Mick Bratley

I feel for Pinegen. Royal Mail are slowly destroying their business. Our postman openly admits that they prioritise parcels in the area we live in, a mere 18 miles from where the Star is printed, and that mail stacks up because the bosses won’t allow letters to be delivered with overtime as delivering letters is loss making and parcels aren’t. Fortunately our postman is a bit of a Speedway fan, and grabs my mail from the sorting office when he can as a bit of a favour to me, but sometimes his round gets changed and my delivery of mail returns to crap. There seems little point in buying first class stamps these days.

I spoke to the Royal Mail guy who delivered a parcel to me yesterday about it. He said they don’t make any money out of letters so parcels are prioritised as that makes money. He also said he offered to deliver mail that was stacking up for our area but they wouldn’t sanction the overtime. I don’t want to get the digital version because I like the physical version and my Grandson likes to have all the old copies, but I feel I’m being forced down that route now. I do feel sorry for the guys at Pinegen, the star is an important staple of our sport and I’ve been getting it since I was a kid.

Good to know it’s not just me. Last week’s edition arrived yesterday (Thursday) for me plus it was torn to bits. Nine days to travel less than 20 miles from where it is printed.

The event has now taken on enormous significance with the news just in.

Get the news first hand tonight! https://m.facebook.com/groups/210443765632762/permalink/32946296858287363/? (It’s all about the timing Eh?!)

Tickets not needed, just rock up!

That’s very true, we had a father and his son come to us who had been to the motor museum, I got talking to them, the father said he hadn’t been to Speedway since he was a child, said he didn’t know what teams there were these days and he wondered where his nearest team was, I asked him where he came from and he said Derbyshire, so I pointed him in the direction of the Buxton stall, when he came back he gave me the thumbs up and said, we’re gonna give that a go.

Oh absolutely I agree with you.

Well a number of people on here have mentioned about what is the point of clubs attending this event. From our perspective, our stall was very popular and was crowded pretty much all day. I practically lost my voice by the end of the day. A very large number of supporters from all over the country joined our monthly Forever Fund lottery, which has been set up not only to help with legal costs (contributed just under a third so far) but to assist us in the future. From that view it was massively worthwhile. If anyone on here wants to join, it costs £10 a month with cash prizes up for winning every month. Each month people receive a newsletter with results and details of companies nationwide offering discounts on products and services. Sarah Miles runs the fund, for more information about the fund or to join email panthersforeverfund@gmail.com

The Speedway Show is happening this coming Saturday 15th November 2025, more information here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550576383947 The consortium aiming to preserve Speedway in Peterborough in a joint initiative with the Peterborough Panthers Supporters Club have a stall at the event and we will be delighted to welcome members from the BSF for a chat and to ask us anything about our campaign and its progress. As an added attraction, we have some items on display that will very much not only interest supporters of Peterborough, but also specifically, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Reading and Swindon. We look forward to meeting as many Speedway Supporters as possible, irrespective of which team you support.

That ain’t never going to happen.

I wouldn’t read too much into that.

100% correct. There are many hard yards to success, off the track.

By saying it’s a dreadful idea, you’re actually saying what we currently have is ok (ish). It isn’t, it is not viable. Great to have the GP stars but we need enough people to come through the turnstiles and enough sponsors to pay for them. It clearly doesn’t happen for 95% of the clubs and the 5% bet everything on getting to the Grand Final and getting five times their normal attendance to pay for the season and a bit of the following season. It is a crap business model. Monday is a rubbish night to watch Speedway, the diehards will come but attracting a new audience to come on a Monday night is nigh on impossible, if it was working we wouldn’t be having this discussion. Those who say yeah well football is played on Tuesday or Wednesday nights, well yes that’s true but it’s not every Tuesday or Wednesday and the majority of a clubs midweek games coincide with school holidays.

100%

IMO Monday night Premiership racing is the worst decision ever made. Thursday is slightly better. Who wants to really go out on a Monday night especially parents with kids. And if you’re trying to attract a younger early 20s audience, generally they’ve spent out over the weekend. The majority of our meetings should be on Friday, Saturday or Sunday and if that means we have to lose the ‘stars’ then so be it, the sport is or needs to be bigger than any individual rider.

You’re missing out a lot of expenses. Riders and Public Liability insurances Tyres Rental of stadium - that can be over £3k Payment of referee and anyone else who is not a volunteer Paramedic attendance Track preparation Track preparation equipment Shale The list is pretty endless

It is a moment all Panthers and Speedway supporters should take great pride in. We’re not there yet, but a foot is in the door.

Sounds like a load of Cobblers to me.

Pleased for Ipswich, it’s been a long wait, tough on Leicester but hopefully their time will come. Especially chuffed for Danny King who has now won league titles at all three levels of British Speedway, I wonder how many riders can say that? I was concerned at one point that the winners would win by a single point and eclipse the Panthers 2006 final win, thankfully that honour remains intact! As always, great presentation from the centre green by Kevin Long. 27 years, it’s been a long time, I hope everyone connected with Ipswich savours every minute of it. The crowd was mahoosive, we didn’t stay for the trophy lift as we wanted to get out of the car park before Friday evening. 🤪

The meeting only has two possible outcomes. Reject the applications or extend the time to satisfy the reserved matters.

Bloody Nora, I hope not!

I have to say I agree about the enjoyable experience and nice staff. They have been very welcoming to the many Panthers fans who are on loan to them currently. 😉 Last night they even did a stadium announcement about the Panthers fixture at Mildenhall on 25/10 they didn’t have to do that. I’ve been there about eight times this season and yes, it’s a bit jumpers for goalposts, but I quite like that. Kudos also to the Leicester supporters club, very well organised and no one can say they are not top of the league for their 50/50 draw, £615 prize last night and £850 prize the week before, shame I happened to win it earlier in the season when it was a measly £364! 😂

That was probably the best meeting I’ve seen live in the last two seasons. Congratulations to Leicester (and Ipswich) on reaching the final. Be good for the sport to have a new name on the trophy for a change!

Sponsoring the Panthers team not the meeting.