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Just a few further thoughts on last night and speedway in general. It was my first visit to Perry Barr and it was a bit chaotic outside the stadium with the roadworks and everything, but I parked for free in the shopping centre as kindly recommended earlier in the thread. I had nothing to compare the crowd to as I had not been before but it looked a good turnout and it was a really friendly atmosphere. It was great to see that there were loads of families with kids there and it was a great idea to have the kids on the centre green in the interval taking penalties against the mascot and massive credit to the riders who got involved as well. It was a bit hard to see from where I was, but it may well have been Ashley Morris and James Shanes - brilliant effort, whoever it was. As pleasing was to see the turnout of the older end as well. It must be hard for some people to have the confidence to come out again but it was great to see the older diehard fans there too. I'm not sure what the capacity is at the stadium but to have had many more in there might have felt a bit uncomfortable for the older end. I went to the bar area in the interval and, although some tables were cordoned off, it seemed well populated and I loved the Hall of Fame on the wall at the top of the stairs. I update and contribute to the Speedway Researcher website, so am aware of the famous history of the club, but to see the display brought it home how important clubs like Birmingham and Newcastle are to the sport. It cost me £19.50 for my entrance fee and a programme and for that there was the 15 heat Championship meeting, a six race second half, and some 125 or 250cc races. The meeting was well presented by Ryan Guest and the announcer and the racing was pretty good. Two full strength sides, no guests, some great young British talent on display, and two of the best riders the country has seen in the past 20 years. How anyone can complain that this is not good value is beyond me. The track was a little dusty but with a big black cloud over the stadium for the duration of the meeting which threatened to empty itself on the track at any point, I could see why preparation may have been difficult and watering risky. I think we all know that speedway, like other sports, is struggling but I've been to all five meetings at Sheffield this year plus one each at Leicester, Redcar, Eastbourne and Birmingham and there is life in the sport yet. We have an older demographic and that age group have been through a scary time and, for many, it's a big step to come to a speedway meeting. We do have to attract new fans as well, but without alienating the hardcore with innovations like The Hundred at cricket, which to me is a total abomination. Finally, the demise of speedway is predicted by quite a few people on this site who clearly take an interest because they are on here every day, but seemingly don't go anymore. To those people I say - get down to your local track and support them. Put aside for a while your valid complaints about doubling up, guests etc, and enjoy the racing for what it is because speedway is still a great night out.

I'm not quite sure what you're saying here but the second and third paragraphs make me think that for the good of the sport (as you see it, perhaps) those in trouble should be put to sleep now. I'm also not sure where your "Marshall07" name comes from but assume it's the year of your birth... although I know 14 year olds who get the point more than you seem to be able to manage, however old you are. It's like this: generally putting a licence on ice is euthanasia. Withdrawal from a league before the end of a season is usually fatal. You airily talk about deadlines... once clubs go they often don't come back. Give your head a shake.

And yet knowing everything he goes to Leicester to watch rubbish speedway.

Well luckily there are people 'foolish enough' or we wouldn't have any speedway to watch and I would be out of business!!

Well you're in the "some won't agree" camp then, which is OK, however for me an early call off means I can watch the Lions rugby, followed by the Speedway GP. It means I can plan my day and evening. Call off's on the day are generally time consuming and costly for everyone. The way it is, we all know what's happening and why. Whether we agree with it or not is another matter, as articulated in the statement.

As I said if you think you can do a better job, give it a go. I think you will find that running a speedway club is not as simple as you think. In fact, from experience, it is a thankless task, as there are always people on your back ready to put the boot in. Some people do nothing but criticise, they live for it. You would be totally amazed at what goes into putting a meeting on and the hurdles that have to be jumped over. My father had to leave promoting because he got a stomach ulcer through the stress of it all.

First of all let me be clear , I DO NOT WANT NEWCASTLE TO CLOSE. I think Rob Grant is doing his very best & like our promotion at Redcar he is trying to bring Speedway into the 21st century . One of the things he is up against is the History at Newcastle of having excellent teams who with the assistance of a track that for many years has been a homer track has meant that they battered teams week in week out , We at Middlesbrough/ Redcar have suffered from that . What I am saying is that when Newcastle have a less than strong side the fans used to winning do not turn up . I will be there supporting Plymouth & Poole on Sunday but hoping my cash can help Newcastle survive. When you think of some of the No1 riders Newcastle hav had over the years from Mauger days they need to be saved. ,I really enjoyed the days when Teesside were div 2 & Newcastle in the British league , we used to attend both , Good luck Rob …

A little bit of an arrogant summary you could argue, you Edinburgh got lucky losing the toss as it gave them 1 and 3 in 13 and 15 but there is a pretty easy counter that if the Monarchs had won the toss and it was the other way round that Poole would not have had such a handy lead at that stage so all swings and roundabouts really.

fingers crossed I think my youngest is now converted. He really enjoyed himself.

Fantastic night of speedway, bloody brilliant, biggest crowd of the season, loads of youngsters, fans still queing to get in after the start time, pleanty of atmosphere, slickly run meeting, no hanging about, great racing with plenty of passing and a last heat decider, and we won , a great advert for our sport! My whole family and friends loved it we had a great night, thoroughly enjoy it, elated we are, roll on next week, Oh and the ref missed Batchelors flyer from the gate in ht 15. Valatin looking better each week , Riss, poor, threw his dummy in the dust and rode across the center green after finishing last, Shanes great entertainer, Harris on fire, Morris a battler, Paco moved of the white line and had a dirty underpants moment with the back straight fence but recovered. Thomas deserved more for his efforts . my glass is half full

You can still book in advance here https://www.trybooking.com/uk/events/landing?eid=20692& or pay at the gate. The return of Steve Worrall, Bjarne Pedersen, Danny King and Alfie Bowtell and also three times World Champion Jason Crump should also be in the Plymouth line-up. I'm sure everyone is aware of the situation the Diamonds find themselves in, so it would be great to see a bumper crowd for this one and also for the rest of the season.

Go and have a pint with chrismorton. He is the one stood next to you in the queue..

Well if you are coming make a 10 quid donation to the club if you think its too cheap I'm sure it will be greatfully received Regards THJ

Is it not on the official site.

Any of you Poole fans who have not been to Berwick before, the Black & Gold Club is situated next to the stadium. Feel free to pop in for a pint to settle the nerves. You will find the natives a friendly bunch and we can all reminisce about the 1989 Cup Final

And Eurosport could do with watching it to learn how to film a race! Just one camera needed. Well done Pete! (Clean Cut)

No as stated they were specifically targeted by Rob to see how effective they were and primarily at people who had been before and knew what it was about; and the bottom line is they weren't successful at all unfortunately... so its back to the drawing board I'm afraid however help is always appreciated and to give the promotion their due they are looking at anything and everything that will encourage fans both new and lapsed to come and watch a meeting but its a thankless task... hopefully we "do a Birmingham" and get 800+ through the doors and give the promotion the lift they need to take this forward... Regards THJ

That is utterly ridiculous.

Iainb, I really do think with your fountain of knowledge and your incredible vision of hindsight, that you should run a track yourself. You surely can't fail as you seem to know everything about running a speedway track and even merchandise sales. I'd do it if I were you, you surely can't go wrong.

That's usually classed of a feast of speedway at the EoES. Long gone are the days when we ran regularly in the summer.

The short answer is no and unfortunately this is where our sport is totally failing. The issue here is not that of Birmingham and Newcastle but is a problem for British Speedway and it’s about time the power that be started thinking about how to support and work together for the good of the sport in this country. It’s been far too long a sport driven by self indulgent individuals with their own agendas and the fact that teams are struggling is a result of years of mismanagement. The BSP Committee should be looking at how they support those teams that are struggling to ensure their futures, not giving them additional problems that could lead to two very established clubs closing their doors for good. Unfortunately the current mindset of some leading this sport will be more around ‘which riders can I sign if they close’ rather than how do we help them in their hour of need.

As far as I can see I think they are being very sensible. Saving a lot of time and money for themselves and a lot of others.

I’m not totally sure if the 500 quoted has been amassed through different routes or this was simply as a result of the presence at the quayside market, but I’m assuming that given I haven’t seen or heard anything around this that it was solely from the activity at the Quayside market. I am certainly not knocking Rob and his team for looking to spread the word but I’m not convinced that this really gives a true reflection of the ability of Newcastle Speedway to grow its fan base or increase the attendances in the short and medium term. The driver behind giving out free tickets is simply to get new fans into the stadium but must have a clear link to the target market you are looking to tempt into the sport. You wouldn’t look to give out free tickets to a nightclub at a local bingo as you wouldn’t get the take up you were looking to achieve (apart from a few exceptions). The quayside market is not a place where I would look to achieve this but rather through local link ups with sports clubs, I see Newcastle Benfield has been mentioned, to look at fans with a similar interest in sports. Newcastle Eagles, Newcastle Thunder and some of our other local football sides could be a billboard to offering advertisement and free or discounted tickets provided through the team to interested part of their fan base. We also have Whitley Warriors ice hockey club who play in front of crowds around 1000 on a Sunday night (out of speedway season) and their fans have had no hockey for 18 months. Fans who have a void in their Sunday’s that sport has always filled. These are the type of target market we could get traction from, if we did it through the individual clubs as part of a partnership agreement. Also, the timing of the tickets being given out makes it less likely to gain any interest. Being a family man with young children my own day is planned well in advance and tickets being given on the morning of a match, which starts as early as 4pm means people are likely to already have plans in place. The more time we give people to think about going the better. Again I’m not knocking Rob and his team as they are dealing with a great deal already but with the right marketing strategy then I really do feel there is a demand for speedway in Newcastle.

I'm sure that the track walk, meeting the riders in the pits, kids on the centre green etc was all very successful given the amount of people who took advantage of it. The pits are always open to fans before around 6.30pm and was great to see all generations getting photos and autographs with riders. The kids entertainment was a weekly thing before covid and very popular with different activities every week with riders joining in too. Last night reminded me of 2019 with a really good crowd, lots of fun, families, and some good racing going down to a last heat decider. Well done to all involved and to those that supported it.

Obviously you don’t watch enough at Armadale to know that’s not true. Watch josh Pickering and you’d see otherwise.

I'm sure that all at the club understand that many who came last night won't be there every week. Re building the hard core fan base for the future was the aim and yesterday was a good start.

You set yourself up for that Blobby, most passes wouldnt happen if the rider being passed rode a better line. What a ridiculous comment from you

Thank you for making the effort to support the club tonight and travelling such a distance to do so. the same sentiment goes out to all fans from other clubs who did the same it is genuinely much appreciated

If granny had bollocks she would be my grandad

Was good to see a 1 min time allowance introduced for restarts in the GP's this season... something I've been saying that British Speedway should have introduced years ago... yet still haven't!

Interesting that you went with an insult after I simply raised a question to spark debate which I assumed is what this forum is for...? I fully understand closing a club during the season is disastrous. I'm asking what people's opinions are of the time scale to call it quits. Riders turning up each week with no idea if their job will still be there the next, away teams spending money on wages (that they could probably do without) on someone else's attempt to save a failing business. No need to try insult me, regardless of my age (I am much older than 14 but it wouldn't matter if I wasn't!).

Hi Steve I will be there on Sunday along with a certain Mr Stephen Shovlar. I have always enjoyed my trips to Tyneside and to Brough Park and I would hate to see the Diamonds close down. Let's hope the weather gods play ball on Sunday.

Think amalgamation should have taken place few seasons ago when it was obvious the difference between the leagues was narrowing,might have still be able to tempt decent foreigners to stay in UK,but they just kept reducing averages and finished up paying mediocre riders more money ,and running out of decent standard of riders.

Why do they have to rearrange meetings around those clubs...when none ride on a Monday or Thursday ????

At Brokstedt last weekend there had been lots of localised flooding through the week leading up to the meeting, on the morning of the meeting the rain had been torrential, the track was under water, but they cleared it and got practice on (about 10.30am instead of 10.15) then after practice there was a lot more rain, but they still got the meeting on and was only delayed by about 15 minutes. There was a lot of water on track but no one associated with the track seemed too concerned. If it was a UK meeting that would have been off, no doubt, but it turned up some decent racing. Sometimes you have to think about the surfaces and size of tracks we have here, and whether the club want to take chances on getting supporters in, it’s a business after all. early call offs have become a necessary evil here due to sometimes not having time to get on the track to get it sorted, it’s something we need to live with, people will still moan but generally they turn out to be correct decisions. iainb needs to think whether if it was HIS money on the line if he would run a meeting when no one is going to turn up due to forecasts

We started the 5-1 Draw on behalf of the promotion in August 2019. Numbers are £10 per month we now have 159 numbers taken. It was called the 5-1 draw as 1st prize was £500 2nd prize £100. However with extra numbers being taken we were able to put in a 3rd prize of £50. So far the club have received just over £18k which goes into the S.T.A.R.S. fund to help maintain the costs of running speedway at Berwick and also any improvement's.

According to some there's been no negligence by the promotion but as you say, don't run two teams when you can't afford to even run one!

It was if you were watching it 'live'! One of the best races I have seen this year!

How can the promoters sell a product that has no chance of paying it's way. If you can only attract 500 punters, then cut your cloth accordingly. The second tier is too strong and too expensive. The NDL should be run exclusively as a second half event to develop young riders. I don't know how some clubs can cover the cost of running two teams.

You also have to consider the crowd though, paying good money for some 1 lap races! They had a right a few years back, if you were losing a 5-1 & laid down for a re-run your partner started off 15m in the re-start!

Well maybe you wouldn't make a great Promoter after all.

With the greatest of respect to our guests, yes it will, easily. However, it could turn out in our favour bigtime if Benjamin rides well. After our Northern tour, we only have 3 more away meetings. Ride well in all home fixtures, he could be on a 6/7pts average. But for green sheet purposes, he wouldn't attain a new average, under the 4 home 4 away ruling! Next season would start on his assessed 5pts. Conspiracy theories abound!

Whilst I agree on some level that it's the mismanagement of British Speedway as a whole but I do personally feel promoters need to be held accountable too. Having been at Birmingham for their opening night, that whole fiasco was 100% the fault of the promotion putting on a substandard event and expecting people to just accept it. This deadline isn't meant as a threat. Maybe there needs to be some incentive and some honest talks. But scenarios like Eastbourne cancelling this week will happen more often. Would you risk losing money hosting a team that may end up out the league anyway? And whilst B & N gamble week by week as to if they get enough crowd to survive, the away team are left footing the wage bill for their own riders. I'm sure Plymouth could do without Crumpy and Pedersens wage bill from this Sunday if it turns out to be worth nothing, but they're sticking their necks on the line and committing to it.

It must be an impossible choice. Risk losing more money they can't afford to or pull the plug, probably get fined and almost certainly meaning no more Speedway at the venue for the future if ever. The BSPL are sitting on a lot of money according to their last Accounts wouldn't an immediate payment to all Clubs be more helpful. Godfrey and Bates were quick enough to trumpet Government help, with the exception of the 2 Scottish Clubs (under separate Governance) does anyone know of any Club that actually got a penny? The sum of £500k was mentioned, why wasn't that just split between 17 English Clubs as a Grant for the Sport as a whole rather than just a few Clubs. It would be interesting to see a CL table with all Newcastle and Brummies Results expunged, that might waken Godfrey out of his slumber. I was told last night by an ex Brummies rider from the 70's and 80's still involved; that all Tyres are now stored at Scunthorpe, Clubs have to go and collect them and pay Godfrey for them and if they can't collect them they are charged transport costs. What has the Sport become? Sad truth may be that once one Club actually jumps a number of others may quickly follow and the domino effect starts.

Am sure if you turn up late or halfway through and wanting to pay, someone will let you in.

Far from ideal but not unusual given the other events at the showground.

This is far too negative a view. I’m not saying it’s easy but it is definitely something which should be worked on by every club. Even with the risk of keeping a few folk at home who might otherwise have attended, Edinburgh have certainly made a good few thousand pounds profit from Live Streaming this season.

or encourage those already coming to stay at home, watch it for nowt and save £17 - at least until the speedway stops running and then they wonder why there's no free streaming for them. Because something can be done doesn't mean it's an easy way to make money. Because it isn't being done doesn't mean nobody has thought of it. Probably that it has been considered, all the options properly costed and it would not only not make money but would likely add to the losses. No-one would argue that Glasgow isn't a leader in the use of social media, streaming, advertising etc. Let's not forget that before Covid their owners warned that the six-figure annual losses incurred on the back of that could not and would not be sustainable. There is no quick, cheap fix.

Just got home to Sheffield. Really enjoyed it and hope the crowd was enough for the promotion to keep going. Good luck for the rest of the season and beyond.