IainB

I think 70-80% indicated in the poll (not pool) that the current situation is unsatisfactory. The poll (not pool) just asked a question, it didn't pre-suppose any opinion... and it's Rickardsson

I'm not really having a go at Steve Worrall, maybe I am a bit... but is he a Speedway man? or a Johnny come lately from Motocross, that can see that there maybe money to be made from Speedway? Having said that though, given his progress, he is exactly the type of rider we should be encouraging to progress further but not at the expense of the whole sport. Perhaps, and get ready for this... maybe he should be on a central contract with the BSPA, much like they do in cricket and was brought in to remedy their doubling up problem they had with the conflict between county matches and test matches... probably too forward thinking though.

True, this is the way it'll inevitably end up MotoX or Grasstrack style. I was listening to an interview with Simon Lambert (I think) at the farce that was Peterborough vs Newcastle and he was saying how he likes to do all the meetings as it keeps him busy and is an opportunity to earn money. This is a line you hear all too often in speedway these days. You have to question a riders involvement in the (so called) sport, is it just a job or are they in it to be part of a team and win things? These days probably the former. In an ideal world it'd be both. I wonder what the attitude of the riders were when they first started speedway... The sporting aspect or the "fame and fortune"?

Neil, as this is the only news about Coventry in recent weeks/months (and not from the Coventry club) what else are fans to think?

So Poole have signed Kacper Woryna on a full transfer from Cov... I think this tells you all you need to know about how hard Mick Horton is trying to get the Bees back on track

this is not how it happens now

I remember trying to get Bruce Penhall's autograph at a meeting at Poole back in the day, trouble is I didn't know what he looked like with his helmet off and apparently I was pestering his mechanic... I was only a wee boy

Why has the sun delay just started in the last few years or so though? Seems like if a rider can think of an excuse not to ride they will. Perhaps some of them are in the wrong game?

I started going to Speedway as a young child in 1977, Leicester Blackbrd Road, on and off for a couple of seasons before getting hooked. When Leicester closed down at the end of '83 I started going to Coventry and got well and truly hooked to team Speedway during the Championship winning seasons of '87 & '88, in fact as a kid I'm not even sure I was aware there was a league until the Bees won it. Since then I've pretty much followed the Bees home and away, I also started following Long Eaton in the then National League, regularly at home and a lot of away matches when I could. Also used to pull in loads of individual meetings, test matches etc. and regularly attended Cradley Heath and Bradford on Saturday nights when Cov weren't riding and Sunday afternoons. Probably attended 60-70 matches a season Since Cov have closed down this year I've probably been to about 4 or 5 live Speedway meetings, this despite living about 1 mile away from the Leicester track... fed up of joke teams, constant restarts, sun delays, pretty poor racing, poor viewing, double points etc etc etc

Made a very rare trip to Peterborough this evening, only 2nd visit of the year, used to be a bit of a regular. I knew the "teams" looked a bit of a joke but that's Speedway in 2017, the quality of riders on view though tempted me along. What a mistake! In all of my years attending Speedway (since 1977) this is the lamest abandonment I have EVER seen. The track was not the best it's ever been but if riders don't want to ride or can't ride the track the way it was tonight they really ought to question whether they should be Speedway riders at all. Yes the track did look a tiny bit tricky before the blade came out. After it had been bladed though it didn't look to be a problem at all, no riders were getting into difficulty, no riders fell or even looked like they were going to, no rearing, no locking up, nothing! The promoter addressed the crowd stating that the track had been a problem because it hadn't been used for 5 and a half week... I've heard a lot of excuses in my 40 years of Speedway but even this was a new one! As somebody said earlier the ref should have not called this one off there was absolutely nothing wrong with the track, she should have forced the teams to ride and anybody that didn't should have faced the consequences. I normally have a bit of time for Rory Schlein but if what has been said about him on here tonight is true and judging by all the pointing at the first bend he was doing before not taking his last ride, it was... then the man is a disgrace and should retire and go and work 9 to 5 for a living. That's me pretty much done with Speedway in the UK until it sorts its house out

1 minute! 30 seconds for me

For me the switch to 15 heats was the last good thing to happen in British Speedway. No reason not to have 15 heats and a 2nd half

Was it any good?

a team competing at a so called professional level, in a so called Premiership

You don't have to... don't go, simple

Yes I thought that too, but I presume that the referee knows the rules better than you and I. It wouldn't surprise me if they've done away with that rule with the constant tinkering that goes on every close season. The trouble with running a professional sport with common sense is that what may be common sense to you or to me or to Buster may be three completely different things. That is why we have rules

The point is, is there a rule that says a team can't start with just 3 riders?

Anybody that still thinks that DU is a good idea should take a look at the "Somerset" team being put out tonight! Unbelievable!

That's the trouble with rules... break one and you may as well break them all

Why are people questioning the ref? The ref is working to the rules... who makes the rules up?

SteveZodiac... please look through the rule book and look for the rule that says "Where 2 teams can't plan out to have enough riders available to start a match, the 2 teams, if in agreement, can just do what they want" Rules are there for a reason and if a promotion can't plan effectively enough to be in a position to start a match with enough riders why have a rule book at all? Like I've said earlier, Wolves were kind of lucky they didn't have the same problem, it could easily have happened to them. It was down to the KL and Wolves promotions to make sure they had enough riders there to complete 2 matches... even more so when both teams were a rider down to start with (even though KL only found out about MPT at 7pm)

No

Perhaps because the rules allowed it? The ref would have had a rulebook to follow... unlike the make it up as you go along promoters

I can't believe that some of you are looking to blame the ref! It's the refs job to make sure that matches are run according to the rules, it's the promotions job to field a competitive and complete team. Fair enough blame the ref if rules were broken i.e. minimum team strength not met, but do we know that this is still a rule? I'm guessing by some of the teams that have been put out this season that it's not. Does anybody know? You can't just cancel a match because you have failed to plan properly. Only an idiot would go into a double header against the same team twice operating R/R and not having any cover... KL were unlucky, yes but it could also have happened to Wolves... either way one thing is for sure, it's the paying punter that is being taken for a mug as ususal

Haha! Thread closed then... next