teaboy279

The strong implications are Brum,easty Kent,Mildy and warriors are stepping up to a larger and slightly weakened second tier, with what was the national league turning into a development league with around 32 point limit and a 6.5 point cap on any rider. All speculation, but for once it's clubs and promoters speculating, rather then some no it all fans.

I believe we can pull off a couple of massive "shocks" this weekend if all the boys are firing and have their trapping gloves on. Have not been to an evening meeting at Mildenhall for some years and certainly not since the new floodlights have been there, looking forward to my fish and chips under the lights.

As I Kent fan I am faced with a totally crazy situation. The rider who rode at #1 For us on Monday, is riding at #1 against us Friday. And the rider who rode at number 1 against us Monday is riding #1 For us on Friday. Is it any wonder when we bring new faces into the sport, that they quite like the racing but cannot grasp what the hell is going on. And stop coming as quickly as they started.

In fairness both Coventry and Brum need to ride at Buxton still. So had both teams got the fixture in, in all likelihood it's fair to assume the same top 4 would apply anyway.

Keepers lodge pub (basically in the car park of the shopping centre) does a nice bit of grub. Think it's a Marstons pub if memory serves and has guest ales and the like. Nothing fancy, but decent wholesome Sunday grub.

Funny that when trying to promote a major event the third tiers rider championship is marketed as the NLRC not the NDLRC!!! The only time the development tag is used is when higher league clubs want a cheap or free signing.

They do, Tai won alternative sports person of the year. Maybe 2015, but certainly before bt sports were showing speedway.

Think the name of the award is in older speech, as in the sports personality of the year, in today's abbreviated society would just be called "sports person of the year". Look at some of the great sportspeople that have won, who have had no personality at all. On the minority sports, didn't some royal win it by making her horse walk around a sandy square. So minority sports can win as long as the beeb shows it.

Absolutely pointless, everyone's contract will say 20 quid per point. But not everyone will only receive that. The stories I am hearing from people in the know is a) essentially what Mark Phillips has said b) 5 man teams being the alternative. The strongest suggestions are that either scenario will force clubs like Brum, Eastbourne,Iow, Kent,and Mildenhall up a league. Whatever the outcome The National League as we know it (the strongest league of all, mainly due to the BSPA totally ignoring it) looks set to be ripped apart to prop up the mess of the top 2 flights,that the BSPA have let go down the drain. I can see positives in this if the 2nd tier can run mainly on British riders, one current promoter suggested to me that next year's championship 2nd strings would be NL number 1s and Championship reserves would be NL heat leader and better 2nd strings level. I believe from piecing together various bits of info, rumour, gossip, and speculation that by running 2 bigger top flight leagues, and then a pure development league it may make it easier to step up a level. And make the steps more achievable. Other forms of motorcycle racing have levels of ability. For example Club racing- national series- moto 3- moto 2 - moto gp. To get more lads (and lasses) riding speedway their has to be a clearer path to progress along. As it stands a top national league rider can earn more then a championship reserve, but if he stepped up to championship he would earn less then the original reserve as he won't be of the standard. So one is riding (and struggling) away at CL level, and a slightly lesser rider can almost earn a living out of maxing out at NL. Which rider is better of in the long run though? If we want a string of World Beaters which eventually attract main stream tv media, and then more sponsorships. There has to be some incentive to jump up through the leagues. Question to Mark Phillips if the upper leagues are expanded and using most of the competent National League riders in the teams, would this significantly lower costs and make it more viable. And I have read various comments from Plymouth/Stoke/Brum and even Eastbourne fans say they would only return when higher league racing returned. Do you think these people would add significant numbers to the gate, and in turn make it more viable still? Plymouth is a great venue, despite the pig of a journey and the match day entertainment is up there with market leading IOW, so would be an awful loss to the sport. I totally see the rumoured national league proposals making it totally unviable for many clubs, I d suggest the limit of 32 would take gates at my club down by at least half. These things need sorting out now, the powers that be need to be having meetings on a weekly basis and at least get the skeleton of a proposal together, and then consult us last few mugs prepared to do 500 mile round trips to support our team to gauge our opinions. Every time the BSPA lock themselves in a room, someone or something seems to get screwed up, stupidity must be summed up by the saying "you can keep doing the same things and expecting different results" Someone independent needs to get involved in the process and stop the year on year decline in every aspect of the sport, whilst the BSPA think they the best interests at heart, this will always be tainted with their own personal interests. So the committee essentially needs a dictator. Personally I d get Barry Bishop in as the chairman, if he can't breath life into the sport I can't think of many that could. Don't take any of this post as statement of fact, it is purely the ramblings of a frustrated and passionate fan, and a picture painted in my head by the snippets of info and mainly rumours I 've heard along the way.

Shocking decision to exclude Thomas in one race, when the ref said he had been lapped... yet he fell on the last corner whilst leading, how could he possibly been lapped? Good fight back from Kent.

Track looked really smooth and fast in the videos I 've seen.

Sue I d much rather let a local cover it, with a ten hour round trip but if you get stuck I 'll be there.

You would think there would at least be an indication of line up, especially as it's the only meeting at NL level considered as priority. What it should be is each teams highest averaged fit rider (but set a minimum of say 6 points so we don't get 2nd strings and reserves half a lap behind) and then literally go down the league averages in order. Making a line up of Kyle Bickley James Shanes Ben Wilson Jon Armstrong Georgie Wood Alfie Bowtell Jack Thomas Danny Ayres Henry Atkins Max Clegg Ben Morley Leon Flint Drew Kemp Josh Bailey Jack Smith Mark Baseby With reserves Nathan Stoneman Tom Brennan That would be some line up, worthy of anyone's entrance fee. I fear though we will get something far more then diluted then this though. As long as it looks competitive I will be heading up to support any Kent riders taking part.

With this is mind, rain given every day between now at then, and persistent rain from 4pm Saturday till 8pm Sunday. My record could well continue... Tbf that forecast is for Buxton town, rather then the track and I have friends who live in buxton. A couple of years back Benny came home from bangers like a drowned get having been fixing cars in the at time torrential persistent rain up at Hi Edge to find his Mrs needed after sun applied having spent the afternoon in the neighbours garden having a bbq. If there is any hope of it being on, I hope to be there. I think this time of the year with big fixtures coming up, the more competitive seat time the better for the boys. We have two possibly four matches against Eastbourne, and the reward for any victories there will be two matches against Mildenhall as the "prize", So as long as the riders stay safe I hope for some competitive racing. Wilson is class so will have good races with all our heat leaders, Coles has come back from injury in the fine form he showed 2nd half of 2017. Woolley is no mug, and Whitmore and Pavitt can both score well at home. Don't know much about young Douglas, but I think as a scoreline it will be comfortable for Kent maybe 10-12 points but I think there should be some cracking battles along the way.

Fair few of us are travelling up Sunday from Kent.

I believe Keith Flint of prododgy has an interest in speedway, I know he has had a go. Whether or not attends events u don't know. Valentino Rossi was a big Thomas Gollob fan I believe.

Possibly both

Madsen's to lose now.

Eastbourne look well set for a win after 4 heats being 19-5 already against Stoke.

Was a little drunk, but what a race, what an atmosphere. https://www.facebook.com/groups/429093583853900/permalink/1683352338428012/

Does anyone know, or can make an educated guess from knowing previous years dates, when tickets will go on sale for this. Last year I kinda thought it would be like Cardiff and you could pick your seat pretty much the day before the event, anyway around April after reading posts on here I looked at tickets and could only grab in the upper tier. Brilliant seats and view still (As seen by around 10k people who watched the final with me and the Mrs screaming all the way through on facebook) but I really wanna try get better tickets this year. Hopefully bringing my 8 daughter this time and my dad and bro and their partners, so to get seats together I need to get in straight away. Many thanks in advance.

Is there an upto date start list available, I know this SEC line ups always seem to change more then gp's.

Certainly something like this could attract tv interest in countries and on channels not yet seen before. Something like this would be awesome for top domestic British riders to hibe their skills on other tracks and make that jump upto full international level. It would need a company like Dorna to run it, if they got involved I think they could push the sport to motorcycle hotbeds yet untapped by speedway like Spain, Japan and South America. Perhaps rather then home and away fixtures, their could be five European match days And utilize more weekends in hotter climates in the European winter. It does seem crazy that a southern hemisphere country has not put up some big money to run a full set of competitions during the European winter. Take the speedway circus to the sun, surely riders would love to earn an income on a bike rather then pack them in the workshops for 6 months.

Tbh, when he went over I thought his injurys would actually be far worse, considering the state of the man's body. So I am glad he has not reciev3d any life changing injuries. He has been highly entertaining to watch the few meets we have had him. But with his average dropping at the end of the month we could have troubles in the play offs.

I think transponders are a big step forward, I like stats and track records etc so to have transponders would give the numbers a lot more credence, rather then someone sat in the box with a stopwatch. I don't think you can take away tapes at the start of a speedway race, it's all part of it. But there is nothing to stop transponders being used to detect jump starts etc. I like the idea of seeing people's times in practice, but let's not forget it Is exactly that. It's for riders to get a feel for things it's not a competition and should have no bearing on the following days gp at all. That's not to say you couldn't give a watch, or a trophy or a small token to the fastest lap time in practice. The biggest thing with transponders is, it should irradicate riders making the perfect start getting pulled back needlessly.