Grachan

According to this: Taylor Wimpey to begin work on new Swindon housing development (swindonlink.com) the new houses are called "Robin Gardens" of all things. Planning permission was granted in June 2022. "Planning permission was granted in June 2022 and following the exchange of contracts last month - August 2022 - work is due to start on site soon." No mention of any conditions before building work begins.

Details of a new development. This, presumably, is the reason that the containers were moved, as it is in the old car park. Taylor Wimpey to begin work on new Swindon housing development (swindonlink.com) It's even called "Robin Gardens"!

How about a grading system. get the refs thinking a bit and cause some controversy at the same time. Do we need to automatically exclude a rider? In a 50/50 accident have all 4 back. If a rider is deemed the cause of the stoppage then re-run but with a handicap (or a "Yellowcard"). If the rider is seen as dirty rider then exclude them from the race (Red card). Imagine the boos from the crowd when that happened. Top entertainment. Oh, we can't have that can we. And put the ref's phone back by the start line. Nice for a bit of old-skool aggro.

There's plenty of Russians still competing in other sports so they may feel it's not achieving anything if others don't do the same. Take a look at the US Open tennis line up next week. Plenty of Russians and Belarussians in it. Meanwhile Djokovic is barred because he's not vaccinated. Personally I hooe they are back next year. They are Polish citizens after all.

If Dan stats tip 6 I think that supercedes the GP Challenge, so the place would go to the rider who came 4th in the challenge.

I thought it was very well done. I thought the presenters were very good - light-hearted, chatty and knowledgeable. They kept my interest during the long gaps much better than happens on Eurosport. I thought Dave Rowe and Adam Roynan complemented each other well too.

I think riders lie Tom Brennan need to quit the Championship now if they are going to move up in class. Stick with the top flight for now, but they need to concentrate on riding abroad too. The first step, though, is stop riding in the comfort zone of Division 2. Rding in Poland's top league has to be the goal in the end. There is a reason that riders like Bewley and Lambert have moved up in standard, and it's the same reason that many Swedes, Poles, Danes and Americans did the same in the past by concentrating on making it in the top league in the World.

I went to an Autorace meeting in Japan once, which is the Japanese version of speedway. A rider had a big crash. They removed his bike, got him into an ambulance and removed him from the track before the riders came round on the next lap. Craziest thing I ever saw!

Possibly. They may have called for an ambulance to come to the stadium so that the other can stay there.

If in doubt, get people to sing "so good so good so good" while an injured rider is being put into an ambulance. It'll be Amarillo next!

The track is coming to life now! Great heat 8. The feed is ok, but for 15 quid it could be a bit more professional. I'm having to log on to Updates to follow the scores.

I'm still on the pre-event page too.

I agree. I wonder if the heat was anything to do with it this time. Or having a practice on it the day before. I tend to go every 3 or 4 years, but might go a bit more regularly now as I don't have a team to support.

That's part of the problem! How many fans would prefer to sit on a bend in a foldable chair with a flask of tea and sandwiches wrapped in cellophane to watch a meeting? Quite a few I'll bet!

People are unbelievable really. We get one chance a year to have a Speedway meeting in the UK that feels like a proper sporting event and people don't want to know about it. Yes, the track was bad this year. But the event itself was still great even though speedway fans decided they don't want a proper sports stadium inconveniencing their schedule and stayed away. Watch Chris Harris winning in 2007. The riders were bouncing all over the place, but they still went for it. Jason Crump and Greg Hancock both seemed of the opinion that this track was no worse than the older Cardiff tracks. It had improved in recent years, though, which, I guess, is why this one seemed particularly bad. I also wonder if having the practice the day before added to the track cutting up. If Cardiff ends up being dropped because fans decide to stay away then it just proves that Speedway fans really are completely nuts.

Oh dear. Now we are letting the fans vote for the rules are we? And on Twitter of all places? Remember the "vote for who is in heat 15" charade? Just as well they are not voting for a return to only 13 heats and being allowed to touch the tapes or we'd be getting that back too.

It's not the commentators that are the problem. Sure, we miss a true professional like Nigel was, but Kelvin and Chris can just about pull it off. The problem is the lack of presentation between heats. With Sky and BT we had a studio to cut to, and some for of discussion to break up the programme a bit. This is what is now lacking, and we are missing someone like Natalie in the studio. What is the worst thing about speedway? It's the tractor going round between races. What do we see on dear old Eurosport? We see the tractor going round, and Kelvin and Chris desperately trying to keep things going - sometimes, as was the case on Saturday, for long periods. When you are at the stadium, you can kill the time as you are part of an event. On the telly, it needs something else to keep the program going. This is Eurosport I'm afraid. It's just not in the same league as Sky and BT and it never has been.

I'm not sure why food is included in the cost either. Even if you don't go, you're still going to eat.

It's a while since I've been. Niels Kristian Iversen won it last time I went, whenever that was. I actually splashed out this year, for the first time really. Home straight tickets and two rooms in a city centre hotel! Felt like I'd been on holiday when I came back! It's odd for me reading all the "never going again" comments, because, for me, it re-lit the speedway bug a bit. I'm already thinking about going again next year.

It seems that for people who were watching speedway for the first time, this was actually a great meeting. I've just seen a post on Facebook by people saying ti was their first meeting and they loved it and intend to go next year. Also, my son's mate came along, and in the car on the way home he phoned his dad and was saying how brilliant it was, how there were loads of people there and how he wants to go again next year. Imagine what these people would have thought if there has been great racing and a bigger crowd. I hope that the crowds will be back to at least previous levels next year. There are many factors this year that could have affected attendance. I also hope the organisers come out and explain the problems with the track, and how they are going to rectify them. A bad track can happen. Wasn't it Warsaw where it happened a few years back? I hope the poor track this year doesn't cause the attendance to drop again. This is more of a spectacle with more people watching. The atmosphere in the stadium was still brilliant, but there were far too many empty seats where there used to be crowds. The riders not trying to race were a let down too. If Dan and Jack Holder - who only got into the series as substitutes - could ride it, there's no reason why the other riders couldn't.

Just skimmed through on Discovery+ after being at the meeting yesterday. Nice words at tbe end fron Dan about Artem Laguta, and interesting to hear that Laguta has been helping him this year. Crowd and track looked a lot worse on tv than actually being there. Coverage suffers from being on Eurosport too as it just keeps the feed goung instead of having a studio to cut to and break things up a bit.

I think that's true about the Poles. Still plenty of Polish people about but not as dominant as in previous years that I've been. Other possible factors might be the train strike stopping many on-the-day people making the effort. Plus no reigning World Champion in the series might effect the crowd too. Definitely a lower crowd. The middle tier on the back straight and the large bank on bends one and two are always normally filled but there were a lot of empty seats.

I'm not sure the track was any worse than it was back when Chris Harris won it. Cardiff was rough for years but seemed to have improved lately. Harris would have loved it out there today.

I knew everyone would be complaining, but I had a great time. Took my son's mate, who is 18. He loved it too and couldn't believe how skilled they were. By the end he was booing Madsen for taking his time choosing a gate position and chanting "Bewleeey, Bewleeey" along with everyone. Sorry about that.

Why would you not get a ticket next year if you had problems sussing out the App this year? Next year it will be a doddle because you'll know how to do it.