paulnolan

At some point the point has to be raised: does the sport exist to serve league competition, or does league competition serve the sport? At its core, speedway (and all professional sport) exists as entertainment, and it's unthinkable to imagine a cinema - for example - that has no films showing on some weeks. Consider what you want from your enterprise - one, two, three, even four home meetings a month - and make the league fit that, not the other way round.

But if you're going to have Mondays and Thursdays as race nights, have Mondays and Thursdays as racenights, not just the odd one here and there. Let's take Sheffield as an example, who race on Thursdays. They opened their season on April 2nd, and were back the next week. Away on the 16th, but nothing on the 23rd or 30th of April. Home again on May 7th and May 14th, but nothing on May 21st or May 28th, although they did run on Bank Holiday Monday (25th) to cover one of those. That's potentially four lost meetings. June, July, and August look much better, perhaps because of the imbalance between Monday and Thursday tracks, but even then July 2nd is empty. A total of 5 missing Thursdays. For a Monday track like Belle Vue, it's a bit more stark. They opened on March 16th and skipped a week before league racing began, running 2 weeks before taking a week off. They raced on April 20th, then took another week off, had a home meeting and an away meeting on the next 2 Mondays, then another week off, another week on, another 2 weeks off. June picks up well after that but that first date in July is missing again, followed by a home and an away and another blank week. August has 2 home meetings and then 2 weeks off, before coming back for the Bank Holiday. So that's 9 Mondays off!

Great news for Belle Vue, I'm sure, but the league's newest club are still woefully understrength...

Great news for Belle Vue, I'm sure, but the league's newest club are still woefully understrength.

They are but there are usually racenights when there are no matches scheduled and the weather is fine. This is why clubs should endeavour to run at home at least three weeks out of every four. I know a league of six makes that difficult but that's just another reason to amalgamate the leagues.

Foxes were due to be missing Iversen (riding in Poland) so not all bad.

You can't afford to carry one rider, especially a heat leader, when you're operating R/R and - but for one race - the Foxes were carrying two. Only followed on updates but it seemed like the referee had another interesting meeting. Still, a narrow home win is good for business and in these turbiulent times, good for business is good for the sport.

Exactly what happened in heat 2? Gilkes seemed to be pootling round, then was on the infield, and then the red lights came on! What did I miss?

Thoroughly enjoyable in the end, although it all seemed like business as usual early on. Lidsey came good and maxde some gates, Iversen gave us a bit of the old leg trailing in his first 3 wins, and Thompson was great again. The less said about Batchelor and Klindt the better. Jeppesen was an odd one - he seemed terrified of mixing it in the first corner in his first couple of rides but settled down okay. The track is riding much better than week one, and the crowds have held up surprisingly well, although it was a warm evening against local opposition. Still, I'd hope that it'll settle around 1,500. Can't make the next couple now but will be back again soon and, who knows, we might have 7 men firing at once by then!

Gutted for Dan Bewley but if Mark Lemon is able to find a replacement #1 for him the question will be asked of why he couldn't do it for the Foxes...

The signing of Jeppesen is enough to get me through the gates - hopefully this is last chance saloon territory for Klindt and Batchelor.

I was happy about my decision not to go as early as heat 2 when I saw the crash come up on Speedway Updates. Then I saw the BSN clip of the race on YouTube and was relieved, because I don't think I could have held my tongue at Rushen's deliberate act of idiocy. As for the late start, I obviously wasn't there but I'm fine with that kind of thing. Nobody sets out to arrive late, and as long as it's within a reasonable amount of time - 30 minutes is fine - it's best to have everybody who wants to see the meeting in through the gates. Those people who miss the first few races might not come back again. This Foxes team is rotten. we're now officially 25% of the way through the season and only the reserves can hold their heads up. Klindt is a disgrace and should be replaced by Kerr today, with Batchelor also shown the door in favour of someone on a similar average who might improve (or at least will provide some entertainment). They say "if you build it, they will come," but what they don't add is "if you build it on shaky foundations, it will fall down." That said, I'll be there on the 21st...

With King's Lynn visiting 3 times this season and this being the deadest of dead rubbers, I'll give it a swerve and use my £25 to see Chris Harris later in the season. But I'll be following closely on Speedway Updates, especially Lewis Kerr who can take this as a job interview!

I would absolutely disagree that success or failure on track is a moot point. No-one wants to support a losing team. And while I'm a speedway fan first and foremost and can get enjoyment from meetings even as a neutral, I'm not the 1,000 new fans they'll need to make this a success. At the very least, the league table at the end of the season should show 10 wins if you want this to be more than a one-season thing, and this isn't a team capable of 10 wins. As for who could come in, I'm sure there's riders out there who would welcome another 20 meetings, especially if they're already based in the UK like Jason Doyle, Tai Woffinden, or even Robert Lambert. And then there's Rohan Tungate, Keynan Rew, Luke Becker, or some promising young Danes? I don't know, I've not followed things closely for a few years so I might just be being unrealistic.

Disillusioned is the wrong word. It was always going to be this way. I've been through this before, at Elfield Park with a Milton Keynes team that was never competitive and crowds drifted away as a result. A winning side is paramount for a successful endeavour, especially with newer fans yet to see the intricacies of good racing whatever the result. 5 meetings is almost 1/4 of the season. I get it, it is what it was always going to be, but it needs more to be worth £25 a ticket.

The shine has quickly worn off with 5 matches in 15 days and 5 defeats. Sure, there's been no Iversen but it's already apparent that this side is understrength and needs attention. Zagar and Lidsey are doing about what you'd expect, the reserves are fine, but Klindt and Batchelor are seriously underperforming. The problem is, with the club being funded by its rivals, what's their impetus to improve their side? 14 defeats would suit them all fine. But with over 3,000 at the opening night, they'd be killing a golden goose. At £25 a go, I'll skip Thursday's match with King's Lynn and see if anything changes.

Well I thoroughly enjoyed my first night at the new track, even if my Foxes couldn't get the win! Let's get that out of the way first: it's not a great team and will absolutely need surgery sooner rather than later, but there were positives in the shape of Thompson and Harrison going great. But that can be sorted. What can't be sorted is if your opening night goes wrong. And it didn't. Not by a long shot. A massive crowd - probably about 3,000 if I guesstimate right - and some good racing, with times all within a second of each other. I said good, not great, because the track will need time to bed in and neither side had anything resembling an out and out racer to test it. But the shape is good and there's some banking on three and four that can be worked with, so it's all there. The facilities are good, even if the queue for the men's toilets at the interval was an issue, and there's room for improvement if needed. And it was a brilliant night for it, too! All in all, a success! Whether I'll be back next week is to be decided - it's £25 a go and that's not great value, even if it is the "going rate."

We're on, then! It's hard to predict anything with a brand new track but a home victory would (of course) be nice! Teams as per Ipswich social media:

Feels odd to be chipping in here before my club has even raced a meeting but it strikes me that, leaving aside the quality of the racing, regularity is one of the key things to attract and keep a crowd. Let's take Northampton as an example. The beginning of April to the end of September is 6 full months. Let's say they want 12 home meetings, as this season. It would make all the sense in the world to divide the league into 3 Monday tracks and 3 Thursday tracks. If Northampton is a Thursday track, they should run the first and third Thursday of every month. That leaves the second and fourth Thursdays for away at the 2 other Thursday tracks - let's say Ipswich and Sheffield - and rain-offs, with Mondays free to go away to the 3 other tracks. That way the local fans know exactly when there will be speedway at Brafield, and the casuals will know it's the first and third Thursday of the month. The season can extend into October for play-offs if needed, and begin in March for pre-season action if desired.

D-day today, then! I hope they have a few thousand flyers ready to go because the Cobblers have their penultimate home match tonight and can expect 5,000 sports fans at Sixfields.

Anyone know why he's not riding in the UK this year? (and if he fancies Thursday nights in Northampton..?)

Again, I'd have taken that result beforehand. Lidsey looks like he's stepping up the responsibility of being a number one. There's an obvious weak link but he may turn out to be a Brafield specialist!

I've seen nothing.

I am a patient man but there's still nothing about tickets on the Foxes website, a week out from the first meeting. I've also seen zero local publicity. Concerning but not fatal.

I'd have taken that beforehand and it might have been different if Harris hadn't been on fire and Klindt a damp squib! Onto Ipswich, which will be tougher, but looking forward to next week now!