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Think it’s worth mentioning how enjoyable last night’s meeting was. I’m often critical of Wimborne Road, but that was a great speedway meeting last night and a fantastic advert for the sport. It had everything, from close racing to dubious decisions, on-track-action and post-race interview controversy. Congratulations to the Pirates on another trophy and also Redcar in giving a fantastic account of themselves. Special mention to Will Cairns and Jake Mullford. Never lose that fire in your belly, boys.

Good to hear Coleman addressing the supporters at the end as well. Again dangling the carrot of things being much better next year and exciting times ahead at Foxhall. He can certainly talk the talk, and he deserves the chance to walk the walk. Grateful that he stepped in personally and gave us speedway again this year.

Interview with Andrew Bain in this week’s star sounds positive, he plans to keep improving the track including fitting the flood lights. He said he is going to do his very best to make sure the comets are at the tapes next year. Fingers crossed he can make it work. No one wants to lose another team.

Maybe teams should've run during the lovely summer instead of having such a disjointed fixture list.

Awwww. Martin Ashby. What a rider. I was totally obsessed with the guy as a teenager. I remember the first time I ever went to Swindon Speedway. Swindon v Wolves in 1974. I stood on the apex of the first and second bends. First race I saw - Martin Ashby of Swindon beating some foreign bloke called Ole Olsen and breaking the track record. Amazing. He had the best style of any rider. Take any picture of Martin Ashby riding, and you could put it into any other picture of him. He always looked exactly the same in every picture. So stylish, but possibly not aggressive or ruthless enough sometimes, which probably cost him a place in my first ever World Final in 1975. That race with Ray Wilson was over 50 years ago now, and I'm still traumatised by it! I even took my FS1-E to his garage once for a service - just so I could say my moped was serviced by Martin Ashby. After he retired, he was regular supporter at Blunsdon. Always in the same spot - near to the tea hatch going into the first bend - as though he were just another supporter. No heirs and graces at all. RIP Martin Ashby. What a guy!

I’m sick of dusty tracks, it’s not just Poole it seems to be everywhere in current speedway and ultimately it makes for crap racing, put some god damn water down and if the riders moan tell them to sod off and do something else, it seems no consideration is given to fans getting covered in dust these days, Poole attendance levels are maintained by their winning ethos but for a play off meeting I thought that crowd was poor

We could call it the BLRC. The both leagues riders championship.

Let’s be honest here as an Ipswich fan. Ipswich got lucky to be in front at the interval on Thursday & Belle Vue pulled it back & deserved the win. In terms of Ipswich 2026 the late take over certainly put a spanner in the works in terms of team building. Ellis & Doyle were both spoken too but couldn’t hang on to confirm their 2026 arrangements & you can’t blame them. Danny, Tom & Jason Edwards were all able to hold on & Edwards was announced before Christmas. At one point I believe that Mayfield were hoping to be able to announce the take over & the team before Christmas. However there were issues around confirming their lease on the stadium which made it impossible to announce anything. The team was put together last minute & certainly after the top riders had already made their plans for 26. personally I went into this year happy to have a team & with no real expectations. The amount of criticism thrown at Mayfield in terms of the team & lack of changes is just laughable. This year was always about keeping the club going & putting plans in place for 27. They have done a lot of work off track in terms of attracting new sponsorship, the deal with Wroclaw, witches TV etc etc. All of that is far more important than the 26 team issues to ensure we have a club in the future. I have nothing but respect for what Coleman has done this year & I have no criticism to put his way. Now if we have a team along the same lines next year then we are then free to criticise & demand better. Finally I don’t blame Louis 1 jolt for getting out. If you’re heart isn’t in it anymore then there is no point in carrying on. 26 has been a come down after 3 years of the Emil & Jason show however it’s a year of taking stock & rebuilding for the future.

If only there had been a fantastic summer of hot, cloudless, evenings to run Speedway... And a plan to get the cup comps sorted early in the season...

Nora is the correct future for the national league and has been for a good few years now but will the scb/acu let it go ?the national league around the early to mid 2000s when the national league (Plymouth, Weymouth, Wimbledon cradley )started pulling in bigger crowds than the top leagues measures were put in place to decimate the league and it didn’t take many years to reduce it to the debacle it is today, short sighted, jealousy and bitterness and in some cases incompetence are rife in the bspl so don’t expect anything to change anytime soon, anyway a big congratulations to Martin and everyone at the IOW for an enjoyable short season that happily attracted good crowds

First meeting in about 2 years because wee man wanted to go. Brilliant advert for speedway I thought, can't remember heat without genuine passing after the 2nd bend. 11, 13 and 14 in particular I thought were superb. Pickering is a class act, Leon had to ride the wheels off it to beat him. Bug might be coming back!

No team owns riders anymore

Having had this post brought to my attention I shall respond. Firstly thank you for spelling my name right ! Secondly I will definitely NOT be getting involved in any speedway position at the club, I’m happy just being a spectator, thank you. Thirdly, speedway doesn't need ‘old’ promoters coming back, it needs NEW, FRESH IDEAS to try and get the sport back to the level it used to be at and an independent leadership to sort it out. Thanks, Kevin.

I'm sorry, but if there is a growing dispute between two riders at the tapes, the starting marshal should intervene and sort it out. That is one of his jobs. For this to end in one rider pulling the others cut out is unforgivable. Surely this amounts to delaying the start and should lead to an exclusion. In fact I think it started out as 6 of 1 and maybe both riders should have been excluded for the delay of start. Instead of which we had this pantomime where an innocent party ends up getting thrown out.

That interview sums Cairns up… If you want an example of how to entertain both on and off the track and endear yourself to fans of other clubs and not just your own, look no further than Cooper. Pure class. 👌🏻

Another reason for any TV deal to just do a highlights package using the club streams... Too many times meetings don't happen due to weather predictions, riders not liking the track or just simply rain offs.. The sport needs to build a reputation for professionalism, and "live Speedway" going out often doesn't always paint that picture... Time to edit the best highlights, and interviews covering rider commitments and lifestyles, can start to build that reputation..

Is anyone actually running British Speedway? Tomorrow is the Championship League Riders’ Championship at Sheffield. A few years ago, the CLRC was genuinely one of the jewel-in-the-crown individual meetings on the calendar. Top riders from every club, proper prestige, packed terraces, and real buzz. Fast forward to tomorrow, and it feels like the authorities wouldn't care if the gates didn't even open. First off, the scheduling brilliance: putting it directly head-to-head with the penultimate Grand Prix. I know people will say "you can watch on demand afterwards" but Speedway fans want to watch major meetings live don't they? With Brady Kurtz right in the thick of the World Championship, Belle Vue fans and general fans across the North who might have fancied a Saturday night out at Owlerton are far more likely to stay glued to their sofas cheering on their man. Nothing beats being track side, but supporters choosing between a live GP and a domestic individual championship is sheer amateur hour. Then there’s the non-existent advertising. If you don't buy the Speedway Star, you'd be forgiven for not even knowing the meeting exists. The official British Speedway website has offered virtually zero promotion other than a couple of standard-issue, token soundbite interviews with Leon Flint and Josh Pickering. Sheffield’s own website just has it quietly listed as their next home fixture at the moment, no special push, no fanfare, no effort to pull the casual punter through the turnstiles. Outside of the Star's pages, you can't even easily find the confirmed line-up. How difficult is it to put a proper graphic on social media and hype a national individual title? To top off the farce: one of the leading contenders, an Englishman who should be a headline draw for the CLRC and one of the favourites is reportedly pulled away to race in Poland instead!! The domestic season's marquee events are treated as an afterthought not just by the wider public, but by the sport’s own hierarchy. I guess the die-hard, hardcore regulars will turn up as they always do.

Play offs for a league of just six is pathetic. At very worst it should have been first vs second over two legs or maybe even second vs third with the winner playing the team that came top. No team who finishes in the bottom half of a table whether that’s 4 in 6 or 11th in a league of 20 should have a crack at being league champions. Total mockery of the sport.

Its time the Promoters got their acts together, its been a fragmented season with teams going 3,4,5 weeks without a fixture. The hottest summer for ages and we cant fit in a few fixtures over this period. If this happens next year , only 1 Home,1 Away am done going to watch,its like a new season every time you go to a match with the fixtures spread out. If a Promoter cannot fit in 11 matches in 20 weeks of a season,there's a major problem with British Speedway.

Just got back from a very entertaining meeting at Poole. First of all commiserations to Redcar who put up a decent defence of their 6 point lead. Thought Charles Wright was quite brilliant. And to the handful of Redcar fans who travelled all the way from the north east to support their team. Racing was tight and Redcar battled well until the rumpus of heat eight when Mulford started kicking out at Will Cairns. Ref really messed up by putting on the Red light. Newman thought 2 mins had been cancelled and pulled away to the bend. But the Red lights went out and the clock kept ticking. Kyle arrived 2 seconds too late and was excluded. Very unfair. In fact ludicrous. But the Purates were then fired up and took control of the meeting. People moaning there is a lack of characters in the sport. Then along comes young Will Cairns who speaks what he thinks and it’s moan moan moan. Cocksure, should be taken down a peg or two, too big for his boots, etc etc etc. Will Cairns is perfect for speedway. A young lad, who is clearly heading to the top, causing waves. More riders should be like this.

Will Cairns is everything this sport needs,voted him BSN rider of the night just for his antics and interview

The meeting the other week against Sheffield was very good, some excellent racing with lots of passing. But most of the riders were having a whinge on both sides that the track was “tricky to ride” and they were struggling a bit with it. Tonight most of the riders were praising the track because it was smooth and easy to ride, but was serving up next to no entertainment to the supporters. Give me the track like it was against Sheffield and tell them to get on with it!

Not everyone is the same though are they? Brennan held on, so did King. Plenty of others didn’t including Ellis and Doyle. And I don’t blame them or anyone else for not gambling on the takeover being completed. Riders have to put themselves first as they should. “They could have built a stronger team” well not really! Coleman has already explained this. Conversations WERE held with Doyle but they couldn’t offer him the guarantees he wanted and he gave up. Conversations were held with numerous GP riders, they all had their season planned. You have to cut them some slack they were severely up against it this year. If similar happens next season then criticism will be fair game. I’m confident that won’t be the case but actions speak louder than words. It took Louis how many years before landing a title? He even took us down a league for donkeys years and we couldn’t even win a raffle down there!

The level of doubling up over here causes so many problems. The championship product can only continue in its current guise with the same level of doubling up. The championship clubs couldn’t afford to run at their current level without the riders earning another income via the premiership. If the premiership fails then the standard of the championship drops overnight costs rise & that’s the beginning of the end. For the sport to survive like it or not it’s needs a successful premiership & a two tier set up. An 8 team premiership properly ran with very little or no doubling up is a must. The gap between the tiers also needs to be widened. A mixture of needing to curb doubling up & the polish rules will see a different set up next season.

Yeh! But they don’t publish a”War and Peace” about them while still wanting to ride.

Not bad finishing 3rd in the league, so many experts on this thread having Scorpions down as bottom.😁

Can't be too far off having a digital programme surely?….. Cheap to do, and could mean a decent price cut from current, and doesnt matter if not sold as nothing to throw away... Make it printable for those who like to keep a collection and even do some nice club official season binders to store the printed programmes in.. You won't even have to attend the meeting to print one, and you will never miss out by them selling out... Meaning your 50 years of programmes won't suddenly have one missing because you arrived too late one week!!! Nightmare!! It will also give the club direct digital access to their support base to target offers, keep regular communication etc... Some may need help from their sons or daughters with it, granted, (or even their grandkids if their own offspring are too old)...

Just look at the event from the 10th to the 13th September at the Northampton track and see how the whole period is organised with the punters in mind whereas speedway is organised around the participants and the punters are not even considered. Agree that the drivers pay to compete but you give a good few hours of entertainment that appeals to a whole range of ages and Spedeworth go out to treat the punter to an event. Speedway does not even come close in this country and until the views of the a few change and the promoters get an idea of what it takes to promote, it will continue to attract less and less punters. Speedway is not value for money from an entertainment perspective and is run by fickle promoters who have fickle riders who dictate what when and how things go on in terms of the track. I would rather pay £20 on a banger/stock car meeting knowing it will be on then rock up to a track for speedway only to find that a cat has pissed on bend four and it is not suitable for racing according to the riders. Chalk and cheese when it comes to entertainment and value for money, hence the only speedway worth watching at this time is the Polish scene who know how to put on a meet.

There have been 21 weekends between 1st April and 31st August. There was 11 home meetings to fit in (8 League 2 BSN & 1 KO Cup), giving 10 blank weekends. If clubs can't work around the "Mickey Mouse" (they aren't Mickey Mouse to the riders, I bet), especially those in September - then blame the clubs, don't blame the FIM. The FIM fixtures are there for all to see, so there should be no clashes. Workington, as an example, can race on any day of the week (except Monday & Thursday due to Premiership), so fixture clashes with the FIM meetings don't have to happen. Having said that, promoters in general don't seem to want to learn, as it's the same season after season trying to fit fixtures in at the back-end of the season. Until that changes, these types of clashes will continue to happen.

Tonight's news on Reid Battye, who has re-signed for Berwick in 2027 is really tremendous. Reid has had (generous) offers from other clubs to leave the Bandits, but will instead "dance with the one that brung him to the ball"

Fair play too Emma Louise she asked the right questions and doesn’t get flustered.Great Job.

Apart from prices, isn't that what the sport is supposed to do? Develop riders.....

It was literally cobbled together a few weeks before the season started as everyone including “Rob” knows 🙄 It’s been a crap league this year with two of only six clubs being out of it before a wheel was turned in anger and it’s been done to death. Belle Vue realistically only had ONE challenger this year who then lost their top rider and couldn’t replace him. Hopefully Sheffield will get Fricke in for the play offs so a Belle Vue-Sheffield final is at least mildly interesting.

We do have the second leg to go but, due to other commitments, there's a relatively high chance that Monarchs will have to run fan replacement in my absence. I plan to serve my 28 day ban in November.

Really great to see Lawson back to his usual self, bodes well for the remaining meetings. Slater is getting better by the heat, Zac is a handful for anyone, Lewis was sluggish to start yes but got it sorted, Kyle is more than was expected, Will had issues sure but can still win heats, Rushen is pulling his weight too. None of the opposition will be taking anything for granted The knee jerk track criticism that inevitably follows any Pirates home win is just background noise, and the querying of why Pirate's fan's enjoy watching their team win is......kinda puzzling?

Links for tonight: https://vksport.vkvideo.ru/live-53550004_456242858 https://vkvideo.ru/live-81427162_456239820

Iversen Klindt Harris Batchelor Sedgmen Etheridge Justin Elkins 😉

That never seemed to be a problem in the past.

The shock of the meeting was the announcement from Jamie Swales that he is stepping down as Promoter at the end of the season. Also an excellent 2 minute silence for the 2 Police officers tragically killed last week. Well done Redcar Speedway

It's crazy that British Speedway thinks it is more credible to use guest riders rather than a genuine replacement for a rider with a season ending injury. Of course, the regulation was changed after Belle Vue did that ( when the regs allowed it - unintentionally or otherwise) to bring in Robert Lambert to replace the injured Max Fricke a few years ago.

Bomber has had so many brainwashed for years, as the ultimate team man and ride through fences for the fans, been making good money out of this persona for years, seems in his old age he’s forgot the camera and the fans could still see him. His statement just makes no sense when you watch the video, he’d of been better of making no statement at all just made himself look a bit silly.

Back in the day riders turned up with bikes strapped to the boot of the car and poor Terry Stone regularly turned up at Rayleigh with dirty bikes seemingly having some sentimental value for the dirt of Bradford, Canterbury, Eastbourne etc. Eventually he took on board the point and eventually turned out for each meeting with spotless bikes, you could eat your dinner off the mudguards. Those were the days because as you said they rode in addition to the main job and it could earn them good additional money. For anyone old enough, after a meeting at Rayleigh the riders all met up at the Blinking Owl Cafe on the A127 and many a supporter joined them. It was a better time for the image of the sport and while the racing may not be as fast and furious as today, it was competitive and young riders were given chances that only today’s youngsters can dream about. Some made it others battled through but you got to see an aspiring young newcomer take on a heat leader and my abiding memory is Rayleigh versus Boston and Ivan Miller a grass track rider beating Arthur Price a heat leader for Boston. Compared to today’s homogenised offering the sport in those days offered opportunity and a chance for success on a level playing field with bikes that were basically the same and anyone old enough will remember riders winning a race on the ‘track spare’. It just would not happen today and more is the pity.

I know how it works I’ve done it but I always rode in every meeting I was asked even if I was getting less money than my club money because I wanted to race my bike and rode in the hope I would win something which is my point, nobody seems to care about the prestige or the love anymore, it’s all about the money, I don’t blame the BSPL on this one, the sport is practically broke but riders just don’t seem to care

I would have put Tate and Kevin in heat 15

Going into next season maybe the fixtures should be home one week and away the next, like football. That way at least you know your gonna see 2 meetings a month, and don't avoid foreign rounds of various Mickey mouse FIM meetings just draft a guest in, that way you still keep the 1 home meeting every 2 weeks

You do know you the best riders in the league will be on display and there are 40% more heats than a regular meeting. Worth at least a few quid more surely?

I thought the GB lads all rode to their respective levels last night... Nothing too much was expected of them given the level of their opponents, and they delivered that expectation, and certainly didn't embarrass themselves... All were competitive, with Lambert showing that his World Class status is well deserved... With Bewley in the team they would have definitely been in the mix for Silver. Overall, I think they can all be satisfied in what they delivered, and, particularly effort wise, they didn't leave anything back in the pits...

Nothing wrong with the racing; hard but fair. Harris went over the top afterwards and should face consequences for it. It was described as 'loutish' earlier in the thread which feels bang on.

Christ no Bomber would mean the end of both leagues given the struggle for riders.