Big Al

Heard the news a couple of days ago that Malcolm Brown died recently (I think it was end of September). For those who don't know, Brownie was from east London and rode for the Lions in the late 60's and early 70's, and was a bit of a character. He went on to promote speedway in southern Africa, own night clubs, and worked as a singer on Caribbean cruise ships. He moved to Florida in the late 1980's I think. I don't recall having seen any mention of this news on the Leicester Speedway website, but news sometimes travels slowly, and there were other things going on at the time. RIP one of the great Lions.

There can hardly have been anyone in the UK and central europe, over the past few weeks, who hasn't been directly or indirectly effected by the need to cancel or change travel plans.

My guess is (sorry to repeat previous) that the drainage itself isn't as much the problem. it's more about being able to empty the sub-track tanks if the vehicles required to be filled with and take away water, and those required to do track maintenance, would need to be driven onto and along a track which is still very soft from the huge amount of recent rain. We wouldn't want a speedway match to be run, with riders having to go either side of a marooned lorry partway along the back straight. The way the money was raised to finance the building of Beaumont Park may have been questionnable, but it was fully privately-funded and didn't have the benefit of any provision from public funds. While it's true that the land it occupies is owned by the local council, the stadium also had to be fitted into a tight space, with restricted vehicular access around the perimeter, especially to the north where the perimeter is an industrial estate. Almost every year, work has been carried out over the winter to try to improve the track and drainage. But sometimes you can't overcome the effects of Mother Nature, so this decision is completely reasonable and sensible.

Over the past two seasons, Leicester seem to rely heavily on Fricke scoring double figures and when he doesn't, the others struggle to fill the void sufficiently. He was completely AWOL last night. The match was moderately entertaining, but Belle Vue riders passing the Lions riders became like watching fish being shot in a barrel. Can the second leg go ahead on Thursday? The track must have needed remedial work, after the Ipswich match. I think last Friday was mostly dry, but on Saturday when I got back to Leicester around 6pm it was already tipping it down with rain and by 7pm the street drains had filled and roads were flooding. Sunday it rained on and off, same yesterday but possibly more heavily. If the past is anything to judge by, the water tanks at Beaumont Park will have filled up and once emptied would probably rapidly re-fill with water standing on the track and centre area. In the past, I think in the past they've had problems with getting heavy vehicles on to the track for necessary maintenance and water removal following sustained heavy rain, as the vehicles would sink into the track and cause serious damage. But maybe, hopefully, work carried out during a recent winter has improved this? Also, today is a rare day of respite from rain, and more is forecast tomorrow into Thursday morning although that could have all changed by now! With the tradeoffs that went on between SCB and Eurosport over the playoff dates and pairings, it could be that Eurosport is now playing hardball in terms of the final being done and dusted and doesn't have leeway with its broadcast schedules and OB unit deployment plans. But if it's not feasible for the track to be made ready, wouldn't it be better for everyone if a decision is made now to move it to next week, possibly without it being on TV, rather than risk having a farce on live TV?

Has anyone disagreed with Becker's being excluded? No? How surprising! Going against the trend, that one seemed to be the right call, even though Kveck went into bend 3 like an old granny and probably deserved to end up on his backside. But the decisions "early doors" was cuckoo. Not sure about the Fricke one, but have to admit I was expecting him to go

Raining again at the moment. Lighter than previous downpour and should be shorter duration. Those track covers will really be proving their worth 😗

There was one hell of a downpour for 15 minutes (about 2 miles away) 15-20 minutes ago. But it'll be no problem because they'll have had track covers on, won't they😏

Is another Belle Vue the best blueprint? I think the track is over-rated and defaults to the wide line too early. From what I've seen and heard lately, the new Swindon and Workington are better racetracks.

Can't disagree about the qualification question, thought that could be rather contentious. Mainly, I don't like the process culminating in one single meeting. Perhaps scrap the SEC and bring in a 4-round competition open to riders worldwide to qualify for? With the assessment of riders taking part in SGP, that assessment would run separately from the points accumulation within one season in order to produce the 1-2-3 podium positions. Based on more than just one season's worth of performances and on a rolling basis, it would provide along with two-year contracts, an additional dimension to the competition, especially in current times when it has become rather predictable in terms of who will be the champion.

Firstly, I'd give any newcomer to SGP a two-year contract. With a rider returning after a time gap, it would be a one-year deal initially but could be changed to two years halfway through the season, if he is holding a top 8 position. Secondly, and linked to the above, assess riders on the basis of their immediate past 16 SGP performances, when it comes to making decisions on whether or not they will be invited back for the following season (where their 2-year protection has expired). The SGP challenge should be scrapped as a qualification route, as should the SEC. Individual federations would instead nominate rider/s of their choosing, on whatever basis they wish, and an FIM jury would choose who to award vacant places to.

Given his recent problems, it could be that Craig Cook is finding the extra workload and higher level to be too much for him. He started the season in great style for Worky, but since taking on the Oxford/Leicester jobs hasn't been as dominant in the CL and is clearly struggling in the PL. Maybe better for him to revert to focus on Worky.

Not delivering and unlikely to improve on previous contributions when/if he gets back into 1-5. Why did Tarasenko quit KL? Only seemed to have one bad match and that was it.

Maybe not if he was somewhere else, but at Birmingham, he's now their 5 and is showing good signs of being up to the challenge

Always had them at #5

They'll be looking to Brennan to take that on