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Green light given, so first home meeting will be on Thursday. Hope it’s a massive success for all involved

Joined the crowd for my second meeting at Brafield last night. 60 years ago (Brafield v Cradley 'B') I was with my new bride, this time we were 3 generations ! Speedway Champions

The ultimate answer is stop complaining about what other countries/businesses are doing and focus on what you are doing wrong and strive be the best at the job and then that problem goes away

What, for the reform or tory clowns? 14 years of their rule has left the country in tatters, and well done Nigel for brexit, what a disaster.

Thoughts on last night... Had to queue to get into the car park, but I think I arrived just at the time when the main car park became full and they had to open the mahoosive overflow car park. Gaining entry to the stadium was a bit of a shambles, after watching the video earlier in the afternoon where it said the e-ticket gates were situated on the left side of the turnstiles, when I approached all punters were being funnelled in through the same cordoned area, a lot were just ignoring this and just heading to the e-ticket gate and nipping under the rope, which I also did (shame on me) but because everybody was being funneled in the same way there was actually nobody using the credit card turnstile and there were another 2 cash turnstiles open to the left of the e-ticket gate, again with nobody queuing! Teething troubles I know but a bit of forethought could have been used. It took an age to get through with my e-ticket as well, not sure if there was a problem with the system as nobody seemed to be gaining entry for around 5 minutes. Surprised to see the grandstand actually on the back straight when I entered. I then had the decision of where to stand, it was a choice between backstraight/turn 2 with a very bright sun shining directly in my eyes or turn 1, 3 or home straight. I plumped for the home straight but it was difficult to see with the perimeter catch fencing in place, especially with the sun shining on it, this ceased to be an issue when the sun set and the excellent lights took effect. Early on gate 4 seemed to be a huge advantage but the track does show promise, as I've said earlier when it's prepared better, it was far too dry and looked a bit choppy in places, there weren't really any (successful) big blasts around the outside but some good tussles with riders easing their opponents off the line on the inside coming out of the bends. It reminded me a lot of King's Lynn with the stand, the grey fencing, the concrete infield and Buster milling about. There did seem to be a lack of sponsorship, the team, as far as I am aware are not sponsored and there were no sponsor signs on any of the fence panels, even the league sponsorship banners were non-existent. Presentation was a bit subdued, Dave Rowe in the box and Craig Saul on the roving mic, they're both good at what they do in their own style but there was no real hype going on, no come on get behind your team, no real hyping of the riders, just the usual reading out of the heat runners and a few interviews all interspersed with music from the 80's and 90's... all very Speedway 😁 Getting out wasn't as smooth as it should have been either as we seemed to have to exit the same way we got in through the turnstiles, all of which weren't open, there didn't seem to be a big gate to let punters out and by the smell of the bogs just in front of the turnstiles, they were struggling to deal with the crowd as well 💩👃. I thought stadia had to have proper exit routes in case of the need for evacuation 🤷‍♂️ Then getting out of the car park took a while, which was to be expected with a large crowd but they did have some folk marshaling the traffic, so it wasn't quite a free for all. That's the trouble when everybody leaves at the same time though, if more tracks did what Leicester do and interview the riders in turn after every match it gives the chance for those that want to leave straight away to do so, while others not so much in a rush are still engaged, especially important I would have thought with a new team that should be trying to build a bond with their new fanbase. Didn't see the Premiership CEO in attendance or the Chairman of the BSPL, not to say they weren't there, I just didn't see them. All in all it was an entertaining evening and once the small teething issues have been addressed it should sit very nicely alongside the other clubs in the PL. I'll certainly be returning whenever the Lions aren't riding as it's a pretty easy 1 hour trip down the motorway for me 👍

Well I was really impressed. A great crowd, all the facilities you need and the track looks a good shape and size with plenty of room on the banked bends. The track was a bit slick tonight and gate 4 was an advantage but I’m sure they’ll improve the track preparation as the season progresses. Great to see the riders going full tilt with no concerns and also good to see the crowd react so well to any Foxes heat wins. Looks like plenty of home support and not just folk there for the event which augurs well.

Yes, he does, I visited him last week with three friends. When you get to the front door you have to lean across some stretched elastic to press the door bell. As the door opens, the elastic shoots up you walk under it and he welcomes you inside. Unfortunately we all tried to get through the door at the same time and fell over. He sent us back out again for another go.

Who is the ref? How on earth can you exclude Bowes for taking avoiding action, Kerr wasn’t even under power.

At the end of it all, I`m just delighted that Berwick are continuing their fine tradition of having a centre green presenter who think and believe that they are the star of the show and see the racing as an annoying interruption to their pearls of wisdom.

Does anyone else think it's crazy that Northampton are not being granted a full facility for the missing NKI...? It's not their fault that he's injured and it's not their fault that he's being advised not to fly because of his injury... Surely this is a perfect example of where the infamous "In the best interests of the Sport" rule should be applied... We have a new track starting from scratch, trying to attract and retain new fans... but in a sport that prides itself on having No Brakes...they are being asked to operate with an artificial hand brake applied... Seems ridiculous!!!!

Lads been out best part of 12 months, steps right back in to Premier League with a few practise spins. Show some respect!

Poor Cooper signed for the wrong East Anglian team.

Thursday May 7th - everyone's chance to make the change.....

Guess you’ve never been to Ipswich in recent times 🙄 unless you wanna vape or get your haircut in a Turkish fuc*ing barber then don’t even bother going in to “town”. Sh!thole. well done Labour.

The GP points system is a farce especially when Dan bewley scores 15 points in the heats,only to come 2nd at the end

What a meeting , credit to all riders, some fantastic racing. Ht 15 was worth the admission money alone. Redcar reserves must be the best in the league both Jody and Ace rode fantastic . Allen good value, Klindt so fast, brilliant to watch. Jeppersened never knows when he's beaten. Howarth great guest.eee Comets were always going to find it tough with missing riders and so it proved.However i would take a loss every week to watch racing of that quality. If you want to watch quality speedway please pay a visit to Workington.

Have a look back at it …. Lambert kicked out at Zmarzlik so he looked back at Lambert and kicked him back ….. Lambert is a jumped up clown most of the time

Patience 😉 Links here for tonight: https://vk.com/video-234681448_456239173 https://www.youtube.com/live/O9Xfu3tS8oU?si=fxdM_LnlBVOpLF20

I do think there should be a rule that riders can't guest in their own group.

Congratulations to Northampton on a smooth and successful opening night - I'm glad I made the effort to check it out An easy 2hour(ish) journey from Ipswich, simple to find and pretty well organised parking A good location to take advantage of those supporters sadly missing their own teams A great turnout (3-4k?) Lots of 'neutrals' but hopefully a good number will become regulars Track very slick with any outside dirt pretty much unusable particularly on 1&2 where the significant descent negates the camber A number of decent battles without oodles of passing. The general buzz of a bigger crowd meant these probably came across better than had it been an empty stadium (take note promoters - atmosphere is a big factor in perception) I can certainly see that there should be an improvement in the racing with some relatively straight forward adjustments to prep Gate 4 was a huge advantage , with gate 1 a graveyard - a couple of clever/experienced first bends off the less favoured gates made the difference in the Witches favour - Score totals 1) 13+2 2) 21+6 3) 22+2 4) 34+2 Decided to make a dash for it during lap 4 of heat 15 to ensure our exit was possible in decent time Generally a very positive evening for the sport

It will when prepared properly, it's far too slick tonight but there's been some decent stuff never the less. There's no "trick" bends, it's a perfect size and a pretty good shape with proper speedway shale too.

Will Cairns in the BSN booth after winning heat two: ”Aiming for a maximum tonight”. Next two races: 0,0.😂

Poor kid should never have been signed. I do hope his confidence isn’t completely shattered.

Whilst I take your point on Klindt, Batchelor's scores have been 7+1, 3+1, 5+1, and 9, all away from home, and 5 at home. I'm wondering what you're expecting from a 4.73 averaged rider?

Can't believe people are still talking about Gilkes replacing Newman, Bowes is the obvious rider to drop if they want Gilkes back.

Interesting bit of research. of course there's lots of variables like injuries but I reckon a fair few will just not have been able to make it pay and so you get into this ever decreasing circle where a small pool of riders can only make it pay only by taking all of the opportunities to make it pay. i.e. riding in multiple leagues. I reckon you could do a similar analysis on the Polish U21 riders and lots of them will have disappeared from the sport. Probably more to do with how competitive it is over there though, in terms of how many U21 riders they have. I've said on here before if you want to get rid of doubling up in Britain there seems to be a load of Polish kids who are left without Polish clubs each season. Short term fix and probably not possible after Brexit? whilst I don't disagree about British speedway sorting itself out I do think the world governing body need to do more to both protect the existing territories and expand into new territories. ultimately if everything becomes focussed on Poland that's what the sport will become... a Polish sport that nobody else is bothered about. easier said than done of course but I do think FIM need to look at how they assist the current pyramid and develop new ones. for a start stop dragging all sorts of riders all over Europe for all sorts of qualifiers that conflict with domestic leagues and appear to be costly for the riders. look at the cricket franchise system where those competitors often play of a number of franchises because the competitions are staggered to allow it. Have a month long event with 8 franchises with the top international riders supplemented by local riders. Have the UK one in June after the GP's. Have a Scandinavian one in July and a Polish one in August. Take it to the USA and Australia over the winter. Like a travelling circus just without the clowns.... ....hopefully. Then eventually look to expand it into new territories. Spain, Asia, South America. There's loads of kids into motorbikes in those regions. They can't all make it to MotoGP but some could make a decent career as Speedway rider if the infrastructure and opportunity is there. The raw materials are out there but at the minute the flagship SGP series is reliant on the Poles developing talent which is more and more likely to be Polish... ....and so the ever decreasing circle continues. It's basically a business with zero product development.

Well said. Reform either don't bother with facts or just lie (some of the things they claim they can do at Council level simply are not true) - they've made no difference in Councils that they've taken over. In Kent, they've lost 10 of their elected councillors within a year, and it's an absolute mess there. Tories have faded away. Suffolk County Council is full of Tory old boys who look after their own interests. It needs a shake-up, but with people who have a genuine concept of what can actually be done at County level. No change for Ipswich, because 7 May is not a Borough/District election. Some people have no idea of the difference.

Stars wait a few years for a proper No.1 only for him to have his worst season in a while lol. Ipswich 2 passengers but won with a bit to spare again, Witches really are 1 team change away from potentially retaining the PREM title imo. The Brennan, Musielak, Lawson & King core with Edwards as the Rising Star is strong enough to compete for silverware when you look at the amount of points they put up as a unit.

Should have gone it alone at least a decade ago... I was bored the other day, (retirement can do this to you), and found myself looking at the British U21 Final Results from around a decade ago, as I was curious to see how many riders are left in the sport... As "there are not enough riders to have one league".... Very, very few from around 2014 - 2018 (I didn't check any further), are still riding.. Some of the names, quite high up in the scoring, were unknown to me, and had beaten some of the riders still riding, and doing "OK" today... These lads would now be 28 - 33 ... Surely a fair % of them would have developed to the required level (they definitely weren't " wobblers"), if they had been given team places, rather than giving those places to journeyman foreigner after journeyman foreigner, who have ridden over here using a "revolving door" system... The GP lads are great to watch, but even that can get boring, and certainly are not cost neutral over a season when you measure the revenue they bring in.. UK Speedway should simply have cut its cloth accordingly and opened their businesses on days that their potential highest amount of punters would come through the doors.. Probably too late to sort it now, ssdly...

With how Thomsen has stepped it up this year Edinburgh are just a Rushden or Scott away at reserve from having a really good side even allowing for Sedgeman being the Aussie version of Klindt.

I prefer PUMPED. Also thanks to Leon and Sam for their efforts last night in knocking their own team out the cup. 😂

... oh and Kyle Howarth who got home 15 minutes earlier 😂

yes, and it was even worse for Brady Kurtz, the last place in the LCQ ruined his results completety. I am convinced that the riders do no longer give it all during the heat races, since those points scored do not count for the World championship anyway now. The old system when every point won on the track actually counted was much better. Zmarzlik just took it easy last night. He took no unneccessary risks, won only one race, but still ended up on the rostrum in the end, right behind Bewley, who rode so much better and had won all five of his heats. I just don't think this system is fair.

Honestly the crap we all put up with in our efforts to watch the sport, it's ridiculous. Tatum waffling on as usual, no substance, just opens his mouth and spouts drivel. Love speedway, hate the coverage.

Unfortunately Saturday is a 'Polish' day and as has been said it's rearranged anyway. But there is a wider issue here about fuxture planning in the Championship and whether riders with contracts in Poland etc should even been riding in our second division. We had far, far too many absences last season through riders being elsewhere and add that to all the inevitable injuries and this season could be yet another guestfest year (eurghh) 👎

Only in speedway could a Bears rider help the Comet's win away so that his own Bears now have to beat the comets at their place to go through.

Best of luck to Paul Hunsdon and Northampton Speedway this evening. Hope you get a great crowd and racing.

Don't think he can, Shane may get a reduction on his average as he's not ridden for a few years.

Baldy, even if all the above does come to pass -- and I truly hope it does -- there will be posts from idiots, nit-picking over the smallest of gripes, rather than praising the success..........

It says on the clubs official site that nils is awaiting medical clearance to fly as he has been sidelined by a punctured lung. think it’s unfair to question his commitment under these circumstances. Article also says if he gets the all clear, he hopes to be riding in both of Mondays matches personally, I am glad he is doing some meetings to get sharp snd , match fit

Wrong call imo, Joe started the season well, Gilkes hasn’t really impressed much when he’s not watching from the sidelines and I’m sure it’ll be a matter of time before he’s back on them.

What on earth is wrong with you?

It’s a face fits selection for Cairns. As there’s a couple of under 21 boys that are much better than he is.

Why no Dan Thompson in the team or at 5 instead of cairns, who imo hasn't moved forward as much as the hype he had

the truth hurts dont it tinker

Comets beaten by the best reserves in the league, but WOW heat 15 was another level, most of the races were good, like to see my team win, but if racing like this I served every week will enjoy my speedway 😃

P Morris!

Bewley has had three fantastic races. Means diddly squat under this pathetic scoring system. Someone could make the final on a lot less than what Dan has already. Still, it's important for the sport to show itself for what it is 🤣🤣

This meeting would have been abandoned in the UK with the amount of water on the track in heat 5! 😂