paulnolan

For all I bang on about the team, the rest of the night is absolutely fine, on a par with anything I've been to at more established tracks. I think that's what makes it even more frustrating!

@BTFC LION I have zero clue about the science of track prep but can I offer the following advice? PLEASE OPEN THE OTHER GATE. I've spent so many hours watching the tractor trying to squeeze through that gap...

The Foxes have no divine right to exist and no right to expect fans to back them just because they are there. After many years without a team, I am happy to have one nearby but am long past falling for the "use it or lose it" argument. If a track is well run, even within the confines of British speedway's current overseers, it will attract a strong core audience. It was clear from the off that the team was not good enough. However, you can't just expect fans to pay £25 a go to support any old rubbish. The speed with which Belle Vue signed Doyle to replace Bewley showed that there was no need for the Foxes to feed off scraps (ironically), and more thought should have been put into an exciting, winning team, rather than a collection of veterans and two promising youngsters. We all know why the Foxes were created but that doesn't have to be the reason they exist. There's no point in being a team to make up the numbers to stop your league looking like an embarrassment if your makeweight isn't going to be able to stand on its own two feet. Home defeat after home defeat may inflate the points totals of the other five teams, but it will kill a promotion quicker than any late start, uneven track, or even bad chips (the chips are good, though). We're not halfway through the season yet so there is a chance to make this succeed. But it needs the full weight of the BSPL behind it. Or, if that is already happening, please stop because it's not working.

Crowd was down to around 1000-1100, I'd reckon, and it was poor entertainment at times. Batchelor did actually try hard and deserved his win, while Jeppesen just didn't look interested. I think the track got to some of the riders, and some of the Foxes veterans were unwilling to take the risks younger men might've. It is what it is, and it'll be like this all season. Hopefully there'll be a second go-round next year to get it right - is Alun Rossiter free?

Looking forward to this one after a gap but am a little worried now Thomson is out of the reserve berth. Still, hopefully Jeppeson makes the most of it and is available for Adams to use in place of any underperforming veterans...

And that's why you make the league fit the fixtures you want, not the other way round, as I said a while back.

He's done his time and that should be the end of it. Garrity was a talented rider and thrilling to watch. I'd have no problem with him racing for the Foxes. If racing helps him stay on the straight and narrow, everybody benefits.

Another blank week for Foxes fans, with no away meetings and no home meeting until next Monday, while Belle Vue and Ipswich have a home and away fixture, Leicester two aways, and King's Lynn and Sheffield a home each.

Not much to say except that, once again, the Foxes only had 5 riders, but a different 5! Thomson should have had 6 rides but that's what you get with an inexperienced team manager, I suppose. Racing was apparently poor, crowd was apparently good. Hopefully the first improves before the second falls. I'll be there a week on Monday and just enjoy having something local for the rest of the season!

Advance ticket means you just get scanned in, avoiding any queue.

Here's hoping!

Lewis Kerr is a decent guest around Brafield and that should give Foxes enough to get home. I expect Jack Holder to go through the card but the rest should be vulnerable enough for Foxes to pick up the points they need. Can't make it myself tonight but I hope it's a big crowd.

Iversen is missing for Northampton, too. Sam Masters the only real option?

Excepting Luke Harrison, because he's young and it was his birthday, you can't carry two riders and expect to win away. It's either Lidsey or Klindt that's off the boil, but always Batchelor. I'd much rather see a young rider fail to deliver. Or an experienced SGP rider from Australia but, you know, there's a hierarchy at play.

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.