British Final Belle Vue Monday 12th May Live on TV

[IainB]

7 hours ago, mikebv said:

It is expecting far too much to expect the Aces fans to turn up in numbers when they will have done the most to fill the GP nights by their ticket purchases...

They also turn up to make their largest domestic crowd of the season at the PCMM, an event that has the best collection of riders in the UK outside any FIM event...

Quite a few of the riders on view in the years BF wouldn't even make the "Championship Riders Championship"... 

Time for a move away I think given the NSS has so many "big meetings"...

Maybe ask Richard Lawson where he would like it held..?😁....

Not so sure about the PCM, I'd say at least 50% of that is made up of travelling supporters, I'm just judging that by the dreadful turnout at the next televised match and that was against Ippo, BSN covered both.

There's no doubt that moving the event back to a Monday night after the visible success of the Saturday night staging of last year is the commercial decision of an imbecile! You can only think that TV had a say in this but sometimes you've got to stand up for your own business as running to an empty stadium is not a good luck for anybody.

I've thought for a few years now that the British Championship should be staged GP style over a number of rounds to encourage riders to take part and do away, to some extent, home track advantage... and end up with a final round at the NSS

[mikebv]

7 minutes ago, IainB said:

Not so sure about the PCM, I'd say at least 50% of that is made up of travelling supporters, I'm just judging that by the dreadful turnout at the next televised match and that was against Ippo, BSN covered both.

There's no doubt that moving the event back to a Monday night after the visible success of the Saturday night staging of last year is the commercial decision of an imbecile! You can only think that TV had a say in this but sometimes you've got to stand up for your own business as running to an empty stadium is not a good luck for anybody.

I've thought for a few years now that the British Championship should be staged GP style over a number of rounds to encourage riders to take part and do away, to some extent, home track advantage... and end up with a final round at the NSS

The PCMM does get a following from elsewhere (where will they all be later I wcommitments ut the largest contingent by far are Aces fans, many of them, like me and my lad, who attend every year but will only go to watch the domestic qualifying stuff once or twice in the season.. 

Six of us went to the PCMM this year and havent yet attended an Aces meeting, but most of us will when Ipswich visit, (as long as they have Doyle and Emil there)...

This evenings line up is poor, and shows how shallow the pool of riders is after Lambert and Bewley, with maybe only Brennan, (possibly) having the capability to be a decent No1 or No5 in the Premiership in the future..

Several events to deliver the Champion sounds good, but you would still only be able to run the events on Mon or Thu due to Poland, Sweden and Denmark covering all other days.

Meaning they would need to be ran at Premiership tracks, and, with no disrespect, running any meeting with a majority of Championship HL's and SS's at venues used to seeing some of the world's best, would be a hard sell..

Running several meetings at tracks like Glasgow, Redcar, Scunthorpe etc would deliver great racing, but getting the likes of Bewley, Lambert, Brenann (and Woffy if fit), there would be difficult given their Polish commitments...

[foreverblue]

25 minutes ago, IainB said:

Not so sure about the PCM, I'd say at least 50% of that is made up of travelling supporters, I'm just judging that by the dreadful turnout at the next televised match and that was against Ippo, BSN covered both.

There's no doubt that moving the event back to a Monday night after the visible success of the Saturday night staging of last year is the commercial decision of an imbecile! You can only think that TV had a say in this but sometimes you've got to stand up for your own business as running to an empty stadium is not a good luck for anybody.

I've thought for a few years now that the British Championship should be staged GP style over a number of rounds to encourage riders to take part and do away, to some extent, home track advantage... and end up with a final round at the NSS

The other issue was until this year riders had the carrot of riding at Cardiff in front of a decent sized crowd, even last year was a alot more than will attend the gp at BV.

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

29 minutes ago, IainB said:

Not so sure about the PCM, I'd say at least 50% of that is made up of travelling supporters, I'm just judging that by the dreadful turnout at the next televised match and that was against Ippo, BSN covered both.

There's no doubt that moving the event back to a Monday night after the visible success of the Saturday night staging of last year is the commercial decision of an imbecile! You can only think that TV had a say in this but sometimes you've got to stand up for your own business as running to an empty stadium is not a good luck for anybody.

I've thought for a few years now that the British Championship should be staged GP style over a number of rounds to encourage riders to take part and do away, to some extent, home track advantage... and end up with a final round at the NSS

Only problem I see holding it over multiple rounds is I don’t think the fans would support it enough to make it viable which is a shame, as strange as this may sound, we should do what Poland does and stage it at lower league tracks, I see someone mentioned iwade, ridiculous yes but crowd wise I can’t see why that it couldnt pull in well over 1500 folks, there still is a big fan base in Kent/essex/sussex so why not ? But maybe not lol 

Edited Monday at 08:54 AM by THE DEAN MACHINE

[therefused]

1 hour ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

Only problem I see holding it over multiple rounds is I don’t think the fans would support it enough to make it viable which is a shame, as strange as this may sound, we should do what Poland does and stage it at lower league tracks, I see someone mentioned iwade, ridiculous yes but crowd wise I can’t see why that it couldnt pull in well over 1500 folks, there still is a big fan base in Kent/essex/sussex so why not ? But maybe not lol 

id go to buxton if it was held there. 

[IainB]

2 hours ago, mikebv said:

This evenings line up is poor, and shows how shallow the pool of riders is after Lambert and Bewley, with maybe only Brennan, (possibly) having the capability to be a decent No1 or No5 in the Premiership in the future..

Several events to deliver the Champion sounds good, but you would still only be able to run the events on Mon or Thu due to Poland, Sweden and Denmark covering all other days.

Meaning they would need to be ran at Premiership tracks, and, with no disrespect, running any meeting with a majority of Championship HL's and SS's at venues used to seeing some of the world's best, would be a hard sell..

Running several meetings at tracks like Glasgow, Redcar, Scunthorpe etc would deliver great racing, but getting the likes of Bewley, Lambert, Brenann (and Woffy if fit), there would be difficult given their Polish commitments...

I'm not sure the line-up is that poor, the British Final has always only had 2 or 3 riders that were capable of winning it. When I first started going to them it was Tatum vs Wigg, then you had the Havvy vs Andy Smith(!!) years, Loram v Louis v Screen, Nicholls vs Harris... then for a while Woffy and Lambert went missing, now they're back. The rest of the field was always made up of, let's put it politely, lesser lights. 

As for making it a multi round competition on a Saturday night, returning to compete in your national championship is compulsory is it not? It seems to be for other nationalities.

[Gavan]

3 minutes ago, IainB said:

I'm not sure the line-up is that poor, the British Final has always only had 2 or 3 riders that were capable of winning it. When I first started going to them it was Tatum vs Wigg, then you had the Havvy vs Andy Smith(!!) years, Loram v Louis v Screen, Nicholls vs Harris... then for a while Woffy and Lambert went missing, now they're back. The rest of the field was always made up of, let's put it politely, lesser lights. 

As for making it a multi round competition on a Saturday night, returning to compete in your national championship is compulsory is it not? It seems to be for other nationalities.

Well said … I first went in 1990 and only Tatum Wigg and Doncaster maybe Cross could be seen as winners 

in the 90’s you had Barker Stonehewer Wilson Hurry Schofield and Robson making podiums …is that any different to someone like Ellis or Wright making the podium 

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

1 hour ago, therefused said:

id go to buxton if it was held there. 

As mad as that sounds a share of some events would of generated money that could of kept tracks like Buxton alive but there is no collective thinking when it comes to British speedway and just as a side note I consider it a stain on British speedway that Buxton was allowed to close 

[THE DEAN MACHINE]

19 minutes ago, IainB said:

I'm not sure the line-up is that poor, the British Final has always only had 2 or 3 riders that were capable of winning it. When I first started going to them it was Tatum vs Wigg, then you had the Havvy vs Andy Smith(!!) years, Loram v Louis v Screen, Nicholls vs Harris... then for a while Woffy and Lambert went missing, now they're back. The rest of the field was always made up of, let's put it politely, lesser lights. 

As for making it a multi round competition on a Saturday night, returning to compete in your national championship is compulsory is it not? It seems to be for other nationalities.

I don’t consider the line up poor, it’s a representation of the current level of British speedway, the problem is he pond of riders is so small that if you have a bike, a licence and can string 4 laps together you have a good chance of being in it,,the further the decade you go back the bigger the pond the less chance of being in the BF

[Sings4Speedway]

15 hours ago, Fozzie4388 said:

It's what is on Page 1 but Edwards at 3, Cook at 6 and Foord at 7

Foord feels a surprise inclusion? Perhaps a few "no thanks" as would have expected Boughen, Jenkins, J.Thompson, Bowtell, Hagon and certainly Mulford would have been asked before Foord.....

[arnieg]

5 minutes ago, Sings4Speedway said:

Foord feels a surprise inclusion? Perhaps a few "no thanks" as would have expected Boughen, Jenkins, J.Thompson, Bowtell, Hagon and certainly Mulford would have been asked before Foord.....

Perhaps because Foord is next in line from the semi final.

[Any more drop-outs and Ablitt is next]

[Shaymen]

5 hours ago, THE DEAN MACHINE said:

I just don’t understand the riders attitude like Lawson of not wanting to ride, firstly it’s the British championship, then you have the carrot of a GP outing of which 95% of riders will never get that opportunity again and they may not think it or even care but they are contributing to the downfall of speedway in this country, I would of jumped at the chance to ride even if that chance was no chance of getting anywhere, I honestly believe some of the modern riders are just oblivious to the privilege of earning a living from something they are supposed to love doing and are showing absolute disrespect and contempt to the fans of our great sport 

Surely Luke Harrison deserved a place who picks these reserves 

[PotteringAround]

7 minutes ago, Shaymen said:

Surely Luke Harrison deserved a place who picks these reserves 

The semi-final picks them.

After the 6 qualifiers, Craig Cook was 7th, Jason Edwards was 8th, Vinnie Foord was 9th.

Anyone else drops out and it's Nathan Ablitt (10th), Joe Thompson (11th) and Sam Hagon (12th)

[Col]

Shame Cairns isn't involved, assume he didn't qualify?
What's Lawson's issue, he's crap at the NSS?  So is Harris generally! 😁
Can't imagine there will be a problem with the weather, forecast for Manchester was very much the same as here.  We're supposed to have a thunderstorm about now and Jeff Lynne may as well be singing his 1978 biggest hit.

[therefused]

2 minutes ago, Col said:

Shame Cairns isn't involved, assume he didn't qualify?

not old enough

[Col]

Of course.

[SPEEDY69]

36 minutes ago, Col said:

Shame Cairns isn't involved, assume he didn't qualify?
What's Lawson's issue, he's crap at the NSS?  So is Harris generally! 😁
Can't imagine there will be a problem with the weather, forecast for Manchester was very much the same as here.  We're supposed to have a thunderstorm about now and Jeff Lynne may as well be singing his 1978 biggest hit.

Not being in his fan club I'm not sure what that is, so I'll plump for confusion?

[Col]

2 minutes ago, SPEEDY69 said:

Not being in his fan club I'm not sure what that is, so I'll plump for confusion?

How about a dancing baby Groot from the second Guardian of Galaxy film?

[SPEEDY69]

4 minutes ago, Col said:

How about a dancing baby Groot from the second Guardian of Galaxy film?

Nope, lost me again 🤣

[Col]

Mr Blue Sky is ELO's biggest hit, Jeff Lynne is the lead singer.