The Observer

I agree about Klindt, but not being exactly on top of the average rulings, when will he move up into the main body of the team? Klindt's current average is 2nd only to Nilsson had he still been a Lion. It's such a massive advantage.

Hearing that some were speculating Doyley was deliberately riding slower in order to lower his average. Whilst I can understand the reasoning, if true obviously, it would be thoroughly cheating the loyal paying supporter from seeing one of the very best riders in the world compete to his absolute maximum. I sincerely hope it's not true and it simply can be put down to an off night for Jason. Great to hear the numbers were up, hopefully this will be somewhat of a resurgence for the Leicester Club as they've had a tough couple of years.

Totally agree. Lakeside's track's more of a specialist track than Leicester's and in my opinion makes for even worse viewing. Granted the very best riders quickly work it out and you get a race but for the second string & reserves it's tough going & watching.

The Lions won't remain in the Elite League next season. They continue to advocate holding meetings on a Saturday is "best" for them, which it may well be. But as stated many times before, this severely limits the choice of top flight riders. Leicester will be replaced by Glasgow, a club with ambition and more importantly money to spend.

Quite incredible watching how the 3-Poles struggle around Monmore. Swiderski showed his talent in his last 2-heats but the other two were nowhere to be seen. Garrity was as entertaining as ever, even tho' clearly not 100% fit. Good job for once Norrie had 3-track specialists available otherwise it could have been an absolute rout.

A great night of competitive speedway and yet much of the thread is taken up by whether a dog should be taken to meetings or not. Simple, if the promoter allows it, the dog remains calm (welfare of the dog paramount) and he/she poses no danger to the public then why the hell not. Kids running around the track perimeter without any parental guidance is a bigger issue for me. Back to the team. The injured cannot come back too soon, Masters, Auty & Lambert when fully fit would have been a match for anyone. The Lions as we all know have been dogged (no pun intended) all season with injuries, guests have filled in with varying degrees of success. What they need is a strong No.5 to backup Doyley who can ride Leicester but more importantly ride the away tracks. The Lions simply are too weak away from home.

If it is Simon Nielsen then he's riding with more confidence again, looking to take the outside line a little more often and enjoying some success from it. He's a trier and finds failure difficult to accept as I understand it.

Good to see Steady increasing in confidence each meeting.

Good to see Jan Graversen back in the points. Always gives 100% regardless.

If it was to be Simon Nielsen, you'd have a terrific rider that gives no less than 110%. Very courageous, just needs some luck & to stay injury free.

Someone who was there. He stressed the match certainly wasn't decided on just the gating, but the rakers did spend a considerable amount of time on each of the Newcastle riders next gate to compared to that of Leicester's. It's not sour grapes from this supporter, because he acknowledged Newcastle were on fire that night with some terrific riding.

The Lions certainly didn't turn up for this meeting which was bitterly disappointing for their travelling fans and the fact that they were fighting for a playoff place. However, both reserves turned out to be injured which explains why only 1 point was scored between them. One very contentious observation I heard was that the track staff were "specially" racking the gates the Newcastle Riders were about to gate from. This, as I understand it, was pointed out to the ref after which the heats were very much closer. If there's any truth in that, then that's very disappointing. That said Newcastle were worthy victors and soundly beat the Lions.

Very tough on James, but these changes are far too late in the season. The Lions should never have let Lewis Blackbird go in the first place as they've never found a good enough replacement. Throughout the season there's been elementary mistakes made, fundamentally by the management, which has left the Leicester Lions short of the play-offs with only 2-meetings remaining (Edinburgh-home & Newcastle-away). In my opinion, they need a complete overhaul in the close season ready for 2014.