keepturningleft

What a refreshing change to see a manager reacting with calm dignity after securing victory rather than having to see the usual spectacle of (thinking mainly of football), managers going demented, gurning and aggressively punching the air seen usually in horrible slow motion high definition playback. Someone earlier in this thread alluded to an apparent lack of passion from Peter Adams but personally I love his dead pan, low key manner.

Is there a track anywhere in the world better than Belle Vue? Have to say it's very difficult to like Woffinden, he is simply obnoxious. Can you imagine Collins, Loram, Craven getting booed, anywhere, ever?

Tyburn Gallows and Kid Bodie

A fantastic piece of work. It would be ideal to see it on display at the National Speedway Stadium.

"He's coming back for more"

Does anyone know why the first bend terrace area was not open? Please don't tell me BV are going to close down sections of the stadium as they see fit presumably to keep stadium management simpler. I fancied watching the meeting from there today and did not know in advance that this would not be possible. The new BV has been sold on the strength of it's impressive viewing facilities, so why is some of it now not accessible? Maybe the turnsyles are broken.

Ludicrous idea. Attendance would be 30,000 less than now.

Another great meeting from the SEC - surely it would be a great boost for Russia and speedway generally to hold a GP at this venue. Despite the admittedly amusing bit of sarcasm from Hans Anderson about his wrong helmet colour, it is absolutely correct that he was excluded. Helmet colours have become a bit of a thing with me. Because of the protruding peak of modern helmets, the cover often doesn't cover anything like the whole helmet usually leaving two colours on display to confuse first time watchers along with everything else that is likely to confuse them. Head on shots frequently showed two riders apparently wearing red helmets for example. This is one of the many examples in which speedway fallen into slovenly ways in my opinion.

Get well Charlie...

I'm no expert on Brazil, but there must be a sizable proportion of the population who can afford those prices. I bet they had no trouble selling out the world cup final when it was held there a couple of years ago.

No, not speedway, the olympics. Even the supposedly greatest sporting spectacle on earth can't fill stadia. Amazing to see so many empty seats at many events.

Since the biggest attendances by far are for the individual events, the GP's obviously, the hostility towards a 13 heat match and then a 'rider of the night' individual event afterwards seems strange. Seems to me you've got the best of both worlds, team and individual in one night. Personally, I lament the decline of domestic individual events Although true that many fans used to leave after the main match, well, that was their choice. The 'rider of the night' could be made into a much more meaningful event than it used to be with maybe the winners throughout the country qualifying for some kind of a grand final - at Belle Vue? Speaking of which, I have been in the speedway wilderness since Odsal closed but I could be a regular returnee to Bell Vue, if only I knew what their regular race night is. This hotchpot of race nights is a disaster as alluded to by earlier posters which is surely hindering the success of Belle Vue.

Been watching speedway since 1965 and I doubt if I've seen racing more thrilling than that!

Security guys wearing hard hats - what's that all about?

Positioned at the very top of the temporary stand, I settled down for heat one and watched as Fido and Rex battled it out with Jet coming in third, until my wife pointed out that I was facing the wrong way and was in fact watching the dog racing at the old stadium. Seriously though, with panoramic views of both stadia, the contrast couldn't have been more amazing. What an achievement the new stadium is. What a track! What a night!

I can't believe that the thousands in the East stand are not considered important enough to have an extension to the PA system so that we hear what the hell is going on. This must be fixed for tomorrow night.

These days I am only an occasional buyer of speedway star, but this morning I skipped along to my local WH Smith to buy the mag and enjoy the build up to the WC. Whilst I can appreciate that it would be impossible for the mag to fully preview the event because of not knowing who all the finalists would be because of the closeness of the qualifying rounds to print deadlines etc I would, however, have expected a comprehensive preview purely from the perspective of Belle Vue/NSS. At the very least, I thought we would be hearing from Dave Gordon or Chris Morton as they stand on the threshold of seeing their dream come to fruition having given British speedway it's biggest shot in the arm since god knows when. I would have expected information on hospitality, pre meet entertainment, the parking situation, local traffic info, catering, local media interest, what to do in Manchester etc etc. Ok, I know most of this info can be found on line but I still think that SS has come up short here.

These days I am only an occasional buyer of speedway star, but this morning I skipped along to my local WH Smith to buy the mag and enjoy the build up to the WC. Whilst I can appreciate that it would be impossible for the mag to fully preview the event because of not knowing who all the finalists would be because of the closeness of the qualifying rounds to print deadlines etc I would, however, have expected a comprehensive preview purely from the perspective of Belle Vue/NSS. At the very least, I thought we would be hearing from Dave Gordon or Chris Morton as they stand on the threshold of seeing their dream come to fruition having given British speedway it's biggest shot in the arm since god knows when. I would have expected information on hospitality, pre meet entertainment, the parking situation, local traffic info, catering, local media interest, what to do in Manchester etc etc. Ok, I know most of this info can be found on line but I still think that SS has come up short here.

Thanks for the info everyone re the car parking

Does anyone know if there is anything to stop people parking in the (huge) adjacent showcase cinema car park on Saturday? Google maps needs a bit of correction to say the least. The map shows the NSS positioned incorrectly behind the old stadium and declares the NSS to be a dog track with a restaurant! https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.4612756,-2.1840667,18.01z

You just beat me to it..! Tai, but much more significantly someone like Adel at Glastonbury the other week, is able to unleash a torrent of bad language to a world wide audience of millions and not too many people blink an eye, but on this forum seen by only a few dozen, the offending words are banned! This makes no sense at all.

No, I did indicate, apart from the GP's speedway is struggling.

Had Andy Murray let forth with the F word after winning Wimbledon, he would have been jumped on pretty quickly and the backlash would have been significant. It is quite obvious that Woffinden is swearing in a quite calculated and deliberate manner in order to promote himself as some kind of a jack the lad, bad boy. Unfortunately, it is quite clear that Woffiden's strategy, admittedly embraced by many, to promote speedway as an adrenalin fueled, 'cool' youth sport with its participants covered in tattoos and piercings, is not working. GP's aside, the terraces are empty. The 'young' are not pouring through the turnstiles in any significant numbers. Maybe us oldies are simply out of touch with modern times but at least we've got a hell of a past to look back on. It is difficult to be optimistic about the future, at grass roots level at least, and it gives me no pleasure at all to say that.

Can't agree with this bit...I think a 3/4 completely empty stadium looks bad on tv.

...and, the Wales match is on this Wedenesday!