Aries

13 rides at Foxhall over three meetings last year, he won one heat. 8 from 5, 4 from 4 and 5 from 4. That’s nowhere near good enough from a rider of his quality whether he likes the track or not. Belle Vue still won both league meetings though despite Bewley underperforming so if he gets his act together it could be close. The issue Belle Vue have though is on both those victories, they had Lidsey and then Brennan scoring double figures at reserve, this time they have Mountain who also hates Foxhall and struggles with it. In the play off semi they had Blodorn at reserve who scored 3 points from 5 rides and they got battered. Just again proves that a high scoring reserve wins you meetings.

That still doesn’t make it good value Dave which ever way you slice it. As you say some want to watch who just can’t get to the meeting for whatever reason so have little choice. For some 15 quid is a drop in the ocean and will think nothing of it and just pay it, none of that still makes 15 quid for a pre-season filler for two hours value for money. Some get Eurosport free with their TV packages, but a lot don’t. But you can sign up for Discovery plus on one of their cheaper packages for £6.99 a month, during the speedway season you’ll get a GP or two, and a couple of Premiership meetings plus any other sport on there that tickles your fancy for the entire month. And that’s without the other channels that come with it that may or may not be of interest. Now that IS value for money and makes 15 quid for one warm up filler seem a bit bonkers. It’s all down to personal choice at the end of the day, you can either pay it or don’t that’s not the debate. Of course the other side of the coin is BSN have to earn enough to make the stream worthwhile for them to do in the first place and I hope they made enough to at least make their efforts worthwhile.

Those trying to to justify the price as “decent value”’come on, at least be honest. You were happy to pay for it because you can afford it and you love your speedway, but good value it isn’t. People also need to stop comparing to prices at the track, totally different experience being there as we all know. I pay 14.99 to stream all the Sky sports channels for the month on NOW, now that it decent value compared to the same price for 2 hours of a glorified practice session warm up meeting.

Why aren’t all the efforts being put in to finding new land and building a new track? Yes I know it isn’t cheap, but all the talk this time last year was how deep the Purple man’s pockets were! Didn’t Carl Johnson (soon after buggering off) say they had land identified? Literally all the comments STILL on here are aiming digs at Buster, while Tomalin, Johnson, and the other members of the “consortium” (who were given full permission by Buster btw to negotiate with AEPG themselves) have gotten a free pass? Where is Ged Rathbone also by the way? Neil Watson has often told us that Buster didn’t in actual fact save Peterborough Speedway as Rathbone would have simply carried on if nobody came forward. Why isn’t he part of the consortium? Why isn’t he doing anything to help Peterborough’s plight now?

Hawkins openly admits he changes the riding order regularly depending on the opposition and form of riders. Not many do but he’s definitely a “tinker”.

Every team has home advantage when conditions are unaffected by the weather. When it pi$$es down that home advantage is mostly lost and it becomes more of a leveller. That’s just common sense surely!

Bit of a surprise as teams normally go with the weakest member of the top 5 at 2. That’s a strong looking opening pairing though and should be getting the team off to a good start in meetings. Ellis in heat 8 should pick up plenty of heat wins also.

Precisely. It’s not as if this person who has had this accusation thrown against her name is anonymous, she’s been named! So that poster has then left people to speculate why she’s not a nice person. And then you get some on here with the audacity to question a right of reply on here and told it should have been kept off the forum! What about the original spiteful guff from “davieb1”? That’s ok, but dare to reply and that’s out of order and should have been a PM? Unbelievable. W9 Lion clearly knows why this poster is disgruntled, and has every right to put the record straight on this forum after the initial remark was also made on this public forum.

Disagree with you entirely here. “ If you knew what I know about our female boss you wouldn't like her much And I've promised not to spill the beans” If you’re going to spout this sh!t about someone on a public forum then the right of reply on the same forum is fair game.

https://x.com/brumspeedway/status/1767217438683287720?s=61&t=WGGG_bqEEeOH78cfmD9Reg They do I agree. But two things ruin it. Firstly the obvious one, you can’t have one of your septet absent on press day, it completely ruins the whole point of the day and has made the promotion of the new season a farce. Pawlicki SHOULD have been there to fulfil media duties and commitments, have your “medical appointment” tomorrow ffs. Secondly, they should have also had matching bike livery like most other clubs do. That picture above looks a bit of a mishmash mess.

Meet the riders this evening. Piotr Pawlicki will unfortunately not be in attendance however after accepting a late medical appointment to help him with treatment on his leg muscle damage. Those pesky “late medical appointments” are a nuisance ain’t they…..

It seemed pretty obvious at the time of his pre-season accident that he wouldn’t get back on a bike. Although he didn’t actually say it, he hinted as much that his bottle had gone after such an awful and painful crash. Interviewed from his hospital bed, he was completely non committal about returning and wouldn’t deny that it had affected him mentally. Shame.

Whether he turned up or not (why wouldn’t he turn up? It’s his job!!) is irrelevant. 1.65 and a GSA of 1.18 he was nothing other than truly awful whichever way you try and spin it.

Home win for me. Although Birmingham look like they may struggle on paper, it’ll be interesting to see how a few of their new riders get on.

Didn’t realise Joe Thompson struggled as badly as he did at Ipswich last year! Looking at the averages over league and cup meetings last year A Rowe 5.00 Dan Thompson 4.89 L Flint 4.88 C Bailey 4.43 D Gilkes 4.20 Joe Thompson 1.65 A Boughen N/A Joe was clearly awful!

Why not? Still 13 days to go but it’s been a long old off season! This is an intriguing opening fixture to kick things off with. Leicester are many people’s fancies including mine, and Belle Vue don’t seem to be as highly fancied this time around as in previous years. Home win for me and a comfortable one.

Harsh. Think you know what they’re trying to say. Of course everyone has been aware of the situation for some time, but it’s this time of year when March strikes that every fan gets the new Speedway season buzz where it’ll undoubtedly hit home even more for the fans of clubs that no longer have their side to watch. It was always going to get tougher the nearer to tapes up on a new season especially when clubs are uploading all their promotional stuff on social media for the new season.

2?? This was only two seasons ago. Has Doyle ever scored 2 anywhere let alone a play off final? That’s why I always laugh at those predicting Holder will overtake Doyle here in the UK anytime soon. The Peterborough lad predicted Bewley would average more than Doyle last year and even bet money on it before he was left with egg on his face. I mean it’s gonna happen in time, there’s a big gap in ages, but some people seem desperate to see Doyle’s demise for some reason and it just ain’t happening anytime soon. I’ll take another bet with anyone that Doyle will finish top of the Aussie averages this coming season here in the UK. Any takers?

Not here he won’t. Not yet anyway.

Col has been predicting the demise of Doyle for the last 5 years. A couple of seasons ago he said Jack holder, Fricke and Kurtz would all overtake him that year and he’d be demoted to “4th best Aussie” in the League. LOL. It didn’t happen then and it still hasn’t happened despite him predicting it every winter. Oh and it won’t happen this coming season either.

You can’t dismiss Ipswich on the basis of them having just the best top two and little else. Having the best top two (and they’re comfortably the best top two in the league) is huge, but they have no mugs lower down either. King and Ellis in the engine room at 3 and 4 is also strong, they’ve swapped Hume for Jenkins at reserve which is an upgrade, and they also have one of the best rising stars in the league in Dan Thompson. They’ll be the bookies favourites for a reason and tipping them to finish second bottom shows a lack of Speedway knowledge quite frankly as much as everyone is entitled to an opinion.

Everyone is of course entitled to their opinion, but predicting Ipswich to finish second bottom is a bit of a bonkers take. In the words of Les Dennis, if Ipswich finish second bottom I’ll give you the money meself

Of the top three Leicester have just signed from Wolves, Douglas actually had a higher GSA away from Monmore last season than at home over all meetings, and Masters rode at number 1. He won’t be anywhere near it at Leicester with Fricke there. They look a cut above to me. We’ll see.

Belle Vue have a huge home advantage. Doyle for example struggled for pace there last year by his own admission and even when he made the gate, he was soon swallowed up by the likes of Kurtz and Lidsey. Set up is just as important at big fast tracks as it is for small technical ones. The Belle Vue boys are very very quick around their home track and if you’re a visiting rider there and struggling for pace, you’ll very quickly get found out. There are some tracks where you can pop out of the gate and keep faster riders behind you by being clever with the lines you take and acting as a roadblock. You have absolutely zero chance of doing that at the NSS.

Leicester look the pick here for me. Someone earlier in the thread made a good point, Leicester have the Wolves top 3 from last year, a Wolves team that finished second in the table. And they have added Max Fricke and Richard Lawson on top of that! That’s potent. They’ve also been smart and used all the points gained from Kemp’s 25% reduction, something Ipswich haven’t done with Jenkins 25% reduction. Ipswich will still join them in the top 4 though and pretty comfortably this time. They’ve fixed the Riss issue with Ellis and they’ve also got one of the better rising stars fit in Dan Thompson. Finally having a rising star that could contribute in meetings turned their season around last year. Oxford will also comfortably make the top four IMO. The only question mark with them is the fitness of a few returning injured riders. They could be slow burners if it takes them a while to get up to speed but if they do, I expect them to be strong. Solid all through the top 5 and the best reserve in the league in Kerr. The last spot isn’t quite as clear cut. Of the remaining sides I think Lynn look the best. Big fan of Musielak and he’ll do a good job for them at #1. Look to have Wotsit on a bargain average going by his performances for Peterborough last year and I’d expect him to swap with Palm Toft after the first change in averages meaning Lynn also will have a strong reserve all year. Not convinced with either Sheffield or Belle Vue this time. Belle Vue will need Bewley to be the 9+ rider we know he’s capable of being, rather than the 8 point rider we saw last year. If he steps it up a gear, Belle Vue have a potent top 3 with Kurtz and Lidsey that could see them challenge for a play off spot. Bewley the key here. Sheffield have the weakest reserve pairing in the league, which is a problem when you have a rider or two in the top 5 who are a bit flakey. Chris Holder isn’t the rider he once was, far from it, and neither is Woffinden. I think both will be hit and miss this year especially away from home and when they’re having one of those nights where they don’t want to know, that’s when you need your reserves to chip in to cover and this is where Sheffield will struggle. Good luck Birmingham..