bellevueace

I have total respect for Doyley great rider and totally loyal to the sport in the UK, would have loved him at Belle Vue.

This might be a stupid question but if these people have no intention of finding a site why keep the licence on ice? Surely its worthless sell the promoting rights to someone who actually has an interest in bringing the sport back to Swindon.

Good top five and they should be able to carry weaker reserves, as said above hard to compare until all sides are complete but i think this has set a strong standard.

Danny Bird received a two year ban after a test found traces of benzoylecgonine in his system, it appears that the powers that be have gone soft on drug related offences.

Yes i agree with you, but some rail against a side bringing in a guest then support it when their own club does it. We possibly lost two titles when we were unable to bring in a replacement for Bjerre against Coventry, and the same going against Peterborough without Kurtz. A side cant bring in a guest from another play off team and with our watered down league replacing the likes of a Fricke or Jack Holder is difficult, hence the mercenaries coming in when their Polish season has ended. A side does need to be able to replace their top rider and as there is no squad system its difficult. I wonder if the injured riders also get a medal? If i was Lambert for example i would give my medal to the rider i was replacing, he cant really look back on last season and this with much pride as he played no part at all in the seasons of BV and Sheffield. If Holder and Musielak had been available i think it would have been worse for Ipswich.

Weve had abuse thrown at us all season, perhaps theyve got over last season now, and to think about all the hullabaloo when we brought in a guest for an injured number one. Wasnt a bad meeting considering the weather, as i said Ipswich would get turned over as they were carrying four passengers.

The final has been one big anti climax, not a good advert at all for the seasons biggest meetings, i know the weather cant be helped but couldnt this have been run Monday or is stadium unavailable? Not that Sheffield fans will care.

Think Sheffield would have done it even if the rain didnt materialize, Ipswich a 3 man team.

Good night Vienna.

At least if your going to get beat go down fighting, Ipswich need to start getting out the starts in these conditions.

Trouble is when Ipswich get a heat win they are always going to run a last unless the middle order and reserves wake up, they need to get a couple of heats wins to try to stem Tigers momentum.

Bloody hell even the big hitters havent turned up.

Riss, Rew, and the reserves were always going to struggle, all Sheffield had to do is what we didnt, start well.

Going as predicted so far, Ipswich top 3 cant do it by themselves.

I have a feeling Sheffield will do this i just feel, Riss, Rew, and the reserves might just struggle round Owlerton, Lambert, Holder, and Howarth should be better than Tuesday, Harris always seems to turn up in the play offs. Can Emil, Doyley, and King do enough between the to see them Witches through?

Lets hope hes made the Ipswich team talk for Hawkins that comment should fire them up.

I dont think this is over, we were 22 points down after four heats in our second leg and took it to the last heat, Riss Rew and the witches reserves could find the going tough at Owlerton, Emil, Doyley, and King are going to need some backing. If reports Doyle is having check ups and could miss the second leg are true that could be pivotal, hope hes ok. Sheffield will certainly be a far tougher proposition and could pull this back if unlike us they get off to a good start.

I used footbball as an hypothetical example.

From a view of a perspective new fan riding for Peterborough Glasgow, and then being used by both play off sides Ipswich in the semi and Sheffield in the final against Ipswich doesnt exactly mirror a serious sport, even though we are used to it. With all Man Utds injuries perhaps we could use Van Dyke as a guest for Martinez:)

Totally agree speedway fans are used to it, but does it hinder selling it to a new audience?

Yes it is difficult and if a team loses its top rider theres no other option to the guest system as we dont have a squad system. Where it does look silly is the situation where Harris rode for Ipswich to help them get into the final and now finds himself Riding for Sheffield against them, thats an example i think why the sport is not seen as credible in the eyes of some.

Its difficult to compare different sports, stock cars for example have the best fastest drivers starting from the rear of the grid, something speedway dabbled with in the sixties handicapping the top riders. Throughout the sports history there have always been cinderella clubs who were never going to be contending. Things like the guest rule most people are critical of it, but if a club loses a number one how else do they replace that scoring power? Fans will always have different opinions about certain aspects of the sport. We could do with some injection of positivity like the return of clubs like Swindon, Coventry, and hopefully Wolves can return.

We all understand the rules im not complaining this season and good luck to Ipswich, but we can all have different opinions soon there wont be many left to enter the Premiership anyway.

I totally understand all the pros and cons, but as the regular league matches are run with crowds far less than the play off meetings it could be a case of what you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts, unless you dont make the play offs so dont have those two or four beneficial meetings at the end of the season. I think i get the gist that football is awash with money but eventually that will create its own problems as we saw with the fans revolt that scuppered the super league, that will eventually come in by way of the restructure of the champions league, which many fans groups are against. Football is now a business more than a sport except for the lower levels where the money is more scarce. Ice hockey is another sport that decides its champons by the way of play offs but also recognises the efforts of the table toppers too. Whatever the format there are always going to be teams with nothing to play for and their seasons will be over half way through, Kings Lynn suffered this year no doubt so will the Luton Towns. The sad fact is clubs continue to fall by the wayside in alarming numbers, we really need to attract those non speedway fans, first we need a sport that is credible, so much of the sport isnt any more when you throw in other aspects not least making the rules up as you go along.

Very true but does this contribute to woeful attendences throughout the regular season and good crowds for a coupe of play off matches for four teams? The season itself is now nothing but a large qualifying round. Bit different to football where at the end of the season the champions and relegated teams are sorted and they have play off for the final promotion place. Can still get a team finishing third in the championship losing promotion to a team that finished quite a few points below them but the important positions of champions and relegation are straight forward. Play offs are just a money spinner, after they were brought in to re structure the football league that became apparent to the authorities. I know people who dont attend meetings throughout the season but just watch the play off meetings whoever is in them. The rule is the rule and thats the same for every club, explaining to a non speedway fan how a team 10 points behind the table toppers can be crowned champions wont encourage them to see speedway as a serious sport. Last season for me yes we won the play offs but it just seemed a bit hollow as we wer,nt the best team over the season. And with a league of half a dozen or seven its even more ridiculous. But as you say everyone understands how it works. Poland is different as the fans there are fanatical and they have all the worlds best riding there, still dont agree with a 6th placed team being crowned champions though. We all have different opinions though.