CountyGround

Josh Bates: Ops! it's Debbie's favorite rider, has Debbie signed him & then told Gary?

Averages that grade a riders ability is one brilliant tool speedway has & other sports can only dream of. The way they are sometimes implemented & abused is the problem!

Unfortunately Somerset are not close to a major town, with Bristol just a bit to far away. That is the only reason the Rebels don't get better crowds & the option to contest in the top league.

The problem as I see it is that fans & sponsors have lost the feeling that the 7 riders representing your club are yours. We have almost completely lost this connection. Most if not all of 2019 championship teams consisted of 7 riders that also represented another U.K. team. This is also a huge problem with credibility when trying to convince newcomers to support our sport. Equally wholesale team changes during the season do the sport great harm as do the huge changes season on season. Question: As a sponsor would I buy rider X (my local team favorite) a new bike, only for it to be used while riding for another team? NO.

Shock horror! I can remember Gary May sponsoring Bjarne Pedersen back in his Poole glory years, with all this talk of a U.K. return/farewell season lets hope it's not for the Rebels! Full respect for his professional attitude, but not a rider to suit the renowned Oaktree racers track. Message to Gary May: For 2020 can we please have a team of racers that love the Oaktree track & hopefully have past or current connections with the Rebels. Anders is a good starting point, Nathan would also be a good move!

I say this tongue-in-cheek! but had Chris Harris not already been signed for Brum would he have been awarded the Rebel of the season award? Very poor P.R. when you publicly sign other teams riders BEFORE the current season has officially finished.

The only problem with the Championship (AKA 2nd. division) are the riders allowed to ride in it @ the top end of the teams. This will slow the natural development of young talented riders progressing & of course cost the teams £££££s.

The word was 2019 was to be his last season in the U.K.!

Practically they are 100% why Somerset Speedway are in existence, nothing technical about it!

I would guess Somersets average crowd to be around 800. They would certainly benefit with "grand" Stand to help generate atmosphere & crowd noise, With such a large arena the crowd can look sparse however 3 big positives for Somerset over many other tracks are: 1. The Hancock's own the Stadium so no rent to pay. 2. The car park money all goes to the Hancock's & this is the only place to park. 3. All stadium food & drink profits stay in-house.

You set the points limit to the "quality" of the league you want to present to your punters. The status quo is 42 it's that simple.

I've been saying this for a years, we should see much more team loyalty to riders & riders to their teams. The BSPA have lost the importance this has to keep the fans & sponsors. As for Somerset 2020 there's no Chris Harris or Jake Allen very little chance of Charles Wright all would have been very popular signings on the terraces (or grass bank).

If Poole do finish up in the championship (overall less able riders) then please can we have a decent track surface for the riders to apply their skills.

I agree! I believe Matt wants top league Speedway BUT with Wednesday night home meetings just playing games to get there......... Thuth is the whole of G.B. speedway is in a mess with the double ups & downs etc, etc, needs a complete re-think, unfortunately it will never happen.

Fact is the result is good for G.B. speedway, success needs to be spread around. All teams should start the season pretty equal - therefore leading to potential equal success @ the end. Poole's domination of the league during Matt Fords reign has been great for Poole but bad for G.B. speedway in general.........

Obviously! "someone" put steering locks on their bikes............ Unfortunately bike set-up is 90% important in today's speedway (10% being the riders ability)......

At Plymouth there will also be some vintage JAP machines doing some demo laps from the "Blast from the past" worth going just for the sound & smell of these machines!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look's like the track suited the "moaning Swine" tonight! was it dry & slick?

I was @ the Leicester meeting, what I saw of Ellis Perks was a rider loving the track & conditions so much he was showboating, this was why in one heat he did a 360........... What Plymouth (& 90% OF OTHER TRACKS) do need is an affordable supplier of quality shale for the track. This is something that has to be addressed collectively by the SCB/ BSPA. One thing you cannot do is knock the Plymouth promotion for effort & Bob C & others if I was retired & living in the Plymouth area I would be offering my services not knocking their hard work.

Very funny, however the above may have to be explained to a few on the forum!

Would Nick Morris fit?

Spot on Ghosty, although he went missing in heat 15.

Biggest problem here is, with Scheiln not putting in the performances he should be (for whatever reason) he could well be the reason for Somerset to miss out on the play offs meaning an early end of season for the Rebels riders & loyal fans. If he were to be sacked who could be brought in to replace him?

What about the mysterious call-off coinciding a Wednesday when Ellis was unavailable?

Nothing personal, but why were Birmingham permitted to sign Adam Ellis when it would have been known @ the time how many matches he would miss?