YeOldPitGate

Or if he could really be bothered with the prep could he put a point to point and a half on his average as I have said previously if a rider has no lofty ambitions and just wants to earn a good living he is the blue print even allowing for just slinging the gear in the van untouched from the last meeting.

So the rumours of turning up with dirty bikes and boots are true the old flannel not up to muster ?

Problem is where will they get the riders from for that, personally think best we can hope for is 8 and 8 top league ideally have one top liner each and the bottom four riders in the top league double up in the second division so its financially viable for them. Once home and away which would avoid seeing same teams week in week out and hopefully reduce promoters losses as fewer meetings to underwrite. Would love to see one big league but given they are struggling to get through fixtures in a six team top league can see how they would ever cope with 15-16 teams and as mentioned guessing they would need 30-50 extra riders from somewhere.

Dreadful state of affairs

I remember thinking the same when Bill Barker was running Lynn and trying to balance the books by wandering round at half time selling raffle tickets. I once said "give everyone who comes through the gate a questionnaire to fill in relating to what they like/don't like about the current speedway set up and give them a spare to give to someone who used to attend but no longer does). Nothing ever happened and Bill soldiered on with the raffle tickets but as Mike has said there's going to come a crunch soon when the over 40 year old double uppers retire and we are nearly out of people who will step in and take over underwriting the annual track losses.

To get better its going to require someone coming in who's willing to lose 100k per annum to put a far better team together or get some really good sponsors in to underwrite the 100k. It looks like there's definately a core fan base to build on but to get anywhere they would need to replace Klindt with Anders Thompson, Zagar with Jepsen Jensen and Batch with Beau Bailey or similar, all of which would probably require 12-20k a meeting to underwrite granted that would be part netted off by the existing three leaving.

I think though with at least three of the Northampton team if they pop out in front they are fine but if they are behind come the exit on second bend lap one you can fill your program in. Granted he's not the best manager but he has been handed the worst team this year and ditto 2026, in both years it doesn't help there's near zero replacement options so the riders in question can coast along knowing they are bullet proof.

The lad should have a big career ahead of him if he stays level headed, Cairns, Rushton, Harrison and Scott should be the core England world team cup squad in years ahead sadly as we are so far behind Poland these days talented as those four UK lads are we probably still won't be able to lay a glove on the young poles who are there to meet them when the time comes.

Remember when they used to wheel Pete out for the tv interviews , he was a brilliant manager but a terrible advert for the sport in front of the cameras permanent grimace and you could tell he wanted to be anywhere else but giving an interview.

To be fair he has had some dire teams but I take your point.

Spot on the mentality is certainly in second division if i get out first I should be able to hold on if not settle for what you can get and don't take a risk, Sedgeman is another example and to be fair even if it drives us crackers you can't really blame them for trying to avoid a bad injury if they are at the tail end of their career.

Agreed when I used to go Sky was just starting out so most had only 3-4 tv channels, no streaming platforms, no online gaming, no dating sites, no multi plex cinemas etc tugging on the disposable income. The quality of the teams was stronger than now all be it the general lack of promotion was on par but due to lack of alternatives promoters mostly got away with it. As I've said many a time its not just speedway that's been dying a slow death last 30 years, nightclubs are virtually gone when I think to the one's I went to late 90's early noughties they were heaving with thousands inside if you had of said to me then in 25 years 90% of these will be gone I would have laughed at you. It just seems the public have no interest in size in Speedway, Nightclubs and pubs these days unless the pub is well run but even then I get the impression most pubs run at a loss and like speedway are bailed out by other businesses. It's getting hard to paper over the cracks 2-3 riders missing every meeting due to either injuries or riding elsewhere, one meeting a month then 3-4 in a fortnight, lack of riders now wiling to ride in the UK making the doubling up situation worse. Teams closing meaning seeing the same teams on repeat so people pick and choose meetings and as others have said you have streaming given a lot of racing is gate and go why not sit in your armchair with a beer at home no agg of travelling out and looking for a parking spot and buying over priced burgers and flat pints.

Does it seem crowds have dropped more this years than usual ? it always seemed to be death by a thousand cuts where everything (quality of product, price to get in, crowds etc) dropped slightly year on year but from what some on here are saying it seems maybe a 10-20% drop in crowds against 2025 ? It always used to be when a club was in trouble 2-3 semi wealthy businessmen were waiting in the wings to takeover they then generally lost 50-100k per season for 2-3 years chucked the towel in then rinse and repeat with someone new but the availability of benefactors ready to underwrite losses also seems to have nearly dried up to.

I haven't been for years Phil but hasn't this been an ever small growing trend year on year since the mid 80's or has it really accelerated in 2026 ?

Also doesn't help that you have no Tai this year or Jack Holder moving forward, plus as you say stop start fixture list and very small league doesn't help either. Respect to the promoters as they certainly aren't in the business for the money just need to hope the families other business/s are going gang busters to cover the speedway losses for this season.

And ideally they have a separate successful business to offset the speedway losses against.

Bagpuss those summer Saturday nights when Henka and Loram were young and hungry and the track was decent led to some superb racing, some of Lance Kings rides a couple of season's earlier were awesome also. I've got Simmo's book to read at some point I'm not sure if its true but I'm led to believe the signing of King nearly killed the club financially when I thought it was Bo Peterson that was the financial issue as he went from unbeatable round Lynn to terrible as soon as he signed for us ?

Granted hence why I said most successful british rider, Crump, Pederson, T Rick, Hans Nielson all a cut above Woffy.

Saying Smith was a better rider is bonkers he was pretty dangerous on a bike and bang average, Havvy wasn't bad but won the world final on a terrible track and he was the only one that really fancied it that night, Collins, Loram, Screen, Morton all great racers but none have three world titles, Tatum wass a trapper but didn't have that extra 10% to get to the very top. Saying Smith is better than Woffy is like saying Jonhathon Grahn was better than Rickardson.

The pinnacle for any rider is to be world champion as I say he got three of those no other UK rider has done that , I am not a huge fan of his but judged on world titles he's the best we have ever had, granted Loram, Screen and Morton were far better riders to watch on a bike.

More natural riders on a bike some of them yes but none got three individual world titles.

Didn't he try and keep Coventry going ?

Pinny mentioning Exeter didn't Colin Hill leave a load of money in his will to try and get a new track set up ? am I imagining this or did someone burn through all the money with zero end result ?

Kings Lynn 1985-1987 we were horrible handful of home wins.

That Russian better not be Laguta though another one who's not interested half the time in the UK you would be better off with Rambo Lambo at least the bloke gives 100%, of course if you could get Emil back whole different ball game gives 100% and one of the most exciting riders about.