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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.

Belle Vue were very ineffective from reserve last season so it’s not always crucial to find a strong No6. If that position had scored no points we’d have still qualified and even won the final. The only hypothetical bugbear is the semi which we would have lost. Having said that would a No6 score zero all year? Even our most ineffective reserve (not counting Jake) averaged 3 per meeting. Aside from heat 2, poor reserves don’t see you drop back in the progressive scores and you can leave it to your big hitters to soak up the damage in later heats. These days we don’t seem to get the super reserve of seasons past that would take seven rides and score a shed load of points so the old adage that reserves win meetings doesn’t hold true the same, in my opinion.

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.

Another legend gone- Leapin' Len. What a showman!!. Apparently he passed away in his sleep- a good way to go!! Any memories from other forumlanders. I never got to see him ride, unfortunately, but I certainly remember him as the Hackney promoter.

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

Super Vinnie. Paid 9 Max so far. Quality young rider. ☠️

Is his 2nd bike a 250?

No, it was his engine that went.

😆😁😆 Coming from you thats the best joke ive heard all week

I seem to recall you were pretty spot on last season with your line up! Its a decent line up too the one you suggest!

These guys just take Clubs to the cleaners if the money is right.Fricke is a perfect example just takes easy points ,when the going gets tough he goes missing.

Probably not close enough!! It's only this season he's improved.😜

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.

The same four team tournament every week...it's a winner

It would help him win GP’s at the technical indoor tracks like Cardiff.

Luke Harrison and Ace Pijper will be better reserves for us than Ablitt.

Christ if someone’s been in his ear he must have ears the size of an elephant.

Lookout the expert track curator is offering his opinion again 😂

Not sure I would expect big names at Perry Barr next season, due to their ongoing issues. I would anticipate a team similar to this: 1. Ben Cook 2. Justin Sedgmen 3. Danny King/Adam Ellis 4. Zach Cook 5. Luke Becker 6. Wiktor Lampart 7. Joe Thompson

Scrap play offs . Winners of league proper are proper league winners. Its not gonna take a genius with a pencil & paper to work it out !!🤨

Not many have done more for Speedway than Uncle Len. R.I.P.

Probably best to stick that on pigs might fly in the 3:30 at Kempton 🏇

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

This one is not so much where are they now but 'what they did next.' I have been clearing out my elderly cousin's house recently and came across a George Medal which was awarded to his grandfather during WW2. There is a list of recipients on a Wikipedia page. As it turned out, he isn't on there, but I found the name of a Lionel Van Praag (World Champion 1936) who won the medal whist serving in the Australian Air Force around the same time: On 26 January 1942 Van Praag was the co-pilot of a Douglas DC-2 which was attacked by two Japanese fighters and forced down into the Sumba Strait, Indonesia. The aircraft soon sank, leaving Van Praag, his pilot Flying Officer Noel Wilson Webster, and two other crewmen in open water. Webster gave his life-jacket to a crewman who could not swim, while the other was semi-conscious, having been injured in the crash. Webster and Van Praag managed to drag them safely to shore, but were in the water for thirty hours, during which time they beat off several attacks by sharks.[168]

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.....