Sheffield -V- Belle Vue POF Leg 1 Thursday 8th October

[YeOldPitGate]

38 minutes ago, gjcone44 said:

problem is how deep are the customers pockets going to be next season.. 

The support seems to be there although would they wear a weak team two years in a row is a question.

for me Thomson was the most improved rider in both leagues this year. Iverson and Harrison both worth keeping the issue as ever is with the likes of Klindt and Lidsey, they can bang in double figures one week and be awful the next meeting so ideally they only want one of them back next year.

Then 2-3 new faces one of which needs to be a heavy hitting number one in the Doyle, Bewley mould if one can be tempted over.

Flagrag also mentioned well resourced people were interested last year maybe they will decide to step up in 2027 having seen support is there, the other issue seems to be the track which by all counts is a great shape but hasn't been condusive to brilliant racing.

[DaveWayne]

2 hours ago, Daniel Smith said:

Anyone seen the BBC report today 🤣🤣🤣

Could they get it more wrong, the only thing they got right was Belle Vue won 🤣🤣🤣

Somehow they managed to use the 2022 script, even down to saying that Belle Vue won 91-89 on aggregate despite losing to Sheffield on the day, to a backdrop with the score showing Belle Vue well in front.

[SUPERACE]

What a great night, unbelievable, loved every minute of it. Sell out crowd, wonderful atmosphere in the South stand, great meeting presentation.  

What an amazing season for the Aces, the most dominant since Ipswich 98 id say.  A brilliant team full of average improvers.  Untouchable at home and excellent away.  Top of the league all season, then 4 out of 4 play off legs. 

A recored extending 15th top flight title.

54th top flight trophy.

Capped off with a full Peter Craven suite to welcome the Champions.  I can't even remember what tine i left, but I do know plenty of beer was drunk.

UTA♣️♣️♣️♣️♣️♣️♣️♣️♣️♣️

[Bagpuss]

3 hours ago, Aries said:

He can come up with several, problem is he’s one voice in a sea of many and he’ll probably end up drowning in said sea.

Sounds like Rob Lyon is a fan.

[marko]

The play offs are such a dichotomy, on the one hand they can and often do provide great crowds for the finals BUT for the period between the season starting and then its a lame duck financially wise.

The play offs are here to stay but they simply must find a way of making the qualifying matches actually mean something because one meeting is not going to pay for all the rest, and for those who don't make the finals, they are on a hiding to nothing.

Maybe only meeting the other teams once would help? yep that's just five home league meetings but if your losing money every time you run, the answer is run less often, and if you run less often, people will make more effort to come because now your dealing with limited chances to watch certain terms and sometimes certain riders.

[mikebv]

9 minutes ago, marko said:

The play offs are such a dichotomy, on the one hand they can and often do provide great crowds for the finals BUT for the period between the season starting and then its a lame duck financially wise.

The play offs are here to stay but they simply must find a way of making the qualifying matches actually mean something because one meeting is not going to pay for all the rest, and for those who don't make the finals, they are on a hiding to nothing.

Maybe only meeting the other teams once would help? yep that's just five home league meetings but if your losing money every time you run, the answer is run less often, and if you run less often, people will make more effort to come because now your dealing with limited chances to watch certain terms and sometimes certain riders.

So many of the issues faced goes back to the lack of any real prestige, publicity and financial reward for winning any of the domestic titles..

If that could somehow be fixed then everything else just falls into place...

You could have a "decent prize", and a trophy, (like Rugby League does for example), for topping the table and then a separate "main prize" for winning the play offs..

Meaning each meeting has something riding on it ..

Unfortunately, there appears almost to be not enough relevance to the sport in the UK, other than providing riders with a decent six month income and promoters with an expensive hobby they can indulge in...

Play Off final crowds show there is a more than decent following still for Speedway, they just need to find a way to get, at least, a few hundred of those who attend the play offs only to attend, even only occasionally, during the rest of the season..

Can they do it?...

 

[r8gdp]

For me the play offs are wrong the team that is the most consistent throughout the season and finish’s top should be crowned champions.I would go with doing away with the knockout cup in its present format. To enter it make it just for the teams that finish in the top 4 . You could then draw the teams out of the hat .

[Aries]

3 minutes ago, r8gdp said:

For me the play offs are wrong the team that is the most consistent throughout the season and finish’s top should be crowned champions.I would go with doing away with the knockout cup in its present format. To enter it make it just for the teams that finish in the top 4 . You could then draw the teams out of the hat .

This issue here for me is that you get those like the comments above bemoaning the play off “qualifiers’ as non events with little riding on them, but a top team winning the league would be far worse in that regard so I’ve never understood this argument. 
 

If a dominant team starts to run away with it like Belle Vue this year, then what jeopardy is there for 99% of fixtures from mid-season onwards? 
 

Virtually every team in that scenario is riding for nothing. Lynn’s season for example would have been dead and buried with months of the season left (as well as everyone else’s bar Sheffield) but their season remained alive right up until the final week of the season when Ipswich defeated Leicester. 
 

There’s more meaningful league fixtures in a play off set up than there is in a “top of the table wins” scenario it’s as simple as that. 

[dontforgetthefueltapsbruv]

6 hours ago, Roger Jacobs said:

At last! The end of a short, drawn out season.

Best bit has to be Nikolai Klindt collecting a winners medal and the wooden spoon.

 

Doesn't that just sum matters up perfectly....

[bellevueace]

11 hours ago, Gavan said:

Well done Belle Vue but I’m sure most people are glad to see the back of that season totally boring 

Title winners obvious from early on

2 under strength sides in Ipswich and Northampton 

Leicester weaker than last season 

Sheffield losing arguably the leagues top rider … and unfortunately in their case too late to get Doyle 

The 2025 season was so close and 4 teams that could have won it 

This season take out Doyle Emil Fricke and Holder from 3 of those teams and the other side kept all theirs was obvious where the league would go

Join Leagues

 

Let’s hope 2027 is more competitive 

Ipswich were tipped early doors to win last season, two weak teams in Birmingham and Oxford, lets not pretend last season was a classic season it wasnt the Premiership has been on the slide for a few seasons. A club can only build to win, Louis actions didnt help and then having to rush Northampton in late too wasnt ideal. Will next season be any different? There doesnt appear to be much ambition with clubs wanting to move up, lets see how the mooted Polish rules have an impact. As Kyle Howarth stated even riders are bored with the repetition, will be interesting to see how things are come next spring. Its been the least pleasurable title win but it is what it is.

Edited 17 hours ago by bellevueace

[r8gdp]

2 hours ago, Aries said:

This issue here for me is that you get those like the comments above bemoaning the play off “qualifiers’ as non events with little riding on them, but a top team winning the league would be far worse in that regard so I’ve never understood this argument. 
 

If a dominant team starts to run away with it like Belle Vue this year, then what jeopardy is there for 99% of fixtures from mid-season onwards? 
 

Virtually every team in that scenario is riding for nothing. Lynn’s season for example would have been dead and buried with months of the season left (as well as everyone else’s bar Sheffield) but their season remained alive right up until the final week of the season when Ipswich defeated Leicester. 
 

There’s more meaningful league fixtures in a play off set up than there is in a “top of the table wins” scenario it’s as simple as that. 

I get what you’re saying but something got to change because speedways dying on its arse.The whole play offs this year we re a waste of time not one team was going to beat Belle Vue who we re dominant all season .I just think scraping the knockout cup as it is and replacing with just the top 4 teams from the final league position s could keep teams battling to the end .

Something s got to change to entice me back.I am one of those supporters whose drifted away from the sport .Have been to Owlerton only once this year .

[Gavan]

2 hours ago, bellevueace said:

Ipswich were tipped early doors to win last season, two weak teams in Birmingham and Oxford, lets not pretend last season was a classic season it wasnt the Premiership has been on the slide for a few seasons. A club can only build to win, Louis actions didnt help and then having to rush Northampton in late too wasnt ideal. Will next season be any different? There doesnt appear to be much ambition with clubs wanting to move up, lets see how the mooted Polish rules have an impact. As Kyle Howarth stated even riders are bored with the repetition, will be interesting to see how things are come next spring. It’s been the least pleasurable title win but it is what it is.

Missing my point totally 

I agree that things need to change but the last seasons since Covid have been pretty close in terms of teams and strengths 

I don’t disagree Ipswich were favourites last season but during the season we struggled on and off with teams like Leicester and Sheffield winning at Foxhall and Kings Lynn drawing at our place to advance in the cup …. We never had it our own way as Belle Vue Sheffield and Leicester were strong sides 

Belle Vue were clear favourites all season and nobody could get close and it would take a real collapse to see them lose the title 

In 1998 when Ipswich had 3 of the worlds top 5 I used to enjoy the closeness of the away matches especially at Coventry as the home meetings were usually thrashings 

Was I happy we won the league in 98 … absolutely….. was it a good competitive league … no

And that is how I feel about 2026….. Belle Vue deserving winners and their fans have every right to enjoy it …… but has it been the worst season in the last 7 or 8 years …. Yes 

[bellevueace]

10 minutes ago, Gavan said:

Missing my point totally 

I agree that things need to change but the last seasons since Covid have been pretty close in terms of teams and strengths 

I don’t disagree Ipswich were favourites last season but during the season we struggled on and off with teams like Leicester and Sheffield winning at Foxhall and Kings Lynn drawing at our place to advance in the cup …. We never had it our own way as Belle Vue Sheffield and Leicester were strong sides 

Belle Vue were clear favourites all season and nobody could get close and it would take a real collapse to see them lose the title 

In 1998 when Ipswich had 3 of the worlds top 5 I used to enjoy the closeness of the away matches especially at Coventry as the home meetings were usually thrashings 

Was I happy we won the league in 98 … absolutely….. was it a good competitive league … no

And that is how I feel about 2026….. Belle Vue deserving winners and their fans have every right to enjoy it …… but has it been the worst season in the last 7 or 8 years …. Yes 

No i got your point just balancing it out a little, in 1998 the standard of riders over here was far supierior, as were the anount of teams participating, going back to the early seventies title hat trick we had 18 teams in the league and all the best riders in the world, the sport in the UK has been on a downward spiral ever since, culminating in the past couple of seasons, ending up with what we had this season, and some at the start of this season said Belle Vue would suffer with a long tail just to accommodate the top two. We can only hope the powers that be take onboard new ideas, i think next season is the last chance saloon

[Rob B]

1 hour ago, Gavan said:

Missing my point totally 

I agree that things need to change but the last seasons since Covid have been pretty close in terms of teams and strengths 

I don’t disagree Ipswich were favourites last season but during the season we struggled on and off with teams like Leicester and Sheffield winning at Foxhall and Kings Lynn drawing at our place to advance in the cup …. We never had it our own way as Belle Vue Sheffield and Leicester were strong sides 

Belle Vue were clear favourites all season and nobody could get close and it would take a real collapse to see them lose the title 

In 1998 when Ipswich had 3 of the worlds top 5 I used to enjoy the closeness of the away matches especially at Coventry as the home meetings were usually thrashings 

Was I happy we won the league in 98 … absolutely….. was it a good competitive league … no

And that is how I feel about 2026….. Belle Vue deserving winners and their fans have every right to enjoy it …… but has it been the worst season in the last 7 or 8 years …. Yes 

All this bollocks about being favourites, read this thread last couple of pages nobody was putting Belle Vue top!

 

[mikebv]

2 hours ago, Gavan said:

Missing my point totally 

I agree that things need to change but the last seasons since Covid have been pretty close in terms of teams and strengths 

I don’t disagree Ipswich were favourites last season but during the season we struggled on and off with teams like Leicester and Sheffield winning at Foxhall and Kings Lynn drawing at our place to advance in the cup …. We never had it our own way as Belle Vue Sheffield and Leicester were strong sides 

Belle Vue were clear favourites all season and nobody could get close and it would take a real collapse to see them lose the title 

In 1998 when Ipswich had 3 of the worlds top 5 I used to enjoy the closeness of the away matches especially at Coventry as the home meetings were usually thrashings 

Was I happy we won the league in 98 … absolutely….. was it a good competitive league … no

And that is how I feel about 2026….. Belle Vue deserving winners and their fans have every right to enjoy it …… but has it been the worst season in the last 7 or 8 years …. Yes 

A dominant team doesn't mean a "poor season"...

In fact, in most sports, it means a team that when they visit you want to take them down..

And are something to aspire to, and not just match, but move ahead of...

The main issue is that for at least a decade, and probably more, as the top league dwindled, and teams even chose to drop out of it to ride in tier two, winning it has little prestige...

Six teams? Seven teams? Who cares when usually one, and sometimes two, are completely out of their depth...

This years title, last years title, and several going back to Covid and beyond, have very little value or kudos the way they are won, and the minimal reward they generate...

[marko]

No matter how many teams in a league you will always have a divide between those at the top and those at the bottom, the less teams you have doesn’t change that parameter.

A top four from a league of 12 will be more equally matched than the top four from a league of 6.

A play off system with the top four involved should only happen if the league has at least 9 clubs minimum.

For leagues of 7/8 teams it should be 2rd vs 3rd with winner playing 1st, and for a leagues of 6 teams or less it should be scrapped completely.

[Bagpuss]

I'm not sure the season has been that bad or certainly not in comparison to other recent ones, sure one team has dominated and I appreciate all the jeopardy in the Play Offs was absent but there's been a lot of hyperbole on here not really warranted. Of course we desperately need a couple more sides and an injection of fresh, interesting new riders but thats been the case for several years. 

As always we live in hope for next season so fingers and toes crossed. 

[Steve Irving]

2 minutes ago, Bagpuss said:

I'm not sure the season has been that bad or certainly not in comparison to other recent ones, sure one team has dominated and I appreciate all the jeopardy in the Play Offs was absent but there's been a lot of hyperbole on here not really warranted. Of course we desperately need a couple more sides and an injection of fresh, interesting new riders but thats been the case for several years. 

As always we live in hope for next season so fingers and toes crossed. 

Couldn’t disagree more. You seem to be forgetting that 2 teams this year were at a severe disadvantage to the other 4 and that meant the league lacked any kind of fairness or integrity I’m afraid.

Someone made the point that other teams in the past haven’t been competitive but that’s just not the same is it. They had just as much chance as anyone else to build a side but blew it. Tough.

[ouch]

[Bagpuss]

17 minutes ago, Steve Irving said:

Couldn’t disagree more. You seem to be forgetting that 2 teams this year were at a severe disadvantage to the other 4 and that meant the league lacked any kind of fairness or integrity I’m afraid.

Someone made the point that other teams in the past haven’t been competitive but that’s just not the same is it. They had just as much chance as anyone else to build a side but blew it. Tough.

I get that and as a competition the Premiership needs a massive overhaul but I really don't think the season itself has been any worse than the last two or three , although I accept the bar is a low one.

We desperately need new teams and riders, less guests, less doubling up and a better fixture list. And for promoters to follow Mr Coleman. 

In the meantime congrats to Belle Vue, this title doesnt and shouldn't feel any different to any others.