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Poole have a team of gaters barring Cook and Newman They set the track up to give them the best opportunity and most of the time whoever gates at Poole wins Glasgow have a team full of racers and riders like Basso and Harris will be a joy to watch on a racetrack that gives them the opportunity to race not like at Poole where if they try and pass they go backwards You can’t moan at Poole for making the track that way and signing the riders to help them utilise the home advantage What other fans moan about is the blinkered vision of the Poole fans who say the track is great when clearly it is set up for their team of gaters At Ipswich I think 90% of our fans know we don’t have the best track but we admit that unlike the Poole fans I often hope Doyle and Emil miss the gate because the racing is awesome watching these two try and come through and sometimes they don’t but often I don’t mind them getting beat if the race has been good like the home meeting against Wolves was a 1-5 in heat 15 but the race was fantastic So come on blue tints …. You are the best team in the league and you built on your track being a gaters paradise and building a team of gaters ….nothing wrong in that sobwhuvyoubacnt admit it is beyond me

You have friends.

I would rather you stayed asleep.

So, really you have no business credentials, yet are happy to criticise him for for his "very limited business acumen". And what exactly is the financial mess at KL? Have you thought that Buster may need to liquidate some of his assets and/or move actual cash into the club, to dig the club out of the mess it has clearly been left in? This is not the work of a moment. The "incompetent fool Chapman" has kept Lynn in business for over 30 years, and saved Peterborough. This is not speculation or hear-say it is a fact. Yet many on here want to see him out of the sport... and for who? Nobody is queuing up to buy these clubs, there's some show ponies who are talking the talk, but when push comes to shove are not walking the walk

Marcins only had 3 away meetings in 2021, when he turned up at Armadale he thought it was the training track, and Berwick he couldn't turn the bike I think he scored one at Edinburgh and 0 at Berwick and then fairly decently at Poole. Look at his scoring at both tracks this year, not from reserve, which is why I don't understand the "let's get rid of Marcin" brigade.

Sometimes it is best to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open ones gub and have it confirmed.

Which is why one shouldn't go overboard when criticising those that do! I haven't got a high opinion of Keith "Buster" Chapman (slimy second hand car salesman who tells a lot of lies springs to mind! ) as a person with good reason but he's put a lot of his money and time into speedway since he first bailed out King's Lynn 31 years ago in 1992 and he is a genuine speedway enthusiast. Most people on this forum wouldn't be able to do what he has done in speedway so while its looks like his time in the sport has run its course and hes made mistakes like anyone does he should be given credit for the positive things he's done in speedway, a sport which only an absolute diehard would invest money into!

Amazing article on the Speedway GP website regarding preparations for the 2023 Cardiff GP. The shale is being analysed in a Newport Laboratory to ensure A 1 conditions on the day. I wonder if that is a spin on someone feeling under the tarp to ensure no water ingress !!

Your loss....once again this Ashes has been the greatest of sporting theatre.

The best comment from the Blue Rinse Brigade was: "That was Men Vs Boys" Must take a real set of balls to have "trick up your sleeve starts" and play follow the leader for four laps. I'll take the "throw it round the boards girlies" anytime

Sadly this topic is becoming a reflection of British speedway and it's crazy average driven team building system. In Luke's case comes back after injury scores fairly well and ends up in the main body of the team after 4 meetings which in our opinion for a new rider is a ridiculous state of affairs. Yesterday showed for us even though we were happy with his scores it's a big leap forward due to the way the heats are.

Chris Louis hasn't said that, the forum Chris has. Louis was defending Buster on Twitter.

He was going nothing at Lynn, his words. Alex Brady was running the show. Alex pulling out created the situation at Lynn. Buster is trying to save the club.

The track is a disgrace, the racing is crap, there's no passing, where's the crowd, rider x is a gating tart, why did the camera's miss that pass, Tatum's said this, er um er, Tatum's not said that, how can Louis say that about Chapman... blah, blah, blah, next match please

Everyone is busy watching the Cricket...

was under the impression there would be a collection for the Ben fund ? saw a post on Facebook that due to weather issues Ben fund collection will happen later in the season

I'm guessing, due to the incoming wet stuff, there was no time to have an interval/collection and by the sounds of it they got that right.

And how many of those are financially killing themselves by doing so? Also some (mentioning no names) still see the "need" to run Double Headers and (in my opinion) overcharge for the "privilege" of attending them and then have no fixtures in the next few weeks.

The Berwick NL crowds have got to be 1/3 of the Championship crowds. We’d all of preferred to see 2H2A with no NL rather than having 6 weeks without Championship meetings throughout the summer.

My business credentials are irrelevant and please don’t try to shoot the messenger. The fact is the financial mess at KL and PB (plus the farcical mismanagement during his time at BSPA) is all down to Chapman. He is the owner and he has the full responsibility and no one else.

Obviously I was being facetious but I don't want that particular fact to be forgotten. With regard to modern 4-valvers, I don't think the number of valves per se is the issue. Weslakes and first generation Jawa 4-valves really didn't seem markedly different to the 2-valves (they sounded similar and track records were not being obliterated for instance) and still suited the tracks of the time. It's the evolution of them into the high revving laydowns that aren't suited to current tracks that sees us where we are now.

Also a skewed fixture list which has seen Worky run 5 home vs 1 away fixture. Luke is equally prolific on the road so his average would have still risen but perhaps not as steeply. In contrast it shows the alarming lack of form of Harry as away his scores were often not great in previous years. No team will drop a 3 pointer who has been a 7 in the past but there is a limit to how many chances people get.

No serious business person would buy a speedway promotion just to generate tax losses. They would have to lose £40k to save £10k in corporation tax, costing £30k net. A serious speedway fan who is in business might though because it would only cost them £30k to pour £40k in to the money pit that is promoting British speedway.

FWIW I agree with you. There's no need for such expensive equipment if it was standardised. It would save costs and possibly even improve the show. But four-valve engines aren't the cause. Progress is. If rules stated 'two valves only' then we'd still be riding just as highly-tuned and expensive engines - the only difference is that they would have two-valves rather than four. People want a competitive edge and will spend to do so, and will push the rules as far as they can. A standard engine, two-valves or four, is in theory the solution but the sport couldn't afford it as a rule change. Someone would need to buy them. Current journeymen would probably quit because of the investment. Current equipment would become obsolete and worthless and the cost to police it would likely be prohibitive. Although, in theory, it would save money the investment needed would be beyond most stakeholders currently involved in the sport.

Not much picking and choosing this year. Barely enough meetings to remember what the sport’s like some months.

I'm Cook's defence after his first ride (after which he may have sussed out the track) he only lost to Douglas!

I can't understand why anyone would want bickley in? He's retired for a reason. He is never going to make it as a speedway rider.

Total Maniac is a bit harsh.

Agree. He is far from perfect, but he is a genuine enthusiast as you say. Stepping in several times to keep the Prem going, when no one else was willing to do. He can't take the blame for what's happened at Lynn this season either. He didn't pick the team or pay their wages. That was down to Alex. He has just stepped in again to try and sort a mess out. And as for the Panthers lack of funds, the word is that promised sponsor money, never came after a fall out with Tomalin. Leaving them on a "shoestring budget" . Whether you blame Buster for that or Tomalin, depends on whether you think Buster agreed that Tomalin could sign Holder, and then went back on his word, in which case you could blame Buster. Or did Tomalin know that Holder would never ride for a Buster club again after Holdergate, but went behind KC's back, and did the deal anyway. If that was the case Buster did nothing wrong, and the problem was created by Tomalin. That seems to be where things broke down between the two. Most PB fans think it was the first version, but right or wrong i firmly believe it was the latter.

Think it was the best possible move for Connor, his scoring round Ashfield at 6 was ridiculous, making double figures on multiple multiple occasions. Up at 2 he was holding his own too just doing the reserve shuffle between him an Danyon. Away from home he was the weakest tiger by a large margin, seeing him racing this year at 4 for Redcar at Redcar he's already a much improved rider and is only going to get better and better. His polish experience as well is going to only make him a more rounded and improved rider.

I thought you watched it illegally... being a Pirate and all that

By no means a classic but the boys got the job done! Special mentions to Bastian Borke and Lasse Fredriksen, you guys were worth the admission! For anyone that bought the stream, we can only apologise as right at the start we lost our internet signal, we hope that you still managed to catch the racing! Team spirit in the camp seems to be a high going into the cup semi next week, hopefully be a good one! Final massive shout out to the Monarchs fans in the crowd, hope you enjoyed the evening

I agree with your sentiment 100% but you’d not go in a restaurant every week if the food wasn’t good just cus you don’t want the restaurant to close - winning team isn’t the be all and end all for many all we want is good close racing feeling like you been entertained value for money ( certainly not worth £22 ) and for me not being taken for granted that you’ll turn up each week with 0% effort from the promotion to make fans feel valued. I certainly don’t want any club to close least of all Kings Lynn .

No need to apologise - Any image of anything related to Kings Lynn is dreadful

It wouldn’t. Ged was clear that we would continue to race in the second tier if no sale took place.

No one else wanted to buy it. Without him it would have possibly folded 4 years ago

This is correct, as far as I remember it's owned by Ipswich Speedway Limited which is nothing to do with the Witches.

There's a difference between stating facts and moaning. Richie Lawson is probably my favourite rider in the entire league, I mean the guy looks like Jesus and races like a champ.

Someone wake me up when Glasgow fans stop moaning! Don't see Redcar moaning about it when they were down do you? They were laughing and joking around most of the meeting and they actually know how to gate.

You sound like Tommy Cooper "Just like that......"!

So I guess he saved it by default then

Hence the number of tracks who run NDL teams, and can fill out their summer

Well I’ve looked on Twitter and from what I can see on Chris Louis Twitter page Chris definitely did not say what your quoting in fact he defended Buster .

I've just read Iainb's reply - it's all very confusing.

As @Cast1rn points out a simple solution is to make unnattatched guest riders matches count to their averages, like what they do in the National league. Despite any pitfalls mentioned I still think using an unnattatched guest is far more logical than a rider guesting for a rival & potentially putting his own team out of the play-offs / bsn semis etc

That’s what Speedway clubs always do, put it on the fans, by promoting fear.. Cov, Lynn recently, Newcastle, Swindon.. blah blah blah. seriously, what’s to lose.. a weekly tradition, you’ll soon find something else to replace it with, most others have. I’ve been attending since my Mum & Dad took me to Rye House when I was 6months old.. (obviously I was oblivious) we went every week, often to tracks of teams we didn’t support. I didn’t have a car for a few yrs (late 20’s) I’m 51 now.. I went to Peterborough and took my then gf and my mum.. gf had never been & mum had not attended for years… I was early 30’s.. I ran up to see the track, crowd..I was a kid again. I/we had a good night, but I soon realised it was amateurish.. C Horton was in charge at the time.. and it’s been a love/hate again ever since.. and then I went to Cardiff last year…with a mate who had never been there. I can’t even be arsed to explain what I thought of that day/night. i also had a letter published in the Speedway Star, years ago now.. saying the same s*it I and many others have been saying for years.. it’s effing boring & I bore myself with it.

And we had the rotten gate 2 the whole time basically. Don’t think the ref is even watching at the starts can basically roll as much as you want as mountain and Allen both got away with can even touch them in cooks case and it just gets called back.

Someone with a stopwatch can time the difference

Keith Chapman doesn't prepare the track. Keith Chapman didn't pick the team, so can't be blamed for the poor results. He's having to now so as to keep King's Lynn running for the remainder of the season. He's had to inherit an expensive rider in Artem Laguta, but has kept on board for the supporter's sake. The man is doing the best he can having to take on the financial side of the club, that he'd got rid of. I think we all know, that the team that was put together at the start of the season was poor decision making, but not the fault of Keith Chapman, as he had no financial input into the club, and just financed Peterborough to keep them afloat. Poor side I know, but the Pedersen didn't help, and I don't know who was responsible for putting the team together anyway, although I suspect it probably was Keith Chapman. To be fair, on paper, they didn't look a bad side, and should be doing better than they are. Neither club are producing racing of the quality that they used to, due to the track material that's being used. Whether that's down to cost, or unavailability of 'Red Shale' who knows. I know that Leicester have red shale, and the racing is worse there than either King's Lynn or Peterborough. But with regards to King's Lynn, I think Keith Chapman is receiving a lot of undeserved criticism. A man who bought the stadium, saved the speedway many years ago, and has provided the fans with some excellent years, and now some not so good years, and not his fault this season as already mentioned, but this sort of thing happens in any team sport. It's also been mentioned about poor crowds, but which team in the Premiership are enjoying really good crowds in this difficult financial time for us all with the cost of living, I can't think of one? Peterborough seems to be hold up quite well. Ipswich far from satisfactory compared to the past. Sheffield, Belle Vue, and Wolverhampton pretty abysmal, and Leicester, very poor. Sports club supporters seem to be very fickle when their club isn't doing well, none more so than speedway, but it's times like this, that your respective club in whatever sport, needs and deserves our loyalty and support through the not so good times, not just walking away from it.