Diamonds85

Jack Smith has been riding professionally since 2015, this is his 8th season and honestly he's gone backwards since he left Birmingham's national league side many years ago. He's not going to be any better in a few weeks than he was on Sunday, none of his previous visits to Brough show otherwise either, he was a very strange signing...

Hope he gets better soon, honestly I was delighted when we signed him, one of my favourite riders, but he must have missed more than half of our meetings this year, or am I imagining that It's depressing how far we've slipped up in the last 3 or 4 years... We're the laughing stock of the whole country where once we were one of the biggest, not even that long ago either

How about we bring in something like Lasse Bjerre and Kenneth Hansen for Lee and injured Matty (hear me out) and then a young Dane for Jack and go with something like... I thought we'd been well backed with money for this year, where the hell has it all gone!!??? 1. Bradley Waste of space Dean R/R - Guests (Not ideal I know) 2. Lasse Bjerre (Victor Palovaara??) 3. Kenneth Hansen (Victor Palovaara??) 4. Max Clegg 5. Paul Starke 6. One of many young Dane's who are kicking about (Victor Palovaara/Kyle Bickley??) 7. James Wright Have Victor, Lasse, Kenneth, the Danish market all been tried?? Another thing is, how serious is Starkey's injury, does he even have one? I have no idea when or where he got injured, or is he 'sick' again... I've been a bit surprised by him this year pulling out of so many injuries with food poisoning etc, was it genuine? Or has he just been unlucky many times this year...

We have our license now to sign foreign riders... Plenty of young'uns to try in Denmark, who we could trial for next season, like we did with Kenni and Rene...

Not a fan of Aaron but same... Never thought I'd be jealous of Summers signing elsewhere... That's how low we've sunk. Best we can do is replace Jack with Kyle Bickley, but in all honesty that's not much better either. Wonder if Nathan Greaves might come back... Lots of returning riders from the past this year, I always rated him at reserve... I feel really bad for George, yes I'd have replaced him, but only with a big hitter, if it was just for Jack Smith then no chance, give George the rest of the year and see where we stand in terms of signing him for next season (assuming there is one...) I would do a full team shake up if possible, only keeping Max and James. Starkey has proved quite unreliable and the only other one I'd have kept (Matty) is injured...

Honestly the most insulting thing about this whole situation is the complete radio silence from the club after such a shocking and pathetic display yesterday. He should be keeping well in contact with what little fans he has left, be it honestly telling us the situation (can't afford riders) or we're in talks with a specific rider and hope to be able to announce something within x amount of days... We are his paying customers at the end of the day... And the way things are going our numbers will be in double digits not triple...

Thanks very much for all the useful insight. I can't imagine there's many people in the North East with that sort of money who are interested enough in Newcastle speedway... we're all doomed. Land is very expensive... I don't think I've ever seen or ever will see 150k in my entire life I do play the lottery... if I ever win big... I'd love to give it a go

That's about 4 million more than I thought do we not own any percentage of the stadium whatsoever... just rent a couple hours every Sunday.. How much would building a whole new track cost though, with buying land, laying a whole track and creating facilities... I know it could be done over a period of time... but can't be too far off the price you just quoted... surely

Daft question: probably VERY daft and someone is going to explain to me exactly why not and how much it'd be... But would it not be cheaper to buy the dogs out if Brough and relay a normal shaped track and have it as our stadium, that we can then run our own race night, amateur meetings and practices on (for a price of course). Compared to sourcing our own plot of land and building a completely new stadium!! I know... very silly of me...

RIP newcastle speedway. THJ was our only hope and he was kicked into touch by the funniest business man I've ever known... at least his burger vans have made a killing this year, plenty time in the stadium to have 2 or 3 meals with these extra long, badly organised meetings of pure cr@p... there was loyal fans there tonight, who have been to every single meeting without fail for the last decade at least, who walked out mid meeting. If that doesn't tell you what state we're in, I dunno what will. I can sit and plead with THJ to work with Rob and the paying members of the supporters club, but if he doesn't want to I respect that decision... even if its just moral and not monetary support... we need someone with a bit of a speedway brain to guide us... BTW Jack Smith has got to be one of the worst signings we've ever made, I can think of at least 10 other NL riders I'd have preferred... some even know how to ride our track... I'm so happy there's no meeting next weekend, I need some time off from this...

The only reason this change would make sense is swapping a 4.00 rider for a 2.00 rider to give us more points to play with at the top end... But if that change isn't made within the next week or so then what the hell was the point in that... Jack's no better than George... 1 2 Matthew Wethers 5.52 3 4 Max Clegg 5.39 5 Paul Starke 6.27 6 James Wright 5.06 7 Jack Smith 2.00 Total: 24.24 Left: 17.76 Unless Granty and the promotion can pull a couple of 8 pointers out of thin air or a 10 pointer (A Bjerre type) and a 7 pointer (Ludde or something) then the change was a waste of time... Plus Matty is now out injured long term isn't he? So even if we did bring in some riders, we've only got a 6 man team still... I genuinely have never been this uninterested in speedway in the 20 or so years I've been watching it... This club is dead

It's been pretty bad this year... No one can argue that (I wasn't at the Redcar meeting, thank god, so I don't know if it was improved or not)

Indeed... There seems to be a lot of serious accidents there... It can't be a coincidence... Of course it must be from all of the brilliant close racing they have there... Surely? And yes before all the Scunthorpe fans get triggered over a bit of banter, yes I know Newcastle's track is awful

I'm not questioning that at all, clearly a hell of a lot of money has been spent up there, and I hope to be impressed by the facilities one day when I finally get the chance to go

Glasgow is a track I've only been to once, I rode it many many years ago, I have never watched a league meeting there though, so I can't really comment. Obviously Belle Vue, but when the teams are so divided in the top division (GP riders at 1 vs the likes of Jack Thomas etc) then the racing isn't as good sometimes... I still think Redcar is the best I've been to, I just didn't like the view in the stadium of the track (until they opened the back straight, now it's amazing)

Obviously to have the best track in the country you need zero dirt and only concrete lines... That chew through tyres in no time... Personally the best racetrack I've been to in this country (I haven't been to them all) is Redcar, by a long way too...

What are you on about? Scunny is the best track in the country... Rob Godfrey said so... So it must be true

Are these all hint... Or people just monkeying around

The track was perfect yesterday morning... Amateurs riding it no problem whatsoever. It was watered at least 3 times that I saw (including before anyone even rode it) I heard whispers that the power was accidentally cut to the stadium Friday morning and the club was too embarrassed to admit, so just called it for the weather (or lack there of) Kinda silly really

That's unfortunate, aren't they both in the same team??? Really gutted to hear about Rene Still one of my favourite Diamonds I've watched

This is the point I tried to make a few pages back but people weren't very happy with my comment

Probably less and less dirt being put on year after year and it's slowly and surely been eroded down to the core... 20 tonnes was put on the other week, but that's not very much in the grand scheme of things really... When was the last time before that any dirt was added to the track. Stinks of cheapskating... From this promotion and the previous... If that curb from decades ago has suddenly came back through, it must have been ignored for many years now... It needs to be dug out surely and packed back in with new material, once all the concrete is gone... But that ain't a Sunday afternoon job... Perhaps it should have been done over the winter... The dogs need to let us in for a bit more time I think...

By pulling out... Surely the backers have say with where their money is spent do they not? I would suggest the track is more important than a new number 1 now... I'm sure it's been discussed before and there's a reason why not, but why can't we drop down into the National League. The racing is better down there imo, you get to see some of the best up and coming young riders and lots of new faces... We could put a hell of a NL team together Max Clegg or James Wright at 1 Archie Freeman Josh Embleton Jack Shimelt at reserve Likes of Ben Hopwood, Connor Coles etc Danny Phillips in the league he should be in I'd much rather be competitive in the NL and see all these kids throwing their bikes around, rather than struggling for number 1s and seeing 'superstars' in their own minds anyway, sulking and giving up after 3 laps... It would be so much cheaper for the riders too... Even if the rent is the same... Plus the food van would probably support the club on its own!!

I agree... The track was unacceptable and not fit for racing, which I have said myself. I just think that the picture taken makes it look a lot worse than it actually is, typically blown out of proportion, which is when no speedway club needs at the minute. But as I say, hopefully this is something that will open Rob's eyes... Hopefully...?