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Agree 100%. Nonetheless I'm sure you are exactly right ;-) The Monday and Wednesday race nights suited Poole & Wolverhampton but could kill other tracks. I suspect Rue House will soon be in trouble. They were reportedly getting great crowds early last season, but that was when they were racing reliably on Saturdays. I doubt whether a fragmented series of Wednesdays and the odd Monday is going to work. The point about trying to use talent that can't be afforded, it looks like our crowds are now down to the level of semi-pro football, say their National League or its lower regional divisions. Can you imaging those clubs filling their teams with players commuting in from all corners of Europe! It's the economics of the madhouse. 'Names' may count amongst speedway supporters but the people who we need to attract don't know them. It's time to wake up and fit the costs to the revenue, then re-grow so that both will rise enough to start allowing the higher-ranked riders in due course, assuming we need them and their luxury costs. Some riders seem to want the lifestyle of F1 and Moto GP racers. You don't get that in front of 700 people in Manchester.....

Exactly, I think a lot of people are delusional about the quality of the sport back in the day. Tend to only remember the good bits and believe that's how it was all the time. I've watched loads of old meetings on t'internet and it's very evident that the quality of the racing is very similar to today. There's old World Finals, Continental Finals etc with 60,000+ in attendance yet barely any good racing except for 3-4 heats. I would happily say that top level Speedway today (SGP & Poland) is as good, if not better than most of yesteryear.

Why do we seem to be going after foreign riders who’ve shown no sign of improvement when riding over here but you’ve got riders like Nathan Greaves and Ellis Perks without a CL spot surely we should be going for one of these who will improve? Especially the seasons both of them had it’s ridiculous they are without a club this season.

And your point is??? I was off work Monday not feeling well but was okay to go back on Wednesday!!!

Maybe he was carrying an injury but I find it hard to believe that BWD hurt his knee colliding withJye as he just seemed to take his leg away with his front wheel he never got out of shape or even looked like pulling up when the ref stopped the race!!! Still that's speedway.Tonights racing was poor IMO most races sorted out by back strait,will give Ref benefit of doubt regarding NJB,but how she excluded Jye is beyond me and probably 99% of the crowd terrible decision IMO.

The price to attend vs. The standard on offer is the biggest stumbling block. £17 for 15 x 1 minute races no matter what way you look at it isn't great value for money. As a comparison it makes the 2nd division even more of a rip off as they're getting a lot less of a standard for around £15. In answer to the original question though of how is fixed race nights working out, I think it will benefit Somerset. Whilst it was nice to end the week at Speedway instead of mid week, the traffic and surrounding areas on a Friday as a nightmare at the best of times. I can't see any reason why crowds would drop at Somerset, they should only prosper.

Agree with school the next day as well

Do not understand why this is a 7.30 pm meeting, the last dog race is 2pm and with a nice sunny day surely a mid afternoon start time would have encouraged more families who do not want a late trip home.

Was Mr Newman Sr there.. . ? Was very shy and retiring...

I'm aware of that, but originally it was to be rolling averages after the first greensheets. They now changed it to rolling averages including 2017. This is keeping Poole's team average almost 3 points higher than their actual averages for 2018. This has now stopped Poole bringing in Holder for Shanes. The Pirates management are now having to have a total rethinking, hence the short term signing of Nielsen.

Just a reminder about the coverage this evening- wouldn`t want anyone to say "would have watched it if I had known it was on " !!!!!

Yes shambolic but I'm not sure why your suggesting the referee had some part in this. Jack Thomas came out in correct blue helmet colour well on time and lined up at right gate, gate 2. Sarjeant came out late also with blue helmet colour. Someone runs across centre green, don't know who but wearing tigers colours so presumably a pit member of some sort and rips off jacks helmet cover and replaces it with a red one. al this with the clock ticking down to zero. Thomas wearing the red colour then gets told to move to gate 4 and sarjeant goes into gate 2. by now the 2minute clock has expired and the ref has no option to disqualify both as they had wrong helmet colours and in the wrong gate position. A pity jack is just a young lad as a more experienced rider would have told the guy changing his colour where to go. And to compound the farce Jack is the one that gets taken out of the race. So sarjeant makes mistake , pit staf make mistake in changing Jack's cover then team manager basically shafts jack. I hope the promotion/team manger/sarjeant or whoever compensates Jack because at least he would have earned something from the race by getting the third place point!

people see meetings different maybe there wasn't much passing but I can get entertainment from watching a couple or group of riders trying hard you don't have to have passing to have a good race there was a mix of decent racing and gate and go heats tonight

So I assume you will now be attending the meeting rather than reading updates seeing you’ve got the change you wanted.

Cant believe Poole have got rid of Shanes. Build a top heavy team and then expect a 2 pointer to get 5 or 6 a meeting because the top end isnt performing. Ford says its for a month then Shanes might come back in................if i was Shanes i would tell him to stick it where the sun doesnt shine and concentrate on Sheffield

A photo showing all 7 riders wearing similar suits may look good, purely as a team photo, but it's worth bearing in mind that speedway *isn't* football or rugby etc. By which I mean the whole team is never out on the field, as it were, 'in play', at the same time. Just two riders from each team, in each race. For which there are helmet colours and starting positions. The modern trend of covering racing suits in adverts/sponsorship baffles me. Does this advertising really work? Does anybody read these markings? They're a distraction.

Film just showed on the Talking Pictures channel - but can be found on Youtube - called There is another Sun. Some speedway from Walthamstow - a complete 'race' near the end - 1951.

To be fair she had dropped a ball of wool on the floor when that incident happened

Jenga I stated in my post that it was the BERWICK fans that thought that we would be better with r/r than N Klindt riding for us at Berwick ! It wasnt ME that said that...it was THEM ! They were obviously remembering his previous appearances at Shielfield Park. There is no need for such an aggressive and sarcastic post to me !! I apologised to you, and that should have been the end of it.

There is obviously much wrong with the sport but the there is no significant difference between this year and last year so the only explanation for the significant drop in crowd numbers at Belle Vue must be the change in race night. Monday may work for a team like Wolverhampton, who have a long history of racing on that night but it is probably the worst night of the week for the entertainment and leisure industries. That is why many offer incentives to try to attract people in. If you want the best chance of getting a decent slice of the leisure pound you have a far better chance on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday. I suspect that it was for those very reasons that the previous promotion changed from Monday, which was forced on them by their landlord and never successful, to Friday. It may be that as the season progresses crowds will improve but I have my doubts. In fact, when the TV coverage starts in a couple of weeks I think that is going to tempt some more fans to stay away especially if the weather is bad.

Fixed race nights arevOK as long as they are the right nights for the club. The way it is set up now is simply putting a sticking plaster over what is so wrong with speedway in this country. Currently pandering and be dictated to by other European nations it really is time to think about what is good for British Speedway and get on with it. As it stands you still have doubling up, race nights that do not appeal to many, no weekly speedway fixtures for many clubs and with irregular meetings the likelihood of more fans drifting away. When will the custodians of this sport start to think about what they are doing. If those clubs that voted for less meetings were making losses with home and away twice, the chances are they will be out of business by the end of this season. I could see a situation where a few clubs find it no longer viable to continue and in 2019 they may have no option but to have just one league plus the NL in order for clubs to cover the stadium rental.

The big problem with speedway and it’s difficult for us to understand is that people don’t like speedway. We’ve all had the “is that still going” chat and even with that they don’t come again. Similarly I have mates that I keep asking to come along without success. Belle Vue have done school visits, work visits, radio adverts, city wide posters, been on both local evening news channels, been on Sky, ran cheap entrance meetings both Aces and Colts, we’ve been in shops, we’ve had posters for fans to give out, the list goes on and on but people just look and think it’s not for them. The demographic of fans is and has always been the most precarious as once money gets tight then speedway or similar is the first to go. Multi channel tv and the screen society has diverted their attention way from a night at the speedway. Dont get me wrong though the powers that be have done a great job of turning away fans, a mind boggling achievement in my eyes. 2000-3000 crowds are still possible as we had only two decades or so ago, if the current group of promoters stop being dicks.

I was at the time, and rightly so. I like many others thought he would do a good job. KK never seemed himself, he's normally quite playful and mischivious, but there was non of that, in fact he looked pretty cheesed off half the time. must have been a reason ..

I though Berwick covered everything !!

dontforgetthefueltapsbruv- Oh I see, that makes sense! Not a slight on Kyle at all, he's more than entitled to celebrate a paid win, especially beating Schlein. Baldyman- Fingers crossed he does come on, would be a hell of an asset for the Witches if so. I was more speaking about his confidence in that it can't be good for him if he finds Foxhall a struggle. But after everything that happened last year, you can clearly see he has a good head on his shoulders and I'm sure many are highly supportive of Connor.

Still trying your luck I see

Should have kept Hans.

I seems the BSPA/SCB has clicked to the Poole average manipulation too. It's now rolling averages from 20 matches including the season 2017. This now stops the dropping of Shanes for Holder scenario Good to see the authorities on the ball for a change

Only Busch and Mikkel B nearer the end looked like they had any quality in the Bears team. I think the most baffling thing all night was how Barker got heat 15 or does he have it written in his contract he has to be in heat 15?

ash morris in for wilson dean ,

Clearly you are right, however on first reading (and without comparing it to the original rule) my interpretation was OR rather than AND. Why didn't they write the rule as: Does anyone else find the way the supplementary rules are issued incredibly complex? Why not simply update the main regulations and what a "Changes and Amendment" section at the front to track the updates?

He did say Danish born to which Steve is correct.Spent many of his years in Denmark.Qualifies being British through having a British mother. Having just seen the news Poole have made a swap,anybody surprised?I did say a few weeks back people bigging up how good the Ford/Middlo management team are.Well yet again they have got it drastically wrong from the off.I would expect them to get it right from the start if they were that good. It's a real downer though that it is Shanes that has to make way,these young lads need a bit of time to make their way into the sport.Instead Poole keep the under-performing riders with much more experience that should be doing better.So in truth Shanes loses his job for doing what is expected of him,and the 3/4 riders under-performing keep their jobs,crazy. So to SS and a couple of others who said the initial Poole team should walk the league,you were wrong again.

Nielsen is British let's stop that nonsense. Also Nielsen is a massive upgrade on Shanes, he a much improved rider. The thing that annoys me is that Nielsen is only 'temporary' while the spin that Shanes could be bought back in at a later date is utter rubbish. Shanes was also doing his job unlike most others in the Poole side.

That's the way the BSPA write the rules, enabling them to be changed when they want.....

Think you are spot on with both posts here. The riders certainly seem to be having trouble with bend 2 in particular and that looked down to too much grip rather than not enough. It was, however, possible to pass - as both Jensen and Wilson-Dean proved. I thought the closeness of the score line kept things entertaining and there was indeed a huge amount of effort from both sides. Meeting all done in 90 minutes and no interval

A brilliant meeting tonight. All Scorpions riders on it! No gate and go, it was pure team riding. Loads of passing. Scorps going through and round the opposition , super to watch. Well done team you deserve that win. Great to see a good team spirit.....More next week against Newcastle to see us through to the semi for the shield.

Felt sorry for Jack. He'd done nothing wrong; he was in the correct gate with the correct helmet colour on. Then, despite the team being 20 points ahead with the match won, he's not given the 15m restart with an almost guaranteed minimum of 1 point for his pay packet. As you say, what was that all about?

Still early days for Sheffield, basically we haven't fielded our full 1-7 yet..

Berwick have some good riders in there team not rated highly but that don't mean there not a team to discount they out gated Workington most if not all night maybe they are gelling as a team where as Workington were only into there 3rd meeting as a team into the 3rd month of the season

we just go and enjoy the speedway. don't worry if there is an interval or not. I do agree though that the 14/15 race could do with less time between but hey ho just the way it is and heat 15 was worth waiting for on Wednesday night.

Not sure with me Steve ,I started going to Monmore in 99 and after 10 years I nearly went to the dark side especially after Billy joined . In 2009 I went home and away and after a narrow defeat at Swindon I was really annoyed and realised I was almost a Wolves fan. I decided in 2010 I was going to convert but then out of the blue we came back and I was back to Wolves being the enemy. However let's be honest were never coming back in the true sense so Wolves mean more to me than any other team except the heathens of course. Strange but true

I think it's clear enough that you can have as many 8 pointers as you like as the rule states the 1 over 8 only applies for the initial team declaration

Scorpions outstanding... Redcar chasing shadows. Wasn't all from the gate though, Scunny lads had to pick off their opponents. Great viewing for us Scunny fans, demoralising for Redcars. Rob dodged a bullet with Stewart!

And I thought Newcastle had a bad team hahahahaha

Oh dear what must Ellis Perks be thinking

You go better at our place than we do at urs. We are underdogs over the 2 legs

Much prefer racejackets to the race suits.

you must understand starman that there are other posters on the forum who have had serious health problems,some not as bad as yours some far worse,but they havnt used it as an excuse to be rude.i wish you well for the future but if you post on the forum its likely i will disagree with you on occasion and you with me,its always been your rudeness ive primarily objected to

In my humble opinion nothing beat the old Mildenhall Fen Tiger team leathers back in the day - simple but brilliant.

Its still early days, but it looks as if Newcastle's woe's don't look as bad as others