October 13, 2021

BRITISH SPEEDWAY PREMIERSHIP SOUNDBYTES

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After a dramatic Monday night of racing at the National Speedway Stadium, it is still all to race for going into Thursday’s Premiership Grand Final 2nd leg at Peterborough’s East of England Arena with Belle Vue holding a slender 46-44 lead. Picture: IAN CHARLES

HERE’S our latest soundbytes and fixtures from around the tracks up and down the country.

PREMIERSHIP SOUNDBYTES…

BELLE VUE
“Peterborough gave us a few things to think about but I’m sure we did the same to them. This is only half time and it’s still anyone’s game so hopefully we can finish the job on Thursday.”
British Under-21 Champion Tom Brennan wants to end his debut Premiership campaign with a league title for the Aces, with the stage set for a dramatic end to the league season at Peterborough on Thursday.

NEXT HOME: Peter Craven Memorial, Sat Oct 23
NEXT AWAY: Peterborough, Thur Oct 14, Prem Grand Final

PETERBOROUGH
“What a performance after Hans was ruled out, and how well we just pulled together and put a performance back to Belle Vue and really took it to them. It gives us a good chance now going into the home leg, without a doubt.”
Panthers boss Rob Lyon saw his side dig deep again to restrict Belle Vue to a two-point margin from the first leg of the Grand Final despite Hans Andersen crashing out of the meeting in Heat 3.
NEXT HOME: Belle Vue, Thur Oct 14, Prem Grand Final

SHEFFIELD
“I felt at any stage if we could have really put a marker down and got consecutive 5-1s, it would have just started to snowball a bit. As it was, we probably ran out of steam a bit after a long track grade after Heat 11. The damage was done on Monday really, though.”
Simon Stead’s Tigers bowed out of the title race at the semi-final stage despite a battling effort at Belle Vue last Thursday to overturn a ten-point defeat suffered in their home leg.

WOLVERHAMPTON
“As you saw from the first four or five races we were well up for this. But once Peterborough discovered their gating gloves it was game over. For four or five races on the bounce they were electric from the starts and we just had no answer to that.”
It was play-off semi-final defeat for Wolverhampton and boss Peter Adams for the second successive season as they lost out to Peterborough over two legs after also reaching the final four in 2019.
NEXT HOME: Rory Schlein Farewell, Mon Oct 18

CHAMPIONSHIP SOUNDBYTES…

EDINBURGH
“It’s not ideal, they ran away with it from the start. We tried to fight back but for some of the boys the bikes were going nowhere. We’ll just need to try our best in the second leg and see what happens.”
Monarchs star Kye Thomson knows it could be an uphill battle when they take on Glasgow in the second leg of the KO Cup semi-final on Friday – with a play-off clash between the Scottish rivals also potentially on the cards.
NEXT HOME: Redcar, Tues Oct 12, Play-Off Quarter-Final
NEXT AWAY: TBC

GLASGOW
“Every team has their ups and downs, every team can have a really good meeting and then will probably have a poor meeting, that’s the way speedway works. But I think you can now see the momentum building and that should take us all the way to the Final.”
Tigers star Tom Brennan feels the Ashfield side could just be peaking at the right time as they continue to challenge on a dual front for league and KO Cup honours.
NEXT HOME: GB v Poland (Test Match), Tues Oct 19
NEXT AWAY: Edinburgh (KOC), Fri Oct 15

LEICESTER
“On paper we’re a strong team and we probably haven’t shown it enough, but we’re definitely good enough to win this league and we believe we can – so a start here would be ideal to lay a marker, and keep going from there.”
Lions star Ryan Douglas says the focus is still there amongst the side to push on to league success this season, with Poole their next opponents should they get the better of Scunthorpe in the play-off quarter-finals.
NEXT HOME: Scunthorpe, Tues Oct 12, Play-Off Quarter-Final
NEXT AWAY: Poole, Wed Oct 13, Play-Off Semi-Final (Provisional)

POOLE
“I am sure that many will think that we are brave in going the winners of this one, but to be honest whichever side we chose it is going to need two good performances to make it into the Final.”
Pirates co-promoter Danny Ford has confirmed they will face the winners of the Leicester/Scunthorpe quarter-final in the last four stage of the play-offs, with the first leg at Wimborne Road this Wednesday.
NEXT HOME: Leicester/Scunthorpe, Wed Oct 13, Play-Off Semi-Final
NEXT AWAY: Leicester, Sat Oct 16, Play-Off Semi-Final (Provisional)

REDCAR
“I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself but I surpassed my expectations when I rode there at the start of the season in my first meeting for Redcar, and there’s no reason why I can’t perform well again to help the team reach the semi-finals.”
Bears youngster Jordan Jenkins isn’t giving up hope of a turnaround in the play-off quarter-finals as they travel to Edinburgh facing a 12-point deficit from the first leg.
NEXT HOME: TBC or Teesside Silver Helmet, Fri Oct 22
NEXT AWAY: Edinburgh, Tues Oct 12, Play-Off Quarter-Final

SCUNTHORPE
Scorpions promoter Rob Godfrey expects the club’s 2021 season to come to an end at Leicester in the play-off quarter-finals – but hopes to sign off with a strong display.
“We’re realistic enough to realise that we’re not going to go through on aggregate, but hopefully it now means we can finish the season with a battling performance against Leicester, and who knows – we might even be able to get our first win in six attempts against Lions in 2021.”NEXT AWAY: Leicester, Tues Oct 12, Play-Off Quarter-Final

NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE UPCOMING FIXTURES…

ARMADALE
NEXT HOME: TBC
NEXT AWAY: TBC

BELLE VUE
NEXT AWAY: Kent, Tues Oct 26

KENT
NEXT HOME: Leicester, Tues Oct 12

LEICESTER
NEXT HOME: TBC
NEXT AWAY: Kent, Tues Oct 12

MILDENHALL
NEXT AWAY: Kent, Tues Oct 19

FIXTURE PICTURE…

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 13:
CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF S/F 1st leg: Poole v Leicester/Scunthorpe 7.30

THURSDAY OCTOBER 14:
PREMIERSHIP GRAND FINAL 2nd leg: Peterborough v Belle Vue 7.30

FRIDAY OCTOBER 15:
CHAMPIONSHIP KO CUP S/F 2nd leg: Edinburgh v Glasgow 7.30

SATURDAY OCTOBER 16:
SPEEDWAY OF NATIONS FINAL 1: Belle Vue 4pm
CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF S/F 2nd leg: Leicester v Poole (provisional) 7.30

SUNDAY OCTOBER 17:
SPEEDWAY OF NATIONS FINAL 2: Belle Vue 4pm

MONDAY OCTOBER 18:
RORY SCHLEIN FAREWELL: Wolverhampton 7.30

TUESDAY OCTOBER 19:
TEST MATCH: Great Britain v Poland, Glasgow 7.30
NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE: Kent v Mildenhall 6.30