Peterborough Panthers 2021

[hyderd]

3 hours ago, Steve0 said:

And that is where speedway has been going wrong for years - people want value for money and if not Speedway, they will get it elsewhere.  

I understand what you are saying,so we speedway fans should be demanding that our clubs tracks are not just rideable, but raceable,If the racing is good then fans will return the following week, regardless of who is in our team.If fans stop going because no GP riders are on show, that wont help British speedway. It's the racing that counts, not the riders name.

[old bob at herne bay]

Fans with long memories will remember the National League of the early 60's. It ran its final year with 7 teams in 1965, racing ina National League and an identical Britannia Shield format, so racing every team home and away twice. In 1966 the National and Provincial Leagues amalgamated and formed the British League.

That saved British Speedway.

Should have amalgamated the top two leagues years ago......would have been far more resilient to the whims of other speedway federations whims and ambitions.  Sadly with our current crop of promoters it was never going to happen. Too many egos out there wanting to race in the "top tier" 

 

 

[Panthers99]

Troy to Sheffield, Lawson been released. 

Would imagine most sides would be interested in Richard. 

[Steve0]

1 hour ago, hyderd said:

I understand what you are saying,so we speedway fans should be demanding that our clubs tracks are not just rideable, but raceable,If the racing is good then fans will return the following week, regardless of who is in our team.If fans stop going because no GP riders are on show, that wont help British speedway. It's the racing that counts, not the riders name.

You need to get them there in the first place.  As an example (and no disrespect to anyone) imagine that you are used to watching Jason Doyle, Troy Batchelor and Rasmus Jensen and then your top 3 riders become Chris Harris, Scott Nicholls and Edward Kennet and you have to pay the same admission.  Apart from the die hards, how do you get fans to attend?  Remember - value for money.

[old bob at herne bay]

Go to Kent and see Scott Nicholls Paul Hurry and Ben Morley 

[stevehone]

it's time those 'die hards' realised the situation British speedway is in

[Steve0]

15 minutes ago, old bob at herne bay said:

Go to Kent and see Scott Nicholls Paul Hurry and Ben Morley 

Q.E.D.

I wouldn’t part with the best part of £20 to see them!

[GWC]

2 hours ago, old bob at herne bay said:

Fans with long memories will remember the National League of the early 60's. It ran its final year with 7 teams in 1965, racing ina National League and an identical Britannia Shield format, so racing every team home and away twice. In 1966 the National and Provincial Leagues amalgamated and formed the British League.

That saved British Speedway.

Should have amalgamated the top two leagues years ago......would have been far more resilient to the whims of other speedway federations whims and ambitions.  Sadly with our current crop of promoters it was never going to happen. Too many egos out there wanting to race in the "top tier" 

 

 

You are a year out Bob it was 1965 when the leagues amalgamated. The same situation existed then as now, top 5 riders - Craven Fundin Moore Knutsson had gone apart from Barry Briggs. It took an independent report to show what was obvious to many that the leagues must come together. However it wasn’t until the second division was introduced that the sport really took off again bringing in so many youngsters to the sport. 
 

[hyderd]

2 hours ago, Steve0 said:

You need to get them there in the first place.  As an example (and no disrespect to anyone) imagine that you are used to watching Jason Doyle, Troy Batchelor and Rasmus Jensen and then your top 3 riders become Chris Harris, Scott Nicholls and Edward Kennet and you have to pay the same admission.  Apart from the die hards, how do you get fans to attend?  Remember - value for money.

I would rather see a race than Jason Doyle fly out of the traps and win by a mile, Belle Vue if they track the roughly the same 1-7 will have no out and out number 1, but we should have a team of racers, good racing gets people talking. Boring races don't. J Doyle is a great rider and I enjoyed watching him round the NSS. but I would sooner watch a close exciting race and that IMHO is what promoters should be striving to do by improvements to their race tracks.

[Guest]

20 hours ago, Blupanther said:

Good job its not called the Elite league anymore then...

Oh Sincere apologies Its hardly Premier either

[cityrebel]

12 hours ago, old bob at herne bay said:

Go to Kent and see Scott Nicholls Paul Hurry and Ben Morley 

Hardly worth £20 including prog, is it?

[cityrebel]

19 hours ago, hyderd said:

Simples,pay it or lose it.

If the price keeps going up I'd rather lose it. I'll content myself with a few amateur meetings and some grasstrack.

Edited January 28, 2021 by cityrebel

[bigcatdiary]

15 hours ago, hyderd said:

I understand what you are saying,so we speedway fans should be demanding that our clubs tracks are not just rideable, but raceable,If the racing is good then fans will return the following week, regardless of who is in our team.If fans stop going because no GP riders are on show, that wont help British speedway. It's the racing that counts, not the riders name.

The point exactly, the sport needs to get the tracks to produce racing not gate and go crap that does nothing for no one.

Good racing will attract fans, that and getting back to encouraging teams to sign just our own locally grown talent will go a long way to avoiding problems like the Polish league rules in the future.

[Sings4Speedway]

17 minutes ago, cityrebel said:

If the price keeps going up I'd rather lose it. I'll content myself with a few amateur meetings and some grasstrack.

Sad but true. Ive stopped attending week in week out due to price and now pick and choose my meetings. Id rather travel further for some variety than watch the same repetitive action. For entertainment amateur and grasstrack often serve up better interest anyways.

[mikebv]

2 hours ago, bigcatdiary said:

that and getting back to encouraging teams to sign just our own locally grown talent will go a long way to avoiding problems like the Polish league rules in the future.

As should have been done donkeys years ago...

They had a good system in the 70's through to around the mid to late 80's..

And then stopped following it..

[GWC]

18 minutes ago, mikebv said:

As should have been done donkeys years ago...

They had a good system in the 70's through to around the mid to late 80's..

And then stopped following it..

Let’s go back 15 years and Len Silver ran full second half racing after the main meeting and helped produce a lot of good young riders.

Unfortunately the problem has always been at what level these riders can achieve and as is so often the case they find a level they want and don’t improve through ability or in a lot of cases injury.

Every so often a gem turns up but because the standard required for top flight racing is so high today, it’s probably 1 in 100 as opposed to 1 in 10 some 40 years ago.

[Sings4Speedway]

5 minutes ago, GWC said:

Let’s go back 15 years and Len Silver ran full second half racing after the main meeting and helped produce a lot of good young riders.

Unfortunately the problem has always been at what level these riders can achieve and as is so often the case they find a level they want and don’t improve through ability or in a lot of cases injury.

Every so often a gem turns up but because the standard required for top flight racing is so high today, it’s probably 1 in 100 as opposed to 1 in 10 some 40 years ago.

sadly however most clubs aren't interested in running any level of second halves so the numbers and opportunities diminish even further. I in 100 may not be great but if you consider how many are taking up the sport each year 50 maybe? the figures look a lot worse.

[GWC]

1 minute ago, Sings4Speedway said:

sadly however most clubs aren't interested in running any level of second halves so the numbers and opportunities diminish even further. I in 100 may not be great but if you consider how many are taking up the sport each year 50 maybe? the figures look a lot worse.

I think the way youngsters are encouraged today is far better with the 250 350 and then 500 sections giving them confidence to ride a bike from an early age as opposed to getting straight onto a 500 and getting scared to death!

This will be beneficial in the long run making the quality over quantity issue far more important.

it won’t populate our leagues quick enough so we still need influx of Aussies etc  but it should help the GB profile.

[Spl77]

3 hours ago, bigcatdiary said:

The point exactly, the sport needs to get the tracks to produce racing not gate and go crap that does nothing for no one.

Good racing will attract fans, that and getting back to encouraging teams to sign just our own locally grown talent will go a long way to avoiding problems like the Polish league rules in the future.

Part of the problem is that the bikes are just to quick/powerful for the UK tracks. Part of the UK reset should be slower standard equipment that is not only better suited to the UK tracks but also cheaper to maintain. 

[Sings4Speedway]

1 hour ago, GWC said:

I think the way youngsters are encouraged today is far better with the 250 350 and then 500 sections giving them confidence to ride a bike from an early age as opposed to getting straight onto a 500 and getting scared to death!

This will be beneficial in the long run making the quality over quantity issue far more important.

it won’t populate our leagues quick enough so we still need influx of Aussies etc  but it should help the GB profile.

Can't argue that the development of the 250 engine has been a major boost, sadly the 350 has been often overlooked as a usable class although there are still a few that worryingly jump from 125s to 500s

50 minutes ago, Spl77 said:

Part of the problem is that the bikes are just to quick/powerful for the UK tracks. Part of the UK reset should be slower standard equipment that is not only better suited to the UK tracks but also cheaper to maintain. 

steps are being taken albeit slowly. The 2v class that run on the IOW last year seemed to produce some decent racing? For the most part the bikes that can really explore the limits of a track are the 250cc machines where riders can almost take liberties looking for traction without the fear of being driven into the fence. More track craft would be required but unfortunately the development of engines would still follow the 500 led path and they are not really any cheaper to maintain than current machines.