Steve Irving

Nobody’s being “sacked” ordinary man. All the riders are out of contract in four weeks time. Enjoy the meeting tonight. Hopefully you can get your against all the odds victory over the line although I expect it’ll be a close run thing. It’s nail biting stuff. Good luck.

You’d be better off with this Godfrey than the one who’s currently in charge of organising the league structures and setting the rules 🤦🏻‍♂️

So the fella rocks up literally months ago, has got a GP round down there, is ploughing money in this winter to revamp the track and improve racing for supporters, and he’s talking to big names because Ipswich are “not there to make up the numbers”. But I thought he was a “FrAuD i BeT iPsWiCh FaNs WiSh ThEy StIlL hAd cHrIs LoUiS” right @SteveArena?

Could somebody please check on the welfare of Messrs Godfrey and “Speedway futures” please? They’ve just taken one massive whack in the nads there from Richard Coleman. LOL.

I mean, this is exactly what I’m talking about. Compare this interview to the interview on the very same channel pre-season where Godfrey spends half of it having “bants” with his mate Simon Lambert, citing he always give him a team spot because he’s cheap and doesn’t cost him a lot of money,, We’re talking night and day here! I don’t want to be mean to the fella and I’m sure he’s trying his best, but come on now there needs to be a complete changing of the guard. I don’t care what club you support but you can’t fail to be impressed with this guy. Very interesting that he’s working alone on trying to get a TV deal over the line while Phil Morris and others are working down a different avenue.

If you’ve heard bumbling Rob Godfrey on one of those podcasts and you know this is actually the “chairman” of the BSPL, as well as a “director” of “speedway futures”, then I’m sorry but nobody can be the least bit surprised at the absolute state of British Speedway currently. Its an incredibly sad state of affairs.

If the takeover had gone through when all parties had originally hoped, Doyle wouldn’t have even been an option for Belle Vue mid season because he would have remained an Ipswich rider.

Yeah, let’s not even try to pretend that this season is remotely similar to last shall we? I know you’ll do your best to, because your team is likely to win it and you want the same plaudits for it, but let’s not be silly here. There were four genuine contenders last season, unlike the two this year. Last year every one of the seven clubs had an equal opportunity to be competitive, if two of them failed to do that then tough, their problem. They had no disadvantages. This year, two clubs could be written off immediately through no fault of their own and BOTH clubs didn’t have the same opportunity as the four others in being competitive so it wasn’t a level playing field. That’s just stating facts. There was a winter of discontent many years ago with the infamous Coventry/Peterborough shenanigans, but that paled in to insignificance compared to last winter. It was a set of circumstances unlike anything we’ve seen before and it caused an awful lot of damage to the brand. No confirmed league, no fixtures, no season tickets, literally weeks before the usual season would normally start. A protracted takeover at Ipswich was confirmed on February 28th, Northampton were cobbled together a week later on March 5th. The whole situation was a complete farce, embarrassing for everyone concerned and this year was always supposed to be a sticking plaster, a season to push through in preparation for a more serious league set up in 2027. People are going to be pleased with what they hear on 2027 in due course, wait for the announcements.

It was a 6 team league reduced from 7, two of those 6 (Northampton and Ipswich) weren’t tipped by anyone for obvious reasons. Nobody other than the odd die hard biased Leicester fan were tipping them because of the loss of their GP number 1. Lynn got a little backing at the beginning due to the excitement of signing said number 1, but that soon died down when the other teams were announced and it dawned on people that it’s, well, Kings Lynn. Nobody from memory were predicting Belle Vue to “walk it” , but they had more votes than Sheffield who were tipped to run them close so let’s call a spade a spade here. I know it’s a trait of you Belle Vue fans to big up any success as an against all odds fairytale and chase the adulation that you seem to crave, but winning a realistically two team shoot out in a crap 6 team league is really nothing to crow about this year.

Get him in! Wanna be entertained or not? This fella provides it in bucketfulls. No matter which British club signs him, id travel to go and watch him. I think this “danger” tag gets overplayed anyhow. All i see is a gutsy ballsy rider who isnt afraid to go for gaps. Ive seen Fricke be much harder than Woryna in the Grand Prix’s this year!

Not the first time you’ve done this, why the sarcasm? You bizarrely seem very annoyed that anyone could be lavishing any praise towards Richard Coleman for stepping in and saving Ipswich Speedway. Weird.

“In a unique team-building twist, WTS Sparta Wrocław has forged a strategic partnership with the Ipswich Witches in the British Premiership. Given the new "one foreign league" rule sweeping through Poland, both clubs are working in tandem to structure clever, cooperative rider contracts so that their stars can seamlessly manage commitments between both tracks in 2027” It was Coleman that first mentioned multi contracts between the two clubs earlier in the summer so it would be a bit bizarre if at least one contracted Wroclaw rider didn’t ride for Ipswich. I also know for a fact that last week Richard Coleman and Artur Rusko were working together back in Poland putting the Ipswich team together so it would be even more bizarre if there wasn’t a single rider riding for both clubs.

That @SteveArena pops up on various threads sticking the boot in on Richard Coleman. He has a bit of an unhealthy obsession with the bloke for some strange reason.

Artur Rusko and Richard Coleman have been busy the last few days putting the bulk of an Ipswich team together for next year , so you’d think things have already been loosely agreed for the League next year behind the scenes. Going to be an interesting few weeks ahead.

Stop being ridiculous! You can’t possibly “speak for the majority of Glasgow fans” so pack that nonsense in. And who the hell do you think you are aiming insults at someone for simply having an opinion you don’t like or agree with? Wind your neck in.

That’s exactly what he said on the stream during the interval to be fair. It’s clear it was Ipswich he was waiting patiently for last winter. Doesn’t matter how much a rider wants to ride for someone at the end of the day. There’s more than one component before a deal is struck. The club has to actually offer you something.

Didn’t Coleman himself say Wroclaw would have an influence and would have an input on the Ipswich team building next year? The Wroclaw fella is also now a director at Ipswich. He also said about multi contracts across the two clubs so you’d think there’s almost certain to be at least one rider who rides for both clubs. Someone like Mikkel Andersen maybe?

Tuned in to this, cracking meeting! Both the inside AND the outside were working well in terms of passing potential. Proves there’s nothing wrong with the shape, it’s all down to preparation. Why can’t they be consistent with it? A few of the riders have been having a whinge that it’s different every week they go there, why? They stumbled upon a formula that works last night either through luck of judgment, stick with it!

What the hell is wrong with you lot? I’m convinced a few people are now just on a wind up. If not, this is just cry arsing for cry arsing sake! We’re literally just in to August ffs and people are having a pop that nothing has been mentioned about NEXT year? Who the hell was expecting anything to be announced about 2027 by August 1st 2026? We know for a fact they’ve been having regular meetings far earlier this year to avoid a repeat of last winter if anyone even bothered to listen to the Richard Coleman interview. They’re not, and never were, realistically going to go public by August 1st on anything for 2027. Unbelievable.

Once again thats a very good interview and I’m more impressed every time I hear him speak. I know there’s fans of other clubs who wont be as enthused about him coming in because they’ll see it as a competitor being in rude health and potentially having strong teams in the near future which will harm their own clubs chances of success and I totally understand that. It’s natural as a fan to think that way. BUT, what they need to understand is the bloke seems genuinely more interested in pulling British Speedway up off the floor and getting it back on its feet than prioritising Ipswich’ individual success. As he says “Ipswich will need somebody to race against” and he clearly wants a thriving British league so everybody should be behind him because its in everyones interest not just Ipswich. The little smirk when he was talking about some just wanting to keep “The status quo” and some not being receptive to his ideas was probably an indication that he's fully aware he’s up against it. Every single one of us know exactly who he’s talking about without him even having to name them! Until these absolute dinosaurs who want to continue limping along each year, reducing the points limit each year and doing the bare minimum each year, become extinct, then I fear he’ll be fighting a losing battle. You can bet your last Rolo that they’ll absolutely despise Richard Coleman.

Isn’t that Woryna’s club? Perhaps they’ll swap clubs. Who knows. Will be an interesting Winter this one.

It’ll be interesting to keep an eye on any movement in and out of Wroclaw in a few months time. Unlike us, they tend to get their house in order very early over there and their teams signed and sealed in good time. Artur Rusko is now a director at Ipswich of course, and it was Coleman that mentioned “multi contracts” between the two clubs more than once so you’d think there’d almost certainly be at least one rider who represents both clubs. Was it @PhilTheAce that mentioned Dan Bewley was on the move from Wroclaw this winter? Apologies if it wasn’t. If that is the case, wonder if Woryna could be his replacement..

Never a truer word spoken. We can only hope things may finally be about to change but it’s definitely a “don’t hold your breath” scenario.

Richard Coleman ”The sport can’t continue to do the same thing with a little bit less money each year and expect a different result” In a nutshell.

That’s all we can do really isn’t it? They’ve tried all the “five year plan” nonsense before only to rip it all up 12 months later and change things. There’s so much uncertainty in British Speedway unfortunately with developers/Tracks closing, that we can only really view things short term and take each year as it comes and see what clubs come to the table for the following year. Nothing much is really going to change while the current incumbents are still ruling the roost in terms of taking the sport forward with fresh plans and ideas also.