cowboy cookie returns?

Ditto here, I thought I'd miss speedway if I stopped going. The season that broke me was 2010 since then I've gone from almost ever present at home meetings to one maybe two meetings a year.

If we don't want draws, use the scoring system from the pairs. You never have a drawn heat & it should also encourage team riding.

The same as the 16 lapper at Ipswich. Once a great event with strong fields which was well supported. If I remember rightly I can remember it being ran on a Sunday afternoon mid season and also featuring on TV. The last few years it was run was on cold dark October evenings with the 7 Ipswich riders plus some second strings and reserves from other tracks. As with everything else serve up diluted rubbish people won't attend.

Spot on. For some reason speedway in this country seems to not want to even attempt to change. Why that is I'm not sure. Clearly there are some people within the sport who understand professionalism. My team Ipswich are one. The race suits matching bikes, and a real feeling or brand identity within the stadium on racenights is lightyears ahead of what it was even 15 years ago plus the Ipswich website is possibly the best out there. So why does none of that travel further up the tree especially given Louis is a director of the BSPL

I just tried logging on to the British speedway website..... imagine my surprise at being redirected to Chris Harris racing apparently he was standing in as a guest site.

I also know and have been told in confidence, I let you know a couple of minutes after the club announcement just so you know I was right.

I've seen the cost of living mentioned as a factor. I'm not really buying that. It may be a factor this year however speedway attendance levels have been in decline for past 30 years and in Sharp decline for the past 10. The sport doesn't have any credibility outside of its own inner circle the team competitions are run as a merry go round circus of riders of which a high proportion could appear for any team in any competition at anytime. The out of control doubling up & use of guests takes away any worth from these competitions. I hate to pick on Chris Harris but he highlights the issue. In the past week he has ridden for 3 different clubs across 2 divisions if Plymouth hadn't been called off on Tuesday it would have been 4 that is madness. The answers aren't easy and to be honest it could well be too late to save speedway let alone grow the sport. I don't like football comparison's however here in Ipswich we had a club that was on its knees no investment no interaction with the community. The club gets taken over investment is made it becomes attached to the local community again regularly starts pulling in gates in the mid 20000s and has sold almost 16000 season tickets for next season. Why it became appealing to go again they won back fans who hadn't been in years myself included but also a whole new audience.

Just been looking though the team line ups on the British speedway Facebook page. For the 18 meetings that have taken place since the first of June that they list lines up for, there have been 27 guests & 12 rider replacement facilities used.

Good to see that King can get passed up the inside away from home as well! To be honest I thought the meeting was ok Ipswich just ran out of puff. Interesting to see rumours of Lambert coming back to the UK, could Ipswich be really brave and make a move for him to add some firepower.

Guests are part of a sport that is on its knees. I would suggest that having a team using other teams riders in a supposed professional sport in front of an empty stadium doesn't paint the sport a good picture.

It's about 30 years to late to worry about integrity. Although British speedway of 30 years ago seems the most professional thing on the plant compared to what we have today.

You have to be very special to have that level of incompetence! And still they wonder why they can't attract sponsorship & spectators.

I understand the idea of averages and having a points limit although in practice the reason for having a points limit doesn't work. However why can't a team manager have the freedom to have the top 5 line up in any position? On the other hand the sport does have far deeper issues that averages.

It's amazing so many blank dates these days & still manage to arrange a fixture that clashes with an international date. Why does Danny insist on riding the outside line when it's clear that that line doesn't work? Will certainly be a tough fixture, hopefully Ipswich will have enough to get though.

More like rising damp

No it doesn't along as the information is used & stored inline with the regulations.

I didn't see the interview, to be far I haven't read speedway star for a longtime now. What did Russell have to say? I'm not sure why he would have a pop at Polish speedway maybe it's jealousy as they have a proper professional set up that brings in huge sums in sponsorship. As for the FIM they aren't everyone's cup of tea but at long last they seem interested in trying to develop speedway in partnership with Discovery, early days I know but the gp looks a far better product now.

Another cracking tackle move from Paul Hawkins! Yes his name is now, Paul after the other two tactical genius Lambert & Cook!

The 25% rule is for premiership matches only so no rules broken. However once again it shows just how hard the rule book is to interpret. A transfer window is a fine idea but stick to dates. Eg the first window opens on November 1st and closes on December 31st the second window opens on June 1st and closes on July 30th

I wonder if CL was putting any feelers out for new signings while at the GP last night??

Depends on how the protected heat 8 works, there are two ideas in this thread alone lol . Again something that should be crystal clear is a British speedway shade of grey

But with Doyle in heat ten there is a much better chance to getting a 3-3 than any sort of result in heat 8 with the form Cam & Rowe are in. I'd much rather have Riss at 3

If they put Heeps in at 2 v Belle Vue and he has a mare in heat 1 & 6 a decent team manager would keep him in the pits so he gets excluded under the 2 minute rule for heat 8.

If this side doesn't deliver then Hawkins has to go as team manager, after all this is his side the riders he wanted to work with & more importantly the riders that wanted to work for him.

I think Hawkins has been to the Paul Lambert school of post match interviews he too always managed to see something completely different to everyone else!