wandersome

Didn't see heat 15 coming tonight. Very disappointing as it looked for the world that we had all 3 points nailed on. Top six is looking out of reach with another dropped point. Although he only scored a point I thought Sargeant had a promising debut, he made mistakes with his lines to be passed but he appeared to learn from them and I thought he was unlucky not to re-pass Lewis Blackbird in one of the heats. Hopefully he'll soon be getting some gates and I can see him beating some decent riders around BP.

The track has produced most overtaking when it has been pretty slick, as it was for the Ipswich & Somerset meetings. Everytime Glyn leaves the dirt there in the corners no one can get around it as shown in the Sheffield meeting when he pulled it all back on at the interval and Bjerre and others just couldn't turn the bikes on bend 3/4. Then there is no overtaking whatsoever except when a rider ends up freewheeling it out to the fence. I like Branford but around BP he was really struggling, particularly around bend 3/4 where all the gap he would make up going around 1/2 was lost again. I think he will be one who will do better away from BP and really hope he gets fixed up somewhere else so he can put his struggles behind him. Blackbird did it and i see no reason why Rob can't do the same. I wish him all the best. Maybe they should remember when he won us the match guesting at 2 for Magnus in the Sheffield match. I like him, he looks a bit fragile sometimes and appears to go down a little too easily a lot of the time (as he did when 2nd in the reserves race last week) but when he stops up and gates he looks to me like he has something. From what i've seen of him he's young, he's definately seems to have improved a lot over the last year, I think he looks nice and stylish and he's seems pretty fast when he stops upright. I think the falls may be a confidence thing that will hopfully disappear with a few regular premier league races and a few decent points for the Lions.

If we don't make the play offs can we expect more meetings to be added to the fixture list? If we don't make the play offs then i make it 15 PL standard meetings (£15), The Pride (£15), a juniors meeting (was that £5?), a sub NL standard meeting (i'm guessing £10), The freestyle show (£20 if you gets granstand seats) and the midland fours (whatever that is but lets say £15). Thats what is currently left in the fixture list. Even taking the freestyle show as a £20 ticket and if the fours was a £15 premier standard meeting then thats £290 worth of entrances. Season tickets were £330, even with full discount they were £297. Mick

Branford appears to have the same kind of issues with the track that Blackbird does. He never looks too bad going around bend 1/2 but appears to get bend 3/4 all wrong on what seems like 3 laps out of every 4.

don't disagree with what you say Astill Lodge. If Roynon had been fit all year then i still think we'd have been in the box seat. I agree with you re: the team as well. It doesn't bother me if we win or lose as long the riders look like there giving it everything and Leicester is their focus. The point i was trying to make was that if we had serious aspirations to stay in the top 6 then, for whatever reasons, we have missed the opportunities that have been available to make changes. accepted that i probably didn't need to add the last bit about track but there you go, what's done is done, it's a hard habit to break! Mick.

I don't think Redcar are catchable personally. I think we are nailed on for 7th. Do they still have the crap team cup as well to go? Is that happening this year? I guess we are either one of the favourites for the crap cup or rank outsiders for the play offs. What's the best option? We've missed every conceivable opportunity to make a difference this season which i'm guessing mainly boils down to our parlous finances. Im sure if we'd made track changes mid winter and let speedway decisions overrule the heart we'd of had Blackbird and Kerr scoring big at reserve all season. I think we've missed opportunities to replace the likes of the missfiring (away from home at least) Graversen with someone like Pontus Asprgren for whatever reasons as well, be that finance or heart. We've had a number 1 whose heart hasn't really looked into doing it for the Lions at any point his year (probably for good reason if what i heard about his testimonial was correct) and after the 'team talk' a couple of weeks ago i guess we know have a whole team that probably now hold similar views. If the right decisions had been made at the right times we'd have also had a whole lot more people watching at BP. It's not long ago that a junior meeting between Dudley and Leicester was pulling a much bigger (maybe twice the) crowd than last weeks individual but even then the writing was on the wall if things didn't change, they were actually on the wall from the very first meeting ever put on at BP. Rather than reel off excuse after excuse as to why less than 500 people are turning up for a meeting on a beautiful summers sunday evening in July, it's time some people stood back and actually faced the facts as to why no one is going any more. When speedway returned to Leicester a couple of years back it was inconcievable that these type of crowd levels would be happening so little time into the future. It will be interesting to see what crowd our team get watching them in a cool, wet September evening, faced with mid table mediocrity. Mick.

As far as I can see Magnus and Sergei have very similar averages. Darkin's final average was 6.53 so less than half a point currently between them. I think you would need to drop Nieminen for Darkin to create some 'reserve points' so to speak. Something along the lines of what I mentioned in the pride thread. It's a little worrying that if Edberg is out for a while and needs replacing I can't see a decent replacement anywhere (Steve Boxhall being the lowest average rider that i think could do a job as best reserve and his average is so high it would actually put Graversen at reserve). Mick.

I agree with you Tina, I guess we would all be losers. But it wouldnt be the fault of those that have been and think it's crap so don't go anymore. That's the point Nobblytriers is trying to make, that if people don't go it will be their fault when it doesn't exist anymore.. Unless the racing improves to something along the lines of what i watched at the last meeting between now and the end of the season then i won't be buying season tickets next year. I already know i definately will not be sponsoring Leicester next year. That's over a grand they won't be getting next year. The loss of that revenue to the owners is due to one thing and one thing only. If that affects the sustainability of Leicester Speedway then there is nothing i can do about it. There is something others could have done about it but not me. If things don't change and if i've lost interest in the fare on offer then using it or losing it makes no difference does it? I'll leave the extra financing required to keep the speedway going to the people who are seem happy watching what's on offer, people like you and Mrcts. I would guess the point that puts most potential customers off visiting Leicester to watch the speedway is they've likely tried it already and it's generally not up to much, see Bornagainlion or Nightshift and a whole host of others. It's a point Jim the Whipper quite eloquently made re: parallels between Newport and Leicester. Thats the single biggest issue with getting people to BP of a night now, not whether someone is moaning about it on the internet or elsewhere.

Whilst i agree to a point with this, if it goes and we end up with nothing, then it's likely to be the fault of people who have had the ability to do something about it. If it does goes then it will be because of the intransigence of the people in charge, nothing more, nothing less. It will have been their choice and their choice alone. IMO, If god forbid it was to happen then you would do a dissersive to the actual reasons were you to blame people on internet forums as a cause.

as good as it may have been, it lost it's way at the point where it tried to make out people have stayed away from Leicester on the basis of the what Robert72 or Jim the Whipper say! that crazy talk, so to speak.. Irrespective of the reasons for 3 years of dismal racing the facts are that but for odd occasion, such as last week, that's exactly what the entertainment has been... dismal. We've all willed it to be different but that's how it is. The amount of people who don't go because they've been and the racing is crap far outweighs the amount of people who haven't even been because Jim The Whipper and Robert72 say it's crap. Probably to a factor of 100% (or whatever the factor of everyone to nobody is). Sounds good when you read it, a rallying cry so to speak, but on reflection It's an awful, awful argument.

Eh! what's this about? what are the conspiracy theorists saying Tina? best shot at what? Personally, i dont think there is anything more to it. Karlsson is injured, Nieminen appears to have lost his edge and they, along with Bjerre and Doolan, appear to struggle to take points off the opposition big guns on a regular basis. Not sure i think anyone needs do one if they don't agree with me though.

I guess swapping nieminen and graversen out would allow a 9+ er and a 4 pointer but I think the issue is probably the lack of any decent replacements around the 4 point mark irrespective. As mentioned I think it probably needs a leap of faith at reserve if we were to make a change at the top now, especially now rye have signed up the one value rider below 5.5 that appeared to be available.

Pasted this across from the Workington v Leicester thread - The team was built around us starting the season with a 9.50-10 point man on a 7 point average. Losing him after 1 match and having to replace him with a true 7.00 rider has unfortunately mapped our season out (that and losing Lewis Kerr, a rider who common sense would say would have shared his reserve spot with Lewis Blackbird for all of 1 or 2 meetings before replacing Simon Nielsen). We are similar to Ipswich last year in that we have no-one to compete with the best the other teams have to offer. The only way out of mid table fizzle is to drop Graversen and one of the top four and use the 13 points we would have to replace them with a true No1 and someone that fits with what's left in the averages. Not sure anyone who could do the job and is available though although I think Edberg could hold his own in the main body of the team if need be. Lewis Bridger & James Sargeant for Karlsson & Graversen maybe but that would maybe leave us a bit vulnerable at reserve but maybe worth the gamble with how the season looks like working out? I suppose with that you would have two good young brits in and it would be nice to see Sargeant get the chance to kick on as he's looked close to making the step up all year without the opportunity to do it.

Edberg has looked good ever since signing. Not sure how he looked for Berwick but he's a totally different rider to what i was expecting when looking at his scores for the Bandits.

The team was built around us starting the season with a 9.50-10 point man on a 7 point average. Losing him after 1 match and having to replace him with a true 7.00 rider has unfortunately mapped our season out (that and losing Lewis Kerr, a rider who common sense would say would have shared his reserve spot with Lewis Blackbird for all of 1 or 2 meetings before replacing Simon Nielsen). We are similar to Ipswich last year in that we have no-one to compete with the best the other teams have to offer. The only way out of mid table fizzle is to drop Graversen and one of the top four and use the 13 points we would have to replace them with a true No1 and someone that fits with what's left in the averages. Not sure anyone who could do the job and is available though although I think Edberg could hold his own in the main body of the team if need be. Lewis Bridger & James Sargeant for Karlsson & Graversen maybe but that would maybe leave us a bit vulnerable at reserve but maybe worth the gamble how the season looks like working out? I suppose with that you would have two good young brits in and it would be nice to see Sargeant get the chance to kick on as he's looked close to making the step up all year without the opportunity to do it.

I often am, as Neb will tell me later on. I await and fully accept his wrath

Can only see a thrapping on it's way to the Lions. Maggie looked like he may have struggled last night on return from injury and only scored 1 last year at DP and with Edberg also returning from injury and having a similar poor record at DP, coupled with Bjerre being out and Graversen being Graversen i can see us struggling to hit 36 even if Nemo and Doolan hit the ground running. Not sure how Branford usually rides DP but hopefully he can retain some of his Edinburgh form and Glyn can work some confidence magic in the pits.

I stayed on topic until the usual strayed off topic for a bit of pointscoring/trolling I then mentioned 2 of the 3 people that engaged in taking the point off topic, the 3rd, being a Leicester fan, i didn't mention as i think she was probably trying to inject a little humour rather than just trolling for a reaction. you do realise though that your response would appear on the the face of it to reinforce the point i've requoted don't you

I agree Astill, i think it could be done a lot better. I think the positive needs to be grounded in reality though. I do feel that it's probably easy to run scared of social networks and the likes and to an extent it appears that's what happens with Leicester (i wouldn't single them out though as i guess they are probably not alone). This kind of heads back to post 1 of this topic and David Hemsley's original rant in his programme notes. Rather than feel embattled by criticism made on these sites and fighting back by removing the negative and wildly over emphasising the positive and generally ignoring the media for fear of the what could be said, in my opinion Leicester would be better served by taking on board the criticisms and trying to make the product something that negates a need for people to make such criticisms. There will always be a negative few, but if the general feeling emenating from these sites are the that it's a truly good product then that will always win out. That's the way social media works best. If you deliver a product that require's a hype that's never going to be attained then all the positivity in the world isn't going to get crowds back and staying for more. It's the reason the Artic Monkeys and Wilco made social media work. They had a great product and used social media in the way you describe to build their fanbase, no over hyping or false positives required. Jim the Whipper hit the nail on the head with the post about Newport when he said they had no chance by the time the crowds hit an average 300 as nearly all the potential customers had already tried the product at some time in the past and decided the product they had seen wasn't for them. If the product doesnt match the hype then people don't tend to give it a second chance. What's the point in trying to hype up the product if it then isn't going to match expectation. If the product was right, as it was at the last meeting, then the social media ran in a way that you mention, with the positives truthfully outweighing the negatives, and the majority of the fans helping to reinforce these views then it would be a force that Leicester would be using much more. Unfortunately it currently doesn't do that which is why i guess it's ignored to a degree in favour of the media they can completly control (the website).

I thought i was staying on theme, just pointing out where others had strayed. As for my obsession for you i checked my posts for evidence of this and concluded that such a conclusion could only be drawn by a raging narcissist!

Why would it disappear? After all it has some of the best debate going on in the BSF as long as you can skip the likes of certain trolling posts from the likes of Jenga and Tsunami (not hard to do, though i clearly fail in this post). Maybe these people shouldn't be so obsessed with having a go at Robert72 and they'd see the topic for what it actually is. As if to prove the point I was just contemplating a reply to a well thought out post from astill lodge about the promotions use of social media but Jenga and Tsunami have probably skipped this (along with the funniest speedway link i've seen) as it clearly cannot be attributed to R72 and clearly leaves little opportunity to reply to a post with their usual crushing banality (or in the case of Tsunami the opportunity to 'like' just such a post). This is a thread about hotels near the stadium and we already have a example of a case in point from both so to speak! Mick.

The obvious choices are both premier Inns. The Gynsills at Glenfield and Heathley Park which is New Parks / Gorse Hill area. Both have pubs restaurants next door. The only other place i can think of that is close by is The Brant Inn at Groby. I'd be inclined to go for Premier Inn at the Gynsills. Mick.

I'm amazed no one has taken credit for it! Mick.

That's the bit that hurt the sides most!! Though the Roynon to Sheffield came close

I'm not so sure about the recent bit you mention. It would seem that once more using the piss poorly written rulebook to ones advantage now allows 1 rider to spend a whole year guesting at pl level on their final 2012 pl average should it be advantageous to do so, irrespective of how they ride or score in the EL, due to the loophole in 17.2.5. That rider being Dakota North. still not sure the validity of this though as 18.3.1 clearly states a pl team can use an el rider as a guest but its on his converted el average.