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The legendary Polish former National speedway team coach, Marek Cieslak, commented in sportowefakty.pl results of Poland’s sport Personality 2024 plebiscite announced yesterday. When mentioning fifth placed achieved by the 5-times world champion, Bartosz Zmarzlik, and problems with speedway, Marek Cieslak said this: It is a complex issue. We need the successes of our national teams, which we do not have. We have achieved the best league in the world, which has great viewership. The problem is that the Grand Prix series cannot keep up with this at all, and it is folding down. This is visible, for example, in the locations. There are no new ones, and in addition, large stadiums are slowly disappearing. The FIM and the promoter Discovery are responsible for this. In addition, the best riders in the world do not ride in the series. The recent nominations for wild cards and their translation into geographical terms are a joke. All this means that the Grand Prix arouses interest in fewer and fewer countries. I have the impression that even here (i.e. in Poland) it does not generate the same emotions as it used to. If it were, the successes and the phenomenon of Zmarzlik would have a much greater echo in the country. Do you think that it is time for Artiom Łaguta and Emil Sajfutdinov to return to the series? Initially I was against them, but now I think they should be in the series. Zmarzlik would also benefit from the presence of Artiom Łaguta or Emil Sayfutdinov. I have no doubt that he would still win, but then his successes, this rivalry with the Russians would arouse much more emotions. In this way, the audience would be larger. Please remember what rivals Tomasz Gollob had. He had to compete with Tony Rickardsson, Greg Hancock, Billy Hamill, Jason Crump, Mark Loram, Hans Nielsen, Leigh Adams, Ryan Sullivan and many other great stars. Each of them had papers for the title. Now the series lacks such figures.

Sounds right to me, bob was a really nice bloke .

Quite a few riders get offers from many teams some say yes to the first and knock back other offers then weeks later there told sorry couldn’t fit you in and left without a team

I’m not convinced of that. Time will tell.

If that is what it takes to get a level and FAIR playing field - then YES, I agree with Gambo95.

I believe he rode under the name of Squire in his early days during the Second World War when he rode those foreign tracks while in the army. Can I count it now, please?

I have just been reading a 1933 Wembley programme and there was a rider called Mohammed Tella from Abyssinia (Ethiopia and Eritrea today). Mohammed lost both programmed match races against Leopold Killmeyer from Austria!

Possibly, but you have to believe the club has done what it considers best for the team...

Why was the first leg of the semi finals for the BSN trophy run at the end of August with the final completed in October? This is the start of season competition and teams held the competition up. Tell teams you are racing before a certain date or you are thrown out the competition.

not heard anything but should be soon. I hope Poole refrain from stacking their fixtures in second half of season, Poole will likely progress in all 3 competions but a few rainoffs on the south coast could really hold up competitions for everyone.

Cumulative totals after R2:

R2 scorers:

Nobody will ever take British speedway seriously until they adopt the Lucky Loser rule like Poland and Sweden.

Kurtz also sent lidsey thru the tapes

A football fan would probably see similarities with the EFL Trophy where Premier League U21 sides are added to make up the numbers. If we go by last year instead, try explaining to a new fan that one team have decided not to bother entering and the two worst teams in the league have been given a bye to the semi-finals.

Potentially on 26 March at Wimborne Road a spectacular clash of the titans of speedway could take place? With such a early season meeting and riders availability at a high, we could see the likes of Robert Lambert, Bartosz Zmarzlik or even Artem Laguta lining up. Now this would be spectacular and a meeting worth attending and an attendance at a record high to pay the guests?

I dont really know why giving a team a bye is so bad, far more credible than having a team from a lower league in it. As you say it would not happen in football

Not sure any 'new fan' would need any negative explanation from any existing fan? 7 Prem teams plus the Championship Champions - They would surely just be happy and content with 4 cup quarterfinals. As for Poole not wanting Premiership, they've been there, lost money, can't race on their traditional Weds race night and still get healthy Championship attendances with 30% less cost! It's a no brainer a d has been well documented.

17-year old speedway rider Mario Häusl and his parents paid a courtesy visit to the Seychellois Minister of Sports on January 2, 2025. https://www.nation.sc/articles/24603/seychellois-motor-racer-mario-husl-calls-on-minister-zialor The visit on Thursday even made it into the Seychelles national 8 o'clock News (begins at minute 12:20 in the SBC News video)

the last thing the sport needs is more guests if poole want to strengthen up then it should be with unattached riders who want an extra couple of meetings

At least they didn't borrow Chris and Jack Holder. 😁

He struggled last time he rode Plymouth only scored 15pts from 5 rides. The track has been improved since then.

Final Result 1st Kurtz 2nd J Holder 3rd C Holder 4th Rew Top 4 scorers Kurtz 18 J Holder 15 C Holder 15 Rew 13

Depends on the reasoning for the RS, to decide it "hasn't worked". The system has given many young / inexperienced Brits opportunities in the top flight, this alone should save money on flights if foreign riders were used at reserve instead. Also just because a rider hasn't moved out of the RS system, doesn't mean he hasn't improved as a rider. Look at the Championship averages of Jenkins & Edwards, they keep improving - has racing in the Prem helped cause that? Look at Kemp & Mountain, riders who got dropped not because of poor form but to try & improve the team, this would happen far more without the RS scheme. Maybe that's the only negative I can come up with, as riders like Kemp & Mountain are considered "number 7 quality" so miss out on Premiership team spots. Even when Dan T got dropped, without the RS scheme, he may not have got picked up by Ipswich, would he have improved so quickly without gaining another spot? I know some people will say "if you're good enough you'll get a chance anyway" but look at Dan T in the Champ in 2023. No club wanted him at the start of the season, Birmingham signed then dropped him, till he finally got a spot with Plymouth. This is the sort of thing that could easily happen more often in the Prem without the RS scheme. Every year there will be riders at the bottom of a teams average (below 4) no matter what system is used, I just think it's better to have Brits in these positions. I had a quick look at the last season before "rising stars" 2019 to see who ended up at number 7. One promising Aussie (Ryan Douglas), two young Brits (Perks & Sarjeant), three riders who didn't average over the minimum 4.00 (Porsing, Wells, Ostergaard) and one who never returned to ride over here (Berge) so if we got rid of the RS system and ended up back as it was then, is that any better? Ps sorry for the rambling, I find it hard to condense my thoughts down lol!

Cardiff had plenty of options if you were willing to go on a 20 min train ride.

As he hasn't ridden for Poole for about 3 years not sure what you mean.

He was slated by people on here who usually whine at absolutely anything. I thought he was brilliant, and he gave the sport great coverage when working on his other sports like the darts and footy. He was extremely clued up on the sport and knew what he was talking about and his excitement coupled with that made for an excellent commentator. As I stated before, he and Tatum worked great together but Tatum hasn't got it in him to be lead commentator and obviously cannot handle the pressure hence why he makes so many mistakes, mistakes that you wouldn't hear from him before when working alongside Pearson. Looking back, Sky Sports was brilliant for speedway and their coverage of both league racing and GPs was absolutely streets ahead of what we get served up with now. Being in Australia I barely watch anything other than the GPs anymore and that is even when work allows so are usually repeats but I find the overall presentation dull and second rate. Pearson and to a lesser extent Millard could make a dull meeting sound exciting whereas the current crop have the reverse effect and make top meetings seem dull and flat.

Exactly and They wonder why they can’t attract new supporters and keep them.