CUFC_Brummie

Cracking meeting after the first 4 heats tonight, think both teams will be happy with what they got under the circumstances. Eastbourne thoroughly deserved their point but were severely hampered at reserve compared to us, whereas the absence of Tom Bacon and a bit of an off night for Hume hindered the Brummies. Jane Knight rider of the night for me, very impressive. Horrible crash in heat 14, thought for a minute that bike was heading straight for me....hope Jack Smith is OK, amazing both riders got to their feet.

That just seems even more ludicrous to me than watching the youth riders! Maybe it was more acceptable back in the day but I can't imagine many newbies in this day and age finding it anything other than a bit of a circus. Again I only speak for myself but I can't imagine any reason why I'd want to stay after the meeting to watch the same riders essentially have a challenge meeting against each other. I'd rather clubs concentrated on getting the 15 heats presented properly, efficiently and in as competitive a manner as possible.

I think that's the point, until they're riding for the Brummies main team, it's not really of interest. It's not an alien concept I don't think, it goes for youth standards in all sports, the crowds are a tiny fraction of what the senior sides get because the public are only interested in the "main event".

See if I was going to watch a meeting as a neutral I'd probably be more likely to watch a second half, but after watching my team it really isn't of interest, especially if they've lost and definitely if it's midweek when it's harder to stay later. It just feels a bit like after the lord mayor's show, I'd probably be more inclined to watch if it was run before the main meeting but I guess that doesn't happen as it runs the risk of delays. I can't comment on quality, I only ever watched the odd heat of the Bulls at Birmingham, it's just not massively appealing. Maybe I'm in the minority but like I said, I can't see it adding masses onto the crowd, running it isn't a problem necessarily (can't really be a massive financial outlay) but it sure isn't a solution to anything either.

I must say as a relative "newbie" to the sport (10 years now but in context....) I've never understood the appeal of second halves, just doesn't interest me, it's a bit like going to watch Man United v Liverpool and then staying to watch the U19s afterwards. They used to run some at Birmingham and I don't think many people stayed behind, however if it's not going to cost clubs any extra money then I don't see the harm but I can't possibly imagine it adding any significant number of fans onto the attendance as a result.

Really good meeting last night, thoroughly enjoyable. Couple of cracking rides from King and Garrity, and Harris thrilling as he ever is around Brandon. Fricke by far BV's best rider though Roberts Worrall rode well too I thought. Zagar started well but then seemed to lose his speed completely, not surprised he didn't ride in heat 15, and Cook just epitomised "gating tart" last night. Good advert for the Elite League.

Come on SCB, at least read the rest of the thread before you choose to attack someone. Unlike a lot of people on here I'm more than willing to admit when I'm wrong!

Well there you go, I didn't know that, never seen it written anywhere but I'll take your word for it. Makes it even more farcical then that the likes of Armstrong and Atkin are allowed in then. As long as they're there Hall should be allowed in.

They may use it as a development league, but the league itself is not a development league, those are two completely different things. If it's a genuine development league then let's make it U23 only, which is fine by me, but that's not how it is right now.

The National League is not a development league, it's a third division, the MDL is the country's development league. The fact it's home to so many youngsters is simply reflective of the complete lack of depth in riders we have in this country. The rules say he is allowed to sign. There are older riders than Hall riding in the NL. The decision could not be more contradictory if it tried. If we'd lost a 3 point reserve then I'd say fair enough go and get a youngster, but we're talking about a proper heat leader here. Farcical.

This sport, unbelievable. They really are stuck in the past.....

Not a classic but seen far worse too, like most meetings these days it got better in the second half. Love watching Kildemand, sure he can get out of shape every now and then but I'd rather see riders like him than a few others who just tootle around doing nothing but gate for 95% of the season. Good first ride from Bomber but that tapes exclusion, where he had a great chance to pickup two more points at least, seemed to totally knock him, bottom of the series after 1 round and sadly can't see that changing excluding injuries. Woffy not really on it either but did what he does best and still got double figures despite not riding brilliantly. Still hard to see past him winning it all with a wild goose chase for the other rostrum spots.

Go by train not by car so probably further than these in all instances but, 71 miles to the Brummies, 45 miles to my nearest track (Coventry).

First meeting of the season for me but sadly looking like weather will be the winner, although the forecast has improved very slightly today. If it does go ahead then I'm pretty confident of us winning and probably by enough to pick up maximum points.

That's a cracking signing for Eastbourne, with home track advantage the Eagles are always going to be in the upper echelons of the league table but this will undoubtedly see them challenging for top spot now and not just the playoffs as I think had been largely predicted in the summer. Fair play, looking forward to seeing him competing against Zach at Perry Barr later in the season assuming he's still there.

1. Woffinden 2. Pedersen 3. Janowski 4. Holder 5. Doyle 6. Hancock 7. Iversen 8. Kildemand 9. Zagar 10. Jonsson 11. Zmarzlik 12. Hampel 13. Pawlicki 14. Lindback 15. Harris

Yup exactly this, I have no problem with him not riding in the Elite League (in fact don't blame him at all), always believed that he wants/wanted to ride for the national team for pride and not convenience, and wasn't that bothered about him singing the Aussie anthem in Melbourne, but this is a bit of a kick in the teeth, it's two bloody meetings Tai.

Some of them are, to be fair, but not nearly as many as the majority of people who have never watched it think. I think Birmingham fans are best placed to tackle this question having been in all 3 leagues over the past 5/6 years, but you will probably still get a mixed bag of answers covering all 3 leagues. Each certainly has their pros and each has their cons. With the NL what was best about it was seeing the young riders develop throughout the season, from watching Zach score one point at reserve in the first meeting to where had had gotten at the end of the season was fantastic and for me, in all sports, is what is best about following a club, seeing "your" guys come through the ranks, and the fact we have such a young team of British riders this year just endorses that further. I enjoyed the condensed fixture list, every rider seemed to put in 100% every meeting, no-one just showing up for their pay cheque as I've seen happen in the other two leagues, and it was a close competitive league which looks like continuing this year, the teams generally are pretty balanced, more so than the higher divisions I found, although that may be easy to say from a fan of the team that finished top. I'm not quite as on board with some others about the quality of racing, of course you get good meetings and good races, and as mentioned before there are certainly less "wobblers" than most people think, but, you do get some very mismatched and strung out races, I'd say that the gap between the top riders and the bottom riders was bigger than any other league, although of course EL reserves didn't face EL heatleaders so not a like-for-like comparison. We also had Adam Ellis who was streaks ahead of everyone else, which probably didn't help that impression. I'd certainly recommend it to people though, maybe not right at the start of the season, because as with Zach it will take some of the younger guys a few meetings to find their feet and get dialled in, but it definitely gets better as the season goes on. Of the 3 my favourite remains the Premier League, for the quality of racing at the time, although the league is a bit too busy for my liking. In an ideal world I'd want to be in a well run, condensed, high quality Elite League over any other. Unlikely to happen though, and whilst I'm more than happy with Birmingham in the NL at the moment, I hope we still have ambitions to go PL in the next couple of years.

Yup, this is the way to go, sod the family sport thing, every sport is trying that and it's never going to work in speedway, as mentioned kids get bored too easily, hype it up, make it sound dangerous, give them some beer, and heck you might even get something resembling a little bit of an atmosphere. I'm in my mid-20s, I can tolerate the sport having spent 9 years watching my football team in non-league, so decrepid stadiums and amateurish running of both meetings and the sport as a whole aren't a problem for me, but for most people my age they are, and whilst they don't quite have the low attention span of children it's still fairly short, but they're fairly simplistic to grasp, however that would require some foresignt and initiative and I can't see it happening. The sad reality is that the sport is never going to take any steps forward, it's never going to get in the new audience it needs, and things will more than likely just keep getting watered down to some point somewhere down the line where all we have are amateur individual meetings in this country.

6.31, which would look like Rob Shuttleworth. Would love us to take a punt on Perks but that'd leave 4.35 and there's a whole lot of nothing available for that seemingly.

I love the playoffs, if it wasn't for the playoffs I would never have got into speedway, knowing what I know now about the sport there's no chance I'd have persevered if that first meeting I saw was a regular EL match in front of 1 man and his dog.

40 point limit but you have to have two riders on a 3 point average seems like a fair compromise, I'd have thought.

Excellent signing that, very happy.

Track looked excellent today, and a great turnout for practice, should be a good one.

I overheard the father of one of our 1-7 say to the father of another one of our 1-7 on the terraces a couple of weeks ago that he'd be coming to Birmingham next season, but it may have been a case of Chinese whispers.