IainB

Personally I go to Speedway to watch the racing and not hang about waiting while you talk to your mates . If they can get the Speedway done in 90 mins, which is beyond reasonable, there's still 45 mins for you to enjoy the rest of your night in the bar afterwards talking about the match... easy, every ones a winner

I have now, great stuff! Out of interest was Neil Vatcher or any BSPA/Team GB member involved, I think the fitness guy is part of the new GB Speedway setup isn't he?

Ok, but surely you take my point that even the crowds have dropped off alarmingly at wolves over the years. Agree that they're in the hands of the landlords, as are many others, I was just suggesting that if anybody said Mondays work at wolves nobody knows because we don't know how many they'd get on any other day of the week because they've always run on Mondays (due to the landlords)

You may well be right, time will tell, but this is something that has been said before about riders like Barker, Complin, Frampton, Allott, Auty, Brundle, Roynon, Hart, Jacobs to name but a few. Perhaps the Poultec thing will pay dividends as Speedway does seem to be a lot more about the mind than skill

Just because they ride Monday's doesn't mean it's great for them either, I've watched their crowds drop over the years attending as an away fan since the late '80's watching section after section of the stadium being closed off due to lack of numbers... makes you wonder what crowds they could get if they didn't race Monday's

Indeed not... but 3 or 4 International class riders in 24 years?

Interesting to look back on Wiki that a 3rd tier has now been in operation in BS since 1994 and reading through the history, if it is to be believed, that shortly after its introduction it was restructured so as not to be just a Youth Development League. Whichever way you look at it 24 years and 3 GP riders

Potentially on the verge of big things, how long was he at Buxton for? How long was Adam at the IOW for? Yes, good shout... and who can forget his win in Cardiff in 2007? It's just something I heard in commentary on the Swedish Speedway that got me thinking. The commentator mentioned that Robert Lambert, the next great hope for British Speedway, "learnt his trade" in Germany. This got me to thinking that how many riders that have come through the 3rd tier of British Speedway (BS) have gone on to "make it" and that now the 3rd tier of BS must have been running for something like 15 years or so (I don't know how many exactly) could it be deemed a success, from the standpoint of producing British talent?

A decent crowd I thought yesterday making for quite a decent atmosphere, a shame that probably only 40% of them had paid. Here's what one MCN show goer thought to it all, a bit harsh as I thought it was quite entertaining

I thought they all came from MotoX? Did they ride in the 3rd tier? I honestly don't know? In fact thinking of the bigger picture does anybody know how the "big stars" of today started their speedway careers? The young Poles, Vaculik, Zagar, Lindgren etc. Did they come through youth leagues or did they just have the ability and burst onto the scene? I know the Danes used to be quite proud of their youth setup, but for all the kids they had coming through they didn't even qualify for the SWC final last year

IMO it does need to start from scratch, 2 good things he has done though are sub contract out Team GB and introduce FRN... all be it on the wrong nights!

Not really a comment on Neil Vatcher as I'm sure he's doing a fine job but more of a comment on the whole "youth policy" in SGB... I was wondering how long the 3rd tier of British Speedway has been in operation and what is the highest achievement by a British rider to come through that league (and before you all clammer to write Woffy! Woffy! Woffy! I think we can all agree that he learnt his trade in Aus)

20 heats done the night before at Leicester with 4 2 rides on the trot/track grades, 2 re-runs and an interval all done in 1 and 3/4 hours

Interesting that he says he wants to ride in Poland, Sweden, Denmark... and then the UK... but good luck to the kid! Loved the drone footage, very innovative. A shame that the BSPA or no club can be bothered to throw anything like this together

Goodbye and I wish them well then

I think it's the overall package though not just the racing, can't argue with any of what you've said above, it could be seen that way, but there's other things to take into account... the temperature, all the dead time, the assault on the senses from the PA, the scoreline. I'm not particularly a Lions fan yet but am trying my best since the closure of Coventry. I suppose it was the constant dead time that didn't really keep me engaged with the match

2 hours 10 minutes for 15 minutes of Speedway... fact!

Absolutely not... I'm rapidly heading that way myself, my point was why on earth are they playing deafening 90's club anthems over the PA when the majority of the crowd is over 60. Are they hoping that by playing this music the yoof (90's club anthems??) will flock to the track?

From what I can see so far the FRN is doing exactly what it's designed to do and cut down on the fixture clashes between PL and CL, the concept is right but the execution is wrong. IMO what they should have done was choose 2 out of Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and run on those days with the only exception of 1 televised meeting a week whenever BT Sport wanted to show it. All they had to do was steer clear of Tuesday and Wednesday for Sweden and Denmark. If that means waving goodbye to GP riders or riders racing in the Polish leagues then so be it. The time has come for riders to choose between 40 or so meetings in Britain or a handful elsewhere around Europe, it's time to put the sport first and not the riders

I don't think I've ever read through a more hysterical thread than this one on the forum and all over a nothing KOC match with some missing riders, you'd think people would be used to it by now after the last few years of DU madness! It probably points to deeper rooted problems at Lynn though. Anyway against my better judgement I decided to go to this one, probably with the memory and in the hope of how good KL used to be as opposed to the reality of today and here's my experience... Yes it was cold, that can't be helped but at least they'll move the meeting along... How it can take 2 hours and 10 minutes to run 15 60 second races is beyond me and there were no real incidents to speak of, Leicester managed 20 heats in 1 and 3/4 hours the night before. I'm stood on the terraces amongst a load of OAP's listening to deafening club anthems of the 90's, I find a new rule has been introduced to yet further rob the paying public of seeing the riders they've paid to see, I assume the centre green rule has been introduced to get lower insurance premiums or something?? And the actual racing on track was dog poop And all this at the home of the guy that's charged with running the "sport" in this country

Wow! Based on what I saw from last night it must have been terrible in the last season or two then!

I'm not sure but I thought the FRN was brought in not to attract GP riders back but to combat the effects of DU, or why then limit clubs to 1 rider over 8 points? But who knows with the BSPA!! Agree with everything else though. Most things I find, don't look too great when you put them under scrutiny and start trying to apply fixes. Look at Football and the VAR thing, a lot of your die hards are up in arms about it, a lot of your floaters (me included) couldn't really give a toss about it as long as we see a good game... but start piling fix upon fix upon fix and the product starts to look less and less attractive. In the last week I have been to Sheffield, Peterborough (Twice), Leicester and watched the GP on TV... and there was not a lot wrong with any of them, nice weather, good racing (Leicester the exception, obviously!) on well prepared tracks, with full line-ups but in front of woeful crowds (not GP). Having watched the sport deteriorate over the last 40 years I once wanted to see the top GP riders back in the BL, I've now come to terms that that's not going to happen in the foreseeable future, what I've realised was bothering me more recently was the DU of riders, the authorities have put actions in place to remedy this and from what I can see so far this season it seems to be working, yes you can question the FRN that they picked but I believe the concept is right while DU is in place, all they need to do now is choose the correct FRN's. I see Rory Schlein is running a pole on Twitter suggesting Friday and Saturday, which does seem to make more sense than Monday and Wednesday. 15 heats, 4 riders, 4 laps, settled 7 man teams, riding Friday & Saturday on a well prepared track, all done in 90 minutes, with 3 points for a win and an aggregate bonus point and a TS whenever 6 down... it really should be that simple!

You are talking about tracks that closed down over 30 years ago, it would have been interesting to see how today's rocket ships would have fared on those tracks, sadly we'll never know, it's a different sport these days. Genuine question: What was the official reason given for FRN? I thought it was to stop (or cut down) on rider absences due to the double up rule. I must admit that so far this season there seem to be a lot less guest and R/R than in recent years, which I am thankful for... but it's no good if you're playing in front of empty houses!

awful crowd for the TV match at BV... and I couldn't believe how few people were at Peterborough on Sunday on what was a gloriously sunny afternoon!

I doubt there are enough riders riding in the UK to sustain 1 league!