Halifaxtiger

One or two could learn a lesson from Edinburgh. 22 heats tonight in just over 2 hours. Some decent racing - especially the final - and although the presentation is a bit bland, at least they know their stuff.

On your first point, I have never been convinced that the needs and wishes of fans are put first and last every time and they most certainly should be. I agree with GB on the second, though. 7 or 8 heats of good racing out of 15 are value for money. The overall experience, however, can be damaged if the meeting is subject to unenforced delay. No matter how good it is, we will all have second thoughts about going if we are made to stand around in the freezing cold for an absolutely unnecessary interval.

There will be updates from this meeting in the usual place.

To be fair - no, he wouldn't. Then again, when he says the racing was 'great' and the report I got was that 'it couldn't have been much worse' he just looks like a fool. Better to say 'the racing wasn't what we'd hoped for, but we'll be doing everything to make sure that in future it is'. Maybe its something to do with being in charge of Leicester................. If it was that poor, then the whole thing was an expensive waste of money that is likely to actually put people off going rather than the opposite. Sheffield simply had to get it right after the state of the track last season.

Better have another go : Coles (Eastbourne) Phillips (King's Lynn) Hopwood (Kent) Greenwood (Cradley) Smith (Belle Vue) Jenkins (Mildenhall) Brennan (Eastbourne) 38.33

I tend to do this about once a month leaving Wednesday and returning Sunday and taking in 5 meetings. After April, they will all be down south but its Edinburgh, Berwick & Newcastle this weekend. Its all about the weather - while travelling around this beautiful nation of ours is a big bonus, its pants if the meeting is called off. Can recommend an absolutely excellent overnight stop for Edinburgh if you haven't already booked.

Unnecessary delay annoys everyone. Standing at Ipswich on Saturday the lads I was with all complained about the interval, all the more so because it was a cold night. Scunthorpe rarely have a meeting that takes longer than 90 minutes because they get on with it - I have even heard Rob Godfrey tell the referee to put the 2 minutes on - and have no interval. No reason why everyone else can't do the same. As to food, get Mr Anderson to supply it. The burgers and pies at Berwick are amazing.

Some chap started on him when he came round to the back straight, Kevin's (very appropriate) response being that he was the presenter not the track electrician. None of the new lads disgraced themselves and on that showing Hume could be a huge bonus. King was untouchable and its going to take a very good ride to beat him at Foxhall. Not quite as cold as I thought it would be, and always good to see the Tractor Boy and laugh my head off.

Isle of Wight did. They held a training session on Thursday night. Lets give Matt Ford a bit of credit for accepting the situation and allowing something - I suspect that whatever he had done wouldn't have suited everyone - and hope that Mr Shovlar isn't able to persuade him that payments for 'charity events' are in fact donations.

You need to learn the difference between a donation and a charity event. With a donation, you give money and expect nothing in return. With a charity event, you pay for something in the knowledge that the money will be going to a good cause. This was the latter, and those who paid their entry have every right to expect that they will get what they paid for.

Personally, I'd say he doesn't receive the money. Then those who are actually responsible for the meeting being a shambles - ie the promotion and the riders - can facetime him. Once again - this wasn't simply a matter of donation. It was someone paying for a meeting.

Fund raiser, yes, but people had still paid to see 20 heats of racing from a pretty decent field. They didn't get that, so they deserve a refund. This wasn't just a bucket collection. No doubt you'd be happy if you bought raffle tickets for a good cause only to be told there weren't any prizes after all or if it had been called off with everyone in the stadium and no racing actually taking place.

It was announced that there were queues at the turnstiles and there was a slight delay to the start of the meeting. You can look at that two ways : Brilliant, because more people are attending, poor because they haven't enough staff. I prefer the former, especially when Ged Rathbone said they would remedy it for next week. Decent enough meeting. No interval on a freezing night and a word for the excellent presentation.

Hougaard (Somerset) & Grondal (Swindon) Bewley (Glasgow) & Holder (Peterborough) Coles (Eastbourne) & Ruddick (Mildenhall)

Isle of Wight have made a similar request (following the vicious, biased and totally unjustifiable decision to treat Harland Cook at over 4) and Plymouth have a space free. Lakeside aren't alone. The problem for the Hammers is that they started too late and as I'd say the secret of success in dropping down is having a good team they could pay dearly for it.

If you think he's enthusiastic on here, you should meet him in person................. The thing is, though, is that getting people through the turnstiles is just half the story. Its no good wrapping a dog turd in a shiny wrapper - one bite and no one will buy it again. The product simply has to be good enough to make them come again..............and again..............and again. That's principally about the speedway, but its also about everything else that happens on race nights. Thing is, Isle Of Wight get that right, too. Reading my updates from last season, I enjoyed every meeting I went to. More than that, there is a huge focus on customer care - you really get the feeling that you are valued, being listened to and that your opinions count (the very fact that Barry takes the time to come on here says an awful lot - most regard the BSF with contempt, spite, hatred or all three) . They just go that little bit further and its why they deserve every success. Perhaps the most important thing is that what they do is not expensive, its not rocket science and its not difficult - its simply putting a bit (or maybe a lot) more effort in. As such, every track in the country could do it. I might be speaking the 'bleeding obvious' now, but I am huge fan of what Barry, Martin and their troop of helpers are doing and regard it as a blueprint for the rest of the sport. I'd recommend that everyone give them a try in 2017 to see how they operate, I'll be surprised if you are disappointed.

They're not all like that. Read the Isle of Wight thread on this forum or go to their face book page to see what they are doing. I was over there last summer and on a bus trip from Sandown to Ryde (about 6 miles) saw 5 posters or banners advertising the speedway. True, its a holiday area so you might expect nothing less. But I can assure you that Eastbourne, for example, do nothing of the kind.

You might be surprised on that one. Bewley was averaging around the 7.5 mark for Edinburgh in his final couple of months for them in 2016. In the meeting at Newcastle where he was injured he went round Steve Worrall like he wasn't there - no mean feat considering Worrall was averaging well over 10 at home. A lot depends on how he comes back from that injury but I wouldn't be surprised if he was out of the reserve berth by the end of the season if he has no after effects.

I think any blueprint for a new track would probably need to be on the lines of Plymouth or Scunthorpe. If memory serves me correctly, Scunthorpe cost £100k for the land and basic facilities (track, pits etc). I think you are bang on. Finding the land will be harder than finding the money for building. There does seem to be a lot of potential brown field sites in the area though and there's also a lot of industry - which is more conducive to a speedway track than housing.

I can think of a substantial number of old fans who don't want it either. Sheffield this season will be all about the track. I'd say the team is the best in the SGBC and the promotion are giving it their best shot. Last season, though, the racing was rubbish and that is reflected by many, many comments on this thread. Owlerton can be up there with the best and it will be a major let down if efforts with the team and the promotion are not matched by an improvement in the surface.

Brilliant news. A superb racing track until Havelock got hold of it.

Does the National Speedway Stadium not spring to mind ?

Makes you wonder how a GP rider can have his average reduced by best part of a point but someone who has been out of the sport for ten years can't have his reduced by anything. Usual infuriating double standards almost certainly motivated by jealousy and spite

In that case, you might suggest that teams should save themselves the expense of decent track preparation because its not going to attract anyone. The racing might be rubbish but because we have a big screen we'll attract more people. I suspect about half the people on this thread have stated they stopped going because speedway was no longer value for money - in other words the product wasn't worth the entry price. Make the product better and it just might be. Its most certainly the case that crap racing drives people away. Speaking for myself - and I'd admit I am passionate - I went to Lakeside 4 times last year and Sheffield 5. Lakeside is almost 300 miles and a 4 hour drive away, Sheffield is 35 miles and about an hour. The reason for that is that the racing at Lakeside last season was very good, at Sheffield rubbish. Scunthorpe's gates are poor, but they'd go down significantly if the racing wasn't as good as it undoubtedly is. To me, a suggestion that the quality of the product makes absolutely no difference to the number of people that buy it is nonsense.