YeOldPitGate

Christ no Bomber would mean the end of both leagues given the struggle for riders.

Yep I started going late 84 and from memory Lee made comeback 1985 the odd flashes of his brilliance seem to remember he beat peak Gunderson on his first meeting back but after that his reliability was dreadful probably not helped by us having a super weak team at the time either.

Poole had the contact with Lightcap through Hancock and Cairns so they had a result but the cupboard is so bare these days I think you can write off 99% of any poles, danes and swedes wanting to come here going forward. This means outside the UK your really trying to rake over the coals to find any unpolished Aussie or Yank gems there are the odd ones out there with the young lad Berwick signed at reserve at the start of the season. Brady Langdon looks a really good American prospect also but again due to his Hancock connection the Fords will probably get first dibs if he comes to UK next 2-3 years.

Same as some of the riders , lack of team managers also lol.

That's harsh on Lawson as a Lynn supporter back in the day Lee was truly terrible for reliability.

Baring injuries you should steam roll the league and play-offs Slater has made you even stronger, Lawson & Cook quality riders in second division , throw in two great UK youngsters and Newman & Kerr decent second strings at championship level you have zero weak links. If Lightcap can start to really get dialled in I would be surprised if you lost any matches in the run in, given problems Glasgow have got with Hagon's confidence gone and struggling to get a replacement for Howarth.

Wright is a solid UK rider given how weak the league is here now days, fifteen years ago plus he would have been a good engine room second string. He is though a rider who will give his all and I think the issue is against higher quality opposition he ends up over riding and crashes , seem to remember he had a bang early doors in Poland last year also.

Who are they going to get in though ? the cupboard of anyone wanting to come to the UK is absolutely bare.

Yep plenty of things from years gone by in the firing line I read a good article on pubs over the weekend , roughly two a day closing in the UK. The writer interviewed a fella who took over a popular pub in his area (Lake District) that had closed pre-covid he took over reigns in 2021 said when he started gas and electric £1,500 was per month he chucked keys in mid 2025 and gas and electric then £3,500 per month. Add in the plus wage going up, employer ni threshold cut , cost of living meaning more people just having a pint and no food or staying at home as the ex landlord said "covid got us all into the mindset of staying at home more". One of my richest friends owns a pub locally turns over a million a year but still loses money, luckily he can use the old trick of offsetting the losses against his other business which is an absolute cash cow.

He's to budget aware for that, it would just be nice if he could find someone who is a proper safe pair of hands to take the team on moving forward but as we all know given the shakey outlook for the sport and the need to write off 50-100k per annum those with the deep pockets and love of the sport to commit to that regular annual loss are in very short supply.

Spot on the team they have should steam roller everyone at the end of the season come what may they are so strong at this level 1-7. If the championship is weaker in 2027 and they get Beau Bailey, in my opinion the lad is the best natural racer since Darcy Ward give him a platform to show all his talent and the gates would hold up well or increase most likely.

I remember 3-4 seasons back a picture of young Ashton Boughton with something like 6-7 bikes in the background ready for the season and this was a lad starting out who was at reserve.

Great to hear and for a Monday as well probably the least attractive night of the week to run on, long may it continue.

Difficult to argue with that isn't it Bagpuss for the real young gems, compete against the worlds best every week, better money/sponsors on offer and not as draining on the body due to not flying/driving in and out of different countries every week. If you went last night what would you estimate the crowd at, I'm beginning to think we have reached the point where anything just tipping into four figures is classed as bumper crowd these days sadly.

Wouldn't it be great to see some/all of them young under 24 danes who pushed Poland all the way last weekend in the under 24 world team cup , race in the UK. Sadly as we all know more chance of Harry revealing he has a seven figure league sponsor lined up for 2027.

Plus as we know 99% of riders are bullet proof these days due to the complete lack of available replacements.

To be fair that statement could apply 1985 onwards apart from the fact you have needed to sell ever less matches to end up being still more profitable over the last 41 years

when you put it that way its a far better business model than UK speedway sadly.

One would think with the figures quoted the stadium would need to be running as much as possible during the week unless there's massive money to be made in promoting stocks/bangers ?

If its that much money and time frame you would have to question why would they bother hopefully they must think they can have things back running much sooner.

Christ if those numbers are anywhere near accurate you can see why many aren't keen in getting involved in speedway and in this case thats without even owning the stadium. It does sound hopeful though lets hope they want speedway back maybe championship level if a team can survive on 800 - 1,000 punters per week ?

Better pay rates possibly.

Donkey about ?

Guy not stepping away Aries ?

Agreed General reading between the lines it seems a good hard core support is already there, decent stadium by speedway standards, potential for a really good racing track (if the issues can be sorted out) , it just ideally needs now someone stepping up with deep/semi deep pockets to get a team together that can least win at home most meetings and ideally get a team full of committed riders. If they would come back Iverson, Thomson, Ellis, Harrison would be a good core and if they could add ideally Anders Thompson and one of Becker/Zach Cook and a.n other they would have a pretty good team.