Sophies Mate

Brad has got his flight booked for a reason it's his 21st birthday and his dads 50th birthday towards the end of October and usually the season has finished by then think in the last few years theres only been one or two meetings towards the back end of October at Eastbourne, so you can't blame him for wanting to be home to celebrate!

Bought mine too, makes sense to advertise this now to maximise on the attendance. Helps people with young children who won't want to take them to arrange child care and also for others to make travel/hotel arrangements. When you think about it a lot of hotels offer really good advance deals and being October you could probably get a good deal bearing in mind not all of the fans are locally based and means they can organise hotel stays if they want - not sure where the nearest hotel to the Amex is though! Also means that we could get a mini bus organised for those that are local and don't want to/can't drive and would like a drink or three!

Not an exit, only replacement for a few weeks whilst Kelsey gets over his knee injury - its on the club web site and facebook .

How old do you have to be to ride in the NL? As if it's 16 then Tom won't be able to join after July 2 2017 as he is 14 tomorrow. He is a very talented rider and think he will go far the way he races round Arlington is a joy to see. Nathan and Jason will also be great additions too.

If Luke can avoid bike problems I think he won't do too bad hes no stranger to Arlington as he has ridden there in the youth championship and has been down on the occasional winter practice

I have to admit to being one of the doubters when I heard that we were going to be an NL side now that I have been to all the home meetings and one away meeting (well 5 heats of one ......) give me NL any day didn't really realise how dire EL is/was the racing has been excellent as others have said loads of passing, the riders actually want to race only retire due to bike problems/injury when they do fall off theres none of the laying there trying to get others excluded etc all without exception get up really quick (apart from the odd one due to genuine injury) and if they can jump back on the bike and carry on. Have not seen any prima donna antics at all so far unlike some of these so called 'top riders'. There is a real team spirit amongst the team and they all work well together and love the way that they have so much time for the fans whether old or young or in between which is key in keeping fans new or the die hard fans. After seeing Mattie race for the first time on sunday he looks to be an excellent addition to the team and it's really good to see plenty of racing for the junior riders too some of them will I'm sure will go far! Martin and Connor are doing an excellent job they know how valuable social media is in getting the word out there about speedway.

Thanks Alan !

Question for someone who knows the rules in NL do the reserves stay as reserves as they do in the el league or can they move up?

Glad someone else has asked this as we were talking about the same thing as having dropped from elite to nl we werent sure!

Glad you like them Steven as six of the photos are mine

Bradley Wilson-Dean has now arrived in the UK and is on his way to Sussex!

I've had the same invite at work too but then again we have over the last few years purchased some very large and expensive machines from Dugards!!

Couldn't agree more !! Beaten by a lady hmmmmm think you're on the wrong site for that ...........

It was announced that Eastbourne could not afford kevins services even though he dropped his price he was dearer than paying for two reserve riders. Now you can decide what you like from that statement but as Martin said he and Connor have got to run this as a business now they will not have Bob helping them out. Thats something you cant blame them for if we want speedway to continue at Eastbourne then cost savings need to be made where possible. Yes Kevin is a great announcer but its more important to pay the riders especially the UK riders too many have dropped out and it needs to stop. NL racing will be exciting at times and not so other times but then again show me a team in any sport that is always exciting to watch?? The drop in admission prices especially the child prices coupled with the friendlier sunday afternoon time will hopefully draw the families back at the end of the day we need younger fans to come along!

As previously said and see sussex bulldogs post there are too many meetings in the PL hence why the drop to NL

Thanks

Maybe something will be said at the presentation evening this saturday, I am not able to go but i do know a few people that are going and have asked them to let me know if anything is mentioned about this, plus if they mention any plans for next year. Another question I have is about the national league trophy as I have not followed NL until now I don't know how this works is this contested by the top four teams from the previous year? Or how is this decided?

Like to think we will have a team that will be up there and as the admission will be cheaper and having nearly half the amount of meetings hopefully that will increase the attendance.

Too many meetings in the PL for Bob Dugards liking, plus I think he believes the NL will be cheaper to run. Admission will be cheaper so I guess the club is banking on more people attending because of this.

Exactly maybe a mix of sat evening and sunday afternoon meetings

Trouble is things have changed since we rode on sunday afternoons dont know if crowds would improve plus dropping right down to NL will put alot of people off. Im glad that speedway is remaining there and hope we can return to the elite league should it still exist by the time we do!

There are still riders wages to pay flights upkeep of the stadium electricity cost of medical services insurance plus loads of fuel for his infamous tractor! Seriously he lost over £100k this year stock cars to a degree propped the speedway up but if you can't get the spectators to attend in large enough numbers youre going to make a loss needed 1200 to attend each week just to break even. Who in their right mind is going to keep something like this running when you make a loss each year? There will be a few tracks that will have made a profit but expect a fair few didn't. Speedway is not a cheap sport to follow and many fans have to pick and choose which matches to go to not everyone can afford to go to each meeting and to go and watch one thats got loads of guests or the dreaded r/r is not going to encourage people to attend.

According to today's Eastbourne Herald the Eagles have finished, no one new has come forward to take over and Bob is unable to substain the losses any longer, not that anyone can blame him for that what's so ever, yes there could have had some changes that may have stopped it coming to this. Very sad to read this, like many others I will be reduced to watching speedway on TV as all of the other 'local' tracks are just that bit too far away for me to travel to on a regular basis so after watching live speedway for over 42 years any trackside matches will be few and far between for me. Not sure if the stock cars will continue there next year that remains to be seen depending on if he does get his planning permission for building a load of new houses there.

Where did you see this about Bjarne? Not seen anything on his twitter account or on the Eagles website?

Fully agree some people love to be first with their version of so called facts, I was on duty last night at Arlington and had so many people say oh hes broken his arm in several places or such like that was even before he had even reached the hospital! ! With Tai being in so much pain and not being able to pin point exactly where the pain was it was extremely difficult to diagnose exactly what the damage was without x rays. On a lighter note have to say was impressed with Gino last night some great riding from him!