Falcon1983

heard an interview with Steve Cooper Forest boss (Football) today Signed loads of players, spent loads of money, survived in the premier league he thanked supporters for sticking by the club during the season, said at times it was tough as supports would question his recruitment, his tactics, his team selection etc. but he also added "and quite rightly so they should be able to question it as they are supporters of the club, its their club and their right to have their opinion" but he added ultimately they have been supportive and that their support will always be with him etc. etc. etc. Put this into Speedway perspective, fans purchase season tickets or go to individual meetings paying their £22, they are supporters of the club first and foremost not supporters of who is in charge, or maybe the riders etc. they are supporters of the club and if things are not going well they can question it to the hills like in any sport without having access to the full facts - at least in some sports (football) things such as attendances, accounting, players transfer fees, wages to some degree are always made public or you have access to information via certain mediums Speedway is a closed shop which really brings it on themselves. Any PBoro fan paying just £22 once this season to attend one meeting should be able to criticise, any fan that has been in the past likewise, fans are the bloodline for any speedway club, at least football would/could survive without fans due to having a huge commercial industry with their TV deals Johnson should have kept quiet and just concentrated on getting the riders firing and hopefully replacing Nicki Tomalin should keep his mouth shut, his veneers are obviously too short, if someone on his staff spoke online to one of his car customers the way he spoke to a few fans, they'd be sacked Time for them to deliver something for the fans in the present in terms of results on track, fans I dont expect them to deliver on anything for 2024 as people understand it takes time

48-42 Kings Lynn as Johnson says its not about winning

Witches to win 50-40

With the amount of guests and use of RR they may as well scrap the race nights and just go with what is best Teams will then build sides with riders who would be available for their home meetings more often than not, away sides will likely see the use of guests and RR Depends on how many fixtures as surely they could work around Sweden/Denmark fixtures, perhaps less meetings with more completed sides is better than cramming in loads of meetings with loads of unavailability

If people are that unhappy then why not protest at your home meeting? We all know security wise speedway is extremely lacking. Safely, between races storm the track and delay a race with your protests, buster out, tomalin out etc whats the worst that will happen? A ban from the showground for life? Even the police won't be all that interested

Jakobsen is very good around Foxhall, probably wouldn't have the beating of Doyle/Emil unless an incident happened in a race But he is good enough to beat any of the other Ipswich riders, if he gets around 7-8 points from riding at no.1 that would be pretty impressive for me 51-39 to Ipswich here

Just my view First two heats should have been all 4 back both times, not alot of room in the first bend and the first two starts were quite competitve, with it being a local derby having all 4 back for another go should have been the call. King wasn't awful but struggled in his last couple, seemed more frustrated at himself than anything else. Hume was impressive amd bagged his points early, Rew will come good another improvement week by week, the Top 2 dont need a mention really As for Lynn they were harshly treated in Heat 2, but first handful of races apart from Jakobsen they were all slow to get going and you cant have that in any meeting. KK made one gate and that race was stopped but that was it, everyone knows what he is, either class or clueless, so maybe they'll look to make a change soon Brady did say more riders might become available once SEC qualifiers etc. are over so maybe a rider like Lindback might come in, he definitely shook his head a few times in front of me during some KK rides I also noticed which was only a little thing but when KK was walking back to the pits, Klindt passed him making slight body contact as he was making his way to his machine, KK turned round and seemed annoyed by it, read into that what you will but for me gave me a feeling that team spirit is an issue or the riders dont want KK there either Think Jakobsen will have a good season, a very classy stylish rider wpuld have had him at Foxhall

They do run less meetings and I'm sure Thursdays are not as successful attemance wise than weekends for the Poles, i think the way their fixtures work mean they rearrange meetings rapidly on the next available slot and that means a Thursday then so be it They don't rearrange dates for months down the line, they dont rearrange cup finals from the season before when teams are then riding in different leagues and have different riders also Not much the UK can do now but just roll with it knowing its minimal fixtures, the poles ideally will want to run their meetings on their normal race nights

52-38 Aces

Once Riss is fit you should expect Witches to be able to hit around 50 most meetings at home at least, whether that will be enough to pick up many bonus points away from home is another matter

My question would be "how many riders would it effect"? Surely not as many as we think, if you're scoring 3 or 4 points across both leagues with the operating costs, surely you are not making money to start with, so scoring 3 or 4 points in one league and halving your operational costs is probably a benefit

I certainly think a less is more is better and you could then have people pay £20 for it It is easier to get someone to come and try and event once than to get them to come to several meetings which is why I think a british championship series would be better as you can promote these differently to league meetings, go for extreme sport, aim for the adrenaline junky etc. crashes, fights etc. and you're likely to get someone there once if they think its a one off in their home town

Just my idea if they try to make this all one league, so I have looked at a list of riders who potentially could ride in the UK, now this would be championship standard racing, the issue faced or shall I say one of them is that some clubs can’t pay more than championship pay, also you would have to slightly weaken the product to get the number of riders to potentially fill 14 teams, so I calculated the average of all riders and times it by 7 to get a team building total of 42.00 this would mean GP riders coming in on 12.00 avg, other top non-gp starts on 10.00 and then decent prospects on a 7.00 and new time foreigners (U24’s) on 5.00 avg. The next issue was that some fans want to see big names, some fans don’t so some clubs can afford a bigger name others can’t, so it will just add to the way team building is done, also next up on the agenda is that people don’t want to see lower end wobblers vs GP riders so I would tweak the format slightly. So the way I would do it is split the “one league” into a North/South divide, I have included Workington to make up the numbers but if rumours that Birmingham may have issues next season then it could easily be 6 side divisional leagues British League North – Glasgow, Berwick, Redcar, Scunthorpe, Belle Vue, Sheffield & Workington. British League South – Ipswich, Poole, Kings Lynn, Plymouth, Oxford, Leicester & Birmingham. For the league – team rides home and away once against each other, 2 points for a win with a bonus point available for an aggregate win, no tactical subs allowed in the league, at the end of the season you have a British League North and a British League South champion and these two sides meeting in an end of season British League Championship play-off to crown the overall British Champion The league racing would give each side 5 home meetings and an additional meeting if they win their regional division and quality for the British championship play-off. The league programme format would see team building done differently Riders at no.1 and no.4 would be classed as Heat Leaders Riders at no.2 and no.3 would be classed as Second Strings Rider at no.5 would be classed as an Senior Reserve rider Riders at no.6 and no.7 would be classed as reserves It would be a programmed 13 heat format with heat 14 being a nominated heat, it would feature two races where riders at no.1 and no.4 combine against their opposition numbers, it would also contain two reserves races where the no.6 and no.7 riders face each other Each reserve will have 3 programmed rides and will have two races together plus one race with their Senior Reserve each, the senior reserve will only partner the second strings in their other two programmed rides, the “heat leaders” riding at No.1 & No.4 will race together twice and then one other ride each with both second strings. During a season the reserves can only progress to racing as a Senior Reserve no higher, a Senior Reserve can only progress to Second String standard and a Second String rider can only progress to Heat Leader status. Riders riding no.1 – no.5 will get 4 heats each, riders at no.6 or no.7 will get 3 programmed rides. When it comes to Guests etc. you can only get a Guest rider from the other region. Clubs run on the night that best suits them, and would build a team that would be available mostly on that race night, if the opposition lose a rider to Poland etc. that is just the way it is unfortunately. British League Cup All 14 teams will ride in the British League Cup, where they will ride 6 meetings (3 home, 3 away) against opposition from the rival regional division, so taking Glasgow as an example Ipswich, Kings Lynn & Oxford at Home Poole, Plymouth & Leicester Away from home They are not drawn against Birmingham. Points are scored 2 points for a win with an away point awarded if losing by less than 6 Tactical Substitutions are allowed twice during these meetings when you are losing by 6 points or more, a HL can only replace a SS on a tactical sub, a SS can only replace a SNR reserve rider on a tactical sub The league cup standings will feature all 14 sides in a league table with the top 8 sides qualifying for two-legged quarter finals, so 1st vs 8th, 2nd vs 7th, 3rd vs 6th, 4th vs 5th etc. This idea is similar to what is happening in Champions League football where all 32 clubs are going to be in one big league table but don’t play every side, so some of it comes down to luck of the draw of which club you draw home or away, This competition generates a further 3 home meetings in total and if you progress to the final an additional 3 meetings at home. British Super 12 Series Replace the British Championship with a Super 12 series, raced at 12 venues featuring 12 riders, 12 qualifying heats, top 4 to the final £3k to the winner, £2k to second, £1k to third Free Tyres, Fuel etc for all riders, all televised on Eurosport deal so that these riders can maximum sponsorship Overall winner takes home additional £30k, £20k to second, £10k to third ** This will also include the 'British U24 Rising Star Series" same thing but 8 riders, 8 qualifying heats and a final ** so 22 heats of racing I think British Speedway needs to focus just on that "British" Speedway and having something there for domestic riders to actually want to race for, the top brits will go to Poland and compete internationally, this is for the riders that won't get there or do get there but are on their way back down. Super 12 Series Rider Line Up and just to give you an idea of what teams could look like for the league racing, not sure if any are retired yet or may make a comeback even.

If it was a North/South split say 7 sides in each league, you could do home and away once with some form of league cup competiton that has a group format so in theory each club gets 10-12 home meetings You could easily work with Sweden/Denmark/Germnay to avoid fixture clashes, if say Ipswich opted for Doyle and they face a weekend track and he's in Poland i guess its just unfortunate and a guest or RR would have to be operated I think you couls get a few more aussies coming over and could attract a few more german riders etc to boost numbers

Could be but its more than one person its several that seem to not fathom that your team cant win every week and every rider can't score maximums, i actually wonder what they know of team building or the sport in general Most are fairly constructive with their criticism, so hope they dont take offence to what doyle said its the other trash that should

Its a mixture Its on Facebook so you see one week (when they win) they are full of praise then when they lose its the opposite Some are always positive, some are always negative so i would re quote myself and say "some witches fans"

Official witches Facebook page after thursday

Witches fans are the worst (after Poole fans) one week Joe Thompson does a great job and is on the pace, the next week he's out of his depth etc. Last season Doyle is a one man team, this season with Emil its now too weak at the bottom end Can't have the whole cake and eat it Good on Doyle for mentioning it, people need to be able to take it when they give it

I understand there are not enough riders really for a North/South split but can anymore be done to allow more commonwealth riders into British Speedway? maybe lowering the standard might attract some more German riders over as well? At least clubs could potentially run on the nights that best suit them, perhaps working with the Danish/Swedish leagues regarding fixtures The next thing will be if its Championship pay then riders can't make it pay, I always look to the British Superbike Championship, how many classes do they have these days 5 or 6, 40 rider grids, most riders earning money through personal sponsorship or they pay to ride, yes its only 12/13 weekends a year including Friday practice so they can work but if the pandemic showed anything, riders will get jobs to earn money Under a North/South split you might get 1 or 2 at a club that earn ok money the rest are going to be part-time This if you take all the negativity away is an opportunity to re-do British Speedway, and waiting for, make a 5 year plan to stick with

so as it stands 5 prem teams left still standing and likely only 8 sides from the championship 13, so would leave 2 leagues as currently with 6 sides if say Oxford went up and 7 sides in the prem I think now is the time to completely gut British speedway and focus on the development of British and Commonwealth riders. British League North Belle Vue Sheffield Berwick Glasgow Redcar Scunthorpe Workington?? British League South Ipswich Kings Lynn Oxford Plymouth Poole Birmingham Leicester Run from May - September Home & Away twice in the league declaring Northern & Southern Champions Those clubs then compete Home and Away for British champion status An Open British League cup between all sides Introduce a British Grand Prix series to replace the current one-off final and any ££££ put that into this series as prize money, gives youngsters something to aim for coming through the sport, and rewards the riders not quite good enough to earn big money in Poland The odd rider here or there who comes through with something special about them, they get waved off to the polish top flight not to be seen again

Ipswich currently weak at the bottom end so losing Riss to R/R is/was never a good decision, i say currently week as Rew should come good once he's had some more time

MT has gone hasn't he? Not putting any more money into the club which is part of the buster fall-out, perhaps he will find some land and still save the panthers but under his own banner once Peterborough is officially gone or maybe this experience has shown him that Speedway isn't worth it - thats also partly his fault.

Holder will be in Poland on 27th as UK gave up the protective Thursdays did they not?

I'd run R/R at 2 personally Put Hume out in the first 2, Rew in the 3rd and Danny in the 4th Think this could be extremely close 46-44