DaveWayne

Not forgetting that with 7 teams in the league, 1 would be sitting out each week, so it would take a minimum of 28 weeks to run all the league matches if only a single night was used.

As well as Speedway, I go to Stock Car racing and lower league football. All 3 are similarly priced so it feels right to me, especially as 2 of the sports are at some of the same venues.

You have obviously never been to Stock Car racing ? Tomorrow night I will be at Kings Lynn. Admission is £22 for adults, there are 12 races, start time is 5pm, and I will be lucky to be leaving there before 10pm. There will be far more tractor events than you will ever see at a Speedway meeting. About an hour of actual racing in 5 hours or more.

It's all about choices. How many of those who claim to have those difficulties drink or smoke ? I'm not saying everybody does, but literally one less pint a week could have made a big difference to retirement income if invested into a private pension for the last 30+ years.

Well if you thought the state pension would be enough to live on then you weren't paying much attention to all the advice being given. Always good to see someone quoting the good old 'gold plated pensions' for civil servants and the like - that great myth bandied around by the right wing media. You do know that those people had to make contributions from their salary don't you ? Just like you could have done into a private pension.

I have openly stated on here numerous times that Ipswich were the strongest team in the league, and without injuries would probably have done the double. Both teams took gambles that didn't pay off. Sheffield gambled on 3 strong heat leaders and a weak reserve pairing, but losing 1 of those for the majority of the season hampered us, and weaker guests and R/R were our downfall. Ipswich gambled on having the best lead pairing in the league. Without injuries it is quite likely that we would have both been in both finals (awaits arguments from BV fans 😂), but unfortunately injuries are part and parcel of speedway and the gambles failed on this occasion.

Also constantly ignores the fact that Woffinden missed almost as many league matches as Doyle.

Yes the state pension is poor but people can make provision for themselves as well. My Dad is 87 and very comfortable due to not assuming the state would look after him in his old age, and no he wasn't in a high paid job, he was blue collar working class and Mum was a housewife. Private pensions were introduced in the UK in 1988, and many companies had occupational schemes before that. Anyone under the age of 80 who is living purely on state pension hasn't planned ahead very well.

Hence the reason that my first post which got the 'yawn' response, leading to my reply that you quoted, specifically mentioned the 'normal' league season. I was simply pointing out that our number 5 had missed nearly as many league matches as yours had, so add in the 2 Jack missed and it is the same number. I fully appreciate the fact that you lost Emil when you needed him most, and I don't think there is a single honest speedway fan in the country that would argue with the fact that you had the strongest 1-7 and would have probably won the double this season, but as I and others have said many times, it was always a gamble on those 2 staying fit and available and you ended up with the perfect storm. Yes, that is a lot of injuries in a season, almost the same as Sheffield in 2023 when they won the playoffs and lost in the KO Cup Final, but apparently we injured our riders on purpose so that we could use 'horses for courses' guests and cheat the system. 😉😂

Thanks for your input. It gets boring for the rest of us as well. Anybody would think Ipswich were the only team ever to lose one of their best 2 riders to a long term injury.

I thought he was your number 5 ? And in case you hadn't noticed Sheffield have also been without their number 5 for almost as long. Doyle got injured in your 9th league match, Tai rode in 11 before his injury. Not that much difference in the 'normal' season. We also lost Jack for 2 matches at the same time as he was injured in same GP as Tai.

As Sheffield found out last week.

Why ? It's not like 18 points hasn't been turned over before. 😉

And it never rains in August !! I watch stock car racing most weekends, and a few years back I got drenched on all 5 weekends in August. This is the UK - it rains.

I may be wrong, but I can't see Chris staying if Jack doesn't. Quite possibly the other way round, but I think part of the attraction for Chris was being in a team with his little bro.

Family day out in the 'big smoke' ? Very different to another match at the same stadium as every week. Also, in the case of my local team, the home capacity is around 7,000 and was sold out every game in the second half of last season so nowhere to put any more fans even if they wanted to go.

I thought Leicester finished top ? 😉😂

Definitely Maybe it's a Manchester thing. 😉 None of the other 3 clubs in the playoffs increased their ticket prices, and unlike Rob's local league 2 football team, my local league 1 team don't do it, and didn't do it in league 2 last year either.

Really good news that Ben is not too badly hurt. I have quoted your post as I wanted to thank you for the honesty. So many people on this thread jumping on the 'dangerous track' bandwagon last night, but as the majority were watching on TV they hadn't even seen the crash. From where I was standing near the bar on turn 3, so with a good view down the back straight into turn 2, it looked like a rider pushing the limits and making an error. Nothing sinister about it and he looked pretty much mid-track to me, nowhere near the infamous outside line. The bike high sided and he came down heavily on his upper body. My initial thought was collar bone or shoulder. Belle Vue were the better team over the 2 legs and deserved the win. We didn't lose the match last night, we lost it on Monday. Picko having 2 bike failures put us on the back foot, and the 5-1 in heat 15 gave us a mountain to climb. Sadly, when we needed them most, our top 2 riders were both way off their regular home form last night.

The irony of attempting to call somebody a moron and spelling it wrong, unless you meant Shooey and Kelly. 😉

I think we will also be hearing that the teams will be going for it 'from the get go' and whenever Bewley isn't at the front he will definitely be 'coming on strong' behind the leaders.

Nothing wrong with being tribal in the support of your team, but when it becomes intimidating and threatening then it has gone too far. We all complain about the falling number of fans attending meetings, but if the women and children are uncomfortable being there, then where is the next generation of fans coming from ? I'm glad a lot will be coming tonight and I hope you have a miserable evening. 😉

I think you misunderstood my post maybe ? Our issue was with the Belle Vue fans, not the Sheffield barmy army. It was the first time I have experienced anything like that at a speedway meeting and it made me wonder if 'segregation' needed to be looked at for speedway, particularly at bigger meetings. Sheffield fans were having to move away from them as the intimidation intensified as the result got closer. It wasn't what could be classed as banter, the comments were delivered in a threatening manner and some home fans felt very uncomfortable. The friendly family atmosphere normally experienced at speedway was noticeably absent.

Totally agree on this. We stand on turn 3/4 and with the Belle Vue fans all grouped together on that terrace it was very intimidating, to the extent my wife remarked "this is exactly why I don't go to football". We actually left before heat 15 as the result was decided and she was feeling uncomfortable. The league matches this season haven't been too bad as not so many travelled, but she is already apprehensive about tomorrow night.

Not all of us, I am 2 counties away and travel an hour to get to Owlerton on a Thursday night. I can get to Leicester just as quickly, but was brought up as a Sheffield fan by my uncle who has been going since the 60s.