Aces51

The Aces learned their lesson that action against Poole is pointless with the watering incident. Poole were the opposing team and it was Poole riders who brought the matter to the attention of the SCB. Effectively it was no different than Poole's actions in the Lakeside match, you could even argue Poole's actions were worse because they were premeditated whereas Belle Vue acted on the spur of the moment faced with having to race with a much weakened side. With Belle Vue, the SCB,quite rightly, acted immediately. Belle Vue were fined and lost league points. With Poole, the SCB did nothing until the outcry on here and social media forced their hand, they then promised action but did nothing.

Belle Vue have long said that Mondays are difficult both in terms of getting riders and because many fans go out at the weekend and traditionally Monday is a quiet day for the entertainment industry. The preferred race night will be Friday in the hope of attracting more children and also because it is regarded as the start of the weekend when people are more inclined to spend. Wednesday will be used for GP weekends and other FIM clashes.

I agree with EIAddio to a point. Even in the late sixties and seventies, when speedway was reportedly pulling in more than 300,000 people a week, the newspaper coverage didn't reflect it's popularity. However, the coverage was much greater than it is now. In those days national newspapers used to sponsor the world championship final and many of the big individual meetings. I can recall buying a number of popular national papers on the Sunday after the world final in 1962 and many had full page reports and in at least one paper it was the full back page spread. It depends how you define the modern era but certainly Belle Vue have had little recent success. In the last 25 years, one league title, one play off final and a KO Cup win. However, it is sad that some are ignorant of the importance of history. Just one example of many of the significance of history; I very much doubt we would be building the new stadium now if it wasn't for the place Belle Vue holds in the history of Manchester and the sport, they were major factors in persuading the Council to support the project. No club has a right to success but the Aces will now have the opportunity to replicate their previous triumphs with the programmes already planned to help British talent and the increased income from the new stadium.

Only if you don't understand it. .

Should be an Aces win. Kyle Howarth usually scores well at Kirkmanshulme Lane and Josh Auty should do well at reserve if he is fully recovered from his injuries. I'm just hoping that the weather isn't again the winner. The forecast isn't looking good but Belle Vue could certainly do without another rained off meeting.

I'm sure Cook will do his best. In his last match there for the Aces he scored 3 from 4 rides.

EL ADDIO - I think you will find I was just as critical last time despite the win and if memory serves we certainly did ask for that fixture to be rearranged.

EI ADDIO - Grajczonek was not in the team when the fixtures were published and who knows whether representations were made by the Aces to change the fixture. Over the years we have had problems with a number of clubs refusing to change dates. So far as not knowing that Fricke and Nielsen would be in the WU21 you miss the point. What is known is that those meetings are going to be held, that teams with U 21 riders may be affected and so to arrange fixtures for the 2 Friday night clubs so that either they race clubs who will not be affected, avoid those dates or, rearrange the date if a club has signed say more than one rider, since the original fixtures were published, who has qualified for an FIM event. As I said it may not always be possible to avoid every conflict but at the moment there are far too many farcical matches such as last night's. It is undoubtedly one of the main reasons why so many fans are becoming disenchanted.

Farcical. The fixture planner(s) must have known about the WU21 meeting. Those responsible should hang their head(s) in shame. It's not as if this is an isolated incident and such matches are a major reason why the sport and it's competitions are losing credibility. It's not as if it's a difficult problem to overcome. It may not be possible to avoid every fixture clash but they could certainly be vastly reduced.

I don't rule Kings Lynn out of the equation either. They are only +8 against Belle Vue's +7 and Swindon are currently -5.

Perhaps I should have said he is an unknown quantity so far as riding in the EL. Under the present format he will be very poor if he can only add 3-4 points a meeting. I am expecting him to achieve an average of at least 5 but but I think some expectations of Ward are unrealistic, after all his current average is 8.7,which is about 11 a meeting if he has 5 rides. Overall, that gives them about 16 points and their guests and Howarth have not been far short of that. I am not saying it is impossible for Swindon to make the play offs but it won't be easy for them to make up 12 points on Belle Vue and I think the Aces can still pick up more points away.

I think we'll still make 4th or even 3rd. Swindon have got to pick up at least 12 points on the road to equal us and that assumes they don't drop anymore at home and we don't gain anymore away. Otherwise Swindon have to rely on us dropping a lot of points at home. Their Czech signing is an unknown and to make them stronger he is going to have to pick decent up points away.

I'm sure there was something reported earlier this year about his problems with the Coventry management, maybe in the Star but I can't now remember when or where. In reality any such issues can be quickly resolved when either a club needs a rider or, a rider needs a club.

Phil Morris was the man. Got the best interests of young GB riders at heart, did well for Birmingham without the need to manipulate the rules and seems far more intelligent than the most recent occupants. However, the opportunity was lost when he moved on to bigger and better things.

If I recall correctly, no second string averaged less than 5 last year under the new format, so not difficult to achieve. Palm-Toft, who had a PL average of less than 5 in 2013 achieved 5.2 for Belle Vue last year. If the conversion rate is still 60% how about Richie Worrall. I haven't looked at the fixtures but wouldn't Swindon get priority as he is an asset of an EL club.

Where I find Rosco hypocritical and at odds with his statements and position as Team GB manager is to replace Howarth with a foreigner when there are Brits who could have gained from the opportunity to d/u. Instead we are going to give that opportunity to a Czech.

On that basis Belle Vue would have changed the shape of their track about 18 times since 1994.

I understand Rosco's predicament and don't particularly blame him for releasing Howarth. However, as Team GB manager, I would criticise him for having had only one Brit in his 1-5 at the start of the season. Howarth's replacement will tell us much about Rosco's attitude towards British riders. (I hadn't seen the post above naming his replacement,so there we have it then) I have never really rated him as a national team manager His selection of Howarth as reserve for the WTC at King's Lynn,a track where he is poor, was particularly puzzling. Perhaps it was a sop knowing what his long term plans were.

For all anyone on here knows Sky could have been given the option to call it off 48 hours before but decided not to do so. Also, to be accurate, it wasn't Belle Vue who called it off, it was the meeting referee.

Lakeside have put in some good performances at Kirky Lane. They went through a bad patch but have recently done much better.Starke's is becoming a regular visitor and will do better than Birks and Watt had had a lot of good performances at Belle Vue so also makes them stronger. I still see an Aces win but perhaps not see easy as some may think. Let's hope the rain doesn't cause too many problems.

Nothing wrong with the BSPA. I blame the promoters.

Fantastic start with 3 ex World Champions. Going to be a don't miss meeting with a chance to see some of the best riders not currently racing ín the EL at the new National Stadium.

Most of it seems to be factually correct though.

I should think they would prefer to be a comfortable 3rd rather than feeling vulnerable to a revamped Swindon. However, even a Darcy Ward led Swindon will have some catching up to do to be a threat to the Aces or Kings Lynn.

Kings Lynn can't afford to lose tonight. On the home points dropped v away points gained they are +8 and Belle Vue +7. A home loss and they will only be +5.