Edinburgh Academy 2026

[Mr Blobby]

So the Academy have Announced their 7 for the new season, with 4 new faces and 3 old ones. 3 brits and 4 fake ones, with one being the sister of Jordy Loftus
 

Jordy Loftus

Dayle Wood 

Connor Coles 

Vinnie Ford 

Jamie Halder 

Ben Whalley 

Anika Loftus 

Interesting looking line up that should do well. Slightly disappointing the lack of actual brits but it can be a bit challenging to get them to travel this far. 

 

[Binman]

6 minutes ago, Mr Blobby said:

So the Academy have Announced their 7 for the new season, with 4 new faces and 3 old ones. 3 brits and 4 fake ones, with one being the sister of Jordy Loftus
 

Jordy Loftus

Dayle Wood 

Connor Coles 

Vinnie Ford 

Jamie Halder 

Ben Whalley 

Anika Loftus 

Interesting looking line up that should do well. Slightly disappointing the lack of actual brits but it can be a bit challenging to get them to travel this far. 

 

Yes wouldn't want to pay that travel money 💰

[Fortythirtyeight]

A sad state of affairs that sums up the state of the sport. Whilst I admire the academy set up the club have the National League ( it’s no longer a development league ) is just becoming a watered down championship with second strings ( Simon Lambert ??? ) and non Brits being brought over to fill team places .

[Binman]

2 minutes ago, Fortythirtyeight said:

A sad state of affairs that sums up the state of the sport. Whilst I admire the academy set up the club have the National League ( it’s no longer a development league ) is just becoming a watered down championship with second strings ( Simon Lambert ??? ) and non Brits being brought over to fill team places .

Spot on nail on the head

[Bavarian]

Great line-up but still sad to see that there is not one young Scottish rider in the Edinburgh Academy team

[Sargent10]

22 minutes ago, Bavarian said:

Great line-up but still sad to see that there is not one young Scottish rider in the Edinburgh Academy team

It’s a absolute disgrace that Edinburgh has a bspa member in control of the club and has always ran a youth meeting but see fit to unveil a development team that has 5 members that are lets be honest not British youth riders and never have been, are they really saying that this is the best way forward to developing British speedway in the long term, if so god help us or have they just been just taking the micky out of every parent who’s spending hard earned money to try and get their kids through the system, they ain’t the only ones but this many is scandalous 

[Mr Blobby]

12 minutes ago, Sargent10 said:

It’s a absolute disgrace that Edinburgh has a bspa member in control of the club and has always ran a youth meeting but see fit to unveil a development team that has 5 members that are lets be honest not British youth riders and never have been, are they really saying that this is the best way forward to developing British speedway in the long term, if so god help us or have they just been just taking the micky out of every parent who’s spending hard earned money to try and get their kids through the system, they ain’t the only ones but this many is scandalous 

4 not 5, but the club does struggle to get brits to travel up to us here at Edinburgh that are of a standard which is good enough. Hence having to go down a different route. 
 

We do have the Monarchs speedway academy which has plenty of youngsters in attendance, just not old enough as of yet to compete apart from one who turns 15 this month but is too soon for him ride NDL. Give it a couple more years and hopefully we’ll have 2/3 Scots in that line up. 

[MillenTheVillen]

35 minutes ago, Sargent10 said:

It’s a absolute disgrace that Edinburgh has a bspa member in control of the club and has always ran a youth meeting but see fit to unveil a development team that has 5 members that are lets be honest not British youth riders and never have been, are they really saying that this is the best way forward to developing British speedway in the long term, if so god help us or have they just been just taking the micky out of every parent who’s spending hard earned money to try and get their kids through the system, they ain’t the only ones but this many is scandalous 

Quite funny that you believe doing a few youth meetings entitles you to anything let alone a NDL Team Spot.

At least those 7 will turn up, most of the self entitled only want Teams to race on days that suit them, and they moan when their overlooked.

Can't do Mondays, can't do Tuesdays, can't do Wednesdays, can't do Thursdays,  cant do Fridays as got a Job or Dads working, it's laughable - if you wanted it you'd prioritise it till you earn it and not just because you did a few youth meetings then moan because someone comes around  the world to do when you won't.

[Sargent10]

32 minutes ago, MillenTheVillen said:

Quite funny that you believe doing a few youth meetings entitles you to anything let alone a NDL Team Spot.

At least those 7 will turn up, most of the self entitled only want Teams to race on days that suit them, and they moan when their overlooked.

Can't do Mondays, can't do Tuesdays, can't do Wednesdays, can't do Thursdays,  cant do Fridays as got a Job or Dads working, it's laughable - if you wanted it you'd prioritise it till you earn it and not just because you did a few youth meetings then moan because someone comes around  the world to do when you won't.

So you think it’s funny do you, parents spending £1000/s of pounds from when there kids are 8/9 years of age to maybe make a good fist of it around the age of 15, and a slim chance of getting a team spot, then after maybe 6/7/8 years of those parents losing money travelling everywhere to say a NJL fixture and the club says sorry curfew is happened or something else not tonight guys, and you still stick at it and then you get overlooked by clubs who bring in riders who just fancy coming over here and trying their luck and who as you say will turn up?(bit difficult not when you are 12,000 miles from home) ahead of you it’s no surprise when the cupboard is increasingly empty. I’m telling you that not one parent of the youth section believes that they are entitled to anything, what they want is a fair crack at it for the countless hours they have done keeping their kids racing when the easiest thing was to pack up, and without doubt attitudes like yours more parents will gradually do the latter.

[Binman]

13 minutes ago, Sargent10 said:

So you think it’s funny do you, parents spending £1000/s of pounds from when there kids are 8/9 years of age to maybe make a good fist of it around the age of 15, and a slim chance of getting a team spot, then after maybe 6/7/8 years of those parents losing money travelling everywhere to say a NJL fixture and the club says sorry curfew is happened or something else not tonight guys, and you still stick at it and then you get overlooked by clubs who bring in riders who just fancy coming over here and trying their luck and who as you say will turn up?(bit difficult not when you are 12,000 miles from home) ahead of you it’s no surprise when the cupboard is increasingly empty. I’m telling you that not one parent of the youth section believes that they are entitled to anything, what they want is a fair crack at it for the countless hours they have done keeping their kids racing when the easiest thing was to pack up, and without doubt attitudes like yours more parents will gradually do the latter.

This is why the NJL needs to keep going giving local riders the chance to race in a team 

[Paulbooth]

1 hour ago, MillenTheVillen said:

 

Can't do Mondays, can't do Tuesdays, can't do Wednesdays, can't do Thursdays,  cant do Fridays as got a Job or Dads working, it's laughable - if you wanted it you'd prioritise it till you earn it and not just because you did a few youth meetings then moan because someone comes around  the world to do when you won't.

Just reading this thread . How is this laughable . My family are not a rich family myself partner and son all work and pay for his riding what cost a lot . At times it really hard to get time of work especially for rearnaged  meetings when we have took leave for the first meeting thats been cancelled .i would guess  this is the same for most parents or hopfull riders.

If the sport was perfect then NDL and NJL would take place over a weekend of bank holidays to allow familys to earn and pay. As they say its ment to be a devepoment league

[Paulbooth]

22 minutes ago, Binman said:

This is why the NJL needs to keep going giving local riders the chance to race in a team 

Unfortunalety there is very few teams for the whole season so lots of time off apart from practise session what is not as good as racing . Second halfs are good and my lad has always been suported by all the clubs but 3 races in 15-20 mins is hard to make changes to set ups

[Binman]

9 minutes ago, Paulbooth said:

Unfortunalety there is very few teams for the whole season so lots of time off apart from practise session what is not as good as racing . Second halfs are good and my lad has always been suported by all the clubs but 3 races in 15-20 mins is hard to make changes to set ups

So Mr Vatcher now runs the NJL make some positive changes

[Paulbooth]

4 minutes ago, Binman said:

So Mr Vatcher now runs the NJL make some positive changes

Worst one for us last year was bike troubles and we could  not sort it in the 15 20 min so owen missed all three races . Bike was fine before we left home to travel dowm but hey sometimes that happens