Leaderboard

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.

I have thought that was the way forward for a long time, I'd even consider withdrawing from FIM events in time and just run our own competitions.

Less than the " hot or miss " Danes in their team.

Mute. You have furloghed Dave.

Spot on.. Cinemas and Pizza Hut though won't be paying out £10k (and maybe much more) for two nights work to their employees... A £10 - £12 price point simply couldn't sustain that, however is probably the price point that reflects the sports standing, and its circa 15 mins of actual amount of on track entertainment time..

what people don't seem to get is that the market dictates what people are willing to pay, not the other way around. Its double the price of cinema tickets, for example. A family of 2 plus 2 would need to spend around 50/60 quid to go to the speedway, maybe half that for the flix or a pizza hut or takeaway meal. That's the economic reality that potential fans face and thats what decisions around admission fees have to be based on

many of us, perhaps reluctantly, pay 15 - 18 pds to go to a meeting. Casual fans won't and don't. 10/12 quid is where the market would dictate the level for a speedway match. The knock on effect is that there would be less cash for paying riders. The knock on effects of that would be the need for cheaper kit and semi pro riders. Has anyone got the authority/ cojones to implement such a plan with the associated massive gamble of having fewer big name riders? I will now don my hard hat.

The Speedway on TV issue is a complex one, looking back at the crowds in the early Sky days and it's pretty clear promoters of today would die for those crowds. A lot of "promotions" never promoted a televised event at their track. At the end of the day, for me and many people I suspect, it came down to money. Whenever Sky were at Coventry I never went... because they never reduced their admission, I wasn't going to pay £16 to watch a meeting I was already paying for on Sky, If they'd reduced it to a tenner (and once or twice they did) I would have attended (and I did). When clubs reduced their admission the crowds were generally much more healthy.

And Dan Bewley too.. Some are saying it's 'too early' for him... Absolute nonsense.. He is 21 and now needs to be challenging himself against the world's best if he is to make it to the top.. Which some seem to think he is capable of doing.. Poland will have ten 'Dan Bewleys' who will be miles in from of him when it comes to the experience of riding with, and against, top level riders.. He will actually be playing 'catch up' against other 21 year olds (and even younger) over there.. If he succeeds over there this season he will show he can develop to top level status, if he doesn't it will show he isn't of that level and will no doubt be replaced by another rider of potential.. It's good to see though that Lambert and Bewley are giving it a go as riding against the same riders over and over again in the UK, beating them every week, wont improve them and will actually stagnate their progress..

In your Danish dreams.

Hans Andersen !!!!- you didn`t say it was 10 years ago

Poland streets ahead .

As much as riding at a technical track such as Newcastle 2 - 3 times a season would be for Dan Bewley i reckon 2nd or 3rd tier in Poland would be far better for his long term career in the sport

The Extraleague top 5 is so hard for the Polish riders coming out of 6 and 7 that they sometimes decide to ride in the E Winner league 1- Michael Gruchalski is an example, top 6/7 for Czestochowa last season has gone to Tarnow for 2020. Another rider i rate is Musielak riding for Torun this season. i agree there is also a lot of " journeyman" Poles in DIv 1

Smektala a Journeyman !!!! you are having a giraffe

Yup, but I finally got to that one on a trip back to UK in the nineties

SKY 422

E Winner league 1 fixtures out tomorrow.

Certainly the team with the longest way for home meetings then

I remember it well. Eamonn Andrews with his overalls on!

Shelbourne was promoted by Ronnie Greene and their team, the Tigers, was the Wimbledon team.

ALLEGEDLY he broke the journey, in both directions, sleeping overnight in his car at the Cradley Heath stadium ...

That was more like the normal timing of an Extraleague match - under 2 hours comfortably

Gating tart yes !!!!

Artem Laguta is such a brilliant rider.

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.

Please don't turn this into yet another slag-the-commentators thread. (Although I expect it will, because you've got to listen to me again 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.

hi Iain As one of the two hosts of Talk Speedway thanks for listening we have great fun doing them and I’d agree that some of the nefarious stories and goings on behind the scenes the guests tell us about you almost wouldn’t believe haha From an audio point of view I’m not aware of any others, video wise there is the speedway tavern and the speedway chat show on Facebook For me as a speedway fan it’s been a small positive to come out of the current situation the amount of content being created. Especially as an avid podcast listener as well I’m really enjoying having speedway content to listen to as well as produce.

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

Yes pretty sure you are correct.

Poland should be pleased with themselves. How can you blame them for looking after themselves. They lead the way on crowds, pay, TV coverage. Rather than be upset other countries should attept to match. Watch some Polish speedway its very good. Cutting your own nose off by missing out.

As I'm not savvy enough to be on facebook, twitter or any other communication outlets, I do rely on some of my info from this column which is easy to use for an old fashioned old git like me.

That would be me but unfortunately for Andrew I'm still here.....at the moment.......and he's not.

I would like to mourn the passing of Stars superfan and season ticket holder - David Mckuen, who passed away last week after a short illness. David was devoted to the Stars and attended every year since they opened ( and also the Linnets football team ). He was a kind and generous man who went out of his way to give me a lift to Stars matches. If you knew him on the first bend terraces, join me in a There You Go friend salute. R.I.P. David. God Bless.

I remember Jason Gage beating Hans Nielsen once at Peterborough, he brought the house down... Doesn't mean they're going to go on to great things