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... and all on the back of an army of volunteers that move heaven and earth each week to enable tracks to stage meetings and riders to earn money.

Quick run down my trip to Poland last week, coach from Manchester to Poznan, train to zelona gora , watch meeting stay night , train back to Poznan , hotel booked for Poznan, Poznan meeting called off so sorts out train to Wroclaw., no ticket, eventually get in ht 6, good seat on 1st bend. midnight train back to Poznan, no seat stood for 2.5 hrs on train, back to hotel Poznan, 2.30am, 1, 30 pm train to gorzow, go to hotel , then walk to Edward jancarz stadium, watch meeting walk back to hotel , train back to Poznan, 2.30 pm, then catch coach back to Manchester, 6.30 pm, Monday night , back home at 2 am Wednesday morning,. 🤣 loved it..

Jarek retiring is a great loss. I really hoped he would give one more showing at Ipswich. All you can say is that he was a great asset to Ipswich, a fine servant and alongside Gollob one of the good guys who wore the witches jacket with pride. Jarek, thanks for the memories.

The timing of this coming upto final GP for Brady Kurtz is bad for Belle Vue. He will say he not thinking about GP but is only human and it will be in the back of his mind and won’t be taking any big risks.

I find it incredible that what is mean to be a Professional Sport they cannot even fulfil the fixtures before the Play Offs. That is the shambles the sport is nowadays,and they still expect new fans to come along and be impressed.Its a joke really.

I think one league. The way i look at it is if we lose the top riders then so be it. the standard of riders will be the same so good close racing should be at every track and league will be well balanced. We have a range of different tracks compared to poland so if riders want to improve and learn how to adjust to all tracks they should want to ride in the uk.

I agree with you! Although, and I’m being deadly serious, in Poland and all over media there is such thing as “the lebedevs curse” 2 years before - ride for Krosno = down 1 year before - ride for Leszno = down This season - ride for Stal = …

Nicki Pedersen school of team riding there

Hampel retires. Been a good rider. 👏👏

These were not fixtures that were moved. The 2 unridden matches were scheduled for 28th August (Sheffield) and 4th September (Oxford) in the original fixture list. What were they supposed to do ? Look at the weather and say "oh look it's going to be sunny next Thursday, let's bring that Ipswich match forward a month in case it rains in late August" ? Blaming the clubs for the poor weather is laughable. If anyone is to blame it is the SCB/BSPA for issuing a fixture list with matches finishing just 4 days before the first scheduled playoff fixture, not the individual clubs. The original fixture list should have included a 1-2 week gap between last scheduled league fixture and first playoff to give a contingency period for any rescheduled matches.

Totally agree with all the above. We are making far too many excuses for my liking as a witches fan. Moaning about weather changing the track, moaning about track prep (our problem not anyone else’s so just on with it) and keep using excuses of changing rider positions. This will come to bite us in the arse, ride your best riders in their best positions and build momentum, don’t keep p!sing about with it and wonder why we lose.

Ipswich will certainly need to ride better than that next week. For me it looks like Thompson isn’t fully fit & possibly riding too much. The team has been inconsistent for the last couple of months. Sheffield deserved that last night far shaper & more up for it. Now I’m not the biggest fan of Jack Holder or Simon Stead. However last night Jack demonstrated how to team ride hats of to him & Stead came across very well in his post match interview, and seemed genuinely thankful for the amount Ipswich raised for the riders benefit fund. A disappointing night all round for Ipswich but not the end of the world, could be if they ride like that next week! Finally what a talent Cooper Rushen is, his third ride in the second half 0.1 of a second slower than heat 2 of the main meeting.

I'm sure this season was the first of 3 years at a 40 point limit. As the limit should average at 42, that means a weaker league. But when they vote for a 3 year plan, it doesn't always last!

Going to go to Belle Vue Monday. Weather permitting, been last 2 weeks to Sheffield for 2 rain offs v Ipswich. Maybe jinxed. 🤣

Nah fajfer is good for about 5 points normally on a good day! I don’t think even this match is done and dusted, Stal have really managed some strange results good and bad! I think it’s set to be Stal vs Bydgoszcz personally. Knowing my luck, Brennan to score 0 for Ipswich vs Belle Vue and knock us out, then max out against Stal and knock my Polish team out 😂

Drabik engine was assembled incorrectly and now has broken and leaking oil so he has had to change bikes.

We left Wolverhampton on Thursday around 2pm drove to Dover to catch 8pm ferry to find Mrs had booked wrong date 😂, sorted that out then drive straight to zielona gora (12 hours split driving between me and Mrs ) where booked a hotel for the night, went to meeting, brought merch from the ZG shop then back to hotel, next day had fabulous breakfast in hotel and then drive to Wrocław where we booked in the radison blue hotel, spent the day in the old town where in a market I found a book I was in so brought it lol and went to GP via an uber and back to hotel again in an uber where we were in the bar with all the travel plus lot, next morning drove to Gorzow, parked right opposite track for free ,again purchased from their shop, after meeting we set off home, stopping in services somewhere mid Germany where we slept for 4 hours and got food then got the 6pm ferry back to Blighty arriving back around 11pm in Wolverhampton, I had loaded my van ready to go to Isle of Wight next morning but it was called off so I went to work instead

With the Oct31st deadline for season finish.The play offs should have been delayed till the league program was completed.Till 7 weeks left.Why was deadline not extended it has been in previous seasons? Probably who your are +self interest.

Maybe and all have to move on but he was a fine servant in the UK and many a fond memory of him giving everything to the witches and entertaining around the UK tracks that he graced. My stepson went for the first time to Ipswich and Jarek sticks with him in those days as one who entertained. I really wish him well and offer a big thank you to one of the nice guys of the sport of speedway.

Harsh from ZG but it had to be done tbh. Lebedevs is getting better with every passing year tbh whilst Hampel was heading the other way.

good time fort him to get out i think.

Good servant to speedway

MJJ Balls of steel. 👏

Yes the decades of 'promoting' the sport as 'family friendly' have really worked well !!!!

58,000 views on YouTube alone... Probably more than double who attend every UK track... Need a bit more of this....

Wright by a submission lol

Jake Allen guesting for Redcar. Boxing match in the pits with Charles Wright before the racing commences

Agree with all the comments you've made. Messing around with the riding order is just plain dumb. Very poor display last night - again. IF we don't like a slick track why prepare it like that - Yes yes the rain, but I'd rather see a meeting postponed with it being prepared how we like it, rather than watch another meeting slick track, resulting in a loss and lack of excitement If the riders were holding back, then that is unfair to the paying public. Clearly, with the low attendance, some clearly saw this coming. Crunch time now, results are wiped and the 4 teams start from the same place. Just can't see us progressing. This great team, riding for the last time together are going to falter.

That’s ridiculous !! The SCB have nothing to do with the fixture list and the clubs are the BSPA !!!

Sheffield looked sharp and hungry while Ipswich didn’t. Sheffield clearly came in with a solid plan that paid off, and their team riding was spot on.

Ipswich's bottle?

Who ever does it is taking a huge gamble that probably has a 10-15% chance of working and they will need to be willing to drop six figures it just seems utter madness , we certainly need more tracks but if it was Louis this looks like the kind of experiment that would blow up massively and probably bring the witches down with it. If the stadium was in Coventry it would most likely be a goer but again start at Championship standard don't go all in on a huge gamble and the most expensive gamble of three options also.

Doesn’t really matter between March 15th and August 31st is 24 weeks plenty of time to fit in 12 home league meetings. I am at a lose as to why year after year clubs struggle to make the deadline. Maybe the deadline should be August 31st.

The only problem with that. It doesn't matter how professional they are if they are riding in front of just a couple of hundred people. You could say some of these riders live in a Fantasy world. You have riders of junior standard turning up with big flash vans all the gear. If it means going back to having one bike in the boot of the car, then maybe you will get youngsters who can afford to do the sport like it use to be. Rather than having rich Mums and Dads to rely on. Having said all of that. Speedway unfortunately is a dying sport. It's been on life support for a while now. Speedway was of a different time back in it's heyday. Demographics have changed. No London clubs. No midland clubs bar Leicester. It's sad but it's reality.

Don't want the gap at the top widening hey blue. 14x🏆♣️🤣

stal riders look more up form this

Totally agree it’s strong on paper! Like I said to my partner who is from Gorzow, my issue isn’t with lebedevs, it’s more with how the club has been allowed to be run under the former president which has completely broken them. I would say personally Lebedevs fights more in the races for position than vaculik who looks for safety more often than not.

Reminded me of when he put Michelsen in the fence in Riga

100%, Got nothing left to prove, Doesn't need the money and he was only going to decline as a rider considering his age so may as well get out while he's fit, healthy and in one piece. Had a great career with a lot of good memories to look back on.

Would love it if Lublin bottle this.

Kind of crazy to think about when in the first month of the season everyone was saying Ipswich were going to win every meeting!

Sheffield to win overall. They will beat Leicester over two legs and then dish out the same to Belle Vue.

Belle Vue will win their home by 16-20 I can see this one being the time Blordorn finds his gating gloves and one of the reserves puts in a 6+ night

Looking at our next excuse incase we didn’t win probably! Either way… Sheffield rode the track fine. Very concerning how slow Emil and Doyle were in heat 15 as well.

There are lots of differing opinions about Ipswich's loss last night, but the key thing for me is that they currently have no momentum and some riders look out of sorts. They really will need to do everything they can to keep it as close as possible, because BV's top 3 will be flying, so that's 30+ points in the bag already - If Cook is on it too then suddenly it's a mountain to climb. Should be a great couple of legs for the neutrals 🤪

I'm not sure what table you are looking at, as the one on British Speedway shows Sheffield on 1127-942 and Ipswich 1123-947. In my calculations Sheffield are already 9 points in front.

I would hope no team manager would ever tell a rider to throw a race to keep his average below a teammate, same with Leicester wanting Becker to be 2nd in the averages when injured. By all means tell a certain rider(s) to pick up bonus points on 5-1s / 3-3s but certainly don't tell them to drop points on purpose.

Whilst I agree with what you said in principle, it’s a different feeling when you are at the stadium, paid £24, and the team just doesn’t perform when it is time to shine, same as Lynn knocking us out of the cup, we will get knocked out of play offs if the same team performance arises next week. The passion of the sports fan is what keeps the sport alive, not the casual fan who dips in and out. Speedway is different from stock cars, this is your team, it’s your club, these riders should be riding for your home town and representing it as best they can, in my personal opinion.

Yes I know it was last week, if that’s the popular opinion then the BSPL should have no option but to move the play offs IMO. A sport that is a comedy show continues to become one when you don’t even finish your official fixtures. That’s why Poland laughs at us, and why we have no large number of fans… it’s nowhere near a professional run sport.

You are correct, he was and he doesn’t. As it is today, UK speedway is already teetering on oblivion being well short of any concise growth plan as promoters focus on self serving survival, which as things stand will ultimately be the death knell for UK professional speedway. Being mindful of the existing structure of the sports governing bodies from the FIM down, the last thing needed is to have separate groups of promoters in collectively further working against each other and the greater good of the sport. Truth of the matter is. There are too few riders available for the number of promotions. Most of the stadiums in use are outdated and provide poor spectator facilities. There is an over dependence on doubling up to keep promotions active. The guest system is overused. The sporting media by and large steer wide of covering speedway because of its self serving and contrived organisation. The current crop of promoters do not have the wherewithal to steer the sport to better times, only to tread water until they eventually “go under” Fans think a few changes (if any) are all that is required whereas a great number of factors impact on one another to make the solution complicated and in itself is the very reason why promoters do not wish to bite the bullet and so things remain the same.