marko

As an Arena Essex fan, not been to a meeting since 2018, still buy the star every week, and sub to BSN or just stuck to watching highlights or whatever has been put on youtube from around Europe. I quite like watching meetings at home whilst i can go a make a cup when they do tractor racing etc. Said it before on another thread, speedway needs to forget about the top riders, start bringing youngsters in, you have that little track near Manchester that is used for ride and slide days, its perfect, in a field, no fence, we need tons of them all around the country, just using 125cc bikes, perfect to get a new generation interested. If there was one in Essex i would go and have a go myself, im 53 and its been nearly 15 years since i last put my leg over a speedway bike as i used to go and have a little spin around Iwade just for fun. But as for the title of this thread, NO just scrap it, your going to have to sooner rather than later anyway.

We need young riders and a bloody ton of them too. Britain needs to scrap the current setup and completely start again from scratch. Training camps, standard machinery, with the league that is somewhere between the second and third divisions, and split regionally, they may even need to cease running a league because of a lack of riders and go back to what they did in 1928 with a series of individual meetings and match races, until enough riders can be found to run a league with no doubling up because it WILL be just one league, with some scratch races after for riders under 15. The longer they keep sticking a plaster on it, the harder and more expensive it will be to repair it properly or maybe not at all.

At some point they are going to have to give team places to riders who are not ready, you can kick kicking the ball down the road but eventually it will happen, riders like Nicholls etc cannot go on forever. The sport must go back to be more amateur, it’s got to get even worse before it can get better.

Chris Adam’s “we know we are a better side than this” Your not though are you.

The Foxes are not looking good, Zagar gave up after one lap, clearly didn’t want to know, bike was still under power. Cut to after heat 14 in the booth, Lemo wishes Chris good luck for the final race, and oh by the way, your sacked.

I can’t help but think the Lions could do something here especially with Lidsey and Zager as ex riders, as always it comes down to whether Klindt gates and whether Batch wants to get stuck in on the first/second bends.

Trouble is there is a lack of riders so in years past, riders like Batch would have been quickly tossed aside and never seen again, there is always some mug willing to give riders like him another chance because they don’t have much options. Batch is like Craig Cook and Drew Kemp, there is a decent rider there, we have seen it years ago, something has happened, and by trying to carry on they will only dig a bigger hole for themselves mentally and get a lot of stick from the speedway going public, is it really worth it?

Very bizarre choice of guest unless Kemp agreed to do it for nothing more than travel money and a standard pay per point return, but you can probably figure he only agreed to it based on a guaranteed points return and then people wonder why some riders cant be asked.

I thought it was an decent meeting, I would certainly sooner watch a meeting from this track than Ipswich, Northampton, Sheffield, Oxford, Plymouth or Poole. It was not a dust a bowl, neither was it over watered, you saw clean passes after the 1st/2nd bend on both the inside and the outside throughout the meeting.

I think Pinny has a point. So I looked at 1982 in the British League, that season saw Poole finish 15th out 15, next team finished on 21 points, so they were well out of it yes? They only got 9 points overall, three home wins, three draws and eight loses, most of those home defeats were only by 2-6 points, but you would not say looking at 1982 that they were a competitive team in the grand scheme of things. Sheffield fans were walking prior to heat 15 last night, they had seen enough, a defeat no matter the margin is still a defeat and people don't want to see their team lose at home

The question is though of the crowds that they are getting, are they fans for other tracks that no longer run like P'boro or Coventy? the Foxes are not their team and never will be so they wont make a lot of noise if any if they get a 5-1, its like in the days when i used to go to Rye House, I didn't cheer for the Rockets, I went their as a neutral to watch second division as Arena Essex were in the first division and at that time you saw different riders in each division. If that is the case not winning at home is not important but going forward they will need to find their own fans, because the neutrals will drift away in time once they have got their fix and realised its not the same as watching their own teams which has gone. The sport in this country tends to build something, then think that's the job done and not build upon it, it has to be forward thinking all the time, you can't rest on your laurels, that's what too many did when times were better, its always reactive not proactive. As someone said on here, there are no signs around Northampton, the people who are going already know its there, your preaching to the converted.

Batch up to the normal level I see with most points earned from beating non finishers. Foxes are never going to win carrying riders like that.

Sheffield missed Jack Holder but if the top flight adopted a squad system whereby clubs could name one or two other top riders who could cover for the very odd meeting here and there, say last night if MJJ could have rode, sure the cost won’t be cheap but he would still be getting roughly what you would have paid Jack per point anyway, it’s just the flight and arranging equipment that would have extra cost.

No idea who would be available because whilst its the only match in the UK tonight i am not clued up on foreign commitments. Based on Kings average though, i would have looked at Dan Thompson or Niklai Klindt, especially the latter, good gating and going pretty well right now.

Really? You know the tracks going to be a slick dust bowl with and you book Chris Harris, he rode their recently with Glasgow and struggled because he couldn’t get out of the gate.