IainB

The trouble is the riders feel they need super tuned rocket ships, wheel rims with their names on and a chair in the pits with their logo on and all this costs, so they have to be professionals. Standardised equipment also needs to be looked at... but we've been through all this before and it's all getting rather tiring now

No, it was back in the mid 70's when Aces ran at Hyde Road... it then switched to a Sunday afternoon for a couple of decades, probably because crowds found it difficult to get on a Wednesday night, back then you could draw from Coventry, Wolves, Birmingham, Cradley, Leicester, Stoke, Oxford, Reading, Swindon and pretty much guarantee a sell out

Open meetings used to attract massive crowds in Poland back in the day before their league became number 1. That's because they got the chance to see the big stars when normally they wouldn't... now they can see them every week in a league match so an open meeting doesn't generate much interest

Weather might win this one... would normally be called today based on the forecast

A lot of well supported Midlands clubs in those days

Is that the sound of the nail being hit on the head? It's totally obvious you run on the night when you can get your best crowds. British Speedway really could have its cake and eat it. It's been shown at Leicester this year that running on Thursday's with the big stars in town really hasn't added the extra amount of fans needed to pay for it. There was a big crowd at Peterborough last night, was that because of the riders on display or because it was a Bank Holiday? The latter I would suggest and it was a local derby of course. The British League(s) need to run credible teams on the race night that suits them, this is not rocket science, they need the riders to commit to a full season, contracts to be honoured and if the riders aren't in... they're out and the league(s) structures are adjusted accordingly. That's the having your cake bit. The eating it is putting on open individual meetings with your Emil's, Bewley's, Woffy's etc. Like the PCMT has shown crowds will flock to these when there's a decent competitive field. Test Matches, crowds used to love to turn out to watch the national team ride and as the national team are doing so well we don't get to see them at all this year in the UK and the extra publicity this would bring

We could have that nice Stuart Hall presenting it, he brought real fun to proceedings... what's he up to these days?

PCMT Always draws a large crowd

Not if promoted properly with a decent line up... PCMT

Maybe they should televise some kind of Eurosport Trophy (assuming somebody can remember to bring it to the presentation ceremony) where it doesn't really matter if it stops during the Olympics or French Open tennis or tour de France etc. Made up of franchise teams similar to The Hundred run over a mixed format like the women's ashes... then they can leave the madness of a league campaign to us paying punters

Still, a pretty meteoric rise

Haven't the government just scrapped some environmental building rules today? If there's a quick buck to be made it's amazing how quickly rules and regulations can be changed

I think Kenny Cater went straight into the Halifax team and doubled up with Newcastle, was averaging over 8 within a season... they don't hit the scene like that anymore but I suppose the overall quality of rider is higher these days

He may have done but didn't Lambert spend some time in the lower leagues? I think Loram also started with Hackney in the lower league. Screeny came straight into the top flight with Belle Vue and never rode in the lower leagues until his career started to tail off (from memory)

I think you'd have to say that after the net effect of those changes Leicester's have probably worked out the worst. Taken us from 2nd in the league to scrapping around for 4th and an immediate pay off elimination

If we don't squeak into the play offs we have already seen our last (home) meeting of the season, in August!

I remember Mark Loram & Sean Wilson being the big cheeses in the old National junior League or whatever it was called, one went on to become World Champion the other a pretty decent 2nd string... a good junior does not automatically mean world beater

I'm interested to read his comments, he's always quick to appear in front of the fans after a victory but has gone missing lately after a run of defeats. Can you imagine Leicester City going down 8 nil away from home and to not read one word from the manager in the press?

Would have been interesting to see how Chris Harris's dream of a Cardiff wild card would have squared with his dream of becoming World Longtrack Champion as the Britsh GP clashes with the penultimate round of the Longtrack series, a problem he fortunately doesn't have. Shame really as he was in vintage form around the EoES last night!

I've seen riders like him come and unfortunately go through the years. I'm not for one minute suggesting it's his fault but there does seem to be a lot of hype about this kid from certain quarters, he's even got his own thread on this Forum! Not sure why that's all The only 16 year old I've ever seen come into the sport and instantly start scoring points was Joe Screen and that was in the top league too!

I've seen this Boughen kid a couple of times in the last few days... and I can't really see what all the fuss is about to be honest

What did the manager have to say about the tonking we took at Belle Vue yesterday morning... can't find any quotes on the website

To become a better Speedway rider?

Is there any other sport that would allow 1 owner of 2 teams to happen 2 times in a 7 team league!

No beans to spill really, they've put the club up for sale signed Woffy & Chris Holder for their other club and thrown us the scraps in the way of Lewis Kerr. All of the rumoured signings earlier in the season proved to be just that... rumours