IainB

They may as well pull the plug on the whole season then smh

I'm confused now

What covid restrictions of those? Are Eastbourne operating differently from the rest of the country? I was looking at the forecast on my phone app yesterday evening, it was telling me there wasn't a cloud in the sky at that current time... I looked out of the window and couldn't see any blue sky at all. What a ridiculous decision to call it off so early!

See you on a wet Tuesday night in the last week of October for the most important match of the season! Ippo of as well... and Eastbourne on Saturday, unbelievable Jeff! 1 home match in July 1 home match in August Absolutely ridiculous!

The question is, will the "promoters" be "promoting" the next meeting in the same way they were "promoting" this meeting? Or was it just a one off and they think that's it we've now done "promotion". Does anybody know if the promotions that they did have running were successful? Track walks, meet and greets, viewing from the centre green etc.

Was good to see a 1 min time allowance introduced for restarts in the GP's this season... something I've been saying that British Speedway should have introduced years ago... yet still haven't!

It doesn't even have to be a hint in the air, these days even a forecast of a hint of dampness in the air is enough to cancel for some tracks

Where on earth have you dug that up from?!?

Leicester have just signed the next Darcy Ward in Zaine Kennedy... so far the jury is very much out

For me you can corelate that also to the Simon Wigg race fixing story, coincidence? I'm not sure. Athletics has taken a similar turn with all of the questions marks surrounding the competitors and drugs. It used to be on the terrestrial TV channels most weekends back in the 80's and 90's

I seem to remember the Star doing a big piece on the future of Speedway a couple of seasons back when it really seemed as if the sport was at a cross roads. Didn't they do a big survey and almost the whole edition was devoted to it? And what happened? This is what has happened... @Sings4Speedway has replied almost word for word exactly what I was going to reply Ah but where is SMI now? That proves they were wrong... is probably the BSPL thinking. Used to enjoy the SMI a better read than the Star I thought. Talking of the Star... what's happened to @PHILIPRISING is he ok? Used to be on here quite a bit but has disappeared recently

Ask true competitors like Nigel Mansell and Lewis Hamilton... or even any Speedway rider who has ridden in front of a crowd

But you are sure of it? lol 1) you didn't, I said that it does or can make a difference. I did pick one rider out, I could have picked others over the years. Gollob always raised his game in Polish GP's. Bomber won his home GP with a hugely partisan crowd. 2) I'm talking about human performance in sport. You can stick to speedway if you like if you think it helps your argument... which, of course, it doesn't.

Apologies, I've obviously misunderstood your "joke"

Very few spoke English when I used to go to Zakopane a few years back... have you ever tried to mime sickness and diarreah to a Polish chemist

Ah, coming across as a bit of a xenophobe now, how funny of you

Of course they're not going to put double headers on because I want them to... a bit daft to even suggest that! You're sure some tracks can't host double headers, which ones are you sure about? You don't think a partisan crowd makes a difference? I think the results in last year's behind closed doors football fixtures shows that the crowd can make quite a big difference to performance.

It was before the Polish double headers

I'd say that England was more of a "home" to the likes of Mauger, Olsen & Crump etc than Poland is to Woffinden, Lindgren & Madsen due to the language barrier and different cultures. The riders are only based there the last 2 years due to Covid and now the imposed league restrictions by Poland. Let's look at the contenders: Janowski: 6 home rounds, 2 home tracks Laguta: 1 home round, Laguta has only gone to Wroclaw this year so not really a home track like it is to Magic & Woffy Zmarzlik: 6 home rounds, 0 home tracks Sayfutdinov: 1 home round, 0 home tracks Lindgren: 1 home round, 0 home tracks Woffinden: 0 home rounds, 2 home tracks Madsen: 1 home round, 0 home tracks How is that fair? I'd rather have seen the double headers at the non-polish venues and the one nighters in Poland. Would Zmarzlik be pulling some of the moves he does if he wasn't pumped up by a hugely partisan crowd?

Havvy's qualifying route: Cradley Heath, Coventry, Kings Lynn, Coventry, Bradford, Final in Wroclaw Didn't even have to leave these shores to qualify for the final Maybe a different comparison would have been... would Jerzy Szczakiel have won in 1973 if the final hadn't been held at Chorzow, or Egon Muller in 1983 if the final wasn't at Norden? PC's qualifying route: White City, Coventry, Wembley, Final in Chorzow... Maybe one of the easiest ever For what it's worth I do think Havvy would have won regardless of where it was in 1992, it was certainly his year, can't comment on PC as I never really saw him in his prime. As fun as these what ifs are I still think 6 out of 11 Grand Prix rounds in 1 country is too many, especially as they could have easily doubled up on all of them.

Not sure which one you're referring to there PC in '76 or Havvy in '92? Either way it's not really a true comparison, pre GP the "Continentals" always had a far easier progression to the World Final be it Continental Final (76) or World Semi-Final (92) and I'm sure had there been internet forums back then it surely would have been a hot topic of debate. It is almost an impossible comparison to make... but I'll have a go. Would PC or Havvy have won their world championships if 4 of the British Semi-Final, British Final, Commonwealth Final, Overseas Final, Intercontinental Final/World Semi Final & World Final rounds been held in Poland with Polish riders (just for the sake of comparison)... possibly not

but a few newcomers were going in the opposite direction to see what all the noise and crowd was about

The race format was changed a few years back where all of the top riders used to meet each other more often, I really liked this and found the racing generally to be a lot closer, as with a lot of things in Speedway it only lasted 1 season before being changed again. Personally I still think you need 7 man teams to bring on the yoof. We, at Leicester, won the Championship league in 2019 and are current reigning champions... you wouldn't know it though, it's not been mentioned since October 2019 Used to love the Easter Triangle at Oxford on a Good Friday morning, happy days

To be fair to Birmingham they are doing quite a bit extra this week on top of the "gun to the head" style of promotion... http://www.birmingham-speedway.com/news.php?extend.3029 Not all of it my cup of tea but probably begs the question of why they haven't done this before now, that's one for another day though. Also, while this has come up in the Extortionate Admission Prices thread, at £16.50 Birmingham must be one of the cheaper Speedway nights out in the country.

No that wasn't OK, not when it was being held on a riders' home track (when Wembley were riding in the league for example), but with a one-off world final attracting a crowd of around 100,000 people you wouldn't be holding it at Cradley Heath would you? The GP's are a different matter, they were introduced (rightly imo) to find the best rider over the course of a season on a variety of tracks to be staged in a variety of countries. Like I said it's not just about tracks it's also about environments, surroundings and crowds. Why do you think all of the double headers are in (or near) to Poland? Partly down to the crowd numbers and economics but also so the riders can be riding Ekstraliga the next day. I don't mind a double header, in fact I've been quite enjoying them, all I'm saying is to be holding over half of the events in a "World Championship" in 1 country is just not fair to the riders. Why not hold all 11 rounds at 1 track? Gorzow? Wroclaw? Torun? Just how many GP's in 1 country is too many for you? For me this years and last years World Championships will always have an * by them. In the mean time I will continue to enjoy them for what they are as they do provide great entertainment and the Speedway is generally a cut above anything you'll see anywhere else.