mikebv

Anyone down the "straightaway" tonight?

Is there any bike noise? Its like watching the Premier coverage of Sweden and Poland... A world away from watching the actual Swedish and Polish coverage.. Like listening to E-Speedway...

Indeed.. I suppose you cant say "for those watching Speedway for the first time it isnt usually this boring, and there are a fair few tracks that deliver much better racing".. Not many would pick Wolves to do an "advert" for the sport would they?

Is there any crowd noise coming over on the broadcast? Or, is there simply no crowd noise?

When it is a bit damp it is usually better as the inside slickens quickly... Here's hoping.

The amount of laps the tractor did in the interval you would have thought he was...

To be fair to Rob Lyon he didnt look best pleased... Several shakes of the head and more than the odd eye roll and look skywards after some races were complete.. Bad day at the office...

They will get to heat five then start it again...

But it's being filled up with riders who are better than Div 2 HL level.. Let's hope NKI can ride on... Getting the top six teams to be clearly of several notches higher than Div 2 has to be a priority.. Using exactly the same riders wont ever do that.

It was, to say the least.. Brought a fair audible gasp from the grandstand as they smashed elbows and Kurtz hit the kick plate with his wheels and the fence with his handlebars... Incredible commitment given the scoreline, even if on a max...

45-45's can be boring and processional.... Some good races today... Panthers in front around first two turns a fair few times... When they managed to reach the first two turns obviously....

I've given up taking it seriously and, like today, just go to watch the Speedway.. When you can improve your team on a night by night basis, by signing a rider, and then never using him again as he is "injured" for the rest of the season, so you can bring in better, track specialist ringers, then worrying and arguing about team changes and "declared sevens" is very much a futile, wasted exercise... A few years ago, two guests were being swapped at "half time" in the Play Offs So they could ride for BOTH teams.. Hardly the "declared septet" of either team I would suggest... Enjoyed today, who won didnt really matter to me, the racing was good, several Polish top two division riders were on show, and the crowd decent... Alll good for UK Speedway having good crowds and having higher level riders than just Div 2 Heat Leaders solely on show...

Captain Mainwaring... Corporal Jones... Private Pike... Your boys took a hell of a beating.. A hell of a beating... Seriously, that was pretty embarrassing... Completing four yards never mind four laps was beyond some... Maybe some riders ride too many ad hoc meetings for all and sundry and should concentrate their efforts on getting their machinery right for the club that pay their main income..? Anyway, considering it was a massacre there was still plenty of decent racing, (when the Aces didn't gate)... Kurtz will definitely benefit from Zagar being there for me, as it takes major pressure off him... And his determination in Ht15 to get his max was "Poland Ht 15" level of will to win when the match is pretty much over.. And having Zagar and Wright at 3 and 4 will be an improvement on having the Worralls there in those "clutch races" in the 2nd half of the meeting where they partner reserves... Zagar was a class act as you would expect and prior to Ht13 he was stood with Fricke and Kurtz whilst they waited for the replacement for non starting Bomber and my lad said that there wouldnt by many better "1, 3 and 5's" in the league. Not wrong I would suggest... Having such top end firepower will take the pressure off the engine room, which in turn, then takes pressure off the reserves.. Crowd was pretty decent too.. A couple of thousand maybe? Which was needed given the wage bill I would think!!

Really dont understand how important "not changing your line up" is to so many... It's the very essence of sport to try and improve... The line ups change ad hoc somewhere virtually every day/night from Monday to Sunday anyway so what does it really matter?

Peterborough won last year when I went and it was a very good meeting... Palin was the key I seem to remember, passing Bewley in one race... Looking forward to another close one today... Weather dull and overcast so "tropical" for Manchester... No guests either... NB Disclaimer. No guests as at 09:44am when I am typing this. Any guests that get added after this time are not the fault of me. And anyone attending and then finding guests do so entirely at their own risk..

Oooooo! Controversial... And easily what 100% should happen, personally by December giving 3 months of advertising and for the riders to drum up sponsorship.. Teams change daily in Speedway anyway so it would just be a "cosmetic starting point" anyway... Transfer window could be June and July and then that is it... April and May to build the averages, and after July there will still be plenty of matches left so no team can bring in riders a few weeks before the play offs...

See, now you are getting it....

But he would still need to take his third ride in Ht 10 against tougher opposition.. The oppositions 3 and 4.... Ht 8 might be the race to keep him in given two reserves are in it... And, if needed, he could be replaced by a tactical sub in Ht 10, which couldn't be done if he hadn't done three rides already...

It would be great for Wolves to sign Freddy or Tai, and great for the other five tracks too as their attendances would be boosted by having either of those two in opposition... I remember the Ipswich "Superteam" with Tony R, Gollob, Louis and Nicholls visiting twice, and the two attendances on those occasions were far and away the best all season...

Exactly.... Let's hope every team can bring in more "top level riders" during the season... I am going tomorrow with my lad and three others who like us "used to go regularly"... Not to desperately see an Aces win, but to watch Zagar, and hopefully see a good close meeting between two very good teams, with the usual NSS standard of racing.... That's well over £100 that the Aces (and the sport), wouldn't have had...

UK Speedway has more transfer windows than any other sport going.... Every bloody day seems to be a transfer window whereby one rider will transfer over to another team "for one night only"... Bomber must be very confused who he actually rides for sometimes... One week he will ride against himself...

To be fair... The way you can cherry pick your own team from everyone's riders at any given moment means it never really does have any sporting integrity does it? However, what it does have is some decent entertainment value and having Zagar riding at six UK tracks will help swell attendances much more than yet another double upper would do... And that is what really matters. ie How many punters can you encourage to watch the sport, as the result for many fans is largely secondary to what they watch..

Just got in, just watched it... Do you think that his peers will ever think to ride the inside line to block Zmarzlik? If he goes around you then fair enough.. But dont give the fella a free pass... A truly superb rider but FFS he will nine times our of ten spear the bike at you into turn three... Hint. Ride the white line against him if you get in front because he is faster than you.. Five years at least he has done the same dive bomb and been allowed to do it.. As for Woffy?.. A gradual erosion of capability which is perfectly natural given age and responsibilities increase... Far too many times over the past few years it has been a case of "wrong place, wrong time"... That isnt unlucky... Top ten at best this year for Tai... For Gorican though, a very good meeting....

Get hold of Petrocelli... One for the teenagers there...

The danger of riding big, fast, wide tracks all the time, as your home circuits, is that it can lull you into a false sense of security.. The top prizes get played out on several smaller circuits too so riders do need to be more than one dimensional.. I would suggest that when you are into your third year of regular racing, those who move on to "the top level" tend to be third HL level in the 2nd Div and holding down a 2nd string spot in the 1st.. With the next three years moving them up to top two in their Div 1 team and a No1 in Div 2... Not many do like Doyle and spend several years "very average" then suddenly become genuinely "World Class".. Riders like Brennan are definitely on that gradual glide path that so many who reach the very top seem to have taken..