GeneralMelchett

He won his first ride which is positive as he’s been a big miss - Kurtz has won his first 3 which is good for BV as he was a big miss last night!

it was actually the other way round it seems my memory is fading - both sides had a history of walloping eachother at their own place as the tracks were so very different! https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/5511016.speedway-arena-outclassed-and-humbled/

I seem to recall Arena-Essex doing this on Exeter 75-15 that is!

After the Leicester v Belle Vue I re-watched a 2024 championship match between Scunny and Poole - some fantastic races and racing in that!

I have always felt there will always be some form of speedway in the UK - my old man had a programme from the 1954 world final - in it the then chairman of British speedway wrote a peice about how in the winter all the promoters needed to come together to plot the future of 'our great sport' you would have thought by now some 70 years later they might have cracked it!

I think 3 of the top 4 are guaranteed already and given Leicesters win today I think their top 4 spot is probably now assured - King Lynn will just miss out i reckon.

I think the rise of grassroots football in the UK is perhaps given a clue or two about the feelings towards elite sport. Whilst PL football always seems to sell out matches it seems many 'fans' are drifting away from the elite football to be replaced by tourists. I went to see Liverpool play at Sheff Utd a few years back and was amazed that in an away end of 3000 i reckon 1/3 at least, maybe more! were football tourists and not true Liverpool fans. I went to see my 'real' local football team Hallam FC last season I saw them play 3 times in front of crowds of 700, 1500 and 1550 - the previous time I saw them play was Christmas 2006 i think it was in front of 90 people! I suspect i will never attend a league football match again - mainly due to cost (overpriced bilge mainly) and the fact for me top level football has completely lost its way. Maybe speedway needs a similar moment!? - less can be more! I have been to - not that recently - Scunthorpe always felt it was good racing - maybe the league needs to ditch GP / Polish league riders with too many committments and the Elite divison and work on a better product in the championship.

Some of them will certaily have a bit more cash for something else for sure!

The stars are certainly going in the right direction, wasn't in town so missed it - wish i had been now!

Look on the bright side when there is no speedway in the UK so many on here will have so much more free time to complain about something else. Despite the loss of Bewley and Leicesters current home form I expected a lot more from BV - what's clear is all the top clubs are vulnerable to an injury at the wrong time. Some decent races however when top riders missed the gate and had to come from the back.

Anyway onto the meeting itself - watching it on BSN - Aces pretty bad so far!

It’s worth noting that nearly all pre-emptive call offs turn out to have been correct! sorry should qualify that to weather related!

It’s pi55ing down about 1.5 miles from the stadium where I am

This is going to be off i reckon More heavy showers and we’ve had them on and off all afternoon

As an Arena fan I always found the close matches much more exciting and to be fair we had a lot of those - the 1992 season was great we won the lot in Div 2 but some of the meetings were fairly routine and dull winning by 30 points or more.

The very first meeting i ever attended (incidentally was at Arena-Essex where Marko and I both used to attend as fans in fact we met a few times) it was a 39-38 win last hear decider. As a 12 year old it kept my interest as the scoreline was close and the result of the meeting was in doubt. When I decided to by the DVD of the meeting many years later (purely for nostalgia) it came across quite badly on video - not much passing mistakes usually leading to passing rather than great racing. I still maintain that speedway doesn't usually come over that well on TV as often the production is so poorly done. At least helmet cam seems to have been binned this season. There is that balance between rip roaring racing where there is passing or close racing in each race - however as we have seen at the NSS that can sometimes lead to a hefty home win if it's the home riders doing all the passing. As a neutral watching on TV I don't find that all so entertaining but it sure will keep the home fans happy. Last night I quite enjoyed the match as there were / was passing manouvres in a fair few races (usually involving Dan Bewley) and the scoreline being close throughout kept my interest in the meeting. Each to their own as they say but i rather watch the Monday match from Birmingham over say BV thrashing Oxford at the NSS 65-25 every time even if Brady and Bewley was passing all and sundry each race. You have to remember / assume that the die hards are already at the match so its the others / nuetrals watching on TV you have to convert and how you do that is well anyones guess as we all seek different things from sports. I was of a similar view on the Champions League final at 3-0 to PSG it was evident despite their great football the match was over as a contest and I switched off.

To be fair I enjoyed it on Tv also - sadly it did look sparsely attended. There was some passing and the scoreline was always close so it kept the interest going.

yes, great to see and he hass added to both his averages at Ipswich and Redcar this year - as well as the injury perhaps the pressure of not being a third h/l at Ipswich has helped too.

Bewley didn't 'have to go' you should react to the tapes and not the opposition moving!

what Tobi did is irrelvant in my view as for being 'suckered in' I can't see that myself - Both just went and Tobi clawed it back - Bewley didn't - it was also the correct call to call it back no matter how late on the first lap it was.

I was told a fair few seasons back how much the riders at Sheffield were supposed to paying each month for tuning! It was surprising to say the least! It was pre top division days as well!

Yes leaving Sheffield and joining a bottom of the table outfit can't be easy but he deserved his success tonight he scored some good valuable points as well - definitely key in the win!

Edwards really good tonight pleased for him also

Fair play Brummies - entertaining and a home win - Zagar not before time showing what he is capable off!

Am thinking a narrow win either way - probably just in KL favour so 46-47 to 44-43