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They better sort that pronto, first match of the season, big crowd, you serve them up a mess from the start, you won’t get them back.

Another shout for BSN to show the Ben fund meeting, you could charge more with the extra profits over production costs going to the fund itself. I am sure a lot of fan would be prepared to put their hands in their pockets to support this excellent cause.

Burned too many bridges I think, too many times he has let clubs down, and not simply by having a bad night, but just just giving up and not even making an effort, whilst no doubt still drawing a wage because promoters are dumb enough to pay a downside guarantee to him.

They might have started on Thursdays? I get involved watching speedway from 88 onwards and then Arena was Saturday at 7pm I think once Hackney folded in 91 it opened up Friday nights, when Arena went top flight in 92 that was when the switch happened? When London Lions opened in 1996 they (London) raced on a Thursday night and Arena Essex raced Friday nights. After that it’s always been a mixture of Wednesdays, Fridays or Saturdays, but mostly Fridays (top flight) and Saturdays. But always recall Stuart Douglas saying that “racing on a Wednesday night was akin to throwing a suit case of money off the QE2 bridge” every week. Friday the M25 was always busy but that’s why Arena adopted an 8pm start time to allow more time for fans to make the journey. I don’t know or want to argue about how many fans came from over the bridge but out of my group of 10 plus people, only one had to travel from South of the river.

Yes I know I replied to her letting her know exactly my thoughts on the matter. Basically came down to leave Arena Essex alone!

Sounds like a complete mess but is summed up by the fact they want to open a new club but use the history of another club which has no connection to it other than by nickname. Guess what? When Arena Essex was born in 1984 and named the Hammers, they didn’t inherit all the history and success of the West Ham Hammers, and neither should they of.

The council don’t really need to spend any money, just force the developer into making changes to their plans. Simple solution would be to give the speedway stadium and large part of car park back, volunteers and sponsor backing could handle the rest.

For the sake of 0.08 out and they could have had Bowtell back, that would have made them very very strong. Instead Alfie will have to start in the main body of a fairly poor looking team.

Actually Vlad did ride for Hackney in 91 and was in the Hawks team that visited Arena Essex in the Gold Cup. The Hackney team that day was Tony Olsson Michael Warren Pavel Karnas Vladmir Kalina Paul Whittaker Roland Pollard Dave Hamnet

Everyone knows what Roynon and Newman are capable of, but always a big question of actually doing it, I thought Kyle was going to be Hammers 4th heat leader in 2018 but it just didn’t work out for him. Poole have once again nailed the art of building a side on paper, a great top two with strength then down the order, that in turn might see Thomas or one of the Cook brothers drop to reserve at some point.

Plymouth is small but it’s deceiving because it’s narrow so looks smaller than it probably is. Apart from its issues with being close to sea level, there is nothing wrong with that track, just because your typical throttle jockey finds it hard, doesn’t mean it’s a bad track, riding track that size requires skill over fast engines.

I could well be wrong but I always thought that once a foreign rider had accumulated enough meetings to get an average, that was the figure that would be used for team building purposes etc I imagine the same principle would apply then if a Prem team signed let’s say Wiktor Lampart on an assessed 8.00 but he only averaged 6.15 then he would remain on 8.00 until he averaged above that, but for how long would that apply?

Crazy that he is saddled with a four point average when really he is a two point man, Brummies straight away taking a two point hit in the team total. What I will say though is that because James is from Australia, there is more emphasis on him to make it because it’s a long way to go home if you don’t make it. Justin is a good rider, I like him from his short time at Lakeside but he’s not a second heat leader in the traditional sense. Birmingham might get away with it at home but I think they will have some drummings on the road and not pick up any bonus points.

I think you know what I meant, Eurosport shows a meeting once in a blue moon, where as even if BSN miss a week, they will show two the following week to make up for it ;-)

All in for the BSN packages, discovery/Eurosport et al can go do one, they show the sport only when they feel like it, at least with BSN they show a meeting every week or sometimes two meetings over 14 days. If there was one other provider I would consider for a speedway fix it would be prem sports as they cover a ton of Polish and Swedish meetings.

Glasgow look quite good but a few sides that could be up there, Plymouths with one rider left could be the main challengers, they have a very good balance and if Barker hits the ground running, him and Starke will be a strong engine room, then it’s down to their final signing and how Dan reacts to his layoff, if they have a great number six changing places with Dan or maybe Starke if he starts slow, they will have an ace up their sleeve all season. Any team with. Solid top four and one flying reserve will always do exceptionally well. Only team that looks weak to me is Birmingham.

My criticism of Plymouth is purely down to the track, not the size, not the shape, or the standard of racing, just its seemingly bad rep for having rain offs based on how much disruption it caused to the Championship last season which I grant wasn’t helped by the promoters arranging the season as they did. Lakeside used to get far more criticism for being a poor track, not because of rain offs but because of its size and home advantage and your quite far away from the action, that’s the way it was though, track didn’t care, it didn’t have any feelings.

How is that ironic? Do you realise that despite the name, the track at Arena Essex was much higher than any water table in the area? But even so over the years the drainage was improved upon so that the venue wasn’t so vulnerable to rain offs which can cost clubs a lot of money. on another point though, why are you always so defensive about Plymouth when your own team is Birmingham? A track which itself has come under scrutiny plenty of times over the years.

If that’s the case why wasn’t the track built higher? They must have know before the track was put in that susceptibility to unfavourable conditions was likely to be high and potentially very costly as a business model.

Are you saying those of us who have lost our tracks are no longer proper fans? Even though many will continue to buy the speedway star week in week out and watch as much of the sport online or on telly as possible? Very strange considering the fragile nature of your own clubs future.

Serious question, it’s a good team Plymouth are building but what work is taking place to ensure they will be able to take to track more often this season? For example Is the drainage being improved? So that the track has a better chance of recovering from the elements, and allow out and out racers like Howarth to thrive.

I will be more than happy to support this as well as the Championship package, BSN do a cracking job.

This should happen every winter but it does not, it’s like the BSPA wants to keep it a secret, just like those promoters who won’t publish starting line ups for matches because people might print off their own programmes. The fans will find out eventually what everyone’s average is, might as well just tell everyone now so at least fans can speculate and play team manager over the cold winter months.

Nothing happening there, just gathering weeds, it’s not just a crying shame, it’s criminal but whilst the place still stands, there is hope. All it would take is some good will and some hard working volunteers to have that track back into race state, the main problem would be it would likely needs a new fence and not just on the corners. If it could be done at Oxford, no reason why it cannot be repeated at Arena.

Does Oxford have a live streaming service for a cost? If so it’s almost like the promoter doesn’t want fans in the actual stadium? £22 for second division speedway in the current climate is irresponsible, cut costs if they want to be more viable, not keep hammering the paying supporter. Said it so many times, cut costs for riders will then trickle down the line, it’s not rocket science.