Leaderboard

It is a moment all Panthers and Speedway supporters should take great pride in. We’re not there yet, but a foot is in the door.

Great news to see both planning applications being rejected this morning. Back to square one for the developers. They 2 parties involved in the application have had a major fallout over the viability of the land sale price and S106. One refused to sign it and 3 deadlines passed. The Showground lives on!

The interview with Matt Ford in the SS details the thought process for Poole.. And it is hard not to agree with him... The considerable cost increases for the top league won't get covered by extra admission numbers, or extra sponsors, for a business that is "stand alone" and not some "plaything" for some who can afford an expensive hobby.. The bottom line is hardly anyone who doesn't follow the sport could tell you who the fop tier champions are this year, or last, or, indeed, any particular year for decades.. And Poole, in Div 2, will have plenty of finals to generate big crowds, and will gain as much publicity winning 2nd tier trophies as they would top tier ones.. The top tier need the second tier to try and then justify why they are "different" and the "highest level" and more expensive to watch... The second tier need the top tier as those who double up can then afford to ride for them for 2nd tier money... The likes of Poole and Glasgow could be seen as being happy to be "big fishes in a small pond".. However. The whole of UK Speedway is more of a "big puddle" when compared to pretty much every other professional team sport in the UK.. When there is such very little financial reward, nor national publicity, for any success at any level, and crowds get hit by so many meetings running with zero jeopardy and consequence as to who qualifies for the play offs, you can understand why running your own business, at the level you can make it profitable, has to be the best idea..

Was going to say something similar! What a weird take. You get your points limit and then every club then builds the best team that they can within that limit and within their budget. It’s not the fault of those three clubs mentioned that the budget of some clubs doesn’t enable them to secure the signatures of certain riders. If those three clubs each don’t sign one of their heatleaders, that doesn’t necessarily mean that an Oxford or Kings Lynn would suddenly be able to afford to pick them up! The reality is that those riders would likely give UK a miss and our league would be worse for it. I’m afraid you’re always going to have the have’s and have not’s which is why I’m not convinced on the rumour of one rider per team over 8.00. If Belle Vue for example have to choose between Kurtz or Bewley, would the one who didn’t get a place at the NSS next year just accept a lesser deal elsewhere because that’s the only offer in town?? I’m not sure they would.

Well thats a load of crap. Why don't Ipswich get the same crowd at every home meeting that they did for the playoff final then?

Spot on apart from "if" one team gets tailed off, as it is "when"... Every season the team everyone on here says have "no chance" before a wheel is turned, invariably have their season over by the end of May and become a team with small appeal to watch either home or away... The biggest frustration for the fans is that where we are today has been predicted by us for the last two decades... As we could see the glaring obvious flaws in "Baldrick's cunning plan", yet those insulated within their own echo chamber/Speedway Bubble either couldn't, or chose not to... There should have been radical change to the operating model when the GP's started to impact UK Speedway. And they chose to not to do anything different.. There should have been radical change to the operating model when Poland started to impact UK Speedway. And they chose not to do anything different... There should have been radical change to the operating model for the return of the sport post Covid, when a year out gave them huge opportunity to reset the sport, and unpick all the nonsense that has held the sport back over the years, and disillusioned so many fans, who still follow the sport but attend either never or infrequently. And they chose not to do anything different.. Many of the same people who have led two decades of negative fan attendance, plus reduced TV viewership and media profile, are still running the sport... The sport desperately needs outside influence to drive it forward, from marketing, to adminstration, to operating model planning... People not within the Speedway Bubble.. The past two seasons of the play offs, in the flagship competition, have actually been ran by NOT following the very rules the competition was set up with, which from an outside optics view, is both amateurish and ludicrous... The sport won't move forwards until the promoters realise that they are the custodians of ALL OF IT, and not just their own clubs, and also realise that they may not have the right set of skills to lead it, and be open to get some clear direction from people who do possess those leadership skills...

Absolute bullrubbish! from the mid-eighties to 1999 Poole had one of the sports wealthiest owners in the late Mervyn Stewkesbury, together with an experienced back-up team including the old National League Administrators. The Fords took over in 1999 and spent 20years in the Premiership (Elite) winning it several times over, much to the chagrin of some of the more established owners/promoters. Of course crowds dropped a little when the team wasn't doing well - as is the case with ALL teams. PS> There's nothing wrong with being at the top of any sport - as long as the club remains profitable.

Premier Sports have an estimated 300k subscribers, can't see that helping to grow the sport. Sky by comparison had 6m from the last figures I can find, and 26.7m people watched content across all their platforms in the last year. One of the worst things about TNT's coverage is that a big deal was made about it including the free-to-air highlights, only for them to be shown once a week at 2am or something ridiculous. I doubt that it attracted even a single new fan.

I’m sorry but I disagree. Money clearly IS an issue, otherwise you wouldn’t be left picking up the scraps every single year. Chris Louis won’t be dictated by unreasonable demands either and Kenyan Rew is a perfect example. Rew was in the plans last winter, But Rew got a better offer from Birmingham which Louis wasn’t prepared to match. That’s common knowledge. Fair play to Rew, every rider will go where the best deals are. There’s a very small pool of riders that ride here that are genuine world class. Forget all the noise that comes from riders about “this is the only place I wanted to come to” nonsense. Fact is every meeting could be a riders last and they’ll go where the best deal is, quite rightly. Chapman clearly won’t get involved in competing for the world class riders that others are prepared to do. You’re a Lynn fan so maybe you see it from a biased point of view, but from an outsider, Chapman does the bare minimum every year to get through another season. So my point still stands. If the top three are forced not to sign one of their big hitters, what will be Chapman’s strategy? Will he suddenly decide to pay what the riders are looking for (if he is why doesn’t he do that to begin with?) or will he sit and wait for the riders to lower their demands and just accept what he’s prepared to pay as it’s their only option? If he’s banking on the latter, he’ll be disappointed. Those riders will just concentrate on Poland and Sweden.

No he isn’t, and yes it is. I’m sorry Bagpuss I’m not trying to be argumentative here for the sake of it, but of course it’s to do with Money! Chapman could have more money than Elon Musk, I never said Chapman wasn’t wealthy. But his personal wealth is completely irrelevant to the point I was making. Does Jason Doyle still live in Norfolk? The fact of the matter is that if Lynn offered a better deal to Doyle than Ipswich then Doyle would be riding for Kings Lynn. It’s quite clear that no matter how much money Keith Chapman has, it means very little if he isn’t prepared to compete for the top riders. That of course is his prerogative, he sets a budget to build a team every year and that budget doesn’t seem to stretch to paying for a Doyle/Bewley/Emil etc. Now that IS all financially relative isn’t it? We’re in danger of veering away from my original point here which wasn’t to do with Keith Chapman’s personal wealth. If the top three are going to be forced in to not re-signing one of their heatleaders to allow Lynn and others the opportunity to sign them, are those clubs going to offer the top money that these riders will still demand? I personally have my doubts but time will tell on that one. In an ideal world, every club would have the same financial clout OR, willing to invest more of their personal wealth to compete but unfortunately that’s just not reality. As I said before, there will always be the have’s and have not’s and that’s not restricted to Speedway, it’s all sports. The Championship is no different. Would you bet against next years play off final being contested by Poole and Glasgow again? I wouldn’t. You can bring in points limits and different rules to try and make things as equal as possible, but there will always be in demand riders on bargain averages that will always be snapped up by those with better resources who will stay one step ahead of the competition. With all due respect to them, the likes of Scunthorpe under Godfrey who builds his teams to a tight budget, are just there to make up the numbers. It’s just the way it is I’m afraid. ALL the heatleaders have now been “freed up” Bagpuss. Every top heatleader that rode here this year, and want to ride here next year, are now available to Keith Chapman and anyone else who wants to sign them. If finance isn’t an issue as you and StarBoy have said, then Lynn don’t have any excuse not to sign one of them do they? Outbid the top three and you’ll bag one of them. We’re going around in circles here. It’s not so much “freeing” up riders for others, it’s a question of if those other clubs can afford them and/or are willing to pay for them. If they can, then fair enough I’m not against bringing in rules to help spread the top riders around. My concern is that they bring in a rule that prevents the clubs that CAN afford to sign them, from doing so, and those riders are then lost to British speedway because they’re not happy with the lower terms offered by others.

No one with any sense would move up to the Prem. We'll just watch it fall apart from the sidelines. 👍

Pay any losses Poole end up with then I'm sure we'd move up. Also sort out any issues with the stadium. That should keep you busy for a while. Thanks 👍 Easy for @Bagpuss and the @therefused make constant digs about Poole all the time but Poole is run way better than KL. Poole aren't stupid enough to accept running at a loss. They know the Championship is the more stable league.

Would love to see Nicholls back for the Gladiators for 2026. Seemed to really enjoy his time in Devon where the pressure was off for him and he was able to just enjoy being back on his bike. Feel like Joe T is likely to return along with the hugely exciting Klima. Think Barker did enough in the Poole fixture alone to earn himself a spot back in the team. Would be open to seeing Tobias race for the Gladiators next season, he was excellent when guesting for the club. I think what we will see is plenty of people have had their opinions on Plymouth changed within the sport over the last 6 months with how things have played out for the club. This is very much a club who are trying to beat the curve and sail forward with the wind behind them. Crowds through the roof, atmosphere at home fixtures unlike any other, fantastic racing on the track too. Plenty of riders spoke very highly of appearing for/at Plymouth last year and I think Garry will be very happy with the options he'll have available to him when building the team.

Might have attracted insomniacs who then went to a meeting and solved their issue by watching tractors spending more time on the track than the bikes.

I don’t think Will is going to be riding for BV on Friday or for that matter Leicester on Sunday as he is due to be riding in California on Saturday!

Fricke , Lawson , Douglas build around those 3

League winners straight to the final, 2nd and 3rd in a play off...

One big watered down league all on BSN. Premiership collapses next season if it's a 5 team league imo, Basically facing the same team every other week and what happens if one team gets tailed off? The Play-Offs would be sorted in no time and I doubt punters would turn up to see the same fixture that they've already just seen a couple of weeks ago. Need to force Glasgow or Poole to move up as neither of them should be allowed to race in the Championship because they've got a Premiership business model in operation.

Buster has probably fell out with half of them so they wont be at Lynn 😅

All riders are free agents. Ipswich, Belle Vue and Sheffield don't own anyone to 'share out'...

He pretty much single handedly ruined our 2024 season. Can't see the promotion touching this druggie with a barge pole

Are we still going on about the track? After 15 races at pooles track. And 16 races at Glasgows track, can we not agree that the team that won deserved to win? Poole prepared their track to help them win. Glasgow prepared their track to try and help them win.

Quite happy to lose the TNT coverage as I wasn't planning to pay £30.99 pcm to watch the speedway and the saturday lunchtime PL football by half price deal ends on 26th october whereuon I will cancel it. Premier Sport would be an interesting option - i used to subscribe to them a few years back wehn they covered Polish (reruns) and Swedish speedway matches.

Plymouth have launched a speedway app , with direct links to all the clubs websites , live scoring from the home matches , news feed etc …links to the live stream , rider profiles …. FUEL THE FUTURE … App Store / Google play Plymouth Gladiators

Not sure they wont be better off with r/r Jake is notoriously poor at Poole and Flint only got 5 at Redcar against Poole plus ex Pirate Danny King gets an extra ride.

The Polish league have got it right. Promotion and relegation from all 3 divisions. Ambition shown by all teams year in year out. None of this deciding what league they will only race in bollox.. The only team sport in this country that puts up with that crap . It’s only a matter of time before it all goes to the wall . On the plus side United beat the scousers 👍

While continuing to dominate that second rate league 👍.

No one should be forced to go up in my opinion simply to make up the numbers and appease a couple of clubs who won't entertain one league.

Dan T at number 1 instead of Klindt would be better

He will still be the face of it

I think Dan Bewley will be prioritised over Kurtz as he seems to be a club legend at Belle Vue.

Jolly good Post.

Its certainly a good job Coventry, Peterborough, Somerset, Rye House, Lakeside, Swindon, Wolverhampton and Birmingham have all closed within the past decade or so it isn't it?.. And Poole dropped down into Div 2... Imagine trying to fill these teams with riders..?

Don't whole away teams stay there when needed like Edinburgh in the past. So sure they'll be enough room.!

Yes but that’s not an issue for a sports facility and it’s private land

Doesn't Will ride for BV colts though? So would affect him as well? Although Championship has priority in past seasons. Not sure with it being BSN affects things.

Whatever Stewart wants basically. He builds great teams

Anybody!

Nothing to do with his own teams defensive frailities and missed chances then 🤣

They were just seeing out the final year of the 5 year Eurosport contract that was delayed for 1 year due to the non covid season of 2020. BT Sport had already previously binned Speedway off at the end of 2019 so it's no real surprise that they don't want to renew now.

I don't follow the logic to this argument. Why do you think preparing the track so it is more raceable would make Poole less likely to win? Surely Poole would select riders in team building who are likely to respond to that, and with Poole's ability to build teams with riders who improve and that winning mentality, why wouldn't Poole continue to be just as successful? I can understand the logic for a one off meeting, but not as an ongoing ethos.

From gbspeedway.com Rowe averaged 1.8 more af no 3 while Zac Cook averaged 0.7 more.

There was mitigating circumstances which contributed to barker's poor away form,I'm certain that will be improved in 2026 wherever he rides. Looking forward to see what team Mark and Garry put together for 2026.massive change of feel good factor around the club with increased crowds, good meetings, beating Poole 3 times helps just need to keep the momentum going, winning trophies would be great but good atmosphere, happy punters for Plymouth is priority. Scott Nicholls was blown away by the atmosphere and feel good factor whether it's enough for him to sign for 2026 remains to be seen. Rest assured Plymouth are on a upward spiral.

Hopefully not. With all due respect to the younger Pijper, I’ve saw him a couple of times this season and he hasn’t looked anywhere near ready for Championship speedway. I’d happily take Hodder and Perry back; give them an opportunity to build a tough season, but if forced to pick one, it’s a no brainer in Hodder. If we can steal Loftus from Edinburgh, then we’d be laughing. He’s got great potential and the Facenna’s could send his gran back in Australia a mobility motor to sweeten the deal. What do you think, @Mr Blobby? Deal?

Does Kelvin have a clue who some riders are? "I'll be honest, I don't know much about him" is a refrain heard far too often.... One of the key requirements of a commentator is to do research and inform the viewers of some background details about the competitors... His enthusiasm is first rate, but his lack of general speedway knowledge outside of the Premiership doesn't help...

Surely there must have be people somewhere that could make this venue work or has it been looked at already that i dont know about? If so sorry to go over old ground but it looks perfect venue for someone to try!!!

Put too much weight on it has to go.

Rory the tiger, another potentially on the chopping block?

Think I’d rather see Rew and Ellis both than Musielak