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Speedway Social @SocialSpeedway Just announced over the tannoy that today's crowd is over 1,000 and a rescue package has been put together allowing Newcastle to see out the remainder of 2021! Well done to everyone involved and fingers crossed there are brighter days ahead for @diamondspeedway ! Edit - just saw it on twitter

One of the major issues for the sport (in this country) to overcome is "What actually is it?".. Shoe horning an individual sport into a team concept works only if those individuals are 'exclusive' to one team in each league. Eg Poland, Sweden.. Unfortunately what they do over here means that all sort of nonsense takes place to make up teams just to get a match on. Resulting in zero credibility or actual meaning. This then pushes away even the most committed fans over time who become disillusioned with it. (As let's be honest, if its meaningless why attend?) With, (the very best you can hope for, if these fans dont completely disengage), is the only occasional visit replacing their past regular attendance.. Leaving just those who "buy the team jackets" and accept what they get without comment, alongside those who just go along to watch "the racing", but have no emotional attachment... And unfortunately that will never be enough people to fund 7 Professionals all wanting plenty of money to pay for expensive equipment, (and often wanting twelve months salary for six months work).. 60 races worth of points money wont get covered by current crowd levels at too many tracks currently I would think. Bottom line, is Speedway needs to decide what it is.. A team sport. (And if so do it properly or not at all).. Or an individual sport that becomes a 'travelling circus' akin to BSB where the best we have to offer over here (with meetings ran for all riders of differing abilities, but each meeting only having riders of similar ability), racing against each other at tracks around the country.. Either way, the sport needs a proper competition, properly promoted and properly marketed...

Newcastle were abject against Poole earlier but showing Plymouth a clean pair of heels Us Poole fans wont be home until 4 am and some have work if any left earlier good for them!

Now that the 2nd Lublin Grand Prix is over let me get back to Falubaz, who has no clue about myself and talks utter rubbish. I am not an emigrant, or educated at the primary school level, but the 1969 Poznan University graduate. My first speedway meeting that I watched in Bydgoszcz was in late 50's. Mieczysław "Mike" Polukard, Poland's first world finalist from Bydgoszcz, was my childhood hero, so anyone can guess how old I am. Whilst living in London, every Friday I cheered for Zuper Zenon and Hackney Hawks. For my retirement I returned back home to Bydgoszcz and still follow speedway worldwide..so don't believe anything Falubaz says...just ignore him.

This weekend we have had Peterborough, Ipswich, Redcar, Eastbourne & Leicester all called off based on a weather forecast. Yes there has been rain about, it's a very showery spell of weather we're going through at the moment... but it is August, there's still a lot of daylight, warm sunshine and a drying breeze. Clubs are not even attempting to stage these matches because they are potential loss generators. It's not really about whether a match could have gone ahead or not and I (and others) will criticise if they could and promotions will pat themselves on their back if they couldn't, but it creates fixture congestion for later in the season. There must be serious doubt on whether the KoC will be completed. Peterborough will have ridden 2 home meetings in the whole of July & August, Leicester has been silent on what should have been 2 of the most lucrative nights of the season and god knows what's going on at Eastbourne! If clubs can't or won't fulfil their fixtures then the match should be forfeited or the points shared with the match not being rescheduled like in the other weather effected sport, Cricket. If the riders are going to miss out on a meeting it might make them more positive about riding in less than perfect conditions. Some matches are going to be cancelled due to actual genuine rain and there will be nothing that can be done about that when a track is actually waterlogged but when you have Edinburgh fans sat in a Leicester hotel room looking out the windows at an evening perfect for Speedway and wondering if they'll get their money back on hotels booked for Birmingham on Wednesday it's far from an ideal state of affairs. Why isn't it a pre-requisite for clubs to have track covers much, in the way that they have to have air fences? Cost would be the obvious answer, well if it means that each club has to stage a meeting where the riders don't get paid to cover the costs then so be it... especially if the riders know that if a match is called off it won't be restaged, thus loss of earnings. Now we're looking at the possible abandonment of a national cup competition and as usual all of the major finals tucked away at the end of October on wet tracks, on off race nights, in front of reduced crowds.

Well done to the Diamonds for turning things round against Plymouth and excellent news that ur season is secured. I hope that a good sort out over the winter will bring you many more years of speedway..

Apology to Edinburgh Supporters just under 2 hours since email sent to Laurence Rogers from Monarchs Speedway Supporters' Club. All clubs should realise they will not survive without supporters and that they shouldn't take them for granted.

Travelling from Preston ( pouring down here but that’s no surprise ) booked a Premier Inn , first visit to Newcastle - made an online donation and hoping to see some Speedway including some Southerners ( full credit to the Poole fans making the trip and any from Plymouth ) , hoping the weather holds off …. setting off at 12.00 .. 148 Miles looking forward to it as a Neutral

Funny, isn't it? There were six rounds of the 2020 GP in Poland - and Zmarzlik only won two of those (but won the two in Prague!) There were three rounds of the 2019 GP in Poland - and Zmarzlik only finished on the rostrum once in those... There were three rounds of the 2018 GP in Poland - and not one of them was won by a Pole (even though three GP's had Polish winners) There were three rounds of the 2017 GP in Poland - and only one was one by a Pole. (even though five GP's had Polish winners) There were three rounds of the 2016 GP in Poland - and not one was won by a Pole - yet a Pole won in Denmark There were three rounds of the 2015 GP in Poland - and not one was won by a Pole - yet a Pole won in Latvia You want to remind us how it's the Polish tracks that decide the winners, and not the quality of rider???

Pathetic.People pay their money, it's up to them what they do after that. I know of several fans who travelled up. Some of them have work tomorrow too. Pleased we won, of course I am. Not going to gloat over the result. The important aspect is just how many came through the gates to help the club. Fingers crossed it has been a good day for the promotion.

Why would they want to stay? If I had a fair old drive home I too would be gone.. They have paid their money and done their bit....

Wot a load of sh*te!! They've all paid their money at the turnstiles to aid Newcastle speedway in their hour of need. So think again! And I'm a Poole staying in Edinburgh over the weekend, so why shud I come back with such stupid comments!

If it wasnt for Mole , Workington would never of returned when they did and Birmingham wouldnt of in the mid 2000’s either.

In the younger junior classes a lot of the kids are riding MotoX bikes these days, KTM 65's and the like. At least they are in this area. Makes a lot of sense really, you can have a 14 year old turn to Speedway who has been racing motorcycles competitively every weekend for 8 years. While the grasstrack and Speedway kids have been getting 5 minutes saddle time at a meeting and maybe 10 on a really good practice day the MX kid is getting an hours racing and 2 hours plus on a practice day and the practice days are far more local and frequent for most. Personally I think practice days are the reason people turn away from Grasstrack and Speedway, it is far too difficult to get enough seat time to become any good. I can practice MX every weekend without travelling more than 40 minutes from home and race every weekend without travelling more than an hour. By contrast for a Speedway track now I need to travel a minimum of 2 1/2 hours for fairly infrequent practice sessions. On another tack I think this thread shows up why Speedway is failing and we are all guilty of it. Look at most of the suggestions for improving the sport and how many are going to get a new spectator through the gate? Points limits, doubling up and so on mean nothing to people outside the sport and aren't the reason they aren't going to the track. It's a radical shake up in the way the sport is promoted that will bring new spectators in the gate in my opinion although the IOW do a fantastic job showing what can be achieved with things as they are. The big problem as I see it is that Speedway is a weekly spectator sport and people just have too much other stuff to do these days to commit to a weekly sport unless it is top level Football (and even that is bi-weekly in the main). Unfortunately Speedway desperately needs to be using their facilities for other things but few own the track to enable this, and even those that do often struggle with planning permission allowing it. So if we accept that Speedway cannot rely on people through the gate to make money then the alternative is to bring other income into the sport or cut costs. Cost cutting will bring the sport to a largely amateur level in the UK in the next decade I believe. Speedway is made for TV but unfortunately failed to capitalise on the opportunity and unless they can change that I don't see large scale sponsorship saving the sport. In my opinion the sport now relies on it's future on TV to survive at a professional level and therefore probably as a team sport.

Spot on Bob... let's face it regular league speedway is an outdated attraction that does not work in the 21st century except for long term enthusiasts.. The only model that might attract reasonable and potentially some news fans would be six or seven tracks spaced out around the country which held 5 or 6 meetings a year, a mix of individual and 'team' meetings.. However for all of the reasons mentioned by others this can't happen unless the stadium is fully owned and the owner can afford to run in this way...

I believe in time Bob he will be able to cope as a top five Championship rider the confidence Poole have shown in him has really rubbed off.For me Hume, Flint, Palin, Thompson x2 ( like both) Bowtell, have shown they have a longterm career at Championship level minimum.Touch wood all of them will be fully fledged top flight riders in time Flint, Palin, Hume have already shown they are on the pace at that level

It’s going to be so satisfying when Poole don’t win the league. The entitlement is staggering. I might even cheer on the ‘flash the cash’ Tigers against them.

From British Speedway website: THE line-up has been announced for the British Under-19 Final at Mildenhall on Sunday August 22. Double champion Drew Kemp will going for a hat-trick of titles in his final year at this level, and the meeting includes fellow Premiership regulars Anders Rowe, Leon Flint and Jordan Palin. Home representation for the Fen Tigers comes from Jason Edwards and Sam Hagon. LINE-UP (Not in draw order): Nathan Ablitt, Connor Bailey, Kyle Bickley, Jason Edwards, Leon Flint, Archie Freeman, Dan Gilkes, Sam Hagon, Drew Kemp, Harry McGurk, Sam McGurk, Jake Mulford, Jordan Palin, Anders Rowe, Dan Thompson, Joe Thompson. Reserves: Ben Trigger, Elliot Kelly Decent line up that, might make it my first meeting of the season.

BIRMINGHAM owner David Mason has underlined the club’s commitment to get through to the end of the season. Wednesday’s Perry Barr fixture has now changed and will be a Championship clash with Leicester. This means the Knockout Cup tie with Edinburgh will be put back as the club aim to keep up with their league schedule – and they have apologised for any inconvenience to travelling Monarchs fans. They enjoyed their biggest crowd of the season against Kent last Wednesday – but it still wasn’t enough to guarantee the long term future of the club. Said Mason: “We’re desperate to see it right the way through - but I can only echo what I keep saying, we need the supporters to come each and every week. “If they don’t it will spell that dreaded end that we seriously don’t want to happen whilst we’re there especially. “That isn’t a threat either, it’s just the reality of the situation we’re in right now and we wanted to be up front and honest with the supporters. “It really is a week-by-week situation and like I said, we’re desperate to get through it all. “We can’t thank the supporters that turn up week in, week out enough - they are absolutely fantastic, but we just need more of them now. “Birmingham needs speedway and we really want it to be a success. “Last week was a massive step in the right direction - that’s the sort of thing we need every single time we race at Perry Barr though. “The racing was unbelievable, the scoreline was really tight and the atmosphere was the best it’s been for a long time. “We’ve had to move a fixture around here and there and we know Leicester will be our toughest test of the season on Wednesday. “With it being a big Midlands derby though, we’re hopeful of another big crowd and we’re just hoping we can build on last week again all round. “We thank everyone for their co-operation and apologise to any Edinburgh fans who were planning to be here, but we literally are going from week to week.” Mason is also keen to see younger fans enjoying the spectacle of live racing. He added: “The week before we had literally a handful of kids turn up then last week there were nearly 100 there. “That is absolutely fantastic because they are the future of the sport and we need them coming. “I know we keep on about the short term and people might say ‘but they’re not paying any money’ but they have at least one parent or guardian with them and if they enjoy themselves they’ll keep on pestering until they come back again and again and again! “At Birmingham they get to do things that they don’t always get to do at other Speedway tracks and we can’t stress enough how much we value the kids coming through the gates.”

Sad to see crump looking bad on the first corners time he took time out to think about his racing future, first match against poole was dreadfull to watch from a diamonds point , still nice to see some old faces from derwent park well worth the trip

Thanks Keith we had a great time up north. A shame the weather was unsettled but at least we did get to see some speedway. Steve says it was nice to meet you and the same goes for me. Always enjoy my trips to Tyneside and to Brough Park. Best of luck for the rest of the season. Hopefully see you all next season.

I feel sorry for any travelling fans for once I’m truly embarrassed well done Poole your showing us how it’s done I just wished our riders were watching the lines you were riding safe journey home all of you.

Sign of a dying sport IMO. There used to be a rule that only the referee could call of a meeting due to a waterlogged track .... later changed to the ref calling it after consultation with the 2 team captains. Now it seems anyone can call off a meeting for a dodgy "forecast" days in advance. Its a vicious circle because no away fan is going ot spend out booking up travel / accom. on the basis of AN Other deciding they don't like the look of the forecast ... so away supporters will completely disappear at most tracks. As for fixture congestion, unlikely that anyone will be bovvered ........as long as they ride the p. offs, thats all they care about. Just remains to see how many clubs complete the season (CL and NDL)

As Olsen was based in this country during the speedway season there certainly does not appear to be any reason why he could not have made similar travel arrangements for the Long Track Final as other riders travelling from Britain, so it seems that one can certainly be chalked up as a black mark against him.

You are absolutely spot on. I put on here the other day that 88% of riders in the Premiership also ride in the Championship. Only 5 riders are exclusive to that league and one of them will soon be snapped up by a Championship team. It's a joke.

There is one answer you don't need Training Schools, Practice Tracks or Speedway recruitment programmes just do a Wolverhampton problem solved. I agree the Isle of Wright and Barry are trailblazers while it may not be the perfect model it's definitely the way forward. There are 2 issues the deafly silence from the Speedway royalty particularly Phil and the negative but very polite comments from the Speedway fraternity. There is a bigger world out there of different bikes, engines and racing. Something will rise from the ashes of Speedway but in it's present form the decline will continue.

Hope they get a decent sized crowd and get a stay of execution. Would hate too see Newcastle close

According to Met Office now, the expected rain will be arriving now and stay with us for another hour. It will then clear up with just a sprinkle at about 2.00pm, with no more rain forecast after that. A nice 18 degrees should be warm enough to dry it up somewhat. So according to the Weather Channel and Weather Live sites they also agree with the Met Office forecasts. So it looks very positive that we will have a meeting with a damp track, just like it should be.

You will get used to the Poole fans........always a reason why they get beat but when they win its simply because they were the better side.... Blaming gate 4 when they had it more times is laughable but then again you are dealing with Shovlar..........and no disrespect to Berwick but the clown thinks Poole can beat Ipswich and they cant even beat Berwick lol

To be honest, I'm suprised any youngsters take up the sport. There are very few on the terraces watching them. Why would any kids want to be associated with a prehistoric sport inhabited by Dinosaurs!

Let's sort this out. Poole won the toss, and as a result enjoyed 8 starts out of gate 4 against Berwick's seven. What disadvantage? They lost by not utilising Hume (who had been excellent at Berwick 7 days previously) enough -- he should have been in both Heats 12 and 14 -- and perhaps might still have won if Danny King's tactical had been in white, not yellow. None of which detracts from a very good night out, with (almost) all the travelling Pirate fans both gracious and cheerful in defeat.

Good luck today for the Diamonds, I've enjoyed some great visits to Brough with the Comets over many years. Good racing and friendly home fans always helped. I hope the grim reaper can be kept at bay long term. I enjoy reading these posts as my sole speedway fix. And THJ is pure gold ( in many eyes ha ha) and full of facts/figures. I've picked up on another of his mentions of the 'Comets'. And sadly he is right regarding the strained relationship at Derwent Park between Rugby League officials and Speedway management. I have felt the bitter wind of non-compliance so often. I worked for the Rugby club (voluntary) in two quite important roles. This brought me close to the Rugby directors who in the main saw speedway as an irritant, and not worth bothering with. I also stood (still do) with worky Town RL fans, mainly Maryport lads, THJ may know some lol? And these guys literally hated the Comets. Making claims that they (the speeding bikes) made DP look a right mess, shale everywhere including pitch. Those with longest memories still recalled how Messrs Thomas and Brownhutt covered many rows of terracing utilising the first and second bends, not popular with RL folk. Some steps are now uncovered. I would invariably defend speedway functioning by reminding the Town directors/fans that speedway crowds brought the RL club funds via rent and bar profits, but still found it hard work to convince them of that fact. Another dig at speedway would be the 'guest system'........I couldn't properly defend that....always a bugbear of mine too. I love both sports and wish both were available on my doorstep........you lucky Diamonds fans also have an RL team nearby too, support the Thunder. Who sang Big Yellow Taxi ? can't be a*sed to look.. but the chorus says - 'you don't know what you've got, 'til it's gone'................hear, hear!!!!!! (not here, here)

The long range forecast for October looks pretty poor.. (Not actually looked but probably is as it is October after all).... Therefore probably best to call off every October match now... Just in case.... Save travelling costs for the fans and rent payments to stadium owners, as well as travelling expenses for riders.. To be honest, next April isn't looking too clever either... (Probably)....

Case in point. There’s a fine line between a confident mentality and an arrogant one.

So on we go to Newcastle and fingers crossed that today’s racing goes ahead. The weather has been dreadful to be honest. Looking forward to getting back to the warmth of the south. The sooner we get our 1-7 the better 3 points from 2 guests isn’t good enough. Entitlement? Poole are the biggest club in British speedway for a reason. Even now when we are in the Championship we are still the biggest club. No one has got near us in the last 20 years and that’s why clubs get excited when Poole come to town and when they manage to beat us. Pirates rarely have bad teams and in sport that’s the way it works. There’s no entitlement. We have to earn our wins like any other team. The difference is the club is run to win trophies and titles, not make up the numbers and hope for the occasional success. We should have won last night and we should win today if it’s on. That’s club mentality. No being second best.

Very interesting I hope this can go some way in our club being able to continue well into the future, all good stuff. A new venture which will hopefully help both clubs

That's why you need to keep upto date with the speedway rule book, it changes quicker than the red, amber, green holiday destination list.

Similar to him telling us every other heat that the tapes are computer controlled now. At least 20 times during this weekend ffs

Dont think I have seen that before.. Fair play though to the ref... Freddie goes "too far" too many times..

Well done ref. Lindgren has been riding on the edge far too much in the past couple of years.

Yeah..... Berntzon

Knat bite on his big toe i heard. Mind you, they also said he can't remember which one..

Why Speedway is failing? .......how about not enough people want to pay to watch it ?

Fairplay to Swidnicki he must have known what was coming but went for the gap anyway. Miedziński Miedzińskied himself

Almost. I said 46-44 after H14 on twitter

That big dropped down a league because of poor crowds, as been quoted before...entitled & deluded glug glug glug.

Lublin Saturday result 1st Laguta 20 2nd Zmarzlik 18 3rd Kubera 16 4th Lindgren 14 5th Sayfutdinov 12 6th Fricke 11 7th Woffinden 10 8th Thomsen 9 9th Lambert 8 10th Doyle 7 11th Vaculik 6 12th Madsen 5 13th Kasprzak 4 14th Zagar 3 15th Janowski 2 16th Berntzon 1 Standings after round 6 of 11 1 Zmarzlik 101 2 Laguta 100 3 lindgren 80 4 Sayfutdinov 79 5 Janowski 72 6 Woffinden 65 7 Madsen 59 8 Fricke 52 9 Doyle 47 10 Vaculik 45 Out of interest( to me anyway ) here would be the standings under the OLD POINTS SYSTEM 1= Zmarzlik 97 1= Laguta 97 3 Sayfutdinov 68 4= Lindgren 65 4= Janowski 65 6=Woffinden 59 6= Madsen 59 8 Doyle 45 9 Fricke 44 10= Vaculik 43 10= Lambert 43

had a very interesting chat this morning with someone who appeared to have a pretty good idea of the events that led up to the closure at Rye House. As I suspected, the root cause of the failure lies with the BSPA

Being shown live on Slovakian TV - link https://www.rtvs.sk/televizia/program/17780/284870?fbclid=IwAR1GxSR8RpKyfsimdU9BcaHbJVP6H34__2G5pENNzQe6E4kqpF0KF0cME1o