bellevueace

Another brilliant publication, the only areas that don't really interest me are the international and grass track reviews, but that is only my preferences and its good they cover these for those that find them interesting, something for everyone. Always look forward to my Star being delivered on a Thursday.

Agreed Doyle has shown what can be done upping his game considerably, he is certainly an inspiration to riders aiming to follow the same path.

Well when Craig had a bad Cardiff and WTC last season there were signs of it having a negative affect, missed meetings etc, Cant really make a comparison with Harris as he does not have the same issues as Craig.

Ive been thinking along those line too, if the GP,s become a struggle it could have a negative impact on his league form, he got into the GP on merit but it is a big step up, lets hope he can make a success of it, if he can the opposite could happen and his league form improves considerably, only time will tell.

Probably a bit of the green eyed monster mate, especially from certain fans of a club renown for not bringing through young british talent.

Yep seems the demise of said "boy wonder" was a tad premature after the first meeting of the season

I think the Robins will win this fairly comfortably. Drozdz is going to need time to settle in, i also think Tungate is going to have to improve his away form this season as he wasnt that convincing last season. Cook does seem to struggle a bit at Blunsdon, it will be interesting to see how Etheridge goes too. Davey rode well at our place so im interested to see how he goes tonight, both sides need a few meetings to get up to speed, thats why im giving this a miss and coming down for the league match in May. Hope its a good meeting for you all tonight and you dont freeze too much

Promoters cant do right for doing wrong, call it off early and they get pelters, leave it until the day of the meeting people are then saying why wasn't it called off earlier because ive booked a days holiday, hotel room etc. Ive just dug the car out so hoping for the best tomorrow:)

I agree with you, that the vision of Gordon and Morton has put the club in such a position, but whilst I had no doubt the new stadium would be delivered unlike many, I also questioned if Gordon and Morton were the right people to actually manage it. As we know things went wrong and I still feel many things have not been revealed about exactly what went on. We went bust and the promotion were thrown out of the stadium, so that foresight they had could ultimately have put the club out of exsistance. The current owners have more business acumen and appointed Mark Lemon to oversee the speedway side of things, they were also in with Gordon and Morton at the very outset of the new stadium plans, they are now trying to take the club to the next level, if they succeed only time will tell, without their input we could possibly not have a season to look forward to come Monday.

Spot on Sid, the Dent Oliver era produced a production line of talent, trying to establish a basis for bringing on young riders is a vital aspect. Other clubs also have a commitment to youth, which we need. You only have to look at top level football nowadays where buying ready made foreign players impides the development of young home grown players. And our record in football is even worse that thei Speedway compatriots.

At the recent fans forum we were told about the tie up with the Polish club and the advantages to both teams youngsters. What was also said was the owners are aware that Poland is the most successful speedway nation in the world, that their business model is obviously working, and that it is something we can learn from. This is looking ahead to also improve Belle Vue as a club and the way its run seeing how they do things and if we could implement certain ideas.No doubt if a certain southern based club were doing this some would be telling us how innovative this is instead of trying to diss it. The sport in this country needs this kind of forward thinking instead of treading the same old path that obviously isnt working.

The tie up can only help the youngsters of both clubs, how often do we hear of young British riders not getting the chance to race on the continent? This will allow both teams kids to experience riding abroad, some people don't appear to be able to see the bigger picture, just wanting to sign ready made riders with no vision for the future.

Poor processional meetings in the 60,s and 70,s were the exception today they are the rule.

I was sat in G block at the meeting where Wilkie was injured, it appeared a simple fall considering what you can witness at speedway, I remember saying Wilkie will soon be up from that considering he was as hard as nails. I couldn't believe the extent of his injuries, it just goes to show its not always the force of an accident but how you fall. Wilkie for me epitomises what a captain should be, he carried the team along. A true Belle Vue hero, and lets not forget Jean who has stood by him all these years, a great lady. I was at Kings Lynn the day Wilkie raced up to the referee,s box to dispute a decision, who could forget that? Along with many other such stories, look at the old photo of him being held back during heat 13 of the home meeting against Leicester when a free for all occurred, the passion jumps out at you. That Wilkie is still spoken about fondly around the tracks after so many years speaks volumes about him. I would like to have seen Nikki Pedersen try his moves on Alan

Lets also not forget the likes of Tommy Jansson when talking about special talents and tragic endings to careers, Tommy was a great talent and another who could have so easily gone on to be world champion.

He could also due to lifestyle choice just as easily gone the other way, to say he would have eclipsed the likes of Craven, Collins, Lee etc is a big big statement, one I don't agree with.

When Collins, Morton, and Lee were coming through there is no comparison at all to the type of riders they were coming up against on a weekly basis as we had by far the strongest league in the world in those days, no doubt riding against the very best week in week out brought their natural ability through. Bewley and Lambert both have a natural talent but as we have seen many times before British riders have in the past failed to live up to expectation. I think Bewley will progress as someone else has stated he has a good racing brain and has his feet firmly on the ground, a lot of that grounding I think is down to his mentor Steve Lawson who is doing a great job looking after Dan, and this is what could be the one thing missing with Lambert, having someone with that experience to help him channel his obvious talent in the right direction. He did seem reluctant to re sign for the Stars this season, lets hope that's not a negative and he can settle down and take the next step in his improvement.

I would say Dan and Kyle at their ages are the best prospects we have had since Collins and Morton burst onto the scene, matching those two would be a massive ask and to compare is unfair but their emergence reminds me of when the latter pair first started with the Aces.

A good idea to get info, but wouldn't telling estate agents "not going ahead with the purchase due to the stadium" give more ammo to the developers? Just a thought.

I certainly saw more than two or three poor matches, with riders strung out, passes will occur especially at NL level due to mistakes, in one match I can remember it being processional apart from heat 13 and 15 which were excellent races, people were calling it a brilliant meeting, no it wasn't, two good heats out of 15 does not add up to a great meeting, in other meetings there was a race for 3rd or 4th whilst half a straight separated the other two, leaving two struggling to get round side by side. Giving figures for passing does not always tell the full story of how a meeting developed as regards to how the passes occurred, I just don't think it was as good as some make out being honest.

I thought there was a lot of processional racing last year due the Colts being a lot stronger than most of the opposition, there was some good racing but a lot of very strung out ones as well, having a side not as dominant I think will allow for better closer racing overall.

I think the racing will be better this season as the Colts will not be so head and shoulders above the rest around the NSS.

Think he will be a top quality addition to the league and do a great job for the Lions.

Simple fact is he could have chosen to ride/promote the sport in the UK as world champion, he had no interest in doing that, his protestations about the GB setup overall have a very hollow ring about them.