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What we are seeing here is the years of neglect and lack of investment or ideas for speedway coming home to roost, we have nobody else to blame but ourselves, when sky first gave us the 5 million in the 90s it was like giving a heroin junkie 5 million and saying put some in the bank for the future and spend a bit on getting some help for your addiction

I am often amazed by those business who ignore, and often ridicule, their most important asset - their paying customers!

Come on guys, the writing has been on the wall for years in Uk speedway. You can speculate when it all started, but doubling up, over reliance on TV sponsorship, the loss of stadia to building developments, limited race nights due to Poland , and a steady dwindling of support at some have all contributed to the downward trajectory . To lay the blame for the current perilous state of the PL solely on Ipswich is IMO misplaced… one could look back and blame Swindon, Wolverhampton, Birmingham and Oxford “spires” . All have contributed to the slow and steady decline in Premier league speedway. The CL clubs have been complicit as well, failing to show any interest in accepting “ promotion” to the other league . We’re all right Jack comes to mind…….this is now surely about to be put to the test ?

Surely they have to be looking at Perry pretty sure he has outscored every reserve that rode at Berwick this year

But this comes down to who controls the sport, the sport is run by the riders for the riders, don’t know how long I have been telling anyone who will listen this message, until a governing body gets hold of and control of the sport and dictates boundaries which everyone must adhere to then the sport will continue to decline with everyone in it for their own gain and you have to say with nobody to stop them who can blame them, as an example and I say this not to single him out but as an example but Brady Kurtz is effectively holding the sport in Britain to ransom, make it 2 leagues or I’m off, doesn’t matter what the fans want or what is the best direction for British speedway it what works for me, me me me me me

Didn't help the number one's hoovering up all the money and then a lot of them leaving the UK as soon as the trough was empty.

I suspect Ian wrote that tongue in cheek?

Riders need to take their fair share of the brunt of this mess too.

The lack of investment and potentially purchasing stadiums in the 70's and 80's when possibly some speedway promoters could of done could of resulted in more speedway tracks still operational in present times but then again the speedway promotion owning Somerset speedway didn't save that place did it? - Anyone that has an asset that can potentially make them financially secure and wealthy for life will soon forget about trying to prop up small profit margin/loss making speedway outfits and stadiums however much they enjoy the sport. Norwich and Southampton were two of the biggest speedway operations in the early 60's yet both were sold to property developers. In the mid 1990's Cradley was probably the best supported track in the Country and the stadium was owned by people that in the past had run the speedway yet they ended up with the same fate. I'm afraid evolution has a lot to do with speedways current plight. In the late 60's when speedway had a major uplift in popularity many people who spectated in the immediate post war boom period from 1946 - early 50's were still about, nearly every large Town or City had at least one Greyhound stadium operational which in the most were ideal for installing a speedway track, most working class people had more disposable income combined with cheaper admission prices, persons WITH a TV only had 3 channels rather than the hundreds available today and the leisure market wasn't nowhere near as saturated as it is today. Also the advances in health and safety from the 1970's onwards has escalated costs as well as the engine and bike advancements which has resulted in running speedway tracks and participating in speedway being out of reach to more and more people than it used to. - While mistakes have been made which in fairness probably anyone would have done I can't see being realistic, how speedway racing in this Country would/could have taken a different path. That said most sports in this Country don't make money and rely on enthusiastic benefactors to survive. The present dilemma is that a 5 team top flight is not sustainable while the 2nd tier which is just about sustainable doesn't want to see its products undermined to prop up the ailing top flight. - British speedways been here before in 1990 and 1994 and the 2nd Division in them days ended up being seriously compromised to help the top flight. - The only way I can see things working out is one professional League with 5 or 6 person teams regardless of GP rider availability and teams running on their preferred racenight. Surely theres enough free Fridays and Saturdays from late March to the end of September to work around the GP's?

Again, it goes back to a lack of vision, strategy and direction... Other sports have used the TV money well by ensuring they elected a person to work with them in driving their sport forward... Someone give autonomy by the clubs, to ensure that agreed exacting standards are maintained by the clubs, no "self policing", or "taking your bat and ball home" if you don't get your own way, and no deciding what league is best for me to run in.. But that someone is held to account also to ensure they deliver a sport moving forwards... They should have been "building a brand", using experts in that field, and using marketing experts to attract new interest from Joe Public and businesses, and using experts in event management to deliver a "match day experience" that encourages repeat visits, and targets families... Instead they did.... ?????

I've made a few of these, and this is an updated 2026 version, showing all Polish, SpeedwayLigaen and Bauhaus Ligan tracks and stadiums plus Warsaw. https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1C3RGUldA6ob2i3hqjjN91Ah7LKMqJA8&usp=sharing

It would impact mine, it’s been my life since I went to my first meeting when my parents took me when I was 1 and nothing has ever come close so I would be devastated

As much as us paying public love speedway, if the sport disappeared off the face of the earth, we might miss it but it would not have a significant impact on our lives. Whereas riders and those (supposedly) running the sport would be the ones hit hardest.

100%... However... "I want you to spend around £10k on two very good bikes, maintain them using an expensive tuner, and be available at all times as we will have a fixture list but it will change constantly, and you will be needed to guest at a moments notice"... And. If you do that, I will pay you tens of thousands, and we could win something that actually gets us to meet the local mayor of our local town!"...

I think if he decided to only ride in Poland and Denmark would be a bad move, he’s only 16 and would have a lot of pressure in Poland, riding in England would enable him to enjoy time on his bike without the massive pressure of Poland. I do worry him going straight into Poland, yes he has been shown the money, but that isn’t looking at the very long term and building to that, confidence is everything in any sport and Poland can make or break you. His Polish club will be telling him to base himself in Poland etc, but maybe his camp should talk to Boycie, Darcy and the Cook brothers and ask them what suited them best when they started out.

He certainly had plenty of offers, fair play to him staying Loyal to Stewart as he brought him back over. Solid top 2 for the bandits.

You can't say nobody to blame but ourselves. Most on here are just fans who pay their money and watch speedway, some may sponsor in some form. The blame stops at the promoters now and in the past, most just looking after their own self interest. No thought for next year / future years. The ones who have a vision are overruled by the establishment IMO Several promoters are now unhappy about the present stalemate, as they can't sell season tickets for the Xmas market,as they don't know how many meetings they could be potentially riding. Also they are missing out on potential, existing or new sponsors because as above they don't know the set up of the league or how many meetings you are going to run, it's anywhere from 8 to 12/14 home league meetings (championship)

Because if he doesn’t the tax man will have it off him, it’s a legal form of money laundering/ business offsetting performed by accountants of millions of millionaires worldwide in many different guises, all while getting the millionaire his/her toys paid for ,I think the only reason it doesn’t happen in speedway is because there is not enough money involved to make a dent to a millionaire

Signing No 3 announced 6 pm on Monday UTC

End of the day he is rare breed like Darcy, yes we need to be sensible with pay but this is an entertainment business and he will bring that in mass if he arrives at Poole. I remember when Poole snoozed on Darcy when he came down in the second half for Boston, he stood out and we should have got him at the time as an asset! Know assets aren’t around now but a year later he cost us 35k with a transfer from KL at the time. Long and short break the bank for Beau he will be worth it!

It has zero identity, nor brand... It is neither a sport, nor sports entertainment.. The promoters of yesteryear knew some pantomime villains got crowds engaged.. The racing was often just part of the package.. UK Speedway was always a bit made up and contrived, but often had thousands in attendance so the spectacle seemed to have some resonsnce, and relevance... Now its hundreds that watch in three quarter empty stadia, without the same atmosphere, and even more contrived than it used to be..

The coverage of Speedway is so light touch and superficial (always has been) that I can't really think of it attracting anybody. The beauty of most sports are when you start to scratch the surface and go beyond skin deep and begin to understand the intricacies involved... what's the track like and are you going to make any changes before throwing back to a giggling presenter telling us that the absolute bilge we're watching is brilliant Speedway and great racing doesn't really cut it for most sports fans.

The way things are going a 6 team Premiership would be a tremendous achievement ahead of 2026

I sincerely hope that you're source is the wrongest source that there has been! Tigers fought hard to get Friday night racing. Which is the preferred sports watching night in Glasgow. The promotion has done a lot of good, and hard, work to get lots of kids along which would be affected by going midweek. Plus they'd lose the fixtures that you look for in the calendar...Edinburgh, Berwick and Poole, and replace them with a lot of teams that aren't anything special (no offence intended) I know that the Facennas have plans for top level speedway in Glasgow but I don't think that the time is right. IF Glasgow were going to go Premiership, only Redcar and Oxford haven't announced their 8+ rider and Harris, Wright & Masters haven't been announced. Almost certain that Redcar have signed Wright & Masters is at Oxford. So would Bomber really be the rider to miss out at Championship level? And, where would Glasgow get a number 1 to rival Bewley, Fricke, Doyle, Kurtz & Holder? It's not like GP starts are queuing up to ride in the failing Premiership

i know where you are coming from same for me, when i stopped riding winter of 88 , i stopped going just seeing the odd meeting for a good 15 years, only started going again regular when the new track opened at Bellevue, was there for the 1st meeting that turned into a farce, but knew that track would be good once it was put right. taking my dad for the last years he had left in his life and the reason i had a go, at racing. Still enjoy it even going to Poland to watch meetings, but will get by if no premiere league racing. this year, getting to old now for it to be the centre of my life.

Happy with the start, all depends on Kemp, and if we can get a suitable replacement. Talk of Hume, Smith doesn’t excite me at all. Intrigued by the Lambert rumours, it’s about time he was a Bandit.

Wouldn’t bother until Louis has picked his dummy up, anything could happen

Yes it is.. Form an orderly queue... Hope that golf cart is running....

Laydowns have added to the cost but are not detrimental to the sport itself other than that, the racing is no better or worse today than it was 50 yeas ago, 90% of fans past or present would know a jap from a GM, speedway has never been a motorcycle sport, it’s a team sport on bikes and the important bit is and has always been is the monkey on them

Zischke was the Darcy Ward protégé with tremendous talent, but I believe Bailey has always been the next big thing.

Very good signing on that average! Easily hit 8 in full season back. Bandits starting to take shape

Signing No2 https://www.berwickspeedway.com/news/our-second-signing-is/

It wouldn’t be breaking the bank to sign Beau Bailey, but it would rightly be paying more than you would for a usual Aussie doing their first season over here, but when that Aussie is one of the brightest prospects in years and I think will average near 6. It might be worth it. The costs to move up would be silly. In comparison to building a strong championship side. Not to mention Wednesdays

It’s obvious he’s talking about Promoters not the fans though.!!

Does it? This should have sorted by now, probably the "big" boys are trying to get things changed to suit their needs.

Natalie Quirk and Nigel Pearson were two excellent journalists who put the hours in and were able to explain the sport to their audience. Experts are not there to lead the show but to support the professional presenters, which is why the Americans call them 'color' commentators. The loss of Nat and Nigel alone has led to a massive downturn in the quality to the TV product IMO. There's no excuse for Tatum though. Taking aside the annoying stock phrases, he just seems to phone it in. It's as if he does no research. No insight into form or anything. Commentators should be researching and have a pack of data on that rider's results. If they don't know, they get there early and talk to them in the pits. After all those years, there really is no excuse for such amateurish on screen talent. There's a lot that could be done with speedway as a TV product, but if you don't fix that it will always be a bit rubbish.

... and who can ever forget Sam Ermolenko's "office" comedy genius 😂

Speedway, sadly, doesn't often own the land that ultimately can leverage any debt... Debt is actually good if you can make more money using someone else's, and then pay them back... Living off sponsors money, and only renting your track, with assets that only cover tractors, air fences, and starting gates etc etc, is pretty much, ultimately, built on sand...

The sport, sadly, is riddled with ex riders iin positions that just being an ex speedway rider doesn't qualify you for... From Commentators, to CEO's, to Promoters, to Marketing... All require a specific skill set, based on successful experience in that particular field... UK Speedway keeps everything "n house", insular, and "that will do" as a measure of success...

To be fair I think BT Sport did start to up their game towards the end of the GP coverage first time round with Scott Nicholls doing analysis on the big screen and even bringing his bikes in to show starting techniques etc. And Natalie Quirk was the most knowledge presenter the sport has ever had. I don't think the TV coverage has ever recovered after the sudden sad death of Nigel Pearson. Another marmite character (aren't they all) but one of the few involved in Speedway, along with Tatum and Louis who were/are articulate enough to be on TV. Not only involved in Speedway he did carry some credibility within the industry and who knows may have been able to carry some sway. Tatum should never have been lead commentator but much like British Speedway there was nobody else ever given the chance after a Tony Millard was edged out at Sky.

If winning at home is priority, to avoid crowds going down, is it worth signing Vuolas for that reason? Plus hoping he improves away obviously. Maybe not every club is the same & sone fan bases will still support when a club struggles though? If they did have a top 5 of Jeppesen, Batchelor, Vuolas, Zischke & Hook, could put Antti at 5 at home & 2 away?

Loved it when Arena Essex came to Berwick a late night drink became an early morning drink haha great days

I prefer the paper copy , I already spend too much time looking at screens.

Wanting the best isn’t wrong. Living beyond your means to achieve it is. And eventually you’ll just go bust. Sound familiar? The sport cannot sustain having the best riders here. You must surely see that. All this “not enough riders,” stuff is nonsense. There are plenty but because of self-created circumstances over a number of years they’re not at the level they once were. There’s not an overnight fix but the situation can be rectified over time. The answer is to cut cloth accordingly now to ensure the possibility of one day being able to have a thriving sport here again, including the best riders in the world hopefully. It might not happen, but it might. Carry on as we are and it is a certainty to not happen. Sometimes you have to go backwards before you can go forwards. Being solvent is a pretty good first step.

Reading through this its clear we have had a few characters over the years - Simmo going missing seems to be a theme as he quit Arena mid way through 1989 after his ankle injury, never to be seen again. Always had a soft spot for leaping Len when Andrew was riding for Arena he was usually around. I always had a lot of time for Peter Thorogood - down to earth fella and they ran a tight ship at Arena - mainly cos they had too! When Terry Russell and Ivan Henry came in i felt he was cast aside somewhat (unfairly) and then when they quit to head off to Hackney - he was back rescuing us in 1996! By all accounts the Northern tours were very much what happens on tour stays on tour!

I have a lot of respect for the late Tim Stone - he was definitely marmite to a lot of people, but he was always very nice, welcoming and respectful to us during my (short) time riding for the Mavericks. You always knew where you stood with him and he never minced his words. Plus the man lived and breathed Newport and it's such a shame things went the way they did there. I'll never forget we used to go down there every Sunday in the winter to practice, and planned to sleep in the van the night before, he offered us the option of putting our van in the pits (there was a lot of travellers in the area and often targeted Newport as a place to pitch up) and letting us sleep in a VIP box with heating - to which we gratiously accepted. He said "under no conditions are you to go outside before I get here in the morning though, the guard dog will have your pants down" - one night someone tried to break in and we found a pair of absolutely shredded jeans in the pits the morning after 😂😂😂

Berwick came out of Scotland 1482 😁

I think Max Perry has scored more points at berwick than most away reserves