marko

Gutted I had a few Bob on Toruń thinking they would probably get a good away win

The same Chelmsford born, Arena Essex rider Chris Mills?

Something else which is seldom mentioned is with crowds going down so is the likely effect of lack of volunteers, and that is something speedway depends a lot on, back in the 80s there seemed to be more track staff than there are now, (using Arena Essex as an example)

Someone posted about losing interest yet still being involved, it’s so true, Arena finished 3 years ago and the current first division is something of a joke but I still love the sport, I get my fix from clips on YouTube both current and old. Someone even posted the recent Witches vs Wolves meeting, is that Kevin Long still doing the MC on the centre green? Sounded like him, one of the better ones given my 30 plus years of following the sport.

Great news, as an Arena Essex/Lakeside fan the only match I can recall at Cowley was when Christian Heffonbrock went through the card helping an away win, probably the only time we won at Oxford although I don’t think we went there much as often in different divisions. I have enjoyed the meetings posted on you tube of Oxford in the late 80s/90s with Hans Nielsen.

Regardless of points limit you have to be competitive in order to retain the fan base, most fans expect their team to win at home, maybe the odd narrow defeat but not losing by big margins, this has been the case for decades. Lynn though has always been a track that most riders like so maybe not so much home advantage. Rider shortage and lack of interest in non British League riders coming over here, will hurt any team struggling, imagine what a NKI type rider could do for this team if swapped with a second string or reserve.

Anyone know what sort of viewing figures Eurosport are generating? Sponsorship exposure is important, but if few are watching it amounts to nothing. Equal share of coverage has to be there, but I do wonder whether sometimes a promoter would rather it wasn't, it means a reduced crowd and the chances of someone watching who is A: an unconverted live fan and B: within reasonable travelling distance to that track, seems quite low. Where is the gain? the sport has had tv coverage for years, it all seems to do is bury the product rather than put it over as something people should go out of there way to experience.

Poland seem to have it right, but they have not always been in that position, that country has a history of being held back and yet still they have risen our sport to levels far exceeding our own, there must be lessons we can learn from how they turned that around. We have a massive rider shortage, 75 odd years I recall a story of clubs especially Wembley having mass try outs to find future riders and stars, that is what we probably need to do, invest in getting new riders to the sport, but you have to get other things in place first, the equipment needs to be more standard and cheaper to run, it needs to be more viable for new riders or grass track/motocross riders to get involved. As it stands, one "big" league will happen eventually anyway because clubs will continue to close because what we have is unsustainable, our leagues are going through the motions continuing to be bleed money.

And they make it even worse but carrying on with the 4 team play offs, only in speedway could a team finish in the bottom half of a table and still be league champions. If play offs were going to be kept with 7 or less teams, it should have been top two straight to a final

Bjarne at +5 over Holder looks to good to be true, am i missing somthing? has Holder dropped to reserve? Always nervous about betting on race days when rain is about, can change the tracks wiping out all home advantage

Or the fans

In the original days the national league I think most of the riders had jobs outside of speedway, most of the teams were almost all British, Arena Essex in 1990 had Martin Goodwin, Rob Tilbury, Troy Pratt, Wayne Garrett rip, Kevin Brice, Simon Wolstenholme and Adrian Stevens, no one doubling up or down, none of those riders rode for anyone else anywhere bar a rare guest appearance. those days are long gone and the current practice of doubling up is not sustainable. should be one biggish league next season, time to start giving the youth a better chance to ride more frequently and on a greater variety of tracks.

Did Edward have a couple of duff tyres? Always worth asking but in his case I suspect it might be down to a loss of concentration? Knows that track so well maybe when it’s not quite normal it catches him out. Not making excuses for him, anyone can have an off day but you would normally expect him to score at least eight from four nigh on every week.

To be fair though, if someone had told me in 1990 that Arena would still be running in 2000 I would not have believed them yet alone 2018, they had a good run given the often uncertainty about their future, and may at some point come back, time will tell.

I recall a time I would go to Hackney one night (now closed) Arena Essex another night (now closed) and sometimes Rye House on a Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon (closed too)

Yet, when a track is in danger of being sold off or left to rot, not a councillor to be seen

Trouble is Cricket has a big appeal to the Asian audience because of India and Pakistan, speedway does not, its not being racist to say that our sport is followed 99.9% by the White British population with quite a high average age group, its a very niche market, especially in a City like Birmingham which has a big ethnic percentage.

Been more cloudy today so hopefully they have been able to put more water on the track, its almost a scandal to have a slick home track and then expect riders like Danny King to perform on it, give the home riders the tools to make the most of home advantage.

How long will it be before we have an unsatisfactory start and all four riders have to return to the pits to change the rear tyre, as well as make clutch adjustments, top up the methonal, change the timing etc etc and four hours later we finally made it to heat 15

My local non league football club charges more on the day at the gate than if you buy tickets online, they actually incentivise buying ahead online, and this is a club that gets not more crowds than your average speedway club gets.

6 team league, good luck with trying to avoid covering the same team two weeks on the trot

ah, that explains it

This must be the least talked about televised meeting in the history of televised meetings, did anyone actually go or watch it? not being funny, but even the most boring of meetings always used to get a few pages of comments if only to decry the lack of entertainment. I don't have Eurosport so did not watch it myself, but always interested to know fans views, even if they are sometimes biased.

Surely it should be cheaper to buy a ticket ahead? Your basically committing yourself to going which for a sport that can be easily affected by the weather and last minute line up changes is quite a big thing.

Tom Brennan certainly has the pedigree. Anders Rowe is doing amazing, seems only like yesterday he was racing in junior heats around Lakeside, he was not a Lakeside asset but he was there pretty much every week getting experience, that track of course is now gone but its legacy of giving youngsters track time will live on for a while yet. Nathan Ablitt is another I keep an eye on from Lakeside days.