Steve Shovlar

Garrity is an accident waiting on a bike over riding. One ride away from a big smash. It will happen soon enough sorry to say. Has guts but looks awful on the bike and isnt smooth at all. Mark my words a prang will happen soon enough.

Just waiting for Gavan to come on here now and say Poole are not weaked by Bjarne being replaced by Wilson-Dean, as Bjarne is now rubbish and Wilson Dean improving all the time. Lol.

Rain certainly helped improve the racing and it was probably the best go frim Prague in memory. Crowd also looked bigger than recent years. Holder was dreadful, Woffinden struggled badly and Hancock took full advantage. Well done to Doyle and Harris, who had his best GP in ages. Now on to Cardiff and the best atmosphere of all the GPs

Why is this meeting going ahead if not on sky? Dont they own the stadium so can race on another night? Be lucky to get 250 through the gate.

Why would I waste £60 + watching PL guests? No thanks! First Poole meeting I will miss this year but not worth the time or money.

But there will still be a points limit in some shape or form. We cant go with a team of Holder, Janowski, Lindback, Andersen, Buckowski, Newman and Ellis. Ridrs would be graded so that if a frade one rider is out he can only be replaced by one of a similar grade. There are many riders out there now who are not attached to British clubs. Clubs should be looking right now at forming their squads for next season.

Dont undestand why people are having a pop at Poole. Matt asked Lakeside if they would consider moving because of rider unavailability. Lakeside said they couldn't move, and that was that. Because Poole are without their team bar two, they will be using five PL guests. I wont be going. Neither will most of the Poole fans. Lakeside will hit 60. Thats it. Nothing to see. Move along please.

If this proposal was put forward by anyone else you would be saying different as your hatred of Matt Ford, your words, clouds any judgement from you. Why the hell does it favour Poole? Any club can sign riders. People want weekly speedway. They want EL not PL speedway. This way top riders can ride over here. Squads definately in for 2017 no doubt at all. 4 extra clubs coming up and.p add Cup comp and we will be back to weekly speedway with quality riders. Awaiting ideas from other promotions but most have their heads in the sand so wont get excited.

well I wont be going either. Pointless watching a team of PL riders half a lap behind. Doubt many Poole fans will be travelling for this one. Crowd is going to be very small. A shame as I am almost driving right near and was going to take the meeting in on the way to Dover. Now I will just get to Dover earlier and get my head down.

So here we go with what is usually a dire GP. Been a coulle of times to this one and could count the passing on one hand. Slick, boring racing usually. Prague is lovely though. Hoping the racing can be better this year.

Its to do with every EL club. Would Wolves fans be happy to see Tai just ride home meetings only? Think you might discover many of the top riders and quality heat leaders who don't ride here, (milik, THJ, Protasiewicz etc would be more than happy with a dozen extra meetings a year. Needs to be put forward way before the AGM.

Taken from todays Daily Echo. The link has been posted on another thread but I feel his thoughts are worthy of discussion on here with perhaps the better ideas/tweaks picked up by the Speedway Star for publication. http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/sport/14577174.Speedway__Matt_Ford_to_put_radical_overhaul_ideas_to_Poole_Pirates_fans/ PROMOTER Matt Ford is set to canvass the opinions of Poole Pirates supporters over his ideas for a radical shake-up of Elite League speedway. In an in-depth Daily Echo exclusive, the Wimborne Road chief revealed his desire to add 10 or more fixtures per year by implementing a squad system and restoring cup competitions. Pirates have been kicking their heels since June 1 with just 14 league fixtures to fit into a six-month calendar and Ford believes running consistently on a fixed race night would boost attendances across the country. He argues the dearth of clubs prepared to step up to Britains top flight is due to a lack of meetings and that a shortage of riders can be managed. Pirates supporters will be asked to take part in a survey later in the campaign and should he gain their backing, Ford has vowed to pitch his revolutionary vision to speedway chiefs. You can vote on the Echo website. This is how it stands at time of posting this thread. What do you make of Ford's proposals? He's hit the nail on the head 49% Good plan but it needs some work 29% Good plan but it will never happen 12% Elite League needs to change but not like this 9% Elite League is fine as it is 1% Ford told the Daily Echo: When I first came into the sport, certainly for the first 10 years, we would be riding every Wednesday. Now, we are going through four weeks without any racing. In my view, there is not enough speedway at the top level and people are out of the habit of coming. While our crowd levels hold up well, there have been the occasions where they have dropped considerably. Wednesday night used to be speedway night but now, dependent on various things, it could be a Monday or a Friday. I feel people would like to see more continuity and for us to go from 15 home matches a year to 22, possibly 25 with success. Of course, there would be the implication of admission costs but when I look back, the numbers were always consistent when we had that volume before. Things do fluctuate with the weather, televised meetings and the fact we have not started quite as well as we would have liked. The loss of Darcy Ward and Maciej Janowski is a factor but I think any reluctance (to attend) is more about a lack of continuity than a lack of top stars. Personally, I believe it would be a good system but I want to know what the paying public think about the key questions. Do they think a squad system would help? Do they want to see 10 riders? Do they think it would be better to have more meetings? Would it be affordable? Would they support cup competitions? I believe we can sort any problems with the riders, I just need to know whether the public would pick and choose when they come. The move would see the fixture calendar look more like that of the British second flight but Ford was adamant the notion of stepping down had not crossed his mind. Whatever the top level of racing is in the UK, I want us to be a part of it, he added. Premier League speedway would not be the right move for us. We need to run at the top level, the town and the fanbase warrants that. FORD ON THE OTHER KEY PEOPLE On what fans of other clubs will think: All of us have our ways of trying to assess situations locally, this is my way and others will look at it differently. My biggest concern for now is what Poole fans think. When we look at the bigger picture, Ill be very interested in what the rest of speedway thinks but I need to know whether Poole fans agree with me and whether they can find the extra funds to support more meetings. If so, I can put across the case to my fellow promoters, that this is how our club feels. "Perhaps they will look to gather their own information and see where we go from there but I do believe speedway fans will generally think in the same way. On the riders: There is a big gap in the number of meetings riders with different commitments want to take on. For some Grand Prix riders, Britain is too much. For the top names already here and outside the GPs, the schedule does not give them enough racing. We have a real opportunity because some riders in other countries are receiving an awful lot of promises that dont always get delivered. The top clubs in Poland are honourable but there is a lot about there contracts over there that is different to our deals. The monetary levels are far lower here but I do believe when you agree a contract in Britain, it gets upheld. Below the top flight in Poland, riders sign contracts and then two months into the season get asked to take 50 per cent of their money. They know they will not get picked if they say no and that is just wrong. That has happened to riders currently in our team and if they had more fixtures here, they would be willing to give up other domestic leagues. While that may mean a certain amount of hardship for British speedway in the short term, we could regain some power by asking riders to choose a maximum of one other league. We would have them here as part of an eight-to-10-man squad. Some riders would do every meeting, some would be happy to just do 25 or 30 matches and others would do 10 but the team could take part in 50. I know there are riders who would quit Poland if I could offer them that many meetings because they do not get the 14 lucrative matches they signed up for over there. They might get seven with their money cut back. We could be in a really strong bargaining position but I believe taking on fewer fixtures makes our lives very difficult now. It wouldnt worry me if Tai Woffinden was contracted to do 10 matches for Wolverhampton and he did them all at home. I would still be happy to see him riding in Britain. I cant see it being detrimental. I know other promoters who dont agree but I dont get that, I just want to have as many top stars here for as many fixtures as they choose to ride. My thoughts are very open and I am interested to know what others think but from my point of view, I think we should throw open the doors to riders en masse. I do not think it should be stipulated they must do a fixed number of meetings. I have always felt fans should follow the club and not a rider but I acknowledge we need to assess that side of it. "If we brought in Maciej Janowski for 10 matches a year, would it affect the other 30 or 40 meetings? Would they prefer to have a slightly lower standard and more continuity? I still feel certain we will make stars just as we always have done. On his fellow speedway bosses: I have not discussed this with the other promoters at large. It would be down to us to negotiate with each other once I have gained the views of our supporters. "If it was something I felt the Poole fans wanted, I would take those thoughts forward to the BSPA. On Premier League clubs stepping up: It would require more teams. There are certainly two or three clubs in the Premier League with the same ambition. Glasgow is the example with an incredibly attractive venue and promoters who wish to run at the highest level. I have no doubt they have thoughts of stepping up in the future. There are clubs closer to home that would like this format, to be able to keep the continuity they already have and to step up. There will be clubs that do not want more but there are some with grander ideas who dont want to sign up to so few fixtures. I look back at years where we had more than 25 fixtures and now we have just 14 in the Elite League. We all need more.

Talking about at Leicester when he was pathetic.

Who are Coventry going to replace of the top four teams in the league? Poole? Lakeside? Belle Vue? Wolves?

With crocked reserves it will be closer than it should be. We will need a guest for Kyle and theres no one out there who can do the same job. S Worall or Wright would be the best choice I guess. But the last time Worrall guested for us he was crap. Guess we are lucky that Lynn dont have a strong reserve pairing. We have the riders to deal with Iversen, Mads K and young Lambert. 52-40ish

But surely it was clear he was crocked but determined to ride. Its a world final so having got there and it being three rounds unless a body part was hanging off he would drag himself to the tapes. I stick by my thoughts that Ellis is a far better and more accomplished rider than Josh Bates regardless of what Gavan thinks. Gating and riding higdh and wide is one thing. Being able to battle through and win is another and from what I have seen of both, Ellis and Newman are better than Bates by a margin, not a slither. Hopefully Bates will continue to improve and we will have a good amount of British riders giving the TeamGB manager a headache on team selection in future seasons.

Thought the ref got it spot on tonight with the rollers.

Watched Bates. Yound lad making his way. If he gated he did well but his passing ability seems non existent at the moment. Like it out wide. Lambert B rubbish himself when sandwiched and he got through but he seems at the moment to be a bit of a gater. Plenty of time to improve though.

Good race in heat 15. Best of the night.

Decent enough meeting between a couple of also ran teams this year. Few points. Batchelor has completely lost it. Got an average to go PL I guess but what team would take him riding like this? The German is rubbish. So is Sargeant. Where is the crowd? Or is that the norm at Kings Lynn these days? Only thing thats kept me watching is young Lambert to be honest. Oh, and I thought the Rolly Pollys had retired but they seem to have a new gig as the start tarts at Kings Lynn

Crap. Irreplaceable. Both our edrs are crocked now. Get well soon Kyle

Enjoyed both extra league meetings. Gollob and Lindback so great to watch. Thought the later meeting was good but Doyle was over the top in aggression. Nicki P would have been proud. Most of the riders all gave racing room but not him.

Media player very hit and miss. I get adverts followed by racing which last a short period before stopping, or adverts folliwed by a screen of noise with a statement in Polish probably telling me I cant watch because I am not in Poland. Frustrating.

I knowh it dragged due to the crashes but once the track settled it was a thoroughly entertaining meeting with some brave riding. Deserved winner in Peizczek who rode a blinding first bend to stuff Lambert. Brits did well. Ellis with his broken collarbone unlucky to not make semi as his last ride was called back and he missed the gate on the rerun. Bates stuck his back wheel in the dirt and did well. Best wishes to Pzredpelski after that horror crash.

Holder saying track is patchy. No rubbishe sherlock.