ouch

New pub at Manchester Airport.

I think it’s common knowledge that signing a rider on a 3.00, 4.00 or even 7.50 average then help in their development is cheaper in the long term than signing two GP standard riders straight off the peg. Equally the chances of a rider who has ridden at number 1 one season won’t be taking a great dip in wages to be a third heat leader at the team that poached him. All academic now as Richard is running the show and it no longer the witches way, thankfully.

I’m sure the lads appreciate your take on them this season. I’d imagine they felt quite chipper having pretty much emulated the great teams of 2023/4, but then have you and others telling them it’s been a trying, make do and mend team that fans what to see the back of with the hope for a better year in ‘27. There’s a word for fans like that which you are very aware of - apparently.

It’s certainly has been a trying season for the witches with just a 4th place finish & a KO cup final. Having been use to the last few seasons of success with Jason & Emil steering them to a 4th place finish & a KO cup final in 2023 and a 4th place finish & a KO cup final in 2024 it must be hard for their fans to take this year’s level of mediocrity.

Ironic. 😄

It’s absolutely not over as you only need to think back to 2023. We lost a rider to injury who had top scored and participated in heat 15 during our wins at Foxhall that season. The result saw us lose out in the semi final to fourth placed Ipswich. Take Tate’s 12 points off us and things would be very different.

I think Richard would like fourth place. If Ipswich stage the first leg then the crowd should be better than the normal high attendance and the resulting extra income would be most welcomed. As is often quoted on here, the play offs are a big money spinner. To not want to be part of that is daft.

When have Belle Vue choked? I hope to god you’re not referring to when Brady & Charles were hospitalised, you’re better than that.

I’ll just leave this here….. https://speedwayupdates.proboards.com/thread/21577/belle-vue-premiership-13-2023 https://speedwayupdates.proboards.com/thread/21921/belle-vue-premiership-13-2023

Normal service has resumed. Please, Musielak MUST be first on the team sheet for next season.

zzzzz why would those zzzzzz two want to zzzzzz break up the Poole/Glasgow yearly zzzzz play off show? zzzzz I mean it’s not zzzzz in their zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz😴

The powers that be correctly brought in the ringer rule after Wolves signed Tai for the last three weeks for their league campaign before making & winning the playoffs. It didn’t allow for injury replacement but was changed after they saw the error of their ways. Unfortunately, Belle Vue were the second team to take advantage of the rule change that season but critically it meant they could maintain their strong finish and clinch the title. The injured rider caveat was swiftly removed and this had the desired effect the following season as the table topping Aces suffered a cruel injury blow to Charles. The trouble now is other teams have had to suffer from this ridiculous rule change that sees what used to be a necessary evil in the guest rider facility, turn into a mandatory rule - nuts.

Belle Vue have a student price that our group make use of. For me, partner (2 adults) daughter & boyfriend (both students) plus my partners two grandkids and three mates (15y x 2 & 11y x 3), it cost less than £90 for the nine of us to watch at the NSS, I’m happy with that.

Most rising stars have an average over 3 so a 40 point limit for a 1-7 would work out as yet another drop and make it tough to fit in any extra top riders, should they choose our league.

The best option for the sport would to have both Dan & Jason involved in the play offs but the rules don’t allow it so (this year) Sheffield have to use guests or RR, which is crazy. I think there is a good chance that those requesting a late season rule change to potentially impede The Aces, could see it happen. It’s happened before and someone from outside the sport had to step in to ensure the rules were adhered to, much to the disgust of BSF. Someone from outside the sport overseeing things…there’s an idea.

Not that it will happen but Dan can retake his place in the team should he or the club want to. Charles Wright returned to Redcar when fit in July. He took the place of Nikolai Klindt, his injury replacement even though Charles had a higher average and the team total was over the limit.

Season tickets rarely offer much financial gain but I have one as it saves the faff of booking for each meeting and means Mum & I are in the same seats every meeting, have been for years. It’s also said it gives the club a financial boost pre season which helps at a time of no income. I’m never bothered if special deals crop up like Richard’s £5 discount and think clubs should do more of this to boost interest.

I had high hopes when Richard came on board but it is concerning that he seems to have accepted the status quo so quickly. Makes our crusade for UK speedway much more difficult. ☹️

Every team can have an isolated play off injury like Kenneth Bjerre or an early/mid season injury like the two suffered by Dan Bewley. It’s the regularity and timing of these “curse” injuries that I’m referring to.

Do you mean this injury curse? 2018 Craig (2) 2021 Brady (1) 2022 Max (5) 2023 Charles (9) 2024 Ben (0) (Number of days before the playoffs that the injury occurred) Before last season, it had happened in 5 of the previous 6 seasons. All teams suffer injury throughout the seasons but no team has had a consistent streak of injuries on the eve of the playoffs, though I’m happy to be proved wrong by a similar list from other teams. If our situation is the norm then I apologies for my misinterpretation.

Well this post caused some chatter with fans and ex riders in the Craven Suite after the BF. I don’t see this individuals vile outbursts but having it brought to my attention I have to say it’s particularly bad and worse than those post that prompted me to ignore them in the first place. Two points we’d like to clarify, is there any particular member of The Aces 1-7 that you would find an injury more humours and would the severity of the injury increase your laughter? As one old time ex rider put it, “is this the kind of crap you get on social media?”

Well this post caused some chatter with fans and ex riders in the Craven Suite after the BF. I don’t see this individuals vile outbursts but having it brought to my attention I have to say it’s particularly bad and worse than those post that prompted me to ignore them in the first place. Two points we’d like to clarify, is there any particular member of The Aces 1-7 that you would find an injury more humours and would the severity of the injury increase your laughter? As one old time ex rider put it, “is this the kind of crap you get on social media?”

The fact that only currently affects 1 club out of 15 is purely coincidental and by no means looks to drag more number ones out of a particular team, so we don’t have to nurture talent. FFS, it’s little wonder we find ourselves where we are. What a nightmare.

Out of around 20 odd Aces posts this week only three towards the end have mentioned the British Final. Not enough but if every club had done that we’d have had nearly 50 post over the last few days. As you say, failed opportunity.