MattB

You are Clarke Osborne. Where do i claim my £5 please......

The only promoter I can recall ever publishing attendance figures was Tony Mole when he was at Long Eaton in tbe 1990s, but that didn't last long because the other promoters told him to stop doing it.

Nothing will beat Jimmy Nilsen guesting for both Wolves and Cradley across two legs of the KO Cup in 1989!

You generally find the only time speedway gets touched by the main stream sports media is when riders square up to each other. To me, there's no issue with it. Nobody gets hurt, a couple of riders full of adrenaline let of a bit of steam, and the sport gets some publicity.

That's because British Speedway has become so woke and doesn't want anything controversial because "we don't want to see that".

I remember several years ago Ole Olsen saying something along the lines of "British Speedway should shut down for a year and have a good long think about its product". Well the perfect opportunity landed in its lap 5 years ago with the Speedway-less year of 2020. A perfect opportunity to look at itself and have a proper reset. Instead, it just sat on its hands and waited for the green light, then picked up where it left off in 2019.

How on earth has Christine Turnbull managed to be given a grand prix to referee? She repeatedly makes poor decisions and there we have another one.

Or Exeter with its steel fence....

I doubt many would agree that Kelly Moran was "unlikeable", but each to their own i guess.

Hence why I say "had he got his head straight"

One of the great "what ifs" for me is Darcy Ward. Had a stayed fit and got his head right, he would've been a big danger to Zmarzlik in my opinion.

Still salty about the 2016 play off final probably...

Nice battle between Zmarzlik and Lindgren by the looks of it. Shame we couldn't see it thanks to the damn drone again

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Cardiff has been dropped from the schedule. What more do you want?

Plus Poland get pretty much free access to work on their tracks. Here we get one afternoon a week with a list of instructions supplied by the landlord of things you can't do while you are working.

I think one of the issues is that there is a percentage of supporters who aren't really bothered about the quality of the action as long as their team wins. Ive been to loads of meetings over 35 years where I've been bored by the complete lack of any entertainment, yet others around me are raving about what they've seen. Also, there seems to be a perception that close meetings automatically mean it's an exciting match, but that isn't always the case. One of the most exciting matches I've seen was Wolves beating Poole about 64 - 26 in our double winning season, yet the action was brilliant because Poole were jumping out of the start and our riders were rounding them up.

That was the great chance the promoters had to really change trajectory of speedway in the UK, just like 99 when Sky got involved. Instead, they decided to just pick up where they left off. Said before though. The sad reality for me is that most people in speedway are quite happy for it to be run in this amateurish and low key way

@R87 is the poster who said "good riddance" when Wolves closed lets not forget. There is still much work to do in the fight to keep Coventry running again. While Brandon is still there though (albeit decaying) never say never. I wish them well.

Would love to be with you in the trenches....

Have only been to Birmingham and Plymouth so far. Brum crowds are poor and have been for the last three seasons (think they were up a bit last year, but certainly not enough to break even), crowd at Plymouth last night was decent to be fair.

A lot of speedway people are sadly quite happy for it to be run in this amateurish and low key way as social gathering for their mates, hence anyone who comes into speedway with any form of vision finds that the small-minded existing promoters simply close ranks.

They gambled that Wolves closing would bolster their crowds. Some Wolves fans have gone there but you couldn't claim masses of them have.

I'd go further and say that if these landlords were allowed to open their betting stalls at speedway meetings then it would change their thoughts. Had Entain had this option, they'd likely have been sticking a contract under CVS's nose rather than an eviction. notice.

Property Development remains the great nemesis that speedway faces im afraid. OK there was huge issues over the viability of Birmingham, but you couldn't suggest Coventry was not viable (albeit supported by stock car racing) but that didn't stop Brandon Estates buying the site and kicking both of them out. Likewise at Wolves, where a viable operation was removed simply because the owner no longer wanted us there. Doesn't matter how many fans you get through the gates. A speedway club in the UK is only secure as their next lease date.