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Another factor is the age profile of speedway supporters. As folks get older they don’t turn out for every meeting in poor weather to stand outside in often spartan conditions on cold evenings to watch the stop start racing punctuated by all too frequent delays . With each passing year, I would suggest there are fewer “hard core” fans who will turn up every meeting .

As part of my earlier Teams and Fixtures blog, which I posted about last month, I've now created a week-by-week fixtures list for all mainland European leagues and other relevant fixtures such as SGP, SEC, IMP and others. Obviously we don't have all fixtures as yet, so it's a work in progress, but once the remaining leagues publish their fixtures, I'll be adding them in as well. Everything is colour coded to make it easier to follow. Hope it helps for anyone planning any trips this coming season. Link here: https://speedwayteams2026.blogspot.com/p/calendar-of-meetings-in-2026.html?

Delighted to see Cook back this season. I’ve been critical of some instances involving him in the past, but a British speedway without Craig Cook is a sadder, less entertaining and lower in quality place. Really strong side being built at Northside.

Another Poole Speedway article in the Echo online today with Matt Ford (more coverage than Semenyo!) stating that any discussion about a 'one league set-up' for 2027 should start NOW, including clarity on likely rider costs and any TV/broadcast contract. Its no good leaving it til August/Sept when many clubs have started their team-building for the next season. He has confirmed once again that Poole will NOT go 'up'(?!) into the Premiership within the present structure and fixed race nights!

Workington looking pretty strong with there top 4 there’s no reason why batchelor,Zischke and Jeppesen can’t all put a point in there averages there definitely going to be near the top end of the league,anyone know who the 5.00 rider will be as I’m assuming that’s what they will do. shaping up to be a really competitive championship this season some very good teams being built very much looking forward to the season starting.

I don’t think anyone genuine speedway fan will be disappointed if speedway stays on in the Poole area even if they don’t like the team. As soon as people hear the name Clark Osbourne they are then genuinely worried for that club. The man is a cancer to the sport and a habitual liar to speedway fans and promotions.

Batch at 5 sounds great to me especially if Cookie/Tate can reform their partnership. Batch for 2 seasons has been the backbome of the side and gets knocked for his one off poor performances when over the whole he held the side together. This is looking one exciting team 🤩

It's amazing that in 25 years of tv coverage they never ever addressed this... which is an indication that points to the rest of the failures within Speedway. If they couldn't/wouldn't address this, they were never going to fix everything else that needed fixing.

I think the biggest concern for Poole and every other team in Britain is not having a stadium but more importantly having a British league to ride in,especially now mark lemon is on the board of directors who will want to make the championship weaker and the premiership stronger.

might even see batch at 5 at home and cookie at 5 away

As i see it the big difference is the position of the Councils, both saying more or less the same that the Stadium is very important to the town as are the teams, but Poole council know how much publicity the Pirates bring in is good for the town.

So it seems that Ipswich may field a decent 1-7 after all.😉

Nobody down as "Northampton"?

That's the one I always use, fantastic site.

A possibility of 3 number 1s as batch on his day can beat anybody, and with less pressure to be the top rider, think this will help all 3 heat leaders

Matt said that everything is fine for at least 2026 and 2027, probably longer. The discussions with the Council have already identified some alternative site options ,with Matt and Danny having a 'preferred' track site within the bcp council boundary.

Are management already looking for a replacement for mid season?! 😉

Cook`s signing will end one way and one way only. Recent history tells us everything you need to know.

I think we are sorted for the reserve birth

Thou this is different with the council owning the stadium we have heard all the other stuff before. The council will do what makes them most money and that will be building houses on a prime bit of land. As we seen altrenative sites are like rocking horse poo

Considering that there is plenty of empty land nearby which has still not been developed, I can't see anything happening in the short term. And with the current housing market stalled, many developers have slowed down building anyway.

Is he bitter or just stating the facts? 😜

Let's try another way. See if mods actually look at this thread: Bum titty bum

Brennan would be there if Ipswich wasn't sorted. But soon as Ipswich was then there was no where else tom was ever going to be

8%, has been for some years

Or third option, Sheffield have someone else other than Chris Holder. I’m surprised Rew hasn’t been snapped up as yet. Big fan personally and so much more to come. Another great result for him today https://fimspeedway.com/news/rew-claims-fim-oceania-crown

It makes sense being a Champ only rule, means a rider like Nathan Ablitt who upped his average then doesn't get a team, gets a better chance if returning etc. Not sure it'd be ideal of a rider like Robert Lambert could come back on a far lower average in the Prem if he missed multiple seasons just racing abroad.

All his clubs on there are correct. Every rider have there 2026 clubs. I remember they did this a few years ago, putting riders clubs down before they were actually announced

He's going to have to find a way of ideally getting an 8 team top league and 8 team second division I think doubling up will have to stay due to shortage of riders. Given Poland and one other league in 2027 I think the long awaited reset will be forced to happen at most likely a sub current championship standard as if the Poland ruling happens most of the remaining top guns I would imagine will depart.

If you mean the 8% reduction mentioned in the recent AGM, this is for Championship only.

like that 2 left to name not sign im sure the team is sorted or at worst only 2nd string position to fill

That sounds like me. Mind you, the worse "stop start" meetings are the televised ones. I avoid them like the plague! One good by-product of no televised meetings this year!

What a silly comment. As a Swindon fan, I sincerely hope your team don't end up where Osborne has put ours (amongst others!)

Well, the best of luck with that ... as I said, he would be best advised to start with amateur racing, and use that to convince promoters that he still has his talent, and is willing to buckle down and be honest.

I wouldn't read into anything about Woofinden being at Sheffield #justsaying. But then again, i wouldn't read into any rumours concerning any riders being linked with an Ipswich septet, but convinced more will become much clearer this week.

The Poole haters will be disappointed

In the next week or two- there are problems over Tarnow which need to be resolved which is holding things up.

Averages are calculated to 3 decimal places, and rounded to 2. Cook's rolling average is 207 points from 101 rides = 207/101 x 4 = 8.198 If he was a foreigner, 8.198 would round to 8.20 As he's British, he gets a further 2.5% reduction. 8.198 x 0.975 = 7.993 which rounds to 7.99 (But even if it was 8.00 he would still fit)

They'll never learn... cannot understand for the life of me why anyone would sign Craig at this point. An absolute liability, completely unpredictable and has let down clubs year on year. Good luck Workington, I suspect at somepoint this season you'll need it once Craig disappears...

Big gamble this on the last two seasons history of him packing in mid season. Never thought I'd see him back for the Comets after what he di in 2024 but the promotion have obviously accepted it now and moved on. Craig Cook when fit is still a top 10 rider in the Championship trouble is staying fit and motivated.

Nights not conducive to the entertainment industry is very subjective. If we took Saturday as THE night and everyone else did the same then you are all competing against each other. You do what’s best for you. In 1976 less than half the teams in the league rode on a Saturday (6). 3 rode on a Friday with the other 10 riding mid week. This was at the height of the sports popularity yet most CHOOSE to open mid week. Moving to alternate nights to gain the biggest crowd happens in all industries. Film distributors will not go up against the blockbusters, bands will serve dates when big hitters are in town and pubs will arrange theme nights on dates to attract the most punters. It’s not a case that Saturday is the holy grail and we need to avoid the negative connotations currently being associated with mid week.

The Premiership is a farce Full Stop. be surprised if they maintain crowd levels,with repetitiveness of fixtures. Sad times for the sport.

They could put out a NL team and still be top 5

You are right, the championship promoters do seem to have it right, at least a bit more right than the premiership. However. Without the premiership, the championship would not work. The championship uses many of the riders from the premiership, but as was reported in the star, at a massively reduced pay rate, so without premiership money it wouldn't work for the riders. The premiership has lost a handful of teams in recent seasons mainly due to losing their access to a track. No one from the championship wants to move up, as their business model would not work,either due to race nights, losing local derbies, extra costs etc. In addition to all this, next year Poland are prohibiting riders from racing in more than 1 extra league, meaning we probably lose most of the better danes we have , and potentially quite a few to Sweden,meaning less " top" riders in this country, making next years premiership potentially weaker , so it begs the question, what next? For the championship to work it needs the premiership for the premiership to work it needs riders, so if the premiership falls, so does the championship in its current form. Riders need to earn x amount of money so either the championship has to pay more or costs must be cut. British speedway needs more riders to fill its teams, so we need to rebuild.If that means a " lower" standard , so be it, likewise if it means 5 or 6 man teams , so be it. Let clubs race on their favoured night, we've already been done over by Poland, and other riders will ride in Denmark or Sweden, so early on this season there needs to be a rider census to get a rough idea as to how many riders would be available to fill all championship and premiership teams, riding on whichever night, and then work out team sizes and strengths from there, based on 2 leagues, one professional league, but with protected races for at least 1 or 2 " juniors", and the national development league ,with a clear progression between the leagues. Reduce engine servicing costs, ban trick parts, put a rev limiter on that will make a difference, maybe a minimum flywheel weight, do the consultation now, with a view to 2027, reassure the punters that genuine change is on the way,and rebuild from the bottom up. Now going to grab my tin hat and get behind the parapet waiting to be shot down

Cobblers...... 🤣

Don't think much between Scott and Cairns if both stay grounded and don't take on to much to quickly they should be core England squad members in 5-6 years I would have thought.

Whoever it is, have the main man at the helm who is proven to be very prudent with other people's cash and will spend it very wisely

First title of the season, well done Poole

They also give good cash bonuses for beating certain team 😉😉

Glasgow aren’t just being smart business wise for their own benefit either, losing them would affect all the northern clubs. Glasgow bring a big following to Berwick for sure and I’m sure they take it to the other northern venues too, they’d also lose virtually all the away support they get at Ashfield. It would be a lose lose situation for those with the most at stake. There is nothing “brave” about what the teams in the Premiership are doing, it’s business suicide for most, you just need to look at recent history.