IainB

I thought they had the World Championship rights for 99 years?

Heat 10 has just finished here at Scunthorpe and the tractor has just made the first appearance of the night and there are no track rakers... The track has been fine!

While I wish AJ all the best in his retirement, I don't think you can compare him to TK from a Coventry viewpoint. TK was a one club man

The US Open has, that's all... that's not most

you'd think they'd get a co-commentator that wasn't verbally dyslexic then

I agree with the first bit, can't entirely agree with the second bit. Everything I've ever watched on Eurosport right back to its early days has generally been a bit of an amateurish joke, with programmes just ending mid event etc. As for the BT coverage, while glad to have it, to be able to watch matches there's no way I'd be able to get to, the coverage, in my opinion is far inferior to that which Sky provided. I understand it's probably budget related but I can't see anything innovative about it... except probably for the first time it's presented by somebody who's actually knowledgeable about the sport. Sky were really quite innovative with their coverage from the ride-in studio, to mole cam, bike cam and rail cam. BT's coverage if anything is a stripped back to basics (low cost) style. I suspect OneSport cover the costs of flying the commentators out to events to provide an English commentary on the "world feed"

Agreed, I've been to other bank holiday meetings at BV and hopefully this was a one off racing wise. Also a lot easier travelling home as the motorways were open and they're usually closed after 10pm these days

I suppose it's what you define as "artificial". As for today the result wasn't in doubt after the tactical failed... I know you'll say that was heat 9... But the manager did hold off from using it until that point because he could only use it once. I take your point about Leicester's strength though

It's not just about the racing though is it? Because of the lack of tactical options these days most matches are cut and dried after a few races (unless your team is particularly poor at home) with team managers having their hands tied if the one and only tactical move doesn't pay off the home victory is never normally in doubt. I've been a regular at Leicester this season and except for 2 matches that were memorable the rest have been instantly forgettable with a Lions home victory never in doubt and most "races" being over after the 2nd bend with riders being strung out 20 yards apart... unless Scott Nicholls or Chris Harris are in the race. The full range of tactical options really do need bringing back and the sooner the better. Half the fun in the good old days was looking through the programme and second guessing the team manager... these days with just the 1 tac sub I don't even buy a programme any more

It's still better than anything served up at Leicester

And to be honest it's got nothing to do with "Tai / Rosco - Team GB 2020"

How many ambulances do they have at Birmingham?

I also go to Peterborough quite often, for a fix of proper Speedway, and this year their meetings have always run at the same pace and from a 7:30 start, I've usually been away by 9pm. Has that just been co-incidence that all the different refs have kept to the same time scheduling, putting the 2 minute warning on as soon as the riders from the previous race have cleared the track... or maybe it's just been the same ref at all of the meetings? ... And it was a different ref for the 2nd meeting at Leicester on Saturday evening

To get back on topic, I thought it was interesting that on the BT GP coverage Rosco never really mentioned Woffy... it seemed to be a bit of a Jason Doyle love in with him. I don't know if he said anything after the meeting as I stopped watching after the final. I always thought that Rosco was a bit of a happy go lucky kind of character, from reports of him during his riding days but the more and more I see of him on the TV now he's managing he seems to always be very defensive of criticism, always turning a conversation around to defend his position on what he thinks people might be saying

flagrag- Thanks for the info, you're a lot more informative than the club sometimes. If that is the case about clearing the pits and warming the bikes up, why did it still take nigh on 45 minutes? There should have only been 8 riders in the pits by heat 15 anyway, the 4 that were in it and 2 reserves for each team. This means that for Leicester to run a double header, at the pace they run meetings, it's going to take around 4 and a quarter hours, as I've already said a lot of fans only have a 3 and a half hour window with the parking. At least I now know that a double header is not feasible for me to attend. As for the inadequate medical cover, again, treatment for a fallen rider on the track is of course acceptable and expected, what is not acceptable is for there to be inadequate medical cover once the rider has been removed from the track for the meeting to continue. Anyway, do we know how the lad is? I can't find any news on him anywhere

Well, it's certainly going to be a consideration, i.e. if the weather looks dodgy or there's loads of juniors in a team. I'll allow a track 1 fiasco a year... this is Leicester's 3rd. Honestly there's been 2 stand out, memorable, for the right reasons, matches this year, Eastbourne and Glasgow... the rest have been instantly forgettable

Yes, at least 1... me

I've seen a number of promoters at various tracks and a lot of the time they don't even seem to be interested in the actual racing. I've seen Bates and DH wandering around the terraces at Leicester and not even stop to watch the racing... you've got to wonder why they do it

why on earth it took them nearly 45 minutes to get the 2nd match on is beyond belief

Nope, do you have any idea how many more people won't return to Speedway while this continues to happen?

I wonder why they need to be in the pit bays to warm the bikes up and this couldn't have been done outside in the paddock area. But like you say 2 matches (30 minutes racing, 90 mins with 2 minute warnings) can't be done in 4 hours, it's been attempted twice, failed both times... at least I'll know in future

I don't know, you tell me, how ever many it takes to keep the meeting running... keeps happening at Leicester doesn't it. I've never run a Speedway track, I'm just the bloody mug that keeps turning up every week expecting things to be better!

it doesn't matter if it's serious (back, head etc) or not (wrist, collarbone etc), any trip to hospital at Leicester, even for a member of the (dwindling) crowd is going to hold a meeting up for an hour, and at the pace Leicester run their meetings, possibly force an abandonment because of the curfew. Like you say, Speedway is a dangerous sport, bikes no brakes at high speed, it's not rugby, football or other sports, it's barely a sport at all. If you're expecting punters to turn up at £20 a pop on the pretence of putting on a professionally run event this can't be allowed to continue.

yes £4 more, £20

I think it was nearer 9pm