Belle Vue's Home Elite League Matches 2016

[GregoryM]

From my own experience of visiting the new National Speedway Stadium a few times, there is certainly some great racing to be seen. On coming across this posting by a season ticket holder (worked this out by another posting by the same person) on the Belle Vue Fans Forum it seems, though, that this first year hasn't seen too many meetings held on their regular race night, and a match involving the full Belle Vue 1 - 7 v the opponents full 1 - 7 has been extremely rare indeed. You have to hope that a clean start in 2017 with the first year niggles behind them, there will more meetings scheduled for the regular race night where both Belle Vue and their opponents can track their proper teams - certainly more than the twice out of 14 meetings this season.

 

 

"For a number of reasons our first year in the National Speedway Stadium hasn't panned exactly as planned after the well documented opening night problems. We then had the subsequent delay in getting the home Elite League schedule underway; the back-log of matches to rearrange; fixtures clashes both at home and abroad and injuries / illness and these have all resulted in teams having riders missing from their declared 1-7.

Infact Belle Vue fans have neither enjoyed the new race night of Friday on a regular basis nor seen full strength teams in action very often. In the 14 home Elite League matches the Aces themselves were at full strength on just 6 occasions, whilst the opposition teams were at full strength on just 2 occasions!! As it transpired the Aces were at full strength in those matches - but it still means we saw full a strength Aces v a full strength opposition on just TWO occasions.

The 14 home matches have been held on:-

3 x Monday; 6 x Wednesday; 4 x Friday and 1 x Saturday

Would we have had higher attendances had more Friday nights been able to utilised?

As far as team strengths go, here is a breakdown of the team line-ups:-

Match 1 on Wednesday 11 May v Swindon Robins
Aces used R/R for Max Fricke (riding in Danish League) and Robins had Chris Harris as guest for Jason Doyle (injured)

Match 2 on Monday 30 May v Coventry Bees
Aces were at full strength and Bees had Ashley Morris as guest for Josh Bates (injured)

Match 3 on Saturday 4 June v Lakeside Hammers
Aces used R/R for Max Fricke (riding in World U-21 Cup) and Hammers used R/R for Edward Kennett (riding in Premier League)

Match 4 on Friday 17 June v Wolverhampton Wolves
Aces were at full strength and Wolves used Kenneth Hansen as guest for Peter Karlsson (injured); Ashley Morris (no. 8) for Max Clegg (riding in Premier League and R/R for Sam Masters (riding in Premier League)

Match 5 on Friday 1 July v King's Lynn Stars
Aces used R/R for Craig Cook (riding in GP Qualifying Round) and Stars used Kenneth Hansen as guest for Mads Korneliussen (riding in Danish League); Jacob Thorssell as guest for Robert Lambert (riding in GP Qualifying Round) and Kai Huckenbeck (squad member) to replace Niels-Kristian Iversen (riding in Danish League)

Match 6 on Wednesday 6 July v Wolverhampton Wolves
Aces were at full strength and Wolves used Nicolai Klindt as guest for Joonas Klymarkorpi (injured)

Match 7 on Friday 15 July v Leicester Lions
Aces were at full strength and Lions used Hugh Skidmore as guest for Aaron Summers (riding in Premier League); Michael Palm-Toft as guest for Ludvig Lindgren (riding in Premier League) and R/R for Paul Starke (riding in Premier League)

Match 8 on Wednesday 3 August v Lakeside Hammers
Aces use Danny King as guest for Max Fricke (injured) and Hammers use R/R for Andreas Jonsoon (late withdrawal due to illness)

Match 9 on Wednesday 24 August v King's Lunn Stars
Aces use Danny King as guest for Max Fricke (riding in Danish League) and Stars use Fredrik Lindgren as guest for Niels-Kristian Iversen (riding in Danish League)

Match 10 on Monday 29 August v Poole Pirates
IT HAS TAKEN UNTIL LATE AUGUST AND THE 10th of 14 HOME MATCHES BEFORE WE CAN SAY : BOTH TEAMS ARE AT FULL STRENGTH!!

Match 11 on Friday 2 September v Coventry Bees
Aces use Patrick Hougaard as guest for Max Fricke (riding in GP Challenge) and Bees use R/R for Krzysztof Kasprzak (riding in GP Challenge) and Matt Williamson as guest for Josh Bates (injured)

Match 12 on Wednesday 7 September v Leicester Lions
Aces used Danny King as guest for Max Fricke (riding in Swedish League) and R/R for Scott Nicholls (riding in Swedish League) and Lions use R/R for Szymon Wozniak (late withdrawal)

Match 13 on Monday 12 September v Poole Pirates
Aces use Patrick Hougaard as guest for Max Fricke (riding in Swedish League) and Pirates use Rohan Tungate as guest for Hans Andersen (injured)

Match 14 on Wednesday 14 September v Swindon Robins
BOTH TEAMS AT FULL STRENGTH

I suppose it depends on your standpoint, but it seems to me that maybe British Speedway has got its priorities wrong when you see how many times we've not seen riders at Belle Vue (Elite League) because they've been riding at a lower level (Premier League). I'm aware that riders now ride for the club of which they are an asset should there be fixture clashes but, in the main, Premier League clubs and supporters seem to do pretty much ok. As well as getting priority over the Elite League in the many cases, the Premier League also get priority when there's a clash of fixtures with the National League.

Of course we have seen some brilliant racing at the NSS and that's exactly what we've been wanting. As people have commented elsewhere, when done right speedway is a fantastic sport - but, solely from a commercial standpoint, Belle Vue spectators would seem to have had raw deal this year e.g. one of the few GP riders competing in the Elite League, Niels-Kristian Iversen, missed both King's Lynn visits to the NSS - and on one occasion he was only replaced by, with the greatest respect to him, a no. 8 squad rider. The powers-that-be of British Speedway seem to think they can have it both ways with guest riders. On one hand we see teams using guest riders at away tracks (often where the guest goes better than the rider he's replacing) in order to make it an even contest. So we sort of 'accept' that - even though it does the sport's integrity no favours - but then it was allowed (in this example) for King's Lynn to turn up at the NSS with a rider of vastly inferior quality to the one he replaced. The result a totally one-sided contest which was halted after 11 heats with Aces leading 45-21. No even contest for the fans who paid good money that night eh? Still never mind, it was only at Belle Vue, where nothing that happens is ever the fault of the BSPA!!

Anyhow, how have fellow supporters felt about things have gone in the first season in our new home?"

[SUPERACE]

Not a surprise when we had so many cancellations at the start of the season. Im sure next season will he different.

 

As for me this has been the best season for a long time, the super speedway we are seeing along with the much improved atmosphere and the viewing experience (close to the track the noise of the bikes is like no other stadium), im gutted the season is nearly finished, not felt like that for a long long time.

Edited September 16, 2016 by SUPERACE

[SCB]

Does make you wonder why they didn't run on Fridays. I imagine meetings were run on other days due to clashes but it seems it was a waste of time and effort as they clashed whatever day they raced!

 

 

If only someone, somewhere could come up with a fixture compiler that limited the number of clashes, anyone know someone?

[pugwash]

Does make you wonder why they didn't run on Fridays. I imagine meetings were run on other days due to clashes but it seems it was a waste of time and effort as they clashed whatever day they raced!

 

 

If only someone, somewhere could come up with a fixture compiler that limited the number of clashes, anyone know someone?

Get on with it, make 'em have it.

[damosuzuki]

A nightmare start has hampered the season, but the track looks great. See probably the best racing of the season in the EL and the World cup.

[KIRKYLANE]

After the late start to the season and clashes galore with trying to rearrange , it is no surprise that our main day has not been used as much as it should.

 

It will rectify itself next year.

 

last Wednesday was my 28th meeting at Belle Vue this year with potentially 7 matches left.....

 

It is great to get back to lots of home meetings in the season. Years gone by it was minimum 22 meetings as opposed to recent years with 16 / 17 or so and finished by the second week in September !!!