topsoil

I don't understand the school sports day analogy. Only riders deemed good enough by the Championship / Premiership teams will get chosen to ride in those leagues and your average will only go up if you score enough points. Don't know where your all inclusive idea comes in.

Isn't that called progression? It's what this league is supposed to be all about, a conveyor belt into the championship, the premiership.

If you're taking about the meeting at Berwick, I can only remember one, Micky Simpson. This says a lot to me

From what I've seen this season, Isle of Wight are missing out on a good league campaign. I'm new to the National League, but the three meetings I've season at Berwick have been entertaining. Each team I have seen so far has had a success story (Mason Watson, Greg Blair, George Rothery, the McGurks, Archie Freeman, both Thompsons, Josh Embleton, just a few from the teams I've seen). A lot of the meetings are close and have well matched teams. Berwick are also getting very good crowds watching the National League matches as part of double headers. Could have had themselves eight decent home meetings, plus any more they wanted to put together.

Certainly didn't expect to win by as much. A few good races tonight, Tommy Jorgensen was great, a couple of really nice cutbacks. Will the real Dany Gappmaier please stand up? Leon gets better by the week. Theo Pijper still decent around Berwick. I would like to see Josh McDonald on a decent bike, he could be on to something. Couple of times tonight you saw how the changes to the track might be working. A few riders trying the inside run off the second bend, Leon making it stick passing Pijper, then the cutbacks off the fourth bend, Jorgensen and Palin both successful. Hopefully a sign of better racing to come.

For those waiting to hear the teams before buying their tickets, Berwick are same as last week, r/r for Coty, Scunthorpe have Jake Allen as a guest for injured Josh Auty. Ex Bandits Tommy Jorgensen, Tero Aarnio and Theo Pijper all in the Scunthorpe team (per SGB website)

If only

They have rain offs in Poland too. And they do everything right.

Definitely something clubs should look at, especially away fans. Myself, when Berwick were on tour, I would be interested in wathing if other teams streamed meetings.

I've seen before that with double headers, if you only want to see the first meeting, you pay for the two then get refunded for the second one on the way out. If you only want to see the second meeting you have to keep turnstiles open until the second meeting starts. Is that possible when you are dealing with an all ticket meeting? As always, there will be a reason why things are done a certain way. Also, on the subject of streaming the meeting, how many fans would choose the streaming option over attending if the weather wasn't great? Maybe the club would lose out that way? One possible way to solve that would be what Edinburgh did and put a block on the meeting being available to TD14 / TD15 postcodes and only available to other parts of the country.

Sunshine and clear blue sky just now. BBC weather video yesterday says dry and windy all day.

Just e-mail them

A bit pointless

I don't understand. Why release a false line up?

You'll come to learn that criticism of anything related to Polish speedway is frowned upon in the BSF. The natives are a bit sensitive.

Could be useful for any rider struggling to pick up points in the Championship, if they are scoring well or winning races in the National League, to keep up their confidence. But for me the National League is made for riders like Mason Watson and Keiron Douglas. Really hope these young local lads progress this season.

Last year all the meetings were shown. This year, only some.

Speedway falling to it's natural place in the order now other popular sports are happening. And within that, Polish speedway is even more niche, so no surprise really.

Good start for the Bullets. At this level it is all about track time. If extra rides in the National League lead to Flint and Bickley getting the confidence to beat their opposite numbers in the Championship then it's working. It's about giving the likes of Watson and Douglas more competitive races, to bring them on. But what I like is you have Flint, Watson, Douglas and Blair, all young lads who live within a few miles of the town. Young local kids will relate to them, local businesses are more likely to support local riders. A positive start so far.

Much rather have league racing myself

Looking at those line ups I would make Lublin favourites

The promotion were quoted as saying they couldn't sell the National League product to sponsors because of the reduction in points limit.

I would argue that speedway at grass roots isn't in a dire situation. In the past few years the junior championship has grown in numbers thanks to a lot of effort from volunteers. There are now several clubs, albeit mainly in the north, who have a pathway all the way from National Junior League (125 / 250 and 500cc), to National League, to Premier League, Eastbourne has exactly the same, while Kent has both a National and Premier League setup. The Premier League is also setting up a new junior league this season. You have to wait to see how that pans out before commenting. There is also a thriving amateur scene at both Redcar and Scunthorpe. I get the feeling the promotion at Isle of Wight will be supportive of the breakaway league, since they withdrew from the National League. But if they couldn't sell the National league product to sponsors, how are they going to sell an amateur product?

I knew I had read that they were to be made mandatory, just couldn't remember when

Do any Polish tracks own covers?