RoundTheBoards

Whatever league structure we see next Easter, he should be nailed on for a place.

A tense, close, dramatic tie. And once again Poole prove themselves the 8th best team in Britain, just behind Birmingham.

Exactly. Oxford have pulled the plug on the Premiership (Spires). They will operate the Championship side (Cheetahs) and hopefully NDL (Chargers) in 2026. It's no secret, however much people try to twist the words.

Why? What do you think the limit is going to be? You could be under the limit, but may still have to release a rider...

I'd say it would be a major surprise if Oxford reversed their decision and stayed in the top flight.

You're contradicting yourself. If it's OK to rank a football team higher in a 3-3 draw because the team who are about to miss out will hypothetically play harder at the end to get a goal and make more entertainment, then the same thing applies in Speedway. If the riders are about to tie on 9 points, then the guy who hasn't had a race win will ride harder to get an extra point, and create more entertainment. You defeated your own point. The fairest result for any drawn contest is always a draw. But when we need an actual winner we have to invent a tie-break to split two competetors who by all other standards are exactly equal. It's the same whether it's football away goals, speedway race wins, or Shirley Ballas getting an extra vote. What was more unfair than Italy winning football's Euros after only being in the final by virtue of winning a dressing room coin toss with Russia?

Were your work colleagues ever bothered when in Champions League football a team won 2-0 at home and lost 3-1 away, and went through to the final even though the aggregate scores were 3-3?

I can understand Oxford wanting to drop out of a league rather than doing all three, but I'm wondering, do Oxford fans approve of dropping out of Premiership and just doing Chmapionship, or would you have prefered to drop out of Championship and just entered Premiership?

Of course they're of equal points value. That's why we need a tie-breaker. It's very simple that 2 heat advantages are numerically more than one heat advantage, and this ranks teams with a tied score. Just as simple as an individual meeting where 1,2,2,1,3 =9 is ranked better than 2,2,2,2,1 = 9 even though they're equal value. Just as simple as in football where until recently a team winning 2-0 and losing 1-3 were ranked better even though they're equal goals.

Anyone else hearing that Northampton will be joining the 2026 Premiership with owners new to promoting speedway?

Absolutely spot on. I found the Speedway Star recent edition which claimed something like "70% of fans want one big league" to be totally irresponsible. It seemed to be 70% of people responding to a dishonest question The question they were responding to was "Would you support one big league if it had 14 strong teams with good quality riders, and equally competitive teams?" But get that thought out of your head. A "yes" answer to that question is irrelevant. That's not an option. One big league, running on any racenight, would automatically rule out anyone who races in the Polish leagues. Gone would be: Max Fricke, Jack Holder, Brady Kurtz, Dan Bewley, Emil Sayfutdinov, Jaimon Lidsey, Josh Pickering, Ryan Douglas, Jason Doyle, Michael Jepsen-Jensen, Chris Holder, Tom Brennan, Luke Becker, Jan Kvech, Tobias Musielak, Nicolai Klindt, Matej Zagar, Keynan Rew, Ben Cook, Maciej Janowski, Rohan Tungate, Norick Blodorn, Francis Gusts. So that's 23 riders gone from Britain. So what will the Premiership bring to a new combined league? JUST ADAM ELLIS ! Every other rider who ride in the Premiership in 2025 (apart from Adam Ellis) doubled up into the Championship. We can't count them twice. So, the 5 teams joining the "One Big League" (Belle Vue, King's Lynn, Ipswich, Leicester, Sheffield) are bringing Adam Ellis to the party, but they need 5 x 7 = 35 riders. So these big 5 need to take 34 of the doubling up riders.... The remaining 9 championship clubs need 9 x 7 = 63 riders..... but 34 of them are not availsble because they can no longer double up. So suddenly we need a further 34 riders. Where are they coming from? We could look to the National League, but many of the NDL riders already double-up into the Championship, others are still only 15 years old, so even if we take every NDL rider right down to the lowest 3.00 newcomer, we still can't get close to filling 14 "One Big League" teams. Then of course, with no one able to double up, will riders be happy to have their income reduced by so much? Or will they quit the sport? What happens when someone gets injured? Where will replacement riders come from? ONE BIG LEAGUE CANNOT POSSIBLY WORK.

Well, David Rodwell is a "business consultant" with a motorsport background. His current company https://www.extratime.app/ has an app that "Gives sports fans VIP access to their favourite sports stars behind the scenes" Jamie Dobb is an ex-motocross 125cc World Champion from 25 years ago. Why do you ask?

Starting with your English teacher?

Ipswich's bottle?

Seems a bit odd having Doyle at No.3. Think I'd want Emil and Doyle at 1 & 5 for heat 13. Surely he'll want them at 1&5 next week against Kurtz & Bewley?

Peter Oakes picking up on the Northampton possibility again in the Speedway Star today. He's reporting that someone is looking into the viability of laying a shale track and joining the Premiership again. A 2,000+ grandstand added to the stadium now, and the owners apparently interested in bringing speedway onboard. Could it be a realistic option this time?

That was for 2024 after we lost Peterborough and Wolverhampton, and the Premiership was facing going down to 5 teams. Chris Louis was considering opening at Northampton to give an extra track. In the end Birmingham moved up and Oxford did all leagues, so the Premiership was back to 7, and Northampton wasn't needed.

Not sure what they dug up, but Wroclaw are renaming that corner "The Fred West Bend"

No team orders from the Aussies then...

I would really not want anyone connected to me, racing on a track which has not been passed as safe by the governing body, and who has then gone looking for someone else to disagree and say it's safe. It reminds me of the joke about the passenger on a plane which was delayed for 4 hours. When he asked what was the reason for the delay, they said "The pilot heard a strange noise coming from one of the engines, and it will take us 4 hours to find another pilot who can't hear it".

What has happened to Speedway Updates website? Nothing at all on today. Neither Leicester nor Oxford.

Please no one tell him about Workington - the second-best track in the country. It's funnier with the added ignorance.

You are Clark Osbourne, and I claim my 5 pounds. (one for the youngsters there). Remember the idiots who said Workington would never be back? Remember the fools who thought Belle Vue's NSS could never be built? Remember the dumb-dumbs who thought Oxford would never re-open. Speedway tracks may come and go, but there will always be nobheads like the above.

Lewis Kerr's brother.