Leaderboard

I’m sick of dusty tracks, it’s not just Poole it seems to be everywhere in current speedway and ultimately it makes for crap racing, put some god damn water down and if the riders moan tell them to sod off and do something else, it seems no consideration is given to fans getting covered in dust these days, Poole attendance levels are maintained by their winning ethos but for a play off meeting I thought that crowd was poor

So Kings Lynn needed Sheffield to not pick up a point at home vs Northampton and then win and take the bonus at Northampton (today) to sneak into the playoffs. Max Fricke, currently employed by Kings Lynn, then accepts a guest booking for Sheffield, and proceeds to score 9 points. Yeah, that makes sporting sense to me. Riders have no affinity to a club, it's simply a living. I always know this is how it is but there are days when I question why would I invest my loyalty to a club when the riders basically couldn't care any less what racesuit they pull on....

What’s BSN got to do with how Teams prepare tracks they provide a standard service to all tracks during the season.Hitting Clubs on the pocket closes them down these days.Silly statement IMO.

I do believe it, I’ve been there, I have prepped a couple of tracks over the years and have been in enough meetings to know how riders moan, the riders are the first to moan about the tyres not up to the job but you put dirt and water down which would help the tyres and they moan cause the engines which “they” choose don’t like it, this is why the dictatorship that is riders running the sport for the riders needs to stop

Really great to see Lawson back to his usual self, bodes well for the remaining meetings. Slater is getting better by the heat, Zac is a handful for anyone, Lewis was sluggish to start yes but got it sorted, Kyle is more than was expected, Will had issues sure but can still win heats, Rushen is pulling his weight too. None of the opposition will be taking anything for granted The knee jerk track criticism that inevitably follows any Pirates home win is just background noise, and the querying of why Pirate's fan's enjoy watching their team win is......kinda puzzling?

I think people are getting confused about the nexus of the issue, it’s not about tracks being slick, it’s not about tracks having home advantage, it’s about the practice of clubs allowing the track to be a dust bowl which does not do anyone less the sport any favours.

UK Speedway would benefit from a one hour round up, magazine type programme each week, with a couple of riders in attendance.. Making them personalities and identifiable... Mix in a few of the best heats from around the country, and a "what's on where?" over the next seven days...

Seems very encouraging and the reasons behind not showing the Premiership play offs makes sense but given that the final tends to draw in the crowds I would have hoped that an edited version could be shown on ITV as a round up to the season and whet the appetite for 2027. Also interesting to read Phil Lanning’s views on the subject. This also has some merit with a weekly round up rather than live meetings but the main thing has to be to get the sport in whatever format on a free to air channel to reach the biggest potential audience.

It is not Poole's fault speedway is on its arse. Speedway at Poole is a business, a business that makes money, there are not many clubs that can say that so they must be doing something right.There was passing last night but because Poole were doing all the passing some people are not happy.

I understand Poole want to keep winning, as that brings the fans in. But I don't feel it's a choice of poor track = winning, good track = losing. Poole have the strongest team, so why not prepare an awesome track for the fans to enjoy, while winning?

Put some f**king water down, heat 1 and it’s a dust bowl, there is no need for dust at all on an evening meeting

Fair post from you Gavan. Although about the world cup, i would say plenty of people moaned about the track at the time. But i guess that is just comparative to how tracks were prepared then. Although Poole was dusty last night (what can be done if riders don't want it watered) it wasn't deemed unfit like tonight at Northampton and bet no one moans about that!

Not forgetting a promoter who was famous (notorious??) for preparing the track for his home riders!!

I think that's an acceptable number, if you want paid more, score more, simple!

Quite a bit to unpack here: do you think the money that BSN pays tracks makes a material difference? In the best Sky years it was just over £100k a club but now? Maybe £8k. Boycott away but it won’t change anything. Secondky, clubs that take the mic? In what way? Poole supply a style of entertainment for their fans that seems to work. And, regardless of what people might like to say, winning is entertainment. Demolishing the opposition even more so. The co-promoters make a living from speedway - are they unique in UK? - so they’re also happy. Finally, what’s Morris got to do with it? He is CEO of the Premiership, something that should be clear to all. Whether that means the Championship don’t want him or the other way round, I don’t know.

Need to start boycotting BSN who give money to tracks like this, I am not giving money to clubs who constantly take the mic anymore, I am done, I would sooner buy a few streams from Belle Vue and watch that even though it would be a lot less value for money. It the only way, hit clubs in the pocket, the BSPA wont do anything neither will Phil Morris it seems.

It’s the scale of the wins, not the pure fact of winning. Surely more fans would prefer to see a 40-38 than a 60-18?!?

Dean you wouldn't believe the hassle the track staff have when they want to put water down. Lot's of moaning from the riders, which I find odd as same riders usually ride really well after track grades.

That meeting tonight was as entertaining as anything I have seen at Armadale this season.

Absolutely mate, they need to learn to work together, I believe dean has been impressed with the speedway this season, and it’s all thanks to him that we even have a speedway team at Northampton, and to be honest there has been speedway after stock cars throughout the summer, I just think the rain didn’t help matters

Riders running the sport as usual.

Does it matter given they are the best available and Joe Public ha not got a clue as to the standard and hierarchy in the sport in the UK. Speedway in the UK does not and cannot compete with any other league in Europe but those viewers who tuned in and looked at the event found something different but they have not got a clue as to who the riders were and at this stage it is all about attracting punters. You could have conference league riders but it is all about four riders on bikes with no brakes going head to head on powerful machines that would scare the sh.t. From the average bike rider. if packaged in the right format viewers will follow. Trouble is the presentation needs honing to sell it as a great form of entertainment and not chase the idea that it should be shown live as spectacle. Live televised meetings are the achilles heal of speedway and no sensible promoter would suggest that the live meeting are the answer. Any punter who attends a live meeting recognises that t v transmissions are a disaster and the armchair audience simply accept what is served up which compared to the Polish t v offering is in the UK rubbish

My thoughts exactly

Good job ITV weren't at Northampton tonight

Yep despite all the positives so far this really is a massive shooting in the foot.

Your first post isn’t all that clear,but since it is about dry dusty tracks I’m sure Poole are not the only one that is dust bowl.Again it is the riders preference.IMO

I have nothing against rider want to ride inPoland and earn big money.Why should GB speedway suffer from that.BSPA need to sort it out though.If Charles can earn more setting pits good luck to him but not to the detriment of GB speedway.

What about a Swedish or Danish system? Sweden gets probably double the crowds, and more, than the UK does, so maybe follow Denmark's operating model given their crowds are more akin to the UK's?.. Guests are just a lazy way of running the sport and does it zero favours from a credibility point of view, which won't help gain sponsors from outside the Speedway bubble.. Doubling Up isn't a problem given, as you say, different leagues exist with no impact to the top tier in the UK, and helps both tiers afford riders, and provides riders with more income opportunity... And given so few riders want to ride over here DU'ing is currently something fundamentally required...

Nobody, especially new fans would give a 💩 Doubling-Up is a nonsense argument in making the sport look 'Mickey Mouse'. There's no promotion / relegation so there is zero 'conflict of interests'. Guests have been and always will be a necessity of this sport. British Speedway doesn’t have the finances to run Polish type squad systems so that's a no no. This sport has far more important problems than some riding in multiple leagues. As far as I'm concerned, riding in the Premiership & Championship is no different to riding Premiership and Elitserien, it's still 2 different leagues with no conflict on each other.

Great idea if very limited or no doubling up & a restriction on guests. Imagine the round up/ highlights where Chris Harris rides for Kings Lynn in the premiership then appears for Glasgow in the championship with a couple of guest appearances for Sheffield & Poole. Would very quickly show just how micky mouse the sport currently is.

Proof that an audience is still around for British Speedway. TNT was just a hindrance to the Sport, It's a dead channel that changes it's name more times than Katie Price changes her appearance. Behind a pay wall as well and barely anyone who isn't already signed up to the channel would take out a subscription just to watch British Speedway once a week for 6 Months of the year.

Everyone knows the riders don’t want dirt on the track due to modern machinery.The shape and size of tracks in Uk lead to processional racing in GB whereas in Poland track prep is different the tracks look slick but the size and shape produces decent racing.

Sure Danny left that a couple of years ago? @SteveLyric2 will know the exact timescale!

ahh well all is well in the world of British speedway then....how on earth do you think last nights entertainment will attract or appeal to anybody watching/going for the first time?.....the average age at last nights meeting must of been over 50, so please don't come back with Poole are doing something right.

Quite possible that club's make more from their own streams than through BSN coverage. The club streams are generally pretty comparable to the BSN product, but presumably BSN has a bigger audience?

Whatever money / profit BSN earn has to be split 3 ways between BSN, BSPA or whatever they call themselves today, and the clubs, so 15 of them share the pot, so I can't see much profit for the clubs,

Because Poole are successful? It’s hardly the Ford family’s responsibility to save British speedway. That’s down to the management board so you should be asking what they’re doing about it. Leadership and development comes from the top but how much do we see?

Why are Poole one of the best supported clubs in the Country then.Name the Clubs with so called better entertainment with bigger Crowds.Speedway in GB is dying mainly due to the riders demands.IMO.

And on, and on, and on, the farce goes... Nothing changes does it?... Apart from less people attending obviously.,

That's the reason it's a 5pm start to allow extra time to drive from a southern airport arrival.. but probably a guest fest for the other missing riders. And they wonder why fans are pissed off

I think you've answered your own question there.

Ellis could be a bit on the young side.

Match fixing at it's finest this one

Only a team manager at home this season did not do away meetings, maybe I should not say this but not sure he could be ars@ed blaming family commitments 🤔🤔

New pub at Manchester Airport.

Not many do that to Douglas around there! Especially this year.

6 months to run a dozen meetings and still can’t field full teams due to .Afraid I disagree.

Interview with Andrew Bain in this week’s star sounds positive, he plans to keep improving the track including fitting the flood lights. He said he is going to do his very best to make sure the comets are at the tapes next year. Fingers crossed he can make it work. No one wants to lose another team.

Why don't people put their names to these statements? and why do you even need a petition, speak to spedeworth and pay the man all the money up front like he's (rightly) insisting on and your in business.

Take Doyle out for Lambert and I'd pretty much take that as a team. As a King's Lynn fan, keeping Rushen is obvious. But, if I was managing Cooper, I'd be asking the management their 2027 plans now, saying my lad wants better riders and I'd absolutely be on the phone to Belle Vue daily to get him the gig there in 27.