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Belated Congratulations too Poole we gave it our best shot at home and fell just short , regardless what people say or think Poole are the benchmark we all aspire to become.

I reckon that I was so lucky to watch and support Speedway during the 'sixties' and 'seventies'.. It was never perfect, but it was entertaining. The different competitions, Pairs, Four Team Tournaments, Internationals, Individual Meetings, (Proper) League Racing where the Team that won the League were actually allowed to win it (no 'Play Offs'). No Grand Prix either, just a proper Individual World Final that really meant something with loads of Qualifying Meetings. It was open to ALL riders, not just the selected few. There was even a chance for Second Division riders to win it. Compare that to what we have now. Plain League Racing, the odd Pairs Event, the very rare Individual Meeting and the odd GP. So little variation. No the wonder that people are voting with their feet. If I were able to attend, I am not sure that I would, Speedway has changed so much, and not for the better. Where are all the Characters these days?

Hopefully... "Anything" that delivers 21st Century marketing being that hope.... A great piece in the Speedway Star today from Tony Mcdonald covering how similar so many of todays issues are with the sport 40 years ago, and the way so much of what we have today is a legacy of failing to change when, often, the writing was clearly on the wall by carrying on doing the same thing each season... You have to wonder, looking at the crowds now, if we are now at "ground zero" and necessity will actually truly be the mother of invention, and those in charge actually start to work collectively realising that they are really "one entity" and only as strong as their weakest link... One team getting 5000+ for a play off final is all well and good, however, dozens and dozens of meetings around the county being ran in front of circa 500, or even less, each season far outweighs that one night when the sport looked "popular".... Dozens and dozens of meetings with 500 MORE in attendance each meeting, has to be the initial momentum building target...

Don't all team managers

Surely you've heard all about Fish-O-Mania, live on Sky Sports Action, with its £50k first prize? https://fishomania.net/news/bradley-lucas-crowned-2025-fishomania-champion-in-record-breaking-debut/ Anyway, you can catch the Premiership on BSN next season. First prize is £2.50 and a voucher for the track shop.

Quoted as it highlights the financial position of the sport Here's a stark comparison which shows the gulf with football 10 miles from Ipswich is Needham Market. They play in the Southern League - effectively the 7th tier in the English game Yesterday they opened a new stand which cost £358,000 to build funded primarily by grants provided by the Premier League (£150k) and Southern League (£100k) and other agencies including £10k from local councils The stand apparently holds under 300 fans but would accommodate most of the average attendance. The game last night attracted their record attendance at 1105

Apparently, Andy Lee passed away on Monday, the father of Michael Lee. Andy was a very accomplished scrambles/moto x man, but was very instrumental in nurturing Michael's success on speedway and long track. He did a lot for the development of moto cross and used to run his own practice track in Cambridgeshire. RIP Andy. Condolences to family and friends.

A Paul Mulally appears to have had one job in football (after leaving the police) - Head of Football Operations at Portsmouth...with Harry Redknapp. There's a Miriam Bentley listed as working at Specialist Risk Group, who appear to be growing quite rapidly, including branching out into sports - and motorsports specifically. They are also listed as a 'partner' of Team GB. Finally, there's a Jason Holmes who's also involved in the insurance sector and covers "extreme sports" - but he's in Australia.

Great total raised once again for a great cause

Really? And don't they pay handsome bonuses for certain wins?

Result of a stroke according to Michael. It should also be remembered that Andy had a very successful motor cycle dealership in Cambridge too. He was a top bloke, always time for a chat.... RIP Andy An interesting article on Andy : https://www.motoheadmag.com/andy-lee-godspeed/

I am not a Poole fan but I am fed up of the jealousy on here. Poole look after riders well, but they do not pay /package close to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Plymouth. They offer more matches, a winning mentality and pay very quickly. Matt works on his team well in advance of others and he has no shortage of riders wanting to ride there, equally they have riders who know they can earn more per point elsewhere.

I’m riding something better than a Wessie now, I’m riding a 1952 jap 4B, I will be having a blast up in those hills soon

https://www.swindon-needs-speedway.com/abbey-stadium-planning-applications

We are sooo good he said it twice 😆😆😄

Seriously though if the Hearns did want to get involved in Speedway (which I'm pretty sure they don't) then the SGP series would probably be the way to go. It has a proven track record by the previous promoters to WBD staging events in big stadia at destination cities attracting big crowds and you could argue was on the cusp of going mainstream at that time, so it's been proven that it can be done and an audience is out there, the series is just missing the characters for the public to get involved with, the razzamataz, the hype etc.

Do they? If so, a great idea... Reward success rather than give out top money guarantees regardless of performance...

2 leagues for 2026 with the Premeirship Wednesday & Thursdays, the main reasons cut down on traveling & cost. Championship Friday & Saturdays, the main reason allow riders to work alongside their speedway commitments. Tighter rules to stop riders missing their UK fixtures and less double up/down. Any third division on Sundays. Fact is real changes are required.

It won't be 36, that's just a stupid rumour started on here. Silly season has begun...

These championship team fans need to be careful what they wish for, saying their league is better than the prem yet if the prem didn’t pay the likes of Z.Cook, Lawson, Wright, King etc big money, thus helping them ride in the second tier, they wouldn’t have many good riders at all. Take out their riders who ride in the prem and it’s a pretty poor standard. Everyone can say Prem is better or Champ is better but the fact is Speedway needs to be better.

R87 is just a wind-up merchant looking for attention. Everything that he says is complete boll*cks and as someone quite rightly pointed out, he is a liar. The contradictions are laughable. Bizarre that he spends time on a forum about a sport that he continually derides and can’t be more negative about. Such odd behaviour.

Kind of ironic given your handle

Joe Screen has to get a mention, eh?

I keep seeing various fights at ice hockey matches, so I asked some ice hockey fans do the players get fined or get any form of ban if they fight and the reply was no it’s practically encouraged, although if you have too many fights you gets points and then get a match ban, so why do we take such a pussyfooted approach to any kind of handbags

Ricky ashworth

Let’s hope so then! And as above that phone is ringing with riders begging to join 😁

Its fair to say that many riders now want to join Workington as riders enjoy the track and this will show with the team that gets assembled for 2026. Could be an interesting few month for Comets fans.

Any of them would hardly be a throw out would they, team building is a numbers game isn’t it! Very limited No 1. options out there, a rider has to come from somewhere

It’s hard to see potential buyers jumping in without knowledge of what’s going with Leagues etc..Probably all done and dusted behind the scenes.(BSPA are more secretive and closed shop than the Masonic Lodge)

It's a conspiracy theory, Bluey.

Can't disagree with that real shame he's had such bad luck with injuries recently as although he's no longer the force he was at the top table in the UK league in 2024 he was winning races with his eyes closed.

i can only see a 36 limit for 5 riders and have 2 rising stars they cant fight and fight for one league and then lower the limit when they get there way surely.............. or can the

If that is to be the case for the Premier League would it be a fair presumption that the Championship will also be reduced to something like 33 points? Maybe this is the way two leagues will be formed to incorporate NDL level and say “bye” to the top earning stars.

Wilbur Hancock has said on social media that it will be streamed on PPV - details to follow.

Thanks for that, remember to bawl out the first thing that comes to mind as loud as you can.! That's what I do and it seems to work.

When you are not a good gater you have to pass or you do not win races. When you gate like Lawson it is much easier and passing becomes less necessary. To become a top rider you need to gate well, it is partly why Harris struggled at gp level.

I was thinking earlier who was the originator of the tassle. I remember Ray Bales wearing them, not sure if the whole Mildenhall team did?

Brennan is nailed on and so he should be IMO.

I never said most Championship teams fans thought it was a better league than the Premiership just a better product. I think you will find that the riders you mention do very nicely out of the Championship in terms of earnings. To suggest that the Premiership big money 'helps them ride in the second tier' as if they couldn't do so without is doubtful. These riders choose to do Championship to boost their earnings. Riders signed for European teams may be in a better position to drop the Championship because they no longer need it for financial reasons. Premiership teams this season had between 3 and 5 riders who also rode Championship . If it went to one British League I don't envisage many riders and certainly not the Aussies giving up British Speedway but that is just my personal opinion.

Au Contraire Lisa, he would rather Poole lose than Ipswich win and slags off our track at every opportunity. He said recently he didn't care who won in the final!! He cares passionately that we lose. Really strange individual.

It is really a perfect sport for some half decent marketing company to promote... Given how few of the country even are aware of it, let alone attend, it is almost like launching a brand new sport to the wider sporting viewers.. You are pretty much starting from a blank canvas.. However.... A five team top league will be a hard sell for TV given the same teams will be on far too regularly.. And so many meetings that currently get run without jeopardy does the sport little favours, as it doesn't create interest in getting people to the track or watching on TV., and a five team top league will mean just one team missing out, and, usually, there is one team that gets put well adrift far too early in the season.. The lack of a big money prize also holds it back hugely, as the public get engaged by sports with the huge prizes on offer, so finding a way to get some "big money" into it is fundamentally key for me... There are though huge opportunities, given its current starting position for the sport to develop, and rapidly if the correct marketing and hype can get brought in.. Just 400 or so regulars at every track would mean a massive percentage increase at even those tracks who currently get four figures.. Such a tiny number, but bringing such a large positive impact, shows the size of the opportunity...

Maybe even across Borders and No Max is not expensive he is fair in his requests for a GP rider who gives a lot to the team and is a great guy

If money isn't an issue at Kings Lynn does that mean Buster won't be there.

You are probably right. Can't understand why he appears to be Poole bound. Surely he would learn more - how to overtake experienced riders , how to use different lines, how to ride grippy tracks etc - by choosing a track other than Poole.

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.

Excellent post mate that's what happened while it was gate and go at Poole and unless Glasgow riders have been in a cupboard they should have set their bikes up for that it's no secret is it

Needs to be 1 GP per country and get out to some new audiences, Spain, France, Holland? Australia!

Clearly from someone who has no clue about Poland 😂 immigration they are better than us in, road networks, policing their streets. I would feel safer living in Poland than in England, unfortunately some chose to leave the EU so now we are locked in the country with 3rd world citizens 😁 instead of locking them out of our country.

No they have quite a strong balance sheet with a good amount of cash in the bank. They do however appear bankrupt of ideas on how to successfully grow the sport.

Who knows what the publicity brings to the sport. He knows some influential people and if it is true , he might just reignite interest in the UK. Nothing to lose really if you have an high profile name lend it to the sport. At this stage no point in knocking it.