old bob at herne bay

Like him or loathe him P Morris has an untenable job. Bottom line has been and always will be, there aren’t enough bums on seats at speedway meetings in the UK. Not helped by loss of venues resulting in a distorted spread of tracks throughout the UK, and the ageing profile of the supporter base. Uk speedway is now entirely dependent on TV money, whether through Eurosport or BSN. They call the shots. Cricket reinvented itself through the one day game. Purists hate it , but it brought in much needed revenue and saved cricket in England and Wales. They now have a problem of too much cricket, and players saying they are overworked. Oh, if only speedway was in that position. Speedway however hasn’t changed, save for the ever growing SGP series of individual events at all age group levels. This seems to “capture the imagination “ of the masses, and captures the ambitions of riders who place this ahead of team speedway in their priorities. There needs to be a seismic change to UK speedway to survive. IOW and Kent have experimented with novel events to proved a full afternoons entertainment to attract a newer crowd to their tracks, unhindered by the shackles of BSPL and SCB bureaucracy and red tape. The BSPL run clubs have distanced themselves from these tracks , foolishly IMO, as there surely must be a change in direction if Uk league speedway is to attract a new audience.

Surprised if there are that many attending trackside. Doubt that many show a profit with the declining interest in the sport. With great swathes of the country disenfranchised by lack of a track, it’s now down to two handfuls of tracks in provincial towns ( a few in cities) . With the same old same old race format, no new innovative ideas ( save for a countdown clock ) and little to attract a younger audience the organised league sport in the UK is in slow but steady decline. Clinging onto TV coverage and funding …Eurosport call the shots , P Morris has little choice but to keep them happy for the money that keeps UK speedway afloat.

Any suggestions of who you would hav e chosen Third Man ??? (Assume money is no constraint to make it a little easier for you 🙂

OMG ……”we've had more riders injured than you “ . Oh no you haven’t …oh yes we have. what’s this ….pantomime season?

Surely Ipswich could justifiably claim postponement of tonight’s meeting , being unable to raise a competitive team? Seem to recall Uncle Buster being allowed to do so for KL on more than one occasion ( including the infamous damaged pit gate scandal) Mr P Morris surely has the power to intervene for commercial reasons and in the interests of the sport. You still have the feeling that it depends who you are in this sport as to how you are treated.

can Ippo take this meeting with 5 gusts ? IS there a limit to how many gusts you can use ? Can the TM ride ?

Speedway out of the top drawer. Smashing meeting, although Leicester will be worried about momentarily losing momentum going into the business end of the season ….

Like the revival of Swindon speedway and many other defunct tracks , it was just a lod of guff

tbh like others on here, even though I have retired from watching speedway after 60+ years, the sport still entertains me .... every season is a comedy , building slowly from the early meetings with 7 riders in a team, then seeing R/R and gusts come into play, then add in riders"withholding their services" or injured only for UK meetings. Rising to a crescendo at the "business end" of the season with a sudden bums rush to complete fixtures by the "cut off" date, then extensions to the "cut off date". Gusts have turned into gales of Gusts sometimes Chris Harris riding in every match. for every team challenging for the P.Offs. This happens every season. However this season is like no other. We have the added excitement of the use of Speedway's equivalent of AI , also known as Phil Morris, who as a successful TV game show player has artificially guessed results of all fixtures for the P. offs. Stunning. With so many gusts in use it matters not a jot who wins the p.offs, but its jolly good fun coming on this forum and seeing the same old same old every season, and he promises of better next season (albeit with fewer tracks operating ) What a wonderful sport 🙂 🙂

Sadly Ippo are stuffed this season after losing the PL no.1 rider, and then the PL no.2 rider . Roo being injured just put the icing on the cake. They haven’t won a meeting since - home or away. Sheffo have been able to easily cover for the inconsistent Woofy, who retains a falsely high average. Leicester have had the luck this season coming into the p.offs with no injuries and must be favourites for the p.offs… always assuming it doesn’t rain in Leicester and they have to ride at KL 😂

600 programmes …is that all they get nowadays at a PL match.? Whilst not everyone buys a programme, amazed that they have a viable business with the pay rates of modern day riders.

Cannot believe the cruel luck suffered by Ipswich, that has ruined their season sadly the new rules brought in to stop clubs GP sooperstars being signed just for the P.offs are going to ensure Ipswich will not be able to sign Rob Lambert

Wasn’t including them in the top teams…. Was referring to Ipswich ( pre injuries the pl champions and P off favourites) and Sheffield .

Sadly looking at the injury list of the top clubs, Leicester must be favourites for the P. Offs. Lucky Leicester… must be their horseshoe emblem bringing in the luck. Always assuming that Leicester can run their meetings as their track is known for flooding in the wet months of the P.offs

Think they are probably between a rock and a hard place for availability with the Cardiff stadium. Lets face it there arent any purpose built speedway stadia left in the UK capable of holding 50,000 people. Just wonder nowadays what the makeup of the crowd at Cardiff ? I guess there aren't more than what 5,000 diehard UK speedway supporters left .... the majority I guess are from Poland? So it makes little sense staging it in the remote far west of the UK ... remote from any international airports. Complete lack of any speedway in London and the South East so any location is going to be a long way from the near continent by road. The track at Manchester is OK , but very limited spectator capacity, although it is blessed with an international airport, but still hundreds of miles from a road route from mainland Europe. Wherever it is held in the UK you will be faced with ripoff prices from hoteliers.

Mr J Holder is the new " Mr N Pedersen", except that Mr J Holder hasn't the skill of Mr N Pedersen to win a Championship Mr J Holder is just plain reckless.

Great to see 2 English lads on the top 2 steps of the podium of the circus. Not seen since the days of Mike Lee and DJ in 1980 ! PC and Simmo did it in 1976. Will England ever achieve a 1-2-3 as they did in 1949 with TomTom Jack Parker and Louis Lawson ??

Poole riders certainly prefer a dry slick surface rather than damp tracks after rain. Maybe explains their poor performances last year at the "business end" of the season in p.Offs and the KOCUP final. Maybe OK if we have a dry October ?

Does anyone keep a record of guest rider bookings and their CMA when gusting? Clearly Bomber must lead the way with Scotty Nicholls not far behind ? These two veteran riders must clock up more meetings than those who ride in overseas leagues ?

OMG .... nasty looking one.... Owlerton is so narrow on the bends. Hope Emil isnt seriously injured. Now we have the debate would that have been so serious if they had the old style wire mesh fence that collected the riders rather than bounce them back onto the track ??

The situation with Kings Lynn not able to field a team seems to occur every year. Seem to have dreadfully bad luck (??) with their riding staff for the past two seasons. I am surprised (well only a little) that a rule hasn't been introduced whereby if a team are unable to field a team and call off the meeting they should automatically forfeit the league points in that fixture. If the meeting is subsequently run then no league points will be at stake, but riders would still be paid and the spectators would still see the meeting. The p. offs could then still be run as scheduled. If it's a cup match then they automatically give the opposing team a bye into the next round, but should have to restage the meeting, without progression to the next round at stake.

On a thread I started entitled NORA speedway teams, it was suggested in one reply that NORA racing was "only glorified amateur racing". Obviously not the sort of stuff that goes by the name of "professional league speedway" in the "Championship" then ?

Looking at recent Bell Vue results the English boy Bewdley seems to have tailed off in performance in the English leagues since he started his career in the GP. He was nigh on unbeatable at BV a few seasons back. Now quie mediocre compared to Austalian Brad Kurtz who is the top dog for BV.

Seems Kent Kings prefer Facebook .... from their meeting on Sunday ..... Official Kent Kings Speedway Spronteosd518c90256hfct92mu3h5iaf81g556lh61m0gi3la51mu286mla · Meeting report: Kent 26, Wimbledon 24, Hackney 18, White City 14 'The London Tournament' Sunday 4th. August It was Carnival time at the Old Gun Site on Sunday (4/8) where a crowd topping the 560 mark saw yet another last heat decider in this inaugural NORA season for the Kent Kings – this one going the way of the hosts, winning The London Tournament by two points from Wimbledon. It was the Dons who were the most supported from the many London-based fans who ventured into Swale for this one – bolstered by the Routemaster bus which brought a group of intrepid travellers from the site of the south-east’s most famous ever Speedway venue, in London SW17, to its (currently) sole remaining track, in Iwade. And has there ever been a more remarkable sight in the now getting close to 100 years of Speedway in the UK than when coming out in red, it was no. 98: the London double decker, which did some celebratory laps after the close of racing?! The racing itself had been fiercely competitive with two stand out riders. The Kings’ number one, Ben Morley was again in imperious form – continuing his long unbeaten winning streak on his home circuit, with a flawless maximum, followed by taking victory in the Vic Harding Memorial Trophy top scorers final. And in the Heritage class (for riders mounted on the classic Uprights which were the machines in use when these London tracks were in their pomp) Graham Knowler reprised his previous life as a Wimbledon rider back in the 1970s by also max-ing out for the Dons. The four bonus points contributed by Knowler’s efforts put the Dons in pole position going into the final three heats with a four point lead over the hosts - but a fall by Henning Loof and two vital points to Sam Woods turned the tables in favour of the Kings. Over then to skipper Rhys Naylor and then Morley to bring home the much-acclaimed victory. Naylor’s heat 15 win was richly deserved reward for the captain’s travails, as he had been involved in epic races with Dayle Wood (in Hackney colours this time) and Parick Hamilton (for the Dons) in his previous two rides – both narrowly going the way of the Aussies. The other London outfit, White City had started well and were still holding their own at the halfway point, with Luke Harris, Jamie Etherington and skipper (himself for a spell a Rebels rider back in the mid-‘70s) Robert Hollingworth scoring consistently – but the loss of Hollingworth to a damaged bike after a heavy prang in heat 11 and then the teenaged Etherington to illness meant the West Londoners faded away somewhat. Jack Kingston impressed for Hackney alongside the ever combative Wood and there was a very welcome win contributed by that great trier, Nathan Hargrave; and for the Dons, Jacob Clouting again looked mightily impressive around a circuit he must clearly count as one his favourites. At the end, Kings’ supremo Steve Ribbons disembarking from his bus ride around the track, was able to announce big news for Kent’s season closing meeting next month, “We will be staging on September the 1st. possibly the biggest meeting ever put on at Iwade: a NORA representative match England versus Australia - over 18 Heats with six man teams. “There will be national anthems to be played and sung , representative caps to be awarded, a special souvenir programme printed. The meeting we hope will be televised by KMTV to be shown on the whole of their sports programme - with also, special guests in the form of England World Cup winner Dave Jessup and hopefully others.” Kent Kings 26 Ben Morley 3 3 3 3 12 [M] Rhys Naylor 2 2 2 3 9 Sam Woods 1 0 0 2 3 Daniel Owen [H] 1 {4}* Hackney Hawks 18 Dayle Wood 0 3 3 1 7 Jack Kingston 3 2 1 1 7 Nathan Hargrave 0 0 0 3 3 Keith Hill [H] 1 {2}* White City Rebels 14 Luke Harris 1 1 1 1 2 6 Jamie Etherington 1 1 1 3 Rob Hollingworth 1 0 FX 2 Dave Johnson 3 {6}* Wimbledon Dons 24 Jacob Clouting 2 3 2 2 9 Patrick Harrison 0 2 3 0 5 Henning Loof 3 1 2 FX 6 Graham Knowler 4 {12 [M]}* Heat details 1 Loof, Hollingworth, Woods, Hargrave 61.3 [K:1; H:0; WC:2; W:3] 2 Kingston, Naylor, Etherington, Hamilton 60.6 [K:3; H:3; WC:3; W: 3] 3 Morley, Clouting, Harris, Wood 59.9 [K:6; H:3; WC:4; W:5] 5 Clouting, Kingston, Etherington, Woods 61.3 [K:6; H:5; WC:5; W:8] 6 Wood, Naylor, Loof, Hollingworth 61.9 [K:8; H:8; WC:5; W:9] 7 Morley, Hamilton, Harris, Hargrave 60.8 [K:11; H:8; WC:6; W:11] 9 Wood, Loof, Etherington, Woods (fell rem.) 63.4 [K:11; H:11; WC:7; W:13] 10 Hamilton, Naylor, Harris, Hargrave 61.6 [K:13; H:11; WC:8; W:16] 11 (stpd, awarded) Morley, Clouting, Kingston, Hollingworth (fell exc.) no time [K:16; H:12; WC:8; W:18] Bonus points from Heritage races – see below for heat details Knowler 4; Johnson 3; Owen 2; Hill 1 [K:18; H:13; WC:11; W:22] 14 (stpd, awarded) Hargrave, Wood, Harris, Loof (fell exc.) no time [K:20; H:16; WC:12; W:22] 15 Naylor, Harris, Kingston, Hamilton 61.5 [K:23; H:17; WC:14; W:22] 16 Morley, Clouting, Wood, Harris (NS) 62.4 [K:26; H:18; WC:14; W:24] * Heritage Racing heats: 4 Knowler, Owen, Johnson, Hill 69.9 8 Knowler. Johnson, Hill, Owen (exc. lpd) 73.2 12 Knowler, Johnson, Hill, Owen (fell) 69.6 13 Knowler, Owen, Johnson, Hill 72.3 Vic Harding Memorial Trophy 1st. Morley; 2nd. Wood; 3rd. Clouting; 4th. Harris 62.4