Arkie Bennett Posted 21 November 2010 Share Posted 21 November 2010 It has been confirmed today that the Leicester Lions have been accepted into British speedway's Premier League for 2011. This is fantastic news for our city, its incredibly patient fans who have waited since 1983 for this, and for British speedway in general. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe. Posted 21 November 2010 Share Posted 21 November 2010 Went to watch the speedway Elite League in Eastbourne this year and quite enjoyed it. Would be nice to see it take off in Leicester again, I'm sure it'll generate a decent amount of interest when it all kicks off again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted 21 November 2010 Share Posted 21 November 2010 As much as I hate Coventry as a football team, and the shithole of a City that it is, I used to go to see the Bees with my grandad as a kid, Always wondered why Leicester never had a team. Great sport, and huge respect to the riders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatmando Posted 21 November 2010 Share Posted 21 November 2010 Awesome! My brother, son and I love a bit of speedway, good team and venue here in King's Lynn. Held the world cup semi final here this year which was fantastic aswell. We will have to come and watch Lions vs The Stars next season then. Brilliant news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashley Posted 21 November 2010 Share Posted 21 November 2010 When Leicester was a speed way team before wasn't they the best there was? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SystonFox Posted 21 November 2010 Share Posted 21 November 2010 Shame it's in beamont leys though. Dumphole Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samjohnson Posted 21 November 2010 Share Posted 21 November 2010 Ive heard all the stories about the Speedway - Ill be sure to go along a few times Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkie Bennett Posted 21 November 2010 Author Share Posted 21 November 2010 When Leicester was a speed way team before wasn't they the best there was? No, although the club was enjoying its most stable and profitable period for years when the stadium was sold in 1983. The track was always acknowledged to be one of the best in the country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smallpauldj Posted 22 November 2010 Share Posted 22 November 2010 how much will it be roughly to go watch? anyone know??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CosbehFox Posted 22 November 2010 Share Posted 22 November 2010 Birmingham, the nearest Premier League track is £15. Though there's good concessions. I am a Speedway fan and can't wait. Going to be fun. I hope the track is a corker as well. I strongly suggest anyone whose interest has been heightened to watch some of the Grand Prix's (World Championship) from this year. Poland had their first winner in ages despite it's popularity over there (league matches are attended by average of 5,000 to 7,000 at the top level...you'd be lucky if it's four figures here). Also if you do get into it....it's a very, very frustating sport. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkie Bennett Posted 22 November 2010 Author Share Posted 22 November 2010 I've followed it for nearly forty years and it certainly is frustrating. There should be nothing complicated about a series of races between four riders on similar powerful motorcycles on an enclosed track. The authorities make so many rules that it becomes difficult to keep up with the intricacies, as some of them change for each season, sometimes even during the season. The new Leicester track is 320 metres with quite long straights, which I think will make for interesting racing, with riders having to use some throttle control rather than just go flat out. They say there will be some banking on the corners, but not too much as they want to encourage riders to use different lines. Personally, I think the best line will be tight going into the bends and wide coming out. Leicester will be in the Premier League, which is the second tier. Birmingham have just been accepted into the Elite League (the top tier), which means (at the time of writing) we will be the only Midlands team in the Premier and our closest rivals, geographically, will be Sheffield, King's Lynn and S****horpe. This could change, as two of the teams in the Elite League walked out of last weekend's promoters' conference, leaving the Elite League's plans for 2011 in turmoil. There is no other professional team sport as badly organised as speedway. The Leicester promotion have worked incredibly hard and done remarkably well to get permission and then build a new stadium. They have had a couple of departures of personnel behind the scenes that have raised concerns among some of the fans, and disappointingly the club hasn't commented on them. But then this is speedway. Home matches will be on Saturday evenings. The stadium will have a capacity of 4,500, and I expect the Lions will be one of the top three or four best supported teams in the country. I can't wait, although I will probably have to reduce my expenditure on football as I can't afford to do both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isaidno Posted 22 November 2010 Share Posted 22 November 2010 Really looking forward to this. I usually go and watch the Coventry bees a couple of times a season. I just hope we can attract some decent riders. David Howe would be an ideal signing. He's a local lad ( from Sileby ) and rides for S****horpe at the moment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CosbehFox Posted 22 November 2010 Share Posted 22 November 2010 When I read your post Arkie, I went to the relevant website to see the AGM news and it doesn't surprise me in the slightest...we could be here all day trashing the sport and it would be a complete turn-off. After the Poole 'average-fixing' investigation, I firmly went off taking such an active interest in the sport and now I take a passive interest whilst trying to catch the GPs which tbf this year have been the best series in years. Hopefully, seeing the Lions for the first time with my own eyes will be a catalyst. Looking forward to watching us at a number of tracks at the very least and hopefully doubling up with footy and other bits....Somerset, Northern Tour's and all that. A challenge versus Coventry would be the ideal start next week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatmando Posted 23 November 2010 Share Posted 23 November 2010 Hands off Tomas Topinka. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkie Bennett Posted 23 November 2010 Author Share Posted 23 November 2010 Hands off Tomas Topinka. Consistently good rider who I've always admired. I'm thinking maybe, just maybe, Kevin Doolan. I think he already had a plan B if his talks with Lynn failed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatmando Posted 23 November 2010 Share Posted 23 November 2010 No way. I hope Doolan stays aswell, and Kozza. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fosse Boy Posted 23 November 2010 Share Posted 23 November 2010 Always good to see sport being promoted in Leicester, will certainly try and get to see them at some point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iBleedLeicesterColours Posted 23 November 2010 Share Posted 23 November 2010 yeh the 'loser' half of my family have all got jobs there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fosse Boy Posted 23 November 2010 Share Posted 23 November 2010 I'm especially game if it's anything like this! :w00t: :w00t: :w00t: :lei1: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkie Bennett Posted 24 November 2010 Author Share Posted 24 November 2010 I'm especially game if it's anything like this! :w00t: :w00t: :w00t: :lei1: Super pics. Speedway is arguably the number one sport in Poland. It's well-organised there; clubs have reserve teams, training sessions and stadiums that not shared with other sports. I've travelled round Poland and it's weird seeing people on trains avidly reading speedway magazines. The atmosphere at their league meetings is tremendous. The one thing that has disappointed me about the new stadium is that it has been squeezed into a corner of the site, restricting the space to increase spectator capacity. There is no room to expand on the back straight, nor on the first/second turns, The stadium will have a capacity of 4,500, which I guess puts it in the top four or five, but with more space all round they could have used temporary stands to increase the capacity for big events. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CosbehFox Posted 24 November 2010 Share Posted 24 November 2010 I've been lucky enough to visit Bydgoszcz and ended up on the back straight amongst the ultras. It's unbelieveable. Smoke bombs, flares etc. Really good fun though it occasionally boils over with the likes of the Falabuz of Zielona Gora. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finnegan Posted 24 November 2010 Share Posted 24 November 2010 CF, where are you actually from / what is your cultural background? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted 24 November 2010 Share Posted 24 November 2010 As Leicester return the Elite League Champions Coventry Bees could be dropping out of the Elite League Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkie Bennett Posted 24 November 2010 Author Share Posted 24 November 2010 As Leicester return the Elite League Champions Coventry Bees could be dropping out of the Elite League Yes, there's a beautiful, delicious irony about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CosbehFox Posted 25 November 2010 Share Posted 25 November 2010 CF, where are you actually from / what is your cultural background? English from English parents. My username just refers to where I was at the time of joining...no other connection, didn't think I'd post that much. PM me if you're that interested in the reasoning of me having an interest in Poland and that sort of thing. I went Poland for a week with the sole intention of watching the speedway but due to circumstances, went for a week and had a time and off. At the same time, I met a couple of people there who'd I'd spoken to over the net (lads the same age before any suggestions!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.