IainB

I'm sorry, and no disrespect to him, but when the likes of Connor Coles makes the start off of the massively advantaged gate 4 and the likes of Josh Pickering can't get anywhere near him... it's that Speedway racing?

For which he would have been given extra time, good job Dougy came up with the goods for you or this thread would have gone into meltdown

True... I was waiting for comments on here when Lemo elected to put Dougy in for a tac sub instead of Bewley in 14, I mean who would have done that! Bewley came 4th in 13 but was still selected for 15 & 16... and won them both. No point having your big number 1 if you ain't gonna use them. Maybe it was a bit of inexperience of the gaffer not being used to the big league.

Sport is different though, it's tribal, it's your team and you should support them through thick and thin (in sickness and in health) it's the team representing all of the history built up through the years and your local community... or at least it should be and it is generally the case with most other sports. Speedway on the other hand decides to throw away this proven tribal instinct built into humans and instead decide to hire a bunch of mercenaries, who rarely stay with their team from one season to the next, can barely say "we" or "us" when referring to the team they ride for, instead electing for "them" and decide to go and ride for other clubs around the country and world during the same season. So yes I can easily see why people "vote with their" feet and stop going. I am more of a fan of the Sport than any particular team or rider, I do support a team (Leicester) but having had my team taken away from me numerous times through the years, I'm a lover of the sport in general.

He'll be doing the centre green presenting next, like a certain jack of all trades operating out of his secret caravan bunker in North Lincolnshire I notice that the caravan at Leicester has gone from its place on the second bend this year.

That's a pretty fair summation of things, as you win and lose as a team I feel the special one has to shoulder some responsibility also, although it's easy to say in hindsight, why did he pick Richard Lawson for the super heat? I know Ficke had just come last in heat 15 but that's what you employ your number 1's for, for the big races because they have the experience of competing in the big meetings and in the case of Max also winning them. Somebody also needs to have a word with Bomber, I love him to bits but he doesn't seem to know which bike to ride. I saw this all last year at Peterborough he'd constantly be swapping his bike during meetings and he did that last night also, switching between GM & a Godden(?).

He certainly "sorted" Dan Bewley out on the first bend of heat 13 last night!

When is a draw not a draw... when it's in Speedway, you may as well say a win is a loss, it's that crazy! For me it's a better system that the last few seasons where the away team got more league points for a draw than the home team... these are just the type of rules that rob our "sport" of any credibility. Turns out I am quite fussed about it after all

I can't get too fussed about the superheat tbh. I really couldn't care either way. I can live with a draw and I also don't mind an extra heat of Speedway! Maybe if a league point was worth what it used to be I could be a bit more enthused, but as you only have to reach 4th place in the league these days before the real competition starts gaining or losing a point here or there is not really worth getting too excited about.

Speedway was the winner doesn't cut it with you then ... Fricke will come good... he is world class

Cracking speedway match though!

Next week...

16

He can be a hero in 15!

Has anybody got number Krzysztof Kasprzak's number? We need a number 1

That's all very well and good and it's a brilliant effort in putting all of that together, but... where's the plan to get the crowds back though, it's just a rehash of the current crap that's being served up. Where's the engagement with a new audience, where's the solution to meetings being called off on weather forecasts on a sunny night, where's the solution to the crap race tracks that are served up week in week out up and down the country, where's the solution to being expected to stand in a muddy puddle queuing up to get in, where's the solution to wading ankle deep in p1ss to go to the toilet, the solution to 15 mins racing in 1 hour and 45 mins, the solution to tractor racing, the solution to going home covered in dust and all of the other farcical events we've all been subject to down the years, the events that fewer and fewer of us are returning to. 4 riders racing each other over 4 laps is still quite an experience it's all of the other crap surrounding it that eventually puts people off. I don't think all of this tinkering around the edges with formats etc. is going to cut it... I'll start you off with something radical... 250cc bikes!

Phil Morris is not god and let's not forget he's only overseeing the top flight... not the Championship or NDL. You say that every year people say it's going to be the "last one", I'm not sure who your team is but for lots of clubs it has been and speaking as someone who started watching my Speedway at Leicester and then Long Eaton & Coventry I have seen "my" team close 3 times! Clubs have always come and gone but in recent years the speed and number in which clubs have gone is far greater than those returning. As for Peterborough & MT's search for land, time will tell on that one but saying you're doing something and actually doing it are two very different things... I remember the i's just needing to be dotted and the t's needing to be crossed for Long Eaton to be moving into their new stadium, MT may very well have the best intentions but the proof of the pudding will be in the eating. I'm neither a glass half full or empty person... I'm a pragmatic realist I'm sure Speedway will continue in some way, shape or form in this country in the years to come, but unless some kind of drastic action is taken I can very much see it being run in the same way that Grasstrack is or American/Australian Speedway is run on an amateur basis, especially if we continue with the Business as Usual approach. Anyway, I shall be running up to Leicester like my hair is on fire tonight... which is surely the model that all other clubs should be aspiring to emulate.

... so we're all agreed, the Poole track is by far the worst in Speedway?

While I agree that people should go along and continue to watch and enjoy their Speedway as I am and not just throw the towel in (reading some of the comments on the Peterborough thread is indeed quite bizarre), you must see that we can not continue as we are currently going and letting the "relevant" people, who have got us into this situation, get us out of it is equally bizarre. I would say the current situation is more than concerning... it's alarming! My enthusiasm is still there and I'll be travelling the country watching Speedway as I always have done for the last 45 odd years... you can only push clubs and merge leagues until a point where it become unsustainable... and we're not far away from that.

Which is why you should do it long before it gets to that stage.

Perhaps he was hoping the tide would come in

and we must not upset the riders... to hell with the fans

Richie Worrall was and all those fans he saw rubbing dust out of their eyes

I wonder why that was?

Depends if he's after drugs or drinking himself into a coma!