Spires Aspire Higher - Speedway 2024

[Ray de Galles]

The headline news of a low key AGM was that recently returning Oxford will be riding at all three levels next season. The Championship Cheetahs and Chargers in the National Development League being joined by the astoundingly-named Oxford Spires who are a new addition to the Premiership. They will be joined there by Birmingham Brummies, something of a surprise as I thought they were struggling to compete in the second tier. Both clubs are taking a risk that one has to hope pays off.

After a lousy 2023 season where I only made about three meetings I'm going to try and get to Sandy Lane as much as possible next year as Oxford are my closest club and I really want to finally add Perry Barr to the list of tracks I've visited while the risk of closure still hovers over it, That is all the more worrying given Peterborough and Wolverhampton have joined another recent top flight winner Swindon in not making it to tapes next campaign due to lack of stadia.

https://twitter.com/speedwaygb/status/1725589930955403385?s=61&t=AGYaHxwtRU_HNs0TqPMaJg

[Gangster Octopus]

Oxford are my closest club

Crikey, that's just ridiculous. Nothing else in the south-east?

[Ray de Galles]

Pretty much. My regular tracks up until recent seasons were Rye House, Lakeside and Sittingbourne where Kent Kings rode but all three of those have closed. I'm not sure if Kent Royals will race in the third tier at Iwade next year but fixtures and facilities there were very unreliable anyway, though I can see me visiting them for a fix if possible.

[Third rate Leszno]

Well, this is interesting.

https://workingtoncomets.com/celina-...wN1Q2kWvkyi-vM

[HeavyDracula]

The loss of Peterborough and Wolverhampton took the Premier League - the thing that would not die! - down to five clubs, which is below the minimum stated in their TV contract. Birmingham were added to take them up to six but because of Birmingham's often perilous financial situation, they needed another to cover them in case the Brummies go bust mid-season. No-one was willing to move up from the Championship but Oxford were somehow persuaded to run at all three levels in 2024, hence the Spires. It's a brave move, and one that relies on the Oxford fans being willing to spend money, but the total amount of fixtures will still work out at roughly one a week even if they get cup and play-off runs. That was par for the course back in the day but untested recently.

The Brummies move came out of necessity. Well, kind of. Their landlords made it known that they could only run on Mondays next season. And Mondays and Thursdays are reserved for the Premiership. So it was either a case of allow an exception or move them up. Apparently the costs will only add another £5k a meeting to what they were paying in the Championship - such is the narrow difference between the leagues lately - and the owner's been putting £150k a season in for the past two years, anyway. He's rich and what else do you do with your money?

There's no Kent in the third division this year and, with Mildenhall taking a year out, no independent clubs at that level at all. Instead, six teams will enter second teams (or third in the case of Oxford), with the other nine clubs running some kind of youth programme as part of their regular fixtures. The Isle of Wight will again run an outlaw programme which seems to be working extremely well for them.

There was a rumour in the winter that Brafield - a couple of miles outside of Northampton - were going to come to the tapes in 2024 but it never materialsed. However, it's still on the cards for some kind of speedway in the near future. I don't understand why more tracks aren't trying the IoW route but I've long since given up trying to understand speedway in this country.

A good piece of news is that the British Final will be staged on a Saturday night at Belle Vue this season, perfect for fans and probably a better option for the likes of Woffinden and Lambert to attend. That it's on the same weekend as the baseball in London is not ideal but you gotta run it some time!

[HeavyDracula]

Brandon Estates' appeal to the the Minister of State for Housing has been rejected on numerous grounds. The government almost never rejects these appeals so it's a bit of a victory. It doesn't change the fact that BE can - and probably will - sit on the land for another ten years and try again. If anything called for direct action against its directors, this is it.

[HeavyDracula]

Great article in the Speedway Star this week about Jason Bonsigniore’s efforts to keep speedway going in New York state!

[Ray de Galles]

Oxford Spires 47 Birmingham Brummies 43
SGB Premiership
Sandy Lane

I must admit I was questioning my sanity as I boarded the train at Marylebone on a cold, grey afternoon heavy with foreboding clouds dominating the skyline. Even more so when I walked out of Oxford Station in to persistent rain which got heavier as my cab journeyed to the track.

However, to my huge surprise we not only got to see some racing but actually a damn fine evening's competition with that holy grail (for the relative neutral, at least) of a last heat decider. The credit for this goes to Oxford's track staff for their decision to use the rain as a replacement for watering the track, the riders for going ahead with a meeting that must have looked unlikely to happen right up until the downpour stopped thirty minutes before tapes up.

Birmingham's riders may have been regretting that six heats in when they were 25-11 down but to their credit a mid-meeting burst of heat advantages once they mastered the conditions brought them back to 40-38 by heat 13. This was mainly down to the work of guest and track specialist Scott Nicholls and captain Steve Worrall but the outstanding rider of the night, once again, was Chris Harris on what seemed to be a long-anticipated full time debut for Oxford. Maciej Janowski Rode well for the hosts but there did seem a sense that it was all too much for riders less experienced with British conditions like Vaclav Milík for the Brummies.

In the end, Birmingham fell short in the vital Heat 14 losing it 4-2 and leaving themselves too much to do in the final race but they did look on for the 5-1 needed to send us to a Super Heat initially before Bomber and Magic clawed it back to a 3-3. A great evening and I'll hopefully follow it up with seeing some more racing over Easter weekend.