tyler42

You;ve hit the nail on the head. The days when the bike and leathers were 2nd hand have long gone, but also young riders of today are safe in the knowledge that thier team spots are safe due to the lake of riders. Back in the day, if you had a couple of bad meetings, there was always another rider the club would give a go. btw, You talk about scruffy oiks. A certain young lad who went on to be one of the best. Started out with an old weslake Tatty pair of 2nd hand leather. He would have been laughed at by all these youngster today with the big vans and 3 bikes and mechanics to boot! His name was Joe Screen!!

And most would also work. Now we have Junior standard riders turning up with all the kit wanting this and that. Expecting to become professional speedway riders. It's a different world now, but a harsh bit of reality is needed. Could you imagine a junior rider back in the day demanding this and that? He would be showed the door as quick as you like. Its out of control now and the promoters are to blame for letting it get this way. One league and if the riders can't make it pay then they will have to get a job. If not and they think they are good enough, let them try their luck abroad.

Yes indeed a fine debut, but you seem to be getting carried away a tad. He beat Hodder, Perry and Hume. Nothing against the Glasgow reserves, but they must be the weakest in the league. Poland last night in the U24 league. 5 rides 5 lasts. Glasgow will win nothing with such a weak reserve pairing. Poole reserves 13+2 Glasgow 1 and that was when Hodder beat Perry.

100% agree with everything you have said. Being a Wimbledon fan in my younger days. If Belle Vue were in town you knew Their team PC, Morton etc and that would be the same with all the clubs. Now supporters turn up and 9/10 there will R/R plus a couple of Guest's. We have had in the past Chris Harris Riding for Ipswich in the Semi final of the play offs then riding against them in the final!!!. People outside the sport must think its a proper Micky mouse sport and who can blame them.

Well said👍

How has speedway been allowed to get into such a state? Riders in this day and age and I'm not talking big names here. Riders in the 2nd division and even the 3rd division turn up with kit that a GP rider would be happy to have. Paid mechanics, Big fancy vans. It's a fantasy world. You say we can't change back. Well if we don't address the elephant in the room. Speedway won't have long left as a professional sport. Promotors have got big decisions to make this close season. Sticking their heads in the sand and thinking " Theres nothing wrong with product," will not wash anymore. We have come to a watershed moment. If nothing changes, then it won't survive. 1) Do they still carry on paying riders wages that far outweigh the amount of people who come through the gate. Clubs will have to cut there cloth accordingly. Meaning riders will have to be paid a realistic wage for what the sport is. If riders want to turn up with all the kit, no one is stopping them, but the clubs cannot afford to fund their fantasy and before anyone has a go. No rose tinted glasses, but pure facts. In the 80s Most riders worked. They got wages according to their standard. The Leagues were a lot bigger. The crowds were a lot bigger. 2) Do they take the sport by the horns, and make it one league. There are 16 clubs, god knows how many next year. but you can't run two divisions with such a small amount of clubs. " yes they have done, but look where it's taken us" 3) The pricing has to reflect the quality of what you're paying for. Riders will have to make drastic changes. If there is to be one league, I would imagine the top riders would disappear. So the one league would be mainly made up of British riders. Clubs have to stop paying bang average foreign riders, flights and mechanics. People who say it will water it down. Well the standard can't get much lower at 2nd division level. This season most 2nd division clubs have filled their 6 and 7s with 3rd division riders. The top league is made up mostly of 2nd division riders. The standard has been getting lower every season for a while now. if that means a couple of more riders from the 3rd division replacing expensive foreign riders, then that will have to be a price the sport will need to pay to survive. More importantly. two home and two away meetings would stop the silly practise of clubs not having home meetings for weeks on end. The sport needs a reset and It has got to far out of hand and only a massive reset will save it. IMO

I bet he's getting paid lead commentators money!!!

I suppose its called ticking the boxes!!

Unless your name is Bartek!!!

Surely the FIM must look at her previous. Her decision there, shows she should be no where near a GP!!! Nearly cost Bewley a race win. The woman is an an embarrassment to the sport.

And you could say the same about Killeen, He was looking real good last year, but Oxford have thrown him in the top league and is most weeks getting hammered which in turn affects his second division racing. Not the same rider as last year.

You might think it's good for TV, but is it good for the credibility of the sport? If people found it confusing in the past, then the fives rides is your score towards the championship and you can have a final with the four top riders to get a GP winner. That would surely keep the TV happy and also a much fairer system, as the rider who scores the most pts over the season is the champion. At least the riders who make the top six or is it seven whatever the cut for the following season is, have done it off the back of what they scored not what they were awarded.

But scoring 12pts means nothing as Max Fricke found out to his cost. A ridiculous scoring system when a rider scores 12pts and one bad ride in LCQ and its over. fair enough, but to take 4pts off his score and give Lambert 11pts, who to be fair struggled to get 7pts is not right. If you have scored 12pts then surely thats what you should end up with. Like wise, if you score 7pts then thats is what you should get.

It's speedway. You can't possibly have sensible scoring. The joker back in the day for the WTC was a joke, but this is absolutely pathetic and people wonder why speedway is not take seriously by the MSM

They really do need someone to tell Tatum and Louis the permutation and scores, because they haven't got a clue. We're watching and them two are about 3 seconds behind the live coverage. Has the director not noticed or do they not give monkeys. It's all rather embarrassing.

Having watched Freddy score 8pts and end up with 14pts. Same with Lambert scored 7pts ends up on 11. Then the other end of the spectrum. Fricke is joint top scorer with 12pts after everyone had had their five rides. He ends the night with one bad ride and gets 8pts. Its a farce. Is the reason to stop Zmarzlik running away with it? He's had two GP wins and a second out of five GPs, yet he is only 9pts ahead of Kurtz!

I totally agree. Speedway is not F1 or Moto GP they have one race and dish out the pts accordingly. Speedway has five races then and LCQ and a final. We had with Kubera. Scoring 6pts and ending up with 14pts Tonight as you said. Max scored 12pts but under this system ends up with 8pts Lambert ends up with 11pts! after only scoring 7pts on the night! Ridicules. Makes the sport a joke imo.

But due to the silly scoring system. You had Fricke score 12pts and Lambert 7pts from their 5 rides. After the LCQ Fricke ends up with 8pts Lambert 11pts!! So you had one rider have a fantastic night. Has one bad ride and another ride has an average night ends up getting 5 pts more than guy who was far better on the night!! Stupid scoring system. What was wrong with the system where every point counted ?

He's got two bikes there. Whats the point of having two if he's not going to use the other??

and this is why the GPs are not a true world championship. Its a commercial venture/circus. Score 4pts from 4 rides and you still have a chance of getting into the final! as Kurtz nearly did and Kubera actually did after scoring 6 pts. Would it be too much logistically to have a one off world final like the old days and keep the GPs as they are. Be an interesting line up if everyone had to qualify. I suppose finding dates for qualifiers would be the main problem.

Alfie Bowtell (G) - 0, 0, F = 0 Francis Gusts - 0, 0, 1 and yet Schroeck didn't bother giving Killeen an extra ride until heat 15!! but he gave McDiarmid six rides!! Last week at Redcar he should have replaced Hagon with Mitchell McDiarmid in heat 11. The man is a liability and yes and I agree the worst manager. He's the only manager I know who when he has a reserve on fire, he don't use them!!

No mention for the 15 year old Rushen?

I thought the same when Kubera scored 6 pts in the previous GP and walked away with 14pts to his name. Yes it's the system, but its a stupid system. Like tonight Kurtz had 4 from 4 rides yet nearly made the final. As for the wildcards, the last two GPs have showed that Morris, Castagna and co are just woke and have no idea. It's suppose to be a world championship, so why leave out riders of the calibre of Madsen and Dudek for Kai Huckenbeck and Kvěch!. Both Madsen and Dudek have scored more in one meeting a piece than the other pair in three GPs!!

Yes some of that camera work was absolutely appalling!!. Great racing from the young lads. 100% commitment. Louis corrected Tatum in the run off, when Tatum said Rushen had pulled out. You could see it was Rushen as he was wearing the red helmet, but Tatum was having no of it. He really needs to show a bit of humility does Tatum. i suppose it's the public schoolboy in him. He thinks he's never wrong. Unfortunately for him though, 9/10 He is 😂

And their lies the problem. When riders did work and ride, the crowds were far bigger than today. Riders in this day and age have got to have 2/3 bikes. The big van and full time mechanics. In the 70s/80s. Riders in the second division would mainly have one bike, The top riders would maybe have two. A mate would dope and oil and get paid a fish supper. How can you expect to be a full time rider. Riding in a front of less than a thousand people? If the second division does not go part time then its curtains in my opinion.