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Doesn’t look like Howarth will be riding tonight as he has gone to hospital to get X Rays on his wrist after a crash at Leicester yesterday. He completed the meeting and picked up a couple of wins but it has swollen up overnight

The good news is that looks like Rory has not broken his thigh as originally thought but will remain in hospital as the muscles are bleeding . Hopefully he will be back on the bike soon

The issue is often not ambulances but legal medical red tape that holds meetings up when a rider needs to go to hospital. As once a paramedic/doctor has administered controlled drugs like Morphine or inserted a cannula for fluids then that individual has to stay with them until handed over to county ambulance or goes with them to hospital. At Leicester we have had two ambulances and two paramedics for some meetings and had an incident but still had delays as SCB will only allow one medical officer

This is currently the only planned double header at Leicester unless there is a few rain offs then this decision may have to be reconsidered . For the Berwick meeting it was not the Leicester club that wanted a double header they would have preferred a 6pm start just for the Lions as it allows Stewart more time to prepare the track especially if the sunshine holds out and also for riders to get home from Berwick then wash & prepare bikes for Leicester some will only have 9 hours between getting home before having to leave again. In that time they need to sleep,eat and prepare bikes . The dislike of double headers is the reason why the Edinburgh Championship fixture that got rained off last week was not added onto the Armadale NDL meeting last night which in logistical sense would have been better. However on this occasion it is more of a needs must as Berwick made it clear that if they went in NDL they wanted as many double header meetings as possible to cut down their expenses for travelling and this was the only way that they could make it viable.

Not sure the UK is such an attraction to NKI now that he has got rid of his house in Peterborough and moved his family back to Denmark it was this reason that he didn’t sign for Peterborough. What has changed from the winter is that more flights are becoming available to UK and we have the season started with crowds and maybe some riders that opted out of UK are reconsidering their options and maybe some Swedish clubs are looking to reduce their costs as well.

I would say the Cook decision was made before the meeting and Craig was told which resulted in him going through the motions tonight and making the rest of the team unstable. They don’t have a meeting for a week so could have released press announcement at weekend or Monday, I would have a guess the replacement will be someone that was originally unavailable at the start of the season

I know it was always Wolves vs Belle Vue to be the planned TV fixture what I meant was when this got rained off on Sunday, Eurosport planned to switch their broadcast to Peterborough hence why it appeared on the Sky EPG/ Tv Guide for a while yesterday, however the forecast is not brilliant for today and there has been a lot of rain over the last few days so a decision was made to not broadcast any meetings this week

I think Eurosport were originally planning to show this meeting but with the weather forecast not looking good it appears that they had 2nd thoughts due to the costs involved

From next Friday Premier Sports will be broadcasting some Friday meetings starting with Gorzow vs Torun

If the Leicester meeting could be moved to a Saturday or Sunday that would make good sense as I am confident a number of fans would travel along with possibly a coach like they did to Eastbourne and Berwick in 2019

I can assure you that some of the bulbs have been replaced with higher rated ones as well as other ones being cleaned and realigned to be more on the track. The light levels were measured before and after with a lux meter and there was some definite improvement

Ben Trigger turns 15 on 27th May so will miss just one fixture my apologies I thought there was an away match before then. With regards to the comments about 4-5pt replacement riders and guests I do believe that all clubs will struggle to plug these gaps when they happen just as Leicester have. What is becoming clear from early meetings and some clubs P&P day is that some of the new starters are not ready yet for league racing

It’s interesting that many fans think there is loads of riders on 4-5pt averages in NDL available, there simply isn’t and below that most unattached riders are not up to NDL standard . Leicester have looked at many options including trying to convince riders out of retirement, others have grasstrack commitments and some can’t commit to getting time off work for midweek meetings As stated in my original post Leicester are already having to use a guest until little Ben Trigger turns 15 and the other reserve has no experience of league racing.

Leicester had actually agreed terms with another rider but he has now broken his hand practicing so no replacement could be found for the start of the season, Leicester are also unable to use Ben Trigger for the first couple of meetings as he doesn’t turn 15 until the end of May

Abi last appeared on Speedway coverage for BT sports during the play off between Ipswich & Poole but has done lots of other Speedway meetings as well as regular Moto GP and World Rally car series It could be interesting to see who fans rate better at Speedway presentation Abi on Eurosport or Charlie on BT sport for the GPs

Coverage will be pretty much the same as BT sports coverage the only difference is that it won’t be available in UHD

Thank You for clearing that up Mrs Widman, So do you think that his mind may be changed about 2021 if it was at his local club ? ( Maybe he could do a double signing and ride for the Cubs and supply the burgers & sausages that currently taste like cardboard)

I have a feeling that Chris Widman has retired to concentrate on his Butchers business and personally I am not sure about Mickie Simpson from what I have seen in British Youth series he seems to crash a lot and also his equipment looks like needs investment although he is quite an accomplished Grasstrack rider

I wouldn’t think any Speedway fans who want to visit Leicester will have any issues in getting tickets for meetings with the stadium capacity over 3,500. The first meeting will be very busy so that is only one that may be an exception to the above. The biggest issue I can foresee is that casual fan who wants to just turn up on a nice summer night but can no longer do this as will have to have purchased their ticket online beforehand. Tosh1218- There was some lower crowds but over the season was over 1,500 including season ticket holder’s

Depending on the opposition, weather and if the Football & Rugby were home between 1,500 and 1,800 most weeks, obviously towards the end of the season when fighting for the league crowds were a lot higher . Hopefully we can all be back in the stadium a month tonight watching a Lions win

That depends if the stadium wants the GP back in 2022 as they have already moved so many events over from 2020 and 2021 plus the ones already planned dates may be difficult. It will also depend on how Discovery want to move forward with British GP they may have other ideas and be prepared to gamble on a GP in London

If the reports of Travelodge, Fast Food restaurant and Costa Coffee being added to the site that could be good for Speedway but not so sure about how the car dealership and offices will fit in. It has to remembered that quite a few stadiums are in industrial areas with Leicester,Scunthorpe, Redcar and Wolverhampton being prime examples

It appears that Ellis may have the Speedway bug back and at present it looks like he may be heading up to Scotland to replace an overseas based rider in an enforced change due to Covid travel restrictions. This is unless Scunthorpe or Redcar can better the deal that has been offered which i understand is heavily backed by a sponsor to provide equipment, mechanic and a better deal than what was offered at Leicester

Ellis Perks has suddenly become very much in demand and it looks like his mind may be changed about riding again. However the current favourites to sign him appear to be a more Northern team than Redcar as they have a major sponsor prepared to finance the deal and cost of equipment and they would be saving more over the year not paying airfares for an overseas rider

Maybe Ben like other Diamonds riders was given the option to join another club if they chose as Newcastle will not be able to make any payments for meetings and expenses until 1st July