old bob at herne bay

What a FARCE. Harris the witch guests and gets Ippo into the final. Now Harris the tiger appears to attempt to knock Ippo out of the final Brings the sport into disrepute in my opinion. Ippo may well have been better to declare Doyle unfit after aggravating his injury and booking Harris as a guest again, to block such ridiculous guest rider selection by Sheffield. The sheffield promoters" should be ashamed of themself. Still speedway is a sport run by amateurs. Oh by the way the Ippo leg has been delayed until TUESDAY due to a bad weather forecast ;-) ;-) . I think Harris might be unavailable (riding for Glasgow ? )

Anyone have any news on the league structure in UK speedway 2024? In the PL we have 2 teams gone ..... lots of steam from the possible Brandon revival. In the CL things seems to be in rude health - but for a shortage of quality riders. In the NDL question marks must be over the viability of at least a few clubs with so few fixtures now being staged. With the " most important Promoters' Conference in the history of the sport in the UK" to occur next month, I see no news of any forthcoming plans. Head in the sand by the BSPA ? or maybe they have a cunning plan :-)

Irrespective of the current planning decision, the site is owned by Brandon Estates. They can choose not to sell it (as they have done so far) and continue to stonewall on any decisions to do anything with the site , hoping for a a bumper payday after appealing and appealing the planning consent over and over again. The potential value of the land for residential use (or building a new hospital , a new school, an new sports centre gym etc etc ) will be much more than any use for stock cars or speedway use. If Brandon Estates won't sell then I see no way of speedway returning to the Brandon raceway ? The lack of data on attendance at speedway meetings portrays Speedway as a sport administered by enthusiastic amateurs. Failure to produce such data suggests they have something to hide. Any business model for the speedway cannot be taken seriously without evidence of attendance at existing stadia.

:-( No room for speedway on that site again then ...." replaced by other outdoor and indoor sports and recreation facilities of a greater scale." The owners of the site don't have to accommodate speedway just because it used to be there ...... hard to see how a speedway track would fit in with all these new outdoor and indoor sports facilities.

These p off meetings show how modern day speedway has evolved. We have 2 types of rider. The large track gate and go head down bum up throttle jockey , who will show a clean pair of heels to almost anyone on a large pacy track such as Owlerton or NSS . The small track technical rider who can master the art of turning on tight circuits , in both slick and grippy conditions. Their gating can be inconsistent but usually pass the throttle jockeys on their own tracks when mistakes are made. Foxhall, Monmore are examples. As in all sports there are a very small handful of riders who can ride any track well. so we see Ippo narrowly beating the NSS aces .. neither side happy on each others tracks apart from star riders Doyle and sayfootdinov. The same scenario Ippo v Sheffield is in store. my guess Doyle and sayfootdinov will be the difference.

Ah yes Lagoota, the unbeatable rider at Kings Lynn. Frankly please or offend I don’t trust ANY Russian sports men or women given the continuing scandal in athletics.

Allegedly Craig cook is lined up as a guest replacement should Glasgow insist on racing this Saturday

Come on guys …..simple answer Glasgow have to run a business……shall we gamble on being able to run the meeting against a dodgy weather forecast , or cut our losses and tell the russian to not save money on a flight. ? Still think too many “tactical” call offs earlier in the season by all clubs. Propose that HOME teams should have to ride re scheduled meetings with their original programmed 1-7 rather than frivolously call off meetings when they are missing riders. e.g in this case vissing would be ineligible for the re run of this meeting. And a guest MUST ride at 7 .

ONCE AGAIN the end of the season p.offs degenerate into farce. Casual call offs earlier in the summer and a mad rush to complete before the " cut off " Nothing changes.

Congratulations Ipswich. Full marks to Jason Doyle for making the effort to race tonight after the horrific looking accident. He really is a loyal rider to UK speedway .

Sheffield Select side ! 3 gusts ! One of whom was a play off gust for Belle Vue last season ! Suppose there will be another selection of riders racing at Owlerton on Thursday.

Belle Vue will have to use every ounce of their huge home track advantage at the " national speedway stadium" to wrestle this on back on aggregate. Completely under estimated Ippo without Doyle. Complacency crept in. Always an issue with rain in Manchester...... could be a lottery ......

tyretrax - true - maybe you were right - better benefits during the off season.

To avoid conscription into the Russian Army ?

I often wonder what would happen if you had no rules about team building at all , just said each team must have 7 riders. Scrap averages completely for team building, jt retain them for statistical purposes. Some would say that the "rich clubs" would always win. Doesn't that happen now ?

Firstly Poole have already won the 2023 Championship League. Well done Poole. The TV trophy (aka p. offs) are now to be decided. Not a Poole fan and it give me some pleasure to see someone else win the p.offs. Poole chucked it away at Wimborne Road last week, when strangely their home track prep. tactics failed them. Even Richardo Lawson couldn't get out of prepared starts . It's Scunthorpe's to lose - anything can happen is Speedway. I have seen it all believe me.

There was a time when you had to name a number 8 when using R/R. Many instances recently where teams usingR/R have suffered further injuries in a meeting and been forced to track only one rider in a race.

Just heard that the hinges on the Ippo pit gates have been damaged by high winds this evening. Ipswich have been in touch with near neighbours Kings Lynn who apparently have experience with pit gate repairs. First indications are that it will take one week to get someone to look at the job.

If Ippo get in quick they could call off the second leg based on a Met Office forecast of a shower for Thursday.

IMO the Competition referee is culpable for allowing Smarslick to practice in the wrong leathers. ? Given the importance of sponsors , should the competition referee not check all riders machines and clothing for conformance ?

Realistically, are KL going to need a speedway team in 2024? Thought Keith Chapman was retiring ?

So Belle Vue handed a “good fortune” bye into the poff final where Sheffield will once again show who is the better team on aggregate.

This play off lark is enough to p. off the most dedicated of fans. Looking at he results so far you can see the top two teams in the CL not even competing in the p.off final. A completely contrived finish to the season. Still might me the last ever CL p.offs as the CL may no longer exist next season.

In the interests of the sport, Sheffield will surely be allowed to sign /use /loan/borrow whoever they like …….Bartosz Smarslik would be a good crowd puller …. Belle Vue threaded a needle through the rule book last year so there is precedent which counts for a lot English/ Welsh law. If they need any help I am certain Ford and Middleditch will be able to help them. :-0

Sad to read of another incident witha spectator requiring medical attention. This seems to be more common now than ever...... I do hope the person involved is OK.