IainB

It's probably easier to get from and back to Rawicz than it is trying to navigate the British motorway network after 10pm in 2024!

Difficult to believe, i know, but actually Chris Harris was the fastest on the night! Those transponders seem about as reliable as the tyres

Why do you think loads of Polish people have come to Britain to work? https://livingcost.org/cost/poland/united-kingdom Just looking at the monthly salary after tax a £15 stream here would be more like a £40 stream in Poland. I wonder how the crowds would be in Poland if they had to pay around £50 entry for every league match

They did, Hagon won them all as you'd expect, nothing too note worthy, Hagon was well on the pace in Heat 4 though when he came in for Doyley

I thought it was enjoyable without being a classic, one thing I did struggle with was 7 Belle Vue riders in the meeting all wearing the same race suit and throw in Woj who was wearing something very similar it was quite difficult at time to tell who was who. You have kind of answered a question I was asking myself, in I wondered how much the stream was for people not in the UK. When you factor in things like cost of living and average income, I would suspect that £15 for somebody living and working in Poland for example would be quite a stretch.

Don't forget the cost of your caviar and chips for 2

When you compare it to the £4 or £5 per meeting that the season passes represent, £10-£15 does seem a bit of a rip-off for one offs, of course we don't know what Belle Vue charged for the "rights" to stream this meeting and market forces will ultimately dictate the prices of streamed meetings. Like I said earlier my trip cost me £55, take off the £15 that this would have cost me to stream and it brings it down to £40, was it worth it? Head says no, heart says YES! Sometimes life is just more than a financial transaction.

That'll do it! The ref was obviously half asleep during this one as he couldn't even see that Lindgren clearly packed up causing Woj to come off in an earlier incident!

As a cost cutting measure have you thought about leaving the wife at home? I've just totted up my costs for this meeting at £56.76... I wish I hadn't! So yes add another £25 and I can see where you're coming from. Arguably the line-up for this meeting is as good as you're going to see in this country this year, the 6 rider final is truly spectacular to watch and as comfortable as watching it from the home can be, you can't beat live Speedway! Horses for courses though, I was able to travel up there at the time I wanted and on my own.

Does anybody know what Doyley's beef was in the final?

If the ref needs to consult var for that he shouldn't be a ref!

Yes, it was noticeable that the riders weren't using the inside of the track on turns 1 and 2 for the start of the session but by the end they were

You are right, clubs are always going to get criticised, it goes with the territory and you can argue the toss until the cows come home on the merits of whether meetings should have gone ahead or not. I think we a can all agree that meetings have run in the past where they certainly wouldn't do today, whether that be to do with the bikes, tracks, financial risk, whatever the reason. The thing is it is now 2024 and as far as I can tell absolutely nothing has been done to try and remedy the situation at all. The only "improvement" has been the proliferation of weather "forecasts" (and you can really take your pick there as to which service you use and whether you think that is accurate or not) which can often just add confusion to a situation and the dalliance with track covers occasionally at some tracks. Comparing the Oxford and Leicester matches, the circumstances were very similar, they're only 80 miles apart have had pretty much the same weather recently and were both going to cop some rain on their opening night. The track was in perfect condition at Leicester the night before, yet Leicester elect to cancel and Oxford don't. Both had the press at their stadiums the day before saying there's going to be Speedway tomorrow night, Speedway is back! You only have to look at Oxford's TwitterX feed to see the size of the crowd they pulled in.

https://twitter.com/OxfordSpeedway/status/1768609339676209446?s=19

From Speedway Updates: 19:31 - Parade is on now. It is drizzling. 19:41 - Raining still - heat 1 at tapes. 19:45 - Rain getting worse, heavy now. Track is holding up. Oxford are in full white race suits so they are getting covered. Rain stopped now Sounds like the texter was a bit of a drama queen Did you go? Was it any good?

The gain is all the promotion you've done leading up to the first match of the season is realised, you've less chance of a fixture back log. I've watched absolute bore-fests on a perfectly prepared track in the past... look at the pairs at Leicester last year, I'm still clearing the sleep out of my eyes! I thought you'd be pretty made up with that result last night as a Birmingham fan, if your number 1 had pulled his finger out the Chee-Spires were there for the taking. You should at least get the bonus point

It is very much to do with track surface imo, KL has been completely ruined the the shale that they use, it used to be one of the very best race tracks in the country, not so much now. But it is a multi use surface, not like at Leicester. It'd be interesting to know how many clubs' first meetings have been cancelled over the years, probably their most important meeting of the season next to a PO Final. I don't particularly think fans are confused by the fact that tracks are different, we all know this. I think what confuses many fans is why matches that went ahead in years gone by are sometimes called off well in advance today. It really is something that blights the sport, fans don't know whether they coming or going and are often sat at home (or even worse in a hotel room local to the track) on a lovely sunny night wondering why there is no Speedway on. We all know the reasons behind this, what would be more interesting would be to ask what could be done about this, whether this be some kind of all weather track surface, track covers, wet weather setups on the bikes etc.

So Oxford got it wrong? I think you watched it on the stream? Never as good as actually being there. I was following it on updates and it read as a pretty good meeting, considering people were predicting a 60-30 job. It read as if there were a number of passes (6 is the word count on updates), and a last heat decider. Oxford fans probably went home happy and I bet a fair few Birmingham fans would be happy at that result? Oxford's season is underway and they'll probably reap the rewards for this... we at Leicester are all waiting on the weather forecast for next week.

The same forecast as Oxford, I was watching the rain track across the country on the weather radar apps throughout the day (exciting I know!) and the weather in Leicester and Oxford was pretty much the same. All, I'm saying is questions should be asked why one went ahead and the other didn't. You may have identified a potential reason in the make up of the track surface, I don't know if Oxford use a different shale to Leicester but after another winter of work on the track it still seems to be blighted by any sign of water on the horizon of the radar. Thank goodness the season has at least started so we can have some good healthy Speedway debate

And Oxford? Criticised for going ahead in less than ideal conditions? I wasn't at Oxford but reading speedway updates it seems that it was raining right up until start time and raining heavily during heat 1. The efforts of all their off season promotion paid off though with a home win in front of a good sized crowd... Leicester? We were all sat at home watching updates from Oxford wondering what the difference was.

The meeting was called off way before 6:30 though

You have to question why Oxford has gone ahead while Leicester hasn't.

Leaf blowers at the ready

So they can shut down for the summer!

Not at 6:30 when the gates were opened to the public though. I'm afraid when you open things to the public these are the little things that need thinking about and addressing