flagrag

From what I have heard from a variety of people involved with the sport in the U.K. The continuation of a tv deal and a paid one at that will key whether 3 or 4 clubs stay in the top league.

Mickthemuppet- The points you have raised about sports rights On Sky and the associated loss of customers is something that Sky will be working hard to turn around in the future starting from next month. The customer churn and satisfaction levels are clear that the current policy of PL football and F1 is not a sustainable product so things are being reviewed. With the right product and realistic costs Speedway could yet make a return however from the info I can get is that BT will be given first option on a deal in return for the support they gave the sport in 2017

No just Wolves vs Swindon is on TV on Monday

The German tuners like Weiss,Nischler,Lattenhammer have always traditionally been quite expensive and better at Grass & Longtrack engines. They also tend to do engines for other sports like Go carting and mini moto I think NKI has used some Nischler engines this year for the GPS. At the minute it seems that Kowalski and FGM kit is the stuff that is working well at the moment but am that Peter Johns and Ashtec will soon have something better out

Lasse had no equipment to ride in the second meeting as he had bent his bikes in his crashes, Anybody at the track would have noticed in heat 15 he came out on Erik Riss bike. It has to be remembered as well that he is still carrying a knee injury from his previous Swindon crash and has strapping on this plus two more crashes today. Erik Riss was asked to guest but couldn't do it as he has a flight booked and had to get up to Wolverhampton to meet up with Mark. Josh Bates has picked up a jarred Neck from his crash hence him not being put in heat 14.

No Pawel P on Saturday I suspect as I would have thought that if he was fit enough to ride in the UK now that he would have done Belle Vue tonight,Leicester Saturday and then Swindon on Sunday a nice little earner financially. He has already been ruled out tonight at BV so doubt that we will see him again this year

My understanding from speaking to the Leicester promotion in the event of any clashes with riders have same teams in relegation meetings is that they were expecting that riders would ride for the home team so at Sheffield Bates and Bjerre as Tigers and then at Leicester for the Lions. I am a little surprised that the promotors have dropped this idea as financially it would have been a good money earner for both clubs as Leicester fans generally travel well especially if it was against Sheffield or Ipswich

I see tonight that BT have confirmed the dates for the Premiership Grand Final which were originally the dates for the relegation and promotion meetings. Has the idea of relegation now been dropped or just moved back and not televised

I see tonight that BT have confirmed the dates for the Premiership Grand Final which were originally the dates for the relegation and promotion meetings. Has the idea of relegation now been dropped or just moved back and not televised

Where has this information come from that Pawel has sustained a broken shoulder or Collarbone? He is riding on Sunday for Torun and other than some bruises picked up no further injuries in his crash last week.

The question is will the riders that get called into the meeting and their mechanics get their Russian visas in time ? I know for UK there has been a 5day wait for an appointment to take your fingerprints and then takes around 24-48 hours to get issued.

Another bit of good news for Leicester fans is Pawel has escaped without any breaks from his high speed crash/ fencing by Fast Freddie It seems that Pawel will be fit to ride for Torun on Sunday subject to treatment this week. Hopefully back in UK in couple of weeks the month flying restriction is due to finish next Tuesday i think.

I am very pleased with the result as not really expected but have a feeling the Lions could have won it by taking the advantage in heat15 but the track was clearly too wet. As much as Jim Lynch is a nice guy he has made so many tactical errors and have seen at home meetings struggles to keep up with things he really needs an assistant to help him out with tactics especially when we have to run with RR and guests so much.

As explained last night to fans and was also posted on here this morning. Pawel is not able to fly with the surgery he has had due to a high risk of DVT and a blood clot. There was not time to ride at Leicester and then be in Rybnik this afternoon by driving.

Pawel himself admitted that he came back a bit too soon last week and was in quite a bit of pain after the meeting. So has a medical certificate until Sun where he will undergo a fitness test. What is unclear is what happens on Monday when he doesn't ride at Somerset in the TV meeting maybe another Polish medical note

I think what Marc was suggesting was that the Belle Vue meeting may be when all the injured riders will be back and Yes Saturday 19th looks like Leicester will be missing King and Newman so maybe 26th against Somerset we will get a full Lions team

Update on Leicester website with Schlein in for Kim,Heeps for Erik, guest to be confirmed for Lasse and RR for Pawel. Just awaiting update on the Rockets team and guests Being used. Interestingly Pawel is riding for Torun on Sunday but has doctors note for Saturday so will he be fit for Somerset on Monday or will he aggravate his injury again like last week.

Yes Steve looks like you are correct with Riss,Wells and Barker riding for their Championship club. It will also be interesting to see if KK appears for Rye House as well with Gorzow having an important fixture on Sunday

Leicester are due to welcome back Kyle Newman who has declared himself fit and will have a guest for Kim Nillson who is reserve at the GP in Sweden. The big question mark will be whether Pawel is available to ride he is keen to ride as long as no flare up from injury but it all depends on Torun giving him the required start permissions and whether they would prefer to have him practice in Poland. They did originally agree to this date but obviously things have changed a bit since then with him picking up the injury and their league position in doubt. Just have to see how they wish to deal with this.

Philip Rising- I am not sure why the CloudBass OB lads keep putting the comms team in with the referee. This caused issues at Leicester and Luckily Chris Durno agreed as a one off otherwise they were going to have to do it from the truck

As is already documented on here there has been been a cut down on the amount of cameras being used this year due to costs and budgets. I am surprised people have noticed that BT are turning up with less equipment than Sky as they still have the OB unit,Support tender,Generator and Satellite Uplink unit. The only extra trucks Sky used to bring was a catering unit as there was more staff involved now they have to make their own tea & coffee. As I stated before BT have made some good improvements and managed to keep the costs down well. Previously the Sky production team were reluctant to use footage from the track DVD companies as felt that it would look out of place in the tv production but BT have proved well with by using some effective graphics and effects it can look ok. To make sure Speedway remains on tv in 2018 I mentioned before it is very important that viewers interact with BT on Facebook & Twitter so keep sharing and commenting on the Speedway content they upload as they measure a lot of audience reaction from this as well as the viewing figures. Another little cheat is if you are watching at home on the TV and also have an IPad or phone have it playing on the BT sport app there as well as they look closely at online viewing as well

I have now had a chance to review the coverage from tonight and also from the World Cup back in June. To me some of issues people are reporting with the production is down to a lack of cameras. When you watch a few of the World Cup races there is on a Average around 22 cuts to different cameras during a race where as compared to the league racing tonight it is around 12 some of which are to the camera pointing in from the tapes which to me offers no benefit and also the managers shot. Another positive I like from the BT production is the round up of footage from around the tracks and I think Natalie is definitely the right person to front Speedway as has so much knowledge and knows the questions to ask.

The Return - I cannot say obviously from a BSPA/Go Speed side about Speedway returning to Sky sports whether they would be interested but from a Sky side the door is not closed and locked, if the conditions were right and some of the improvements that Sky have previously suggested have been implemented like reduced entry fees and more promotions combined with the positive viewing figures has not gone unnoticed by the powers that be at Sky especially with how some recent tv rights auctions have gone for other sports and rebranding of channels. Speedway would actually be a good fit for Sky sports Action channel with regular live content. Unfortunately the end decision is not with me otherwise we would be having a UHD 24camera & Dolby Atmos super production 😀

I must say I do find the production,directing and vision mixing of the league Speedway quite confusing this year. The guy in charge is very experienced and in fact would say he is the master of directing Speedway tv production having done 100s of GPs and has done the world cups as well but not really sure what's going on with the league coverage. I am unsure whether he is being let down by a more junior production team and vision mixer than he is used to or whether as there is less cameras is struggling to produce it in the way as you can the GPs. This may be why they keep cutting to Debbie and Colin Pratt as they haven't got the on track angles to make the coverage seem varied. I have also noticed that now the nights are starting to draw in that more of the meetings are being done in the dark the age and quality of equipment being used is starting to show as needs more light than what new kit can operate with. This year was always going to be difficult as has been said many times on here it is being done to a tight budget to keep costs as low as possible. Let's hope that 2018 it can continue to be on TV whether it be on BT or back on Sky the main thing is live British Speedway on TV whichever way there will be improvements to coverage as can be budgeted and funded correctly.

Pawel himself is very keen to come back to Leicester and get racing as well as earning some money. It was my understanding that he was always going to practice after the meeting and has already had a session on Thursday and Saturday When he returns will all be in Toruns hands as will they demand that he stays in Poland next Saturday to practice or will they see riding in U.K. Is better for him