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All this discussion about the Leagues is mainly been brought up about because Newcastle made a mess of their Team building.We all know Speedway in UK is not in good shape ,but restructuring the League because Newcastle fans are not happy will never happen.

What the hell is hypocritical about not particularly liking his style of commentary whilst he was alive, and also being shocked, saddened and sending genuine condolences about the poor man’s death? So if at any time in the past, you’ve commented on here that you’re not a fan of his commentary, you shouldn’t then come on here and send your condolences for the man’s sudden passing because it’s “hypocritical”, or as Diamondboy was implying, some are shedding crocodile tears because obviously they don’t care the man is dead because they’ve been on here criticising his style of commentating in the past? What a pathetic and pretty crass point of view.

not this old chestnut again. instead of telling us what won't work, tell us what would

He wasn't entirely my cup of tea for various reasons, but you could never doubt his commitment to speedway. I think commentary, and particularly speedway commentary where there are long gaps to fill, followed by quick bursts of action, is a thankless task and fair play to him for not only stepping up but anchoring the role for a long time. His passing at just 52 is of course also very sad for all those around him. RIP

I never like him as a broadcaster but that does not mean its not tragic or i cant show respect for someone who put a lot of his life into speedway or for his family who have lost there Dad -Husband etc So nothing to do with hypocracy at all .

We should all just respect the man. Nigel, whether you liked him or not, did so much for this sport. I shall miss him.. Must be so difficult for Kelvin too..

Horley can't see the tapes malfunction directly in front of her but can spot a tiny red light on a phone on bend 3.

Championship will never be any good while it has heat leaders that are also riding as heat leaders in the premiership. Championship heat leaders should be fighting to get a reserve or second string berth in the premiership not heat leader status. That would then make the championship sides less of a jump from NDL level for the youngsters coming through.

Poole are not the only club that pays on time, so obviously they pay more than alot of clubs can afford to,who do you think you are kidding for goodness sake

Jack Thomas certainly did his job as a RS today, beat Palin 2 out of 3 times!

my god your full of bolloxs

You need to stop sniffing the beer mats

I disagree but fair play to you!! I dont find it entertaining in the majority and i like watching better riders, for me and others i know weakening the league would mean id likely find others way to spend my money..

With big crowds continuing to come along!! or watch the Poole stream. ps. Poole don't pay big bucks BUT they do ensure everyone gets paid regularly and correctly. Sponsorship also plays an integral part in the club's few income streams.

I watched on the livestream and I don’t think there was anything wrong with the track. The problem is that financially, Poole, Glasgow and Leicester are literally in a different league to everybody else. Poole have three number 1’s. Outside of visits from Glasgow and Leicester, everybody else is going to get the same sort of thumping that Oxford got, and there probably won’t be much great racing. Not saying it is right or wrong, it is just reality.

Have not been on here for years but was interested in views of this first league type meeting back at Iwade. The new owner of the Kent Royals needs to be given time. He came in and saved the club, to his credit after the club lost Central Park. With no choice but to run at Iwade, there will be serious limitations. It's not a league venue by any standards, but it's all they have for now. If you go, and I hope people do, accept you are seeing 2022 speedway at it's most grassroots in terms of venue, but support the young riders, and the club, and hopefully in years to come the club can move onto to better things.

Oxford were completely outclassed and looked a poor side winning only one race.I am no expert at all but the track looked in excellent condition maybe a bit more dirt on the outside but the chap On the tractor did rough it up before the start but don't think made any difference as Oxford riders just were to slow.Most of them have ridden Poole many times before and to have a hole free track that looked as flat as a pancake should have been ideal for them as it was for the home riders.

I seen Edwards at I think the u19 final at Redcar a few seasons ago and he looked a very good prospect then he's got a great style and always looks in control on the bike. I applaud Redcar for going with Jenkins and Edwards this season some of the reserves they'll face will be difficult but great for sticking with both of them.

But that’s Newcastle’s Team building problem.Anybody who looked at Congreve and then looked at his New Zealand results and the standard of riders ,or seen him on Video would see that he was not Championship standard ,yet Granty bring him half way round the World.Granty has made some poor decisions regarding Team building,that’s the bottom line for me.

Could you not be a little bit more specific?,,,hope he's not just left in the woods looking for somewhere to rest!

I disagree as long as Newcastle can get an 8+ guest, they should stick with that! Can't see anyone out there to come in at number 1. Bigger priority in my view is getting a stronger number 7!

Well Nicholls & Harris were able to take IRR rides for MPT in the Prem, but can't guest for him in the Champ as they have higher aves!

If they do go for R/R Lawson wouldn’t be able to take one of the rides since MPT is third in the averages. This is despite him being the current number one for the league champions in the ‘superior’ Premiership. Try and explain that one to someone who doesn’t follow the sport.

TBF, the Friday fixture is just about a dead rubber and why incur any extra costs for a guest? Might aswell let the rest of the lads a 'chance' to earn a little bit more. The home meetings should take priority/keep home fans interested in today's climate,,, cos if you ain't got any home fans to support you, av a hunch that you'll inevitably have less chance of away support?

Get a move on Barbs. Emmerdale starts in 20 Minutes.

I'm with you, moved just outside of Wolverhampton 5 years ago & been twice. Absolutely detest the place. For me, it's not Speedway as it should be

Either nobody knows or they will not tell us if they do!

Nothing against Kingston who in the past looked a good prospect but I'm underwhelmed the Fen Tigers have signed a guy who seemed to lose interest a few years back and will find it tough coming back after a number of years away from League racing? What about Jody Scott from Norfolk, very impressive lad whose 15 years old, presumably hungry and local?

Bradley probly doesnt, as he was in National League when he first came over. He'll have some degree of patriality. If George Congreve is also of British stock and can ride for The Geezers without a permit, might he be found an NDL club to boost his track-time, and confidence, as he battles to make his way up the speedway ladder?

Dave Rowe would be the obvious choice, they should make more use out of Chris Louis and Jason Crump, as they gave good insight.

Should Peterborough have given Gilkes a chance here, instead of using a guest?

We had the same at Berwick with Wayne Brown but sadly the days of persevering with young riders are no more sadly.

Some problems with the air fence generator and the green light . but the main problem was with the ref failing to keep the meeting moving at a decent pace, which does nothing to maintain the support of the fans,who turned out in decent numbers to watch some reasonably decent racing at this level but the meeting took 3hrs to run,...Bowtell has improved hugely from a few seasons ago,has pace and now smooth round the bends,,Morley is,a top performer at this level,so we have great strength at the top end,,solid afternoon from Verge whos gating was excellent..Alcock was slow to get going today but judging by his performance at Plymouth could soon become a heat leader The lower order performed better at Plymouth so perhaps the track will take time to get used too ..For the Hammers Ablitt was impressive,as was reserve Ben Trigger and young Vinnie Ford battled hard all afternoon ,,So a decent start for the promotion ,but the presentation needs to be much slicker and a lot of that is down to the Referee,,......

even if there’s no #1s out there get 2 decent riders that might score 8/10/12 points at home between them just off the top of my head say Palavora and sedgmen that would put wright to reserve with complin and would always have a strong reserve when ave changes strength in depth

R/R for a challenge match is odd. Seems unnecessary. Clean and functional toilets are a basic and should be straightforward to provide. I think we all understand that somebody has stepped in to save the club and credit to them for that but there is a balance and constructive criticism is healthy and helps mprovement. People are entitled to expect a certain level of satisfaction as customers.

It's hard to work out what goes through the minds of some people. When Len retired and Central Park was no longer available or affordable (not sure which) the bravery of Si Kellow and his supporters in trying to make this solution happen deserves massive praise and credit not moaning and whining. The South East for various reasons has become a desert for Speedway in recent times and with no options south of Mildenhall, east of Poole or Oxford it may be sensible for people to be grateful for what they have. Hopefully Lakeside will find a track soon and Eastbourne will reopen next year; but until they do if you want Speedway in the South East its at Iwade! Music or lack of, toilets, food you'll have to give it a chance to improve and surely it will. The Air Fence apparently came from Central Park and is not a bespoke fitting?. Bags leak and need time to be properly set up and it may be they need more powerful blowers. The site as far as I'm aware is a long standing Training facility with various planning constraints but a decent track and like Buxton and Berrington Lough and lets not forget Somerset in those early days is what it is, a speedway track in a field where facilities have to be built as and when required. Hopefully Mr Kellow wont be disheartened by the moans and whinges and will create a long term home for Speedway in the area.

That's why he's in the NL

Iwade is definitely basic but functional and has its own charm much as Buxton did (except the Iwade track is smooth). Delays yesterday were tedious, air fence constantly deflating can happen but the ref and the starts! Green lights not working and taking an age to come on after the starter walks away, then engines screaming with big waits until the tapes go up, someone gets twitchy and its red flag again. The ref can dictate the pace of the meeting and he did a poor job. For the rest as a first venture and with improvements clearly planned its certainly a decent starting point and the racing on track was decent too.

The most important thing in my opinion is that Oxford is back after 17 years dormant years. The priority this year I would have thought was to win the majority of their home matches and hopefully their away form will follow once they've become re-established. I wish all those involved great luck and for their enthusisam and dedication...wish I was able to make return visits to Cowley but living in East Yorkshire makes that difficult but I hope to get back sometime in the near future!

Obviously at this truly awful time following Saturday`s shock news this question is rightly not uppermost in peoples minds, although Discovery are going to have to make a decision who replaces Nigel as lead commentator. i can see a few possibilities. 1 Give the job to Dave Rowe, who they know from SEC commentary and knows Speedway inside out and like Nigel works for the BSPA press office and Talksport. 2 Move Kelvin over to the commentary position and pair him with with Chris Louis- something which i thought was a success when done before. 3 Bring in someone else such as BT football commentator Darren Fletcher who is well known for his work at Peterborough Speedway.

Cheers Uncle Albert

I think that the post is insensitive and says more about the people who feel its appropriate to post something like that about one of the good guys of speedway and one of the speedway family . Shame on you !

As if that would ever happen.... ahem. I don't think there are enough fixtures in the NDL for the Diamonds to contemplate it unless a different deal with the landlords can be brokered even then why bother with all the other fixed costs for so few meetings, And you can't increase the NDL meetings because it's mostly 2nd teams who only have limited fixture slots available. Also I don't think the public of Newcastle would support 3rd tier speedway. The first incarnation of the Gems were a decent side (Lawson, Robertson the Branney's) but hardly anyone stayed to watch even though they'd already paid. As I've posted elsewhere the 3 tier system doesn't work anymore thats clear by virtue of their only being 2 stand alone teams and no graduates from 2021 NDL in the 2022 CL. The 2nd tier obviously needs to be reduced in standard so that it is predominantly UK based riders and a career path for young British riders to develop. There was no 3rd tier in the 60's and 70's and there was no shortage of British talent becoming world stars. It's obviously a massively different environment now but all the evidence is their that 3 tiers don't work and the CL is unsustainable for most.

No quite sure what the leaders of the sport have to do with your promotion putting a shocking team together.

He's blinkered and thinks speedway should only be run on 1 type of track.

Heeps has always had an issue with professionalism, desire and commitment since he started with Mildenhall. Typical case of a really naturally talented rider who doesn't apreciate the talents he has and his issues mentioned above have now caught up with him and hes gone as far as he can I fear? Batchelor has been up and down form wise for years so was a big gamble. Rowe is still living off his good start to last season, needs to improve soon. King needs to ride on the inside if its slick. Doyle will find it harder than most thinks I suggest, having to readjust to different surfaces. Riss and Starke are 100% triers who are what they are but will be inconsistant. Hawkins is only there as a freebie puppet for Louis and doesn't seem the brightest spark in the box, although I can't knock his enthusisam and commitment. I respect Chris Louis cause he was a top rider and he runs a tight, well organised ship at Foxhall but his team building decisions are baffling at times. Yes he is in it to make a half decent living out of Ipswich speedway but that shouldn't be knocked as this will ensure he will try to do the right thing all the time. Like another poster alluded to he doesn't deliberately build a team that will struggle but maybe he is over influenced by the desire to be sustainable rather than gamble on a winning team which would be well supported. I think already at this early stage it looks obvious that changes will have to be made or another poor season looks likely for the Witches.

Our first time at Iwade found the track with the help of satnav. We sat on first bend, pa system was fine there, could have done with some background music, but not as deafening as it used to be at Eastbourne. Delays between races need to be sorted. It's a new venture so hopefully as weeks go on things will improve as we definitely need some speedway south of the river as the only other two tracks in the South are Poole and Plymouth much too far for us to travel. Didn't try the food outlet so can't comment on that but toilet facilities definitely need improvement which hopefully will also happen in time.

The race formula has been the same in the history of speedway. hardly to blame for a Poor Newcastle Team.

Exactly and that's not going away anytime soon. I know the Diamonds have no other option at Brough but Sunday is a prime day for leisure activity and we're the only team in the top two divisions who operate on a Sunday. Crazy. It's one of the reasons I keep banging on about the standard of the 2nd division reducing so that the majority of riders are UK based and able to race every night of the week. There'll then be the opportunity for more tracks to operate on Sunday or whatever their optimal race day might be. But that won't suit the riders who want to ride 1st and 2nd division over here and whatever league in Poland/Denmark/Sweden etc. Some of them don't even get picked every week by their polish clubs. There's more to it than just a Sunday though as I don't think many riders like the shape of the track and if you've always got the begging bowl out I guess riders will wonder if the club will last the season. Of course one simple way of making No1's available to all this season would have been to restrict each team to one rider over an 8 point average. But that wouldn't suit those more desperate to win than see the sport prosper. Even if the Newcastle promoters find someone suitable to improve the team they'll have them over a barrel when it comes to negotiating terms. Every successful sporting series/league is all about product and brand. Some like Premier League football can do without restrictions as the top teams generate most of the international interest. Most motor sports have to have restrictions in place to make sure their product is competitive and exciting to watch. Sorry Poole fans but nobody outside of Poole is interested in you winning the title. But they might be interested if it was exciting to watch them win it.