40-38

Well some more seamless presentation would be a start, rider interviews you can hear at the appropriate times, like before the meeting so it isn't drowned out by the tractors, stop randomly cutting songs into each other, play music that makes more of an atmosphere for an exciting motorsport (which I appreciate is subjective but they play the same dozen records every week), stop the in-jokes and the cliches. You don't go to watch other sports and feel like you've stepped back in time like you do with speedway, perhaps it's the demographics, I really don't know but you have to make the most of every minute you get the punters through the gates or you'll lose them to something that does that better. I think the problem stems more from the clashes than the actual doubling up. It's not ideal but I get the necessary evil of it in some respects, but trying to say to a new fan that you won't see nearly a third of your team tonight because they're riding for a different team just doesn't make sense to the unconverted. It doesn't compare to other team sports so I'm not going to go into it but at least if you turn up to football or basketball or rugby you know barring injury you'll see the team you signed! It baffled somebody I work with that Leicester, in the "top league" would be missing two riders tonight because they were riding for a different team in a "lower league".

The sport in its presentation is far too old fashioned now, it isn't the 1970s anymore, people want more, expect more. Waiting around for all the faffing of the riders in below par stadia when all you get is stop start music, interviews you can't hear, Smashey and Nicey type presentation, "new badges in the club shop folks, let's go racing, give us an L.. give us an I..." and it's so naff I wouldn't dare take any of my contemporaries and I'm only 32! I also agree with not feeling an affinity to the team though, you never know who you'll see one week to the next some times and it's the reason I fell out of love with football, it doesn't feel like it belongs to me, an ordinary bloke in Leicester, anymore. In fact that's one of the reasons I didn't go tonight to watch with two riders elsewhere and we got a predictable thumping so I saved my money instead.

Does Dave Darcy report to Buster Chapman then or is he still a Hemsley stooge? Can't say I'm overwhelmed by the news, I was hoping for a totally new broom.

I can only speak from my perspective but I'm more likely to attend on a Saturday evening than a midweek evening purely because by the time I get home from work, and especially if I've had a bad day, I'm less inclined drag myself back out than I would be anticipating a Saturday night out at the Speedway where I can build up to it. Aren't football crowds lower for midweek evenings compared to Saturday afternoons as well? That said given the way Speedway is along as we field a competitive team whatever day then I'm not going to be complaining!

Even if he was dropped it would surely be the team thing to do and be there for the young riders giving all the encouragement he could, whether in the pits or from the terraces. Surely that's the American way, etc.

I think if anybody was to ask me in 30 years time which rider would be considered in the same breath as other great riders of old it would be Chris Harris. He won the first speedway meeting I ever attended, the British Final at Wolverhampton in 2007 and he's still a top league rider and top British international. He's probably one of a few riders these days who would have fared far better in days gone by, on tracks and with bikes that would have suited him far better I think.

No mention of it at all on the Lions Facebook page. I posted it on the supporters club Facebook and it's mysteriously vanished. Head in the sand springs to mind.

Yes Auty 9+2 and Starke 6, Hougaard and Klindt got 5 each and Walaszek and Wozniak got 4 each, Ulamek got a big fat 0.

No, he made a good effort in his first ever world cup, and to be fair Rosco should have put Tai in that heat all day.

Well we've got half a good team, just need the other half sorting...

It was his second flick into the Russian which I think he was excluded for.

Which British rider?

It was Showaddywaddy wasn't it?!

Who knows what goes on in the mind of the Leicester management these days... Now it seems Bridger has gone can Norrie Allen and David Hemsley follow suit before we really do fall apart?

I think it's a 99 year lease.

I'll just leave this here:

I think he's only 15 and you have to be 16 to go higher than the NL.

We need the reserves to actually score well at home this time as well as every point will count in this one.

I can only assume he wanted to give him another ride for his confidence because any other reason is even more baffling. Now Bjerre has crashed out we could end up drawing and losing a point where we could have had all four!

He really doesn't go well here at all. Kling hasn't completed a race yet has he?

Too right. At least it's a nice evening on the back straight. Two passes inheat 9 though, no doubt proof it's not that bad and I should just be happy to be here...

Boring again, crap racing, crap gating. Edberg looks no better than Nielsen and even Bjerre and Doolan haven't passed anyone yet!

Couldn't we work it so Jan ended up at no.6 and we signed someone to ride at no.2, like we did with Eklof? I'm not sure what the averages are currently at for team building?

A different class? I don't agree with that, yes he had the bit between his teeth in the last race and to be fair he was bound to get some stick for not getting off the track first time round as he was looking to get the race stopped and was quite rightly excluded as he was the master of his own downfall on both occasions. I reckon had Bjerre not come a cropper with the fence he would easily have taken Risager in Heat 15 too. Ipswich well deserved their point though and Lanham apart (who I don't think has ever gone well at BP) they look very solid. Still think the track isn't right despite some good passes, it showed for me in Heat 14 when Doolan tried everything but couldn't get a line to pass the guy in front. I also heard the abusive language and I said to someone at the time it was unecessary but I've no doubt had anybody complained it would have been brushed off anyway. The pantomime stuff with Barker is always fun and he showed his capability when he gets out in front in the end to throw it back at us and that's as it should be, even if it was irritating!

I came away feeling like we'd lost after that considering how well we'd started! I still think we're short of a decent reserve, although all credit to James Sarjeant who gave it his all, and it shows when Ipswich's reserves got I think double our tally on our own track. With Nemo only getting 6 on top of that it cost us all three points. Ipswich picked themselves up well though considering they looked rattled after the first four or five heats. Risager certainly looked good too. If he's a confidence rider he must be in the clouds at the minute, by far and away the best away rider tonight. I see the Ben Barker magnet in the first/second bend fence was working well too!