Marksman

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.

Feature on Look North is available here, 22:16 into the programme https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0012ckt/look-north-north-east-and-cumbria-evening-news-09122021 Need to be signed in or register for free to view it

Another great article by the Speedway Star is available to view online, because it's one of this weeks preview pages https://reader.exacteditions.com/issues/98479/spread/3 Big Plans ahead

Great arcticle by Liam Waite in the News and Star this morning, even made the front page headline. https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/19724272.workington-speedway-legend-steve-lawson-plans-return-sport-town/

Track is around 290-300 metres I believe Northside track is less than a mile away from Derwent Park

Too right, I guess we are still the Lineal champions of this league

Looks rather promising Neil I've embedded it here, maybe we need a thread in the National League forum

It says in the Speedway Star that ambitous plans are in place, and the intention is to stage National Dev. League racing there in 2022.. NDL will be expanding in 2022 to include more teams it says, Oxford are going to be 1 of them, running alongside the Championship.

It says in the Speedway Star this morning in an article where Wolves are confirming they are running in the 6 team league that these fixtures will be filled by adding 'extra competitions' at Premiership level. Not ideal though i'd say, just racing the same teams even more!

Don't know if that's a wind up, but I thought it was obvious the 18 was because it happened in 2018! That would be ironic as Workington currently have a Tory MP

Teams are out for next week's meeting

It's on the Sky platform though, and is currently free for 12 months for Sky Q users. It's just under the Apps menu instead of the TV guide menu. As with any streaming service, like Amazon does with the live Tennis or PL football you'l be able to choose to 'Watch from the start' even if the event started an hour ago or is finished, which will enable you to fast forward to the heats etc. No longer will there be any hassle with having to remember to record it or put it on series link. As in the past the Series link and overrunning Recordings have been hit and miss with BT and Eurosport British Eurosport TV and/or Quest (on freeview) will probably only show the Cardiff GP live, as was mentioned with the local events getting free to air coverage.

Glasgow put this on Facebook. There has to be more than 4k in attendence for the passports