YeOldPitGate

Can't see many turning up for this one, if Mayfield realise the sport is unviable I could see a situation where Louis comes back and buys the club for a £1

doesn't Rew want top dollar when he's bang average rider though.

But does smile occasionally unlike Pete with the permanent grimace.

Spot on but as we all know even a new consistent 5-6 point man in the top league is impossible to find.

Big plans Linda in the travel lodge room with four team names in a used mcdonalds brown bag pulling the teams out for the play off's and probably earning 2-3k for five minutes work.

As others have said though Flagrag what can they do as far as replacements go , he's a 7 point man in this league in his sleep at Prem level so other than a telling off I can't see many options.

Comedy gold Mike

Nerve must be gone seems if he gates he fine but if he doesn't he shuts up shop exiting bend 1 would be better to retire before he gets hurt.

Seriously that low ? I know the team sport is on last knockings in UK but even with dreadful sides there was always a hard core support at Lynn to get over a thousand through the gate even in the Andy Campbell , Paul Woods days when we were truly dire.

Good to hear when I used to go Saturday nights I would say they averaged a thousand to 1,500 depending on the quality of the opposition.

Out of interest Bagpuss how do Monday's crowds hold up against the old Thursday night figures ?

I still can't get my head round when he says he might have to retire because he not getting enough meetings he must be getting his engines tuned every week.

I'm beginning to think the championship will collapse when Bomber retires with the amount of guest bookings he takes he's holding the league up when it comes to finding a body to sit on a saddle.

To be fair given the general dire state of uk speedway finances you can understand why the brown envelope was grabbed at warp speed.

Good call

Coops will have a great career and should be a gp rider but in my opinion the boy Bailey does look a bit special

Thanks for that Flagrag much as I rate both Poole youngsters , I do think Bailey is slightly better and what a rider to watch on a bike he's all action probably just as well Poole don't get him as they really would walk it then. I still expect them to win the league this year as other than the odd bad match they are still pretty much steam rolling everyone.

Agreed he's never going to be the rider he was 10-15 years ago but the fact he's still going and is more than holding his own (most weeks not all) in the championship is a tribute to him. When I stopped going early 90's very few riders weren't in decline by the time they turned thirty but riders do seem to take better care of themselves these days and go on longer Hancock the ultimate example.

Agreed very odd way to run a business and try and build up a fan base.

Thanks for the replies all and keep them coming interesting Daniel said 740 online I would have fell off my chair if he said 74 must be a lot of lurkers.

I used to follow speedway from 1984 -1993 (ish) the sport was struggling then but had a shot in the arm when Sky came on board and I got interested again watching it on Sky Sports but was never tempted back to trackside. I'm not sure how many are left rattling around this forum now maybe 20-40 of us I can't remember when I joined possibly couple of years ago but has it always been a very small number of posters or were there hundreds here in the past ?

We must be down to about ten of us rattling around in here now I wonder who the bookies have as the favorite to turn out the lights when the time comes.

Hopefully when Zagar is back ideally for Batch they will win most home meetings he might be getting on but should still be a 6-7 point man in this league which should get them over the line assuming at least one of Lidsey or Klindt fancy it in the remaining home matches

I seem to remember prior to the current bunch stepping in Flagrag mentioned polish connections so it could be something was afoot similar to what's happening at Ipswich. (Correct me if the old memory is off Flagrag). Re the old big promise of help we all knew it wouldn't be coming when the crunch came , Doyle is probably the only world class rider who could have been persuaded back this year given based in the UK and he's been loyal to British speedway for years. They really need someone in the Anders Thompson mould he's never going to be world champ but should be a 9-10 point man in UK league and equally doesn't seem to be a rider who only fancies it 50% of the time. Its a shame Tolley isn't involved as there does look to be a fan base to build on at Northampton which wasn't the case at Brum and he clearly has the kind of deep pockets needed to get a top liner over who would probably want 5-7k per meeting.

Would be better just taking a chance on a new face four pointer, Simon is a tryer but an end of career and Fredricksen seems to always be in crashes and can't really see any improvement in him far better to try and get a young dane or swede in if the budget allows.