mikebv

JS Half a wheel in front. Me and the lad were stood in the South stand directly opposite the line... No doubts....

Sounds like we as Aces fans are getting a bit spoilt if last night's racing is being mentioned as quite poor. .. Several races were 'down to the line' whereby off the final bend you couldn't pick the winner with any degree of certainty that you can at most tracks... Off the top of my head, Worrall, Fricke, Nilsson, MPT, Cook, Bates and Bewley all made good moves to pass opposition riders and several made room for their team mate to come through too, so some great team riding.... Too much grip at 'two thirds track' at the start led to the first races becoming a bit 'one line fastest', but as the track became slicker and the thicker, moist dirt dissapated the racing became what it usually is at the NSS.. Shame more are not there to see it, 1300-1400 or so last night? That fantastic Grandstand less than half full never looks good if your trying to create an impression of a successful venture...

SCB is the font of all knowledge on the rule book on here and to be honest god knows how he knows these things given the complete bollox most of it is... What does continue to amaze me ongoing is how team managers and promoters (who do need to know these things) often have no understanding whatsoever.... Maybe SCB should offer an advice service for a fee?😉

An average meeting at the NSS... By that I mean only three or four very good races, passing in only about ten of them, and a last heat decider!!.... Steve Worralls first turn where he went round three riders from last to first in the space of thirty yards, inches from the fence was superb viewing from the South Stand... When seeing the Leicester team you knew they had a good chance given their individual respective liking for the NSS and so it proved. Well deserving of a point.. No Bjerre certainly evened things up a bit but nothing should be taken away from Leicesters performance. Everyone of their team contributed and MPT once again showed his underated qualities.. The Aces certainly look 'a proper team', with their Captain Craig Cook being first on track, (and had almost walked to the tapes), after Heat 14, to enthusiastically congratulate Sedgmen and Bewley on their pivotal 5-1, being a clear example of the Aces' team spirit. (And his growing leadership influence)... If only all Speedway was this 'average'....

A guest for the guest? Only in Speedway...😁 A solid looking 'team/select' Leicester, many of them very adapt at winning races at the NSS... May miss Bjerre's 13 or so tonight...?

Why bother with so many complaints about the entertainment on show? It's been said a thousand times... Most Promoters do not see themselves in the entertainment business... They see themselves as running a Professional Sport where (just like other Professional sports) winning is the priority. (Well winning at home to keep a crowd level at any rate).. There are 'honourable exceptions' who stand out as they ensure their circuit is always conducive to 'racing on' rather than just 'riding on'. But very much in the minority.. Fear of losing their home crowd through home defeats blind so many into a 'win at home at all costs' mentality... Short sighted? Maybe, but to be fair, the history at most tracks is that a losing team loses fans, and quickly.. The irony of course is that due to Speedways ridiculous team building rules, teams that struggle early in the year invariably end up making team changes that do nothing more than paper over the cracks and come the end of the season are still firmly entrenched in the basement where they started.. No wonder there is so much fear of losing at home, hence home track advantage is made paramount in their planning...

Can see it being the usual BV performance at Monmore again.. Thorsell will have another good night against us, and Skornicki will get seven or eight.. We will get more than 40 and probably pick up a point but come away, like we usually do when we leave Monmore thinking 'what might have been'.. Obviously hope I am wrong and we get 60...!!😉

Even the NSS when 'grippy' delivers poor, follow the leader racing. And that track has wide sweeping bends so all riders feel 'in control'.. On a smaller circuit (like we had at the dog bowl) a grippy track often led to either carnage or riders (openly) simply not bothering. Either way there was little entertainment when it was 'grippy'.. Riders today have learnt their craft on ultra slick tracks rather than the deep tracks of 30-40 years ago, and not many now come from grass track which gave them the experience to ride rough circuits at full throttle... Bikes' characteristics have changed too meaning, for those with less ability in particular, one mistake when they get in the 'deep stuff' can shoot them, at high instantaneous speed, out of control in any direction.. It is the way it is. Sadly. .

It's been mentioned before but could still be something worth pursuing..? Cycle speedway gives the losing team choice of gates when they go so many behind (ten I think). And they can keep this option till they are no longer that number behind... eg they can take 1/3 when they should be off 2/4... Contrived? Yes, anything that is made up to keep scores artificially closer will always be.. But still better than someone coming second and awarding them more points than the rider that just beat them.. That's not just contrived, it's simply ludicrous... (And yet another of those frustrating Speedway 'add ons' that make the sport look ridiculously 'Mickey Mouse' when put up against other professional sports)

No independent body running the sport equals no consequence to clubs whose actions either undermines the sport or brings it in to disrepute.. Whilst 'self governing' continues to go on we will always have what we have always got... Which is vested interest influencing every decision, with a 'toothless' top table trying desperately to uphold some integrity within the sport.. No way to run a professional sporting league.... Even my lads U14 Sunday League has consequence for teams not following rules around the players they put out on the pitch. Failing to turn up is not given a 'facility' but a 'fine'....

Saw a comment earlier in the thread that mentioned Matt Ford wanting seven riders where possible as he feels less 'short changes' the fans... Not sure if that really is Matts opinion obviously as never seen him directly quoted... However, if it is, I am surprised, as generally I feel he has a good angle on what fans want from the sport.. Meetings ran with guests naturally bring zero credibility to the event and renders it nonsense from a professional sport angle, so it would R/R for me every time anyone is missing.... You will still get four riders in every race, and 15 heats of racing, so no one will get 'short changed' and the meeting keeps it credibility.. It would also mean 'missed flights, dodgy sick notes, Polish teams calling riders back' etc etc no longer get used as 'convenient' reasons for needing guests. All of which currently adds fuel to the 'Mickey Mouse' perception of the sport...

I think most peoples opinion of the situation is not down to the team involved but more to do with how, once again, British Speedway makes itself look amateur and 'Mickey Mouse'. The rider concerned had flights available so should have been there. That he didnt should mean the authorities sanction him... No 'anti Poole' agenda, just a 'pro British Speedway' one... If my teams No1 had done the same, I wouldnt defend him as he would have been letting his team, his teams fans and British Speedway down... As for your boasting about Pooles achievements. I too am proud of my clubs record in trophy winning. The big difference of course is that my teams' success lay mainly in the days when you won things with by and large your own riders, and didnt have to resort to meeting after meeting of using other teams' riders in a cobbled together series of select sides to deliver silverware like happens today.. In those days winning a Speedway trophy actually meant something both locally and nationally given the size of the Sport back then.. For the past twenty years or so winning a prize in the local Churches Summer Fete Tombola carries roughly the same level of kudos as a British Speedway Title... Still, stay arrogant. I know I am. That bottle of Cinzano (ticket number 111) still sits proudly in my sideboard from that momentous July afternoon 1984. St Marks Church... You should have seen the amount of gutted seething faces as I pulled that ticket out!!!

And to be fair, he scored as many as KK did on the night....!😁 Nice synergy that....😵

No wonder the rest of the world takes the p1ss out of British Speedway... When there is no consequence who can blame them? If Woffy rode over here and a fixture clash meant him missing two Polish meetings to fulfill his British contract. If the British Meeting was called off the day before it was due to take place do you think his Polish club would sit back and allow him to miss their meetings and the Polish authorities grant his club a guest? Would they bollox, they would never even consider it. Too easy to get a 'facilty' in this country as simply, its easier to do that than run the sport properly... Surely if you could have made a meeting (and there were two to aim for) then to not do so is witholding your services? 28 day ban?

Some good points.. Gustrow serves up some fantastic Speedway, short straights, wide bends, almost circular it appears at times..... All at 298m... Shows a good race track can be put in a confined space... Having seen Speedway in the US. on those 100-150m circuits that again can deliver great Speedway, it also shows what can be done... Far too many tracks in Britain have too long straights and narrow, tight bends. Meaning follow the leader is the norm. Especially with the straight line horsepower of the bikes today. Bikes when 'locked up' as they do on tight tracks, riding mid track, fill a large proportion of the bend width so passing on the outside is almost impossible at some tracks.. I am sure there are logistical issues below the surface with drains etc. But where possible tracks should look at taking in the white line, widening the entrances and exits to the bends thus reducing straight lengths and increasing bend widths to make the tracks less 'oval' and more 'circular'... The perfect template is the NSS, so whatever your footprint, replicate the bend widths, banking and entrance/exit width, make your straights to the same width also, with the length dictated by whatever size space is left between the bends.. I was watching Rally Cross the other day on TV and that truly is 'first out wins'. The reason is when the cars are 'side on' they fill virtually the whole of the track. Their speed then gets the leader down the invariably short straight to the next same type of turn. No one has enough extra horsepower to pass (or time to use it even if they had) before the next bend arrives.. And guess what? It's crap to watch...

"Hi Minnie, is Mickey there? It's the BSPA and we need another rule making up quickly as we have a problem with one we made earlier. The meeting starts in an hour so really need to speak with him urgently"...!!!

"A British Speedway Premiership League and Cup double could be worth £1 Million to any team that does it"!! Imagine that as a headline in a National or even local newspaper. Regional TV too would run with it I would suggest... Well it could actually be not far from reality... Admission and Programmes income, circa £20, 19 Home matches in total. Crowds of 2600 a match... Total income just under £1 Million. (£988k). A headline like that (dont include the detail of how its delivered) would create interest from the casual sports fan as all of a sudden Speedway wont look small time and isnt too far from the truth.. Every meeting all of a sudden has something tangible riding on it, generating wider interest which can only lead to bigger crowds. A virtuous circle. More interest, more crowds, more crowds, more interest.. Add any sponsors cash to the income and conceivably a track could gain £1M from winning the League and Cup.. So much hype is smoke and mirrors and Speedway seems to hide itself away from pushing itself out to the masses with half truths and outlandish claims... Top riders can earn circa £10k a week if they ride four meetings a week, imagine getting that out to the media? Again, Speedway becomes a major player in the realm of the top sports in Britain. Pro rata thats half a million salary a year. (More spin but factual, again leave out the four meetings a week bit and focus on the £10k a week).. To the casual sports fan on hearing a speedway rider gets paid £10k a week, their reaction would be "Speedway must be a bigger sport than I thought if they pay that money out" and maybe then feel its worth a visit? People follow success, they dont follow failure.... Time for Speedway to stop hiding its light under a bushel...

A very good meeting on a pretty decent day weather wise.. No dust at all....

Any advance on 1pm?😁 British Speedways collective planning for its busiest day of the season looks as good as ever... It is Good Friday they are riding isn't it? Friday this week? At Belle Vue? The one in Manchester?😁

Spot on, And lets face it, its just another one of the many 'select sides' that will tour the country this season... At least the Cov meetings will have no bearing on the league the way all the other 'select teams' will have... Anything that keeps Cov in the public eye, no matter how it's delivered, must be a good thing..

Simply.. Just run it like a proper sport should be ran... Just run it with integrity like sports with independent governing bodies are ran.. Just run it so the Championships are won by bone fide teams, not select teams, thus giving the Championships credibility. Meaning winning one actually is an achievement delivered by the riders of that one club and not down to being delivered by a seasons worth of 'ringers' being used, which ultimately renders any achievement in winning as fabricated... Race on evenings when you can get your best crowds, not when your employees can 'fit you in'.. Race on lighter, warmer, evenings during the Summer more often rather than cramming meetings in on cold, dark nights in late March, early April, late September and October.. Have as many riders per team as the talent pool and budget allows. And then decide on a meeting format based on this. With the aim of the format to put four similar standard riders out in every heat... In short, (to stop rehashing 1000's of comments on here). Simply unpick almost everything the Sport currently does, make the obvious required changes currently staring everyone in the face, and maybe then it will move forwards..

So thats this season covered. The reasons for the huge indiscriminant amount of credibility undermining guests used in the past ten years or so was what then? As for a monthly boycott? Tens of thousands the length and breadth of the country have already shown what they think of the way the sport is ran by doing their own season long boycott.. And doing it year in, year out... That hasn't managed to change anything so I cannot imagine a 'once a month' boycott will make any difference... And let's be honest, at some tracks you wouldn't be able to tell if there was a boycott or not such are the usual crowd levels..😁

What went wrong? Imagine going to a bank manager with British Speedways business plan? 1. We will pay our best employees far in excess of what we can afford. 2. We will allow all our employees the right to work elsewhere on the days we are open leaving us short staffed. To back this up we will sign an agreement to allow other overseas companies to have the first option on our best employees.. 3. When our employees are elsewhere (either in this country or abroad) we will have an arrangement to use employees from our competitors, even though we realise that this will lead to an obvious 'conflict of interest' and be deemed 'a bit Mickey Mouse'... 4. We will only open on those days our employees kindly inform us they are available rather than open on the busiest days which will give us our highest income. 5. We will attempt to build our business on the 'emotional loyalty' of our customers, but will do our utmost to ensure that our employees will have very little local affinity (if indeed any at all) with their customers to enjender it.. 6. Our prices will not reflect the quality we have on offer but will simply be set high to offset the heavy cost base we have decided to run with. 7. Our major target customer profile are families, however we will use out dated media to try and attract them and utilise a business premises infrastructure that looks and feels like the 20th Century never happened, never mind the 21st Century started... 8. We will seek major investment from TV to promote our business but will only use this cash to pay our best employees. (The ones that miss the most days from work as they are invariably elsewhere). What we won't do is use this investment to reduce prices or improve the premises, or indeed, the overall customer experience. 9. Year on year we plan to reduce the quality of what we produce but supplement the inevitable drop in customers by putting in inflation busting price increases to the customers that stay with us.. 10. We will utilise a 'flexible' operating model, one which is subject to change on any whim, meaning ultimately our customers will, over time, have very little faith in the way the business is ran and ultimately stop coming... Bank Managers, fill your boots, you know it makes sense..☺ Although I do have to say I think any reasonable Bank Manager may spot 'one or two flaws' in the 'cunning plan'...😆

Another excellent Speedway meeting.. Certainly spoilt at the NSS... Highlights were our reserves, great to see two young Brits giving it absolutely everything. Every point gained meant the world to them it appeared. Cook looked superb. Gating or not. He picked a line off the second turn time and again on the first lap, that sailed him past his opponents and to the front. I can see the responsibility of being Captain helping his overall performances this year. Being 'the main man' in the team wont faze him at all but will make him thrive I reckon.. And special mention to Kenny Bjerre, five yards down to KK and HA in the last race as they entered turn three lap one, ten yards in front of the pair as they exited turn four!. They both rode mid track, Bjerre put his back wheel in the dirt, two feet from the fence, and flew round them! Looks like the wide open spaces at the NSS has given Kenny his mojo back! Shame Cook nearly fenced him on bend one lap two as I presume he thought it must be KK howling 'round the boards' so moved out to block the move...! 😁 A very solid Aces team performance overall, when you look at the heats in the programme in most of them they have one, and often two, riders that you can easily consider as race winners... Not a bad position to be in... Early days obviously, but if the team can keep that commitment level they won't be far away at all come the end of the season.. One thing is for sure, with this racetrack it won't be boring! And we are now just two meetings away from the Final!!!😀

All are getting new suits as the logo on the ones to be used this season is no longer allowed due to copyright infringement problems encountered.... (Nothing to do with the previous promotion by the way).. The race jacket currently used covers up the old logo and the new logo will get incorporated into the new suits...