YeOldPitGate

Poole also seem to have a brilliant network of contacts if for example they get either of or both Bailey and Langdon next season they will be already massively ahead by geting a rider in on four point average who will be nearer six, Bailey will be the next aussie superstar and Langdon is the best american prospect for donkeys years. Same this year in snaffling the two young brits they seem to have the support network and local sponsors that give new riders the best chance of success if coming over to the UK from overseas.

Tobi Thomsen ?

Linda and Harry taking over the show Phil , Rob to be kicked out of the caravan HQ

And when I was a die hard we had Knight, King and Bo Peterson and they went from unbeatable around Lynn to bang average and Bo Peterson was close to dire.

Whats the crowd looking like dire or has the fact its still a play off semi final saved things slightly ?

He looks the best American prospect for many a year would probably put him on a par with Cooper but possibly slightly better once he gets racing in UK/Europe regularly but both should be top half gp riders in the future with the right guidance and assuming avoiding big injuries that would set them back.

Any sign of life from the BSPA headquarters the caravan down at Scunny ?

Leta just say Ippo town centre could be twinned with Falujah she's no Bath or Cambridge, that aside glad they have it Coleman deserves some wins for the amount of time and money he's putting in to try and haul the sport off its deathbed and we know the patient won't be willingly dragged off of said bed.

If you wanted to make money through corruption speedway is one of the last places you would rock up I would imagine Richard like most promoters is very much underwater on his investment currently.

To be fair to the fella why shouldn't Foxhall have a gp you can't say Richard isn't putting a shift in to steer the leaky ship in a better direction he deserves a few personal win's for the time/cash he's putting into the sport.

Great news, we need successful business people/fans involved in the sport and very positive Mayfield have brought new sponsors in rather than leaning heavily on Guy and hopefully you are correct re Emil Cookie.

Luck/manipulation average wise the point I'm making is out of all the available riders in the UK top league only one is on a par with Jack and that's max if he wasn't riding here this year they would be looking at one of the hot/cold brigade like Klindt or Lidsey which would make the final a shoe in for Belle Vue, now they have the one genuine world class option available they might be able to make a fight of it.

Nearly right Mike what worked for 10 of those fifty years but hasn't worked for the last forty decline started when Penhall quit and Lee blew himself up.

I think one of the problems is a lot of the current promoters are semi wealthy business people who are fans their focus is mostly on their main business with speedway as somewhere to write off part of the profits from the main business against speedway losses. They generally view the process of just opening up on racenight and assume the die hards will come and are happy with the status quo of borrowing riders as and when needed up until the point where the losses start to get to big to covered by the profitable business. I seem to remember a promoter in the past possible the I.T fella who ran Oxford saying " I lose stacks of cash in speedway thankfully I can make money in my main business quicker than i can lose it in speedway" Louis and the Fords main focus was/is speedway as an income which is possibly why both clubs are semi-successful granted also both clubs have generally been well supported down the years also.

To be fair in the John Berry days Ipswich had some awesome sides.

Lets hope he gets support from the other promoters otherwise you can see him losing faith and exiting left in a couple of years as other people who have tried to push the sport forward in the past have done.

Anyone know if Guy is staying onboard for 2027 ? just thinking of his financial firepower to try and tempt Emil back as there were rumor's of a fall out, if so do Mayfield have the financial muscle to get him back on their own ?

Fair comment Roger but you get my point that Sheffield have got lucky that the one genuine world class replacement rider in the top UK league was available to book in

The sad thing is other than the two world class riders Belle Vue have the only other rider in the entire league to replace Jack is Max which is pretty damming out of four other teams to choose from for a guest there's only one genuine world class rider available luckily for Sheffield.

I think the thing is 10-20 years ago promoters did try and generally succeed in getting new riders in as replacements granted no-days that's nigh on impossible as they earn buttons here compared to Poland and even youngsters don't really want to come over anymore so we have ended up with an ever shrinking pool of riders.

First name on the team sheet for 2027.

I think the shame is the Bates thought we won't try/spend to get someone in once Jack was injured as theres a 66% chance we will finish in the top four and only other team with a genuine world class number one over here will finish in the bottom two and we can use him for possibly three matches end of year. Now given they seem to want out and have no doubt poured six figures plus in over the years I can understand there reluctance to spend and continue on the cheap but for the loyal fans its not really a great outcome who have been asked to stump up the same money at the gate every week for a substandard product.

I am reading Simmo's book and he talks about when he took over Lynn and after the early season promise the Lynn team started falling apart (sounds familiar) and he then goes on to lambast how crowds got down to roughly 2k per meeting. Its a long while ago but I was going regularly in 88 & 89 when he mentions the 2k poor crowds and personally I don't remember them being that high other than the first 1-4 meetings when on paper it looked like we would steam role everyone and the place was absolutely packed. Anyway if Simmo was right a 2k crowd today would be classed as bumper.

This is going to be the issue going forward if ideally the league next year is up to eight where are the five to six extra world class riders going to come from ? given two new teams would both need a top liner and so will Ipswich and Northampton and possibly Sheffield also if Jack Holder doesn't recover from his bad hand injury. They would potentially come but it will need promoters to offer major dollar from their own pockets or a tv deal of Sky standards that allows six figures to be dangled in the riders faces and that didn't work out well last time when all the number one's left after the Sky trough was empty. Anyone who knows more than me on how it will all be financed I would love to hear this isn't a dig as would be great if it happens but it looks a huge ask to me.

Fair comment re Sheffield that after Jack Holder was injured the entire season hinged on one of your rivals finishing in the bottom two so you could borrow their best rider for the play-offs.