I suppose it is just me, anyway my dad used to go to watch the Coventry Bees all the time in his youth, and as Bees are still a perennial powerhouse 20 years on I am well into it.

Well, it was the playoff semi-finals last night (I didn't go, as I was out earlier in the evening and it was on Sky Sports ) Coventry Bees v Poole Pirates in one semi, and Swindon Robins v Peterborough Panthers in the other.

Early season odds made Swindon the title favourites, with Coventry second and Poole third. The final league table finished Coventry-Swindon-Peterborough-Poole so they were pretty much spot on. This means that Coventry and Swindon played the 4th and 3rd placed teams repsectivelly with home track advantage.
Bees were buoyed by a record-breaking 17 match winning streak at the end of the season which enabled them to pip Swindon who had been top for most of the season.

Anyway, it finished Coventry 55-38 Poole and Swindon 50-42 Peterborough so Coventry and Swindon will contest the two-legged Grand Final.

Report:



If you have never been up the speedway before, even if you don't have any interest in motorsports or bikes I would say it is well worth a go. It is a great night out. If you have any questions about the sport give me a shout.

I used to go to the Boston Barracudas years ago.

That was when they had a very good squad including World Champion Michael Lee.

Dunno how they are doing now or if they still exist.

Have to admit it can be a great night out and as I'm near to Ipswich I might go there and see if it still holds the same attraction it did before

The Elite League this season finished:

Coventry Bees
Swindon Robins
Peterborough Panthers
Poole Pirates
Wolverhampton Wolves
Arena-Essex Lakeside
Reading Racers
Eastbourne Eagles
Ipswich Witches
Belle Vue Aces
Oxford Cheetahs (retired from the league - now Conference champions)

Traditional big teams are Coventry, Wolverhampton, Belle Vue, Ipswich, Oxford and one or two others. I guess it has changed a fair bit since you watched it mate

Some of the great riders I remember are Ivan Mauger, Ole Olson, Peter Collins, John Louis & Barry Briggs

The top points riders in the league now are;

Nicki Pedersen (Eastbourne) - Denmark - 11.61
Jason Crump (Poole) - Australia - 11.26
Leigh Adams (Swindon) - Australia - 11.22
Hans Andersen (Peterborough) - Denmark - 10.47
Scott Nicholls (Coventry) - Great Britain - 10.24
Bjarne Pedersen (Poole) - Denmark - 10.21
Peter Karlsson (Wolves) - Sweden - 10.03
Krzysztof Kasprzak (Lakeside) - Poland - 9.45
Andreas Jonsson (Lakeside) - Sweden - 9.19
Chris Harris (Coventry) - Great Britain - 8.99
Rory Schlein (Coventry) - Australia - 8.93
Lee Richardson (Swindon) - Great Britain - 8.57
Davey Watt (Eastbourne) - Australia - 8.56
Chris Louis (Ipswich) - Great Britain - 8.34
Freddie Lindgren (Wolves) - Sweden - 8.34
Sebastian Ulamek (Swindon) - Poland - 8.31
Niels Iversen (Peterborough) - Czech Republic - 8.13
Billy Hamill (Wolves) - USA - 8.13
Adam Shields (Lakeside) - Australia - 8.12
Kenneth Bjerre (Peterborough) - Denmark - 8.03
Matej Zagar (Reading) - Slovenia - 7.95
Simon Stead (Belle Vue) - Great Britain - 7.57

Those top ten guys are really big stars. Crump is the current world champion and top star.

The most successful rider of the recent era was Tony Rickardsson from Sweden, he won 6 world titles out of 15, and retired recently.

I've seen Jason Crump's dad ride... Phil I think his name was.

Have seen a lot from your list when it's been televised

Yeah they tend to hang about for years these guys As you probably know the riders usually also ride for one or two other teams in other leagues abroad (usually Poland and Sweden, the two other strongest leagues) and sometimes they lose a rider from the Elite League for two or three seasons say if he decides to just ride in Poland and Sweden.

Been a few times. My hometown has a team, King's Lynn. Amazingly they even won the league a couple of years back, not bad for a small town in Norfolk!

i sed to go all the time still follow it

ive had my pics taken at a world cup few years back.. leigh adams, jason crump, hans andersen, lukas dryml, ales dryml, charlie gjedde.

charlie gjedde's pitman lived next door so charlie was here a lot

been in the workshop and stuff got given some free stuff like a helmet before too

sadly he moved but charlies still going good for us

That's cool mate
I suppose you are a big Swindon fan then?

indeeed

got a leigh adams cap .. 1,000 photos

hundreds of programmes i used to be a regular

cost so darn much now though. we did get on the guestlist a few times though

Nice to see you are into it mate, it seems you are a much bigger fan than I am.
Going down in the Grand Final though

First leg of the Grand Final tonight

Swindon took their home leg 49-43, which leaves Coventry in a very good position for the return at Brandon, should be a close one though

It finished Coventry Bees 59-34 (102-83) Swindon Robins, so the Coventry Buildbase Bees won the Grand Final

Unlucky to Swindon, they were the favourites and looked on course to win it midway but the Bees had a stunning end to the season and were too strong on the night, particularly with Lee Richardson crashing out injured, although we did miss Ollie Allen, Rory Schlein was phenomenal.

Monday, 1 October 2007: The Coventry Buildbase Bees are crowned Elite League champions. Bees beat Swindon Robins 59-34 in the second leg of the Grand Final at Brandon to win 102-83 on aggregate.

Coventry Bees 59 (102): Rory Schlein 16+1, Martin Smolinski 10+2, Steve Johnston 9+2, Scott Nicholls 9, Chris Harris 8+2, Billy Janniro 7+2, Olly Allen rider replacement.

Swindon Robins 34 (83): Leigh Adams 15+1, Tomasz Chrzanowski 5, Damian Balinski 5, Charlie Gjedde 3, Sebastian Ulamek 3, Andrew Moore 2, Lee Richardson 1+1.

Pictures:


The riders celebrate


Riders go into a turn


A packed Brandon


Rory Schlein takes the applause following another race win


Martin Smolinski heads the pack into the corner


Smolinski, also part of the 2005 championship winning team


Steve Johnston gets soaked, he was perhaps the catalyst for this success



Full gallery: http://www.bbc.co.uk/coventry/content/imag...gallery.shtml?1

Coventry Bees completed the treble at the weekend (all trophies available) - Elite League, Craven Shield and Knockout Cup. Well done lads, a historic victory and now the most successful Bees side of all time.

Since i live in Denmark i can't follow english speedway live, but i do follow the sgp and swc and i was in cardiff for the english gp this year,fantastic weekend there, even though the danes were crap that night ,but what a night for bomber and what a good night for speedway one of the best this season,just a shame that he couldn't keep the momentum the rest of the gp's,i really like him and his style...It will also be interesting to se if Nicki can defend his world cup title?? i think he can,but we shall se...

The Danes have some great riders mate. Yeah Bomber had a great night in Cardiff, I'm just hoping the Bees can hold onto him and some of the other big riders from this season because as you probably know you have a points allocation based on rider performance which prevents one team from dominating. Bad for Coventry but good for the Elite League.

Should be interesting this year, the new new points average rule has ravaged a couple of the stronger teams (notably Swindon), but Coventry and Poole are still very strong and will be favourites this year, Eastbourne took Scotty Nicholls ( shite law makers) and Lakeside Hammers have a good side as well.

My mate actually owns (or partly owns) a speedway team.

Which team?

Mildenhall Barmy Army Fen Tigers speedway team (not sure if thats the official name or not!!)

If you are interested in going to go see them then here are some dates:

Wednesday 26th March we are at Birmingham
Thursday 24th April we are at Redcar
Wednesday 4th June we are at Birmingham
Thursday 5th June we are at Redcar
Thursday 3rd July we are at Sheffield
Sunday 20th July we are at Glasgow
Friday 8th August we are at Edinburgh

Oh right yeah, I know Fen Tigers, they are in the Premier League now (division below Elite League).

I usually don't get time to even see the Bees very often.

If you do get chance, he's a top bloke, and I wouldn't be suprised if he's got a big bar tab going

A big facepalm to this season, Bees have lost every meeting so far, many problems with the lineups and rider form. Chris Harris can't do it all. Schlein has been a bit off his average so far as well, Kennett ok. The backup is poor.

Poole look good as the title favourites, Peterborough and Lakeside also going strong.

FANBOY BUMP!!!

Coventry Bees Elite League Champions!

Bees were heading for the relegation playoffs but went on an insane run of winning meetings which culminated in them beating 3rd placed Peterborough Panthers home and away, and then in the final runaway leaders Poole Pirates at home by 12 points and also away by 10 to clinch the championship. Poole had led the league all season and won every meeting at home, so it was pretty insane. Bees won 12 straight meetings to win it.

Chris Harris was a legend as well, he had a bad smash early on and was advised to go to hospital but told the doctor to get lost and went and won the next heat Bees also had to do without a key rider who broke his leg, and even though his rider replacement they still grabbed an insane win.

Until next year!

Coventry Bees fans fear for future after Elite League absence confirmed



COVENTRY BEES absence from the 2011 Elite League has been confirmed – and now supporters will be left fearing for the future of any speedway at Brandon.

The BSPA ended a week of speculation on Saturday morning when they confirmed that the Buildbase Bees, the reigning champions, and Peterborough would not be taking their place in next season’s top flight, having failed to declare their intent to compete during the recent AGM.

That in itself is effectively confirmation of the rumours which swept the sport in the immediate aftermath of the conference, namely that the Bees and the Panthers left before the conclusion rather than any suggestion of them being “excluded” from the league.

It was widely reported that the two clubs were unhappy with decisions taken at the conference, although other reports have since emerged which speculated that they brought the cost of running top-flight speedway into the equation too.

The BSPA also stated that the future of the Elite League is secure, with the full line-up to be unveiled at midday today - which can only mean that they have sourced at least one additional club to take the division up to its minimum level of eight teams.

Bees had earlier issued their sole official word of the last week, stating that they had been advised by their legal representatives to make no further comment – other than they were “fighting for top-flight speedway at Coventry Stadium” and would “leave no stone unturned in our search for a solution.”

Read More http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/coventry-.../#ixzz16h0cbtT2

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What a fucking ridiculous situation, not having the champions in the league to defend the title.

British Speedway is run by imbeciles and cretins, who create stupid rules that decrease the level of the sport to cater for underachieving loser teams who can't maintain a proper organisation.

So basically Coventry and Peterborough have pulled out because of these crippling changes which are brought in on a seemingly yearly basis. Kings Lynn and Birmingham have replace the Bees and Panthers, and already left Ipswich Witches.

When you see what Coventry and their fans bring to the sport it really does make you wonder what these morons are thinking, the sport is dead without the big teams, and we'll see that in the future.

Will they be joining the Premier League? Taking on the mighty Toon

I don't think they will be riding next year full stop, puts their future in question too, disgusting situation.