marko

If Hurry had scored to his average, Hammers would have won this.

If Hammers top three all score double figures and Bowtell chips in with a few then its bound to keep the score close, Brummies will need to be commanding the meeting by heat 13 or they could be in trouble.

David Mason will take plenty of points off a long tail but I doubt he will touch our top three. Lets see how he does in a head to head with Paul Hurry.

Agree with tigerowl, there is no need for Nigel to keep exposing the sport to viewers who already know who rides for who or those who don't know and frankly don't need to know. In team events they shouldn't even mention riders who are guests, just say this is the teams. The media should always exaggerate the positives and hide the negatives.

wouldnt surprise me if this Sunday they use the Plymouth programmes with an insert for the iow match and still charge full price for it.

yeah but with respect Cityrebel West Ham and White City were not riding in front of just a few hundred, the atmosphere i bet was amazing.

I think westhamboy is comparing Arena to the London Stadium as regards being so far away from the action, it's not really something that has ever really bothered me, you just get used to it but for away fans used to being closer to the action it's harder to accept and the reason I think why a lot of non Hammers fans dislike the place. The closer you are, the louder it is and the greater perception of the speed.

its a challenge meeting against Coventry to help keep them relevent, so not vital for Bomber to be there, not that it probably matters on reflection as those who have chosen Rye would go to Rye anyway, maybe some who were on the fence or tried to frequent both will pick Rye? who knows? Lakeside don't help themselves with their continued dishonesty towards the fans, meetings taking an age to run and reading that there were no programmes last night is really unprofessional, I see they have also taken away the standing area on the stock car track, I guess the numbers coming in don't justify it being set up.

Maybe no one they thought would be a suitable replacement was interested in taking the booking, just look at the Eastbourne vs Aces match amongst others recently, guests or R/R galore, in that respect this league is no better than the top flight. Lakeside should have been honest with the fans about the team news as soon as they knew, ok it would have put some people off but is that any better than having people come under false pretences and then deciding they wont bother anymore. Next Sunday will be interesting if Rye and Lakeside go head to head.

I don't know about jealousy but I have always felt the bspa is something of a old boys club and newer members are never taken seriously if they get accepted into the lodge in the first place. Posters are quite right in saying the laws should be enforced consistently across the board, not one rule for one and another rule for others.

Booing opposition riders when they have perceived to be the villain is fine, but booing for the sake of it? Seems a bit over the top and unnecessary. At Lakeside the fans are always respectful of the opposition unless they have a very good reason.

Crikey, that track has a seriously bad case of blue groove disease.

Kids like this need a serious reality check, at this level you should have pretty much a full time job you can work around, ideally a trade which one can harness a skill for if the speedway thing doesn't lead to much, by that I mean for many, they will never attain the levels required to be able to do it as a full time profession. If you want to be a top speedway rider then great, but you have to pay your dues, same as every other rider did generations before you.

Speedibee, what i would say is in an ideal world the NL would be full of youngsters all keen to try and make it as high as possible, the more we have the more chance of stabilising the British scene over the next decade, fact is we don't have anywhere near enough riders to do that. It gets into a grey area but we really don't want is certain calibre of riders of a certain age taking places which could be filled by a promising youngster, now lets take Mr X and say he is 30 years old, good for maybe a four of five point average, only rides for a bit of fun, now he could still ride, there is a perfectly good amateur scene for that. edit: of course though it all comes back to costs, the sport is too expensive to do properly as a hobby, although that should not be the case, the older riders should be able to have a skid without it costing them a fortune.

I think having an older rider is not just about passing on knowledge, these teams like those above are a business and it has to remain attractive to fans therefore the side must be competitive, since you can't go abroad to strengthen then you must look at home to try and find ways of helping a weak team, the only way is to utilise experienced riders who are very much winding down in their careers. Biggest problem the sport has and Ive been saying it for years is that it's too expensive to get into, not enough youngsters take it up because of costs, not only is there a shortage of riders in the top two leagues that means many riders ride in both we even have the situation where some riders like Zach W ride for two different teams at the same level albeit in different competitions. We constantly hear riders saying they don't ride enough, why is this when before doubling up/down it was never an issue. In the old National League riders would have had 30 to 34 league meetings a season and in between meetings they would have another job. If there were youngsters knocking on the door to be riders then the current NL could be filled with riders under 25, once you get passed that age the chances of picking it up to a good level reduce unless your a John Louis.

Heat 13 looked a cracker and in fact the meeting as a whole came across well from what I have seen, nice composed ride by Zach almost forcing Luke into making a mistake, I would be amazed if opposition teams riders are able to go through the card against this trio of heat leaders, Paul Hurry is looking a steal even on a nine point average right now.

I don't need to be their when i evidence such as this and frankly you only make yourself look an idiot trying to defend it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w155a3lhsS8

They say the camera never lies, well I've seen several heats from every home meeting and the constant trend has been processional racing around the inside. Maybe there has been the odd classic? But I can only go by what I've seen and read on the speedway updates and YouTube and that has not been enough to convince me to want to see more in person.

Having seen some clips from today's and other meetings I have to unfortunately agree, the track this season has resembled one that we have seen all too often when it's on the telly, dry, with a blue groove soon appearing and very little in the way of passing. In fact it's gone back to circa 2004/2005 under big Ron.

I have not been there so far this season and won't be there today, but this change means i will consider going in future provided i hear good reports about the race experiance offered on race days, today for example i expect passing to be a premium but only because of the weather rather than a perceived lack of track preparation.

There is a nasty band of storms coming up from France, should stay clear from the East side of the country but will be worth keeping an eye on, humid days like this, they can pop up at a moments notice.

Feel sorry for the track staff today, keeping any sort of moisture on the track will be almost impossible even if they have the big water tanker going around between heats.

I would be more concerned with the weather, its supposed to get a higher risk of storms breaking out during the humid afternoon and if the traffic is as bad as its been the last 48 hours then it wont help.

I am purely guessing Spooner is replacing Hunter directly and they will see if they can shuffle him back in at a later date.

I feel that Lakeside are determined one way or another to get Paul in even if it means releasing another rider on a temporary basis. I don't think other clubs will be able to argue with that unless their gripe is about us replacing a forty something with another forty something.