IainB

I thought he might have been a local character like "'Rum Weather' was in Leicester... I was touring the States a few years ago and got approached by a local tramp for money, it was at Santa Monica beach! I thought there's worse places to be a tramp, made me wonder why there weren't more there when I see some of them sat outside my local Aldi

Glad I gave this one a swerve in favour of BV, that wasn't a classic, this one was never going to be... but at least I got to see 15 heats in Manchester!

Something I've been meaning to ask for about 6 or 7 years... what's the deal with the bloke that sleeps in his green VW Polo behind the entrance to the south stand?

Very strange meeting Bewley winning by huge margins, shutting off coming out of turn 4 to coast over the line for a win then couldn't make an impression on Tom Brennan

Ben Cook has a touch of Jan O about him... he's made a pretty dull meeting worthwhile attending today

I've had an idea for a TV programme... Race Across Manchester, it's a 22 part series where the contestants have to make the 5 mile journey from Stockport to the National Speedway Stadium only using public transport Along the way contestants will face desolate industrial wastelands, ridiculous weather conditions, the local natives and severe language difficulties... starts July 2024!

Do it, leave the 3 year old at home

What are they having a parade for? They've won nothing! We've had ours today so as not to clash with the Oxford meeting tomorrow

Steve Johnston... When he first arrived at Long Eaton from second halving at Sheffield I used to have to watch his races through my fingers, seemed to be out of control for most of his races!

The late Lee Richardson stands out for me, from memory he found points very difficult to come by when he first started out, then seemed to overcome that and establish himself only to be hindered by health issues. As we all know then went on to become world class, especially riding for GB in the world cup

We'll change all that once we get a hold of him!

Surprised me that not many even wanted to try the big line on 3 and 4 using the banking in favour of sticking to the line

On paper i thought they looked quite a weak side to me and have surprised me tonight, if you can get your number 1 back fit you should be looking good, especially at home

Looks like Plymouth have built a mini Leicester with their track... once the track has bedded in (in around 15 years) there'll be some great racing

There's been so much movement at the starts tonight right from heat 1

Listening to DT on BSN just now and it sounds like maybe the rest of the Leicester riders weren't perhaps offering as much help to JT as the riders do with DT at Ippo.

Look on the bright side, you could have been there and paid to get in!

Did the clock stand at Plymouth come with the clock?

Right now, the tide in Plymouth (Devonport) is FALLING Next LOW tide 3hr 24min (21:58 BST) Next HIGH tide 9hr 29min (Sun 5th 04:03 BST)

Pretty poor for a sport that, domestically, relies on riders doubling up and foreign imports

Looking at the list of the 67 (67!!) riders eligible for the RS scheme in 2021 https://britishspeedway.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/rising_stars_21.05.21-1.pdf How many are still riding? And at what level? And how many have gone on to become "stars", how do you define "star" (does Paul Bowen's appearance on The Apprentice count? ), let's be generous and say a regular position in the main body of a team. I think things have improved this season with the weakening of the CL to accommodate some of the riders at this level, which is a good thing... only the PL has become stronger while the criteria for being a RS has remained the same.

It depends what the Rising Start system is designed to do... Is it to find the next Robert Lambert, who it could be argued will always find a way to the top or is it to find the next Simon Lambert, the type of rider the sport would not survive without? There has been a chronic rider shortage over the last number of years, exacerbated by the doubling up system and importing of ready made foreign talent and for me the way the rising star system is run does nothing to produce either type of Lambert. Don't laugh but you could almost have a revolving rising star system where each club only has their "star" for 1 month before being moved onto another club, the sport in general doesn't seem to mind who rides for who, so why not make it official to benefit the riders and clubs? So Leicester would get Joe Thompson for March then he moves on to Birmingham and is replaced by Dan Thompson for April and then he moves on to another club for May etc. etc. Sounds stupid but is it as stupid as demoralising your up and coming "star" (the name itself adds pressure) to such a state that they think about quitting the sport because they've been dropped into a league and are hopelessly out of their depth... these kids are CL reserves being asked to be PL reserves alongside the likes of Craig Cook, Vaclav Milik and Patrick Wojdylo, all potential match winners. When the RS system was first introduced the strength of the PL was considerably weaker and as the quality of the league has increased the quality needed to be a RS hasn't

Another lamb to the slaughter... We can perhaps try Mulford after we've destroyed another riders confidence

Another rider chewed up and spat out by the rising star system

Thanks for the BTS info, sheds a bit more light on the situation. I think the talent pool is too shallow to successfully run a rising star programme in the PL