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For me the core product is very good, it is just the nonsense rules that prevent the actual leagues from ever being taken seriously... How the hell can anyone take seriously Peterborough's Bomber helping Ipswich to beat Belle Vue in the Semi, and then helping Sheffield beat Ipswich in the Final? You simply cannot market that.... Less riders per team would mean more riders to replace injured ones, so guests could be eradicated if the will was there .. A fit for purpose RR facility would also mean no need for guests... Development should be the 2nd Divs priority not Div 1, and clear demarcation within the leagues should always exist so the top league can be marketed as "Elite"... Every sport needs a "flagship" league that sells the sport with the other leagues feeding off it.. National generic marketing has to be the biggest opportunity. Huge amounts are spent on riders, very few of which bring a big crowd in, yet very, very little is spent on marketeers who may be able to put some bums on seats... Being able to take league racing seriously first though is needed before any money is spent hiring any marketing companies...

He's expensive, but he's really reliable, has immense experience and can help the rest of the team and provide a composed figure in the pits - which we need. I think his off-bike value is gold for the rest of the team.

Our problem with Marcin was that his Polish team rode on Saturdays and practice was Fridays, which he missed due to riding at Glasgow and was fined by his Polish club for missing practice. Marcin was hugely popular at Glasgow and was improving week on week, especially when you think that his first meeting at Berwick he struggled to get round and scored zero, his last meeting he scored a faultless maximum. His Polish club at that time were doing well and had reached the playoffs, and as he was captain of the team they recalled him and we were left a bit in the lurch, fortunately it worked out well with signing Tarasenko, would never have happened if Marcin had stayed.

Technically doesn't have to happen again, Scunny would settle for 44 points lol!

Out on the very same limb as they were in 1970 to 1981 and 1999 to 2018......during both of those periods I recall very much of seeing a great many away followers at Derwent Park....then enjoying a pint with many post meeting. Workington is not on Mars ok.???

This year, second string, yes. At 38 points, Connor might be a heat leader, but at the least, a strong second string. We've all got to adjust our expectations of who fits where. Half the heat leaders might be unemployed next year, and will come back in 2025 to replace the 2024 heat leaders, whose averages will increase so much they become unemployable.

Just been announced that Workington are moving up to the championship.

Who paid for air fences when they were introduced? The club will have to foot the cost. In any other sport it would be seen as an investment to mitigate future financial losses. Unfortunately the people in speedway cannot see beyond next week. How about Premiership clubs spending some money on covers instead of paying money they can barely afford to so called GP level big hitters who show next to no commitment to British Speedway. Nah, of course not.

It's October, why is anyone surprised at this scenario? Just maybe, if nobody turned up because they don't want to risk wasting time and money, you might get a season that ends at the end of August or mid September when you have half a chance of seeing riders race on a half decent track and without being sat at home, race rusty, for the last few weeks before going into a 'final'. It's not rocket science.

I have nothing against NDL racing and have, in the past, frequently championed the third tier. As a regular at places like Isle of Wight, Mildenhall, Belle Vue and Scunthorpe over the years, I have seen - and often greatly appreciated - the NDL. The new Workington track is superb and a great credit to Andrew Bain and Steve Lawson. The NDLRC should be the showpiece event of the year with all the league's top riders taking part. By my calculation, there are just 4 of the top 16 that should be there, and Belle Vue and Oxford are sending riders who aren't even in the teams top 5. That's not good enough.

Come on young man even you know in your position he only says to the dwindling masses what others have decided. Even if he disagrees he has to go with the majority

Simmo summed him up in his book...DJ would cut corners to save money and it proved costly more than once.

Hearty congratulations to Connor Bailey on his big win, 100% deserved. Well done to Max & Jacob too on finishing 2nd & 3rd Great track, great facilities, great fans and welcome to Championship League

Both 4.00 in prem so I'm working off current conversion rate being 6.00

Fair enough I have the season ticket for both divs but didn’t know this was extra. Spent my money on the Scunthorpe stream instead.

It was quite clear at the start of the season the fixtures that were included in the package you subscribed too.You can purchase any other you want to watch separately. Nothing to talk about really.

Given that the OP asked for those who could have been greats if they had committed to ride in Britain, I'll throw in Chris Watson who confined himself more to other motor cycle disciplines back in Aussie. In more recent times Rune Holta reached 4th in the World afaik, but could he have took it a stage further with UK experience?

yeah big simon will come show you pirates how its done

Great to have you back , not before time. Hearing Connor will be back at Glasgow next year was always the plan to send him out this season to gain more experience. Never say never though but fantastic to see the Comets back.

Bailey as a reserve / second string at the very best. That’s about it. Championship heat leader Bailey is not!

I'm sure Poole will be the happier of the two teams, but this is far from over, given Scunthorpe drew at Poole in the play-offs.

20 heats and a rostrum run off, the way individual meetings should be run...

I'd suggest that not riding Monmore every week will do him the world of good too.

lucky super si hit the air fence!

No i doubt it, very happy with result, we will win cup easily.

Great win for Conor , 2 big titles for him

But he was 5 times world long track champion, that may have been the problem. Not all could do both speedway and long track at the very top level. Seems like Simon Wigg was one of them. Get hold of his book if you can, a very good read.

So, in that case, if the riders can't be bothered, why should the fans? Got to feel sorry for Workington promotion. It's probably costing them money to host the event and the field doesn't really have a Riders Championship feel to it, so fans might choose to stay away. On top of that, there is a big announcement after the meeting and IF it is that they are moving up to Championship level, they appear to have little choice as, if it is to be believed, there will be no NDL next season. Just hope they aren't being asked to move up too quickly as it could all end in tears, but I really hope not.

I really don't know about the drainage but I do know that drying conditions in October ain't what they are earlier in the year with hours of daylight and the strength of the sun etc. There was a lot of rain in Friday and if that's stuck in the shale without those summertime drying conditions it's always going to take longer to dry out

Trying to think back to last time had RS in champ sure were 3s categorised. But then they had 3 categories if I remember correctly.

I think Toni Kasper Jr would have achieved more if he had had more than 1 1/2 seasons in the British League

And remember how after last year Leicester assured us they had sorted out their drainage problems. Do you think that might have been wishful thinking?

Surely Phil Morris has only been appointed as 'Chief Executive of Premiership Speedway' rather than the whole sport.?! His main aims, certainly initially, were to improve the presentation (promotion?) by all Premiership clubs for Eurosport/Discovery TV. I'm sure there is a Monty Python quote somewhere - "he's not the Messiah.....................?" (I forget the rest!)

Tai definitely added to the crowds at Sheffield when he came back

Agreed, but the problems with British Speedway (and many other sports) are wide ranging and fairly complex and the time for radical change has sadly long gone. The opportunities missed due to poor management and navel gazing can not be changed with a silver bullet. I have little confidence that Phil Morris has the acumen or authority to make a significant difference. Back woodsman Godfrey clearly wants to bring down the sport down to his clubs level as frankly he hasn’t the capability or vision to raise the sports profile. Where do we go from here? Well we are past the point of no return and short of a miracle and an investment of many many millions of pounds I fear British speedway will continue to slowly spiral into oblivion.

That’s just the norm these days in all Championship Individual Events.Riders doas they please.

Who pays for them? Where will they be stored? Can they be fixed to an air fence? etc. Easy to say but not easy to do or fund.

Track covers should be mandatory for every club. Of course this won’t stop postponements if rain sets in 15 minutes before a meeting starts, or stop abandonments if it starts raining during a meeting, but it will reduce the number of postponements and nights like yesterday, considerably.

This should be Connor Bailey’s to lose imo could see boughen easily finishing on the rostrum though.

October ain't all bad... i was at Peterborough last Saturday night after it had been 23 degrees and fine all day. I will be going to Scunny this afternoon to watch the Cup Final as a neutral, I'll be going to see the Olimpique tomorrow. I have seen many decent matches in October and also some rain effected ones... as I have in every other month of the Speedway season. Speaking as a fan of a team whose season was over at the end of August I do not want the whole season to be over by then. Leicester f***ed up yesterday and they need calling out for it but to say the season should run from April to August is not the answer. We had a lot of heavy rain on Friday, the answer is track covers to enable matches to take place

I think he would hsve done. Scored a max in the world pairs final as well iiirc, and was favourite for the final. Drew two heats in gate 3 which scored only around 19pts all night...always needed a little luck to be world champ, and he never had it.

He won the British Semi Final at Sheffield, the British Final, the Commonwealth Final and came 6th in the Intercontinental Final.

Again a most welcome site...thank you!

A lot of fuss over Thompson & Ablitt riding at Scunthorpe but I don't understand why that means there are nine changes

You say squandering - I say utilising With your thinking you don't have the top riders which means you don't have the TV and sponsor money That evens out but then you have the 200 less fans which means the clubs are 200 lots of admission money worse off All is well though as we get to see Simon Lambert instead of Emil Sayfutdinov........ (Apologies to Simon - just the first name that came to mind )

2 hours round trip in the car and eighteen quid to watch . . . . . . . a parade. Ridiculous. The sport sure knows how to shoot itself in the foot. Several Peterborough fans there tonight, testing the water it would seem, I’ll bet they weren’t impressed.

The reality is that there is no clear direction, hence teams can pick and choose what level to race in, as and when it suits them.. Those in the top flight deserve the TV money as they are the ones that get covered.. Unfortunately, more teams in the top league would dilute that money, therefore it isn't viable for many teams to even consider it.. What we have is hanging on by a thread if you use the last ten years worth of track closures and defections as a barometer of the next decade to come... Maybe now Phil Morris has a full season (and pre season), he can make a fundamental difference.. Without a clear generic growth plan for the sport as a whole though, it will not work.. Sheffield and Glasgow won their respective leagues but it has hardly raised a ripple of publicity nationally... But, next year, if nothing changes, every track will no doubt, once again, try and ensure they can manipulate success by using some ill conceived, ambiguously written regulation that let's them have some success.. Whilst, all the while, diluting any kudos in winning, and preventing wider mainstream coverage, by their very insular focused actions.. UK Speedway sadly thinks small time, insular, and short term, and that isn't ever going to grow it organically, generically and nationally... Putting an extra 200 on one tracks gate due to their "success" really isn't progress.. Putting 200 on every track, however small that still may be, is... And may start some momentum for further growth..

Getting proof of attendance at any speedway meeting is like counting hens teeth You'd have the same issue trying to prove my claim isnt true They aren't the saviours although they would have more chance of being so if it weren't for to the woeful way the sport is administrated As for them draining the money I don't agree. That largely comes from TV and individual sponsors who in general wouldn't put that money in for a run of the mill alternative

Just to Thank BSN for coverage this season, really well done, brilliant quality pictures and a nice relaxing way it’s is presented.Outstanding value for money. WELL DONE GUYS.

There isn't a Berwick fan out that would take Etheridge over Flint, my own opinion still hasn't changed, even with this managerial change. I hope Leon Flint looks for pastures new for 2024 and move on and up with his career.