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Guilty as charged! I have kept in contact with Barry and Martin since I met them at one of Neil Vatcher’s junior training sessions in February 2017 (I think) but last Thursday was my first chance to attend an event. Although this was the first meeting after the kids had gone back to school and many of the holidaymakers had gone home, the crowd was better than was often the case when the Islanders were in the PL. In my view, the reason is simple: this was a value for money evening’s entertainment and I would commend it to anyone who can go. It’s a shame that there is a restriction on which riders can race there - I know many more would if they didn’t think it might jeopardise their chances of having a speedway team place, but maybe something can be sorted for next year. After all, if the likes of Chris Harris or James Shanes can race grass track here and in Europe without needing the consent of their British speedway teams, I’d like to think they could race at the IOW without fear of being banned. Just my view, though.

Such incessant nonsense from Pearson & Tatum throughout the meeting. They do have an inflated opinion of each other, thinking their the 'Morecambe & Wise' comedy act of the speedway world. The amount of times they got riders incorrect bordered on the farcical. All I really want is clear and precise commentary.

Shambles,trump card Lambert did nothing,pijper was terrible as usual and Ellis needs to stop saving his best engines for sheffield

46/7 and getting stronger and fitter Guess you're a youngster (no it's not a question). The two certainties in life are death and taxes. Of course if you're a speedway rider that includes being flung off your bike at high speed several times a season. It doesn't matter how fit and strong you are, at that age you no longer bounce or fix quickly as he's already proved in 2021.

Sad news indeed. Harry was a second string rider at Leicester in the late 1950s, after the closure of Birmingham, with Ivor also attached to the Hunters as an occasional team member, but mainly second half rider. Harry switched to Cradley Heath early in the 1960 season and achieved a league average above 10.5, the best part of a point a match more than Ivor recorded at Yarmouth. When Ivor joined the Heathens his league average increased year on year during the Provincial League seasons, from just over 10 in 1961 to 10.39 in 1964, before dipping slightly to 9.27 in the 1965 British League. His average would probably have been above 10 but for injuries suffered in the Internationale. At the same time, Harry's average fell each year until his final retirement midway through the 1965 season. He had 'retired' several times before but immediately responded to help out as the Heathens suffered a regular injury crisis. In 1961 Harry was second in the team's league averages with just under 9 points per match, dropping to below 8 in 1962, although still second behind Brown. 1963 saw Harry drop to third in the team's league averages with a figure just above 6, behind Brown and John Hart. His figure of 5.33 in 1964 left Harry fifth in the league averages, behind Brown, George Major, Hart and Eric Hockaday. In 1965 an average of 4.79 saw him drop to sixth at the time of his retirement behind the same 4 riders as the previous year together with Chris Julian. Harry was certainly a mainstay of the Cradley Heath team in the early Provincial League years and continued to score solidy in the middle order for the last couple of seasons until his retirement. He topped the Cradley Heath averages in 1952, in just his third season, before moving on when the track closed and he topped the averages when he returned to the reopened track in 1960, a fine achievement. I am glad I saw him ride.

A few things that are a must for Scunthorpe in 2022 A) Sign riders that can actually ride away tracks none of this Pijper, Aarnio rubbish. Make Ryan Douglas an offer he can't refuse I believe he's still a Scunthorpe asset. Build the team with Douglas, Jorgensen and Palin then go from there C) Change team manager. Not had a decent one since Richard Hollingsworth. Peet was hopeless at Hull as a TM, He was hopeless at Berwick and 3rd time lucky at Scunthorpe really hasn't worked. I know Godfrey likes to do things on the cheap but it's 10 years since the league title at Scunny next season and even though there's people that don't see eye to eye with me and probably never will most Scunthorpe fans are loyal and deserve a team that's going to battle for a league title something they haven't had since 2012.

For me the strongest second tier was the old National League up until it was broken up to save the top flight during the winter of 90/91. All those riders only rode in that one league & you had the benefit of a fully functioning junior League to keep the reserves on their toes. It was also a professionally ran league to ie no guests.....in fact probably Everything speedway needs today. The overall strength of UK speedway was stronger then too. The British championship had quarter finals in the qualifying process due to the number riders. Oh happy days!

A feather in the cap for Bandits bringing Crump to guest. Well done guys.

No. For such short races there would be no such issues. The batteries would be so compact that arguably they'd be swappable and chargeable off bike. A bike would have to run for a maximum of 10 minutes and this could be easily achieved using a battery weighing less than a regular speedway engine.

As a fan of Crumpy I hope he packs it in at the end of the season rather than returning for more next year. He's a legend and I wouldn't want to see him ruin his reputation by going out like this beyond this season. If he wanted to stick around then maybe look for a Managerial role at some club.

Definitely too strong, I know our top league is weaker than it's ever been but you've got riders in the Championship who definitely shouldn't be and must be earning big money which is reflected in the admission price which is too high in both leagues. British speedway needs a serious restructure or it will eventually disappear up it's own rear end, we need either two distinct divisions or one big one and a proper thriving third tier for training youngsters. The problem is most riders in British speedway are now accustomed to doubling up and the riches that it provides and would be resistant to change I suspect. Needs somebody stronger than Mr Godfrey to sort the whole mess out.

Can we sign Broc Nicol.. he seems to ride better guesting for Scunny than he does for glasgow

Team manager for Scunny must take some blame for poor decisions , guests did great , especially Broc, shocking to go from 10 points up with 4 to go and lose, thought that was Glasgow's forte in some meetings

Wow I'm surprised your considered response came back so quick this time... only 17 hours!!!.... take some iced green tea or a pint of cranberry juice for the boiling sensation in the bladder.... Whats the obsession with quoting professional all the time what's the point you are trying to make... and what type of licences are you banging on about a racing and track licence or an alcohol licence because neither are any stumbling block... you are just a little troll having a pop all the time... move over Nick Negative here's @Wee Eck... you can't stand it when your whole outlook or your "opinion" is blown out of the water... it's okay having an opinion based on facts but if you are just going to make pony up you need to be re-thinking your approach... facts always trump opinions every time... especially made up ones... Here's another fact to dispel your opinion how local do you think Rob Grant is? His family home where he grew up is 9 mile away from Brough Park and he has lived and was schooled in a suburb of Newcastle all his life... and raced for his local club... So how much more local do you want? A caravan in Brough Park car park? And between him and Dave Tattum they know how to run a speedway business you condescending tool... The current venue runs on one year leases by ARC racing and it will take a very specialised promoter who will be able to make that pay especially on crowds of 3/400... oh so I don't know let's say an ex-Speedway rider who can maximise profits through maybe something like erm... let's think... running his own food venue at the spot and generating supplementary revenue streams... something the owners of Brough have always blocked in the past by the way... now who fits that bill... no prizes for guessing who best fits the bill that's for sure.... too easy... or... or... here's an idea if we could only encourage a rich pair of brothers who have unlimited funds and a fantastic business who could underwrite all the losses under the cover of supporting the local community with a Corporate Social Responsibility wrapper... any guesses or an opinion on who I could be referring to there then eck? Now don't think too hard cos you might pop a blood vessel and I wouldn't want that on my conscience as once again you are wrong...yep you're wrong again... yes... that's right... wrong... as of course I'm thinking of the Ruben Brothers.... Yep if they can afford to buy a football team and half the town centre for entertainment venues they will have cash to spare... so who did you think I meant eck... let's have your opinion please... The 2021 Diamonds were built from the 2019 Diamonds that Rob Grant inherited from a fantastic professional promotion who had a £20/£25k start each season in the bank because they neglected to pay their VAT commitment... but that will be okay to you because they were Professional like eh? Oh and the other thing you need to support your wrong opinion is a good memory... or at least to have an opinion that holds water... now all Newcastle fans know the situation with regard to the team because it has been run through many times to explain the selections/changes... however if Glasgow hadn't threatened to sue every one back in 19/20 wanting to retain their original team and not lower the team build points average (and supported by Eastbourne) and have teams re-declare the Newcastle team would have looked much different... but those Professional promotions who took a selfish approach to look after themselves and built to what they perceived as strong as a team as possible stopped any realignment of teams to share out what assets there were availanle to the detriment of another club will in your opinion be okay... and we all know where Eastie have ended up in that little exercise... also if the Rising Star process hadn't been implemented Newcastle would have had a much stronger bottom end even without the redeclaration exercise taking place... but a rider who they had been promised would be a 3 star rider ended up a 4 star and had to be dropped from the team but never mind our Professional promotion just rode with the blows and got on with it... and Newcastle were further weakened... However the Promotion never built the team "down to a price" as you so eloquently put... and here is my opinion we have a Professional promotion who have done their utmost to keep the sport alive at Brough Park and many factors have worked against them from many corners but Rob has still kept his sence of humour in the face of adversity and if he does walk he can hold his head high because hes done things right and propper and gave the thing 100% of his time and effort... So get ya thinking cap on eck and al wait another 17 hours or so for you to concoct your opinionated drivell and have a snide pop at something that is on the brink of being lost forever... but hey ho one less team for your lot the screw over eh... it's great giving an opinion when you know Jack about the facts... must be great living in a little dream world... Regards THJ

Was just saying the same to someone today. He certainly gives it 100% and never gives up. He is certainly an entertainer and would be a crowd favourite

I think with the noise issue dealt with you could easily match the tyres to the track and run on concrete or tarmac. So maybe large car parks or industrial sites, then you have urban all weather Speedway. On the subject of a temporary track though I did know a chap some years ago who produced furniture and was convinced that with some research he could produce a foam Supercross track that could go into trailers and be transported from site to site. He had raced for years so was well aware of all the issues that spring to mind so maybe it is possible. Imagine a couple of artics turning up to a city centre park and unloading a track which had disappeared by midnight.

It'd take me the whole match just to read that out!

Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr NO.

Now there you go again, making assumptions and being rude to anyone who dares question your intimate knowledge. For the record, knowing what Duns consists of, a small oval with no services, facilities or air fence, I’m astonished at the figure of £70,000. I thought it would be far less. If that’s “all” you get for £70k, in my view, you’ve no chance, starting from scratch, of getting a full sized and fully licensed professional circuit for £150,000. It is also my opinion that what is needed at Newcastle is a local promotion, made up of people who know something about how to run a speedway business, who can work to bring back a quality team to the current venue. The 2021 Diamonds were built down to a price and the supporters knew that from the start.

After Lawson was ruled out I mentioned to friends that one of the senior Lynn riders really had to step up now for morale purposes. Kerr promptly did so, as befits a captain; Riss had a very good ride too and Jorgensen was excellent. In such circumstances the eventual points in a lost cause almost matter less than the visible commitment and Lynn were not found wanting. Much of the racing was excellent, which reflected the visitors’ attitude. Was a really good meeting; hope Lawson has come through relatively unscathed.

In previous years I used to think they did a good job even though some people on here made it clear that they disagreed with that view. However last night they really were awful. They seem to have forgotten what their job is, made mistakes, interrupted each other and appeared to have not undertaken any basic research.

Pearson especially thinks it's all laugh and is such a narcissist I honestly think , he think's that people turn on to the speedway just to hear his insane drivel. Ive always been fairly ambivient of him but last night he was down right embarrassing as you say. Tatum unfortunately, who can talk some sense on the matter of speedway is dragging himself to the level of the fool his co-commentator has become It's a pity the commentary team can't be as professional as Steve Brandon, who journalistic tendencies seem to be able to ask the right questions.

Interesting to note that the country is opening a coal fired power plant because of gas supply and price issues as well the inability of wind power to operate when a) wind speed is too low and b) wind speed is too high. And this is before the arrival of millions of electric vehicles to replace current petrol ones.. The car companies can invest in electricity but are governments investing in the electricity grid to cope with demand. If we legislate only for electric vehicles there will clearly be fewer on the road - most people will be priced out of owning one. So the question will be how will supporters get to the stadiums to watch e-speedway bikes? I have to travel 40 miles to get to Leicester for my speedway fix. I suspect that a lot of others travel similar distances - or even more - to get theirs. I suspect proposed legislation on electric only vehicles is merely virtue signalling at the moment. The politicians proposing it know they won't be in power if and when it happens so they will avoid any accountability for the chaos that it will cause. As for lack of noise, look what happened when football was played in empty stadia. The broadcasters simulated the crowd noise. Noise is an important part of most of exciting spectacles . I think the move in the direction of less carbon emissions will be sensibly slower than the zealots desire. How many people will vote to limit their freedom of movement - particularly when they have families.

...and instead of releasing the starting gate, that button would unlock the the power unit in the bike, so no tapes needed.

The whole show and presentation was embarrassing. I guess Eurosport and British speedway are the perfect fit.

Thought it was me. They clearly didn’t have a clue which race they were looking at indeed there was a comment about looking at the wrong race in the programme. Never been a fan of Pearson probably because I’m bought up during Dave Lannings era but last night was embarrassing

Well, hopefully You’ve seen it’s happening now

Scoring 36 at the top of the table team on a track we rarely do well at with our number one not scoring is a pretty good effort really. Pleasing that the team didn't give up and fought to the end, all you can ask really.

It appears Richard Lawson has a broken collerbone. Such a shame for the end of his season, nice bloke & always 100%

You've only got to watch a match filmed by the any of the semi-pro video companies to realise that easily the most effective way of filming a race is to use a single camera. It's easy to get disorientated when cameras are switching around all over the place. Exactly. Back in the day when I used to watch Halifax, it didn't matter if the league was already lost or won, Saturday night was speedway night and we all went to cheer the team no matter what. It's entertainment as well as sport.

With the big rise in covid cases it is a high possibility of an October lockdown. Might not be any playoffs. This government is absolutely hopeless in everything it does or doesn’t do.

and one thing about the Eurosport coverage..in one way it’s good they have invested in multi cameras but I do wish they wouldn’t keep cutting away to a different camera during the race as they miss some good action ..sometimes I wish they just used the one camera and just watched the whole race from that camera as you can get a much better view of the race

Such a comment never fails to mystify me. Dead rubber? It’s a speedway meeting - Monday night is speedway night. There’s a meeting on, two good teams, some class riders, a great track (so most people seem to say). So why the hell does it matter. There’s no lack of effort from the riders, they’ll give it their all, put a show on for you. I just don’t understand…. turn up and enjoy the racing - at least you’ve got a team and a track. I haven’t. Never missed a Saturday night at Brandon - or Fridays or Thursdays as it became - because it was speedway night.

Crump is just ruining his legacy, a fantastic rider of yesteryear getting mullered by people not fit to wear his kevlars, sad to see

Just been announced bikes have been retrieved.

True that, he rolls more often than Sarge but gets away with it

watch the football highlights as better to and get yourself down to Perry Barr for this all important clash

Lawson good for double figures at Poole. Will have to be Barker or Nicol as they prob match that.

Highlights speedway tonight 11pm on Quest, I presume it’s BV v Sheffield from last night.

No its not you have been fed the wrong info.

We was hoping that with Andersen at Glasgow & we know how that faired. Nothing less than the minimum of a point required tonight.

If Sky are involved you can be absolutely 100% sure it's a gimmick You only have to look at F1 to see the impact that sound has on Sport, the high revving V12,V10 & V8 engines were their trademark, so much so that they used the same sounds in their promotional videos long after the hybrid engines were introduced... If it doesn't sound fast it doesn't look fast to me. Although during the lockdown the TV companies overdubbed crowd noise at the Football matches to generate some atmosphere, perhaps that's what's needed in Speedway not just engine noise... but crowd noise as well

It took a little boy to say 'the emperor's wearing no clothes!'.

Hope Ben Barker gets a run out, seems close to the club and has basically signed for them next season already... Nice to see a Diamond riding in an actually competitive team too...

Now a win for Thomas. I owe him an apology

That's a shock to hear. Never met him but he always came across as a really sound guy. RIP

So sad to hear that another of the riders of the past is no longer with us. In the early 60's Harry was much more than a "steady second string" for Cradley in the Provincial League (10.38 average in 1960) and his rivalry with Ivor Brown was well known.

and Larry Ross and Andy Smith aren't too far off mine either.

Peter Collins, Mark Loram, Jason Crump, Alan Wilkinson, Tai Woffinden...

Shawn & Kelly,Sam Ermolenko,Sean Wilson and Andre Compton.