IainB

Hasn't Max Fricke improved steadily over the last couple of years, I've been quite impressed with him this year, just goes about his business without any hype or fuss (except all those mentions about the GP challenge) quietly gaining the points, got a nice tidy style. Currently the top Aussie in the standings ahead of Doyley and has probably justified being selected ahead of Jack Holder by Lemo a couple of years back.

You would have thought that the 100's or 1,000's of motocross riders would have fancied their chances of taking the British Speedway world by storm with such a small pool of around 100 riders to compete with.

But we now find ourselves in the position of NO GP riders riding in our Leagues yet we still elect to run on off-nights and on many prime summer weekends there was no Speedway this year!

Well... if you're quick you can still see Ben Barker listed on the Leicester website now!

Leicester bang up to date with their press as usual... have previewed the match this morning with Ben Barker announced in the team

Concussion

You only have to please 1 person when Poole are in town... shouldn't be a problem next season though... unless they sign Batch!

Just listened to the Olly Allen Five-1 Speedway Show podcast from around a year ago, and while very interesting as usual, I was shocked to hear the joint Team GB manager effing and jeffing his way through the interview. Perhaps he should go on a media relations seminar, similar to the ones Poultec run where I would hope one of the first things it would say is don't go effing and jeffing your way through a (social) media interview when you are the Team GB manager!

Just what I was thinking as I was typing it out

Is Speedway about the Team or the Riders? or both? Would you be happy if you didn't know the identity of a rider in the race... Why limit a rider from riding for another team to matches? How about a rider can switch teams mid meeting just as long as they're wearing your teams race jacket?

Woffy mentioned something in and mid-meeting interview at the GP the other week, he basically said he was going to buy engines until he found a "special one". He said that they should all be the same but occasionally you'll get one that is "special". I'm no engine expert, far from it, but I do think there is something in this, how often do you see a rider winning all before him until his engine goes pop... and then he's never quite the same again. 2006 Hans Andersen had such an engine and arguably could/should have been world champion that year, he was nigh on unbeatable that season but didn't actually qualify for the GP's and came in as a reserve mid way through the season to cover for injury. He won 2 GP's, came 2nd and 3rd once... his engine went pop and he was never quite the same again. I don't know how Speedway engines are built and what the production tolerances are, but are they really all the same? Bartek and Artem certainly seem to have "special" engines this year, it'll be interesting to see how they go when their engines go bang.

Why can they not make money re-staging a BU19F but they can running a mickey mouse cup I wonder?

Bank Holiday Monday, Wolverhampton

That's what I was thinking...

it was a p1ss poor crowd for a BHM match against the Champions elect

Do you get your Mrs to throw mud in your face for the full experience?

We almost nearly kind of do have the riders though, it's just that they aren't given the chance. Look at Jason Edwards, binned from Eastbourne and binned from Plymouth in favour of a rider from the upper league. BV elect to go for NBJ instead of a home grown rider... and they operate a NDL "feeder" team!!!! Just 2 examples, there'll be loads of others from the last few years

Haven't IOW been riding against Oxford Cheetahs on the Island?

No, they also referred to the upcoming Championship meeting! And they've not ridden at home in the NDL since

I don't know for sure as I've never ridden either, but it certainly doesn't look easier to rider Leicester's rollercoaster I think the "problem" is, there is no home track advantage at BV, there's no trick bend or hidden holes that a rider can master or avoid. Since the move to the NSS I don't think BV have had any "track specialist", Criag Cook & Matej Zagar all had their iffy meetings. The closest you've had/got is Dan Bewley but as he's gotten better the standard of opposition has gotten worse so he may be flattering to deceive a bit, his average is only 8.5, I'm not sure what his home average is though. In fact looking at the GSA's Dan is actually top of the averages on this number, back in the day if you were over 9 you were a solid heat leader. Looking at the averages of all of the riders in the PL it actually looks like quite a competitive league. You've got to remember that Steve Worrall is really only a decent 2nd string, that's been thrust into a heat leader position only because the standard of the league is at such a low. I'm not sure

Even Lineker "doubles up" for BT Sport and the Beeb

Well, on the face of it, it is. But even we had the we're not getting enough people through the turnstiles call to arms earlier in the season. This particularly incensed me as the visibility of the Speedway product in Leicester is almost non-existent, If you're not already in the know. I made a few comments/suggestions on the Leicester 2021 thread to which a few people took exception to. A couple of posters suggested that if I were that concerned why don't I put my suggestions to the promotion... so I did... No reply, so if I can still be bothered I will continue to "consistently moan" on here about some of the easy wins that Leicester could do with little or no cost. I don't know if you remember but we won the last Championship league title in 2019, the club's first league win EVER! Never gets mentioned at Beaumont Park the club have made zero capital on what they spend all year trying to win.

I'm almost past caring tbh.

With the benefit of hindsight, and I don't know the timing of events etc. but surely the massive mistake, if there was one, was running a Championship side. Because as soon as the taxman came calling NDL may have been the only way to go. They're going to need a basic minimum standard of kit, but I assume most send their kit off to engine tuners for servicing etc. This money goes straight out of the sport for zero benefit. Riders at Championship level especially and probably Premiership level do not need super tuned engines. If they want tuned engines for their own individual endeavours or clubs in other countries that's something they should be paying for not British clubs and punters. I've said it elsewhere, I've never gone to a Speedway match to watch a rider ride a new highly tuned engine.

I fear that anybody with any credibility even approaching that of Barry Hearn wouldn't touch Speedway with a barge pole. You'd probably only attract the type of fly by night type merchants that currently run the sport and they would probably snuff it out.