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Watched this 'non-live' and thought it was good tense meeting - I see people still on here bemoaning their perception of a lack of passing. Racing is not all about passing, faster guys can make starts too! Well done Leicester & TNT for an entertaining watch, enjoyed Chris and Kelvin too.

Everybody can see this apart from the people that run the sport unfortunately.

He didn't fall off he was force off by Ace

Surely it would make sense to have the rising star in the championship rather than slinging them in the top league and maybe 1 in 20 makes it and the rest lose heart/confidence and are lost to the sport. You don't see in boxing the next great young hope being put in with Usuk after 4-5 fights, look at the young UK riders lost to speedway over the years, its bonkers to me miss out the next logical step in the ladder and sling in a boy with a years experience against Doyle and Emil.

Keeping hagon and releasing Edwards is another Birmingham masterclass of team building and management.

However with all the cost cutting & watering down of the product has done nothing to improve the sport. The fundamentals are broken & until the foundations on which the sport are changed nothing will work. In fairness some of the best racing I’ve seen at Foxhall was in the old NL days 80/90 With out the super stars of the day. There is so much wrong doubling up, guests, poorly prepared tracks, lack of investment, self interest, rocket ship equipment. All this detracts from the product & the credibility.

27 / 05 / 2024

I enjoyed the meeting too. Thought it was a decent watch. Fricke the best rider in the league currently. Really like him too seems like a decent down to earth fella so good for him. Still if some got their way, he’s another they’d happily punt out of British Speedway to get one league speedway..🙄

My two cents for the little that it’s worth. I’m fairly sure the discussions are already underway and have probably already been sorted out, but here we go. This is based on 14 clubs riding (No Brum, Oxford running one side and all other clubs still running as usual) League - 14 Team league. Based on current Championship standard. Number ones along the lines of Brennan, Lawson, Klindt, Masters, Picko etc. maybe a Doyle could be convinced as well perhaps but who knows. I do believe the riders are there for 7 man teams, but 6 is also more than acceptable. None of this 5 man rubbish. Reserves must be NDL riders however 26 league fixtures. I’ve seen some suggest two home and two away but clubs struggle to fit the current list in so the increase cannot be too much. I’d have the top 6 into the Play Offs and follow the 2023 Championship format. Two groups of 3 and group winners into the final. I thought it worked well KO Cup - Usual stuff, straight knockout League Riders & Pairs Championship. I liked the Big Championship weekend idea and would like to see that repeated. The important stuff, the promotion and the image - If he wanted too, keeping Phil Morris in the role is vital as I feel he adds so much to the sport (I know some people don’t but hey that’s the wonder of opinions). Everything has to be run as professionally as possible. That means the media day, the casual clothes the riders wear in press etc. Things like the KO Cup draws need to be live streamed and done properly. If TNT want to be involved, then amazing, but if not then BSN are more then good enough to be the main partner. Track staff up and the down the country need to be in matching overalls, start Marshall’s need to look the part. Seeing Workingtons in joggers and on his phone isn’t a good look. Push off areas like they have on TNT must be compulsory. The pre meeting parade should look the same up and down the country. I know that stuff doesn’t seem important but when rebuilding a sport, the image is the most important thing. The race format doesn’t need changing, the way the meetings are run don’t need changing. The product itself is not the problem. Is it ideal? No of course not. We all want the best riders over here, but they are not the be all and end all. A 7 team top league isn’t acceptable, so a 5 team one would be embarrassing And 250cc engines? Get a grip

I enjoyed it too - close fought match and there was some decent ‘racing’ there was passing also - got to commend Howarth for a cracking first bend in heat 3 and kudos to Kerr for not dropping it down - I suppose he dished it out Thursday and he took it - good to see hard riding and racing!

What happened on the 27th of May 2024 then was he on holiday ?

I'm not saying that. That is why you are unable to use a quote. But well identified that as with 99% of spectators, I have no track prep experience. On TV Masters said the riders were warned if the work took place that they wanted it was likely to make the track worse. This would appear to have been the case. I thought the track staff turned it round quickly. It would appear to me that they have one of the better group of volunteers. Based on visiting all tracks at least once a season for the last three seasons they appear more organised than others. Air fence panels are changed much quicker than elsewhere. And last night again demonstrated their willingness to get the job done with minimum fuss.

Big out shout out to the track staff for preparing a track that was raceable, the rain at 4.30 was torrential. Fair play to Tatum, Nicholls and Louis, thought they were very interesting and knowledgeable. Fricke looked good, match winner for me was Howarth. A decent sized crowd in attendance as well. Enjoyed it last night.

And I have been to the NSS at Easter and the meeting was delayed for longer because the track was a shambles. They bladed all the surface to the outside & piled it up against the airfence. Or maybe both tracks got heavy rain st the wrong time but you obviously know better using your one eye to get a balanced view.

For a TEAM SPORT to be successful, it requires some very basic fundamentals that need to be box ticked... They are, in no particular order of priority... To have a level of prize size that grabs the attention of the public and media... To have jeopardy and consequence in every match that takes place.. To engender a tribal following with a decent number of away fans at every match to create atmosphere... To ensure any followers of a team have a close emotional attachment to their representatives, with, ideally, affinity built up through years of loyalty from their "heroes"... To have credibility, whereby each team stands alone on their own two feet, for good, bad or indifference... To deliver matches to their fans when the fans can, or want, to attend, not when their employees tell them they can hold the events.. To organise events regularly, so the fans have continuity, and don't get out of the habit of attending.. To charge an admission fee that reflects the level of entertainment on offer, organic size and standing of the sport and current cost of living challenges, and not one that just reflects how much their employees want to be paid... To work collaboratively with each other, knowing that the league itself is only as strong as its weakest team... To have a joined up, fit for purpose in 2025, marketing plan that sells "the league(s)" as a collective, rather than each team just going it alone with varying degrees of capability, reach and cut through.. Sadly, UK Speedway currently ticks none of those basic fundamentals, and, until it does, it has zero chance of growth, and, in its current guise, quite probably even threatens its long term survival, in the UK, (as a team sport).... Something akin to moving the deckchairs on the Titanic simply won't work anymore...

Whatever the good folk on this forum think and you can read many a worthy suggestions that could make a difference to the sport, the problem is it is a niche product run by a closed shop of promoters looking primarily after their own interests but trying to market a sport with no level playing field as far as machinery used is concerned with riders basically dictating what days they will race because that have commitments elsewhere around Europe. On machinery, back in the day when the bikes were roughly the same a rider could jump on the track spare and still win races and was partly down to rider skill and not the power of the bike. Up and coming riders using the same type of machinery could often run heat leaders close and sometimes get that surprise win. Today you have throttle jockeys on highly tuned machines that cost an absolute fortune to maintain trying to negotiate a range of tracks that were just not designed for today’s machinery. Wholesale changes are needed from the way the promoters run the sport to presentation, machinery, rider attitude and lot of thinking outside the box to take the sport to another generation. The trouble is no one on the top table is either interested or has the balls to rock the boat because of the ramifications from the closed shop controllers. One can only fear for the sport and the sad decline due to so many factors some of which could have been avoided/stopped in their tracks but no one could step up and say no. It probably says more about the lack of respect on the top table for the fellow owners of clubs that no one listens to each other.

Something about it being slick, gate and go, tyres wearing out, losing the coin toss. All the excuses were coming out. https://www.poole-speedway.com/news/view/20250712-reaction-disastrous-start-left-the-pirates-trailing-the-comets Anyone who was there or streamed it saw exciting racing, what caught Poole out was not knowing what lines to ride. Vinnie, Tate, Fraser, Antti all made great overtakes that night and some in multiple races. On a side note it was mentioned that 300 purchases were made for the live stream that night. Seems to be a success so far.

I've streamed meetings from both teams and Workington definitely provide by far the better racing

Getting big names in isn't always going to improve the sport... the aim is to improve the quality of racing and that's only ever going to happen if all the riders are at a similar standard. Some of the best races I've ever watched were at amateur level 😄 may have been slower but all 4 riders were all over eachother.

Probably a routine home win unless its too hot for the Poole riders on their way to the stadium then Worky might be in with a chance. ☀️

Another way to look at it, Starke beat Harrison, which Cairns couldn't do in heat 2. Starke then had a second place behind Steve Worrall. Starke then had the struggling Declan Kennedy taken out of a heat & lost to Zaine & Mountain. Starke then faced Mountain & tac sub Worrall! Who should Starke have beaten that he didn't? Worrall or Mountain (who Cairns didn't meet)? You wouldn't expect a 4 point away reserve to beat a 5 point home reserve (Zaine)! Now Cairns obviously came on string as the match went on, beating Zaine twice, which is brilliant for a 2 pointer, I take nothing away from him. But you can't deny Starke had harder rides & scored the same. That's not saying Cairns should have done better, just that Starke is being harshly judged imo.

Hello from the box for Rospiggarna v Indianerna - live on Premier's streaming service this evening. According to everywhere except the official SVEMO site it's Hellstrom-Bangs at #7 for Rospiggarna.

Same here. I thought it was a pretty good meeting, and props to the track guy for getting the meeting on.

Might be, but doubtful at the moment. As Hawkins says in the preview above, since the injury wobble we haven’t got close to getting back to our early season form yet when we were blitzing everyone out of sight at Foxhall. Hopefully that comes back by play off time!

3 days before I believe, so programmes can be printed, but as always a last minute cry off can happen

Whilst the signing of Jeppesen is good news, there still remains a doubt as to whether Cook and Kildemand are going to be available for the forthcoming meetings against Glasgow.

I thought it was pretty good at the end, it is not the NSS or even Scunny but not bad for Leicester.

its not that simple though is it. If a team needs 1 point to get in the play offs they would just call there final meeting off?

Leicester have to hope they dont have the recent weather in the play offs or dont do what they did to the start before the meeting as it destroyed any chance of getting a decent lead going to Sheffield. The track was better after the first few races and produced a few passes later in the meeting, Fricke was amazing all night how he managed to get past C H after messing up was quite outstanding.

Commentators on Sky Sports and TNT are not allowed to be negative about the meeting, game fixture they are commentating on. Devalues the product to advertisers - Ben Foster mentioned it in one of his podcasts / you tube when he was at Watford and the game was dull as. He spun a question to the interviewer on the game and they replied "you know I cant answer that ... "

I think Pickering was fine but surely you'd swap Kerr for Sedgman too. Kerr had been poor all night whereas at least Sedgman looked competitive.

Stead was always going to use the Holders in heat 15. So putting one of them in heat 14 would mean riding in three consecutive races. Pickering was more than capable of winning heat 14 (but didn’t), so I can’t see how Stead could be criticised.

Yes, that was the one that was called off by their nurse wasn't it 😂

ONE really good race all night in the last race after 14 heats of a processional yawnfest and Tatum spouts on about a "superb night of speedway and a great advert for Premiership speedway"!!....the man needs sectioning!

They did ride well. We scored a 4-2 in heat 2, Max got knocked off and they were never tailed off. Riding well doesn't always equate to scoring lots of points. On the other hand sometimes you can look at a score sheet and see a rider scored paid 4 from 3 rides and then when you look.more closely you find they didn't beat an opposition rider. Finally it is easy to criticise so what would your team have been?

I really don't understand the mindset of we have to have the big names... no we don't. We need races with riders of equal standard against eachother. I'd rather watch a race of dan Thompson, danyon hume, Connor Mountain and Jordan Jenkins (first 4 riders of semi equal ability that came into my head) As opposed to Max Fricke, Jason Doyle, Jake Mulford and Joe Thompson. With all due respect to Jake and Joe... the first race is going to be much closer and much more entertaining than watching Max and Jason half a lap ahead of two others...

Like you did not do much talking about the worky meeting 😄

I agree the track staff worked hard and got the job done as quickly as possible. This is the reason why Leicester provided the track staff for Cardiff and helped support at Kings Lynn for Speedway World Cup meetings

TNT is full of hype-sters throughout it's range of sports. Craig Doyle is the worst. It's sadly now just the normal. Watch without the sound.

Can only see a big win for the Pirates...hopefully the Comets can put up a good fight .

I'll pray for a little bit of moisture, then it will make the track more equal and comets may have a chance of a win and the bonus points 😝

As someone who stands on the back straight I can confirm that the attendance last evening was similar in size to most meetings. That said, when I got home and watched the recording I did notice how the crowd seemed to be low, even where we were standing which was actually almost shoulder to shoulder. Shows how tv can sometimes be misleading. Also well done to those from Sheffield who turned out to support their team noticed that a few were on the back straight but the majority took their customary place on the first bend in good numbers. Clearly fans of Live speedway.

Yes Pirates to win, but for me who wins the bonus point will be down to the attitude of the Poole team, hoping they come out of the gates fast and furious from heat 1. This season the Comets have great potential and could do far better than many predict. I think they are the 2025 dark horse. My other prediction is that this thread will soon become about the weather.

Sensible post , an example was last night at Leicester where Joe Thompson was tailed off behind Max Fricke after less than 1 lap.

Then perhaps don't ask/listen to the riders when it comes to track prep in these circumstances....

He did say holes in his Interview though.🤔

But what if the rider had a choice of Birmingham or Ipswich, who would you choose ?.

It's not rained since about noon and none forecast for the rest of the day so with better drainage this meeting could have been on.

They can’t possibly claim they can’t run an extra meeting because of costs when the reason given for the club ending is down to the stadium? Does that mean had the stadium been available in 2026 Birmingham would have continued or is the stadium issue just a smokescreen for the fact Tolley can’t run a bath let alone a speedway club.

https://www.bigredbook.info/barry_briggs.html