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I was one of the riders that mr Rees left without money during his flirt with speedway promoting and along with the other 6 had to be bailed out by the bspa, I can still remember Richard Juul storming down the ramp at stoke to literally rip the blokes head from his shoulders cause of his bouncing cheques, IMO he should be let nowhere near speedway again but that won’t be the case as the sport has a history of forgiving “less than honourable” people back in the sport

You’ve done a good job Dave in difficult circumstances. You’ve been up against some serious delays with no co commentator whilst sat in your front room no doubt. I certainly don’t envy that! Keep up the good work.

Thanks for listening tonight everyone. I will admit, my head was all over the place during Sunday's broadcasts and I struggled a lot, but tonight for me went 100% better.

Good enough to watch again

Heat 7 at Gorzow was brilliant. No quarter asked or given and the commentator sounded like he was giving birth with excitement. Bartoz could have binned it but to be credit stayed on the bike and still got the win.

There's probably a far greater chance of the rugby league club sharing a revamped Horsfall with Park Avenue than returning to Odsal. I gather there are plans to strip out Horsfall's little-used athletics track and do a proper job of building a stadium. Without the rugby league club on board, I can't see the Odsal money pit being viable. Speedway was never as well supported at Bradford as it was at Halifax, where anything over 3,000 felt like a big attendance. Being in a crowd of a thousand scattered about Odsal's vast acreage really wasn't much fun. Perhaps many posters only ever went to Odsal on a 'big event' day. Having read The Dean Machine's remarks: does speedway not have a 'fit and proper person' test (not that it works in football!) for would-be promoters?

Bewley has to be admired too,I reckon he has his work cut out IMO.Hope it works well for him.At least the tracks will suit his style and speed.These young Poles are tough cookies .

Heat 14. Pedersen never lets us down. Brave racing from all 4 riders.

https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/18514939.avenue-agree-35-year-horsfall-lease-bradford-council/ This is from our local Rag. New lease is with the local athletics club, so you would assume the track would stay in situe , but most probably be updated with a new synthetic surface

Should have no bother giving a good commentary from Czestochowa tonight. Cracking racing track and riders in both teams not afraid to mix it. Should be a belter I can't wait.

I'm with Emilali on this one - this is why National League speedway has never appealed to me. You could see 10 passes in one race but it wouldn't even scratch the surface of watching the Poles and co giving it absolute full chat on a big open race track.

You are lucky then if you get to watch BV every week as its the best track in this country by a million miles. However, for me, I prefer watching the worlds best riders riding at 110% every week in Poland not just seeing journeymen going through the motions or James Sargent breaking the tapes 4 times per meeting. Would be boring if everyone liked and wanted the same thing I suppose. Can I assume you didn't enjoy heat 7 from Gorzow ?

I sympathise greatly with Dave having to fill in those large gaps without live action. At least it's better than in Sweden where he only had a locked-off wide-angled picture to support him during the many breaks. It's a shane that the interviews conducted in English couldn't be included on the international feed but then there are long sequences as the presenter translates from English. Premier Sports are obviously working to a very tight budget. Thankfully Dave has the resourcefulness to make it work. There is only so much that you can do and bear in mind I think this is is first foray into Polish speedway with his stock car commitments having clashed with Premier's previous Polish coverage. It's hard enough commentating remotely off a screen without having huge gaps to fill...alone.

I remember a friend of mine who would stay at home and watch a match that was televised live at Cowley rather than walk the half mile to the track as was his normal want. Highlights I saw no problem with but live? Speedway's fan base was never going to be sustainable as attendances were already on the slide when live matches were introduced during the late (?) nineties. Whether speedway failed to capitalise is obviously a very good point and it seems that the sport missed an opportunity hence the current predicament that the sport apparently now finds itself in.

Robert has 2 full seasons on Bewley in Poland, one being at the top level. At the moment there is no comparison. Dont understand why people must do divide and conquer with British riders (and I’m not saying you do). I can’t remember the last time we had 3 British riders in the top flight of Poland.

You can’t afford to be seen to give up in a race over there,you won’t get your next ride! You can see why the Brits find it tough.The young Russian was giving Doyle a hard time.!

Superb by Laguta tonight. I can't imagine many visitors go through the card at this place.

Great race... You can only marvel at the level of ability needed to race at that standard, making split second decisions almost every corner... You would think there would be hardly anything riding on it given the score too, shows how intense (and important) it is over there.. Polish Speedway...

When I was younger I could go to Belle Vue, Bradford, Doncaster, Sheffield and Halifax, all on public transport.

You were saying?

WATCHING behind the glass at Plough Lane severely diminished the atmosphere, no smell either, but it was great post-meeting.

Exactly. My comment was designed as a support to both the Polish and BT guys.

Worth it if only for the view!

Football is almost a worldwide sport so therefore has a global audience, whereas Speedway is limited to the UK, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Australia, , and to a lesser extent, Slovakia, USA, Russia, New Zealand, and a few others, Norway, France, Italy.. etc etc. If Speedway is to have a succesful Tv audience then it needs to broaden its foundation throughout the world but thats almost impossible, proven by the fact that we are struggling here in the UK just to survive.. If only Japan, China, and other Asian countries could become in the Sport then we may have half a chance.. indeed i think of my wifes home country the Philippines they are motorcycle crazy but mostly lack the income to buy expensive Speedway gear.. which brings us back to something the BSPL refuse to do anything about costs!.

This has always been speedway's Achilles heel. Too many clubs have been/are subject to the whim of the landlord, for whom speedway often hasn't been/isn't a priority. Seems a shame one of the very few purpose built speedway venues, owned and run by speedway enthusiasts - Buxton - is now used only for practice and experience days.

Why are you comparing our national league juniors with the quality of racing we are debating? If you want to use an example then it really needs to be a fair comparison. If we wish to head along this road, then I wasn’t overly impressed with the 16 year old pole yesterday who was chucked and frankly a danger to himself and those who shared the track with him. That was hardly a pole giving full chat on a big open track, was it? If we are going to debate, then at least level the playing field as best we can.

Then, respectfully, we will never agree on this matter so I’ll leave it alone after this one. Quite honestly you sound like a bit of a stature snob which is a real shame because it’s impacting your ability to acknowledge good speedway racing because it wasn’t delivered by a world superstar. You are also introducing other aspects again which is not my argument. It has only ever been about the quality of racing and the human beings under the helmet. Cheers.

I don’t think Dan was dismal on Friday. We really have to look at the context. This was his first Polish top level meeting. He was quick enough. The kid has no balls and that needs to change but I thought he was okay. With the above adjustment in a new set of balls he will do ok. Some people expert an inexperienced kid to just rock up and bag a load of points. Not gonna happen. Robert is miles ahead in Poland, no doubt.

I think you have somewhat misunderstood what I have said. The general package in Poland is so much better, I absolutely don’t dispute that. As a tv experience with full crowds or being in Poland watching, which I have, it is an entirely different experience. A better one. However that shouldn’t discredit what we have here. If you remove everything by the side and just concentrate on the actual speedway, there are tracks and certain meetings in the UK which offer entertainment to the equal. Belle Vue is an excellent track, one of the best in the world, but so is Peterborough. So is Somerset. So is Scunthorpe. So is Glasgow. Kings Lynn has great potential but is unfortunately prepared for his main money stream, stock cars. Poole is also a great shape and I have seen some brilliant speedway there, it’s just badly prepped. Your above post is a good summary of exactly what is wrong with the British fan. This need to divide and conquer is a really sad state of affairs. It removes ones ability to enjoy something which can be good because everyone else says you can’t. Can you assume I didn’t enjoy heat 7? Absolutely not, because it was one hell of a race and I said as much in this very thread. Stop being so down on the positive elements of British Speedway. A large chunk is indeed a mess, but parts are still excellent and I feel for those who cannot see the wood for the trees. Edit: Throw in Swindon as well, which is a cracking little track now. Really nice shape to it, rides like a bigger track and is well prepared. I’d have no issue riding that every week.

Great commentary that Polish version. Didn't need to know what they were saying.

Without the crowd there definitely does need to be an injection of enthusiasm by the commentator to keep the races 'interesting' and that isn't his natural style. (Unlike some). It must though be very hard to have 'reading out tweets' as your default go to process to fill dead air and I think he does a fair old job overall given the logistics of following the racing like we do, via a screen.. Especially with so much of the dead air due to zero adverts,.. Presumably they do have them but all will be in Polish so they just show replays of races on the Premier feed?. And having watched plenty of NSPORT and Eleven Sports they do like a long advert break, (to pay for the racing coverage I would imagine).. Still, racing is back, and we get to watch the very best in the world, with the rest of the 'package' I am sure being tweaked as we go along, and even if it isn't, it is still great to have Speedway back.. Can't wait for the next installment tonight...

His gating was better than last season. More like the 2018 season, when he was on fire. He looked very fast yesterday. Long may it continue.

Czestochowa set for sunny periods today with no rain forecast !!

Well, I've watched my first 3 PPV matches on Premier Sport and I must say, while I'm more than happy to have some "Live" Speedway to watch, I'm less than happy with the coverage. It reminds me very much of how Eurosport used to be, bordering on amateurish, I wonder if this will be the shape of things to come when/if the British League gets underway on that channel. I know the commentator is active on here so I'll not be too critical but he really needs a co-commentator to work with as even just reading tweets out during the breaks leaves him with nowhere to go other than silence. You'd think that Premier Sport would have taken in enough extra subscription money to warrant a co-commentator. I also realise there were no adverts in any of the matches over the weekend, so surely that's even more reason for a co-commentator. The commentator doesn't seem to have done his homework on the intricacies of the Polish League either, with lack of knowledge of the helmet covers, league points, tacticals, rider numbering (what's that all about!!) etc. He's certainly more knowledgeable than that 5-1er, 3-3er guy they were using last year for some matches but I do feel he doesn't inject much excitement into his commentary, sounds more like a cricket commentary... but that's just my personal preference/opinion. Missing heat 1 of the 1st match yesterday while they're playing promos is amateurish and unforgivable. Having watched some of the Free Sport output last year I've become well used to not seeing the last few heats of a meeting, so I was well prepared for it and recorded the whole channel for the night! As things stand I can't see myself renewing my subscription beyond this season should live British Speedway resume next year.

Blimey, Steve, most sports had the 'will live TV coverage damage our attendances' argument back in the mid-1960s! And decided TV was the way to go. Did speedway simply fail to capitalise on the shop window the most recent examples of live TV coverage provided?

Early days of course but pretty underwhelmed with what I’ve seen so far, team strengths seem to vary considerably particularly at reserve. Some better racing at Gorzow but generally it’s been quite FTG thus far. Add to that Premier Sports/Sky not being able to get their act together with the recordings, both meeting yesterday missed several heats. Glad it’s free and I’m not paying! Great to see Robert looking so fast and aggressive, long may that continue.

I couldn't agree more. I questioned the fact that live televised meetings would impact upon the sport at the time but was shouted down on numerous occasions and was 'informed' that live meetings would raise the profile of the sport and attract major sponsorship...neither of which has materialised down the years. I was never sure who the target audience was?

The quality of racing and general meeting progression, well as a man who attends BV each week.....it was worse. And I also believe, so far this weekend, that I have seen better meetings run in more timely fashion across the UK. Equally imo, anyone who fails to see that should also ‘give their head a considerable shake’.

I should have added... Live at the track, not in front of a tv screen

SKY planner updated - live 7.30pm Premier Sport 1

It’s time they did - like most teams used to Saturday night is speedway night

Great to see Robert top score for Rybnik against Zielona Gora 14 points from 6 rides looks like he is back to his best, let’s hope so anyway

Does anyone know the result of the ice hockey match between Britain and France ?

Liked the Steve McDermott interview, he had a very laid back attitude and knew what he was doing regarding earning a living from the sport while still working at the same time planning his future( a few today need to adopt that way of life).He was a class act with a great style and very underrated.IMO. Friendly and a great servant loyal to Berwick and certainly seemed to enjoy his speedway.Obviously enjoying life which is great to see.

But it's Poland, I live in the UK, my team are the King's Lynn Stars, I couldn't give two hoots about any Polish team

Very reasonable at entry level for a basic bike, however.. As one rider once told me, he can spend almost as much again adding on all the latest "must have parts" to compete with those who already have them, and then getting it "race ready tuned".. And he had three bikes... Then it isnt so cheap, and riders then basically each spend fortunes from their salaries, or donations from sponsors, to all end up with the same type of kit, being tuned by many of the same people.. Hundred of Thousands (even Millions?) all spent for many to effectively run to stand still, but much, much less than that invested in actually improving the spectacle of the racing and the overall entertainment experience..? A strange model to follow and one that might be worth a moment or two for someone to review and change maybe?

Yes I have, I got one in my workshop and I’ve got a long stroke GM from 15 years ago and I’ve got a weslake and a 2 valve Jawa and have ridden them all, the modern engine in fine if the conditions are good but when they are not which in our sport is quite often, more adaptable engines could be used in the sport, everyone knows this even the modern superstars but nobody will do anything about it, calling of meetings is doing and has done the sport no favours at all, apart from expense absolutely nothing has been gained by the evolution of the engine we have today, racing is no better or worse than years ago but the balance of engine/rider has changed dramatically especially on bigger tracks and all that has done is push the cost up, nobody is saying a return to a 2 valve or a weslake and there is nothing wrong with the angle of the engine but when it comes to safety it doesn’t even get considered when you’re talking about the engine, it’s all about getting the edge and that means higher risk

Rider safety comes first is a contradiction in itself ,if it came first then the sport would make riders use a more adaptable engine, the engine used today is power and nothing else, safety doesn’t even come into it ,speedway is dangerous, if you don’t like it don’t ride

With everything that’s going on in the world and it’s been a while since I’ve seen any speedway I kind of forgot how much some modern riders are prima donnas where there is a bit of rain around

HAVE you ever been in Cardiff around 9am on SGP day ... it is already packed with fans from all over the country and elsewhere.