MFE

Perhaps if it is that reasonable, you could pay it for them eh! No thought not.

Just to offer another angle on the situation. The moment Swindon offered admission at £5 they immediately set the bar for all future TV stagings. The amount of fans? saying they would not pay the full price for what was potentially the biggest meeting at Brandon outside of the playoffs, is staggering. I know the weather ruined the match as a spectacle and ultimately affected the crowd levels, but if the sun was shining this had the makings of a really good meeting, and well worth the normal admission price, my opinion anyway.

I should imagine he would be disallusioned having lost quote 10s of thousands of pounds in a situation he had no control over, or perhaps you are wealthy enough not to let these small matters bother you eh!

I have seen the photo of KB hand on Facebook! If I were Lynn don't think I would be too impressed at his absence.

Blimey, if the KL match was dull after the Monmore "thriller" it must really have been dull, because I thought Mondays meeting was dross - what the heck has happened to Speedway if we get 1 good match in 10 these past few seasons we have done well, no wonder attendances are declining, most meetings are a snore-fest.

If you were at Monmore Robert, unless you were wearing blinkers, I think you would agree, Lindgren And Karlsson did not only beat our trio, they did it so easily and by the proverbial mile.

Well mainly because we only had 5 race winners and 2 of those were for Garrity, tonight our heat leaders have to look at themselves, Bomber was very poor, King was abysmal, whilst Hans looked slow, I agree we never looked dangerous, and congratulations to Wolves who were far superior on the night. Congrats to PK he was amazing as was Freddie Lindgren. I think the crowd looked smaller than usual for a local derby, no doubt caused by the damned roadworks on the M6, 1.5 hours each way from Solihull, I like Monmore but I could not face a journey like that every week, horrendous. Porky is brilliant he made what was an average meeting a lot of fun, admittedly that is compared to what we put up with at Brandon, and the music selection was far superior also.

Reckon the reason for the flat atmosphere is that 99% of the fans are more clued up than Peter York, and they totally switch off to his constant rubbish rambling and talk amongst themselves. honestly cannot see why they don't let Dave Hammond do all the announcing. Agree the music could be better though, not much to complain about though this season however.

Good Meeting, but the only problem tonight was with the starting gates where 1&3 were significantly worse than gates 2 & 4 - 32 points against 58, hence the main reason why everyone had middling scores, Gate 1 in particular was awful. Nice to see a bit of new shale on the track and congratulations to Margaret Vardy who completed the main match by 9pm. A healthy crowd as well, Belle Vue are always a good draw, so everything is looking good for the Bees.

Strange how all 7 Leicester riders were well up for this meeting and all 6 of Coventry riders could not be arsed, couldn't be bothered to even try to gate, and rarely broke into a sweat in trying to compete not even as far as the first turn in the majority of races. No excuses permissible, if they did not want to race then they should not have accepted the fixture. This meeting was 5 foreign riders (+Auty/Morley) vs 5 GB Riders (+Jamrog) and the difference in attitude was astounding, and Horton / Havelock should be acting on this with urgency. Jamrog looks National League standard also, but in this company with the Bees, he did not look out of place. Well done Leicester, looks like you have the makings of an exciting team, but I doubt you will have worse opposition this season.

Speedway at Coventry has become a National joke, does not matter whether its Sandhu (track preparation) or Horton/Watson (accepting of this situation) to blame, the bottom line is that supporters have been treated abysmally, and this latest shambles only comes to light 24 hours before the restaging date, yeah right! I realise that driving your supporters away is what Sandhu is all about, his houses may get built quicker, if there is no opposition and no one is left who cares, but what a pathetic state of affairs by all concerned, The ultimate professional promoter Charles Ochiltree must be turning in his grave. I certainly don't accept that just because of Stock Cars 24 hours later, a National League Speedway meeting could not be accommodated at the stadium, whilst preparations remained ongoing. Those who said on Hortons arrival at Brandon, that he will close both Peterborough and Coventry sooner rather than later, look bang on the money! If we have to endure two more seasons before threatened closure, with poor track preparation like this season and amateur promoting skills, then close it down now, or is that your intention anyway, pathetic!

So may positives to take from the Storm Meeting on Friday Night. 1) The track was superb, without doubt the best I've seen it in a long while. 2) Great to see Colin Pratt at the stadium! - hopefully, point 1 refers. 3) The stadium was sparkling, so much attention has been paid to relaying car parks and land inside the stadium and also behind the back straight, really smart. 4) Whilst desperately sorry for Scunthorpe injury list, the Storm riders were brilliant. 5) Hope tonight's Stock Car Meeting does not undo the terrific work that has been undertaken. Looking forward to the Kings Lynn Meet next Friday. Hope Bomber is not too depressed by his New Zealand GP Showing.

Yes totally echo the above posts, an excellent evenings entertainment, to be honest was expecting many delays with falls, engine problems etc. but the meeting was slick, the riders of both Storm & Heathens put on a brilliant show, times at best were only a couple of seconds slower than normal. I would definitely encourage the many Bees fans who did not attend to give it a go, the teams deserve the support and were giving 110% effort. Mick Horton deserves great credit for this venture, it was indeed a brave move, and I appreciate having my eyes opened to the standard of racing in the National League.

Firstly let me say, that I love Prague have been there for many years now - Speedway introduced me to this great City, but now the Speedway has become an incidental reason for visiting,which is just as well, because the racing there is very poor indeed, absolutely delighted as an ex-Cradley fan that Herbie won, but the track surface is appalling leading to very little passing on a white chalk dustbowl of a track - a gaters paradise! the track needs urgent remedial work, reshaping etc. and lets not forget those seemingly forgotten words - Dirt & Grip, which have become alien to the GP organisers. The exchange rate means the admission is very high, to sit was around £50 and the Value for Money as a result is very poor, the facilities at the stadium are minimal with only the toilet block having a roof (if it rains) unless you are one of the VIPs. There must be better options available than the Marketa Stadium!

Posting this from Prague, and i can tell ýou everzone i spoke to thought it was dreadful, the track was awful, nothing reallz to do with the rain which was just an annoýance after such a lovelý week of weather = in short disgraceful

If we believe tonights GB performance was as Middleditch said " a bad day at the office" we are deluding ourselves, we were mechanically inferior, and the sad fact is that Loram apart, we have no-one who could have done better. Maybe this is symptomatic of the reason that we have become a third rate speedway nation, behind Poland & Denmark, and if we are serious in lifting the status of the sport in this country, we need to start investing in youth! I wonder what the National Press will make of this pi-s poor performance. What a shambles, but well done to Poland who used the rules to their advantage, wish we were in the same situation.

Its not Middlo's fault - the Brits (most of them) are at Premier League Level in World Rankings - Louis, Harris & Richardson were poor, very poor!!

Wow SCB thats quite a reply, let me offer my take on it! Firstly I stated that no brit has forced there way into the UK squad! you mention Danny King and Ed Kennett two excellent young riders for the future and I really hope they rise to the pinacle of the sport, they are certainly talented enough, but it is true surely, that they are not ready or been able to force there way into the UK team in 2004. there are several other young riders in this category also. I was thinking more of seasoned guys like Chris Harris, David Howe, Simon Stead, Leigh Lanham, Stuart Robson, Oliver Allen, several of these guys should have advanced this year to heat leader status, its disappointing it has not happened and their careers seem to stall at second string level. You mention Tony Rickardsson, surely you are not serious, this guy oozes professionalism, personality and sportsmanship, and is the only "name" left on the circuit that makes fans get along to the track. In the past only Mauger, Briggs, Fundin, Moore, Olsen, Penhall, Neilsen and Gundersen have been his equal, in my generation. Your point on Crumpy may be valid but he is not universally liked, mainly because he does not go out of his way to be liked by the crowd, excellent rider though, no question on this! The Rider Replacement Rule has been abused widely over the past few seasons, I think 4 weeks is sufficient, you say what if a rider comes back within 29 days well replace with a CL rider unless concrete proof is supplied to the BSPA as to when the rider will resume - example Wolves have used R/R for Nermark all season, and Oxford have done similar for Ulamek in the second half of the season, despite him turning out for his overseas club. With regard to Team strengthening once the season is underway, I will agree with you to a point, the Coventry Management were guilty of rank bad team management last winter, but should that mean the promoter sees fans leaving in droves suffering a reported heavy loss on the season, plus possible knock-on effects next year in trying to win these supporters back, and put the sport at potential risk at the venue, any venue in the future, I say, think again, at what you are advocating.

I can see what you are getting at here Carp - but then again are you not adding another complicated rule - why not: 4 weeks maximum. then to be replaced with a Junior!

Well done to Poole on their brace of EL titles, certainly the best team won this season, (albeit without a brit in the team) however there is much to concern to average speedway supporter surely. a) The abject failure of any young brit to force their way into the UK squad. we are still relying on the old guard to do the business - this is the very basis for the success of domestic speedway, and we are failing miserably with no home grown talented riders. The fact that with the withdrawl of Rickardsson, we now have no-one in the whole league, with the charisma to attract fans from their armchairs to the turnstyles - there is no Mauger / Olsen / Nielsen factor, riders we pretended to hate, and loved to see "our rider" beat, fair, square or otherwise. c) GP Riders now treat the EL matches like Challenge matches, getting their machinery checked out for the upcoming Grand Prix, they cannot wait to depart after a meeting, and put nothing back into the sport, very few have time for the fans - Hancock, Loram excepted. This is noticeable to most supporters and you tend to think the £12 admission maybe better staying in our own pocket. d) The BSPA have meddled with the rules season after season alienating the traditional supporter, whilst selling their soul to Sky TV, for instance the squad system for the No8/9 riders has been widely flouted with teams recruiting just who they like to replace any rider, for seemingly any reason. e) The Tactical Sub rule is crazy. its obvious the amount of opposition, go back to the original system - if it aint broke, dont fix it!!! f) Discard the rider grading system for 2005, let each team build up to the Poole combined average this year - so simple, and so easy to explain to a new supporter. g) This year the season died at the end of August for so many teams, a competition need to be devised to carry the season through to mid-october for everyone, not just the select few. h) With financial problems reported in Poland & Sweden, now is the time to get tough with the riders, when they sign for an EL team, they turn up and ride (unless genuinely injured, naturally) - There have been too many weak excuses for non-participation, example: Crump signed presumably a contract to represent Belle Vue between March and October, to pull out of the ELRC to get married within the contracted British Season is poor, and its irrelevant that the staging date has been changed due to a rain-off, he is (or should be) contracted to ride!!! i) Promoters should be penalised (fined) if the track preparation is poor, too many times this season, I have waited for ages for the track)s) to be regraded and prepared to the level it should be. j) The Rider Replacement rule should have a time limit to cover each absence, a team should not be able to use for the whole season. k) Teams must to allowed to rebuild within guidelines, if the team is not performing on track, it does no-one any good to see a team continually as the whipping boys, as Coventry have been this year!! Finally, can anyone advise why this season a rider had to have 12 matches to get an official average, yet Ronnie Correy comes back with Belle Vue, and gets one after 6 matches, sorry, this sport has much to offer, yet is open to so much ridicule, due to poor BSPA management decisions.