Eastbourne Speedway

[gazzac]

2 hours ago, FromBendThree said:

I can understand how you feel. Flicking through the Star again this morning, I can see other 'Eastbourne riders' picked out. This must really heighten the sadness down on the south coast. Hope you are back in 2023 but speedway will need a sort out if there are to be enough riders to go round. Where would Oxofrd have been this year in the Eagles and Kent Kings had run?

More teams like Oxford, Glasgow and Poole need to move to a slightly diluted cheaper Premiership , and the Championship then needs to be somewhere between what it is now and the NL with sdl/mdl second halves. Still be a problem with rider numbers though I imagine and a few club/promoters self interest, but it'll only get worse next season as you say. I'd happily see Eastbourne at the lower level, had some great racing in the NL when it was a decent level. Ideally have 10 teams in each league if a few could come up from the NL or any more to come back like Oxford. Hopefully make slightly more even teams in both leagues, all a dream I know, but one way or another something needs to be done.

Edited April 3, 2022 by gazzac

[speed29]

I Think lot of speedways fan wish like see bring old teams back!!! like Reading, Rye House, Halifax, London and many more.

[M.D]

3 hours ago, gazzac said:

More teams like Oxford, Glasgow and Poole need to move to a slightly diluted cheaper Premiership , and the Championship then needs to be somewhere between what it is now and the NL with sdl/mdl second halves. Still be a problem with rider numbers though I imagine and a few club/promoters self interest, but it'll only get worse next season as you say. I'd happily see Eastbourne at the lower level, had some great racing in the NL when it was a decent level. Ideally have 10 teams in each league if a few could come up from the NL or any more to come back like Oxford. Hopefully make slightly more even teams in both leagues, all a dream I know, but one way or another something needs to be done.

I agree with a lot of this @gazzac, I've said for a while if we get more teams join the second division next year we need some form of limits on top end Strength to spread the heat leaders around.

It's a real worry the lack of riders at the moment and I can't see the likes of Poole moving up because of race nights to even out the numbers in both divisions.

[LisaColette]

4 minutes ago, M.D said:

I agree with a lot of this @gazzac, I've said for a while if we get more teams join the second division next year we need some form of limits on top end Strength to spread the heat leaders around.

It's a real worry the lack of riders at the moment and I can't see the likes of Poole moving up because of race nights to even out the numbers in both divisions.

If the Prem let teams ride on the night they want they 2/3 might move up. Although Poole seemed to think there was a 30% saving in money when riding in the Champ compared to the Prem. 

[ch958]

5 minutes ago, M.D said:

I agree with a lot of this @gazzac, I've said for a while if we get more teams join the second division next year we need some form of limits on top end Strength to spread the heat leaders around.

It's a real worry the lack of riders at the moment and I can't see the likes of Poole moving up because of race nights to even out the numbers in both divisions.

there's no shortage of young ones but they'd need to be in a weaker div2 than currently. So what if they wobble for a bit, 2nd div in 68 was full of wobblers, some of whom went on to the 1st division within a year or 2

[M.D]

7 minutes ago, lisa-colette said:

If the Prem let teams ride on the night they want they 2/3 might move up. Although Poole seemed to think there was a 30% saving in money when riding in the Champ compared to the Prem. 

I can't see that happening because of our race nights agreed with Poland, Sweden and Denmark, nobody will budge on this and we have our nights for top league racing in the UK

7 minutes ago, ch958 said:

there's no shortage of young ones but they'd need to be in a weaker div2 than currently. So what if they wobble for a bit, 2nd div in 68 was full of wobblers, some of whom went on to the 1st division within a year or 2

I agree and if we have a larger Championship next season then we will have to promote these riders up to the CL but we need to be mindful of an evening out of top end strength.

This season Poole have 3 top end riders, good luck to them, they have built a very good side within the rules and fair play but if the league expands next year I feel this needs to be regulated.

[Greg]

I think there is a meeting at the end of this year about the polish rule being changed.

[gazzac]

1 hour ago, lisa-colette said:

If the Prem let teams ride on the night they want they 2/3 might move up. Although Poole seemed to think there was a 30% saving in money when riding in the Champ compared to the Prem. 

I'm sure that's why Premiership and Championship should have 25/30% lower level/ less costs, especially if Poland realised that the conveyor belt of non Polish riders will eventually stop if they kill off all the other leagues. 

[noaksey]

I was at Eastbourne Borough v Concord yesterday over 1,000 there including many youngsters and that was with Brighton playing at home as well

Seems like there are sports fans in Eastie  let's hope the Eagles can tap in to this 

[FromBendThree]

15 minutes ago, noaksey said:

I was at Eastbourne Borough v Concord yesterday over 1,000 there including many youngsters and that was with Brighton playing at home as well

Seems like there are sports fans in Eastie  let's hope the Eagles can tap in to this 

I can remember when Eastbourne Eagles used to get a couple of thousand but then that was a fair while ago. 

[M.D]

14 minutes ago, FromBendThree said:

I can remember when Eastbourne Eagles used to get a couple of thousand but then that was a fair while ago. 

Eastbourne had a gate of over 1000 in 3 of their meetings in what was a short season last year

[Bagpuss]

With all the doubling up it's essential that the two leagues have completely separate race nights whichever teams come up/down. Think that's even more important than when foreign leagues race.

[M.D]

3 minutes ago, Bagpuss said:

With all the doubling up it's essential that the two leagues have completely separate race nights whichever teams come up/down. Think that's even more important than when foreign leagues race.

Yes, but the top four countries in Europe all have their protected days to race on on any given week, UK Monday and Thursday, Sweden Tuesday, Denmark Wednesday and so forth

[SteveLyric2]

16 hours ago, M.D said:

Yes, but the top four countries in Europe all have their protected days to race on on any given week, UK Monday and Thursday, Sweden Tuesday, Denmark Wednesday and so forth

....which neither the Poles, Swedes or Danes stick to!!  There are already meetings taking place with the Poles about lifting their restrictions, which will continue this season. This is what Mark Lemon was hoping would happen sooner so that BV could have Dan Bewley back in!

[FromBendThree]

13 minutes ago, Skidder1 said:

....which neither the Poles, Swedes or Danes stick to!!  There are already meetings taking place with the Poles about lifting their restrictions, which will continue this season. This is what Mark Lemon was hoping would happen sooner so that BV could have Dan Bewley back in!

From what I read, it seems Poland would lift its restrictions but UK would no longer have any protected nights = riders would need to ride in Poland even if it clashed with a UK match.

[racers and royals]

35 minutes ago, FromBendThree said:

From what I read, it seems Poland would lift its restrictions but UK would no longer have any protected nights = riders would need to ride in Poland even if it clashed with a UK match.

It not that Poland are lifting their restrictions- it`s if Bewley wanted to do Poland, Sweden and GB then GB would have to quit the International calendar agreement(ISLC) and lose priority and join France, Germany Italy, Czech leagues in playing 2nd fiddle.- not too different from what you have said but slightly.

ISLC in 2021 https://www.fim-moto.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Documents/2021/2021_International_Speedway_League_Calendar_14.04.2021.pdf

Edited April 4, 2022 by racers and royals

[FromBendThree]

19 hours ago, racers and royals said:

It not that Poland are lifting their restrictions- it`s if Bewley wanted to do Poland, Sweden and GB then GB would have to quit the International calendar agreement(ISLC) and lose priority and join France, Germany Italy, Czech leagues in playing 2nd fiddle.- not too different from what you have said but slightly.

ISLC in 2021 https://www.fim-moto.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Documents/2021/2021_International_Speedway_League_Calendar_14.04.2021.pdf

Thanks and I understand the nuance of the situation.

[HGould]

The problem all Nations have is that their conveyor belts now all lead to the same place -: POLAND!

The creation of the Under 24 League just adds to this.

All the best talent from GB ; Denmark , Sweden who have allegedly protected nights) and every other Nation, especially those that have long staffed GB / Danish / Swedish Leagues is now being unilaterally sucked in to the Polish system.

The Polish internal conveyor belt is also highly professional. gets massive funding and allows pretty much any Polish boy or girl to join what is increasingly like a UK type football academy where all the equipment  is provided from small pee-wee type bikes right up to 500cc.

Many of the No Limits / Young GB prospects of the last 3-4 years are already signed up to Polish Clubs and they are already tapping up some aged 14-16 in our Youth set up.

It's like comparing PL Football Club like Chelsea (Poland) to Walsall (GB) no slight on Walsall but that is the reality. If you are a Speedway rider with apiration of a full time career and income from the Sport the ONLY place is Poland!

We should try to hang on the protected nights (Monday and Thursday) as long as possible; but sadly I fear the CL will have to feed off reducing scraps and those who ride midweek (Tuesday and Wednesday) may be best placed as Poland is slowly gravitating to Friday too for some league matches and its not hard to see them giving preferential treatment to those who will base themseleves in Poland. The U24 League is I understand set for Tuesdays also in some instances in the future.  The UK base will surely grow older and ride longer in to late 40's as we are now seeing.

The sooner League Speedway in the UK goes semi professional and cuts its cloth accordingly the sooner i think we can find a base level and secure that and hopefully at some point build again.

[FromBendThree]

Taken aback to read in the Speedway Star that it would be National Development League speedway for Eastbourne, if they return next year. It was said in the Plymouth (NDL) preview piece (slow reader here!) by reporter Neil (?) Skelding who mentioned Workington in the same breath. Have to say I was hoping for Championship as the current NDL is a far cry from the league the Eagles won in 2018 but if it is NDL or nothing, I suppose, many will say OK, NDL it is. It may, of course, be the BSPL saying you have to start at the bottom when you come back. That's what happens in football where if you go out of business you cannot come back to the league you were in. Hopefully, the Eastbourne consortium spokesman on here can shed some light on this as to whether this is just newspaper talk or has some fact.

[Sings4Speedway]

3 hours ago, FromBendThree said:

Taken aback to read in the Speedway Star that it would be National Development League speedway for Eastbourne, if they return next year. It was said in the Plymouth (NDL) preview piece (slow reader here!) by reporter Neil (?) Skelding who mentioned Workington in the same breath. Have to say I was hoping for Championship as the current NDL is a far cry from the league the Eagles won in 2018 but if it is NDL or nothing, I suppose, many will say OK, NDL it is. It may, of course, be the BSPL saying you have to start at the bottom when you come back. That's what happens in football where if you go out of business you cannot come back to the league you were in. Hopefully, the Eastbourne consortium spokesman on here can shed some light on this as to whether this is just newspaper talk or has some fact.

Sounds like decent business sense. Eastbourne have tried and failed to run at CL level and be financially sound whilst running at NDL level put a good team on track and didn't face closure. The team building averages have been increased this season and the NDL teams look closer to those of a few years ago in standard (yes some averages are artificially inflated etc) but i think the addition of Workington/Northside and Eastbourne (and hopefully Plymouth can remain) would further enhance the strengths of the NDL and more importantly be good and sustainable for the Eastbourne promotion.