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Unless riders are being paid good money, they will find excuses not to turn up.

While the concept is good the area where it will fail will be the standard pay rates for the riders. there will be van breakdowns and many other various reasons why they can’t attend. the riders will treat it with contempt and fans will attend and get disillusioned with multiple programme changes and the whole thing will be binned after this season.

Guest and number 8s

Must be Birmingham

Remarkably, the Stars were the only Prem team in 2021 NOT to concede a heat advantage in Heat 15! They scored 2x 5-1, 3x 4-2 and 5x 3-3 results for an overall aggregate of 37-23 - the second best heat 15 record in the Prem (Sheffield 38-22, who scored 5x 5-1, but they conceded a 2-4 and a 1-5). Heat 13 was also positive for KL: 2x 5-1, 5x 3-3 and 3x 2-4 for a 31-29 overall score. It seems that getting off to poor starts was the Stars' big problem at home.

Dunno, will have a look tomorrow. One thing that's progressing very nicely though are the roadworks around the stadium. You can come off the A34 Walsall Road, and swing a right straight into the One Shop Stopping Centre car park now, rather than having to go all the way to the Crown & Cushion roundabout, do a 180 and come back on yourself to gain access the old way. That'll be a major improvement in convenience. You never know, this fact may feature in a new web page on the Brummies site, to give the fans some more good news whilst they are kept waiting for news of more signings.

Don't forget you have to switch at Monument from the Central Station to get to Byker, which adds to the journey.

In reality no but equally theres not really any money to be made at NDL level. Grasstrack doesn't quite demand the level of kit to be upgraded as regularly and engines are not quite so one track focussed. Plus as covered no time off in the week needed for rider plus drivers/mechanics. Theres also the knowledge that he is in the top 16-20 grasstrack riders in the UK whereas he he much lower than that in Speedway terms.

All this is getting boring now, any chance you are a Coventry fan? Don't think any one wins it goes on & on for ever. Time to call a end to all this crap.

I have Sky Q and you do get 12 months free of Discovery plus in the apps section…however it is Discovery Plus Entertainment package Sky give for free and not Discovery Plus Entertainment and Sports so you don’t get all the live sport….Discovery Plus website when you log in tells you that your package is provided by Sky and to upgrade you need to contact Sky….that is purely for Sky Q ….I haven’t bothered as there’s nothing on it currently worth watching if I’m honest that would warrant an upgrade

Nice to open the revamped British Speedway page and then to be greeted by the best team in the country .

I'm gonna be the spelling police again! lol. 'Praise' as 'prays' will be taken the wrong way Like they are praying the track is okay, which is what I did before the Brum meeting

You'll probably be able to cycle across the top of the 10 mile Truck queue into Dover growing at the rate of a couple of miles a day all the way up to Glasgow by the time the season starts. Funny how that's ben hushed up again! Seriously, can't wait to take in a Fixture at Iwade if I can find the place, proper NDL speedway in the raw, the way it should be, the way Buxton was and hopefully northside will become.

Embarrassing yourself again, what a silly sausage

Yeah , I gather they will run a special bus every Wednesday leaving Sittingbourne Railway Station at 2 p.m. to allow plenty of time to get round the M25 and up the M40 to Oxford. :-)

All those problems are history, ask the riders

Nope. They should be mentioning names like Verge. James Jessop and Richard Andrews cause thats the sort riders that will end up being signed

I think you will find Poole were the only team with a 100% home record last season, plus most riders go well round Poole because its a fair race track

I think that's true. However, in the past riders who rode at smaller tracks didn't have the power or set ups to compete on big, fast tracks. It seems to me that modern bikes are built for speed and fast tracks so much less advantage for us at the NSS.

Preferred it as it was.

Ipswich won't need them anyway

Belle Vue is an unbelievable racetrack, but there’s little home advantage is there, every rider likes going there, got to get the set up right for sure but not got the same sort of home advantage of say monmore green or other smaller more technical tracks

What they are doing on the island is fantastic. Yes I agree I to would like to see IoW back in NDL but if the current owners cannot agree with the politics then this is their best option. I may not enjoy grass bikes or Flat track machines on a speedway track but I see the business plan in that this allows access to more competitors it is a system that has worked across the world of motorcycle racing. In Australia NZ USA & SA all different types & standards will come together to produce the whole event & nobody can argue that anything upto 50 races is better value than 15 no matter what standard or discipline.

I agree... someone can create something under Nora Speedway... that will be just perfect...... We stage "real speedway" thank you...real speedway that includes youth racing at every meeting, real speedway races at every meeting with other categories, real speedway that includes new rules for the benefit of the sport as a whole, real "inclusive" speedway.... real speedway full stop actually.... but then I like passing, action, characters, interaction, shale, and so on... so we have "real speedway" and the Islanders were defunct some 7 years or so ago

Maybe we line up with: 1) Covatti 2) Keheller 3) Shanes 4)Blodorn 5) Auty 6) morris 7) Nielsen

Surely if that was the case he would have gone years ago

We fully appreciate that we are not for everyone. However we have embraced the European/US style of speedway meetings (and I have been to both of them) which last year worked very well, and we hope for the same this year. Personally I dont see the point to say this or that and that along with "glad its not my club" and not have actually experienced what our race nights are about and include. It is so easy for us Brits to put something down rather than saying well done, that is brilliant, good effort, congratulations... sadly it is a known Brit trait However, the simple fact is, and again we fully appreciate that it is not for every speedway/motorsport fan, but the overwhelming result of the year was that people really enjoyed what we put on, loved the atmosphere, and returned. Imagine what could be done without restriction, or fear for riders/clubs being penalised. Our view of the sport remains the same, keep supporting your clubs where you can, attend where you can and provide constructive feedback to your clubs about what you want to see on a race night. Thats exactly what we did. All the best all and thank you all for you feedback, it helps us grately.

Same could easily be said about British Speedway as a whole. Whilst IOW don't claim to have all the answers they are at least posing a few questions and getting people talking. The meeting types and formats clearly won't work a lot of places as they simply don't have the track to accommodate it but to successfully run an alternative to league speedway has to be applauded even if it doesn't directly appeal to you.

We've said before that the variety of meetings kept the sport fresh. In addition to the league and KOC, every track had a couple of individual meetings, at least one regional cup, plus things like best pairs and 4TT's. The real icing on the cake was being awarded a Test Match! Those were the days...

Test Matches were always great......One of the one's that really sticks in my mind was the GB v USSR international at Wembley in 1964.....Although the Russians were well beaten the atmosphere there was nothing short of fantastic. Wish they would bring back regular test matches now. There was another series in Australia in 2001.....Young Australia v Young Britain.....Aussies won the series 5-4 Thanks for posting.

Variety is the spice of life. If we all liked the same things life would be pretty boring. IMO one thing the sport can do is provide a bit of variety in some if not all the meetings. How many former regular attendees posting on this forum have said 15 heats and endless laps by a Massey Ferguson is one of the reasons they no longer attend. The sport needs to win back these supporters while also attracting new ones, 8 riders doing a few Flat Track demos may attract some who wouldn't go. At the end of the day the same old format being done every meeting isn't getting a new generation of fans through the door.

As it happens the NDL is shaping up to be fairly well balanced and could be one of the better seasons for a little while. That said the diversity that IOW offer as a weekly spectator is pretty special and something that most clubs would undoubtedly be envious of.....a fixture list drawing a good home crowd without the curse of away expenses. Once again IOW lead the way.

Over £21 for a 60p mug........Right !!

Always lively 'banter' on the terraces there, Steve! I could have been one of the fans you were having discussions with! Normally it was the Dons fans getting frustrated as the Witches were winning so easily! I enjoyed my visits to Plough Lane. In the 70's early 80's it was the polar opposite to Foxhall Heath. The stadium looked so smart. Always felt I should wipe my feet on entering! The racing was entertaining, good atmosphere on the steep terracing and I liked how compact and enclosed it was, again the total opposite to Foxhall. You could sense the history. Enjoyable as it was watching the customary tonking of the Dons back in 70's, I think the most fun was had though in the two seasons the Witches dropped down to the NL, 1989 and 90. The PA was always cranked up, Dave Lanning really got the crowd going and there were some superb meetings between the two teams. I think the Dons won them all! - but always tight. We would have a sweepstake amongst us as to which section of fence Moggo would take out first. Mind you, we did that everywhere...

Reference the poor crowds in 2007 Oxford started the season under Colin Horton some teams named top heavy sides preventing Oxford having no number one and a poor team Colin withdrew mid season and Alan Trump kept the Conference team going. Alan was prepared to run the next season (I think in the 2nd tier), but was stopped by the stadium owners GRA who did not want the stadium to be succesful so they could justify building houses. Thanks to lots of hard work by speedway, greyhound fans and supportive MP'S and councilors we are in the situation we are now. The new leaseholder is certaintly making moves to ensure that speedway and the stadium has the best chance of succeding.

This is a strange post from someone who is listed on the official Birmingham site as the club Photographer & may only visit twice this season. Do you not have that role now Chris ?