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I'm not usually too critical of the TV coverage but last night, those first few heats especially, tipped me over the edge. It was horrendous and an embarrassment to the sport, you can only hope that nobody was watching for the first time. Track was a farce at the start, it soon became rideable but the entertainment on show was non-existent. Music sounded like it hasn't been changed since the Victorian era. Mechanic in the pits wearing a Redcar Bears shirt, branded attire is a great idea but to be wearing another club's shirt just looks so tinpot. Stuff like that may not be a massive issue alone but it all adds up to make the product seem amateurish. And then the coverage itself from Eurosport. Aside from the usual poor camerawork and wrong graphics, we now have them making a complete mess of the scores. Commentary.. I like Kelvin and the circumstance of him becoming lead commentator was obviously very sad but he's hopeless at that role. He must have been doing this job for over 20 years now and still spends half the time going "umm, er". He must know the rules but seems to forget them, consistently has trouble keeping up with the score and getting that wrong. Same old comments like for Chris Holder it's always "great to see him back in British speedway". Mix it up! Mention he's a Poole legend, started his career at the Isle of Wight or something like that. I also thought it was poor and almost disrespectful that he said he knew little of Luke Harrison. He was known to be riding a few hours before, if that's the case then maybe research a little about him? It's your job to do things like that.

After all the pile on over the Sheffield track are we going to discuss the joke that was served up last night? Or is Sheffield only track that’s allowed to be deemed dangerous? Both home and away riders couldn’t turn bike, riders falling through bends. Nicholls almost embarrassed to have to explain what was happening with the track on Eurosport

Just finished flicking thru this and I'm not one to moan like some about the sport but everything about that was rubbish

Its the second televised meeting in a row where Tatum thinks that two 5 - 1s are needed to get a draw when a team is 10 points behind

I really hope you get Peterborough back one day!

Thankfully he has recovered in time to ride in Sweden tonight. Brave soldier.

Too much of this sort of thing going on. Riders doing the TeamGB/Union Jack thing before they've done enough to prove their ability at club level. For example, how come Dan Thompson wasn't one of the GP reserves at Cardiff?

Let's just ignore the fact that your own riders were struggling most with the conditions. It's all someone else fault as per usual.

Wasn't a bad meeting at all against Birmingham, with some decent racing on a well prepared track. 20 of us down from Berwick checked into Ibis nice pub, next door Norfolk Arms £1-95 a pint as it was happy hour lol. Quick pint in the Old Crown then into the stadium, bumped into a Bandit from long way back Doug Wyer looking well. Booked a table for the carvery excellent view and food, although it wasn't £1-95 a pint so just the 1 lol. After the meeting we all went to the Bankers Draft to finish a good night off.

Just caught up with this and like everybody else I've got to say what a complete shambles of a televised sporting production in almost every aspect... I was half expecting Mick Fleetwood and Sam Fox to put in an appearance at some point!

New Twitter account created. @snsactiongroup Fans group "Swindon Needs Speedway" formed and mobilising now. Facebook account and petition to follow Please lend yoir support where you can. Swindonneedsspeedway@gmail.com is the email for any ideas, info or help you can provide Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1JVGuuYmhYJamnvB/

The irony of that first sentence bearing in mind the grief your fans dished out to Sheffield for their use of guests in last years playoffs when both their 1 and 5 were injured.

Wolves had The Karlsson Corridor,, and Foxhall has The Musical Youth Corridor,,,,, pass the Danny on the left hand side

He's a little lost without Nigel beside him, and Allen brings nothing to the party imo.

A new, more focused fans group had a kick-off meeting tonight. Lots going on in the background, with great support from.key people in Swindon and elsewhere. Mobilisation imminent.

Wasn't expecting the Tigers to win this especially when they were missing Dan and running RR for Woffy

No, it's eleventy thousand Priti Patel.

Is Diane Abbot doing the scores.

The whole production is comedy of errors.

Fair enough mate - I just went by what it said on the tin. 😉

let's see if he turns up at kings lynn thursday after having a extra day to recover from tonight's meeting ?

I'm only cheering for Ipswich on a temporary basis until Peterborough return. Peterborough is my team but I've gone to Foxhall a few times this season to see some live Speedway as it's my choice of track to visit while the Panthers are out of action so it's only natural to cheer them on in the process considering I'm paying to watch them. A bit like Wolves fans at Brum or Swindon fans at Oxford.

In answer to you quote about us predicting 10 point Witches win (I did). My reasons were (1) Sheffield away form has been poor. (2) Our form at Foxhall has been poor. (3) Holder brothers allegedly hate Foxhall. (4) Our reserves are far weaker than Ipswich. (5) Yes Ipswich were without Emil and Doyley, but they did bring in Dan Bewley fresh off a Grand Prix win. (6) Looking at the Ipswich team (Emil and Doyley been the exception), there is a big difference between the riders home and away average, which suggests that they have a team that is particularly good home form. Yes on paper we should have won, but speedway meetings are not won on paper, if they were we would have won at Oxford (1st meeting) and Kings Lynn. But I am more than happy that we won the meeting, but not daft enough to know that we would have lost if Emil and Doyley had been in the Ipswich team. Ipswich have been really unlucky this season, to lose 2 quality riders in Emil and Doyley has killed their season.

Exactly let's see if he turns up ? or is he going down same road as musielak and basso?

In general, individual Prem meetings go up on 365 around 2 -3 hours before the meeting starts.

It’s a tough one. Foxhall is very limited by its size and the external stock car track I’m not really sure how or If you can ever make it a better race track. However, as you say I can recall a lot better meetings with the old track shape. Although you can potentially put that down to the quality and racing attitude of the riders of the past that used to be in league Crump, Gollob, Adam’s, Rickardsson, Loram, Ward etc along with very different machinery. Having Doyle and Emil is key for Ipswich because even in defeat they make the meeting worth watching alone. Without them there is little to attract fans. As someone mentioned above we need someone like a Pickering outside those top 2 who is an old school racer and will always give 110%. Rew is probably our closest rider to that.

In Piccadilly gardens you can dodge drug addicts and step over pools of sick.

They cannot even get the start line riders correct... "Tactical Rides" seem to be Rider Replacement and any rider could be a "Rising Star" at any time...

Changes to the ownership of Berwick Speedway see co-owner Scott Courtney stepping down after seven years’ at the helm. Along with brother Jamie he bought the club from John Anderson in 2017 and has also acted as promoter and team manager during that spell. Jamie becomes sole owner of Berwick Speedway and will continue to plan for the 2025 season alongside promoter Steven Dews and team manager Stewart Dickson.

Nicholls explained clearly that the track in the first few heats needed a bit of old-style nous and skill with the bike. The Holders, as usual, weren't interested. As soon as it slackened off they were happy. Ipswich should have put water on it - I wonder if Morris had an influence on what was/wasn't done with the track ...

You don’t build a team with that kind of attitude though do you? You don’t pass up the opportunity of signing Jason Doyle and Emil Sayfutdinov on the remote chance they suffer season ending injuries. If every promotion took that view we would never have gone with Rickardsson Gollob and Louis in our treble winning year of 98, Cradley would never have gone with their all star side back in the early 80’s, Poole would never “gamble” on a top two of Holder and Darcy Ward during their trophy laden years. I’ve no doubt if every club had the budget to do so and the riders were available, every single one would build the same way. Injuries happen in this sport we all know that, but to lose not one but both of your world class top two is more than unlucky. There won’t be a single Ipswich fan though that won’t want the promotion to sign them up again next year just incase this happens again, that’s a cast iron certainty. We’ll take that risk ta. For all the stick King is getting by the way, he still isn’t fully fit either. He has metal work in his hand that is restricting his movement. But it’s his living, if he doesn’t ride he doesn’t earn but you won’t see the best of him for the remainder of this year either. It’s a season that promised everything, and has all gone wrong. The others won’t care of course and I don’t blame them one bit. Dog eat dog and down to the other three to take advantage. One final point the team this year was stronger than last years and comfortably so even though we missed out on the double in the final heat of the season. Rew and Thompson have improved on last year, and we carried an ill rider all year who shouldn’t have been riding last season which isn’t the case this year. Ellis has been a huge upgrade on Riss.

Isn't that just a case of a gamble taken by the management though ? Your last line sums it up, that your team 100% relied on the top 2 firing on all cylinders. It was the same last year, especially away from home, where the bulk of the points always came from Doyle and Emil. Bringing in Ellis strengthened the 1-5 this season, as has Thompson's performance, but it was a huge gamble to put all your eggs in 2 baskets so to speak. Sheffield in a similar situation in that they chose to run with 2 rising stars this season in order to have a stronger 1-5. Losing Tai has had a massive impact due to the way the team was built and running R/R away from home has been a struggle at times, but what can you do when 6 out of 7 are riding on the same night ? Both managers took a chance with their team structures this season, and both have suffered for it, but without the injuries they would have been way ahead of everyone else.

I wouldn’t call the racing at Sheffield entertaining either. Your lot were embarrassing on here yesterday. “We’re never winning this, you’ll see” “easy 10 point Witches win” “50-40 Ipswich or more”. You were facing a team that has literally had the stuffing ripped out of them, a team missing their 1st, 2nd and 3rd heaviest scorers at home and replaced them with rider replacement, Batchelor and a quality rider who has proven can’t get to grips with the place. Your pretence that you were never winning it was pathetic.

I think you have more pressing issues to worry about with your own team

It isn’t just you, it’s killed the atmosphere and enthusiasm stone dead. It’s got to the rest of the team now too as alluded to by King last night. Him, Rew and Thompson are now riding a level below what we’ve seen previously this season, it’s drained everybody. Hawkins has made a rallying cry on the official website as you’d expect him to do, they still need to try and get people through the door, but the truth is it’s become a chore to go. Just have to muddle through these next few weeks, and then go again next year.

Last night showed, in my opinion, how much Emil was carrying the team whilst Doyle is out. I said before that we will now go on a losing streak until Birmingham when he isn’t in the team. Missing the top two riders in the league if not in all of speedway. No rider can cover for them. Emil is the only person who is capable of covering Doyle. Maybe it’s just me but that special sparkle about foxhall isn’t there without Emil and Doyle, heat 13/15 were so exciting.

No, that is not quite correct. ONLY the race leader needs to have completed two laps for the referee to be able to award a race.

Ipswich mentally capitulated as soon as they went behind tonight, The belief just went to a point where it was easy points money for the Sheffield riders for the second half of the meeting. Even Howarth filled his boots towards the end.

That was a perfect start from Jack whether he guessed it or not. Holder boys running riot

Which is amazing given the track record...

This track might just be up there on the top step of podium as the worst speedway track on the planet. Truly watching gutter speedway tonight.

19 points in 3 heats !!!! Pathetic captions

Have they got a 3 year old doing the graphics tonight?

15 metres? He just got excluded Kelvin for falling... And Allen doesn't know the rules either..

Tatum thinks Harrison could go off 15m after being excluded for a fall!

Bit of a strange start to show, presumed Abi not there, but then she is.

Do a bit of googling as you’ll find that’s very much an incorrect assumption. Of all the UK cities outside our capital Manchester is the top destination for tourists. Having more than double the amount of hotel beds than Cardiff provided by many different operators, it is hoped more affordable rates would be available. Problem there though is with Manchester being so popular availability would be an issue.

The south stand was never completed and that was a bugbear for the initial promoters. When they stopped paying whilst awaiting a resolution the council with the assistance of Chapman, kicked them out. Still waiting for a completed south stand and the increased capacity it would give us.

I think all the comments on here support what the ref said afterwards (and top marks to him for showing his face and describing his thought process) There will be a % of people who see Nicholls at fault and a % who see it as Wright's fault, in the refs opinion that split was 60-40, or even 55-45 towards it being Scottie to blame. So you will get many arguing one way and another, but ultimately it's all irrelevant now, the result is history and Redcar won the Pairs. The downside was the reaction at the presentation, if Scott had a grievance it was with the ref not Charles, who 100% did not not want a collision. It appeared petulant and like a real spoilt brat throwing the toys out of the pram! Being a Bears fan, my view is possibly biased, so I'm not getting into the debate, but without doubt the title went to the correct team based on the running of the final, when you see where Masters was entering those bends, no way was he catching Wright, even if Nicholls had got passed and kept 2nd.

The business end of the season is approaching. Never thought I would be saying this but I don’t think anyone will fancy facing the Lions, who on recent form have proved that they can outscore anyone over two legs. Whilst we do not have guaranteed points in heats 13 & 15, the top five are looking pretty solid. We are frequently outscored at reserve, but I think if Cook can pick up where he left off, the Lions have a chance of being top dogs. Cookies performance will be key and if he can maintain or hit just above his current average, we could probably carry Hagon and treat his points as a bonus. This all of course assumes that the team will not be hit any injuries.