Northampton 2026

[Whitelinehugger]

On 5/1/2026 at 7:31 AM, Preston Comet said:

Time to bed in??

Its been a shale track for years

Perhaps the springs need replacing on the bed😂

[paulnolan]

The shine has quickly worn off with 5 matches in 15 days and 5 defeats. Sure, there's been no Iversen but it's already apparent that this side is understrength and needs attention. Zagar and Lidsey are doing about what you'd expect, the reserves are fine, but Klindt and Batchelor are seriously underperforming. The problem is, with the club being funded by its rivals, what's their impetus to improve their side? 14 defeats would suit them all fine. But with over 3,000 at the opening night, they'd be killing a golden goose. At £25 a go, I'll skip Thursday's match with King's Lynn and see if anything changes.

[marko]

I think as far as other promoters are concerned I suspect their opinion towards the Foxes will be, Do good, but don’t do too good.

[mikebv]

17 minutes ago, marko said:

I think as far as other promoters are concerned I suspect their opinion towards the Foxes will be, Do good, but don’t do too good.

As Mark Lemon said...

"We need the sixth team for credibility"... 

If any of the Monty Python team has said it, we would be quoting it for the next fifty years!!!!

Edited 7 hours ago by mikebv

[Sir Sidney]

1 hour ago, paulnolan said:

The shine has quickly worn off with 5 matches in 15 days and 5 defeats. Sure, there's been no Iversen but it's already apparent that this side is understrength and needs attention. Zagar and Lidsey are doing about what you'd expect, the reserves are fine, but Klindt and Batchelor are seriously underperforming. The problem is, with the club being funded by its rivals, what's their impetus to improve their side? 14 defeats would suit them all fine. But with over 3,000 at the opening night, they'd be killing a golden goose. At £25 a go, I'll skip Thursday's match with King's Lynn and see if anything changes.

Don't give up on them after 1 home meeting. They will need all the support they can get, to remain viable. 

Given the lateness with which the team was put together it was always going to be a challenge this year. Klindt acknowledged at Belle Vue yesterday that his performances have not yet been up to scratch. 

The question is who would be available to come in to improve the team now, and I suspect the answer is that there are very few options 

[YeOldPitGate]

6 minutes ago, Sir Sidney said:

Don't give up on them after 1 home meeting. They will need all the support they can get, to remain viable. 

Given the lateness with which the team was put together it was always going to be a challenge this year. Klindt acknowledged at Belle Vue yesterday that his performances have not yet been up to scratch. 

The question is who would be available to come in to improve the team now, and I suspect the answer is that there are very few options 

Spot on where do you go for options, in the perfect world they need someone like Anders Thompson or Lindgren but most likely it would be a toss up between Kerr/Sedgeman.

[SpeedwayTShirts]

On 5/3/2026 at 8:36 AM, Bavarian said:

 

Charlotte is excellent at presenting, I think she'll go far

[IainB]

26 minutes ago, Sir Sidney said:

Don't give up on them after 1 home meeting. They will need all the support they can get, to remain viable. 

Given the lateness with which the team was put together it was always going to be a challenge this year. Klindt acknowledged at Belle Vue yesterday that his performances have not yet been up to scratch. 

The question is who would be available to come in to improve the team now, and I suspect the answer is that there are very few options 

Klindt is not a number 5, not in a million years... Charles Wright is unattached, when he's fit to return, he's not the answer though, Luke Becker? One of the ex-gp riders? Wozniak, Michelsen, Vaculik, Janowski, Huckenbeck... Tungate, Nilsson, Thorsell, DJ Woffy... all the usual suspects. None of them are going to set the world alight but are more likely than not going to score more that the 2 or 3 points that Klindt is currently offering.

Klindt did this a couple of years back when he got binned off by Oxford, or was it Lynn, or did he go from Oxford to Lynn, can't remember, but I remember him saying at the time he can't set his bikes up during the colder early months... which I commented at the time was not great to hear from somebody with so much experience... but here we are again.

[mikebv]

1 minute ago, IainB said:

Klindt is not a number 5, not in a million years... Charles Wright is unattached, when he's fit to return, he's not the answer though, Luke Becker? One of the ex-gp riders? Wozniak, Michelsen, Vaculik, Janowski, Huckenbeck... Tungate, Nilsson, Thorsell, DJ Woffy... all the usual suspects. None of them are going to set the world alight but are more likely than not going to score more that the 2 or 3 points that Klindt is currently offering.

Klindt did this a couple of years back when he got binned off by Oxford, or was it Lynn, or did he go from Oxford to Lynn, can't remember, but I remember him saying at the time he can't set his bikes up during the colder early months... which I commented at the time was not great to hear from somebody with so much experience... but here we are again.

Maybe there is a case for new teams getting a few extra points towards team building? Maybe 5%..?

Given they initially don't have home track knowledge it would even up the playing field somewhat .

And, hopefully, provide some home victories early doors into the tenure...

And it's not like UK Speedway isn't adverse to a bit of contrived rules and regs..

[Whitelinehugger]

1 minute ago, mikebv said:

it would even up the playing field somewhat .

 

Like this field.

[IainB]

3 minutes ago, mikebv said:

Maybe there is a case for new teams getting a few extra points towards team building? Maybe 5%..?

Given they initially don't have home track knowledge it would even up the playing field somewhat .

And, hopefully, provide some home victories early doors into the tenure...

And it's not like UK Speedway isn't adverse to a bit of contrived rules and regs..

I think before bringing in more contrived rules... they should look at the current rules, instead of clobbering Northamptoningham with a no facility facility (absurd) for a rider that has not yet ridden they should allow a full facility especially if it can be proven the rider has actually signed a contract to ride... and if the sport is going to rely so so heavily on the guest system make sure that there are a pool of guests that are contractually obliged to guest. instead we have a system where it's totally up to the rider whether he chooses to accept the booking or not and even if he does he can change his mind at a moments notice... anyway that's getting on to a whole different subject!

With Northamptoningham having around £75k on their hip after opening night they should have a bit of cash to splash... but as @paulnolan has already said the natives are restless, it's essential for any noobs to have a winning team, at least at home as they'll be lost before they come to love the subtleties of the sport after a few home losses.

At the moment this is a carbon copy of Birmingham... but with crowds, but I fear they'll soon drop off and they'll be reliant on floaters, such as myself.

[InTheDeepStuff]

With Zagar damaging his ankle yesterday he’s going g to be out for quite a few weeks, so maybe we might see a new face (or old returning face) in the Foxes line up in the coming meetings as can’t continue with R/R (when NKI is back) as team not strong enough 

[wtf]

3 hours ago, paulnolan said:

The shine has quickly worn off with 5 matches in 15 days and 5 defeats. Sure, there's been no Iversen but it's already apparent that this side is understrength and needs attention. Zagar and Lidsey are doing about what you'd expect, the reserves are fine, but Klindt and Batchelor are seriously underperforming. The problem is, with the club being funded by its rivals, what's their impetus to improve their side? 14 defeats would suit them all fine. But with over 3,000 at the opening night, they'd be killing a golden goose. At £25 a go, I'll skip Thursday's match with King's Lynn and see if anything changes.

Whilst I take your point on Klindt, Batchelor's scores have been 7+1, 3+1, 5+1, and 9, all away from home, and 5 at home. I'm wondering what you're expecting from a 4.73 averaged rider?

[gjcone44]

batch rode better than i thought he `would at bellevue

[mikebv]

54 minutes ago, wtf said:

Whilst I take your point on Klindt, Batchelor's scores have been 7+1, 3+1, 5+1, and 9, all away from home, and 5 at home. I'm wondering what you're expecting from a 4.73 averaged rider?

I always laugh on threads where 2 point reserves get blamed for defeats when they don't score...

That's TWO points dropped...

One more point each from the top three, who make up the biggest portion of the team average, would more than cover that...

Yet, No's 1, 3, and 5 scoring a collective 25 or so isnt called out the same...

HL's are paid to win races, meaning a minimum drawn heat, two point reserves are paid to beat their opposite number the two times they meet.  

[Eagle77]

Does anyone else think it's crazy that Northampton are not being granted a full facility for the missing NKI...?

It's not their fault that he's injured and it's not their fault that he's being advised not to fly because of his injury...

Surely this is a perfect example of where the infamous "In the best interests of the Sport" rule should be applied...

We have a new track starting from scratch, trying to attract and retain new fans... but in a sport that prides itself on having No Brakes...they are being asked to operate with an artificial hand brake applied...

Seems ridiculous!!!!