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Some interesting developments on next season on the GB Website. No Rider guarantees mentioned with point penalties if any club found to be paying guarantees. No Play Offs mentioned. League consists nine teams with Edinburgh included. lLeague season consists of racing each other home & away twice. 16 home and 16 away. Hopefully they can properly plan fixtures for the warmer months with no long breaks in those months.

Think we should sign the Cook brothers and bring Lawson back. For no other reason than the meltdown it would have on here. Just do it Glasgow sit back and get the popcorn in.

Play offs this year especially turned out to be a complete lottery. They need binned going forward they have no credibility. Only my opinion of course.

Now I've had a sleep and time to think clearly I can post my thoughts. First of, congratulations to the Poole Pirates. The won the play offs fair n square. What a fantastic team and were fancied by myself to win it at the start of the season. As a lion I feel gutted I couldn't see us at home for the final. It would have been a lot closer and probably a last heat decider if it was at Leicester. Il miss the mini rivalry Leicester and Poole have had the last two seasons. Poole come out as winners but that's in there DNA and for leicester we haven't quite got that mentality yet. Again, congrats to Poole enjoy your victory even though it's covered with controversy it's still a trophy. Il miss the championship and still don't want to move up. Although now we wont have Poole spoiling our chances at glory. My first year on the forum and enjoyed it ! Thanks all.

You cant argue that success breeds success, poole pay , they get good teams 9 yrs out of 10 and the crowd support is enviable, whatever the league, love or hate, they are the benchmark .

if you're thinking Poole as one of them, i don't think they splash the cash, riders go there because they know they're guaranteed to get paid

1pm? So are you in a time travel machine!

Crowd size will.dictate that Geoff and with thìs track at Northside you will get some entertainment no matter what the level of rider that is for sure...

Could there be room for a Workington team in the NDL come 2023? Here's hoping!!! There will be a management meeting towards the end of November... fingers crossed... Could be a huge announcement coming that is for sure... Track is ready to go.. Ancillary Buildings; Security and Utilities are the next big challenges to overcome... So get your team requests in now Comets fans as you never know what you could be getting for Christmas... Do "We (still) Believe"? H18tory was made in 2018 and could be made again in 2023... UTC... Regards THJ

Irrespective of what ANY Club pay they can only build aTeam to the points limit.it’s been proved a few times Teams on paper don’t mean a lot.

It gets brought up on a daily basis , and usually by the same posters. Very tiresome.

No chance of 100 people putting up £1000 anywhere.

Hopefully it will be top 4 in Champ and top 3 in Prem as it should be hard to get into. Not having teams in it who finish mid table.

After last night, wouldn’t mind seeing Ben Cook at reserve next season. An entertaining and tenacious rider.

What a night and well done to the Pirates! The travel up was worth every mile. Like Steve said earlier, back home by 1pm so not bad at all. Echo the comments on Drew, what was he thinking! After heat 12 he was the only one not on the track celebrating with the TEAM and to make it worse after heat 15 when medals where being handed out he wasn’t even on the track at that point, the lad needs to grow up and fast. He may never win another team title so he should have been celebrating and enjoying the experience. Don’t want him back at Poole in 2023 and clearly I think his attitude last night pretty much confirmed that. anyway what a night you mighty Pirates!!

I noticed Richard Lawson far from a gating tart last night

I think the stuffing was knocked out of Leicester after being 10 points up down at Poole and still losing by 8 .. gonna hit the confidence. impressed with Poole winning league and cup with the same 7 riders that started the season, no mean feat these days

Why bring it up in first place then? At least have the courage of your convictions

Almost impossible, we are at the bottom of the pecking order .....

32 meetings + potentially another 4 for the playoffs + whatever else they come up with. That's not even considering those who have NL clubs. In a country that couldn't finish a season until November 4th (not including the Jubilee Trophy). If it was the first time then you'd give BSPL a pass for being optimistic and ambitious. Seeing as it isn't, they're just plain stupid.

Oh I agree. He's not a particular favourite of mine. I'm also not impressed with his warm up lap wheelies and then not delivering in the meeting!! As I said he needs to listen and learn from more experienced team members whether for Poole or Wolves!

If anyone has a direct line to God, could you mention that, if Jesus is looking for some more fishermen, there’s one on the south coast called Lewy!

Do we have an actual date for AGM?

Exactly so reaching the final was a bonus . My dad can't believe that were actually decent . He says leicester were always one the worst teams ever in British speedway years ago so he's still in shock

I would think investing in British Speedway is a bad investment! But you're right, despite the terrible Poole bias last night, generally they have done an excellent job this season!

Drew has to learn to cope with hard racing, he totally lost his rubbish, acted like a spoilt brat leaving his bike on track!

Whilst the whole lead up and indeed the CL season from early September onwards has descended in to a complete and utter farce you can only congratulate Poole on an outstanding season and commiserate with Leicester (as you have to with any team that wins a League but then fails to win a Play Off). The fact is, and it seems blatantly obvious, is that the Jubillee / Summer Cup totally destroyed what could have been an excellent League season, which was gaining momentum and excitement in to the driest / hottest July in years and was the n inexplicably halted for 3-4 weeks by a frankly banal / pointless hughe mistake of a "fixture filler" at a time when Fixtures did not need filling. As a "Spring "(as we saw with the Shield in 2019) or "Autumn" (as an option for those who wish to enter) regional and then one off Final based Competion it may work but PLEASE never again interrupt a League season in such a stupid way! It'll be interesting to see which Teams actually line up for 2023 with what is rumoured to be a 40 point limit. Great that Edinburgh are back in, good luck to Leicester on moving up, that releases 7 good riders, a few Clubs will have to wheel and deal to get under new limit and hopefully a more balanced league and no one else drops out! The Sport at Board / MC level (call it what you want its a Management Committee masquerading as a Board and therein I thiink lies a massive ICEBURG) needs radical members change. The issue since the BSPL became "L" and no longer "A" is that it is now run by a Board of Directors legally and not a management committee, (legally its a massive difference in terms of roles and responsibilities) and the danger is that it restricts those who may have in the past wanted to sit at the top table and input new ideas but who aren't prepared to take the financial responsibilities that now entails. Hopefully we can have a 9 Team CL in 2023 (at least 9 teams) with a League starting in April, finishing in August and Play Offs done and dusted by early September with either a Spring or Autumn regional Competition with a one off final at Belle Vue with winners of "North / Midland / South" that does not impede with the League programme. It would also be nice to schedule in a set CL Riders Championship, a set CL Pairs and a set CL 4's as one offs like in the past with Peterborough staging the 4's as a neutral venue and the others also sensibly shared out. Have a happy, safe winter everyone

Hard to see what track set up would have helped Leicester. Poole were simply better. And as for Lawson's home track knowledge benefitting the Pirates, the same could be said of Rich Worrall [2022] and Connor Mountain [2021] on the Lions side.

Well done Poole... Being the only team out of the two to ride at their home track in a two legged final, with Kings Lynn's No1 riding for you, (at Kings Lynn), must have put you at a huge disadvantage, but you came through magnificently.. Yet another trophy for the very successful outfit from the South Coast... That's trophy153 in the past decade isnt it? Be great to see you in the Premiership next season after your deserved promotion... Hang On. Apologies... Congratulations to Poole on your 85th title, but even greater congratulations to the runners up, Leicseter, on your "promotion" to the Premiership.. All very confusing this... Lets hope next season the Leicester area has lots of warm dry summer evenings, (unlike obviously it suffered this year if appears), meaning they can complete their home fixtures, (and this time at their own track)... Seriously though, with a crowd mentioned at circa 600 (for the "flagship final" in the 2nd tier), it was probably a very fitting "epitaph" to another season of Speedway in the UK.. You only had to see the lack of anger from Leicester's fans to the loss of home advantage in the final, which meant basically fighting with one broken arm, and the other tied behind your back, given how fundamental to a result home track advantage is in Speedway, to see the abject "indifference" that so many have for the actual competitions themselves and the results they deliver... Which is sad, but down to nothing more than the way the sport is ran in the UK unfortunately... With that lack of "emotional involvement" always holding the sport back if it wants to continue in a "Team Concept"... (Imagjne in Poland the reaction from fans if something similar happened?) Congratulations to Poole, who do get a fair amount of stick, but you cannot knock the professionalism and success of the business they run, and their fans on here are always good value (and provide plenty of ammo for the rest to fire back at them).. Let's hope the lessons learned will be heeded, but... That does seem to be the "mantra" at the end of most seasons sadly doesnt it? Hopefully next season, the least that happens, is that the play off finals get held at the actual tracks of the finalists and all the other competitions ran actually get completed... Surely not too much to ask, and expect, that is it? Goodbye 2022... Roll on 2023... A bright new dawn maybe? Let's hope so... It would be great to finally see such an incredibly exciting spectacle get the infrastructure around it, that it so deserves, to make it more popular and look more professional...

So do I Geoff, but keep away from the shambles that has just finished, start lower down and run training schools etc to bring in the money,( hopefully,) then see what happens in the future, UTC

Business as usual then?

Re the money situation. I know my club is accused and probably guilty of paying more than most and have a 2016 KO cup to show for it. It's no like football where we can go and buy 7 no.1s. we have to fit 7 guys under the same points limit as every other club, and who is considered a snip is all matter of opinion and some (most?) don't work out that way. The way some go on its as if successful businessmen are not welcome in British speedway

I think some of the turn in form for the Cooks was their parents visiting in late July / early August.

Absolutely. Still a huge favourite in Glasgow and not just down to his old man. Even seen him passing this season!

One thing they do still need to try to improve next season is the sound in the pits. Sometimes the pit mics aren’t great. That should be fixable. But there’s also all the background noise, which is harder to fix, but is always more noticeable on BSN than on Eurosport. A lot easier to solve somewhere like Glasgow, where they set up at the bottom of the hill by the pit gate, but that would be one thing to look at improving.

He has so much potential and natural talent, that’s the sad thing. Hope he can get his head in the right place for 2023.

BSN is great, just have to hope that the powers that be give them a product worth showing next year.

Why is it not possible? Football clubs have been financed and run by fans before. And speedway costs are nowhere near what it would cost to own a football club. Let's say 100 fans investing £1,000 each. That's £100,000 which is a start. I never said anything about buying a stadium. One could be leased and adapted into a speedway venue or a new site could be bought and the basic necessities could be added piece-meal. Then there's sports grants from councils/govt etc. The least we could be doing is looking into it instead of just saying it can't be done.

Just a reminder where to look for all the team line-ups- Stewmac`s excellent blog https://speedwayteams2023.blogspot.com/?fbclid=IwAR0YPcZNeoRoU4Nmo7tmy4mlgtMCyGYoqP2YBda8Q3Eedkyxuw1zOl3HSPE

After 25 years of closure the majority of the fans are just happy to be back!

If I was a Leicester fan I would be questioning the set up at the Club.It’s very hard to believe the track situation got to the stage that it was damaged so much that it was unusable.Commiseration to the fans but that situation should never had arrived IMO. They will too sort that situation before next season.( just in case there are a couple of wet weeks.)

Thanks Steve, I do have dim memories of this, and I'm sure you're right. That said I'm not sure that rule would stick now, in the present climate... and weren't Poole allowed to run an NL team under the Bournemouth name? I wouldn't be precious about a name, anyway. The name (say) North East Diamonds and the white on black diamond body colour would do for me.

Perhaps why he was invited to Monmore then ?

The Star this week has an article suggesting a different way of calculating team building averages. This is because the 10 meeting rolling average is not currently based on the last 5 home and 5 away meetings for each rider.

Well he was there going by his Instagram! Really hope both the Cook's get a place in the Prem next season, they deserve it. Especially Ben who has only been riding for Poole and no one else, so to get that form most of the season is amazing!

Long journey back but for the 50 odd Pirates fans it will pass quickly. Commiserations to Leicester. Spoke to Gary May but he said nothing he could do to stop the onslaught. Some great racing tonight on a very good track.

Well done Poole. Ben Cook particularly good. Given the issues with the playoffs this season, why don’t we make next season just a two legged final? Glasgow host Poole at Ashfield, sneaking a right home winning, then go to Poole and get smashed. It’ll save a lot of time , money and arguments, and based on the last few years, it’s the most likely scenario

But.... Apart from that... I think they did really well...

No it isn't. the median is the mid-point, excluding top and bottom will not alter the median, but they will alter the mean. As you exclude more and more scoes (top and bottom two, then top and bottom three etc) the average will converge on the median, but just excluding one does not turn it into the median .e.g. scores of 6,9,9,10,10,10,10 Median = 10 Mean = 9.14 Average excluding outliers = 9.6 Average excluding two outliers = 9.67 Average excluding 3 outliers = 10