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Congratulations to Mark and the whole team at Plymouth who obtained a notable achievement on Saturday by having a record attendance for over 10 years in the defeat against the Pirates. Fantastic for a sport that needs positive news stories to see a club going in the right direction and the swell of momentum behind the club within Plymouth. It's fantastic to see and long may it continue.

ill take it on the chin, no problem with that, win some you lose some so to speak

The lads 16 and just took his first ever win in the championship against Lewis Kerr, I think he’s more than entitled to celebrate!

This situation highlights the differences on either side of the fence. There's absolutely no way the Oxford management can keep fans fully up-to-date in a Sky News-esque ticker tape style barrage of information. Situations change constantly. So constantly that confusion would be the main outcome, with folks struggling to keep up. What are they expected to reveal? 'We have meetings planned'? A bit bland and unlikely to appease the news-hungry punter. They also most likely won't be allowed to reveal significant details of those meetings. The only thing that matters is whether the club has a future. It's a simple yes or no. On this occasion, happily, it's a yes. On the other side of the coin, fans can feel they're left in the dark, whilst craving updates aplenty. 'We are the lifeblood of the club. We deserve to know'. Well, yes, you do. But you only need to know the end result. The rest, if you're not a company official is, quite frankly, none of your business. It has to be kept in-house. The statement from the management is acceptable in my view. Good luck to Oxford.

There’s a time and a place. I’m not sure the potential demise of Oxford is the thread to be having ‘lots of fun’ on. It’s in pretty bad taste if you ask me.

Looks like this fella has decided to do things "properly".... It won't go down well.....

Crikey. I wondered why the “official” British Speedway social media uploaded all the other Premiership clubs’ press and practice activity and excluded Ipswich. Now we know why 😂 Good luck Mayfield, you’ll bloody well need it!! Isn’t this refreshing though? Out with the old, in with the new!

Let's be honest, the "improvements" made have pretty much all been suggested on here down the past few years... All very basic, cosmetic changes... Fundamental change was never going to happen, given so many promoters are quite content with their lot... Fans say that want to see the sport have credibility, integrity, and able to be taken seriously, however, to be fair to the promoters, I have never seen those apirational aims ever being quoted from themselves as objectives to be achieved... To run UK Speedway "properly" as a team sport, takes more money, and also, brings close scrutiny, which UK Speedway doesn't stand up to well when it happens.. Phil made those obvious, quick win, changes, (which was more than had been done by others), however, ultimately, those running UK Speedway know that their skill sets are not what the sport needs, (hence it is where it is), but definitely won't relinquish control of it to someone else who may be able to lead it in delivering its true potential... I presume the lack of a TV deal meant no more job for Phil? As, again I presume, this helped pay his salary?.. The sport, 100%, needs grabbing by the scruff of the neck, with someone showing ambition, vision, and drive... It sadly just will never happen...

King's Lynn were doing so well... and then the season started 😂

From what I have been told that is NOT going to happen. He is very happy in his new role and no longer wishes to spend days on end doing track prep and he’s not the only one who’s had enough of the cantankerous owners and walked away from the club. A shame as he has always been highly regarded on his work and it’s such a shame that what was one of the very best race tracks is being reduced to its current state. A good track man is about as rare as a British Premiership Football Manager!

Was an enjoyable meeting. Klindt replacing the unlucky charles wright actually makes redcar stronger. Craig Cook looked like the Craig Cook of old, the new dane looks a real prospect an was well worth more than 2 points. Jamie Erherington looked way out of his depth. Tate needs to sharpen up his starts. R.E the track, this is where british speedway really shoots itself in the foot, it was dry all day and a suitable race surface should be prepared to last an evening meeting in that time, supporters should not have to watch tractor racing for over an hour on a cold night.

So, fake news gets you publicity does it? OK then, here goes,... "Speedway in the UK, is an authentic team sport, brilliantly led, marketed and promoted, by a host of cutting edge, modern day thinking visionaries".... There.. That should get me in the Speedway Star next week... 😁

He made the clubs adhere to a schedule to speed meetings up with set grading breaks. Introduced the centre green clocks. Had the sponsors banners made up in the pits so every club looked the same. Brokered deals with riders to ride in the premiership. For the grand final he had a magnificent looking stage not made of three pallets. Pyrotechnics and flames. Spoke to save Coventry stadium and offered to buy Ipswich with his own money. Introduced the media day. but apart from that not much. now the sport is imploding and going backwards under the current regime

Bad idea. I remember seeing Sam Ermolenko getting sucked off in Prague.

I think for the sake of the fans it would be great if the owners and the ex track curator could kiss and make up,the track used to produce very entertaining racing

Hello Tapewrecker, Youonlyhave2minutes, etc,etc. Back again are we? You really do need to have that attention deficiency looked into old lad.

Back in the day, I remember you often had top riders missing in the premier league for stuff at weekends but legit things like world longtrack series, world under 21 qualis etc. I remember Newport missing Glenn Cunningham on a few Sundays for world long track events and Wato, you don't mind if its a couple of times for a legit reason. As years have progressed the absences have become more ridiculous, missing a meeting for your club as your Polish club wants you at a photo shoot and press and practice and what have you. Its pathetic. It really is gutting to see what a laughing stock the sport is nowadays. I'm not sure if such a slump has happened before in the 60s, 70s or 80s but the state of the sport now compared to the years I followed (90s and 00s) is something that I can't see a way back from. Promoters are mostly to blame, when things started slipping in the winter instead of nipping those issues in the bud there and then, they buried the heads in the sand and this is the result of it.

Today I, a lifelong cricket fan, have learned that county cricket is streamed on YouTube, from a speedway forum. Glad to see the ECB spend that £40million budget just as badly as others do.

... and Workington... and Scunny who had doubts surrounding their return... and Edinburgh who seemed set to lose their stadium a couple of years back (and who knows whether that one has well and truly gone away). And if you count going quite well, a league of just 9 teams and having lost Somerset, Newcastle, Rye House, Birmingham, Stoke, Sheffield, Leicester, King's Lynn & Ipswich over the years as "doing quite well" that's a very strange measurement. Poole & Glasgow are "going quite well", I'd say the rest are clinging on by their finger tips! Mr Morris also engaged with the fans, I personally spoke with him on the phone after the play off semi debacle a couple of years back. He set up the fans forum with fan representatives and I know of others who he has reached out to when they have been ignored by individual clubs. You may reply "what actual good did that do?" but as @mikebv said he picked and addressed all of the low hanging fruit, anything more radical he was never going to be allowed to do with no stake in the sport financially.

If he's gone I think its a great shame he brought ideas and professionalism to the Premiership and having the guy who directs the GP series could only be a good thing. Assuming he is still involved with Speedway Futures and that still has legs then hopefully we haven't seen the last of him.

Even for 2026, Phil has been a great advocate for British Speedway Premiership and has done lots of work behind the scenes which most people simply do not see. Always knowing that his role of Chief executive wasn’t to continue this year due to lack of money He was instrumental in keeping Ipswich going including being part of a consortium that made an offer to keep it going if Mayfield deal had fallen through. Has also had a a lot to do with the opening of Northampton giving guidance of what was required to get Speedway running along with being involved in the negotiations with stadium owners and management . There has been some failures previously maybe the loss of TV deal being the greatest but he did explore various options but none could be got over the line for various reasons. It has not been helped by some promotions not backing him fully. He wanted to modernise the product to try to get in new fans and sponsors some of which cost money like for tv meetings having a set presentation team and DJ, Lights and fire cannons on centre field but certain promotions wouldn’t back this and could even be objective like refusing to move advertising A boards for tv meetings and not even keeping the league sponsorship ones clean. Phil was also key to a number of top names returning to the UK like Woofy , Janowski and Lindgren along with brokering deals for Lambert and Dudek to ride for clubs to then back down on the deals

One of Cooper's favourite tracks, finished 3rd in the U19 final beating a certain Mr cairns in the process, also done many more laps in the British youth championships. Something Poole fans know nothing about, as they don't put on youth meetings, just splash the cash to get the young ones to sign up 😲

Don’t worry they’ll be saying it again after we’ve been battered at Belle Vue next Monday 😁

Which is why you keep a highly knowledgeable track curator who knows how to deal with theses issues with off-season work and during season maintenance, something which has been sorely missing since Jonanthan Swales left Redcar IMHO.

Links for tonight: Leszno v Częstochowa: https://vk.com/video-234681448_456239098 https://vk.com/video-81427162_456239773 Wrocław v Zielona Góra: https://vk.com/video-234681448_456239099 Direct YouTube link for Wrocław v Zielona Góra: https://www.youtube.com/live/nn-1aPfgTEA

Also gave my facebook a page a good plug. Lets now get to 5k members. 200 to go

Any business needs a vision, and a plan to deliver that vision... UK Speedway, basically, runs season to season with no one knowing who will run the next year, or which league some teams may decide to compete in, or what the team strengths there will be, or what competitions will take place, or what formats these competitions will follow.. You cannot keep "hoping for the best", by living season to season, and doing the same old thing that you always do that prevents you from ever having any vision, never mind a plan to deliver that vision... Millions and Millions of pounds of TV money has gone up in smoke over two and a half decades... Money which seemed to have bailed out a fair few issues which never got resolved... That money isn't there any more....

Indeed - at Foxhall when some of us starting using horns, cow bells and a megaphone a few moved and one poor old dear dropped a stitch on her knitting

Let me guess the fan was 60 plus and wanted speedway to go back to the good old days

Do you work for the BSPL? Old fashioned, outdated, and unwilling to change..

The trouble with you doing this (and we’re all guilty of it at times) is you’re looking at it through your Lynn spectacles. You’ve looked down the scorecard and picked out one score from a rider that you think should have improved on his tally, and yet ignored that Ben Cook scored paid 15. Yes, it’s a poor performance this time around from Kvech who is usually better than that, but you won’t get paid 15 from Cook every week either so if you took four points off him and added it to Kvech’s score then nobody would bat an eyelid and it’d look about right. With my Ipswich spectacles on, I look at a combined 11 from Lawson and Musielak and I’m disappointed with that and would hope that would be improved upon next time, and the same for a 3 point return from Bangs. I’d expect improvement there also next time around. What ifs is an impossible game to play and we can only deal with what IS. As has been said before, you could ride 10 meetings on the same track with exactly the same riders and not get the same scoreline twice.

Great result, Every Rider getting at least a paid win this time. Take a bow Tom Brennan, From Rising Star to No.1 who beat GP Rider Max Fricke 2-1 in a Head-to-Head battle around the AFA is some achievement. Never rated King's Lynn before a wheel was turned and if Jan Kvech continues his downward spiral at King's Lynn then the Stars may even finish behind Northampton once the League gets underway because the Stars tail end is simply out of it's depth at this level. Pressure on young Cooper Rushen is ridiculous and it could hinder his progress and knock his confidence imo.

I'll watch the paint drying on the boats... should be more entertaining 😉

This post is sponsored by the p in Dan Thompson's surname. Before I proceed, I have a query for the historical geniuses on here... is Glasgow the first team to track a declared 1-7 which includes 5 riders with surnames beginning with the letter H? Anyway, first meeting of the year at sunny Armadale and a proper chilly evening. Probably cold enough to make penguins pleased. With the punters positively perishing, a plethora of passes would've been appreciated. Sadly, we were left feeling particularly peeved for the most part. Papa Harris possibly enjoyed the most success, making it look p1ss easy in heats 12 and 13. The latter race brought the Thom(p)son non-twins together for the first time this season. A win here and the victor could be King for a Day. Ultimately, 4 laps later, Monarchs fans were probably requesting a Doctor! Doctor! The Tiggers comeback led to a last heat decider. In this one, DanT showed patience prior to a final bend predatory pounce which brought a posse of applause from the terraces as well as from a purring Mr Karlsson on the centre green. In the end, it was perhaps fitting that parity prevailed. Other points of note: Pathetically poor team management, not swapping the home reserves in heats 11 and 12. Imagine making Cami Brown look like the tactical genius on the night. Not-so-super Grahn gated like a demon but was on the wrong end of too many restarts, leading to a relatively paltry points return. Castagna, heat 9 apart, was an off-the-pace pootler. At the bottom end, Cluff was pitiful while young Loftus will have made his parents proud. KJP showed promise. Particular thanks for attempting to clear the track in heat 10. A tremendous effort, spoiled only by a trigger happy referee. Roll on the 24th. Hopefully it'll be slightly warmer... PS saw a cyclist earlier. I said, "pavements are for pedestrians pal" He looked perplexed. Pr1ck.

To be fair, Mario has only ridden speedway tracks before. Thankfully Ashfield is a speedway track.

That’s what a professional outfit does…. Different owners but fully professional as always. Well done Ippo

That PA system at Wroclaw, and also those around Poland, are certainly not fit for purpose... You can hear every word, and clearly...

Nothing wrong with Godfrey and Chapman running their own teams, it’s running the sport where the problems start

Chapman/Godfrey time to go. We’re forever going to be stuck in this rut of complete rot while these old hands still have an active control. No disrespect to them btw!! They’ve all done their bit and put money in, but we HAVE to move on for the good of this sport in this country. We’re at a crossroads and it’s time to be ruthless.

😲

Disagree, You are very much in the significant majority. Nothing beats being there.

Polish Extraliga match free globally on YT this weekend: https://www.youtube.com/live/nn-1aPfgTEA?is=KuRQKcbbHXqZ6Nti

Dan has now got Polish commitments and will miss some Saturdays, last Saturday being an example, so while he may well outscore Chris, Glasgow have made the right long term decision.

A good journalist never reveals his sources 😂 To take the positive at least "there were more than 50 posters bemoaning the fact that Phil had gone" was reported... hopefully that will send a message to those in charge that on the whole his contribution to PL Speedway over the last couple of years has been an immensely positive one 👍

Peter Oakes in Today’s Speedway Star. Oh dear @PhilTheAce

I'm hundreds of miles from Plymouth, but I always make a point of getting there at least once a season, great little set up there 👍 last year me and my dad went, he loved it too. For that reason, Plymouth are now my team in a sport I've honestly not got much interest in anymore, but I'll still try to get there at some point this year.

Phil Morris has the sport at heart and wasn't allowed to do what he wanted with British Speedway by the clowns who run the sport , mainly that w anchor Godfrey at Scunthorpe. How the hell he got into such a high up position is anybodys guess.

If indeed it turns out that the role of CEO (incumbent Phil Morris) has been made redundant due to a lack of money then it’s difficult to see how an “independent body/person” that is often raised as a solution on this forum, could be funded to run the sport. That said, the sport is already “run” by a (supposedly) independent body - the SCB - which by and large get their objectives done and funded by license & similar fees. Which brings the conversation back to the BSPL & the intransigent hobbyist majority within. Their actions continue to block progress of the sport (to now include the removal of a CEO) simply because they have little or no intention or capability of implementing change which may (would) disrupt their hobby. Until, somehow, there is sufficient momentum by a group of well funded vested promoters to bring about long term change, then worryingly, we fans need to understand that whilst they remain in situ the hobbyist will continue to rule.

Just isn’t the money for the role but hopefully Phil will still be involved in a more advisory role and possibly on a pay as you go basis . If the TV deal had come off he would have been very involved. i still do not agree that clubs didn’t take the initiative of broadcasting one meeting a week free on You Tube to satisfy sponsors and try to attract more new fans all they had to do was pay the production costs which were minimal compared to the full tv production costs. The best way would have been to pay BSN to produce one meeting a week for free YT broadcast as that would then give them the opportunity to upsell their subscription service of people want to see more and could have sold race sponsorship for the season