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Just read that Dennis McCleary is stepping down as Co promoter and cutting back on his work with Bandits and Football,wish him all the best,his contribution to the Speedway over the years was immense and will be greatly missed.A gentleman IMO.

Are you really a Belle Vue fan, or are you another forum member posing under another name? Why are going on about the stadium like you are? Swindon fans know there are concerns, but we don't need supporters of other tracks coming here and taking the mickey about it, just because they now have their own new track. I think there's only one person who needs to grow up.

For the work Dennis has done over the years, much of it un-noticed, Berwick Rangers and Berwick Speedway owe him a huge debt of gratitude. As you say a gentleman.

If it does end in tears so be it, no good worrying about it it is out of the supporters hands, me personally i am just grateful we still have some speedway to watch in 2019.As time goes on i am more hopeful that the club might still have a future because to be honest i thought it might be over by now all the fans can do is support the club while it is still there.

As opposed to all seven looking a complete shambles from the get go? Some people still live in the past and that’s part of the problem Speedway has these days. I suggest everyone takes a look at the link to the Look East programme posted on the Ipswich thread. Ipswich look like a professional outfit of a professional sport, exactly the way it SHOULD be, instead of people harking on about the good old days of the 70’s when riders had individual identity with race bibs and numbers made out of gaffer tape that was half falling off. As I said, people need to stop living in the past.

Blue tints worn if anyone remembers all the racing in days gone by as better and closer! The only difference between now and then is that they raced in front of much healthier crowds. The top class riders still finished way ahead of the lesser lights.

My personal take on that is that it is a bit different from actively selling season tickets and advertising "You'll be able to watch the second half of the season from the new grandstand" as you had originally said. I believe assurances were being given by Stadia UK a way into the 2016 season that work would be complete by July. This obviously proved false and we are where we are. Most Swindon fans have been following this saga since 2008 when original plans were outlined without a Speedway track included in them. We're 11 years on, 2 league titles on and still racing, with track alterations now taking place as is part of the revised plans. We're all well aware of our Landlords track record (no pun intended), but can at least see our Promotion are sticking to what they have said they would do.

A good positive piece on BBC look East last night. They certainly look the part teaching Poole a few lessons.

Someone has to be bottom Of course a team towards the top will be more attractive than one lower down due to it being natural to want to link to success and greater TV exposure etc I stand by the claim that higher profile sponsors would expect that type of professional set up rather than a rag bag of different coloured suits and bibs with different sized and style detachable numbers etc

In Poole's case that would/ could be 14 x £500-600

For anyone that missed it.. I hope the link works. From 20.00 mins https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0003hnp/look-east-evening-news-18032019

At the end of the day, IRR was introduced so the paying public would as least be treat to the same level as they had paid for. It tries to match the teams, instead of a team using reserves and makes the races a mockery and a good meeting is spoiled. In saying that, most tactical rules should only apply to the top 2 divisions, and let the NL to use reserves.

LIke him or hate him, he did try things to spruce things up.

...........and tapping up riders via text!!

Have you read the IRR Rule? It states if a rider is injured then any rider under his average can take an additional ride. It is not the best 3 riders all take a ride each. It is much fairer if a no1 gets injured than having reserves take rides.

I wouldn't bring Poole into the conversation lol Just beat the beggars on track, all of us need to do that and get our timing right too!

Zagar back for the Peter Craven meeting then!!?

And at Coventry

By the stadium owner, not by the speedway promotion who are guilty of nothing other than, perhaps, being a big naïve in believing everything they are being told. It's good to, at least, see something happening there, but it seems it's the club that are doing it rather than the owners.

Hate to be "that person" who corrects you but Shanes did plenty of Speedway prior to signing for PL Poole. Starting out in the MDL before limited appearances at Plymouth & Coventry where he didn't pull up a lot of trees to be fair. Even when he signed for Kent he would score well but couldn't gate for toffee. His attacking style suits some CL tracks and thats where he started to gather interest before joining the Pirates. Not going to debate his ability/potential too much but fear his Grass style will continue to hold him back a bit on many more technical tracks and despite very strong sponsorship is still behind with the financial clout that Brennan & Zac Waj have.

Easy to confuse the riders, otherwise yes very professional........but the big whammy 2 guest riders in your team & the whole thing look's a shambles!!!!

Well done to the witches. Racesuits and covers look great. What ever happens this season its good to have you back in the prem.

The only main differences between the riders own suits and club ones will be the team colours, each rider tells the manufacture where he wants his own sponsor logos on the suit so basically no real difference , the only time I can remember a club insisting on putting a non sponsor logo was last year when Glasgow put the Greg Mackie training academy logo on all the suits which all the riders were happy about , and it also saves the rider £6/700 before the season starts Glasgow have had individual fans sponsor each suits and they got to keep them when the season is over not that there's much left of it after a season and this year it's Grant Henderson Tankers who has sponsored all the team suits

And IMO this is the major point Yes it is extra expense and yes you dont win because of a fancy suit and covers BUT any future upturn in the sport will be down to attracting quality higher profile sponsors They would only want to showcase themselves is this kind of professional manner

I don't really have an issue with TS or IRR. I have no doubt, though, that the NDL was fine without them.

Very sad... One of the "old school".

With short responses like that have you considered becoming a member of parliament? It's decisive I'll give you that lol

Glad to see the work being done and hope it produces good racing but from this angle. The corners look a little narrow to me

Race bibs would be a common design carrying the main sponsor(s) name(s), whether riders had matching kevlars or not! Don't get me wrong I personally prefer team kevlars but once the riders have all their individual sponsors added with different colours and logos, they all look different anyway - not something that happens with race jackets/bibs! So are the Witches club colours no longer Blue/black/white now?

There is also an escalator near the main gates which right up to level 3 we use it every year, it really is a great view

It wouldn't bother me if any ghost team didn't have a snowballs of finding a new home , Lets face it if Coventry bees can't .what chance has Milton keynes got , The idea of the league is to provide a stepping stone to a team place ,somewhere they are fortunate enough to have a track/Team , what does it matter If MK or anybody else runs a team and provides new riders for established teams , the MDL in it's glory days ,before it was mismanaged and mistreated having served it's purpose for some , was a production line ,the like of which I had never seen before and am unlikely to see again

No great opinion on him other then when i have watched him recently and he has been awful . My point is that anything could not of happened the silencer is fixed at 3 different points all 3 must of failed at exactly the same time for it to fall off ? You cannot defend such poor preparation either by himself or his mechanics its inexcusable if it had fell of mid race anything could of happened depending on track position . I think SINGS is right though ..

Makes a lot more sense than to run it the day after the fours

One per issue would be fine, Steve. It's good that you take an interest and actively get involved.

As I said and one or two agreed Herxheim is the best for crowd/atmosphere. And if you make a few days of it nicely situated for a bit of sightseeing. 100km away from Stuttgart, which is a lovely city. Or in the other direction you have the German- French- Luxemburg triangle. Trier,Metz and Luxemburg are super and great countryside in the area and a major wine producing area.We got shown around a wine cellar just by asking a question . Very friendly area

Great to see work on the track has at least started, hopefully helps produce better racing and crowd numbers increase.

I agree he's a good signing but at 22 is no longer 'very young'.

His ban was until March. That's now over. But because of the transfer window in Poland, he can't compete for a team until after the next transfer window, which is in May. He's free to race in individual meetings etc.

This is what I’d assumed about these track changes, the club needed to push on with things and change the track layout to try and rejuvenate the project a bit. The old track certainly wasn’t fit for purpose any more and the entertainment value had gone through the floor. If the club can keep going with healthy enough attendances and general support, it makes it harder for the council to say that the site needs to be put out of its misery because only a couple of hundred of people are turning up a week and no one cares any more. I’m almost certain thats what would have happened with the old track and was Osbourne’s plan to bleed any support for the speedway dry. Hopefully with a better track and a competitive team, attendances and support will stay healthy....it’s then up to Osbourne and his cronies to fulfil their side of the bargain and put some sort of new stadium. If not, the elephant in the room over osbourne and this mythical stadium just keeps getting bigger. Sadly I think the club and council are still ultimately just being strung along though. I don’t know why Geoff58 is sounding off as if he’s just uncovered some inside scoop.....we’ve known all this for years mate... it doesn’t need rubbing in any more.

Just reading about our numbers 1s pathetic non existent preparation yesterday i have never known a silencer come off on the way to tapes .There would have to be 3 things over looked for this to happen i hope this is not a sign of things to come.

5600 Tickets only left as of today

The problem would be persuading riders who have had sponsors give them hundreds/thousands for various bit of sponsorship on bike covers etc, to take their off and put Club one on. If the Club provided the complete Bike and all decals might be different but unlikely in current climate.

Think that will set the trend for his season - I think he will be one of the best riders in the league come the end of the season. Very jealous about him riding for Redcar.

The builders have NOT got planning permission for the houses on the east of the stadium, so ignore all the rubbish being posted.

I think racesuits have had their day to be honest. Especially when you see young riders coming in to the sport with numerous sponsors and those sponsors crave space and profile. A team race suit limits space, an individual racesuit and body colour allows more space and a rider his "individuality" and sponsors like that. The modern trend also seems that those who have individual race-suits incorporate the body colour in to the suit. I am told a race suit costs north of £600 and a body colour costs about 10% of that, if Clubs can blow around £4500/£5000 of sponsorship money on suits, good luck to them, I suspect most would rather bank the £4000 and have race jackets that can give one big sponsor just as much exposure??...

The Aces took part in the Remembering Belle Vue event at the beautiful restored Gorton Monastery today. The whole event was great with displays and talks about the “zoo” and it’s illustrious past, which of course the speedway played/plays a big part of.

Thanks for your valued input and utter b/s.

Nope, Tommy runs a grasstrack/speedway spares van - RTN Racing.

Season starting with the usual verbal abuse why cant some people just except other people's opinions oh i forgot this is the poole thread

Its found its natural place. Over the last decade, other sports have enhanced their professionalism whereas speedway has done the opposite. The days of businesses handing out cheques are long gone. At its most basic level reviewing the uplift in sales or increase in exposure for their investment would likely be nil.