1 valve

Nigel’s love of the sport, his enthusiasm and overall personality made him a lovely man & a great speedway commentator. RIP Nigel & my condolences to his family & close friends. You will be missed.

Saw Kenny Carter blast underneath Bruce Penhall coming out of bend four - brilliant piece of riding - think it was a match race thing (silver/golden helmet - not sure of the metal)

What was it all about - seems like the Lions disappeared after it. Talk about not being up for a fight!

The team that wins the battle for minor places will come out on top. Home advantage to swing it. However, will be well worth a visit (even for neutrals) to watch two teams who will be well motivated to perform on a night when good weather is being predicted.

Looks like the Lions will struggle this year then...they only have one div one heat leader...and he's not even a number one! Presumably the Lions faithful are hoping the boss has managed to garner a team where the other 6 riders manage to do enough during the season to scrape the occasional win or two

Afraid your looking back at speedway promoting history through rose tinted glasses.

Why do you ask?

Leicester may not have the best race track in the UK (there can only be one of them) but a more accurate statement would be "people always use to say it is the shape that causes the problems" - Given the changes made over the past few years to the shape, length and banking of the track , the only folk who now continue to cite the track as "poor" or "wrong" are those who have not attended a Leicester meeting in recent times or expect something which frankly speedway never deliver's anywhere - ever - i.e. 4 laps of racing with many multiple passes in all races. Meanwhile those who have attended meetings at Leicester will have seen comparable racing/passes to that seen at most UK tracks and not just for the front two places but also for the minor (but just as important) third place.

In speedway, if the best riders gates first (which is a contributory factor as to why they are “good” in the first place) then the “not so good” riders will finish behind them. On Saturday there were very few times the “not so good “ riders got out of the gate first & when they did, the good riders passed them. Hence why 4 of the Lions team achieved paid maximums.

Plenty of footballers having signed for new clubs are injured during pre-season and miss the first (few) fixtures. In the case of Adam, he was signed with the full knowledge that he would be unavailable for the Lions leg, but this is hardly a reason not to have signed him at all is it?

All being well, the Lions will progress to the next round & the Leicester fans will have another home meeting.

Whoops. I meant to type “inclusion of Russian teams” rather than “Russians”

Speedway supporters almost certainly agree that the two Russians involved in the GP series are innocent of any political views v the Ukraine. However, they are Russian and as per FIFA’s actions & that of F1 the speedway authorities must ensure there is zero inclusion of Russians on the global stage until Putin and his cronies are put firmly in the box they need to be sentenced too.

“Will people be able to afford to go” in short “yes” if they regard going to speedway meetings as something they want to do. Those promoters who do the right things to make people want to go have nothing to worry about. As for those who don’t do “the right thing” history shows they will find someone else to blame.

Does anyone know/care/guess why the anticipated announcement this past Monday at 6pm as indicated by Tai W of who his 2nd team will be for 2022 didn't happen? - or have I missed it?

Highest average at BV

Although the programmed 1-7 would still be required to take their minimum number of rides unless injured. In which case using IRR would also be an option alongside using the no. 8

Unfortunately your admission pricing model doesn't make good business sense. A family ticket at £20 for two adults and unlimited number of kids actually means adults at £10.00 each kids free. And absolutely no way would two adults (no kids) happily pay "full price" for tickets meaning that the actual admission price for adults would need to be £10.00 Given that £10.00 would yield only £8.33 after Vat the promotion would need to attract double the number of adults just to make the same income if they charged for the normal going rate for adults and kids. Much better that the promotions charges something along the lines of full price for adults and allow 2 children per adult in for free and charge "young adults" between 16 & 18 half price.

Well that's true enough. But as this is a forum for discussion, folk are allowed to contribute their views are they not? And similarly question statements made by others (ambiguous or not)

The better riders in speedway as per other classes of two wheel motor sport agree their financial deals and then get on with their job of racing in an attempt to win. Those speedway riders who “need” significant guarantees either doubt their own ability to deliver what is expected of them or smell fear in a desperate promoter. (or both).

Top boys can only ride in Poland & one other league. So although the rest in-between meetings may appear beneficial some riders (as per Jason D) prefer to be busier than that on their bikes racing. which of course the UK can provide for.

Highly unlikely that a sponsor could be found to provide £2k+ per point aka Poland. However matching Swedish pay rates (& paying them) is far more likely.

Which were?

It did move on for a short while when the Sky money rolled in. But unfortunately the money rolled out of the sport via riders pay instead of some being retained and reinvested in it and thus ultimately it dropped back to what we have had for a number of years Depressingly, the same folk are leading the sport and by example they are unable to move away from continually doing what they have always done in the way they run the sport. Sadly with too many clubs & too few riders being available alongside insufficient vision by promoters who refuse to seek & accept external help if it means giving up some (not all) of their control the future doesn’t bode well for any significant improvement on the current scenario.

Your idea whilst imaginative unfortunately falls at the first hurdle as There are insufficient riders available for squads of 10 which, even if there was the clubs would not have the money to pay for them - given those not riding would still need an income.