IainB

Sam couldn't have put it better himself

I remember it looking great on TV! In fact a lot of us can remember it and keep referring to it... I wonder why that is?

I went to the Peterborough match last week even though it was on TV as I generally prefer the "live" experience... in hindsight I wish I hadn't though... did I just get unlucky with the track conditions? Slick and not much close racing/passing until very much later in the meeting or was the track deliberately prepared in such a way to provide a "safe" meeting? There are too many crap meetings on TV for it to be a coincidence, aren't there? I would compare British Speedway with Women's football as regards crowd numbers, look how it's been force fed to the British public, look at the crowd figures: https://www.worldfootball.net/attendance/eng-frauen-womens-super-league-2018-2019/3/ and how they've increased since the force feeding. I caught a few minutes of the Womens FA Cup final at the weekend and thought how comparative it was to a Cardiff crowd (in terms of numbers, around 50,000)... I wonder how many of those tickets were freebies or discounted to give the impression of it being a large paying crowd? Do you know how much it costs to buy TV advertising space for 2 and a half hours on a prime time Monday evening slot being carried worldwide?

I don't know what's everybody's problem is with Sam, he's found his spiritual home at Eurosport they're made for each other

Great comeback from the Tigers to make s real match of it. BV and Sheffield looking like the favourites to me

Won't it be something for the dads and resident TILF Annabel Croft?

I wonder what dirt deflectors do though... maybe we'll find out later

I think Sam's Telestrator has been put on ebay

It's certainly a big crowd... and by big i mean fat

Reading that statement was like listening to Sam Ermolenko! Fair play to Ellis if he's been up front with the club... it's a shame Ellis & the club couldn't be up front with the fans. Ellis has form doing this, missing a match at Leicester last season, with Scunthorpe initially claiming he was injured until it became apparent he was riding elsewhere. I wonder what this was all about then? BRITISH Champion Adam Ellis is urging the people of Birmingham to turn out in force and make the sport a big success at Perry Barr – starting tonight (7.30). Wonder-boy Ellis, who won his maiden national title on a thrilling night in Manchester last August, rejoined the club last week to bolster their top end strength. And the club have confirmed he will be in the side to face a Coventry Bees side as the club’s new owners host their first home meeting after a protracted takeover. Said Ellis: “I was delighted when Birmingham were saved because it’s such a good place with great people it would have been a massive blow for the sport to lose them. “I hope the fans turn out and support the club and support the people who have kept them on track, I’m pleased to be a part of it.” Ellis added: “It’s been a bit frantic getting everything ready because of the way things developed over the last few days but I’m looking forward to getting started. “I travelled to press day not sure if I would be allowed to have my picture taken or give any interviews because there was a stumbling block over the move, something I didn’t quite understand but it got sorted thankfully! “I’m now looking forward to getting going again, I know the club well and I hope to score loads of points.”

Personally I can't believe it is true... but then nothing surprises me anymore

... and if the former is true, the Birmingham promotion should face serious sanctions. But of course, it's all hypothetical at the moment

It seems that GB Speedway team is a completely different entity to BSPL/PL/CL, it didn't even get a mention on their website until after the event!

Ellis riding for Sheffield tonight, so he's not banned... yet

blimey we're scraping the barrel of things to complain about now In fact maybe Greg's hair deserves it's own thread?

Perhaps you should be in his corner at GP's instead of 3 times World Speedway Champion Jason Crump

Who was the team manager? Stead and Allen?

That sounds perfect!

For me, the current cream of the crop Tom Brennan should be averaging 8 or 9 points in the 2nd tier of British speedway currently he's under 7

Spot on! Great Britain Speedway Team has arguably the best junior programme in Speedway, even the envy of Poland apparently and then dumps it's developed riders into a 2nd league flooded with top league talent. The likes of Leon Flint, Tom Brennan, Joe & Dan Thompson, Jack Thomas, Anders Rowe, Drew Kemp, Dan Gilkes, Jordan Jenkins, Jason Edwards & Jordan Palin should be heat leader/ top second string standard in the CL instead they're second string / reserves. It's really all a bit of a mess at the moment with the Polish restrictions and PL only having a 6 team league and until that changes things are likely to remain the same

Sounds like the Sky/Virgin business model... I wonder if you can negotiate at the turnstile and get the same deal that the others are getting?

Very interesting, thanks for that. What happened to PJR, they were the ones to be on only a few years ago. Aren't there any German tuners these days? Kowalski engines fastest and slowest in quali

Wasn't Emil riding AshTech when he was at his best 5 or 6 years back?

I see that BT Sport and Eurosport are to merge so Speedway could be disappearing behind a pay wall once again... One can only hope that they keep Sam Ermolenko on the payroll or else it may not be worth subscribing to!

There's a great tribute here: http://www.wolvesfpa.com/remembering-nigel-pearson/