mikebv

The vast majority are... The old Kirky Lane track went similar after the first decade or so.. The NSS, Glasgow, Scunthorpe, Redcar and the new Worky seem to be the ones that can handle the modern machinery and provide decent racing.. And don't forget, winning at home is key, NOT the entertainment level...

Now the UK have "given up" Thursday, then surely riding Wednesday wont be an issue? Riders will be missing due to riding in Poland on a Thursday.. Riders will be missing due to riding in Denmark on a Wednesday. (With less impact I would think too)...

Even more difficult to bother..... The play offs will probably have teams made up of all and sundry, and that is perfectly fitting as to get there each would no doubt have had "some help" from their "supposed" competitors.... But they will also get decent crowds which, at the end of the day, is the only thing that matters...

What a ride!!!!! Take a bow young man!!!!

Allowed back in due to ref blaming the wind blowing the tapes... Hone fans not happy..

Bit of atmosphere... You can just imagine having the lads with the megaphones over here... "Sit down!!! I can't see wirrim in front er me Ethel,, ee shunt be allowed ter bring that bloody thing in"...

They had to subsidise the other 3 meetings... They still got a 3k+ crowd paying up to £95, so, for me, it shows a one off meeting, circa twenty quid cheaper per ticket, would bring in around £300k..

The NSS for a one off meeting could get 6,000 with added seating... An average fifty quid per ticket, (70 seating and 30 standing), and 6,000 would be doable..

Probably well past its peak now... A steady decline since the 40,000 crowds. .. Great value for money to get in ironically, it is just that the "novelty" has gradually worn off for many.. Also when the likes of TR, Crump, Hancock, Pedersen and other "GP stars" had left these shores, this was the one chance you got to watch them "live" over here.. Now there isn't the same "mystique", and therefore the same attraction to see them...

Kubera closing in to World Class.....

Wow.. An incredible effort.... The speed he hits the bends should result in locking up, and loss of momentum.. Instead, he actually "opens up"' the bike half way around a bend and generates almost straight line speed before making the radius as long as possible... Brilliant and Box Office..

Not really a rider that rides the kerb is he...?

He certainly won't need the money!!!!

100% Which is why he reminds me of PC so much in the way he lines up his opponents by anticipating their move.. In the Final in Katowice, PC passed Malcolm Simmons with Simmo later saying that he felt completely confident he had blocked the move... He saw PC's front wheel appear in his vision to the right and moved out... And was still looking right as PC passed under him... Different level some lads, with the one common denominator... They make something incredibly difficult, look very easy to do..

Not that impressed with the camera work... All this following the close racing, even if at the back.. Have they not seen Eurosports coverage..? 100% cover the rider half a straight ahead!!!

Rose coloured glasses maybe, but... Bartek is the nearest I have seen to when I had the huge fortune to watch PC in his pomp when passing riders.. They both just seemed to have so much time and space to execute any manoeuvre regardless of how tight everything was on track, with regards to proximity to riders and fence... It all actually almost "slows down" as you see that level of rider pick his moment, and make his move.. With nothing the rider in front can do.. Bartek then saw space on turns one and two that the others made for him by simply riding the "safe line"... He didn't take that line!!!

What a rider!!!

Hope the next four are as good!!!

Not many tracks give you so much drive from heat one around the outside!!! What a race... Hope we dont peak too soon...

Presumed Bartek's dad had pullled the plug out...

Cracking race to start!!! Now its all gone blank!!!!

First heat looks tasty... Crowd good too for an individual...

Not much to write about over here is there? Could run a competition to keep interest maybe? "Who did Bomber guest for this week?" "Who is Scott guesting for next week? First Prize? A season ticket at Birmingham... Second Prize? Two season tickets!!!! I do like the international news as, to be honest, I watch more of overseas speedway than the UK version of the sport.. Until the play offs obviously, I turn up then... The Speedway Star for me is still an excellent "window" into the sport for anyone maybe only finding out about Speedway.. A shame UK Speedway cannot maintain such high standards to match the magazine..

Sadly the current way of using everyone else's best rider to boost your own chances of success, whilst at the same time said rider potentially knocking himself, his team, and their fans, out of the play offs, is never going to meet with any major sponsor approval, at both club and national level.. If it is "all we have" and I do realise it is, then "something else" is definitely needed to make punters want to turn up... What that is? I suppose we will never find out...

Youth Hosteling with Chris Eubank for me...