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So after 4 seasons as a Director & Shareholder that's my time with Birmingham Speedway at an end. An eventful, at times stressful, at times farcical and at times enjoyable experience! A huge thanks to the small but loyal Brummie fanbase that put up with season after season of under performing teams, you deserved better! Full credit and my upmost respect to Nigel Tolley, he wasn't far short with the figures he quoted in the recent speedway star interview with what he invested in the club (there was also a six figure investment from other shareholders during the period I must add). Nigel is as mad as a (top) hatter, but I really like the guy. My only criticism of him (and he knows this, I told him enough times) is that he allowed himself to be influenced by others who failed to deliver for the club! Seeing the day to day finances and operations of the a Championship and then Premiership club is a real eye opener, so a massive thanks to Financial Director Tracey Smith, who somehow managed to juggle the finances to keep everyone happy (most of the time) a truly lovely lady, she has been the glue in a massively disjointed operation, which would have fallen apart without her. Some priceless moments over the 4 years on the management zoom meetings / race nights - I could write a book! You also learn a lot about riders, some smashing chaps around Paco Castagna (legend) Freddie Lindgren, Tobi M, Leon Flint, Sam Hagon, Jason Edwards, Thompson twins all really good guys! No comment about some mind Made some great friends, I will miss Guesty, Dave Rowe, Pete & Dan Ballinger, Chris Adams, the guys and girls from the supporters club and fellow shareholders Steven, Jake and Vic. Such a shame that Birmingham Speedway is no more, but without Nigel it wouldn't have got into 2023 let alone 2025 and for that alone he deserves the respect of those who knock him! Give us a B.....! Cheers Paul

Having read a lot of the negative comments about Plymouth speedway from other teams "supporters", Ive come to the conclusion that they are fuelled simply by JEALOUSY. Plymouth isn't a big money club run by faceless people. It's a smaller almost "family" run club. Looked after by volunteers and people who do it fir the love of the sport. Not people who run it with a "win at all cost" mentality. Yes it's nice to win matches and silverware but at Plymouth it's more about an evening out with good mates and enjoying good racing. Other teams could do with buying in to the Plymouths ethos.

Let's all take a breath and look at the bigger picture here. After years and years of ridicule and belittling towards British Speedway and it's structure, this week we've seen one of the best two legged fixtures in recent times in the second tier, culminating in a breath taking conclusion last night. Where do you start? First of all, massive credit and thank you to all the riders involved last night. They were a credit to their sport. That was fully committed, no fear speedway from everybody. I'd like to think I speak for everyone in sending our best wishes to Lasse Fredriksen who it sounds like will now miss the rest of the season. I was on commentary on Gladiators TV last night and that Heat 3 crash was perhaps the worst I've seen at Plymouth. To the crowd, what a night for Plymouth sport and British Speedway. They were crammed into the track and what an atmosphere. This goes for both set of supporters and it was a knowledgeable and respectful crowd. Everybody could see and appreciate the efforts the riders were going too for our entertainment. The noise at the end of the meeting with Plymouth getting on top was incredible. Plymouth is very quickly becoming a very difficult place for opposition teams with the atmosphere that's being created. Finally, to Mark Phillips and the whole Plymouth track staff. I take my hat off to them all. Not only was the race surface in great shape last night but their hard work to get the fences fixed not once but twice was astounding. They were rewarded with a fitting finale and I was glad that the stadium announcer got a warm round of applause going for them at the end of the night. Congratulations to the Pirates who take the bonus point and all the best for the rest of the season but haven't they been pushed all the way by a battered and bruised Plymouth?! I do think it's a shame the direction this forum is heading in these days with a lot of the unnecessary jibing that goes on from all angles. Speedway is a sport that is in desperate need of some help and assistance in this country and is facing some bleak times. Everyone, regardless of your personal allegiances or differences should always be supporting those putting on the show and doing what they can to boost the sport. Plymouth as a club is changing before our very eyes. The city is really getting behind the Gladiators and the club are doing all they can to provide a fantastic night out for all the family. It was great to see the fancy dress last night and the kids race being so popular. Heart warming to see the amount of Plymouth Argyle shirts on show, with people taking advantage of the season ticket offer. I've already had one message on Argyle's forum from someone who attended for the first time with his family last night and despite the long night, they loved every moment of it and will be back. We shouldn't be sat on this thread today attacking one another, we should be grateful and proud of the effort and character we saw from 14 riders last night who put on a terrific advert for British Speedway and showed if you do things right in promoting the event, if you have all the necessary safety precautions in place it can be a heck of a spectacle. Thank you Gladiators, Thank you Pirates - What a night!

First visit down to new Worky and really enjoyed it, great wee set up and clearly a lot of love and hard work has gone into it, congratulations. The dust was the worst I have encountered since the days of Newport but once I got myself to the 3rd bend all was good. I thought the racing was excellent, no idea what some of the maniacs on here are moaning about. Well done Worky, bad day at the office for our boys, it happens!

Track has been much slicker lately than it was today. Plenty of opportunities to pass, sure I remember Hook going round Harris, most other Comets had to produce at least one pass today, and both Tigers managed to relegate Batch to the back in ht 13 (after he'd also come from the back in an earlier ht). Some of what I'm reading on here is utter nonsense, I've seen a hell of a lot worse meetings than that.

Took this photo of the Red Arrows yesterday

Wouldn’t read too much into this today we didn’t perform as we can or have done. Track was the same for both teams we were just beaten by the better team on the day, it happens and we move on.

No complaints Workington the better team on the day by a considerable distance. Bad day at the office it happens I am sure we will bounce back. well done to Workington rode the track well.

You mean Glasgow spend money on dirt,equipment, facilities for the riders instead of trips to Vegas, big win bonuses for only the 1st match of the season against Glasgow. Are the financial reasons that bad you cant afford some dirt, diesel to run more than one tractor and get your track man an extra pair of hands ?! As for affording Nagel ,what exactly you talking about? The no sign on fee, uses club bike/and club mechanic (who only charges fuel and food), the fact he showed interest in coming to Glasgow after the SGP2 before Glasgow even approached him And your knowledge of the Workington situation isnt even worth commenting on, other than if you think you know half a story take it as you know hee haw. As for the ref's decisions, is what it is, after 15 heats Poole won, no complaints here, thats sports. But there is absolutely no excuse to scrape the track bare on every grade. Tracks come alive after heat 7, Wimborne becames a soulless dirt track after heat 7. If you have a win at all costs attitude then fair play thats your call, but lets stop the BS denial of what you do to achieve that win, and the impact that has for fan entertainment and the core fundamental of bikes riding on dirt. Ironically your team building would still be as strong as they are now with a home track prepared and graded to actually race on,only difference is fans would see what speedway should look like on a regualr basis and not just a handful of heats here and there.

Unfortunately today’s clubs are made up of individual riders who have little concept of team representation but ride simply to make a living from whoever opens the wallet and squanders cash on some mercenary gate and go merchants. Speedway in the UK should stop pretending to be a team sport, it made up of individuals seeking a living and it will never go back to the halcyon days of a team sport. Birmingham played its part but alas it got swallowed up in the shambles that is today portrayed a league of teams which is a joke. Birmingham and its backers gave it the best they could but were never going to be a success in the contrived farce that is league racing in this country. Birmingham, hold your head up as a contributor, you did make a difference.

What is this problem that some people have with Simon lambert? Simon is still a very good rider and still a big influence in the pits with his wealth of experience and still gives 100% on the track.He has,and still is,a loyal servant to the club,a rider who gives 100% regardless who he rides for so instead of getting on his back,be grateful for a rider who bleeds Scunthorpe scorpions!

He also said we had a chance of winning the league

UK speedway was never ran professionally & the great chance of creating a future was blown when the Sky money was wasted. The fact that the poles have a product that attracts huge crowds, investment form business & more than one tv company broadcasting the league live is down to their hard work & running the sport professionally.

Can you stop mentioning him now please. There's no better sight than Chris Harris scraping the airfence to make a pass, at any track, but instead today we've seen the Workington riders making passes inside and out, quite a decent entertaining meeting. Well done Workington, good team effort.

I’ve really enjoyed this meeting, racing has been decent

Tbf I tend to waffle and lose track but in what way have I talked my way out of a job? Pretty sure what I’ve said was correct, and I include myself in that category, the club does need to change its attitude. Imagine my job with Ryan is reasonably safe so at least I have that to fall back on.

I enjoyed my first visit to Northside very impressed by the overall set up, one look at the track you can see its designed to give riders the opportunity to race so without a doubt that will provide some great racing, the conditions being hot, dry, and with that stiff breeze that was blowing made it very difficult for the track staff. Its does also seem to have the capacity to be developed further as the club progresses, reminded me a bit of Somerset and how that developed. I will certainly be back, at first it looked like the Monarchs were going to win at a canter but Comets made a great fight back to take the last heat decider. A great day out except for the 45 mins delay on the M6 for an accident and a 1 hour delay on the A66 where i believe the air ambulance was called out, but it didnt spoil the day, congratulations to all that brought the Comets back with this facility.

You are Clark Osbourne, and I claim my 5 pounds. (one for the youngsters there). Remember the idiots who said Workington would never be back? Remember the fools who thought Belle Vue's NSS could never be built? Remember the dumb-dumbs who thought Oxford would never re-open. Speedway tracks may come and go, but there will always be nobheads like the above.

Anybody who thinks Etheridge and Hagon are good guests for Gusts and Knudsen should apply for the position as Peter Shroeck's assistant.

Who cares though.Its the nights entertainment that matters.

i daresay Lambert has done much more for the sport in this country than your stupid comments every week.

Agree but perhaps giving the punter what they want with a weekend race night does possibly reduce the odds of losing so much money. Speedway use to be a good weekend sport but alas circumstances dictate that it is not possible albeit NDL teams seem to cope. This is possibly why a rethink is necessary and perhaps go backwards first in order to progress. I would rather go to a Saturday evening meeting or a Sunday afternoon meeting than go mid week. Thursday is OK but after that having been brought up on Friday, Saturday and Sunday meets I would not bother with any weekday/ mid week racing. Just my view and others may feel different but promoters should race on nights which give them a best chance of a return on the asset/investment.

I would just like to say thank you to all the Tigers fans who made the journey to Worky today, you guys are a credit to not only Glasgow Tigers but speedway in general.👌

this is how you lose folks with a bit of class glasgow are a quality speedway team they just had a bad day today

Think it is more a case that some on here expect the high level of performance we have produced most weeks. It then becomes a disaster if we get a result like today. Personally I think you have to congratulate the opposition for out fighting us in every department and it should spur us on too make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Must be the most effort he has put in all season

As a lifelong Birmingham supporter, I wish Swindon folk every possible success in their efforts to revive the Robins. I have just been shown a copy of the leaflet beind distributed by the "opposition" and fully agree that it contains a great deal of inaccuracies especially the noise levels ("Can be heard from 10 miles away" "As loud as an aeroplane" etc) which are patently untrue, and which will need to be challenged. I'd suggest forming a group to formulate an alternative leaflet which could contain all the true facts - noise testing will disprove the "excessive noise" claim. Speedway bikes do not use petrol or diesel - they use methanol which is non- polutive, non- toxic and emits no smell. Speedway matches would be limited to once a week starting at 7.30pm and continuing until 10pm with 15 one-minute races of o ly four riders. etc. etc. etc. It will be a mistake to try to belittle what the Nimby's are claiming. We have to remember that the vast majority of the people living within the vicinity of the site will know little or nothing about speedway and will find it difficult to distinguish fact from deliberate fiction. so the more information that they can be provided with. the better the prospect of getting a planning consent. I was heavilly involved with the battle to obtain a planning consent at Birmingham in 2007, and know from experience that the hard core opponents will never see reason, but on the other hand, the majority will tend to be reasonable if they are civilly approached. The very best of luck to you. T

That's crap , don't let 2 people put you of doing what you obviously love there's more of us on here who really appreciate the time and effort the volunteers do texting and updating hope you enjoyed your visit to Berwick 2 or 3 weeks ago.

... and all on the back of an army of volunteers that move heaven and earth each week to enable tracks to stage meetings and riders to earn money.

What a meeting Thursday could have been, a fifteen heat shootout for the league title. Instead, we go into play-offs that could see a team that finished mid-table, win the title...

Don't think his list about who he does or doesn't like? It's about his experience at the Club? ( i could be wrong) To leave people off is a polite way of saying what all Brummie fans with half a brain know already! H Man has closed his chapter with dignity!

I'm sorry but how can it be right that a rider finishing 3rd after 20 races with 11 points can not only lose out to a lower points scorer in LCQ1... but to rub salt into the wounds also LCQ2... what a Mickey Mouse sport this has become

I was very, very lucky to grow up watching Peter Collins.... And BZ is the closest to him from the back that I have seen... They both pass/passed riders almost in slow motion given they are/were several moves ahead.... You simply cannot take a line to block him, as he has already decided where you will go, and he will go... Genius on a Speedway bike.. And, fair play to Brady for keeping it close, given the talent BZ possesses...

Spot on comment about there being an appetite for Speedway... At the NSS there have been two good crowds this year, yesterday and the PCMM... One being ran on a BHM and the other being ran early in the season with a top class field.. If those who attended, me included, saw enough in the product to attend more regularly then 2000 plus crowds would be the norm... Running on a normal Monday simply restricts crowds, weekend is "leisure time".. Running several meetings as "meaningless", as the play off positions are set in stone from May, simply restricts crowds... And running meetings when you know (well in advance) that riders will be missing, but happily replacing them with competitor's employees, simply restricts crowds.. It costs me over fifty quid for me and my lad as he works PT and has much better things to spend his money on, meaning we attend three, maybe four times a season.. Get it down to thirty quid for us both and it would easily be double figure attendance for us both... Personally, given the Mickey Mouse operating model, neither of us care who wins (like many others who sporadically attend), as the credibility of the competitions is almost zero, but we do love watching the racing at the NSS as it can be breathtaking... As you say, that disconnect needs to be sorted... They could start by running meetings on the best night for the fans to attend in the highest numbers.. Run with less riders per team to make supply exceed demand for adhoc and longer term replacements, which then brings credibility.... And set an admission fee that reflects the standing of the sport in the UK, and the 15 mins or so of entertainment that is actually on offer... The core product is still very watchable, the nonsense surrounding it doesn't do it any favours...

Speedway peaked a long time before 2000. The decline started way before that.

Excellent piece in the Speedway Star about the Brum closure... Nigel Tolley has put in two thirds of a million during his tenure... An incredible amount and he deserves great thanks from everyone who were able to keep attending... Crowds of 500 were the main issue and he said it costs £12-13k a match to run a home meeting... And then had the away costs in top! He said that having more UK based riders was vital for the sport, given the cost of flights, hotels, etc... Exactly what's been written in the letters pages of the Star for about three decades, and on here for 15 years or so...!!! If only promoters had realised that...! BZ wanted £7.5k a meeting so didn't get signed... A good interview with Brian Buck too, another who deserves great thanks for playing a huge part in the resurrection of the sport in Birmingham.. Another excellent publication this week from the Star team...

He is using a local NL riders equipment only thing that’s different is he has had a drive belt system fitted to the bikes to keep them like his Danish bikes

When the sport was "successful" it had only the top riders as fully pro... The rest rode part time for very, very decent money when compared to their other job... With second strings earning more in one night than they earned in a week in their "main job"... Now we have pro juniors.... But we also have crowds one tenth of the days of when the sport was successful... And we also have promoters quite happy to indulge Poland and have their leagues lack credibility due to playing second fiddle to them.. We also have promoters happy to indulge riders when it comes to their own individual ambitions by simply running a meeting anyway and borrowing from elsewhere when these riders are unavailable... They even sign riders from Denmark who cannot race on Wednesdays..... For me, all the things many of us have regularly said as being ridiculous on here, have been allowed to actually become part of the fabric of the operating model, so I truly cannot see a way out in all honesty... It has been a slow inexorable death by a thousand (self inflicted) cuts... Three times major radical changes should have been made... 1. When the GP's started to impact domestic Speedway... 2. When Poland started to impact domestic Speedway... The sport should have built its own destiny, instead it fudged and appeased other organisations and riders, meaning the fans got pi$$ed off watching guestfesf after guestfest and voted with their feet... And the third time? Covid... What a chance for a reset, thousands of die hards and thousands of even more lapsed fans eager for the sport to start up again... And what did we get? Well, the current situation clearly shows the answer ..

Lynn to win by 20, Tungate to drop his mechanic live on Eurosport.

I'm a neutral - that was my first meeting I've seen at Northside - I'll be back. End of.....

And the huge shift, since fhe 70's, in the demographics of those who live in the cities..

Ipswich is certainly more of a community club. They get decent coverage on both local radio stations, Louis or Hawkins are normally on there at least once a week, also BBC Suffolk usually have a recap on the speedway during half time on their live ITFC match commentary. Louis has also done well in not only keeping the locally based sponsors but attracting new ones this season. I think it also helps that Louis is local so understands the town & the Louis name is still well known. As a local lad Ipswich legend & his main income the guy is passionate eats & breaths speedway. Above all he is very approachable. If only we had more like him.

Good riddance to them then 👋, if you want to run a credible sport in this country

Job done in emphatic fashion last night , to start off with three 5-1's was amazing . You can only beat what's in front of you , but that was the worst Ashfield performance from a Monarchs side in many a year . Great to watch how our young pair at reserve are progressing week by week . Bring on the Pirates

Should be punished with promotion to the Premiership 😉

It seems to have been for weeks now that only I am available on a Saturday night to update nowadays which I would have done tonight but after been treated pathetically by 2 certain individuals on the site who I actually considered as friends before the incident. I've now given up volunteering to update after over 20 years of doing it.

Clubs losing money need to seriously look in the mirror, Plymouth who are hardly world beaters and have a very limited track and space have upped their crowds considerably by the looks of it through some savvy work on social media etc. Granted in some cases things can’t be avoided but I absolutely think there would be a lot to be said for promotions being less insular and less of the ‘woe is me’ attitude.

Well done the comets.

You know what is painful, reading your comments. The Comets are fast today, what do you think is going to happen if we get out in front and are fast. The Comets riders have had no problems passing today as seen in the last few heats. Stick to being an armchair fan and it’ll do us all a favour. Plenty of proper Glasgow fans here btw. Kudos to them 🫡