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Very entertaining meeting with passing in thirteen heats and not just The Aces as several heats had passing & repassing. Had the scores been called a bend three lap one as is the case with speedway these days, we would have lost 37-53. Thankfully, for me anyway, the races produced my kind of speedway, not to everyone’s liking I understand but just brilliant in my eyes. Heat 15, Brady out Fricked, Fricke - wonderful. Sadly our injury jinx put paid to the bonus but I still feel we’ll remain above Kings Lynn in the qualifiers.

Not as interesting as you actually answering the question. I didn’t get what you were up to until it was pointed out to me but I’m no feather in your cap when it comes to catching a victim. You’re definitely not the first to hook me and unfortunately won’t be the last. Whatever floats your boat. Bye.

Hate it. Unless they get injured again and don’t complete a foreign fixture.

Yes. As I was with PC, Kenny Carter, Tai, etc etc etc etc……

I did say I’d cover your new topic (championship) once we’d got your initial topic (league) out for the way. I’m unable to go first as I cannot find any proof of Brady doing what you’ve accused him of. You will have this information to hand as nobody would accuse someone of wrongdoing without being able to back it up when asked. I can see now why you anticipated a long discussion when really it could have ended with just one answer to a simple question.

I’ll happily discuss the new topic of Brady’s involvement in championship events once we’ve got the league topic out of the way. I’ve asked a very simple question regarding his league appearances as it was his foreign league clubs that you mentioned in your initial post and it was this that I responded to.

Brady did not miss Belle Vue fixtures whilst completing fixtures in foreign leagues. If you can show me a timeline that proves this to be incorrect then fine I’ll concede, otherwise please stop making this up as fans start believing it. Anticipating radio silence. AGAIN!!😡

Brady did not miss Belle Vue fixtures whilst completing fixtures in foreign leagues. If you can show me a timeline that proves this to be incorrect then fine I’ll concede, otherwise please stop making this up as fans start believing it. Anticipating radio silence. AGAIN!!😡

I think you’re being a bit harsh when describing the racing lines around the NSS. I’ve lifted the race reports from the last time we met when the lines used were mentioned. One race had simultaneous passing on the outside and inside. Fricke chasing and finally passes Blodorn up the inside bend 2 lap 4. Becker packed up on the run to the first turn. Masters gates, but Bewley is up the inside bend 3 lap 1. Masters repaid the pass bend 2 lap 2, before Bewley is back up the inside bend 1 lap 3, before pulling clear. Howarth up the inside of Zichke bend 2 lap 1 Masters gates, and leads for 3 laps with the Aces hunting him down. Lidsey and Cook go either side of Masters bend 1 lap 4 to turn it into a 5-1. Great ride from the Aces.

Should be a very entertaining meeting again with plenty of passing. Leicester imo are the best gaters in the league though they are closely matched by the top two, necessity is the mother of invention after all. But for the racing last time we would have drawn if calling the race early, not that you can do that at the NSS. Being back to full strength helps as a full Aces side has only been beaten once, without Brady falling that is. As always it’s great to see our Max back and I’m hoping he has a good night along with local lad Kyle who will no doubt be mad for it.

He’s been a true number 1 for years and it’s been great to see him grow from the 4.50 lad we signed back in the day. Irreplaceable to his team, as we found out in 2022, he is a true ace in every way.

I would relish a final or semi final against Ipswich and I think most fans would love it when watching on tv. As bad as we were yesterday we were four up on aggregate after heat 12 and with the prospect of heat 13 & 15 featuring Jason, Emil, Brady & Dan, it doesn’t get much better for UK fans imo. Will the old guard prevail or will the GP big boys pull through? Something for the publicity machine to get behind. Here’s hoping Mr Morris works his magic again when sorting out the semis.

Belle Vue do seem to run their annual final qualification in a particular way. At the start of the season they will win a few away meetings and keep others close to secure the bonus. After the league settles and qualification is all but certain they take their foot off the gas until the play offs themselves. I’ve always found it odd that a rider would try less as this obviously affects their income. Having said that, Zach admitted to testing stuff out against Lynn as the team score allowed him to. If the team ride at opponents destined for the playoffs and the table allowed it, I would absolutely have a play around re set ups. Not saying this is necessarily the case for last night. I do like a strategy, especially one that is so effective year on year.

I wouldn’t discount The Aces stepping up a gear come the play offs, as we have done for the previous four seasons. We missed out on four on the trot final appearances by a lap or two in that terrific final heat against the witches after we had lost Charles to injury (no unnecessary vulture snipes from me). Dans unbeaten 10 rides in last years final is a good indicator of how the whole team lift themselves for the big nights with previous performances at the various venues seemingly counting for nothing. There’s no team I’m not confident of beating over two legs when it means something.

I’ve said for decades now if home fans are happy with the racing then that’s job done as few fans travel away and the off button can be used for tv meetings. I like British final type races but have to concede that we’re not all the same and close follow the leader heats can be just as entertaining to some.

Thats the reality of the situation. We continuously get fans bigging up their following whilst simultaneously berating The Aces. We had it for years with Poole before they dropped down a league to negate losses. We then ask other clubs if they want the British Final and it’s turned down as their lack of support would make it a loss leader.

Sounds like a humdinger and unusual for updates to get it so wrong as from experience they are always bang on. Win or lose I’m always interested in the racing and have used updates when deciding to buy the dvd (re run are excellent btw). Can you give me your take on the action after bend three lap one as it does come across as a truly awful spectacle when reading updates. Well done Ipswich and especially Danny. I think this was his best meeting ever at Foxhall given the GP opposition, top bloke, please for him. For The Aces some might say it’s part of the master plan that went wrong but don’t look back in anger and just roll with it. Aces fans, stop crying your heart out and look forward to Monday when once again we will be supersonic, d’you know what I mean.

With regards the Ipswich RS saga. If a team is allowed to chop & change that position and another team isn’t, that is just wrong. Using your opinion of the people involved to alter this logic is daft. The implementation of rules should be consistent and not subject to how much you like or dislike an individual or team.

I don’t see Friday or Saturday working for Belle Vue now. The competition for the leisure dollar is intense in Manchester and more so on those days. I think we’d miss out. I don’t agree with the comments about the top stars. Pretty much all them in our league started out, like Dan as rookies and we have had the pleasure of seeing them grow into top stars. If they still want to ride here then dumping them or creating rules that precludes them is a backward step. History has shown that any backward step by the powers that be has been badly implemented and has only served to alienate more fans. I’ll watch whatever they put on at the NSS, many won’t.

Post Covid, Foxhall has been one of our better away circuits so I’m hoping the cup was just a blip. The witches form in the league against us there reads W 5 D 1 L 4 with one of their wins being a last heat decider. I’m interested to see Brady & Dan away in their current stella form, both are gating well and along with our regular gater Jaimon we could do some damage from the tapes. In the league, since Norick got his debt out of the way he has scored (newest to oldest) 7+1, 5+1, 3, 6+2, 5+2, 3+2, 6+3 at Foxhall. I’m afraid I do not see RR covering that. I really hope the track changes kick in for this meeting, if you don’t get excitement on the track with Jason, Emil, Brady & Dan then there’s something up. Interestingly looking at the stats we could drop one of Brady or Dan and add in Jaimon and we would still have a better spearhead statistically than the witches, he is actually averaging more than Emil when looking at 2025 stats but his magnificent form is greatly overshadowed by our two GP hero’s.

I never rated the view from the centre green, not for a full meeting anyway, much preferring the terraces and the chance that offers to chat with folk. I and many other volunteers still pay (a lot, like me have season tickets) at the NSS but I can understand the free entry offer just to bulk up the necessary volunteer numbers. Like all clubs if it wasn’t for volunteers the sport would struggle to continue if not fold completely.

Excellent post and if it is a true reflection of the facts then why not say this in the press release? Making up nonsense about a rain off is insulting to his paying customers.

Clubs, plural?

I think a reason for the improvement is the fact most of the top five have ridden five or more seasons with us. As young as he is, Norick is in his fourth year leaving only our number four slot as the points limit revolving door slot. Having said that though their away performances have also improved over this time. I wondered how other top league teams compared with longevity of riders and only Kings Lynn have been about in our league any amount of time to compare and they only moved back up recently (recent to an old fart like me who thinks the 80’s where yesterday). Crazy to see how are opponents have changed in just the time Dan has been an Ace. It really illustrates the precarious nature of the top league and how often we go begging for participants. Hoping we can get to 100 years of operation having always been in the top league, when there was one.

The reason we do well at home is because we consistently put together strong sides and not due to this perceived home advantage. Since before the NSS came to be in 2016 we were a play off side and have maintained that for a remarkable run over the last decade. In 2016 we were the 4th best home team & the 1st best away side. 2016 4 & 1 2017 4 & 2 2018 j4 & j2 2019 j3 & j2 2021 4 & 3 2022 1 & 3 2023 2 & 1 2024 1 & 4 The play off participants win at home, but they are also successful away due to the strength of their squad. If we were always the best home side and consistently poor away then the home advantage theory would stand up but a cursory look at the records tells a different story. One thing that can be levelled at the NSS is that it is becoming increasingly insular in providing a race track with many different lines. We tend to have racers in the squad and recently this has had a detrimental effect on our away performances, sadly.