Leaderboard

Credit where it's due, Vinnie Foord showing "future world champion" Ashton Boughen the way to ride Speedway tonight!

Coles and Smith 20years between them in the sport and Vinnie makes them look like juniors.

You can see a big difference in the team managers of the two clubs. Last week Schroeck leaves Boughen in his 4th ride, doesn't give Killeen a 6th race. Tonight despite Poole being well ahead & having one hand on the trophy, Middlo drops Hagon for Thomsen in heat 8. Perhaps a shame for Hagon, but shows Poole's mentality when it comes to winning. Then Jack Smith scores more than Connor Coles (who doesn't beat an opponent) but Coles gets more rides! Does Schroeck even fill in a programme?

Have resisted posting on this thread till now but..... VF does ride like he stole it, does look like he's on the ragged edge, and does witness quite a few offs from close up. But he is a highly entertaining rider, I'm not a great fan of his reactions to opposition fans but can see where it comes from. He will improve with time/experience, and referees will be well aware of his reputation. But the real question is "can he afford to carry on racing" at the rate he currently wrecks his bikes (he reminds me of the early years of The Who).

I had a movement this morning, funnily enough, reminded me of your posts..

In all fairness, he had the talent to go all the way and suffered from plenty of horrendous injuries that most wouldn't come back from. Can't knock him for that. The crash at Lynn in particular, to actually come back from that and score as well as he did in the following years is insane.

Jesus! £8k raised for the injured Oxford riders?!? That could keep Birmingham going for 10 years! Good effort Oxford fans 👍🏻

Come join us... In your dreams 😂

Watch out Vinnie's about.

Sore loser,me thinks.Him and Cami have o lot in common.

The semi finals nothing to do with the finals? Give me a minute 🤔

The irony lol.

I’ve been there all night with a hosepipe constantly running, think I’ve flooded it enough. Poole now to have the first leg

Tolley seems all over the place with his stories,skint last week, now running next year( if everything works out).Has he found another suitcase under the bed.

There is a lot of talk about admission prices and the correlation with attendance figures. If prices were a couple of quid lower, would a few more of hundred spectators show up? Trying to apply simple business economics in this sport in its current state is pointless. If prices went up or down by around £3 to £5 next season I do not think it would make much difference to attendances, due to the fans age demograph. The sport relies on die hards in the 60 plus age group who will always moan about prices but will still pay to watch the sport because ‘we always have done’. Being brutally honest, even when some clubs have offered serious discounts on certain meetings, the number of additional attendees is usually underwhelming. Getting people through the turnstile is one thing, but then delivering a product to want the casual supporter to return is another. Club’s are not naive enough to think that there are queues of people waiting for admission price tweaks to visit their tracks. Fact of the matter is, the people that could make an impact financially aren’t aware of the sport and worse still, are not aware of a track that might be local to them. Promotion of the sport in the UK on the whole sums up all of the above.

Vinnie Foord waving to the crowd and getting the finger from the 4th bend. Paid 9 max tells these abusers all they need to know. 😛

Shovvy will be on here telling you how the Pirates are the underdogs 😂

Brennen’s start then was interesting

Doesn’t matter how much talent you’ve got. If you've got no bottle then speedway is not a sport for you. I've seen plenty of young talent over the years. Lee, Havelock , Screen and Loram to name but a few. Never saw them shut it off going into the 1st turn. How old was PC when he had the run off with Anders at Wembley? 17/18. Rider today think they are still learning at 19. They have been riding bikes since they could walk!! It's Embarrasing watching the likes of Coles and Smith attampting to ride a speedway bike. Got about 20 years experience between them!!! I think heat 8 was a prime example of Boughen and Coles

Boughen Shutting off again going into first corner

One of the commentators on the radio is really struggling to contain himself from swearing when it comes to Vinnie Foord. The young lad's got to give it back after the crowd gave it to him.

Found this match on YouTube & it's very entertaining. Can't help but feel really angry towards the Stadium owners for kicking the Speedway out. Really hope Wolves can ride again. https://youtu.be/gZlOlb2dBfk?feature=shared

I would compare him to the other riders around him in the averages, and yes, I think he is good value against them, albeit a risk. If he can reign in the riding a little, he will continue to improve his average and pick up more points just by crashing less. The risk is he crashes and hurts himself. I'd say he's worth the risk. Speedway is inherently a risky sport.

Fully realise I'm stating the obvious but just cannot see Poole losing this. Killen will be a huge miss for Oxford and the choice of reserve guests (presumably restricted) are poor. Cannot see either Oxford reserve stepping up to the plate but I'd loved to be proved wrong. Hats off to Dan Gilkes by the way for getting stuck in!

Get Laguta into the team. A reliable number 1 is a must for a competitive team.

Even Poole pirates can’t control the weather

If Carlsberg made councillors. . . . . She has been 100% with us since day one, we cannot thank her enough for her unwavering support.

I have never been a fan of using play off's in speedway to decide a league winner, but I have been a lone voice on here over the years. I accept it may have worked in the past to offer some good finals, let's be honest it relies on luck as much as anything. Let the league winner be the team that finish's top of the league. Right now we are seeing 'luck' being the factor in the play offs. Luck that the weather plays nicely, and come late Sept/Oct in the UK it's not something you would put money on. Instead of the league winner being the team that have been consistent from Apr-Sept, that team could have bad luck in one match and lose the title, so the league winner to some degree relies on luck in the play-off's. Recent years we have seen play off matches full of guest riders, and riders who only sign on once their lucrative Polish leagues finish. The biggest farce of all this season, there's only seven bloody teams in the league. If we the TV deal insists on this farcical play off situation, with just seven teams let's just make it that the top two in the league contest a play off final and let that be at the first week in September when we may still have acceptable weather.

Why don't you worry about your own team, who bottled it again

Iversen a dead cert from what Rob told me in Torun 2 weeks ago

Oxford should be doing the refunds.

No, it was his engine that went.

Anyway get back to the Premiership!

Sam Ermolenko? 🤔😂 2 meetings in a month!

Actually I wouldn't mind Kerr as he won't have the pressure of being no1 with Lawson there.

Think Poole have got it handed on a plate. Oxford guests are a poor choice, but perhaps that’s all was available.

2 league's and the G.Ps is enough..Freddie wants that G.P Crown ...

Who cares, why do people on here have to describe every movement they make?

What did he say? Did he apologise for the blooper in heat 12 at Cowley?

I have openly stated on here numerous times that Ipswich were the strongest team in the league, and without injuries would probably have done the double. Both teams took gambles that didn't pay off. Sheffield gambled on 3 strong heat leaders and a weak reserve pairing, but losing 1 of those for the majority of the season hampered us, and weaker guests and R/R were our downfall. Ipswich gambled on having the best lead pairing in the league. Without injuries it is quite likely that we would have both been in both finals (awaits arguments from BV fans 😂), but unfortunately injuries are part and parcel of speedway and the gambles failed on this occasion.

I'd be happy if people stopped mentioning Worrall!

It will ultimately be the riders that decide where they go. Using Brennan as an example, if he contacted Ipswich and asked them for a place, should Ipswich refuse to entertain him because it isn’t fair on Birmingham? I think Birmingham have a problem here. Firstly they’ve publicly declared money issues and have only just cobbled together the finance to state their intentions to run, so what message does that send out to riders who will have options? There’ll be riders they can sign because nobody else will want them with all due respect, but you have to ask the question what can Birmingham afford to pay Brennan or a number 1? They’ll also have concerns about job security. Again, after publicly stating their financial issues, riders may well have concerns about them completing the season. If you’re a rider in demand, do you stay at Birmingham or go for a better pay cheque and job security elsewhere?

Yes it will be back next season! And you didn’t need the midseason transfer in of Cairns haha.

And you will finish at the foot of the table

Yes I’m gutted.

RIP Len and thank you for what you did for our sport. There will never be anyone like him again.

The aim surely has to be to get those who attend "now and again", to attend more regularly... They are the ones that a price reduction may inspire.. Just look at the PO Finals to see how many "locals" attended their tracks.. It shows that there is more than enough potential interest, but just not for "PO Qualifiers", at the price being charged..

I think we know the ahswer as it has already been done. Called the Craven and Young Shields, these competitions were notoriously poorly attended.

It depends on how much British speedway really wants to promote and market itself. Too many people I speak to who don’t know much about speedway don’t even know the scoring system or what colour hats means what. It needs to be reset and pushed showing the sport in a new light. In an era where people want everything instant (TikTok etc) then speedway should hold its own as it’s fast paced. Apart from when Eurosport turn up obviously

Why not start a petition to have Russia withdraw from Ukraine? You'd have as much hope of success, but at least an ethical reason for organising it.....