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Commentary today has been a vast improvement. Informed, knowledgeable and on subject.

Enjoying the different coverage- lot more interviews than the normal BT studio.

by far the best commentary pairing,kelvin 10 times better when not trying to make stupid jokes with an equally unfunny pearson,stick with kelvin and chris, and also scrap the studio analysis,pearson probably on the biggest wage so bt think also of the money you could save!!!

JEEZ , its Saturday night , where have all the speedway meetings gone ? as the above poster says , lets go back to basics and more importantly , part time riders with full time supporters . cannot see any new breed of new fans coming through to keep it going .greedy riders want 5 mins work and a bit of bike washing and the supporters to pay for it !

all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order

Five minutes in and already the improvement is marked.

The uncomfortable truth is that the sport carrying on as a team sport will never work. (In the UK).. When, as a fan attending, you have to agree to collude with the promoters that it is a 'proper' team sport that you are watching, (when you deep down know it isn't), then the sport has a major problem.. You can never ever build up that "emotional engagement" that a fan of a team needs to keep repeating their visits, (with many of those visits taking place through blind loyalty with absolutely no sense of actual reason other than they are "your team").... The sport has always been a bit "Mickey Mouse" with regards to the way it has been "self policed" in regards to its rules, however, in the halcyon days of the 70's "Proper Speedway Competitions", with nationally recognised sponsors, went out to millions every Saturday afternoon via one of only three channels that existed.. These didn't have any 'Mickey Mouse' rules and involved truly the very best in the world, with the bonus for the domestic sport of a young, exciting British Hero ie Peter Collins, who took on, and often beat, the best the world had to offer, and did it usually by giving them a head start which made the sport spectacular to watch.. The Britsh Leagues then fed off this coverage. You could watch PC getting interviewed at 4pm on ITV after wowing the TV audience, and then see go and him race at 7pm that night at Hyde Rd.. Unless of course he had flown to Germany to race their the next day in a long track meeting so Larry Ross guested for him, (but obviously you didnt know that till you had paid to get in).. For me, the sport has some major decions to make.. The team aspect only exists for two reasons... 1). With promoters often being fans themselves, it provides them with a "toy" to play with and some very small recognition. As they still (misguided that they are), see "their team" as being relevant and important locally.. 2) As many nights racing for the riders as possible, to provide them with the relatively (for the sports' size), a 'huge' return, which then helps them pay the 'huge' costs to compete.. In short, the world has moved on and UK Speedway hasn't, what you could get away with in the 70's you cannot today. And what is a trillion percent clear is that the operating model and business plan used over the past couple of decades in particular, simply isn't fit for purpose and in the year off due to the pandemic both should have been radically changed.. Unfortunately, it appears, no one in the sport felt that it was needed so I presume all must think what they put out is "ok"... That's the problem when you sit in Echo Chambers, you only hear what you already believe.

I've been banging on about this in other threads, 17th was the date for the British GP, which was cancelled back in April yet not 1 so called "promoter" in the whole country had the vision to put a meeting on, on one of the most prime dates available in the calendar... See you on the wet wind swept terraces in the last week of October though watching a final being raced on an unraceable track

Leigh Adams once said anyone can buy a cheap speedway bike and learn to slide. Perhaps we need to get back to that philosophy at championship level and take out all those extra expenses.

The lack of ad breaks is a pleasant surprise as well

Yes, that was indeed a good one and there are one or two others over the leagues that come into the same category. When used sparingly they can often be the highlight of the season due to the quality of the field and generally good standard of racing. Edinburgh have one called The Scottish Open Championship, which incredibly dates right back to 1928 and boasts an impressive list of past winners. To name but a few, how about Bluey Wilkinson, Jack Young, Dick Campbell, Tommy Miller, Ivan Mauger, Barry Briggs, Greg Hancock, Peter Carr, Frede Schott, Rory Schlein et al. None for the past couple of years for obvious reasons but before that there were a good few "Harrison Scottish Open" events, sponsored by Harrisons Ford Centre - a Scottish Ford dealer. Prior to that there were other headline sponsors happy to be involved such as Keyline and others. All racing for the prestigious Jack Young Trophy - a very valuable piece of silverware ( only on loan for a year ) and prize money of course. Fingers crossed we can get back to these good times soon.

Indeed they have, but to be fair they do have the commentary to concentrate on too. I’m slowly getting to grips with the points system but it takes some getting used to. At least that answers the anthem question, shame as the Russian one is one of the best. Well done Laguta.

There's only racers and royals that knows what's going on

Too expensive, too boring, too many costly foreign riders, too many anoraks and too many midweek meetings. Couldn't agree more. Greedy riders and promoters expecting a couple to split with £45+ on windswept Monday night.....get real.

If you are coming from Cornwall you will cross the bridge and then leave the a38 just before you leave the city heading towards Exeter.

How would Nicholls be banned, he is riding as a guest. If he cant make it to Eastbourne then Leicester will find another guest.

It was once said of aforementioned ‘ Mussolini ‘…… “ better a bad ref than no ref at all “ but I do agree , Mulford was an innocent victim of Kemps lifting mid corner.

Shame no one has commented. Meeting got off to a slow start but racing improved as the night went on. Brennan a deserved winner and nice to see Redcars Drew Kemp on the rostrum. Well done to the Redcar promotion for taking this on and doing the event justice.

as always Dean, total common sense. Let the GP and Polish league guys spend themselves daft and we go back to basics, all 3 leagues.

Ok BOBBATH, I have reviewed the league meetings from 1965 and if there had been no injuries to the first choice line-ups then in my view a fair number of matches would have had different outcomes and the final league table would have contained one major surprise. Revised outcomes due to injury absence only are taken into account. I saw all of these teams and almost all of the riders during the season. I have taken into account the form of the missing riders and assessed the impact they may have had at the tracks where the meetings were staged. The teams are listed in the order they finished in the table, with revised match points and the league position that would have resulted shown in brackets. 1st West Ham, 47 points (43, 1st) No match points were lost due to West Ham injury absences. Points would have been dropped against Oxford, Wolverhampton, Sheffield and Long Eaton. (Harrfeldt missed 1 match) 2nd Wimbledon, 46 points (40, 2nd) No match points were lost due to Wimbledon injury absences. Points would have been dropped against Coventry, Oxford, Newcastle and Long Eaton. (Hedge missed 3 matches) 3rd Coventry, 40 points (39, 4th) With Lightfoot riding at Wimbledon it is likely the match would have been drawn. Points would have been dropped against Long Eaton. (Mountford and Lightfoot both missed 2 matches) 4th Oxford, 40 points (40, 3rd) With How in the team it is possible that Oxford could have won at home to Wimbledon and away to Poole. An extra point at Newcastle, where the match was drawn, was also a possibility. Additionally, Oxford might have drawn at West Ham. How's extra points would have been cancelled out by Jarman's at Wolverhampton. Points would have been dropped against Sheffield, Cradley Heath and Long Eaton. (How missed 16 matches, Bishop 7, Reeves 1) 5th Halifax, 39 points (36, 7th) No match points were lost due to Halifax injury absences. Points would have been dropped to Swindon and Long Eaton. (Younghusband missed 1 match, Elliott 2) 6th Newport, 38 points (33, 13th) No match points were lost due to Newport injury absences. Points would have been dropped to Swindon, Cradley Heath and Long Eaton. (Biggs missed 1 match, Bradley 14, Erskine 3 and Hughes 2) 7th Wolverhampton, 37 points (34, 10th) With Jarman present the home match with West Ham would have been won rather than drawn. Ron How’s presence at Wolverhampton might have been enough to win the match for Oxford, but if Jarman had also been riding the match would still have gone to the home team. Points would have been dropped to Newcastle and Long Eaton. (Jarman missed 7 matches, Sweetman 3) 8th Hackney, 37 points (37, 5th) If Pratt had ridden at Edinburgh a 2 point defeat would have been turned into a victory. Points would have been dropped to Long Eaton. (Davies missed 2 matches, Pratt and Byford 1) 9th Exeter, 36 points (35, 9th) No match points were lost due to Exeter injury absences. A point would have been dropped to Long Eaton. (Cowland missed 1 match and Blewett 3) 10th Poole , 35 points (35, 8th) If Mudge had ridden at Edinburgh a one point defeat would have turned into a victory. Points would have been dropped to Oxford. (Gilbertson missed 3 matches, Mudge 6, Smith 2) 11th Sheffield, 34 points (34, 11th) If Kitchen had ridden at Oxford a 5 point defeat would probably have become an away win. The inclusion of Crane would almost certainly have enabled Sheffield to take a point off West Ham in a home meeting. Points would have been dropped to Cradley Heath and Long Eaton. (Kitchen missed 1 match, Crane 8) 12th Newcastle, 33 points (32, 14th) With a fit Mauger instead of Brett, Newcastle would have probably gained a point by drawing at Cradley Heath and would also probably have drawn at home to Wimbledon, gaining another point. A one point defeat at home to Wolverhampton would instead have been another victory. Points would have been dropped to Oxford, Edinburgh and Long Eaton. (Mauger missed 15 matches, Craven 1, Dent 4, Sharples 10) 13th Glasgow, 33 points (33, 12th) No match points were lost due to Glasgow injury absences. (Templeton missed 5 matches, Paulsen 13, Mattingley 6 and Ovenden 5) 14th Belle Vue, 30 points (30, 16th) No match points were lost due to Belle Vue injury absences. (Fisher missed 4 matches, Levai 6) 15th Swindon, 28 points (30, 15th) The inclusion of Kilby might have turned defeat into a draw at home to Cradley Heath, as would the presence of Keen at home to Halifax. With Ashby in the team Swindon would have won at Newport. Points would have been dropped to Long Eaton. (Briggs and Ashby missed 1 match, Kilby, Keen and Sampson 4 each) 16th Cradley Heath, 23 points (24, 17th) The draw at home to Sheffield would have been turned into a win with Hockaday in the team. With Brown present, the home meetings with Oxford and Newport would probably have been won. Points would have been dropped to Newcastle, Swindon and Long Eaton. (Brown missed 14 matches, Major 11, Hockaday 3) 17th Edinburgh, 22 points (20, 18th) The inclusion of Templeton would have turned defeat at home to Newcastle into a victory. Points would have been dropped to Hackney and Poole. (Templeton missed 6 matches, McKee 3, Harrfeldt 1, with the other 3 team places mainly covered by 5 regular riders) 18th Long Eaton, 14 points (37, 6th) The home meeting with West Ham would probably have been drawn with Sharp in the team. With Moore in the team the home match with Halifax would probably have been won. The inclusion of Moore and Sharp would have seen the team win at home to Sheffield, away at Cradley Heath and draw at home to Exeter. The inclusion of Wilson, Moore and Sharp would have resulted in a home win over Hackney. The presence of Cresp and Moore should have resulted in home wins over Newcastle, Wolverhampton, Wimbledon and Oxford, a draw with Newport and wins at Swindon and Coventry. (Cresp missed 14 matches, Cole/Bodie 4, Wilson 8, Sharp 23, Moore 32) The title would still have gone to West Ham. The biggest upward movement would have been Long Eaton, from 18th to 6th. Long Eaton had won their first two away meetings of the season, at Edinburgh and Halifax, before being decimated by injuries.

Think you will find it only new guys who get average 7 days after 4H/4A Leon Flint has a rolling average as has ridden well over the 20 match spec you need so it will depend on his new rolling average at 20 matches at cut off 23 July. Effects from 1 Aug

And he didn’t even get a ride over there!

We are currently a 4 man team with 3 iffy riders. If Bachelor can get consistent and we can replace the reserves we could be very competitive in the top 4 but while we’ve got Bachelor in erratic form and wright doing nothing after heat 2 and Bates being a liability we are going to be lucky to qualify for the play offs as these stats prove

Hes a freelance journalist

Why would you scrap studio analysis? Surely more ineresting than tractors grading the track.

These Individual meetings are invariably run at the end of the season as a fixture filler or at the start of the season when there's a frozen drop on the end of your nose. That's why they don't pull a crowd and because of this promoters think the fans want team racing first and foremost. Back in the day the "big" individual was held during the summer, The Golden Gauntlets, Pride of the East, Star of Anglia, The 16 Lapper, Barum Trophy, Coalite Classic, MLRC, NRC, Brandonapolis and the list goes on... British Final, Commonwealth Final, Overseas Final. The fact that the British Final is not run on a Saturday night at the NSS is a complete waste of the event and a scandal. One of the best attended meetings in relatively modern times (although it was 25 years ago now!) was the Rick Miller testimonial, pulled in a massive crowd for what was, with all due respect to him and he is a Coventry legend, a (very good) 2nd string rider. But boy did he promote it!

Extract from SGP regulations: Additionally, the 15 permanent and 7 substitute SGP Riders may apply to use their own personal racing numbers on their race jacket and bikes. They may choose any riding number with a maximum of 3 digits provided that it has not previously been used by another SGP Rider over the past 2 seasons, the number cannot start with a 0. Riding numbers 1 to 22 are reserved for the use of FIM only.

I think Kelvin and Chris have been excellent but surely they should know what's going on points wise

Kelvin's not very good at arithmetic….

I'd be interested to know how many other options are there? I don't mind a NLD rider riding as at least it is a Brit getting more experience that they need. It may cost us a win but not if everyone else does there job. As long as Stevie sticks to his Poole form and not his BV one!

Belle vue for certain

Kelvin and Chris louis on commentary duty today- Nigel Pearson prior engagement.

Scott Nicholls definitely riding, he's posted on Twitter he won't be in the BT studio today

Yup BT Sport have signed up Richard Lawson to replace Scott in the studio. Apparently part of the deal is that Lawson gets a free haircurt in "make Up" before he appears on TV.

The track is at Marsh Mills exitoff a38 not in view of the tamar Bridge its a couple of miles before the Bridge, you can park in the stadium for £2 which is very convenient, there is food available pies,pastys,chips, burgers,curry and a very popular polish bbq,with polish sausages, burgers etc which is very popular. A seated stand on the home straight known as the NHS stand provides great views as does the 3 and 4th bend and back straight which is standing but you can bring your own chairs . We have a disabled viewing area also on the 2nd bend. As for purchasing tickets its online only atm and I suspect this will remain for the season but not sure,I would advise early purchasing of tickets as meetings are generally sold out no tickets can be purchased on the day of meeting online as it usually closes day before, and atm no cash payments will be taken on the gate this situation is very fluid and as such could change at anytime. We also have a licenced bar if you want a beer or 2. Hope this is of some help and you enjoy your visit and some Devonshire hospitality.

So they would have known Kemps commitments and that they were signing Andersen

All will become clear at midday when Scott is on the TV in his bright shirt ....or not

Just how long has this fixture being logged surely kemp and anderson are witholding their services and should serve a 28 day ban!

Will be interesting to see which way Poole go now, like you say limited availability on 5.00 point average out there.

Palm Toft is based in the UK, as far as I am aware. Andersen and Ostergaard fly in I think but would imagine that they will be exempt.

Quite possible something similar has happened Seem to think that Hartmut, Martin and Ben Ernst all rode for Stralsund. Grandad, son and grandson.Then quite possibly Mario Busch and Tobi Busch rode for Stralsund as well. Could well be that Mario rode with Martin Ernst and Tobi with Ben Ernst

Perhaps Keith Heuwen will replace Scott... at Eastbourne

Couldn't agree more about the ref decisions. He also had a habit of putting the 2 minutes on when the tractor was still on track, which caught Archie out at one point! Not sure why you'd book yourself in as ref if you can't be arsed to stay around and want to rush the meeting on

Dick will say anything for a freebie

I see there has been a couple of changes in the fixture list.It's not just Lynn that do this but why oh why can't all clubs notify their respective fans on the clubs websites of new dates for meetings as soon as they know of them.It's already costing me £100 for Thursday meetings and the sooner i know of the changes the better. This happened to me under the J.Chapman era,whilst some worshippers thought he was God he was far from it.When i complained to him about a fixture change at Newport which didn't go ahead,i had already spent a small fortune on a weekend away.This was just about a week before and it was still on the fixture list as going ahead.He filled me with a load of bullrubbish about it being called late.Not until i spoke with someone did i find out it had been postponed about 2 weeks previous to what young Chapman said.

This team line ups for this fixture are beginning to resemble a pantomime. Only in speedway. (Well at least in Cricket they changed the entire team in advance of the match !) Scott Nicholls ? Is he riding for BT sport or Leicester tomorrow? Nathan Ablitt .... one of "Eastbourne's own" is he riding for his club ? Sings4Speedway suggests he isn't ?? Drew Kemp - is he still riding in Poland tomorrow ? or is the Gdansk meeting cancelled due to the GP reschedule? As for Jake Knight .... you couldn't make it up ..... Never have I seen such a set of complicated rules to prevent an English junior reserve rider being denied a ride. Surely in the "interests of speedway" he should be allowed to ride for someone tomorrow ?

It's good this talking to yourself, eh?

You are completely missing the whole point and are making yourself look a bigger clown with every post. I hope you have a big shovel!

Decent meeting with the right winner for once using the semi final & finals format, you can’t argue with unbeaten all night ! It appeared to be a good sized crowd and the track prep was spot on with no dust despite the heat. Took a long time to get it all done but I’m told that was because of an enforced break before the semis to issue / fit new tyres ? Good to see ‘ our Archie ‘ in there and not looking out of place and most of the field can still have a few cracks at this title in the future. Thought the ref was wrong on more than one occasion. Heat 10, Kemp lifts on turn 2 and interfered with Mulford who had to bail out , big time !, yet Mulford excluded ? Harsh on Ablitt too when it should have been all four back for a classic ‘ first bend bunching ‘ but then I’ve never rated the Mussolini of the refs society. Well done Redcar , once again, for staging this type of meeting.