mikebv

He does remind me a bit of Craig Cook when riders of the highest level come underneath him entering a turn or when riders are outside of him, but slightly ahead of him entering a bend. . They both seem to 'blink first', and let their opponents dictate proceedings.. Maybe it's a lack of confidence in themselves at that level? Woffy showed with Jamrog how to ride hard under a rider at speed, leaving Jamrog to either leave his leg there (and take impact) or move it.. A calculated risk of disqualification but these are the risks top level competitors take to be winners.. And as Speedway shows quite brutally at times, you have to be 100% committed to any manoeuvre as you often won't get another chance in a race..

I think his gating is a real concern and is something that will need to improve a long way for him to compete with the very best. .. As can be seen tonight, you can't give riders of the highest standard in the world so much of a head start and expect to win.. In the UK, at the NSS, he can be yards down at the first turn and use his size and speed to get the momentum to chase them down, at other tracks he can struggle to do the same... Overall, I don't think he will reach the level of Max Fricke for example who I really believe will develop into a genuine World Class rider, however putting himself out of his comfort zone of British Speedway will no doubt by the end of the Polish season, tell us more of the level he is really at.. For me, this season will be sink or swim for Dan as there are so many riders around his age pushing for the same opportunities and rewards, not to mention the likes of those a few years older who are already World and European Champs, and they wont be going anywhere soon.. If he comes through it then it will make a huge stride forward for his career, if he doesn't then he may just end up being a 'solid, decent rider' in that second or third level of standard, which, particularly after his very bad injury not too long ago, would still be a fair achievement...

He is 21 now isn't he? Not a veteran by any means but there are a good many riders Dan's age (and younger) who have been racing against (and beating) the world's best in the Polish League for several years.. And that is the standard he will be up against all his career as they all get older together... Many in this country see him as one of those 'rare talents' that come along none too frequently.. Riding strongly in the Polish top league should therefore be more than within his capabilty if he is to reach those dizzy long term heights that so many seem to see him attaining.. It definitely moved Max Fricke up several levels riding over there so it is 100% right that Dan gives it a go and sees where it takes him... A big ask though, and maybe expectations of the lad should be lowered somewhat and we just see if he can actually consistently compete at the very top level...

Woffy showing what is needed to ride at this level there.. Hope Dan was watching and can learn from it.. No prisoners taken in Polish racing..,

A bit timid there Dan.... Cant ride like that in this league..

Not many there...

Make sure we dont hear the kettle go off or the Pizza man arrive.. .

They had some genuine World Class riders too and still crowds didnt come... Stox I can see being viable there, as they have lost Cov and will lose BV so makes sense for them to have a track not too far from Manchester and the Midlands.. If Speedway needs to be a part of the venture to be profitable then I am not so sure of it's likely success.. Especially at top division level.. Hope, as always though, springs eternal..

Another excellent publication this week... So sad to see the photo of Stoke's demolished stadium... Another one bites the dust (literally)...

Dont think Bob is being cynical.. Just being quite realistic based on the clear evidence of past experiences of other clubs within the 'local ish' vicinity.. There has been success stories over the years around the country which should inspire some belief, (Birmingham and the NSS two that spring to mind, as well as of course Kent in the South East), however, the odds are heavily stacked against Speedway clubs coming back from 'the dead' and it would be wrong to ignore that starting point.. Bottom line is the local population around Rye House didnt come out to support the sport in enough numbers, be that because of the quality of the product, the price charged to watch, or the 'opening hours'... Therefore. No point taking personally someone else's opinion of a situation, especially given that (a lot of) previous similar situations shows that their opinion of the likely outcome is probably the way things will unfortunately turn out.. Best of luck to those who will try and fight to save Speedway at Rye House, it will though be a huge fight to overcome, and there's nothing negative about being realistic about that.. Indeed, for some it might prove as an inspirational challenge for them to succeed where many can only see failure... Bottom line is that if enough of the population of Rye House desperately want Speedway it may get saved, if not enough show that they are bothered, it definitely wont.. As I say, best of luck to those willing to fight, but let's be brutally honest, another Speedway track closed for good will hardly send a ripple around the UK sporting world will it?

Excellent post THJ... For me it always comes down to finance, so if there is any racing it probably only should be done by those who can either comfortably finance any losses or feel that their buisness plan, (with all the Covid 19 restrictions), can deliver a profit.. And those who fall within that criteria may be very few in numbers I would think.. Personally, I think a season of no losses/minimal losses, for the vast majority of teams who seem to lose high five figure sums annually, might not be the worst scenario in the world. Especially if they use the money saved as a promotional budget next year, to really make an impact both locally as an independent business, and nationally as a BSPL collective..

As a Supermarket manager I can 1000% concur....

Not sure why you can't do both.. Do BV at the very start of the year (as you say great racing to launch the series), and then do Cardiff maybe as the penultimate one, so hopefully all still up for grabs, meaning no threat to crowd levels dropping, which could happen if you run the last GP when all could be done and dusted. (Leave that to the Poles who can guarantee a crowd).. A 10k crowd at the NSS paying £25 to £30, around five months before Cardiff, wouldn't impact the GP crowd levels in Wales I would suggest.. Suppose it depends on how much the organisers want for the rights to hold a GP at the NSS...

And at most football and rugby matches you are stood shoulder to shoulder, or sat next to, another human being, meaning body heat is shared.... At a lot of Speedway meetings you would be stood in splendid isolation or have a row (or even a block) of seats to yourself.. No issues with social distancing though which can only be a positive... Let's be honest, the sport struggles to get a big following in June, July and August, every year, so getting one in November will be a big challenge, however as November would probably be play off time, maybe that would entice a decent following away from their warm armchairs? And keeping the league to one home and one away, should mean most clubs are in with a play off chance through the often equally as cold October. The last thing any club would want is a few 'dead rubbers' on cold and miserable evenings as that could decimate the fan base on those nights... For me, if due to non availability of riders, you end up with contrived septets across the sport, which will seriously undermine any competition, added to the fact many say they lose considerable amounts of money every season.. Maybe it would just be better to bank the cash they usually lose and use it to market the club to come back stronger next year?

Spot on... Just like in 12 months time A and E depts will be full of drunken bastards effing and jeffing at overworked, underpaid nurses because they have had to wait a few hours to get treatment for self inflicted wounds. .

I think it will mean the biggest crowd in years....

Agreed, however.. A proper professional sport should have such decisions made by its governing body, and not unilaterally by individual members of that organisation... As that just leads to chaos as each member seeks out getting their own way based on their own needs and wants.. Fair play to Glasgow for their leadership on this matter, however the sport has a National leadership team who should be leading the way forward and agreeing the process to be followed..

Have you moved into Speedway promotion Ray?

And no other clubs in the history of speedway have manipulated the (deliberately?) ambiguous rules for their own end?

Watching clips of football from the past decade or so, there is also a huge amount of players who just seem to have 'dissapeared', with many teams having wholesale changes in squads in around just five years or so.. My lad is in a League One U17 youth team and the competition for places is incredible at that level with young lads coming through all the time trying to get into that first team, and experienced players dropping down into it from the two divisions above... Often the players dropping down have been replaced by either purchased foreign imports, or foreign imports who have been at the clubs from eleven years old, such is the huge 'trawler net' used these days by the leading clubs.. At my lads club, only three players in the first team squad have been there over three years, with many ending up non league and working full time when their contract ends, as the next batch of younger lads have come through to replace them, or better players from the leagues above have dropped in, desperate to remain a pro and try and get back up the levels.. For the vast majority of pro footballers their 'shelf life' is nowadays shorter than ever given supply well exceeds demand...

Without going 'all our yesterdays', watching the many various meetings on YouTube from the 80's showed just how it worked too.. Crowds seemed to be very healthy indeed when compared to today.. Hardly any full time professionals on show, and all mainly with one decent bike and a 'good enough' spare.. The best riders were also in the main, the only ones who rode in the top league at the same time, and for many of them it was a 'toe being dipped into the water' to see if they could compete at that level before moving up permanently, rather than the necessity it has become for dozens of riders of various standard so they can earn more to afford the cost of riding.. It was interesting to read Shawn Morans interview in the SS a couple of weeks back where he said he got £35 a point riding for Sheffield in the early 90's. That's equivalent to £88 a point today. I wonder how many world class No1's in the top league ride for £88 a point today? (And given their outgoings even be anywhere able to afford to).. Indeed. Could you get away with paying £88 a point to a second tier No1 nowadays? As you say, they had a pretty good business model, heaven knows how they lost sight of it..

Been the obvious next step for around the last decade or so... Yet, for some reason, British Promoters have steadfastly chosen to have their businesses hugely adversely impacted by running disjointed fixture lists, using many contrived septets of borrowed riders, (to accomodate individual riders own agendas), all on many nights when you wouldn't ordinarily want to be running a 'show' in the entertainment sector.. A very strange business plan..

That's the main reason they run them isn't it? And they are aimed time wise for a global market rather than the UK one, hence the running of them early afternoon behind closed doors, (China does like a bet).. At the old stadium the owners made far, far more from running these events than they got from the Aces..

Worrying times I would think... Councils will be under huge pressure across the country post Covid 19 as budgets from central govt. will no doubt have to be slashed to pay for the billions of pounds of borrowing it has done to pay for the current crisis.. And from what I remember of my visits to Poole, you could get a good many apartments not too far from the waterfront in a 'nice' (and quite expensive) area of the country..

Can only think this kind of thing is inevitable.. And the extra ace up their sleeve may now be this... They now know riders will ride for 50% less than they did so what's to stop them saying that next year "you ride over here exclusively and we will give you 100% money".. Effecively a 100% pay rise...