wtf

Not just your opinion, I believe they have the trophy to prove it

Seems to be a constant theme, you can't be unlucky every meeting

Don't underestimate the problems you have of just getting riders based anywhere near the south of England to Ride for a Northern Club. Plymouth have the same problem the other way. the Geography isn't an easy one to overcome without £££, and that's getting worse now with fuel prices and more restrictive Van mileage impositions by rental companies. If you live in the South not only do you have a 6-8 hr drive to Newcastle, but the same return, a 600 mile round trip, but also all your fill in fixtures are often geographically based there, northern group this and that Tyne tees trophy etc etc.

Some Poole supporters are desperately trying to portray themselves as rank outsiders for this meeting. Poole have essentially most of the team that won there twice last year, with the addition of Richard Lawson for Rory , and Richard has been prolific around Leicester in the past. This should be a close meeting and could go either way. Much will depend on the Twins showing their usual Leicester form rather than their very mediocre anywhere else form. I think this one is too close to call and will be a last heat decider.

Sure you can debate the issue, Managers choose to manage in different ways, they set their teams up in different ways. Garry has often aimed for a 6 man team with a strong reserve at all times and almost a sacrificial reserve who has an opportunity to make a statement with no pressure on them. Most of his successful teams have been set up that way. Others do things differently, there's more than one way to skin a cat. Middlo for example has historically had little or no input into team selection at Poole. He managed what Matt gave him. What I will say though is Garry puts more thought into what happens in a meeting and making changes to effect an outcome, than pretty much anyone else I've worked with and that includes the other two managers you mentioned. Admittedly Garry is not big on "group hugs" and blowing sunshine up peoples backsides, some others are. But I would class him as one of, if not the, most successful Team Manager, in the last decade at 2nd division level. He's not everyone's cup of tea for sure, but everything he does has had a lot of thought gone into it. You can't please everyone and sometimes there are casualties along the way. But this is PROFESSIONAL sport. these people are getting paid. You can't just demand to enjoy your job every day and never have to do stuff you don't want to. If you have a set back, sometimes you learn more from that and others around you learn more from how you react. Do you bounce back or do you sulk? In the past I know the sacrificial reserves have had a good guarantee at meetings, so they know they will be paid at least a certain fee whatever points they score. If not, then maybe they need to learn about contracts and how to negotiate them. I get it, it's easy sometimes for kids and parents to get a bit starry eyed with a professional contract, but there's plenty of help and advice out there. But this is a business first and foremost, it has a job to do, and has someone in place to achieve that objective. If the goal is to keep everyone happy at all times, then maybe Garry isn't your man. But I'm guessing the same can be said of most successful managers. John Campbell at Edinburgh certainly isn't one for keeping it warm and fluffy and being friends with everyone, but in the last decade he's probably the main challenger to Garry as being the most successful TM in the 2nd tier.

Garry May has won league titles and cups by doing exactly that for years. Every recruited reserve rides on exactly that basis. They knew how they would get used during the meetings and were paid accordingly. They agreed to the set up and it worked well. Sometimes riders think they deserve more than they do and have a hissy fit if they don't get their way. well maybe they need to earn it, show the team manger what they're worth. First job as a reserve has always been to be better than your other reserve team mate. Every Garry May team I've been involved in knew the situation from the start. He's one of the most open team managers I've known for working with his riders and telling them exactly what is expected of them. I'd rather work with Garry like that, than half the TMs in the league who turn up to fill in a programme and get a bit of fuel money

A lot of people on this thread talking about rule changes to make meetings closer. I don't think changing the rules is the answer, there are enough already. You can't just change rules to cover up for bad businesses making bad decisions. they all have the same opportunity at the start of the year. Guess what, some of them are better at it than others. Equality of opportunity I'm all for, but some here want equality of outcome. If you've built a rubbish team with rubbish riders who don't entertain, that's your fault and your business will suffer. But if you start manipulating as much as some want to on here, you won't make the product any better. What are you gonna do next, re run a race because one rider missed the start and it wasn't very entertaining? If riders don't want to ride for a club, find out why they don't want to, and make it attractive. If you've got a poor track, change it. If you pay poor wages late, change it. If you want to run the club better, change it. If you want more customers, provide better value. Sure we all want fantastic racing every race, but these complaints are from the same people who think the racing 30-40 years ago was fantastic with loads of entertainment. Go watch some of the YouTube meetings from back then, most were absolute borefests. We just choose to remember the good things about the past, not the bad. Some of the clubs in this league are where they are because of how they choose to run, there will always be the have's and the have nots. We've had wage caps and max numbers of 8.00pt + riders before, they don't work, because the promotors themselves go against there own rules within a week of signing them off. And no it isn't always the usual suspects. I don't think the answer is to manipulate the rules even more to produce the 'perfect meeting' Most home fans will have gone home happy enough. The home promotion less so after paying out a lot of points money. You can't just bring everything down to the lowest level all the time or we end up in a cess pit.

Just one, it wasn't a case of how strong, more a case of if I can't have him, no one else will. It is the problem, where a business rival is also administering the rules

I'm not going to give you details as it would betray something told in confidence. Just to say the Plymouth promotion have not been sat idle, have come up with perfectly good solutions, agreed at least one deal only to be told by people "more senior" to them, that they will not allow it to happen.

Unfortunately, despite coming up with a viable option, some power drunk BSPL people choose to not allow it. It's the lunacy of having the rule makers also being your business rivals

Keep blaming everyone else if it makes you feel better.

Blodorn has visa issues they are trying to resolve in time

Max is unlikely to turn his back on the UK. He's here for more than just speedway reasons alone

Love him or hate him Porky is a great presenter and Wolves understand better than most that they are in the entertainment business. Evenings at Monmore would be half what they are without him.

There's at least 5000 reasons why not.

To be Fair to Mark Lemon, I think Bewley was plan B or C. Plan A was Batchelor, but Mark didn't factor in that Batch might get a better offer elsewhere. As soon as Batchelor went to Ipswich then Belle Vue were always back peddling a bit with many other riders sorted by then

I give up

exactly

I am not privy to the inner thoughts of Dan Bewley, you'll need to ask him that, but I believe he wanted to ride for Belle Vue as well as Smederna not instead of.

Lots of hysteria going on here with people looking to point the finger of blame. What has happened here is quite simple. Bewley wanted to ride for Belle Vue, and Belle Vue wanted him to. They discussed with the PZM about the Polish contract he had signed, and then tried to get the FIM to rule the restrictions on the Polish contracts were illegal. The FIM confirmed a couple of weeks ago the contracts were not illegal. The PZMs offer was that the UK league would have to be declassified down to the same status as the other minor leagues eg French, Czech and German, where they are not included on the international calendar and would lose all rights over their race day priority. So if you are Sheffield or Ipswich, Holder and Doyle could be forced to miss any meetings just because the Poles feel like it and didn't want them to get injured etc they could have insisted they stay in Poland and practise. If that's the case I'm surprised its only 3 clubs who voted against it. What Rob Godfrey has released is correct and I have (for the first time I can recall in my life) some sympathy with him. Belle view were pinning all their hopes on this coming off and have only recently started working on Plan B Adrian was always on an approx. 5 year tenure and was planned to leave. Mark Lemon "is surprised he's leaving" because that sounds good, and has just realised the scale of his job he now has for not much more money. And in all of this a fans favourite has said a bit too much on social media and has stood by his comment so much that he removed it very quickly. He's a lovely kid, but that wasn't the brightest thing to do. People will now choose to blame whoever they want to blame, this is 2022 after all, so facts don't matter, just whoever shouts the loudest and feels most offended. Choose whoever you want to hate and off you go

There's more reasons than just speedway as to why the 3 top Aussies are riding over here.

I can only see this latest venture going one way unfortunately. It's a shame, but I just don't see how speedway is viable at Perry Bar. For a while the restrictions regarding access and trading and security and everything else put on any tenants by the landlords just make speedway nigh on impossible to run. A big rent to pay. A breakeven of 1000 is laughable. never going to happen. LR can't get riders because they have no confidence that they will see out the season yet alone be paid. They came to the party late, so have slim pickings to choose from. LR is very good at spending other peoples money and promising what he can't deliver. I feel there is another of the shrinking conveyor belt of misguided fans with a few quid, that are going to lose their shirt while other get to play at speedway and it will all end up in a mess. I hope I'm wrong, but seriously, who really thinks speedway is a genuine going concern at Perry Bar with how things are.

To be fair, Stef's had pretty big crashes everywhere

It's got nothing at all to do with a shortage of riders, it's a simple fact that the business model that the championship wants to run to is to race at home every week where possible. The debate about whether that is the right business model is another thing entirely, but if that is the model you are trying to adhere to you cannot have the bulk of the teams racing at home on the same night, they have to be spread around. Hence the decision

He's not exactly young though, think he's 29 next week. I'd imagine if he were going to change he would have done so by now. Who knows