Noelinho

I'm not so sure about that. With a year of experience in the UK, I'd think he'd be a good prospect to improve his average the next year. I'd hope his average second half of this year shows a good improvement on the first half. We'll see.

No one on here is getting their speedway opinions from a Camikaze comment on a press release, surely!

Mario is not even close to one of the hottest prospects on the international stage. He's a decent rider and if he's hitting 5-points regularly at the end of the year, he's doing his job. The level of expectation here is bonkers.

His points score has been helped by others not finishing in the same race and when he doesn’t gate, he doesn’t look like making any progress. Maybe he will come good, but he’s looked more like the rider that struggled in the middle of last season than the one who did well at the end. Freddy really needs to beat his average, and put a point on it. As a third year rider in this league, an average under 3 points really doesn’t cut it. Progression is an expectation this year, although getting the tyre pressures right is a good start…

Indeed. I saw after Mitchell Cluff’s first home meeting at Armadale a couple of Edinburgh fans suggesting he should be replaced by Max Perry. The grass ain’t greener. Best feed what you’ve got. I think it’ll generally be a tight league this year and I’m all for it.

I am more concerned about Freddy than Mario, but as always, the question is: who would be better?

This is the realistic view. Anyone looking for Mario to be another Villads will be disappointed. He's not. Villads is an elite prospect, an established SGP2 rider and an SGP3 medallist. Mario is not. Yes, he has a team medal, but that's from one meeting where yes, he did really well, but you also need to keep it in perspective. If you compare Villads to Mario in the Polish league last year, there's a big difference. In the second tier, Villads was 7th in the averages, Mario was 35th. Converting to British style averages, Mario averaged 4, Villads averaged 7.4. Villads also comes from Denmark, and their tracks and climate is a much more natural transition for a rider coming to Britain. None of this is to say Mario is a bad signing. I always saw it as a risk, and a much bigger risk than Kevin Juhl Pedersen, but one well worth making. What matters is his progression come August/September. He will struggle at some tracks, but the hope is that he learns and comes back stronger next time he sees them. I'm sure he'll be fine at home once he's had a few race meetings too, which is always different to practice. Give the guy a chance, but don't build him up to be something he was never going to be either.

Loving the 80s gay disco music. The racing isn't too shabby either.

Forecast is fine. Comparing the presentation of second tier British speedway to pro darts is silly. The equivalent is pub darts. The presentation is done by amateurs, and for all its faults it’s no worse than plenty of football presentation. On the list of reasons British speedway is failing, it’s not making the podium. I will say I did enjoy Greg Blair at Berwick, but otherwise I’ll shove my face full of sugar donuts from the first bend and chat to people near me. Tigers win. Looking forward to the club anthem blaring out as people leave when the match ends.

I expect Mario to struggle. Kevin might be OK but will likely be outscored by opposite numbers on his first visit. I'm pretty sure Edinburgh will win but let's see how our new boys adapt during the meeting and see how our reserves stack up. The 1-3-5 boys should be fairly equal and entertaining.

Today I, a lifelong cricket fan, have learned that county cricket is streamed on YouTube, from a speedway forum. Glad to see the ECB spend that £40million budget just as badly as others do.

The post above has it nailed. If there is no real reward for winning, and nothing really missed by losing, there is no incentive to invest more time and energy, so most don’t. This is meant to be (and is) the pinnacle of the sport in the U.K., but it looks more like Sunday league football in a dead-end division. The idea of paying BSN to stream for free on YouTube sounds nice, but I see two issues. One, would they have the capacity to stream more? Two, it would present a risk to their business model, and given they are probably the most sustainable entity in British Speedway right now, why would they want to take the risk? I don’t see the incentive for them. The Premiership clubs barely bothered to support a media day, so why volunteer to compromise a working model? I think the promoters need to show a lot more before you do that.

Meeting off, per Edinburgh Monarchs Speedway Facebook page.

It’s the 5-point riders that often struggle to find a spot. Too high to be a reserve, too low to be a sure bet. They’re the ones that get squeezed for the final spots.

Not sure why it would happen any more or less than any other season tbh.

I wish I could get to this as I think it’ll be an interesting meeting, but I expect Edinburgh’s reserves to make it a home win. I hope Jordy Loftus continues to impress and improve this year - he and Jody Scott were the standout reserves for me last year.

Even that is missing this year.

His gating on Saturday wasn't great (the final aside), but if he can get that sorted then he'll fly at home. Saw enough to see he should be a very good #4. Just need to see how Mario fares. Decent team though.

I did say "about" 3pm 😄 Bright sunshine for the last wee while.

Nothing to suggest any issues with going ahead. Intermittent rain but nothing intense. I think we’ll be fine. No rain after about 3pm.

My understanding is the Bandits have some form of agreement with the football club, rather than leasing from the council. That could be a sub-lease, the important thing being any such arrangement would normally terminate with the main lease (although there are exceptions to that).

I think you mean Daugavpils! Yes, it's not easy to get to, being on the Latvian border with Russia, a few hours from Riga, which itself isn't always the easiest place to and from the UK.

Yes, tapes up 6pm.

The council own it, leased to the football club.

That is after a two point deduction though. They did look like they could make the playoffs for a chunk of the season, but let themselves down very badly on the road - but even then, the closest they got to winning was at Poole and Glasgow. A very enigmatic team.