Bruiser McHuge

Sam Masters.." I feel very lucky to have broken my collarbone last year and was crap when I came back..without that stroke of luck I'd have been without a team place this year so thank god for that...next year if I'm doing well i must remember this and do something similar to retain a team place somewhere" What a sad state British speedway is in..

Should be a points limit and it's up to the club how they reach that limit...one 8 point rider is frankly ridiculous in my opinion and another nail in speedways coffin.

Speedway needs TV..without it it just becomes more and more a virtually amateur sport that virtually nobody watches.. There is a bigger picture than saying matches cannot be televised when other tracks are running..the publicity generated by being on TV cannot be over emphasised and if promoters cannot capitalise on that in any way then they should not be promoters. There is a lot wrong with speedway but there will be even more wrong if they don't get TV.

Well i do know that when my brother in law rode in the late 80's and in the 90's I never asked him how much he was on !!..I do know he rode around Europe and did his own bikes in my garage..and said he treated riding as a business and a way to make money..and at the end of it he seemed to do well..and still is... Think it depends on the rider and their priorities but I'm certain riders can do well..although I have to admit I have no idea how much a GP rider would fork out from their own pocket now ..can't see the point in actually doing it if they were not doing well out of it though...but I've no idea..

Well my brother in law was a rider..and he's done well out of it...I think a lot of riders will always complain..and a lot of riders waste a fortune on fancy vans, fancy kit and ridiculous engine tuners...but the fact is if you do it sensibly and are decent as a rider there should be no way you shouldn't do ok out of it...

Well...the track was well dodgy last night ...Tungate was very unlucky against Thorsell..thought Thorsell left him with no where to go really..not much he could do.. I groaned when Cook said after his first ride he was making changes to drop the speed..he's done that before after good rides and struggled....his big fault is too much tinkering..of course you need some ..but he does it too much I think.. All in all not a great meeting..think it will be close ..but I think Belle Vue might just win if Cook scores normally and Bewley, Fricke and Tungate can do what they are capable of.

Agree Carter as number 1..and by some distance in my book....possibly the best visitor ever round Hyde Road..

I wouldn't put Havelock as an all time great..but at the time he won his title I was watching him week in week out and he did deserve his title that year...and I do think he could have won a GP series that particular year...obviously his title record doesn't compare to Woffinden's but I do think at his short peak he was better than Tai has been..

Having spent a lot of time in Australia and being a big AFL fan I am a big fan of play offs...the race for top 8 in AFL and the ultimate Grand Final is fantastic...and Western Bulldogs were champions last year from 7th in the league... Play offs are a great idea in my opinion..but I am not sure they work that we'll in speedway...great idea if teams stay injury free and it's 2 full teams...but not great if we get teams full of guests..often on dodgy end of year wet tracks making the rest of the season a bit of a farce.. So great in principle but not always in reality as far as speedway goes....but they do keep the season alive for a few clubs

Just caught up with this on TV..my Sky plus cut off before heat 15 which wasn't great...it was an ok meeting..track a bit iffy but the odd decent race.. Never really complained about Pearson and Tatum but they did bug me ..especially Pearson..with their quite obvious and not very well disguised Poole bias...Pearson seemed almost in tears as Swindon built their lead and then couldn't use the joker...does he have shares in Poole or something ?..

Well that was great..but the fact there were 4 ultra competitive teams was the key...yes the track was great which helps ..but if you've got 2 competitive teams and 2 also rans then you'll never get a good meeting..it was great tonight though .

Well ..my 12 year old who normally won't watch speedway at all ..even when I'm watching it was quite enthralled by this meeting...amazing..I've now said I'll take him to Belle Vue..he's always flatly turned down the offer before...but after last night he now wants to go !...so it looks like I'm off to my first live meeting in years..and he's coming with me... So it shows the importance of TV and getting a product on TV that comes across as entertaining to the younger generation....last night did that...hope our live experience is just as entertaining for him and he enjoys it as much as I did when I first went at a similar age in the 70's..

Having known Rob Woffinden in Perth and seeing Tai in the Claremont pits since a tiny kid I class him as an Aussie...he may or may not have citizenship and his birth certificate may say English but in everything but name he is Australian.. ..still perfectly entitled to ride for England ...English born..English parents .but he is still Australian in all but name.. And yes he doesn't do anything for English speedway...but after all its an individual sport masquerading as a team sport and you only have a shortish career so young got to look after number 1..

I'm sure he could have been Aussie if he'd have so wanted...he'd been there since he was about 2 !..although I'm not sure Rob was legally there for the first few years !!.....he's only the same as Andrew Symonds and others in cricket..Symonds was born here to British parents and moved to Australia as a kid...and he's the most Aussie bloke you'll ever meet ...

Re Run have been around a long time haven't they...I remember theme doing a load of southern tracks in the 80's...good they are still going.. The first I remember was KM Videos..I think they were called that..remember them filming an Ellesmere Port v Eastbourne cup final... MBI video used to do a lot as well with Mike Bennett...and of course Aces on Video with Roy Nicol... I must admit the videos from Belle Vue they put online now do look very professional.

I'd say junior grasstrack was a much bigger feeder system back then...the likes of Collins and later were all well known young grasstrackers..it was a huge feeder system Plus the Belle Vue trying school..other tracks with significantly more practice time available than today....and the fact that the European leagues were not what they were today..to be a top rider you had to race here..so there were team spots against the best immediately available on a level playing field... I feel it's so much harder for a youngster today to break through and then after getting a UK team place there is so much further to go still..

With due respecto ..that's rubbish really..for years Cook was considered a small track rider..Edinburgh..Kirky Lane..and his weakness was the bigger tracks..he would have always done better at Wolves than at Lynn...if you want to be a top international rider you've got to ride the big tracks well..and British riders have been poor on them...so if Cook is riding them well then that's great...there's no better sight in speedway than close fast racing on a big fast track...it's what the sport is all about..not your Lakesides of the world.

Not been to kings Lynn since 93 !..I went every week then and Gustafsson and Loram provided racing as good as I've ever seen anywhere....I assume it's not like that now...

I grew up watching at Hyde Road so was probably a bit spoilt...there were some great meetings there...but there were plenty of dire ones as well... I used to visit Wolves quite a lot in the Ermolenko and Correy days and it was definitely my favourite small track...you rarely saw a bad meeting there..used to follow Bradford and they were quite poor there ..I think often a big size track visiting a small size track is quite often never the best..and vice versa as well ..I remember Belle Vue 64 Eastbourne 14 !! Never been to the new Belle Vue yet and it looks different to Wolves for sure ..but I've always liked Wolves as a track..definitely the best small track I ever saw...

We get other people's post on a reasonably regular occasion...usually it's up the road somewhere so we just drop it through for them .occasionally it's an address the other side of town..God knows him who might get our post sometimes !!..very poor...you can do no more than put something in the post with the right address and right postage...it's sort of out of your hands then as to when it arrives..

Danny king may not be as good as the Poles but that's hardly his fault...to say Adam Ellis is remotely in King's class is plainly ridiculous..Lambert is a different matter.. I agree GB have no chance of beating the Poles but King has to in in the team..certainly head and shoulders above Ellis.

Well my brother in law was an Australian rider...he came over with no sponsors..no club..nowhere to stay...he got some rides and got a team....in his years here he never once had a sponsored van or a bike from the club..or any sponsorship direct from the club...he maintained his bikes in my garage.. As he was a bit more established he could have had a van from the club..an older one..but it would be a van and less points money..or no van and more points money...so I think it's not right to say all Aussies have everything handed on a plate for them...most have to earn what they get...

Why would Natalie Quirk no nothing ?..she watched Belle Vue for years..I remember her Nat's Eyes column in the Belle Vue programme years ago..she wasn't very old when she did that....and I think she did the centre green presentation later didn't she ?....I never saw her do that as I'd stopped going to Belle Vue by then....but one thing you cannot say is that she doesn't know speedway...and she's certainly not told what to say that's for sure

Bloody Suzi perry...can't stand her I'm afraid...the rest are fine..

The pairs meeting may be irrelevant and not important...I certainly can't get excited about it.....but when I.put it on it didn't half make speedway look professional with the bikes and suits...it looked fantastic and that's half the battle to gaining a new audience.