Aces51

That's good news. It just shows that with the right preparation the track can still produce good entertainment.

An enjoyable meeting despite the scoreline. Good racing, good atmosphere, an excellent guest performance from Riss and promising performances from our reserves. It was also good to see a few Leicester fans had made the trip and at least one Wolves fan who had obviously decided to see some proper speedway.

Kenneth Bjerre can certainly help Leicester with set ups and racing lines, he was brilliant for us last year. However, if Riss can score at least 6 or 7 we should be ok. I think 50-40.

More importantly, what do the fans think about the quality of racing this year? My impression, from some of the comments, is that it has improved but does it compare favourably to the days when King's Lynn was regarded as one of the best tracks in the UK? I hope it does or that it is getting close to that standard.

Is that right? Perhaps there has been an amendment to the regulations that I haven't seen but Sundstrom and the two Poles completed their 4H and 4A on the 23 May and their new average should therefore come into affect 7 days later, on the 30th. 16.2.1.6 A SGB Premiership or Championship assessed League rider will establish an MA after 4 Home and 4 Away fixtures, becoming effective 7 days after the last qualifying Meeting. Should an Established MA not be achieved to be effective from 1st May, then the MC may issue a revised MA, based upon actual rides if the Team re-declares.

No need for panic at Poole yet. If you look at the points won v points lost, Poole, Leicester and Belle Vue are the poorest teams at the moment and not much between them. We have suffered significantly because of the loss of Steve Worrall and having to ride with 3 guests at home last Monday but we are where we are. Plenty of time for things to change for all teams.

Maybe because that was his first sight of the track at Somerset whereas the NSS is similar to the Polish tracks he is used to riding, it wasn't his first meeting at the NSS and he made the gate in heat 1 when he beat Doyle and Cook was behind him helping to keep Doyle in third.

Any suggestion that Garrity fell on purpose so that IRR could be used is ridiculous. If any team were intending to cheat in that way a rider wouldn't risk colliding with another rider during the charge to the first bend. Far easier and much less risky to slide off when at the back and claim back pain or whatever.

Hopefully, a close and enjoyable meeting. Somerset not as strong because of the absence of the reserves but Drozdz has never seen the track and I'm not sure that Etheridge has either. I will be surprised if we can gain an advantage from Somerset's weakness but Tungate will have a point to prove and Cook, Fricke and Bewley could do well. A point is certainly possible.

Belle Vue did average 1500 last year but significantly below it this year with Monday night racing. However, I wouldn't have expected a good crowd last night when your top 3 are missing and you're using 3 guests. Many fans will no longer support select teams.

Jason has put on Facebook this morning that he is just waiting for an operation.

The point I was making was that we missed the total points Cook, Fricke and Worrall would have scored. Kurtz rode well and may have got what Cook would have scored but overall we lost out significantly. But as I said, all if's and maybes. The problem choosing guests was that only 2 PL teams not racing last night so we didn't have a great choice. Kurtz was a gamble based on his last NSS appearance and current form and Garrity deserved a chance after his recent good form in the British semi final and for Scunthorpe but was not impressive before his unfortunate injury.

King's Lynn deserved the win with an overall solid performance. It was good to see Iversen doing better, not yet anything like his best but hopefully, he's getting there. It was good to see that one or two Stars fans have made the long journey. We certainly missed Cook, Fricke and Worral with the guests not matching their likely scores but that's what if's and maybes. We'll just have to put this one behind us and hope that we don't have another fixture where we have to use so many guests. Bewley was unlucky that Kurtz blocked his move down the outside of the back straight in heat 6 but by recent standards this wasn't one of his outstanding nights. Lambert wasn't dominant either but had some good races where he showed determination. Assuming that Cook's recent performances indicate a return to form I would give him the SON team slot and If you were judging on tonight alone you would probably give Lambert the nod for the reserve slot although Bewley has been far better at the NSS than either of them managed tonight.

You might want to ask yourself why only Wolves had a Monday race night when teams we free to choose. You might want to ask yourself why the entertainment industry regards Monday as the worst night of the week to get people to attend. You might want to ask yourself why crowds dropped at the dog track when we had to move from Friday to Monday. You might want to consider that attitudes to keeping children out late on school nights has changed since clubs like Wimbledon were operating. You might want to ask yourself why our previous promotion said there was no future for the Aces unless we could build a new stadium and change our race night to Friday You might want to ask yourself why crowds have dropped so significantly at the NSS this year when the only change is the race night. You might want to ask yourself if you want to put at risk the future of the NSS.

Cook is averaging 8.44 with bonus points at home this season and Fricke 8.19 so we'll have something to compare with Kurtz and JG 's scores. Hopefully, the racing will be up to the usual standard and we'll have an enjoyable meeting despite having only 4 of our own team. I'm looking forward to seeing Lambert, he didn't race at the NSS last year but seems to be on good form and making good starts so I'm expecting him to do well.

I think it's more about the mind of those that have the skill. I don't think you get anywhere if you haven't got the skill but some with less skill than others get further because of their application and mindset.

So far, if you don't count Woffinden.

He wouldn't be the first to underestimate Dan. I think Bewley did remarkably well for his first attempt at this level. Wrong helmet colour in his first ride, probably wasn't aware of the different FIM rule, last in his next ride when he was losing compression and his engine eventually gave up the ghost, a third behind KK and NKI, a second behind Kurtz and then a win in front of Lambert. I'm sure some lessons learnt and valuable experience gained and enough points to show he has nothing to fear at this level.

Hopefully, that's a good sign that the new equipment and practising in Poland has sorted out his lack of speed.

It's, Brady Kurtz, Josh G and Jason Garrity. Let's hope that Mark Lemon can get more out of the Poole riders than Middlo has this season. If not we could be in trouble. Garrity is in good form so hopefully he can get a decent score.

I don't disagree with fixed nights in principle. What I do disagree with is the fixed nights we have ended up with. It is an agreement that could be the cause of teams facing serious financial difficulties and that is not acceptable and outweighs any perceived benefits. What if any or all of those teams close or apply to join the CL? If 2 or more teams went there will be no PL or FNR.

Crowd numbers increased from the amalgamation of the league in 1965 and it was because of that success that the second division started in 1967. There were many factors which added to that success, the emergence of top class British riders, which resulted in the dominance of the national team, local riders progressing through the second division to become international stars and the Belle Vue and Eastbourne training schools, which produced many good riders. However, it was the amalgamation of the leagues and that rebirth which made possible most of the other things that then happened. Without that rebirth things would have continued as they were no doubt with the two warring factions of the National and Provincial League escalating their problems. Speedway would have stagnated with very likely no opportunities for riders from the Provincial League to move up and progress. They would have probably been blocked from doing so because without the eventual agreement in 1965 those Provincial League tracks would have been unlicenced and the riders banned from SCB licenced tracks. Thankfully, the National League realised that they could not survive alone and the results of the inquiry were accepted by both sides.

I was referring to Neil but doesn't Ken live and breath Poole? Certainly a good servant of the club.

That's isn't true. One combined league brought about the success of the 70's and 80's but failed in the 90's. Society and the popularity of the sport have changed dramatically since then so neither example may now be relevant. However, what we do know know it's that current structure certainly doesn't work. I would love the see the big stars back in the UK but I would love much more to see the sport grow and become, at the very least, sustainable. The fact is that it is more important to give fans settled teams where, injury apart, absences are a rarity, regular weekly meetings on the nights that best suit that team and preferably a number of local riders in each team that fans will better identify with as their own. The present structure is broken beyond repair and we have to go back to basics and rebuild. We also must have the leadership that has the vision and ability to carry through the changes needed. Whether that comes from an independent body or the BSPA perhaps doesn't matter, what is vital is that they have the necessary authority and are capable of doing the job.

The Poles have a history of flexing their financial muscles so let's see. However, why would they need to, they've already got the most commercially viable speedway nights. We've got Monday, the worst night of the week that only one PL team prefers or finds viable. We could have accommodated TV, if they insisted on Monday, by having one Monday TV meeting each week. We also got Thursday but somehow decided to race on Wednesdays. If Wednesday is acceptable we would have been far better racing on Wednesday and Thursday but even better to to have stood up against the Poles and argued for Thursday and Friday or, Wednesday and Friday.