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No, you are up to that page because someone started this 2018 thread in July 2017

Seems like the Promotions are listening to the fans. If the weather is looking dodgy get it off, as the fans wont come.

Or he could just say ? I listened to that same podcast the other day. He mentions in the podcast about this all starting in December and still goes on up til now. He also mentions the kid issues in the same breath. Non uk residents can apply for a visa based on being a parent exercising access rights. I do wonder if Holder has gone along these lines to get a visa here and the partner is mischief making to slow it up. To me, it sounds like the mother has lodged some kind of refusal of access or something which has cocked his application up , and that has maybe impacted on his ability to just get a swift re-issuing of his visa. Maybe he's had to reapply along the conventional visa terms ? Just my opinion reading between the lines and asking a few questions of people i know..

Unbelievable. Every club is so scared of Poole that they’re even calling rain offs for matches that don’t involve the Pirates.

We sometimes go on about the good old days, the big crowds, the best riders in the world riding here, a home meeting virtually every week etc., but the promoters of the 70's do have much to answer for in not investing in the sport when most clubs were making healthy profits.

Those were the days eh,glad you see the funny side.It's not all doom,gloom and petty squabbles

Don’t think Haza was saying that.

Can't believe you managed to get these 3 in your shop.Just messing by the way.

A reminder. This is a thread for Poole. Other club fans are entitled to discuss Poole. However, Poole riders and management are of interest to their fans. Therefore, Fans of other teams being sarcastic about things that interest the true fans of Poole are only showing that they are only just hitting at Poole.

Bradley Wilson dean filling in for mason next few matches

Looks like we have finally seen the back of the rain for the time being. Forecast is for a dry day tomorrow with sunny spells. Fingers crossed we can finally get our season underway.

updates on today`s 3 semi`s Ostrow from 3 pm UK time https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/zuzel/relacja/85501/eliminacje-zlotego-kasku-w-ostrowie Posnan from 3 pm UK time https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/zuzel/relacja/85500/eliminacje-zlotego-kasku-w-poznaniu Gdansk from 3.30pm UK time https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/zuzel/relacja/85499/eliminacje-zlotego-kasku-w-gdansku

Strangely, many Poole fans on a Poole thread are interested - aside from it being the reason why Middlo would have missed the Leicester meeting yesterday (previously announced but not everyone sees the Echo) its also about Scott Autrey who rode 2 seasons for the Pirates.

I hear that Eric Broadbelt went to Bury market last week. He didn't buy anything but got home in time for tea (that's dinner to those who don't know the correct terminology). Just thought it might be of interest to Poole fans. No wonder they get decent crowds if life in Dorset is that boring.

I accept that many speedway stadia and tracks no longer provide the facilities and good racing required if we are to attract significant numbers of new fans, let alone retain those we already have. What I don't accept is that it is impossible to get new stadia built. It was far from easy to get the NSS built and I accept that many councils will not contemplate doing what Manchester Council has done. However, I don't believe that Manchester are the only council that can be persuaded to provide a modern facility for a sport which has an important place in the history of its town or city and brings revenue and provides jobs for the local community. What is needed is the determination and ability required to persuade councils and local businesses to get behind such projects. Include whatever community facilities may encourage and enable councils to justify the project to their constituents and to help sell the proposal. However, a new stadium is no guarantee of success. It is a slow process to convince people that Speedway is a sport they will enjoy and want to support but a modern stadium and good race track is an excellent base from which to start. At the NSS we have much of what they have in Poland. A new modern stadium, not on the scale of some in Poland but nonetheless a stadium with modern facilities and a brilliant race track. Riders give 100% because the track is wide with many racing lines and because they feel confident and safe. Racing is generally of the highest standard and meetings usually completed in under 2 hours but despite all of that the crowds have not come flocking back. The numbers are up compared to the dog track but last year we averaged 1500, less than the numbers required to break even. There is no magic potion that will increase the crowds overnight but as more people see the quality of the product on offer and enjoy their night out they will in turn encourage others to attend and the more fans you have the more the atmosphere improves and fans enjoy it more. It's a cycle of getting new fans, they enjoy it, they sell it to their friends and it mushrooms. Clearly, many other things also need to be done to improve the overall speedway experience and vital to that is presenting a credible and professionally run sport. The BSPA have failed miserably and must have the courage and foresight to see that the current management model doesn't now work. Some had hopes that the Chapman era might change things for the better but unfortunately we still have no openness or transparency, rules which are not applied consistently and new back of a fag packet rules which last no longer than a pack of cigarettes. We shall never attract and retain new fans so long as the too obvious incompetence of the BSPA to regulate the sport sensibly and consistently continues.

Can't be to many smiles in S -S offices at present with this lousy weather, must affect track sales/production ratio, with out the juggling of space filling due to lack of match reports ect . Doing a great job Good value for the cost compared to some specialist publications.

I think the referee made the correct decision.

Hahahahahahahahahah. Wright is well better than Josh.

I actually like the European and Overseas news. Keeps me up to date with results all in one place.

I see they are going to be trialling a live stream at the meeting designed for the future, very good news and exactly what Speedway needs imo.

I think you would make a brilliant Speedway promoter as you only see it from their prospective. You are always backing them in there ways and find it difficult to understand those whose question them. If the product was that good the fans would come, If the prices represent VFM the fans would come, if we offered a good environment with plenty of enjoyment , probably the fans would come back. Waiting for the TV, the Councils, the sponsors to come on board will never happen until the product is greatly improved.

You are right Trees, Poland has a much more helpful infrastructure but I think the contrasting fortunes of the two leagues emphasises how badly British Speedway has been mismanaged over the past 25-30 years. Huge opportunities missed by promoters not working together and instead looking out for themselves. We probably could have something similar to Poland or Sweden but it will take a lot of time and effort to build it up again, and a big change in approach.

Having just watched the recording of Lublin v Lodz match, you realise just how antiquated our sport has become. Having travelled to most tracks in the UK, I am convince none of them would compare to that we saw last night. Its little wonder we have no supporters anymore, they are treated like maroons from afar with no consideration at all. At Lublin, all the fans were treated to a wonderful experience of exciting racing in a clean modern environment. Each had a seat, and a excellent vantage point, to watch the riders race on a beautifully prepared track, that looked the part.. The meeting ran like clock work. Thousands of supporters wearing team colours all added to the occasion. I accept the weather was a big factor, but even on a hot summers day we could never replicate that. In the UK, the Promotors (en-block) feel all they need to do, is to rely on the riders attraction to get the fans through the turnstiles. In Poland they get so much more,,,,,

I'll return to this thread after the actual event. To childish for me. See you all down there for hopefully a good match

i love reading the Poole threads... pure comedy

Ellis Perks - it’s a crime the lad doesn’t have a team.

This early season competition(Zloty Kask) has the added importance of doubling up as qualification for the grand prix and SEC qualification rounds. semis are on April 10th in Gdansk,Poznan and Ostrow with the final in Pila on Thursday 19th April seeded to the final are Janowski, Prem Pawlicki, Dudek and Zmarzlik . .1. Individual World Championship Grand Prix - 6 competitors: places 1 to 5 from the finals of the Golden Helmet '18 - 5 competitors GKSŻ nomination - 1 player 2. Individual European Championship - 6 competitors: Places from 1 to 5 from the final 'ZK '18 - 6 competitors GKSŻ nomination - 1 player Gdańsk: 1. Michał Szczepaniak (Zdunek Wybrzeże Gdańsk) 2. Krystian Pieszczek (MRGARDEN GKM Grudziądz) 3. Oskar Fajfer (Zdunek Wybrzeże Gdańsk) 4. Krzysztof Buczkowski (MRGARDEN GKM Grudziądz) 5. Szymon Woźniak (Cash Broker Stal Gorzów) 6. Tomasz Gapiński (Euro Finannce Polonia Piła) 7. Krzysztof Kasprzak (Cash Broker Stal Gorzów) 8. Mirosław Jabłoński (Car Gwarant Start Gniezno) 9. Piotr Pawlicki (Fogo Unia Leszno) 10. Kacper Gomólski (Falubaz Zielona Góra) 11. Dominik Kubera (Fogo Unia Leszno) 12. Dawid Lampart (Speed Car Motor Lublin) 13. Paweł Przedpełski (Get Well Toruń) 14. Jakub Jamróg (Grupa Azoty Unia Tarnów) 15. Igor Kopeć-Sobczyński (Get Well Toruń) 16. Artur Mroczka (Grupa Azoty Unia Tarnów) R1. Dominik Kossakowski (Zdunek Wybrzeże Gdańsk) R2. Wiktor Lampart (Speed Car Motor Lublin) Poznań 1. Mateusz Borowicz (PSŻ Poznań) 2. Bartosz Smektała (Fogo Unia Leszno) 3. Rafał Karczmarz (Cash Broker Stal Gorzów) 4. Janusz Kołodziej (Fogo Unia Leszno) 5. Robert Miśkowiak (Orzeł Łódź) 6. Damian Dróżdż (Betard Sparta Wrocław) 7. Norbert Kościuch (Orzeł Łódź) 8. Maksym Drabik (Betard Sparta Wrocław) 9. Marcel Kajzer (PSŻ Poznań) 10. Oskar Polis (OK Kolejarz Opole) 11. Daniel Jeleniewski (Speed Car Motor Lublin) 12. Sebastian Ułamek (OK Kolejarz Opole) 13. Daniel Kaczmarek (Get Well Toruń) 14. Kacper Woryna (ROW Rybnik) 15. Sebastian Niedźwiedź (Falubaz Zielona Góra) 16. Artur Czaja (ROW Rybnik) R1. Wiktor Trofimow (Fogo Unia Leszno) R2. Michał Łopaczewski (PSŻ Poznań) Ostrów 1. Kamil Brzozowski (MDM Komputery TŻ Ostrovia) 2. Marcin Jędrzejewski (Arge Speedway Wanda Kraków) 3. Patryk Dolny (MDM Komputery TŻ Ostrovia) 4. Ernest Koza (Arge Speedway Wanda Kraków) 5. Tomasz Jędrzejak (Stal Rzeszów) 6. Grzegorz Zengota (Falubaz Zielona Góra) 7. Piotr Protasiewicz (Falubaz Zielona Góra) 8. Patryk Rolnicki (Grupa Azoty Unia Tarnów) 9. Jarosław Hampel (Fogo Unia Leszno) 10. Adrian Gała (Car Gwarant Start Gniezno) 11. Damian Baliński (Stainer Unia Kolejarz Rawicz) 12. Marcin Nowak (Car Gwarant Start Gniezno) 13. Adrian Miedziński (forBET Włókniarz Częstochowa) 14. Mateusz Szczepaniak (ROW Rybnik) 15. Tobiasz Musielak (forBET Włókniarz Częstochowa) 16. Adrian Cyfer (Euro Finannce Polonia Piła) R1. Zbigniew Suchecki (MDM Komputery TŻ Ostrovia) R2. Oskar Bober (Speed Car Motor Lublin) 4 qualifiers from each semi with 1st reserve from Poznan and 2nd reserve from Ostrow

It does seem this season's malaise, postpone a day early on projected (not actual) forecasts, just in case....

How much longer will Hans Nielsen keep his job as Denmark team manager?

I see Kings Lynn have already cancelled tomorrows meeting and looking at the weather forecast I reckon Rye v Leicester is looking doubtful as well. I know Steve Jenson tries hard to get the meetings on but perhaps its better to make an early decision to cancel than to start the meeting and have to stop at heat 10 which most fans hate as scores can change dramatically in the last 5 heats. All I want is for this bl??dy rain to stop so the speedway season can actually get started.

An action shot from the early weeks of the Lokstedt Dirt-Track showing 'the two best riders'.It states Ginger Lees is leading Niels Sorensen,but I wonder due to the styles(it looks like the rider on the left has his foot forward)if they have it the wrong way round? 10,000 turned up for the next meeting,but as a number of the German riders were missing they only held afinal for the Golden Helmet with no need for quali heats.Fritz Niss again won,but he was closely followed by Heinrichs with Max Plambeck 3rd and Johannes Wunder 4th So the totals at this time were Niss 10pts,Plambeck 4pts,Strachwitz + Heinrichs 3,Wunder and König 1.In the main handicap final of the night Plambeck,who had a 9 second lead on the top riders naturally was out in front for a while then the favourite Ginger Lees had bike problems and dropped out,leaving K:Hansen to win,closely followed by Niels Sorensen.Lees did manage to win the Handicap race for the English riders,beating the Wilcock brothers and Jack Wood,who all had a few seconds advantage It was said that the promoters sent out a telegram to England ....'Send someone to beat Lees' And so for the next sunday meeting Arthur Jervis from the Manchester White City team arrived in Hamburg.Unfortunately due to the bad weather a poor crowd of around 4,000 turned up to see this duel.In the first meet up Niels Sorensen came out in front of Lees and Jervis.Then there was a Denmark-England race in which Jervis beat Lees and the following DanesThen in the final handicap final Lees finished ahead of Jervis,Morian Hansen and Niels Sorensen,but all in all everyone seemed happy that Lees finally had someone of his class to race against The next Sunday was the day Ginger Lees,the rider who they had already named the 'uncrowned king of the Hamburg track' met his match in King Arthur!! The sunday meeting was staged in the evening for the first time.It was thought necessary to avoid a clash with Football and Boxing,but observers thought the racing under the floodlights was more exciting anyway.In the very first heat before a crowd of 16,000 Jervis made an attempt on the track record held by Lees.He went out storming ,and not only broke the track record but set a new world record for the mile of 73.8(73.4 was reported in the UK)In the highly awaited clash between Jervis and Lees,it was a bit of an anti-climax as Jervis was in a class of his own and Ginger Lees couldn't find a way past Niels Sorensen.Jervis finished almost 5 seconds ahead of Sorensen and the rest even further behind. Fritz Niss again won the final of the Golden Helmet ahead of Heinrichs and Plambeck and was now way out in front in the points total with 15.Heinrichs and Plambeck following with 6,Strachwitz 3,Wunder 2 and König with 1 In the handicap finalArthur and his brother Hubert were up against the Danes Einar and Kay Hansen,Walter Ryle and Niels Sorensen.Lees failed to qualify,having bike problems in his heat.Jervis amazed the crowd with his skilful riding just passing Einar Hansen who had a 4 second advantage, on the home straight

Maybe Buster realises he has mugged the punters off once to often with his 'Its Defo on' claim, only for the poor sods to turn up and watch him blade off X tonnes of slope from the track and people standing about watching while drinking and eating his over priced food.

Harris points included a joker ride and if Worrall didn't touch the tapes in his opening ride he would've likely been top scorer. Worrall also rode pretty well in the World Games im Wroclaw beating some decent riders. I think it's a huge blow for GB (and BV) that he is now injured.

Just watched it- as you said some great speedway-good to see Nicki looking quick !!

We've got what we've got, if we went to support our clubs with the same enthusiasm as Polish people, bought merchandise like they obviously do, were proud to support our team as they are, chanted and cheered our team like they do then we might have a different product on our hands. Their clubs have EVERYTHING going for them, support from every which way, TV, council, fans and sponsors. Every rider is desparate to get a ride out there as the rewards are good. They can't go wrong. Compare that to the UK!

The BBC forecast was wrong, forecasting no rain until 9pm and the Met Office got it right. The management made the correct call. Covers would save some meetings but would have been no help at all tonight. I can see why you say that because of Auty's performance at the NSS but he is inconsistent and Wright is a better rider overall and certainly so at PL level. I don't think there is anyone on Worrall's average who is likely to get close to his current scoring at Belle Vue but personally I would choose Wright over Auty because although Auty might do better if it's one of his good days Wright will more often score more.

I would have to go for Czestochowa, Torun, Bydgoszcz, Leszno and Gorzow- all 5 I`ve been too.

It wasn`t narrow for Lindgren- he was riding the Gollob line.

Yes that's right it's only "snowflakes" (copyright Daily Mail) who bring these things up says the bloke quoting chapter and verse about incidents involving other teams riders. My irony meter has gone to 11. I take it you have read Richie's facebook post (the one titled JBA F*** me) and the associated replies stating "your time will come" and Richie baiting Jonas to respond on Facebook whilst others call JBA every name under the sun. I trust you are ashamed to be a speedway fan by association?

Equally many people in speedway prefer to watch and support a team, be able to watch all the action and have no interest in motorcycles. Speedway is a team sport that happens to use motorcycles rather than a motorsport and also has the odd individual championship as an extra bonus

Someone may have thrown that fag packet away Being serious doesn' t Peter Oakes post on here ? He used to compile the yearbooks and when it boils down to it probably has shedloads of info and stats in his head nevermind what he has stored in books etc

When you have such huge gaps in the fixtures it makes sense to run meetings profitably in good weather than struggle through in front of a pitiful crowd and lose a packet. Supporters have seen too many 10 heat scrambles or call-offs once they've paid their money and avoid meetings when the weather is doubtful. Decades of neglecting customers and "we've not had a drop of rain all day" messages are now coming home to roost.

What has become of this sport. The forecast on BBC weather is for light rain from 3pm all through to midnight. That's exactly what we have now 2 miles from the track, a few spits and spots, absolutely nothing. Many times I've seen the guys at Wolves preparing the track in the afternoon, they put plenty of water on the track, gallons more than the few spots we have had today. This match in my opinion has been pulled because a few spots may put a few people off going, it seems promoters are now not prepared to run meetings in anything other than bone dry conditions. Wow finances must be near the knuckle if this is the new order. Lets not have promoters complaining over lack of dates at the back end of the season when they are calling matches off this easily.

The track may not be the everyone's cup of tea but i don't think there is much wrong with the stadium. Personally i have enjoyed my trips to Monmore and hope to continue to do so.

Hmmm, I tend to agree with you however reading back your wording on some of your posts i would suggest you reign it in a little. The guys who were posting are decent reliable who don't post BS. Yes we were all concerned about Doyle but there are many people on here who know the Polish scene very well and have direct connects into the meetings and deserve respect and not to be sniped at. HenryW and Racers and Royals are certainly two people who know what they are talking about and don't deserve snarky remarks. Anyway we are all glad he is ok and we move on......

Correct. Especially when riders are rusty through no practice, the last thing that a rider or a team wants is to be denied the opportunity to get some practice in. The meeting was lost early.

I think you'll find they need the sales to grasstrack and overseas supporters. Small price to pay for the survival of a magazine that, let's be honest, was dumped by a major publisher (IPC) and had to be rescued by the brave efforts and financial risk of its own editorial staff. With the sport collapsing in Britain they needed to do anything to prop sales up.

Excellent revamp !!! But could we have less space devoted to Grasstrack and European/Overseas news?

Great to read an interview with one of my favourite riders, Mike Sampson, in the latest edition of 'Backtrack' A very under-rated rider in my opinion but in my view was very instrumental in helping 'The Rebels' to league success in 1977. Won numerous team honours not only with White City but for Eastbourne and his home town team Exeter of which he had a love/hate relationship. He comes across as a very modest man but without riders like Mike speedway would have been the the poorer.

Ive just realised I forgot to renew my subscription!!!! Aaarrrggghhh!!!