Leaderboard

Nobody needs to sign a contract when they buy a happy meal from you,

Honestly Carlisle United stadium isn't too bad and quite modern but West Cumbria seem to be the "poor relations" in the county being perceived as "off the beaten track" (the M6) to my mind, its a fantastic place to live and work and the people are great but I honestly can't put my finger on it, Don't know if it is under-funding or local authorities without any vision. As stated its the people who live there who have a much better grasp of what is going on in the area than I have (as a part timer). Politics and that's not just the Party type at a national or local level its also the politics with mutual hate and distrust between the Football and Rugby clubs and the Speedway is a bit of a pawn in all of that The malaise in Speedway isn't just peculiar to Workington the Sport appears to be dying on its backside everywhere in the UK and again all you need to do is read the posts throughout this forum and see what people are saying with regard to the failings within the sport in general (some of them very sensible). Costs; Rider Demands; Venues; Promoters and Promotions and there lack of action and empathy, Supporter expectations Arrogance (perceived or otherwise) of the BSPA and there apathy towards the sport. Lots of things working against the sport not including kids who have many and varied things to do now rather than come to Speedway and before cars were so cheap how many Dads and Granddads went to work on a motor bike rather than in a car so there was more of an affinity to two wheels rather than four back in the day which has been slowly eroded. Sports venues do galvanise communities however in a country and especially a county where Football and Rugby are held up as the sporting activities to follow they get precedence and the "New (Vanity Project) Stadium" will be central to these sports rather than Speedway, which is even more ironic after the Comets exploits last year and the plight both the Football and Rugby are in at present. Also back in the day of 2000; 3000.and 4000 crowds half of those guys will have passed away by now and again rather than go out and promote the sport; promotions have sat on their hands and not brought in new (replacement) fans. The whole thing needs a shake up from top to bottom but the BSPA are struggling IMHO to adopt new ideas quick enough. Moaning on here wont resolve the issue and money is the driver, without funds and income its a game where you eventually blow your brains out trying to sustain and maintain something on a shoe string. We are where we are and it will take an awful lot of good will from many and varied parties I believe if Speedway is to return; or a fan of Speedway to win the lottery (me please! me! me! me!) and then have a "Vanity Project" of their own (at Northside) Oh and I am not sure you get my humour but never mind the content above is genuinely sent. Regards THJ

Much better to delay a week than run a shambles of a meeting in front of a big crowd.

It's not as easy as you think Naj, I know, as I try every year and getting small businesses to sponsor/advertise with the club is getting harder by the year. Whilst getting supporters to fund the suits sounds great, and might work in Glasgow or Leicester where you have a much larger conurbations to gather support from, it's a lot more difficult in somewhere like Somerset, you only have to look at the kind of support you get when asking supporters to support events at the arena, away from normal race night, even when the cost is negligible, it's the same old small hard core of people who attend & spend the money. As to your point about it not being appealing to sponsors, the club attracted several new sponsors last season and that was without race suits, as they were more interested in the hospitality side to entertain their clients and staff. One of those sponsors have increased there spend on sponsoring with us this season and the lack of race suits never entered the equation with them, they just wanted more visibility at trackside and around the arena, in addition to the hospitality side of things. If you speak to new sponsors coming into the sport, in my experience, it's more to do with networking & hospitality, somewhere to bring clients or potential clients as a way to tie up their business. If you and others want to come forwards and offer to buy the race suits for the team, and to keep for yourself at the end of the season, then I'm sure the promotion would be very happy to talk it through with you and anyone wishing to do that. If you look at the reasons the promotion took the decision to take the club back into the Championship, you'll realise that it was done to safeguard the long term future of the club, and not to take a huge financial hit that would see us in the top league, only to have a limited life span. It was also a decision that was taken at the actual AGM, and not beforehand, as the intention was to run in the Premiership again, but decisions made at that AGM made it financially impossible for that to happen and for the club to continue into the foreseeable future. The promotion's ethos is to ensure they don't do anything that puts the club in danger of big financial losses, so if that means that we run in the Championship for now, and no race suits, that fine by me, as I would rather the club survive, than join the likes of Rye House, Workington & Lakeside on the proverbial speedway scrapheap. Next year is another year, and if the terms are right, I'm sure that the promotion would look at moving back to the Premiership (If there is one to move back to that is), and if they can be funded, I'm sure race suits would be on the agenda, but until that happens, we are where we are. I know for a fact, because I've talked to him at length about it, that Garry sorted out a really good deal for Wrighty, and I know how it was going to be funded. Wrighty stated at events he attended at the Oaktree, before the season, that he wanted to come back, he virtually told the fans he was coming back and had accepted the deal Garry put together. He agreed to rejoin the team, and it was the best deal he could have got from us. However, a team that came to the AGM, and pleaded abject poverty, saying that they couldn't run if they didn't get a 36pt team building average agreed by the rest of the promoters, then went and offered him far more than we had offered or could afford. So despite the fact that you feel he will be a top rider in the league this season, which I don't disagree with, he is not at Somerset, and that isn't the clubs fault. I'm not saying it's Wrighty's fault either, as riders will go where the money is, but when a team tells you it can't run unless you dumb down the product to something that is totally unrecognisable, and then acts like that, something's very wrong with this game.

Shame you didn't attend in 2018 then when Workington Comets scooped the board and won the treble and everything on offer in Speedway , huge crowds to see them do so So forgive me for not getting over enthusiastic about a FC playing a Sunday League division let alone in a Stadium that holds 8000, laughable !!! Compare that to a winning Speedway Team racing on bikes with no brakes ......I know whats much more exciting As for the "little" interest its more the financial side that is stacking against Workington , so stick to what you know...in Cumbria we call that 'Nowt' !!

Honestly If this is the supporting information to your application for the position of West Cumbria International Tourism and Communications Officer I don't think you will be getting called for an interview somehow... I was at both home Glasgow meetings in 2017 and I am not sure which one you are on about here that you attended (1st or 2nd); however the first one saw Chris Harris and Simon Lambert guesting for Workington on the 29th of July and even Paulco from Glasgow who was doing the updates (in tandem with Kevcfc from Workington) stated at the end of the meeting "Fair play, cracking ride by Harris, well done Workington, very entertaining meeting. Beaten by the better team"... Workington were 16 - 26 down by heat 7 and the final result was 48 - 45 in their favour and I fully agree with the comment made by Paulco it was a cracking meeting. The second meeting was a 47 -43 affair to Workington on the 23rd of September with Rich Lawson of Glasgow putting in the fastest time of the season in heat one and with Workington trailing (or drawing) most of the meeting it was Heat 13 where we saw one of the best races at Dewent Park for a long time when Matt Williamson had a ding dong with Rich Lawson passing him on the last bend to grab second place, then in Heat 15 Mason Campton had a "Royal Rumble" with Richie Worrall on the track then coming off the track we had a "Handbags" moment between the two of them with a melee in the pits. Pure entertainment. As for the crowds; I got all the crowd figures off Steve W and looking back at the first meeting there were 753 people in and that was when Maryport Blues; Kendall Calling and Cockermouth Show were all on the same weekend, so no mean figures there especially as stated with all the other events happening at the same time however Harris will have had an effect. Week later against Scunthorpe match crowd 430 (just for reference) then the second Glasgow meeting there were 698 in so where you get your figure of 450 from is beyond me!!! However you do correctly state that the crowds at both of these matches were enhanced by the fantastic travelling support that Glasgow receive and there will have been an enhancement from the Bewley effect with him being a local lad. As for your source I would suggest that he only has a paucity of information and the same paucity of brain cells to go with his take on the situation, this whole stadium situation will hinge on the up and coming council elections and there is a large groundswell of opinion against this new stadium "Vanity Project" and Derwent Park may stay as the main sporting venue, the folk of West Cumbria will tell you better than me about the internal politics between the Football and Rugby teams and how long the council have tried to get them both into one stadium to free up saleable land. As an outsider myself looking in (adopted Cumbrian now I reckon) I can see Dewent Park being redeveloped rather than any new stadium being built but we will see; however this wont help the Speedway. As for your "Vandalised Dump" jibe aimed at Northside; well; granted it would need to be developed into a Redcar/Scunthorpe type of motor park and the council have said they would be open to this happening, personally I wont be holding my breath and Derwent Park still has 9 years I believe on the lease and it was mooted for the Speedway to take it over for 3 or 4 years whilst somewhere else could be developed for them but again this seems to have been a "Pie in the sky" comment made by the council and the Speedway have been dumped on from a great height, absolutely shafted. However many thanks for your concern and your support is greatly appreciated. Regards THJ

Should be a minimum number of meetings before making team changes unless through injury. You take a chance on a young rider on a low average hoping he’s gonna come up trumps and he bombs? Tough

While I agree regarding Berwick, it’s appears from what your are saying that the Brough track is now just a drag race to the first bend too.Its the tracks that need sorting out IMO.

Berwick are my Dark Horses this season.....no pressure on them , an even 1-7 with a good reserve all season as Garcia and Etheridge/Gappmeir can swap places , has all the recipes of a successful team, you only need to look at us last season !! Were always big rivals of ours but like us are desperate for a successful season ...watch this space !

You are one of those people responsible for the drop in attendances then arent you !

Can't please everyone.. riders will always moan about track prep who'd be a track man

I do wonder if it might be a good PR exercise to offer free admission to people who live on the adjacent estate. Get them onside, as it were.

Why say that we are sending contracts out. Surely the contract should be agreed before being sent out. I work in high end finance and I only send contracts when clients have signed off on million pound deals.

Difficult one to predict , the Bandits have a few meetings under their belt already and have done well so far, and they usually do well at Ashfield, especially having former Tigers captain Aaron Summers and Coty Garcia. Tigers on the otherhand will be race rusty, Only a couple of the riders have been in competitive meetings, Paul Starke and Kyle Bickley. The tiggers will need to be sharp out the gate to combat the bandits and the top 5 will have to bring their A game to keep the pressure off the reserves and give them a chance to settle in. Looking forward to the home and away fixture this weekend, should be a real test . I will go for home wins at Glasgow and Berwick but reckon it will be close.

Bargain, and most importantly the meeting finished nice and early. Everyones a winner. Passing in every race too?

Well if the rules haven't changed, am sure they will.

Back in the hey day it was better racing as there was far more dirt on the tracks than now (unless it was Eastbourne!).

Think I said this after the Redcar meeting and all the meetings I have been to so far this season the Starts have been scrappy Berwick Saturday wasn't to bad but McGregor wasn't fully applying the new rule. Someone needs to sort this quick Refs have done the same process for the last 30 plus years and they are adding to the problems either revert back to how it was or get the riders together before the meeting starts and tell them how they will apply this new rule... at least at the start of the meeting the riders will have some idea of what to expect... not that it would have helped Newcastle in either Rogering they received at the weekend but it is starting to boil my bladder now... Regards THJ

Leicester v Somersets crowd on a Saturday night would be worth a review I would suggest. . Last year it would have had the then World Champ turn up on a Monday night.. This year it won't... It will be interesting to see if having the World Champ there on a Monday brought in many more than 14 'lesser riders' will on a Saturday.... The Aces crowds didnt seem to have been adversely affected by having no Zagar last year, a then top eight GP rider...

Yes as a business if it means improving your team and getting fans through the gate. At Newcastle Stevie was rider of the year 3 times in succession so when he became available it was a no brainier to fit him in. Can you imagine if we had stuck with Victor and he was only scoring 5s n 6s at meetings and Stevie had signed for someone else ( which he would of done) and was knocking in maximums or double figures every meeting .. The fans would of had every right to have had a go at the management and rightly so

We move on to this weekend coming for the Extraleague round 2 and the Nice Polska league round 3. It`s a mirror image of the weekend just gone 6 matches live over 3 happy days !!!! ( If Rybnik hadn`t ball$ed up their track it would have been !!)- all times UK times Friday April 12th Extraleague Gorzow v lublin Eleven Sport 1 programme starts 4.30pm 1st race 5pm Friday April 12th Extraleague Grudziadz v Czestochowa Eleven sport 1 programme starts 7.15pm 1st race 7.30pm Saturday April 13th Nice Polska league Tarnow v Ostrow Eleven sport 2 programme starts 7pm 1st race 7.15pm Sunday April 14th Nice Polska league Gniezno v Rybnik Polsat sport programme starts 1.45pm Sunday April 14th Extraleague Torun v Leszno N Sport programme starts 2.30pm 1st race 3pm Sunday April 14th Extraleague Wroclaw v Zielona Gora N Sport programme starts 5.30pm 1st race 6pm

Probably he's very insecure and likes getting a rise out of ppl if we just ignore him him I'm sure he'll return to dodgy websites and a packet of tissues....

As you ( hopefully ) may be aware it's a numbers game that dictates decisions on riders..by saying it's great to see and hoping it continues sums you up really.. have you broken up for Easter as your comments on here are very childish.. why bother posting when you obviously dislike Newcastle & let the proper fans enjoy the banter and having valid opinions,,,,

Thats exactly how speedway should be,to much HTA is half of what is wrong with speedway i dont care really if a track is slick or grippy,as long as its smooth and consistant,then riders can have a go thats how speedway should be

That’s the smoothest I’ve ever seen the track. No home advantage whatsoever on that

......And the criticism of the track/racing goes on....(yawn). This is the ninth season of the new LIons era and whilst the track is obviously the worst in the universe (designed by somebody no longer having an interest in the running of the club), at least there have been attempts to try and improve the circuit, within the obvious constraints. It appears quite often that riders (of a lesser ability) are taken in by the plethora of negative comments made on social media about the quality of the track. If they don't make the gate they can be excused for not making up ground because its a crap track. It has been proved, that top riders (and lesser but brave ones) can make passes on the track. Is it because of their ability or mindset though? Gating is the most fundamental part of a rider's skill set and the vast majority of races, even at every other wonderful UK track are won from the gate. Better riders refer to Leicester as a technical track. Having witnessed the home meetings against Redcar and Scunthorpe, I have to admit that the huge winning margins were boring (although a bit of a novelty for us) but that was largely down to the opposition appearing not to be up for it and for some riders embarrassingly so.

While people keep commenting on it he will keep posting it.

How it stands with the look off what they have I would think a heat winner at home is top priority bar wright I wouldn't put a penny on the top 5 winning a race bjerre should be at reserve so the whole team is wrong

Over the last decade the Elite League/Premiership has significantly weakened the product on offer and as a consequence crowds have dwindled. Therefore, the evidence suggests that a "watered down" league will only hasten the demise. Three clubs have gone from last year. Of those three, Lakeside rode on Fridays and Workington rode on Saturdays. Therefore I am not sure weekend meetings are the panacea you think they are.

There was 13 heats not completed so shouldnt I get in the next meeting for a fiver

Wooden spoon team this year for certain

I'm assuming you'd want him to replace Lambert. The only way you could do that would be to get rid of Clegg as well and bring in another 2 pointer (if you can find a decent one), or get rid of Steve ( if you want a lynching). We've had four meetings, the last two on tracks that have been as slick as a baby's bum, where gating has been key, especially at Berwick where each race was a 40 yard drag race to the first turn, race over. There is supposed to be a new starting procedure this season but it has only been used once in Newcastle meetings, and that was at home v Redcar. Whether this is the reason for our woeful gating I've no idea, but we need to sort it and sort it fast.

No too busy with work.

Friday's matches turned out to be as popular as the traditional Sunday fixtures The two meeting held last Friday : Zielona Gora against Torun, and Czestochowa against Gorzow last Friday, were attended by 15 thousand fans each. It was even better yesterday (Sunday) in Leszno, where the current Polish champions met with Wroclaw. That meeting was attended by 16 thousand.Lublin stadium, the newcomers to the ExtraLeague (after 26 years) if it could accommodate twice as many fans as it did yesterday, then there would be probably about 20,000 fans, As it happened, with a limited capacity, the match against Grudziądz was watched by 9812 spectators. A year ago, the opening round of PGE Ekstraliga gathered 38’974 spectators at four stadiums . Two years ago, 35’469 .

That may because he was signed whilst still injured as opposed to injured after signing

If they do not like it there they should not have moved to the development.

Thank you - Warsaw was great, it's such a lovely city and the atmosphere was electric. There are loads of pop up river bars that I'd recommend to visit. We stayed in the old town.

I suppose it wouldn't help matters, if Swindon speedway changed their nickname to 'Sons of Anarchy'?

What a ladgin.. get dickie juul back

Honestly Newcastle looked like the away team... Berwick definitely wanted it more... we need fortress Brough Park and the sooner the better... two totally different tracks from last week to this... it's not the NSS it needs to be grippy and the grippier the better... there is no home track advantage whatsoever at present... Needs to be sorted sooner rather than later... Regards THJ

Disappointing result for the Scorpions. But we shouldn't panic we need to give our young riders the space to settle in to Championship Speedway. I'm sure we will do. You cannot lose a rider like Jake Allen without impact ? His rides yielded two points under IRR he would surely have been good for 4 times that and a nominated Ht15. So likely a more respectable 54-36 If everyone's standing. Lions have a good top 4; as indeed do Scunny so this competition is going to be won in the "minor team positions". How well will the young riders coming up from NL cope with CL Speedway ?. It's going to be interesting finding out and as I have stated I do firmly believe that promoters have to resist making changes if early results don't work out.

Maybe, but It’s Cook that needs replacing. Woryna doesn’t score the points Cook would.

Three of those offers came in one phone call.

Thinking ahead. What average would Stefan Neilson be on for The Premiership ? Think that boy is in for a big, overdue season. Was the Lynn Mascot for good few years. Lived near Watton back in those days

I think that the Massif will stick with calling him NUTS

Not one which wants to spend £100,000000 over 50 yrs on a stadium no one wants except the council leader and reds shareholder, and ex town chairman as his deputy !

Fair play to Paco - I was quite blunt about his inclusion. Two good wins in the first meeting is already more than I expected he would get in the first month He is a great character and if he continues to add a few decent point hauls to that would certainly justify his place I wouldnt be unhappy to be proved wrong!

i agree it seems to be the case that greatly reduced admissions or free entry for all hasnt resulted in increased attendances at future meetings,however i disagree regarding deals or free admissions for children,that policy must help so many families and surely is one of the ways to actually "build long term attendance" Of course if its too expensive for the whole family to attend mum decides that none of them are going! now that does affect the "financial bottom line"

It’s amazing how riders after all these years suddenly become greedy when dealing with Chapman. Weird.

Rumours are the event sponsor has pulled out because their sponsor name had to be in white on the racejackets. Just a rumour.