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Undoubtedly? Play offs every season. Two title wins. Pairs championship. SON, 2 golds & 1 bronze. Had no small contribution to GB’s FIM medals haul with Dan & Tom (and Jake). Help develop a plethora of No 1’s for the top tier to make use of. and more……

My mistake, I thought the point you were making was about away wins. The bonus points system works on race points and not match points so your comment about us being the strongest home team only applies if taking match points into consideration which have little bearing on bonus points. When looking at that, out of the play off teams only Leicester had a lower home points total. The only difference in ours and the lions bonus points was the B fixture when we got hammered whilst missing Brady. With Brady in the team in the A fixture we took it to a last heat decider, only missing out on our fifth away win during the final laps of the meeting.

Jacob Thorsell last achieved an average in 2019 and therefore we will reassess him to 4.50. Robert Lambert last achieved an average in 2019 and therefore we will not reassess him to 4.50.

Belle Vue had a woeful league campaign last season with a paltry 4 away wins. They need to aspire to powerhouse away teams like Sheffield & Ipswich who won an impressive 5 each.

World of Sport served up the big names! but even back then I was in a real minority liking speedway when at school. What’s that, my football loving mates said. I use to like knowing about my niche sport back then and being different from the sheep and their football. After the post war boom in the sport, by the time it got to the halcyon days in many fans memories of the 70’s, there was still people saying “is that still going”. We absolutely need something new and I don’t mind admitting I’m (we) are not the solution. There is a whole new world of social media that I (we) cannot get our heads around. We need the fomo effect and need to abandon the continued old school approach of leaflets, newspaper ads (young people at my partners work asked her what a newspaper is) and all the other old school techniques. My daughter has worked with Molly-Mea and sport personalities in her role with a major sports brand and it’s all French to me no matter how she tries to explain it. IMO that’s our last hope, Joe Wicks, KSI, Steven Bartlett and all the others old farts like me have never heard of. What they will also bring is a sensibility of what modern customers want. Just hope we like it too.

I do get frustrated by the rhetoric continually posted on here. There’s a fallacy that things were different in speedways heyday and the problems blighting our sport are of the modern era. The other week I posted about the excessive use of guests on one Saturday night in ‘74 and the fact that most teams did NOT ride at the weekend, yet people will still point the finger as these being the failings of modern speedway Taking the now famous ‘73 KO Cup final as an example. Belle Vue used a guest and Reading ran R/R. The 2nd leg wasn’t run until the last week of the season, some 3 weeks after the 1st leg as due to the late running it was hit by the bad weather. Sounds familiar? Jim Mcmillian had been knocked out in an earlier round but enjoyed his “winners” medal as a guest for the Aces. We had been running a guest since June. The rules stated in the event of a draw it had to be re run but this was jettisoned in favour of a run off. All this was carried out on a cold Wednesday late October night. All those people who attended that night and in ‘74, ‘75, ‘76, 77 etc did not suddenly experience amnesia, they DECIDE not to attend. During its heyday we had ALL the ills currently affecting the sport, the big difference is that of the customers - they have changed massively and we need to find the holy grail to attract them back. The league is as meaningful as ever. The guests & R/R as prevalent as ever. The UK FIM golds are pretty much as regular as in our heyday. Our “gaters paradise” tracks are still here as they were back then, etc, etc. If we keep kidding ourselves that the sports ills are new then we will waste an awful lot of time and energy trying to fix the bits that are not the reason for our downfall. Speedway is primarily populated by old blokes who think the old days were better, but the reality is that’s not the case and it is to our peril that we get bogged down by this dogma instead of looking to the future and how we engage with modern customers in the modern era.

Or the other, Dag Lovaas. He won White City the league without turning a wheel in ‘77. Why can’t we get back to the good old days when speedway was riding high and everything was wonderful?

If they run they will probably look at strength in depth like ‘21 title winners Peterborough. As many wise old sages on here say “reserves win meetings”.

No problem. If everyone queued up behind the facts it wouldn’t be half as engaging on here. Taking a contrary view is what keeps this site going, in the main.

Well that makes pretty much every rider in the top league “not doing away meetings” as, like I say he’s done more than most and has a better average too. He fell in the Prague GP and sustained an injury, thus missing the Birmingham meeting. I presumed you knew this but I’m aware now you weren’t so apologies for my curt response. https://britishspeedway.co.uk/2025-rider-statistics/

He did more than most away last season and only Max & Jack had a better away average from opposing teams. Sorry to burst your bubble. Maybe fact check yourself next time, if they interest you that is.

Also Manchester December ‘91.

Robert’s attained an average of 7.81 at the end of the 2019 season. He signed for Belle Vue on an assessed average in 2022 due to the gap in league racing. He was given the 2.5% British reduction, bring him down to 7.61. In 2023 he signed for Kings Lynn on an assessed average but he didn’t get his 2.5% reduction this time. As an assessed rider without a current average he didn’t ride 4H & 4A so his average remains as assessed using the old 2019 figure of 7.81. However….. His average could be anything as come the play offs in 2023 he was suddenly deemed to not be an assessed rider and his 2019 figure was “current”. If they follow through with this thinking then they will need to role his average using the 2H & 4A from his Kings Lynn meetings. I don’t see this happening as the only reason he suddenly became not assessed was when Damian Bates of Sheffield speedway contacted Damian Bates of the BSPL board to ask for permission to use Robert Lambert. Damian gave Damian permission to do so, winning Sheffield the league title. Coincidentally, the year before Damian had asked Damian if the rules could be applied differently to help Sheffield win the league. Earlier in the season Peterborough had signed a replacement outside of the transfer window. It was allowed due to injury. When Belle Vue attempted to apply the same rule in the same way, Damian spoke to Damian and overturned the rulebook. Fortunately for the good of the sport a judgement was made from outside the sport and the correct use of the rulebook was forced through, much to the delight of all fair minded speedway fans and BSF members.

I’ve said since seeing the Arenacross in Manchester a few years ago that speedway needs to move with the times and go indoors and only run 3 to 5 events per year. That proposal fell on deaf ears much as the t shirt cannon did. We now find ourselves where we are unsurprisingly. From now on I’ll get my kicks from Arenacross in Manchester, when’s the date for their next moneyspinner? I’d even travel to their other English events from now on, could someone post a list?

I wondered how long it would be before it was Belle Vue’s fault (as one of the other Premiership owners). Took longer than I thought but it’s finally arrived. I’ll bring it up with them when I next see them so if you could provide some bullet points as to their wrong doing I’ll post their response.