hammer1969

We might be in the area on 14th March and are hoping to get to the Ben Fund meeting and would like some advice 're seating in the stadium or should we bring our own as we won't be able to stand for a couple of hours. Also what's the parking like. Any advice will be appreciated thanks.

If speedway wants to attract new (and younger) supporters facilities need to be brought into the 21st century. They don't have to be state of the art but paying customers should at least be able to access decent toilets, buy food and drink and have a choice of seating or bring their own seat if they prefer. We all know speedway can be a dusty sport to watch on a dry/hot day I hope nobody forgets to shut the windows on the new gym building if speedway returns. Wonder where the referees box will be relocated to?

Or better still as many supporters as possible turn up at Eastbourne for the 1st match and Poole for the 2nd match and watch Eastbourne knock them out ( hopefully)

The Championship in my opinion was a nicely run league, we now get "newcomers" to it and suddenly a word in the right ear and cup ties get changed. The cup fixtures were sorted and advised to all, they should never have been changed just because one club found it difficult to fit in a first round meeting. If the can't fit in the meetings then withdraw from the cup altogether, or perhaps stay in a league with only 7 teams in it and therefore less meetings altogether during the season would suit them better. With a bit of luck Eastbourne will progress victorious from the second round, after all they did give Leicester a run for their money last season, and that should help Poole with their "crowded" fixture list.

So we now know the reason for Poole getting a bye after having been originally drawn to meet Newcastle in the 1st round, the following is copied from the Poole website. "The Poole management are keen to clarify the situation regarding the SGB Championship KO Cup draw, with their tie against the Eastbourne Eagles being confirmed as a second round tie. Initially, the club had been drawn to face Edinburgh in the first round but trying to slot an early cup date into the club's busy start of season campaign encountered a number of logistical problems, particularly as the Pirates, back on Wednesday night racing, have to share the date with Birmingham and Somerset (together with Kent) and do not have the 'grandfather' rights over those two already established Championship clubs. Newcastle, originally drawn with a bye to the second round, had greater flexibility in the early weeks of the season and so, rather than risk delaying the competition unnecessarily, the two promotions reached an agreement, sanctioned by the BSPA that the Diamond's would take Poole's place in the first round. The Pirates were then subsequently drawn against Eastbourne, who along with Kent and Scunthorpe were routed into the second round. Poole promoter Dan Ford explained "Our fixture list is pretty much very packed out in the first couple of months of the season and fitting in an early round cup tie was proving impractical. We spoke with the Newcastle promotion and reached a sensible compromise. The switch between us and Newcastle made sense on so many levels and so we jointly made the approach to the governing body to allow this to happen. The Pirates will race the cup tie against Eastbourne on 10th June (home) and 14th June (away)."

I seem to be getting myself into a right old muddle over this KO cup, can someone please enlighten me as to which teams if any have actually got a first round by.

My mistake, sorry, its Birmingham, Kent, Leicester and Somerset who get 1st round byes

I would also prefer an extra meeting but a team that gets knocked out in the first round get no further meetings anyway. My personal opinion is that all clubs names should be put in a hat and picked at random, if trying to reduce travel distance for riders comes into the argument I dont believe it should as many of them ride for both leagues and some of them also ride abroad so why should us fans be denied a level playing field in what is called 'a knockout cup' it should be just that a knockout from 1st round to last round. Not trying to get into an argument with fans differing opinions of this just saying how I personally feel.

Why call it a "draw" in the first place, us fans aren't stupid a draw is when names are put into a hat/container and picked at random and we all know these meetings are mostly arranged/sorted out, and guess what apparently Poole now get a 'buy' funny that!

The latest film to include speedway should be known by Eastbourne fans but maybe not the wider speedway community, it's called Adventure Boys and was released in 2019. Have a look at the link below https://youtu.be/rVJ8K6DSTmE

Or Wiktor Lampart?

Really nice to have the same team, obviously depending on the last rider to be named. Last year was my first going to and supporting Eastbourne (and taking in a couple of away meetings, especially the Leicester/Eddie heat 15 "awesome" to quote my grandson, ride) after other clubs I've followed closed, although only been there regularly for 2019 it really feels like the fans are included and wanted and made to feel part of the club, I'll definitely be back next season and some silverware at the end of it would be nice but as long as Eastie have a team that feels like they are happy riding together and try their best and a club that continues to include the fans I'll be happy.

That wouldn't surprise me the BSPA seem to be living in their own little world and not the real world

As a Speedway fan, not a Poole fan or a Pool hater, my opinion is we see on a regular basis mainly the same riders competing in all leagues and most of the riders are of almost equal ability. A top league of only 7 teams is ridiculous so why bother to have Premier and Championship leagues, combine both and have a National League to accommodate up and coming riders and also any older/other riders who maybe want to continue in Speedway but are unable to complete to the standard that they were at in their younger days, also the older/more experienced riders could pass on their knowledge to the youngsters. One larger league would enable more fans to hopefully attend more local derbys and we wouldn't be watching the same riders week in week out surely that would be better for the sport. Let the clubs choose the night they want to ride on, local issues ie other regular sport in the area, transport issues, school holidays etc can have a negative impact on fans attending, surely the best people to decide which night the speedway meeting should be on at their club are the people who are most closely associated with that club and the area it is in. Will the riders like one league? possibly not as it would probably mean a cut in their income and they may have to think about taking on other jobs to supplement that but surely in the long run that would be more preferable than losing more clubs or even the sport altogether in this country. I have lost a number of clubs within travelling distance to me over the years, ie West Ham, Hackney, Rayleigh, Lakeside, Rye House and Rye House amongst other issues being a victim of change of race night causing the crowds to plummet. I have this year been going to Eastbourne and although, as some might say it's only in the Championship, the meetings, the atmosphere, in fact everything about it I have enjoyed and the Promotion are trying to encourage new fans every week and they have also rewarded regular fans with discounts etc. and to me it seems a club "on the up" rather than one on the way out.

Yes very well done Eastie. It's Richard I feel sorry for (and the Eastie fans and Management) to use the BSPA's well loved phrased "in the interests of the sport" I wonder if the BSPA will make good on Richards lost income for having to miss out on riding at Eastbourne - I doubt it.

I understand what your saying but common sense would be for the Premiership to stick to the Monday and Thursday nights agreed for them.

Surely non official competitions would mean friendlies which neither of the meetings on Saturday are.

The meetings are not irrelevant to us fans though, play offs or not we support our team and deserve to see our team regardless of which league they are in. The root cause of all this problem is the doubling up to which no one seems to have a solution.

Is "He's riding for us mate" official confirmation or just wishful thinking by Ritchie Hawkins ?

Richards also rode for Eastbourne all season and us Eastie fans would like to see him riding in our last meeting, even if it's not as Important as a play off.

If Eastie move the meeting to 5th October it will clash with BT coverage of the GP and that will affect the crowd big time. The rules say Premiership get priority on Monday and Thursdays the Championship get priority the other days. Why should Eastbourne and their fans suffer it's the last meeting of our season and we deserve to have our team there.

Premiership meetings have been fixed on Monday and Thursday nights. I know Ipswich v Poole is an important meeting but as an Eastbourne fan I shall be very unhappy if Richard Lawson doesn't ride for us on Saturday and I will seriously consider not going if he's not riding and I think many other Eastie supporters may feel the same, BSPA fixed the premiership nights and the Premiership teams should respect that when changing meeting dates.

Doolans in for Kennett

A bit of information for anyone thinking of going to Eastbourne Speedway tomorrow for the Sheffield match, last week there was internet connections problems to credit/debit card readers and it affected not only the speedway but much of the local area as there is a fault with a local transmitter which might not be fixed by tomorrow so anyone attending the meeting are being asked to make sure they have cash with them to pay just in case otherwise they wont be able to to gain entry.

Why would they do it? Only they can answer that, the track was fit according to the ref. They had a strong team, Eastbourne seemed to be the underdogs, Glasgow hadnt even changed up to 10 minutes before the start, i feel they threw away a possible win and all the handbags regardless of the talk of who did what and who was right or wrong spoilt what should have been a good meeting.