200 + riders !!!!

[singy13]

So we draw nearer to the 'big decision' regarding UK speedways future. Hopefully the right call is made to assist clubs long term involvement.

I like a bit of nostalgia so I looked back at my first season of watching speedway. It was 1970 Workington Comets giving fantastic thrills via Bob (Mr. Excitement)Valentine and co.

Do you know there were 19 teams in Division One and 17 teams in Division Two = 36 teams in that season? So each team with 7 riders times 36 = 252 riders...Yes I've been told some doubled up on previous posts I've made on this forum - but hey not a great many riders did that. Which makes it most likely 200 + riders made it a sport to be proud of and well loved by many fans.(Apparently the third most popular UK sport then).

So nowadays the sport struggles along via 16 clubs, most riders using the doubling up farce - probably less than 100 riders entertaining us.

I have no advice to give a cure all to keep UK speedway afloat other than I think one division needs to be given at least a fair trial???? Who knows, if successful, fans and riders may well flock back.

[mikebv]

3 hours ago, singy13 said:

So we draw nearer to the 'big decision' regarding UK speedways future. Hopefully the right call is made to assist clubs long term involvement.

I like a bit of nostalgia so I looked back at my first season of watching speedway. It was 1970 Workington Comets giving fantastic thrills via Bob (Mr. Excitement)Valentine and co.

Do you know there were 19 teams in Division One and 17 teams in Division Two = 36 teams in that season? So each team with 7 riders times 36 = 252 riders...Yes I've been told some doubled up on previous posts I've made on this forum - but hey not a great many riders did that. Which makes it most likely 200 + riders made it a sport to be proud of and well loved by many fans.(Apparently the third most popular UK sport then).

So nowadays the sport struggles along via 16 clubs, most riders using the doubling up farce - probably less than 100 riders entertaining us.

I have no advice to give a cure all to keep UK speedway afloat other than I think one division needs to be given at least a fair trial???? Who knows, if successful, fans and riders may well flock back.

A completely different time, sadly...

Most of those riders had jobs, and rode for excitement, and the "good money" they could earn for two or three meetings a week....

Lads in mundane jobs by day could be "heroes" in the evening, and go home with more than a weeks worth of money from their usual job for just one meeting..

And admission costs made a massively lower dent in the fans' disposable income than happens today...

Plus, many ran Friday and Saturdays rather than Mondays and Thursdays...

Now it is "two top bikes" minimum, sign written vans, hotel costs, flight costs, tuner costs, and a travel schedule that Jet2 would go dizzy with...

100's rocked up to the many training schools across the country, some sharing bikes they purchased together,(old several owners kit so didn't cost the earth), some riding old bikes fhe tracks had, hence there was a conveyer belt of potential talent, and, most riders only had one team so they didn't block progression like the majority do now by having two teams each, which erodes places for others...

The Poles have "dozens" of riders who organically travel through a development structure as they know that to keep their sponsors, fans and TV happy, it is important to have "new talent" coming through regularly...

They don't want to end up like the UK with guestfests and doubling up and down rife, as that will end the same way for them that is has for the UK...

One league unfortunately looks unachievable if you look at the numbers of riders, unless another 20 or so want to ride over here, and given Poland ride Friday, Saturday and Sunday, (with the odd Thursday thrown in for good measure), getting another 20 would be very difficult indeed, unless like some tracks have done, you sign riders who you know will miss quite a few matches, and just accept guestfests as being the only way the sport can be ran over here...

If you don't get more riders to come over, and run with one league, then many riders at six and seven (if they stay with seven per team), would be well out of their depth I would think...

I personally think having a "Super League" with six, six rider teams, could maybe work, using only riders of say 4.5 points and above averages, and then they also run a 2nd tier team alongside all other teams, with three or so of their top tier riders, plus second tier level lads making up the rest of the tier two team...

It will keep the DU'ing for many riders that they say they need, and still have a top tier at a significantly higher level to sell the sport to TV and its viewers...

Edited 4 hours ago by mikebv

[BackInTheDHSS]

I'm not sure the rider shortage is as bad as everybody makes out. Yes it's not 200+, but I still make it 150 riders who competed (or were declared in a line-up at the start of the year) in 2025. Yes, some are very junior/inexperienced, but everybody has to start somewhere, and there were definite mismatches in the 1970s.

1. Nathan Ablitt
2. Jake Allen
3. Ben Barker
4. Troy Batchelor
5. Luke Becker
6. Dan Bewley
7. Ollie Binns
8. Norick Blodorn
9. Owen Booth
10. Bastian Borke
11. Ashton Boughen
12. Fraser Bowes
13. Alfie Bowtell
14. Tom Brennan
15. Max Broadhurst
16. Billy Budd
17. Arran Butcher
18. William Cairns
19. Paco Castagna
20. Jacob Clouting
21. Connor Coles
22. Ben Cook
23. Craig Cook
24. Zach Cook
25. Kenzie Cossey
26. Mitchell Cluff
27. Luke Craig
28. Jack Crewe
29. Joe Crewe
30. Harley Driscoll-Freeman
31. Kieran Douglas
32. Ryan Douglas
33. Jason Doyle
34. Jason Edwards
35. Adam Ellis
36. Joe Etheridge
37. Jamie Etherington
38. Harry Fletcher
39. Leon Flint
40. Vinnie Foord
41. Jack Franklin
42. Lasse Fredriksen
43. Max Fricke
44. Dan Gilkes
45. Jonatan Grahn
46. Liam Greens
47. Francis Gusts
48. Sam Hagon
49. Jamie Halder
50. Nathan Hargrave
51. Chris Harris
52. Luke Harris
53. Luke Harrison
54. Cameron Heeps
55. Freddy Hodder
56. Chris Holder
57. Jack Holder
58. Jacob Hook
59. Kyle Howarth
60. Danyon Hume
61. Ryan Ingram
62. Niels-Kristian Iversen
63. Max James
64. Maciej Janowski
65. Jordan Jenkins
66. Jonas Jeppesen
67. Michael Jepsen Jensen
68. Elliot Kelly
69. Drew Kemp
70. Declan Kennedy
71. Zaine Kennedy
72. Lewis Kerr
73. Peter Kildemand
74. Luke Killeen
75. Danny King
76. Jack Kingston
77. Daniel Klima
78. Nicoli Klindt
79. Jonas Knudsen
80. Brady Kurtz
81. Jan Kvetch
82. Simon Lambert
83. Richard Lawson
84. Jaimon Linsey
85. Jordy Loftus
86. Kryan Lyden
87. Matt Marson
88. Caydin Martin
89. Sam Masters
90. Mitch McDiarmid
91. Harry McGurk
92. Sam McGurk
93. Eli Meadows
94. Calum Mitchell
95. Nick Morris
96. Ben Morley
97. Connor Mountain
98. Luke Muff
99. Jake Mulford
100. Tobiasz Musielak
101. Villads Nagel
102. Scott Nicholls
103. Michael Palm Toft
104. Victor Palovaara
105. Mark Parker
106. Max Perry
107. Danny Phillips
108. Josh Pickering
109. Ace Pijper
110. Stene Pijper
111. Oskar Polis
112. Ben Rathbone
113. Keynan Rew
114. Laylen Richardson
115. Darryl Ritchings
116. Harrison Rogers
117. Anders Rowe
118. Adam Roynon
119. Erik Riss
120. Cooper Rushen
121. Emil Sayfutdinov
122. Jody Scott
123. Justin Sedgmen
124. Jack Shimelt
125. Mickie Simpson
126. Charlie Southwick
127. Tom Spencer
128. Sonny Springer
129. Jack Smith
130. Paul Starke
131. Senna Summers
132. Dan Thompson
133. Joe Thompson
134. Tobias Thomsen
135. Kye Thomson
136. Ben Trigger
137. Rohan Tungate
138. Ashton Vale
139. Antti Vuolas
140. Kai Ward
141. Mason Watson
142. Morgan Williams
143. Chad Wirtzfeld
144. Charlie Wood
145. Dayle Wood
146. Sam Woods
147. Steve Worrall
148. Charles Wright
149. Matej Zagar
150. Tate Zischke

[mikebv]

It would be a challenge to get enough people to lay out circa £25 to watch some of those riders...

No disrespect to them, but the admission fee would need to be around £15 to watch them ride and that wouldn't cover the "best riders" fees...

My lad plays semi pro football as an amateur, (£10 to watch), and it would be like the league was set up to allow him to play against Mo Salah....

That tenner to get in wouldn't pay Mo's wages....

[BackInTheDHSS]

1 minute ago, mikebv said:

It would be a challenge to get enough people to lay out circa £25 to watch some of those riders...

No disrespect to them, but the admission fee would need to be around £15 to watch them ride and that wouldn't cover the "best riders" fees...

My lad plays semi pro football as an amateur, (£10 to watch), and it would be like the league was set up to allow him to play against Mo Salah....

That tenner to get in wouldn't pay Mo's wages....

Fair point. Over 100 of those listed regularly raced in the top two leagues, though, with people expected to pay £20+ already. Although that could also explain the current attendance issues! 😃

[singy13]

43 minutes ago, BackInTheDHSS said:

Fair point. Over 100 of those listed regularly raced in the top two leagues, though, with people expected to pay £20+ already. Although that could also explain the current attendance issues! 😃

The current attendance issues are due to fans not liking guest fests and doubling up. Both of these rider problems dilute the sports integrity for so many fans. Lots have abandoned ship because they have seen too many teams use three, or more in some cases, guests.  I often talked with Workington rugby directors, who were anti-speedway, and referred to the sport as having a strong likeness to that comical one called WWE (or is it WWF?)...anyway they said guests undermined the sport big style - and yes they were/are correct. Personally I just think the one division would bring more variety to a quite stagnant round of fixtures. And so what if Poland claim the best, every race has a winner, and loser. We used to have wobblers yes fifty years ago but shouted encouragement to one and all....let's do it via one league again !!!!!!

[mikebv]

41 minutes ago, singy13 said:

The current attendance issues are due to fans not liking guest fests and doubling up. Both of these rider problems dilute the sports integrity for so many fans. Lots have abandoned ship because they have seen too many teams use three, or more in some cases, guests.  I often talked with Workington rugby directors, who were anti-speedway, and referred to the sport as having a strong likeness to that comical one called WWE (or is it WWF?)...anyway they said guests undermined the sport big style - and yes they were/are correct. Personally I just think the one division would bring more variety to a quite stagnant round of fixtures. And so what if Poland claim the best, every race has a winner, and loser. We used to have wobblers yes fifty years ago but shouted encouragement to one and all....let's do it via one league again !!!!!!

The part re guestfests and DU's, I 100% agree...

And "one league" would bring variety...

Unfortunately fans of teams used to watching Kurtz, Emil, Bewley, Holder, Fricke, Doyle etc, and paying around twenty five quid to do so, are going to have to see a significant reduction in admission costs to watch some of the riders mentioned, (if the riders who ride in Poland are not there)..

And even if they do sign these riders up, they will miss so many meetings every week on Fridays and Saturdays, that it would  make the league a complete farce...

The top two division clubs seem to average between 500 to 1500 or so, and their rents won't be dropping, nor will their expectations of their riders to spend quite frankly ludicrous sums to compete, therefore admission costs cannot drop too much I would say...

And any reduction in admission wouldn't see enough increase in attendances I would suggest to cover all the costs, given the dilution of the riders on show...

A true conundrum for people who have demonstrated many times that they may not have the skill set required to sort out the issues...

Edited 4 hours ago by mikebv

[Daniel Smith]

2 hours ago, BackInTheDHSS said:

I'm not sure the rider shortage is as bad as everybody makes out. Yes it's not 200+, but I still make it 150 riders who competed (or were declared in a line-up at the start of the year) in 2025. Yes, some are very junior/inexperienced, but everybody has to start somewhere, and there were definite mismatches in the 1970s.

1. Nathan Ablitt
2. Jake Allen
3. Ben Barker
4. Troy Batchelor
5. Luke Becker
6. Dan Bewley
7. Ollie Binns
8. Norick Blodorn
9. Owen Booth
10. Bastian Borke
11. Ashton Boughen
12. Fraser Bowes
13. Alfie Bowtell
14. Tom Brennan
15. Max Broadhurst
16. Billy Budd
17. Arran Butcher
18. William Cairns
19. Paco Castagna
20. Jacob Clouting
21. Connor Coles
22. Ben Cook
23. Craig Cook
24. Zach Cook
25. Kenzie Cossey
26. Mitchell Cluff
27. Luke Craig
28. Jack Crewe
29. Joe Crewe
30. Harley Driscoll-Freeman
31. Kieran Douglas
32. Ryan Douglas
33. Jason Doyle
34. Jason Edwards
35. Adam Ellis
36. Joe Etheridge
37. Jamie Etherington
38. Harry Fletcher
39. Leon Flint
40. Vinnie Foord
41. Jack Franklin
42. Lasse Fredriksen
43. Max Fricke
44. Dan Gilkes
45. Jonatan Grahn
46. Liam Greens
47. Francis Gusts
48. Sam Hagon
49. Jamie Halder
50. Nathan Hargrave
51. Chris Harris
52. Luke Harris
53. Luke Harrison
54. Cameron Heeps
55. Freddy Hodder
56. Chris Holder
57. Jack Holder
58. Jacob Hook
59. Kyle Howarth
60. Danyon Hume
61. Ryan Ingram
62. Niels-Kristian Iversen
63. Max James
64. Maciej Janowski
65. Jordan Jenkins
66. Jonas Jeppesen
67. Michael Jepsen Jensen
68. Elliot Kelly
69. Drew Kemp
70. Declan Kennedy
71. Zaine Kennedy
72. Lewis Kerr
73. Peter Kildemand
74. Luke Killeen
75. Danny King
76. Jack Kingston
77. Daniel Klima
78. Nicoli Klindt
79. Jonas Knudsen
80. Brady Kurtz
81. Jan Kvetch
82. Simon Lambert
83. Richard Lawson
84. Jaimon Linsey
85. Jordy Loftus
86. Kryan Lyden
87. Matt Marson
88. Caydin Martin
89. Sam Masters
90. Mitch McDiarmid
91. Harry McGurk
92. Sam McGurk
93. Eli Meadows
94. Calum Mitchell
95. Nick Morris
96. Ben Morley
97. Connor Mountain
98. Luke Muff
99. Jake Mulford
100. Tobiasz Musielak
101. Villads Nagel
102. Scott Nicholls
103. Michael Palm Toft
104. Victor Palovaara
105. Mark Parker
106. Max Perry
107. Danny Phillips
108. Josh Pickering
109. Ace Pijper
110. Stene Pijper
111. Oskar Polis
112. Ben Rathbone
113. Keynan Rew
114. Laylen Richardson
115. Darryl Ritchings
116. Harrison Rogers
117. Anders Rowe
118. Adam Roynon
119. Erik Riss
120. Cooper Rushen
121. Emil Sayfutdinov
122. Jody Scott
123. Justin Sedgmen
124. Jack Shimelt
125. Mickie Simpson
126. Charlie Southwick
127. Tom Spencer
128. Sonny Springer
129. Jack Smith
130. Paul Starke
131. Senna Summers
132. Dan Thompson
133. Joe Thompson
134. Tobias Thomsen
135. Kye Thomson
136. Ben Trigger
137. Rohan Tungate
138. Ashton Vale
139. Antti Vuolas
140. Kai Ward
141. Mason Watson
142. Morgan Williams
143. Chad Wirtzfeld
144. Charlie Wood
145. Dayle Wood
146. Sam Woods
147. Steve Worrall
148. Charles Wright
149. Matej Zagar
150. Tate Zischke

1 league would see a good chunk of rider's knocked off that list as they'd be unavailable due to Swedish and Polish demands, maybe also Germany & Denmark. 

I personally feel 1 league will be disastrous 

[BackInTheDHSS]

23 minutes ago, Daniel Smith said:

1 league would see a good chunk of rider's knocked off that list as they'd be unavailable due to Swedish and Polish demands, maybe also Germany & Denmark. 

I personally feel 1 league will be disastrous 

But would that not mean the 50 riders of lower quality were more likely to be competitive? Lose the top 50 and gain the bottom 50, or vice versa. Either way, there’s a pool of 100 riders to choose from? Regardless of the standard of racing, there are enough riders riding in the second and third tiers to fill one big league. 

Edited 4 hours ago by BackInTheDHSS

[Daniel Smith]

22 minutes ago, BackInTheDHSS said:

But would that not mean the 50 riders of lower quality were more likely to be competitive? Lose the top 50 and gain the bottom 50, or vice versa. Either way, there’s a pool of 100 riders to choose from? Regardless of the standard of racing, there are enough riders riding in the second and third tiers to fill one big league. 

Make that the "1 Big League" then.

Leave Belle Vue, Ipswich, Sheffield, Leicester & King's Lynn to come up with their own NEW format for a potential "Super League."

What I would like, it's inventive:-

5 man teams for the regular season, home & away x2. Now, the invention 😬

An "All Team Tournament" x2 at each stadium, where a 'World Cup' style format can be used & the points also count towards the league table.

Points can be standardised, like:

Regular League: Win 3pts, Draw 1pt, Lose 0pts

ATT: 1st 6pts, 2nd 4pts, 3rd 3pts, 4th 2pts, 5th 0pts

[1 valve]

2 hours ago, BackInTheDHSS said:

But would that not mean the 50 riders of lower quality were more likely to be competitive? Lose the top 50 and gain the bottom 50, or vice versa. Either way, there’s a pool of 100 riders to choose from? Regardless of the standard of racing, there are enough riders riding in the second and third tiers to fill one big league. 

A pool of 100 riders to form a league “regardless of the standard of racing”? 
Well that there is the quickest and surest way to finish UK speedway off once and for all. 
 

[Technik]

3 hours ago, singy13 said:

The current attendance issues are due to fans not liking guest fests and doubling up. Both of these rider problems dilute the sports integrity for so many fans. Lots have abandoned ship because they have seen too many teams use three, or more in some cases, guests.  I often talked with Workington rugby directors, who were anti-speedway, and referred to the sport as having a strong likeness to that comical one called WWE (or is it WWF?)...anyway they said guests undermined the sport big style - and yes they were/are correct. Personally I just think the one division would bring more variety to a quite stagnant round of fixtures. And so what if Poland claim the best, every race has a winner, and loser. We used to have wobblers yes fifty years ago but shouted encouragement to one and all....let's do it via one league again !!!!!!

Whilst not being a fan of the guest facility to compare British Speedway to the way Rugby, Football or Cricket works is misguided. Our team structure is based on a solid 7 man team with no extras. If you go along to other sports they have many substitutes they can bring into a game at any point or even start different players for each game. The position of Goalkeeper at most football clubs is for one person with a second sitting on the bench & a third who trains but never selected. Ice Hockey has 3 or 4 lineups for each game changing on the fly. Rugby has 5 replacements each game, In all reality are they not using a simiular facility to speedway.