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Congratulations Glasgow, that was a great meeting with two teams giving it their all. I just hope Leon & Dan don’t have to get split up next year due to averages, they are speedway at its very best and when you throw a Bomber and a Kyle into the mix around Ashfield no-one else has a chance Sadly on a sour note, I apologise unreservedly to the Glasgow fans who suffered verbal abuse during the meeting and physical abuse at the end from a couple of drunken louts. Football louts receive bans…….. there is NO place in speedway for this behaviour

What night of action. Will cover the negatives first. The bizarre decision on the re-run in heat 1. Any explanation over the tannoy would have been good. Just gave enough time for the rider to get sorted like it was some youth meeting. The human error of putting the red lights on, sure it could happen to anyone but that was amateur stuff. Both incidents benefitted the away team. Track still wasn’t at its best. Lots more dirt than Tuesday but probably little clay put in to bind it. Now the positives. Glasgow winning in the last heat decider over two legs on our home patch was simply phenomenal. The atmosphere was electric. Always great when a big travelling crowd come through and make a lot of noise. The place was buzzing, the tension built and built till the amazing heat 15. Tigers top end was always going to be strong. BSN’s great coverage. A semi final being run in relatively warm and dry conditions, let’s hope the final isn’t decided in a swamp. Well done to all involved.

It was a local derby, scenes like this should be encouraged. If Edinburgh had won they would have reacted in the same way, and rightfully so. Another point to take into consideration is that it was probably 50% celebration and 50% relief for a lot of people. We were woeful in the first leg, a date we should never of agreed to. If Edinburgh had a half decent team they could have put 60 on the board that night. This coupled with the bizarre decisions made it a night of high emotion. What we seen at the end was that pouring out. I’ll put money on that not one single Glasgow fan cares whether some people don’t like to see people celebrating a last heat decider to qualify for a final. When you don’t celebrate beating your nearest and dearest what is the point of sport?

Give yourself peace mate. In a sport that is as selfish and individual rider focussed as speedway it was great to see a team celebration like that. Lets be honest here, the team element in this country for speedway for the most part are as kid on as it gets with multiple riders coming and going mid season, different names every other season and countless guests etc… Last night you could see just how much it meant to riders like Flint, Hodder and Perry etc. Of course the likes of Bomber have been there and done it for the last 20 years but even he was enjoying the moment. This is not football and if anything that sort of reaction last night would only bond the team further to make them all try even harder for the final if that is somehow possible. Great night, great racing and a great result.

His WiFi must be down but Lucky he is not in jail this morning

If this is true, right there we have one of the problems with British speedway, riders these days expect, well those days are long gone, the sport isn’t in the position to pander to these demands,some of the things riders expect these days is unattainable and it’s not just top riders, I got told a few weeks back about a current championship rider who wanted a large guarantee to ride in a amatuer meeting, riders deserve the world but unfortunately the cake just isn’t big enough to feed everyone the slice they want

Really enjoyed getting to see one heat from the referees box. That was a great experience. Even got to press a big red button in the middle of the race. 🤠

What a meeting. What a night. I’ve just watched the meeting back on BSN and it doesn’t even come close to being there. If Ashfield had a roof, it would have come off after each of the last three heats. What a track. Inside, outside, first lap, last lap. Pure entertainment. Harris on Sedgmen, Harris on Palovaara, Howarth on Sedgmen, Howarth on Palovaara, Flint on Palm Toft, I could go on and on, but the value for money is remarkable.

https://classicspeedwaymemories.webador.co.uk/ My website has now reached 50,000 page views for which many thanks. The October "issue" will be my last having more or less written myself to a standstill. I started it just after the wonderful Classic Speedway magazine folded as I had a few unpublished articles in the pipeline.. and it lasted for nearly three years. Thanks for your support. Best regards Doug

I’m sitting with egg on my face over Flint. I was critical of him earlier this season, but what an end to the season he’s having. His pass in heat five on Palovaara and Palm Toft - two in the one bend - was literally world class. Then, in heat fourteen, it was all or nothing and he delivered. Even watching the meeting back on BSN, you could see him in the pits, motivating team mates like Perry. You could see how much it meant to him after the meeting too.

Ian, you’re a poster whose opinion I often agree with and find insightful, but I’m afraid we disagree on this. We’re at a time when a large portion of modern riders win a race and head straight back to the pits instead of acknowledging. We should embrace celebration. From a Glasgow perspective, we spend big and carry the weight of that expectation; mostly from ourselves. We were battered at Armadale in the first leg and three days ago, we flopped against a depleted Poole side. Mid-meeting last night, that was Edinburgh’s to lose. What followed was remarkable; literally riding the boards speedway from Harris, tag teaming Palovaara with Howarth before Flint, Perry and Palm Toft bobbed and weaved, miraculously without a fall. Then, a 5-1 in the final to win it by the smallest of margins against our arch rivals. We make no apologies for going overboard. Leon Flint’s response to winning heat fourteen and subsequent celebrations after the last heat represented how we all felt.

A fantastic night of racing. Ebbed and flowed and did look like Edinburgh had enough of a lead late on. But full credit to every Tigers rider, each point mattered and was fantastic to see Max having a score he deserves for the effort he puts in. Bomber is absolute box office, and Leon, Dan, Kyle and Freddy fought for every point. Tremendous effort. Really hope Villads is able to get fit and is back for the final. He clearly wasn't fit before his first heat crash and it's a credit to him that he tried to race on. He'll go far in this sport as he's so quick and seems fearless. Top notch signing. Huge thanks to the riders, management and fans of both sides. Made it an enthralling match with a Hollywood ending for the Tigers. Track staff deserve a round of applause because it was a fair and fast track for all. Really hope we can give more superb performances and win the playoffs as the racing has been awesome this season.

I was hugely critical of Kye Thomson at the start of the season as I felt we weren’t getting enough from him. He’s been brilliant in the second half of the season - real aggression and speed in his racing. He’d be the first rider I’d have back next season. Great to see and made me eat my words.

Something that needs to be addressed is the extras that riders are now expecting, mechanics, vans, workshops, hotels, airport transfers, flights, tyres, insurances,,houses and bills and any other add ons that riders are expecting today and are getting to varying degrees, it’s not that riders don’t deserve it but we just can’t afford it, it’s out of control really and it has to be curtailed, riders these days seem to be blind to the struggles that British speedway goes through, I understand they try to get what they can but speedway has to stand firm and say no, I do often wonder what other motorcycle sports think about us and the pandering that our riders get

I think we all need to remember why we watch sport, and thats to enjoy it, enjoy the really good moments as they don't come round very often. Beating your local rivals in the 30th heat of a semi final should absolutely be savoured. The riders will know that they need to go again with that same intensity of the final. If that doesn't go to plan and they'd held back on the good feeling of the semi final then its celebrations wasted. I'd never criticise any team for celebrating any win in any sport, as long as opposition fans aren't being goaded. Enjoy the smooth as there's plenty of rough which isn't as much fun.

The inside was definitely better than it has been, second half of the meeting at least. It’s still not what it was though. Some races were just a race to the dirt and as long as you were on the fence, you were pretty safe. I hope they move back towards how it used to be prepared, because there wasn’t anything wrong with it.

Don’t forget, we’ve spent about £400M and won two trophies in eleven years, so we start vibrating when we heard the word ”final”.

I'm not saying don't celebrate, all wins should be celebrated, especially by the fans, club riders and management just shouldn't go OTT is all I'm saying. I just think that mentally it's the difference between being happy to make the final rather than winning it. And being a fully paid up member of the anyone but Poole club I'd hate to see Glasgow do a Leicester from last year.

While maybe slightly over excited we scraped though to the final where we only lead the tie after heat 15 against our closest rivals after what was basically 3 do or die heats. The tension in the packed stadium was extremly high and it just released.

Where's yer Blobby? 🤡

Celebration Police 😁

Despite the various pros and cons, some of the vile and nasty comments he has had on social media are totally unacceptable! I hope his mental state is OK.

The standard will have to drop sadly. Through necessity rather than desire. Britain isn’t producing as many riders as it used to and that next tier below the elite names isn’t as good as it was 10-20 years ago. There are still enough riders to fill teams, they’re just not as good as they used to be. The way the sport has been run is to blame for that. A big part of which has been doubling up. It is a massive stain on the credibility of the sport.

A night of high drama and great excitement and entertainment. Edinburgh really missed Paco although Sedgy did great as a stand in captain. Very pleased for Max Perry. Well done to the Tigers and good luck in the final.

Well done Max saved us tonight after Villads' mare, massive improvement from the last few meetings and looked more like he was before his crashes. Hope Villads can get some more of that intensive physiotherapy, didn't look particularly comfortable before the meeting and that crash definitely didn't help, credit to him though for limping round for the Ben fund collection, some fit riders skip out on it so doing it while he was obviously in pain was nice to see. Dan and Leon have come alive these last few meetings and Bomber and Kyle looking rapid. Happy the referee's blunder didn't end up mattering as that would have been a horrible way to lose for either side.

He’s basically been missing Comets meetings at weekends to ride in Poland, and hasn’t been paid by Tarnow. Probably stressed out by it all hence the social media post he made. And then had a lift to Poole organised by Workington for the Riband meeting, which fell through so Andrew organised another for him, and in turn Fraser rang to say stuff the lift, the presentation night and Saturdays meeting. JD then made the comment that Fraser wouldn’t ever ride for the Comets again. Maybe like Cook last year he’s more hassle than it’s worth, sounds like another case of a rider that wants everything handed to him.

UK Speedway does have a particular unique capability for shooting itself in the foot doesn't it? 😁 A fantastic adrenaline fuelled sport that gets undermined, (it appears at almost every turn), by some self inflicted Mickey Mouse nonsense delivered by the sports' custodians . Running qualifiers (that would still determine final positions as to who rides who), AFTER the Semi's have been completed? Tick... Running a play off semi final in Div 2 knowing riders would be eslewhere, so ending up with 3 guests for one team? Tick... Running a semi final of the flagship Div 1 competition 48 hours before the biggest meeting of the global Speedway season, knowing riders will be focusing on that major meeting? Tick.. The racing is, for me, as good as I have seen at any time in 55 years of watching... What a shame the nonsense around it undermines it so badly...

I understand some people have very strong opinions on play offs but I think without them our sport would be even less interesting to many people, they provide drama and no doubt a very important stream of income for a lot of teams. I went up to Glasgow last night as a neutral purely and simply on the basis of it being in the balance and with the hope of a dramatic meeting which was delivered in droves going all the way down to a last heat decider. The place was absolutely packed, programmes sold out by the time I arrived, I’m sorry but if you remove the play offs you lose all that. Those that say that more people might attend league meetings if it counts more towards a league title may be discounting the fact that teams on the edge of the play off bubble these days may lose crowds because by August they’d be out of the title race and nothing to play for, with this system most teams have something to race for for most of the season.

The whole system isnt fit for purpose Dean... Promoters will spend literally hundreds of thousands on riders, whose names will resonate hardly one iota locally with anyone outside the Speedway bubble. . Yet hardly anything in comparison to their riders on marketing locally which may bring fans in.. Simon Lambert? Robert Lambert? To the vast majority of the country, neither are known... They then also seriously undermine their own competitions with a series of self inficted, completely foreseeable issues, which often then result in some contrived, Mickey Mouse solution, which does nothing but further alienate an ever growing number of a frustrated fanbase . Self undermined competitions by the way that they then pay out huge money (in relation to the sports level of following) to try and win!! At the very peak of the sports success, only the very top riders had the financial packages to be fully pro... Now even some NDL riders see themselves as pro Speedway riders .. A ludicrous operating and business model has been allowed to grow unchecked for decades . However its probably too late now to reign it in and control it collectively I would imagine... As there will always be at least one promoter who will spend big to satisfy their longing for a trophy that their very own organisation does it's level best to devalue.

Even better, maybe the team that won most & lost least meetings should be league champions. In case you wondering, that would be Leicester

Rider control would be a good move, but that of course depends on who exactly has their finger on the button to decide who goes where. So many ideas in British Speedway over the years Ive been watching have been good in theory, but quickly tumbled into a shambles because self interest gets in the way.

Bowes another with a chip on his shoulder who thinks he’s better than he is.

Well we topped the league table, got the highest team average in the league and got to the playoffs final, so we've done better than seven out of nine teams. Who is the stronger reserve you would've taken if you were Glasgow? I wanted us to get Jody Scott, but no idea if we did (or if he would have wanted to). Same for next year. Jody is taken, surely Redcar will want to keep him. Cooper Rushen seems unlikely to come to Glasgow. Edinburgh will want to keep Jordy Loftus. Of more experienced reserves, Ace seems happy at Redcar. There aren't a lot of obvious options, and some of the teams with strong reserves didn't even make the playoffs so it's not a guarantee of success. That's the great thing about the points limit. Everyone has to compromise somewhere.

Yeah. It's been a bit of a frustration for some fans second half of this season. The track isn't bad by any means, but it's not been what we're used to either. Not sure the ins and outs of why it's changed tbh.

Anyone else’s stream terrible quality? Never usually have these problems with other club’s streams?

For anyone wanting to know how Polish media see’s our league 😂 from Thursdays media report in Poland… Takie rzeczy tylko w Anglii. Sheffield Tigers oraz Ipswich Witches rozegrały już swoje półfinałowe spotkania, ale w czwartek zmierzyły się jeszcze w ramach... fazy zasadniczej. Tak właśnie w Premiership odrabia się zaległości. To sprawiło, że Sheffield Tigers, które odpadło w półfinale z Leicester Lions, miało mecz dosłownie o nic na pożegnanie z własnymi kibicami. Z kolei Ipswich Witches, przed którymi jeszcze finał, potraktowało to starcie bardziej jako sparing z wymagającym rywalem. TRANSLATION: Such things only happen in England. Sheffield Tigers and Ipswich Witches have already played their semi-final matches, but on Thursday they faced off again in the... regular season. That's how you make up ground in the Premiership. This meant that Sheffield Tigers, who were eliminated in the semi-finals by Leicester Lions, had a literally meaningless match to say goodbye to their home fans. Meanwhile, Ipswich Witches, who still have the final to play, treated the match more like a friendly against a demanding opponent.

The whole situation stinks, I liked Fraser, I thought he was one of the most improved riders over the course of the season but this has left a sour taste in the mouth. He’s a young lad who’s finding his way in Europe and I get his Facebook post, but to spit the dummy out over a “lift” that then leads to essentially withholding his services, is just out of order. His behaviour is that of a petulant child throwing his toys out of the pram, just adds fuel to the rumours he’s signed for Poole. Good riddance.

Common sense picks. Fricke - Only fair considering he would've qualified in the old format. Laguta - Didn't get a chance to defend his WC. Sayfutdinov - Still one of the best riders in the World. Vaculik - One bad season doesn't make him a bad rider, Prague GP probably see's him get a WC imo. If no Russian's then swap them for Doyle (Tried and tested with something still to offer the GP's) and Drabik who has been ultra consistent this year for all of his clubs.

And guesting has become the all too easy go to solution for missing riders... You don't need to develop riders to a certain level when you just share around the ones already riding at that level on an ad hoc basis... A "troupe" of usually the same riders earn more money, and clubs can even improve their teams by using them.. Everyone (short term at least), is happy... Long term? With Brexit also now also impacting visa's, a lot of challenges ahead as an ever ageing "mid level" rider base will inevitably one day wind down their careers..

Agreed. I thought the Edinburgh riders and fans were a credit to their support tonight. That heat six stoppage was the most amateur thing I’ve ever witnessed in sport. Also, both Monarchs left the track and returned to the pits before the re-run of heat one. Isn’t that an exclusion? Then Palovaara 100% missed the two minutes. Dreadful night for the referee. Accidentally pressing the red light is an absolute shambles.

Touch of class from the Edinburgh riders after the meeting. Says a lot about the guys and the club they represent. I presume it was good viewing for the neutral on BSN, which is what it is all about. Both teams gave it their all but I think despite making hard work of it the right team made the final. Glasgow could have put 1,3,4 or Howarth in 15, they were all outstanding. Dan Thompson electric all night and Leon Flint while not gating was fantastic to watch again after midweek.

I'm told Artem Laguta is in.

Fantastic speedway, well done Glasgow

Sheffield lost the league championship the moment they didn't score enough points at Leicester on Monday. End of story. integrity /ɪnˈtɛɡrɪti/ noun - 1.the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. Seven Premiership teams signed up to ride this season, each of them knowing that a play-off would decide the league winner. It wouldn't seem very "honest" or "moral" to me that Sheffield be crowned champions despite losing in the play-offs. In fact, I'd say that's...the opposite.

The simple mathematical truth is that there are insufficient riders of competitive quality to make up the number of teams you suggest are being considered for “one league”.

Well done to Berwick better team won on the day, Kemp , Jeppsen, and Kildemand were very good for the Bandits . Comets riders seemed to struggle out of the starts, good to see Jye get up from an awkward tumble.

On what I’ve seen of him he’s going nowhere in Poland.Will struggle when U24 finishes for him. There’s a dozen young Poles in front of him.Social Media training needed.

Doubling up was a great idea when it was first introduced. It allowed a second tier rider to share a reserve spot with a top flight team. It’s now gotten massively out of hand and needs to revert to what it was a couple of lower league riders sharing one position in the next league up. long term the sport here needs to become a mix of amateur, semi pro & pro riders. Developing enough riders so that teams can have a type of squad system. using the structure we currently have. MDL solely for amateur riders who ride in the uk using standard cheaper equipment so opening the sport up to more participants. The top MDL riders could hold squad positions in the second tier but no more than 2 per second tier club & only 1 can be used at any time. The second tier a mixture of amateur & semi pro riders with controls on equipment costs to allow riders to compete & not have to pack up because of costs. Again the top riders can hold a squad position in the top league a maximum of 2 per top flight side & only 1 can be used at a time. The top flight a pro league along the lines of what it is now. As a rider if you wish to be a full time pro then you need to have the ability & desire to progress through the ranks to a point where you can support yourself as a pro. However before you can expand & develop your rider base we will need to do some sort of merging of the league to stabilise the sport for the next 2 or 3 years . My thoughts require a long term commitment to a strategy that will hopefully begin to grow the sport.

Because I can't see any reason why he would leave Poole, he is happy and likes the set up, He already rides in Poland so don't see why any club would offer him big money to ride there and not here.

How to make a small fortune out of running a Speedway team? Start with a large one...