Marksman

Hope this happens, the NL could be the most populated league next year with 10 teams if the Comets and KL both join. Maybe even IOW will be ready to return

Looks like whoever set up the new Scorpions Instagram account has already revealed the 7 riders by following them all…

Hopefully the NDL playoffs on BSN will be well supported, the service has been a breath of fresh air for an nomad fan like myself. Hopefully will see you covering a meeting at Northside, Workington next season!

Yeah it would make sense start off small and build it up, run in the NDL and make money on track hire, other events etc. However, looks like there could be as few as 7 in the championship next year IF Glasgow were to have a go in the Premiership. I’m sure if that was the case the BSPL would be asking the possibility of Workington joining the Championship. Afternoon racing in the NDL, with trackdays, the British youth championship and a few Open meetings with star names is probably along the lines of what will happen in 2023.

Found this nice drone footage someone has taken in August on YouTube, really shows off the track and it's surronding area... The BSPL AGM will be fast approaching with the NL AGM to follow later on I think, may hear some more news soon.

Who is the australian on co-comms please? I missed the start.

Kelvin Tatum has a new podcast out with Dan talking about his 2 GP wins and the new track at Northside... "I think it could potentially be the best racetrack in the world" "It's like Belle Vue with some character" https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/dan-bewley/id1641594866?i=1000578057860

SGP practice is on Friday at 3pm, I'd imagine they both want to get as much time as possible on the track at Cardiff, especially for Brennan who is riding in the main SGP2 meeting on the Sunday. They'll both get much more out of being at Cardiff for 3 days than riding in a Championship pairs meeting...

Just getting round to replying to this now and have some thoughts.. I think a 12pm start on a Sunday would be a good idea if floodlights weren't available to the site early days. There is certainly a lot less to compete with on a Sunday and the idea of getting the punters money in first is a great one. The only problem I see with Sundays is getting a meeting in before the Rugby starts at Derwent Park, they've kicked off at 2pm for a couple of seasons now, so it doesn't give fans much hope of attending both if it was a 12pm start. I don't know how much of a goer an 11am start would be given the travelling distances involved. Town moved kick off forward to 2pm because they were seeing people stay away to watch the 4pm 'Super Sunday' kick off on TV, usually involving Man Utd or Liverpool. Doesn't take much for people to stay away these days! Running Saturday wouldn't be a great idea in my opinion, I always said this in the later days of the last Comets era. Times changed and the die hards would go as it was our ritual but easy for the casuals to stay away. The promotion obviously tried with Fridays, but didn't work out mainly due to things out of their control as we know... There is/was always too much to compete with on Saturdays now whether that be any kind of general family commitments (weddings/birthday parties/general events etc.) I would guess it's also far more likely for someone to be at work on a Saturday than on a Sunday if you were to question a wide range of people for example. All popular local amateur summer sport is ran on saturdays too such as rugby league and cricket, both of which get fairly large followings with many different teams around the county. Carlisle United also have a large west cumbrian following if they are at home on a Saturday afternoon, albeit it has limited crossover with the Speedway season.

You need login and import the order first from the See Tickets website first. My Account > Orders. Unfortunately they haven't made it straightforward for people, but have at least made a guide to import the order - https://www.seetickets.com/content/digital-tickets-how-to

2 TBC’s for Team GB according to the company live streaming the meeting… Not great on the morning of the event!

Stunning Drone image taken by Gary McKeating @4020pix.

In some positive news for British Speedway, in light of what's happened over in the the north east, it looks like more brilliant progress was made at the weekend by Steve and the team... I now make that only 18 active Speedway clubs in the UK now across all 3 leagues, from a time gone by nearly 20 years ago in the early days of the Comets comeback, the old 'Premier League' had 18 actual teams in the league itself... With the rebirth of the Comets from next season (fingers crossed) hopefully we can add to that number or keep it at that number with the demise of the homeless Monarchs, good times ahead on the north west coast, literally!

Any recent developments in the last few weeks? I need to have a wonder down there at some point. The progress has been amazing so far!

Exactly! Why does this type of thread always sidetrack comparing the value to what is available for foreign speedway. Many who would subscribe to the new BSN service wouldn't care less about Foreign speedway. There is generally no affliation for people to follow a team abroad and most of the time it's foreign commentary. Not for me either.

Yeah potentially late July/August i'd imagine, if all goes well!

Basically it's a venture by a local businessman and passionate Speedway fan Andrew Bain. He has ran the Northside training track site since 2017, from which he was running Amateur meetings and Training days on. Since the demise of the Comets in 2018, there is an obvious gap in the market for Speedway in Workington. So plans to expand the track and site were drawn up with the support of the local council and it's grown from there really with Steve Lawson since getting involved to design and build the new track over the current training track site. When I spoke to Andy plans are in place to run Open meetings this summer with the backing from Rob Godfrey and the BSPL, with certain local riders earmarked to ride. Other plans for the site include riders being able to book the track for practice days, with campsite type facilites including a workshop to prepare and strip bikes, and also hot wash facilites to wash bikes on site.

Yeah it's the photo angle, the width of the straights and bends are the exact same specification of the NSS. The overall track size is just about 50 metres short of Belle Vue, around 298 metres in total. Belle Vue is 347m i think.

For sure it's a massive step in the right direction. Obviously there will be negative comments across social media once more details are recieved. "Costs too much" "Will drive people away from the stadiums" But these people don't know what is entailed, i.e Production costs and staffing. And often just stuck in the past, the Elite Ice Hockey League stream their games, which is very successful, and are in a similar position to British Speedway in terms of large travel between Tracks and Ice Rinks. Which Redcar or Newcastle fans are travelling to Poole to watch their team on a Wednesday night? Not many.

Interesting news this morning, a few of the Championship clubs run their own streaming already. Hopefully this new network is a collaborative effort.

Agreed, it's miles better. As with all the other club websites designed by AP media, such as Leicester, Sheffield, Birmingham and Wolves etc. It previously looked like something stuck in a land time forgot.

The Glasgow team comes in at 41.99. You rounded some of those up instead of down 8.79 5.88 5.45 5.00 7.82 4.88 4.17

It seems crazy to me that financial obstacles are already being put infront of a new promotion by Godfrey, Bates and Co at the BSPL for the use of a bloody team name.. There is nothing in the Rulebooks about it other than this under the "Junior Leagues" section Seems another case of make it up as you go... Workington is not like other big city Teams like Glasgow, Birmingham, Sheffield etc. Ask someone in those places who the Tigers or Brummies are or even what sport it is, you'll most likely be met with who? or Rugby? Ask the same question in Workington or West Cumbria in general, most people would know.. Speedway is hard enough to promote and run as it is without a Governing body, who show a clear self interest, putting made up hurdles in place.