IainB

Perhaps they should run it on Saturday at Leicester with the Kent match

I do hope so, the quality of Speedway around that particular track is so much better with PL class riders

It seems perfectly simple to me, a rider should have 2 minutes to be at the start ready to race, if they touch the tapes they are excluded, what's difficult about that? Any of the other starting shenanigans are always up to interpretation, so why have them. So what if a rider gets a flyer or anticipates the start, this used to add a bit of unpredictability into proceedings, I still remember Jason Gage beating Hans Nielsen at Peterborough because he got a flyer... and Andy Meredith out trapping Hans at Coventry with Nielsen making a right pickle of trying to get round him. From the Speedway I've seen in this country, this season, the starts haven't really been an issue, I don't know if anything has changed but it doesn't seem as bad as in previous years. Watching some Swedish Speedway on the other hand and some of their starts have been terrible and you can almost guarantee the first race of every TV match will be called back... such an anti-climax.

It's not very scientific but here are the British riders used in the PL & CL in 2021: 1 Adam Ellis 2 Anders Rowe 3 Ben Barker 4 Charles Wright 5 Chris Harris 6 Connor Mountain 7 Craig Cook 8 Daniel Bewley 9 Danny King 10 Danyon Hume 11 Drew Kemp 12 Jordan Palin 13 Kyle Howarth 14 Leon Flint 15 Lewis Bridger R 16 Lewis Kerr 17 Paul Starke 18 Richard Lawson 19 Richie Worrall 20 Stefan Nielsen 21 Steve Worrall 22 Tom Brennan 1 Adam Roynon 2 Alfie Bowtell 3 Archie Freeman 4 Ashley Morris 5 Ben Morley 6 Dan Gilkes 7 Dan Thompson 8 Edward Kennett 9 Henry Atkins 10 Jack Parkinson-Blackburn 11 Jack Smith 12 Jack Thomas 13 Jake Knight 14 Jake Mulford 15 James Sarjeant 16 James Shanes 17 James Wright 18 Jason Edwards 19 Joe Alcock 20 Joe Lawlor 21 Joe Thompson 22 Jordan Jenkins 23 Josh Auty 24 Josh Bates R 25 Kyle Bickley 26 Kyle Newman 27 Luke Crang 28 Luke Ruddick 29 Max Clegg 30 Nathan Ablitt 31 Nathan Greaves R 32 Paul Hurry R 33 Ryan Kinsley 34 Simon Lambert 35 Tom Bacon R 36 William Lawson R At least 6 of these riders have "retired". There's 42 team places available in the PL and 84 team places available in the CL. You could probably thin down the CL list as not all of these riders will have done anywhere near a full season.

But we're the family sport, so we're told, T20 can't do this... are they trying to poach our "families"... before the grim reaper does

I would call that play off challenging, certainly not title challenging, it was evident every time we met Poole during the season we were never going to beat them over 2 legs as we could only beat them the once over 1 leg over 6 meetings. As good as the twins are, especially at Leicester, they're often found wanting away especially with Dan at 2, that's what Perks gave us, consistency home and away, you were never going to get that from Josh Bates Just my opinion

Not really good enough for a title challenge though, you need a reserve who's capable of scoring double figures, which Mountain and/or Dan have shown they're well capable of on occasions

I think there must be an unwritten rule that says twins/brothers ALWAYS have to ride in the same team... it seems to have happened a lot down the years lol

I would describe success as those riders that go on from the NDL to make a career out of Speedway. It really depends on what the NDL is supposed to be "developing" is it developing international class riders capable of becoming World Champion, it's never going to do that on a consistent basis or is it developing riders to fill league positions in the upper leagues to sustain the sport in this country? For me it should be the latter and if you look at the position the upper leagues are in this season you'd have to say it has failed. We had "the perfect storm" this year of Covid travel restrictions and Polish league rider limitations and when British speedway should have been pulling on the resources of the riders that have been "developed" over the last 10 years there was very little there, hence absolutely ludicrous levels of doubling up/down. In another thread I took a look at the number of riders that were riding in the NDL 10 yeas ago that went on to have what you'd call a career in the sport and the number was alarmingly small, something like 10%, so the numbers would say that the NDL is a failure despite the "headliners" of Woffy, Lambert, Bewley & Brennan etc. That doesn't mean to say it's a bad league, I don't know, I've never seen an NDL match and don't really take too much interest in it. The problem really lies with the routes or progression into the upper leagues where the promoters are still more likely to choose a foreign rider or a double up/downer than go with an NDLer as the rules allow it.

I'd like to see Connor Mountain back, not sure why he wasn't included this year, started off with Josh Bates as a replacement for Ellis Perks, that didn't work and neither did his replacement Zaine Kennedy really.

Makes me laugh that they mention that they came through the NDL, CL & PL then stops short of going on to say and then out of Britain, for 2 of them at least and surely it's inevitable that Dan will go the same way

Ask Jaybea to produce you a Peterborough t-shirt with Stupid Boy written on the back! You'd wear it well

Either way, not really viable with riders riding for multiple clubs around Europe

https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/sport/11342192.speedway-poole-pirates-to-contest-inaugural-european-club-championship-in-august/ https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/sport/11544713.world-speedway-league-poole-pirates-earn-silver-in-poland/

I thought it actually did run but just not in this country... as I seem to remember there being issues with riders that raced for more than one club

That's disappointing. I don't know why British Speedway stuggles with fan engagement so much... surely would have been an obvious thing to do.

We usually stuff the Poles... it's the Ruskies we can't stuff. For me it was just good to see big time Speedway back in this country after a break of nearly 2 and a half years. To see the worlds best riders racing for a competition they are actually invested in winning, compared to the general dross that is league racing in this country (play offs exempted) was a refreshing change.

Did the GB Speedway team parade the SoN trophy around to the fans?

There was one a few years back, seems to have fizzles out into nothing, whether that was to do with Covid or not I don't know. Weren't Poole and/or Eastbourne involved?

Anybody know if this is being covered on live updates? And if so where

And I thought it was the Scots who had supposed to be canny I wonder if there will be many Scots there cheering on "Great Britain"

... Or just ask the forums... better than Google!

Why didn't I think to check the Shropshire Star Thanks for the info (and Badge)

I'll ask again... why was Freddie Lindgren not riding in the competition? Does anybody know, has it been stated in the press? I was following his van back up Hyde Road after the meeting on Sunday.

Magic was Tragic all day, end of. Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap Tragic Janowski