mikebv

Enjoyed that tonight, looked like a fair sized crowd too.. Guesstimate would be around 700-800 from where I was sitting... Plenty of kids with it being hols too.. Cant complain at a tenner in and free for teenagers up to eighteen years old can you? Nice to see a bit of needle too between Jack Smith and some of the Aces lads, maybe those Facebook comments about not getting picked for the U21 were being shared around... Cannot knock the NL can you? A very, very decent product, full of lads giving their all... PS, Barry's Curry must be good down there looking at how 'well fed' several of the IOW lads looked... Made me feel quite 'svelte' like.... (A 'trim' ahem, 15 and a half stone by the way). Well done to all tonight, including Chase The Ace who, with the kids in attendance, did a great job of engagement.. My only gripe would be that on nights like this more could be done to get people to come back to watch either more Colts or 'the big boys'. A massive opportunity to advertise more meetings to a captured market and several around me were first time attendees.. Maybe discounted Aces meeting tickets to any of the newbies? A bit of market research on the night can guide who you try and engage.. Fair play to Mark Lemon too, not a short flight from Russia yet in the pits tonight.. Well done that man.. You do feel that there is hope when the NL shows what can be done..

With Poland being their 'entry point' more and more.. Maybe its visa related? Or maybe its seen to be the quicker way forward to get them up to a higher level quicker. (Sink or Swim).. Lidsey's comments were quite telling when he said he learnt on the "big, well prepared tracks in Poland" which gave him a good grounding.. We need our young lads out there sharing the same experiences.. No coincidence for me that both Tai and Robert Lambert spent a lot of their formative years not riding and learning in Britain. No comfort zone for them.. Moved them on several notches I reckon..

As Tai said, beating riders in the UK doesn't make you a top rider.. The young lads have to go up against the more battle hard young Poles in particular more often.. These lads are facing enormous pressure to perform every time they go to a track so can handle far better the jump to the next level when their U21 reserve time finishes.. As we have seen ongoing for a good many years. Our lads can easily be feted by too many followers as "a future World Champion" when in reality they are just the best of a very ordinary domestic bunch.. Get them overseas at an early age and see if they sink or swim.. The likes of Drabik, Smektala, Kubera et al, all face that challenge every Sunday through the season...

No adjustments at all.. The bike you started on is the bike that you restart on... All round in one go, back to the start, no pit gates open.. No need for more fuel as hardly used any.. And to stop moving at the start? Hide the magnets on the tapes so all riders need to look at the tapes only, meaning no distractions by riders moving either side.. And if you move you are out, no warning, just like in Athletics, out...

To be fair... Both Nigel and Kelvin didn't cover themselves in glory either.. Many poor interpretations of what had just happened on track, and why, and not knowing the rules of the competition either.. Normally have no issues with them as they often struggle manfully to make racing sound much better than it is to project a better image of the sport, but not their finest couple of days.. PS. I don't think Nigel agrees that the winners should win the meeting with just "Four laps and sixty seconds of racing", nor do I think he appreciates the SWC now being a "World Pairs" competition..

Maybe Bomber could be drafted in next year?

Might even leave a couple of bikes out there.. All ready to race..

That will go down well in Poland I am sure.. The Team Manager got his excuses in early...

To be fair, he did say when he saw the team on Friday.. "Why the f@£k have they picked Bomber"...

My son asked me to record yesterday's.. He didn't bother watching past Heat Six... And not bothered watching at all today... "It's crap" was the official line...

Missed a chance there Tai... Should have said when asked who he thought would win the Semi.. "My head says Russia but my heart says Australia"... Wouid have got a few frothing at the mouth..

Unlucky Bomber... Another lap and you never know...

These clowns don't know the rules either do they? Nice to see Poland do..

Indeed..... Strange...

The Comedy Channel may be interested?

Bottom line is we have just two riders who can compete at the top level... One of which is arguably the best in the World.. The rest are miles away from being that level.. Beating even worse riders domestically each week doesn't prepare you for meetings like this... Being a Big fish in a tiny, tiny pond is really not an achievement of any note..

Someone tell Craig he is riding too wide.... He mustn't have been told this the several other times that he has been passed up the inside...

Pairs racing can be pretty rubbish can't it? The SWC had four riders all racing for every point.. This format however has riders not racing each other if they are consolidating a position, be it a 5-1 or a 3-3, and even if on a 1-5 the last place rider will be loathe to put their own partner under pressure.. Not a patch on the SWC for racing is it?

21 behind but we do we have a race in hand...

What about hair stylists? Do any of them have them?

Not sure why the debate about which heat to run with one rider.. As we have already ran most of them with just one, then surely one more wont make much difference...

His boss? Tai knows GB need him far more than they need Rosco.. I would suggest Tai sees Rosco as anything but 'his boss'...

Especially if someone buys him some 'gating gloves' as a present..!

Or even better, watch Poland's leagues... Great racing, great crowds, great atmosphere..

A truly ludicrous race to the bottom isn't it? Promoters demanding riders have the best kit to win competitions that by the way they run them have absolutely zero worth.. Meaning. Riders spending fortunes on gaining the best kit they can find and paying for expensive tuning, just to remain at the same level as their rivals because they are all doing exactly the same thing.. Meaning. Promoters paying out unaffordable and unsustainable levels to riders to pay for the best kit and tuning they demand of them... Meaning. Fans having to pay admission costs far in excess of what the Sports standing actually is, and far in excess of what actual entertainment value is put on offer to them.. Meaning. A reduction year on year of fans due to the higher admission costs needed to fund the racing.. All to compete in, try to win, and watch competitions that Mickey Mouse would be embarrassed to have organised... If you tried to put together this as a business or operating model to launch a new venture you would be laughed at out loud by any potential investors wouldn't you? Yet this is the model British Speedway uses year in year out... Amazing really...