afford to race at a certain level in doubt. In my opinion the sport does not attract the attendances to call itself a professional sport any longer. It is increasingly questionable whether rider demands are sustainable on current attendances. The days when many riders had a job outside of speedway may well have to return. For me the way forward is one British League, let the riders who say they can't make one league pay make the choice.

Ridiculous reffing there. A 6 point swing as a pirate 5-1 turns into a 4-2 Plymouth. Crazy

1st semi result- 8 qualifiers for Prague Rushden Cerjak Landon Generick Jensen Nejezchleba Konzack Smith

Luke is only 17 and very impressive on the bike as he showed in the U/21’s.No point in rushing him in his career. I’m sure he will be good rider in the future.

Well we managed to score more than 24 so ok I reckon

Oh dear the wheels have come off the pilots bus 😁

Dunno what I was looking at last night, can't see it now! I blame the wine ...

Lynn need championship racing next season not premiership

Yes I like him, has a good future in my opinion but needs to take time not rush things.

From his posts i think Luke's father has his head screwed on properly, from any interviews i've heard with Luke it seems the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I cannot see him going to RS at any PL team unless they both think the time is right and Luke can do himself justice. He's a very talented young rider, if he moves up i doubt he wants to be slagged off like just about every other RS. I'd say pretty much the same about Jody Scott too, though i think a PL RS position would be a step too far at the moment, needs to establish himself at CL level.

Glasgow had no control over this meeting. If they had, I'm fairly sure it would've been off in the morning.

It’s just poor refereeing in Uk.If you watch Polish Speedway starts are very fair,slightest movement from any rider and it’s a restart with a warning.(there are not many restarts though), the riders sit still.

Lawson goes to no. 1 in June. Kvech drops to reserve. Ben is still 5th in averages, worst place he could be as limits r/r options

And their lies the problem. When riders did work and ride, the crowds were far bigger than today. Riders in this day and age have got to have 2/3 bikes. The big van and full time mechanics. In the 70s/80s. Riders in the second division would mainly have one bike, The top riders would maybe have two. A mate would dope and oil and get paid a fish supper. How can you expect to be a full time rider. Riding in a front of less than a thousand people? If the second division does not go part time then its curtains in my opinion.

Ref's being inconsistent, who would have thought that would happen!!

The rules say if a rider moves before the tapes go up then it's all 4 back,this applies to poole aswell sorry the ref didn't make a special exception for you.

If Debrecen round is completed then just give the four riders on 6 points in this round places in the finals. They all had a win, second and third.

Why are we moaning at riders for struggling if track was awful? If they struggle on Weds then might have a point.

We've currently got a 30 minute delay while we wait for the rain to pass. If it's been 30 minutes, read this message again.

Cook Kerr Starke continue to struggle but much improved from Toby which helps keep the scores close enough, that Gate 4 was horrible for anyone who had to use it. Should be fine to over turn the deficit, Cook usually rides Poole like a heat leader and Starke should be less rubbish at Poole. Lewi still struggling but not for the lack of trying.

Pirates clear on a 5-1 after Harris impedes himself. Can’t have that says the ref and bangs on the red light with Pirates clear down the back straight. Horrendous.

Harris penalises himself and gets s re-run!! Then of course gates in the re-run.

I don't expect this to restart, the rain radar looks like even worse is on the way. Not the greatest meeting so far.

Inevitable when there's no pathway in which you can progress sustainably. If you're in a Championship team you've got to invest as if you are riding in the Premiership because you're mostly up against riders who are riding in the Premiership and so on.

I was speaking to one top Championship level rider that was doubling up about 9 or 10 years ago and I remember him saying in a busy season the previous year he had earned just under £120k. But, when his machinery, tuning, mechanic costs etc were all taken into account they had cost him £109k. So, basically he had risked his life racing speedway all over the country for around 7 months to be left with £11k. When you see it like that nothing makes sense, which is what I said to him. With a wry smile his reply was; "Yeah, you are right, but at this stage in my life it's better than having a real job!" I think that sums up how costly it is and why they do it. Although, I bet the amount of money that ends up with engine tuners over a year is quite eye watering!

May be they should of not graded the track and taking more than the top surface off as that changed the advantage.I still travelled 150 mile round trip to support the comets and pity more who live closer to the track do not support it.

That was the great chance the promoters had to really change trajectory of speedway in the UK, just like 99 when Sky got involved. Instead, they decided to just pick up where they left off. Said before though. The sad reality for me is that most people in speedway are quite happy for it to be run in this amateurish and low key way

Delighted to see Pollestad on top😃👍

what % was it, could do with some that.

Yes, McDiarmid was excellent, perhaps you would consider a straight swap with him and Lambert 😂😂😂

I'd like to think if this was a league match, McDiarmid would be getting 6 rides. Looks like a very good rider in the making. With the aggregate tie all over from early on, no problem giving everyone their full quota.

Thanks - I totally forgot last night was KO Cup! Yes, It's 8.85.

Not today mate

It has certainly helped massively having him at reserve, but it hasn’t been the case in every meeting. He missed Berwick away and only scored 9 at Plymouth and Glasgow (SC). The team was built to have a strong reserve and whilst Jonatan won’t score the same, we will have a better balance to us. KO Cup doesn’t count towards rolling averages. He’s currently on 8.85 with one more meeting to ride before he gets an official average.

Absent from where.🤔

What sort of average is VP going to get when it’s all revised? He could be the highest in the league?!!

After last seasons effort to qualify in a play off berth the current team are nowhere near as solid. It's a well known fact that speedway followers like a winning team (all sports do I guess) - and as I've mentioned in previous posts fans can be fickle and find alternative ways to rid them of their cash. Workington supporters can be very loyal if the product is good - but oh boy they can be equally disloyal if results like tonight's farcical display continue. Twice speedway has folded in Workington because fans disappeared and caused promoters plenty of grief. I'm sure the current owners are well aware of the remedial work now required or Comets will struggle to avoid a hat-trick of the sort we all don't want.

Rotten? We’ve won at Ashfield, ran Berwick and Plymouth close away. Every meeting bar the Glasgow (A) BSN match has been a last heat decider. We gifted Poole the win last week but we are far from rotten. We’ve got the foundation of a great team, if we can get the Oskar and Max replacements right then we will be challenging.

Season is already gone, unfortunately. Only realistic chance of some silverware is the K.O. Cup when facing a weakened Ipswich team in a couple of weeks

I just automatically fear the worst now, given what has happened in the last 3 seasons: Jakobsen - 2023 Laguta - 2023 Pickering - 2023 Musielak - 2024 Tarasenko - 2024 Appreciate Ben will put Leszno first (understandably), just hope they don’t try and put the block on him. Assume he has to ride in the UK anyway given he’s living in Poole and his visa situation.

There wasn’t a blue groove, just lions were better full stop. They gated better and we couldn’t cope, Ellis made the pass of the night and howarth did something similar so the outside was working but people were overcooking it and losing speed on the exit of bend 4. Brennan wasn’t on it tonight and Hume could never fill Thompsons void. Thompson is a bigger miss than Doyle as this point in the league IMO. He beats his opposite number by a large margin and can take on some of the big boys, with Thompson we could have covered RR a lot better.

Maths was never my strong point 🙃 I wonder how that compared to the rent at PB?

12th with 4 points.

With such a strong reserve in VP whatever Mark scores will have minimal influence on the tie. I'm more concerned about how the Comets perform, we need to step up.

Troy Butler rode in the 1989 final

He wouldn't even be there if he really had flu...🤣

The idea is all well & good but we all know that a weaker product won’t reflect in lower admission prices. At best they will be held at 2025 levels for a couple of years. Has having some top riders back in the uk improved the attendance levels I can’t comment to much as I don’t travel to away fixtures. the crowds at Ipswich certainly appear higher since the Jason/Emil double act have been in town they have certainly brought myself & a few others that I know back to regular attendees not missing a meeting from attending the odd one or two a year. The radical overhaul should have happen after Covid, the promoters had an entire season written off where they could have used the time to come up with a blue print. The sport has been on a steady decline since the late 80s. The Stewksbury plan of the early 90s to revive the sport failed because of infighting. One big league failed because of infighting in 95/96. The last chance salon of the elite league with sky tv money failed again due to in fighting & lack of vision. I’m not sure the majority of promoters want radical change that might stop the rot & improve things.

Had a go at doing this. Just copied the previous list, and removed the names of those who have passed on. Names now missing are Taylor, Bales, Williams, France, Louis, and Kennett. Hope I got it right, let me know if there are any errors. 01 - Arthur Payne - 28/08/23 02- Per Tage Svensson - 16/10/31 03- Peo Soderman - 29/10/32 04- Ove Fundin - 23/05/33 05 - Dan Forsberg - 25/03/34 06 - Josef Hofmeister - 17/06/34 07 Brian Crutcher - 23/08/34 8 Mike Broadbank - 25/09/34 9- Barry Briggs - 30/12/34 10 - Aage Hansen - 13/04/35 11 - Gote Nordin - 02/07/35 12 - Bob Andrews - 27/10/1935 13- Reg Luckhurst - 11/11/1935 14 - Doug Davies - 06/08/1936 15 - Sverre Harrfeldt - 23/11/1937 16- Leif Larsson - 16/02/1938 17- Leif Enecrona - 05/03/1940 18- Andrzej Wyglenda 04/05/1941 19- Jim Airey - 19/08/1941 20 - Bengt Jansson - 09/01/1943 21 - Anders Michanek - 30/05/1943 22 - Trevor Hedge - 30/08/1943 23- Terry Betts - 15/09/1943 24 - Howard Cole 29/12/1943 25 - Martin Ashby - 05/02/1944 26 - Jan Simensen - 26/07/1944 27 - Zygfryd Friedek - 19/10/1944 28 - Jerzy Trzeszkowski - 10/01/1945 29- Eric Boocock - 02/02/1945 30- John Boulger - 18/06/1945 31 - Hasse Holmqvist - 18/06/1945 32 - Jim McMillan - 03/12/1945 33 - Soren Karlsson - 23/10/1946 34- Ole Olsen - 16/11/1946 35 - Ray Wilson - 12/03/1947 36 - Doug Wyer - 16/08/1947 37 - Grigori Khlinovsky - 11/11/47 38 - Egon Muller - 26/11/1948 39 - Christoph Betzl - 13/02/1949 40- Jiri Stancl - 18/11/1949 41 - Viktor Kuznetsov - 27/11/1949 42 - Georg Hack - 20/02/1950 43- Marek Cieslak - 28/06/1950 44- Alois Wiesbock - 31/07/1950 45 Tommy Johansson - 21/10/1950 46 - Vladimir Gordeev - 30/11/1950 47- John Titman - 26/01/1951 48- Dag Lovaas - 25/02/1951 48- Jan Verner - 03/03/1951 50 - Petr Ondrasik - 08/10/1951 51- Phil Crump - 09/02/1952 52- Henny Kroeze - 11/03/1952 53 - Valery Gordeev - 28/08/1952 54 - Dave Jessup - 07/03/1953 55- Ales Dryml - 10/06/1953 56 - Scott Autrey - 09/07/1953 57 - Robert Slabon - 15/09/1953 58- Peter Collins - 24/03/1954 59- Larry Ross - 15/06/1954 60- John Davis - 10/11/1954 61- Finn Thomsen - 16/02/1955 62- Mikhail Starostin - 24/02/1955 63 - Tommy Nilsson - 10/03/1955 64 - Jan Andersson - 07/05/1955 65 Kai Niemi - 15/09/1955 66- Jerzy Rembas - 18/04/1956 67- Chris Morton - 22/07/1956 68- Steve Bastable - 16/09/1956 69- Bruce Penhall - 10/05/1957 70- Karl Maier - 24/08/1957 71- Roman Jankowski - 05/10/1957 72 - Bo Petersen - 21/02/1958 73- Les Collins - 24/05/1958 74 - Mitch Shirra - 27/09/1958 75 - Michael Lee - 11/12/1958 76- John Cook - 18/12/1958 77 - Dennis Sigalos - 16/08/1959 78 - Erik Gundersen - 08/10/1959 79- Hans Nielsen - 26/12/1959

GB Promoters have created their own downfall by letting the riders dictate unrealistic demands in declining sport in UK.

A completely different outlook then, from now... Big crowds provided "working men" with additional income, who, often several evenings a week, earned, on each evening, more then they earned in a whole week of doing their "day job"... Only the very top riders had the sponsorship and salary band to make Speedway their profession... Nowaday much smaller crowds (maybe a tenth of 40 years ago?), are funding even juniors as full time professionals for at least 6 months of a year, (and for some all year!)... With the ultimate irony being of course that promoters expect their riders to spend tens of thousands on kit, so they pay them even more tens of thousands in salaries... And then collectively get together and devise an operating model that pretty much devalues hugely every single competition they "desperately" all want to win!!! Unsustainable madness and a true race to the bottom, as has been seen over the past 30 years or so, with absolutely nothing changing.... (Other than we had a green helmet cover for a while, which, very surprisingly for me, didn't bring tens of thousands of fans flocking back)....