BRITISH Speedway clubs have today agreed a start date of early May for the 2021 season.
Fixtures will be published next week for both the Premiership and Championship.
Plans are in place for a new concept in both leagues with more details to follow. The plans have been made to adapt to the current situation regarding Polish restrictions on the amount of leagues riders can race in, plus the ongoing challenges presented by the pandemic.
There is a clear pathway for the development of British Speedway and young British riders, not just in 2021 but in the years ahead.
In addition, whilst there is disappointing news about losing Swindon and Somerset for 2021, these decisions have been made by these clubs to protect their futures from 2022 onwards. They will be welcomed back into the sport next year.
Another club has expressed an interest in joining the Championship and this will be explored in due course.
More details regarding the 2021 season will be revealed alongside our broadcast partners Eurosport in the coming days.
Plymouth Speedway and Mike Atkins, the driving force behind the “Do They Know It’s Christmas Charity Lip Sync Video” are delighted to announce that a sum of £500 has been raised and will be split between the chosen Charities CLIC SARGENT and The BEN FUND, who will receive £250.00 each very shortly.
We would like to thank everyone who made a personal Donation and the sum raised from that was £297.55.
This has been augmented by donations from Atkins Financial Management of £100.00, Plymouth Speedway of £50.00 and SP2A Speedway of £52.45, to round the figure up to £500.00
Plymouth Gladiators Speedway are proud and honoured to be the first in the sport of Speedway to launch a lip sync Christmas Charity Song, with a unique interpretation of this classic.
We trust that you will enjoy it and will want to make a donation to two fantastic Charities that are very close to our hearts, The Ben Fund and CLIC Sargent.
Please click on the YELLOW DONATE button below the video and make any Donation that you feel is suitable.
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If you experience any issues with the donation button, it may be due to Wi-fi connection. If you have repeated problems, please e-mail us as admin@plymouth-speedway.com
The Donation Scheme will be OPEN for 4 weeks from Thursday 3rd December to Thursday 31st December and will close as Big Ben Chimes at midnight on Thursday 31st December.
All Donations will go initially to our Media Partner – JMI Publications, who will pass on 100% of all Proceeds split 50/50 between the two chosen Charities.
Paypal don’t take any commission of Payment from your Donation and their platform is the most secure and encrypted platform of its type in the world.
On MONDAY 4th January 2021 we will announce the sum total of Donations received and send payment directly to The Ben Fund and CLIC Sargent.
We would like to thank all involved in the production and recording of the Video all done completely free of charge and given up their time to help those less fortunate than ourselves at this time.
Please like and Share so that we can make this the Christmas Number One!
Our two chosen Charities
Clic Sargent
Clic Sargent is the UK’s leading Charity for children, young people and their families who are suffering from Cancer.
Its care teams provide specialist support across the UK.
CLIC Sargent supports people from diagnosis onwards and aims to help the whole family deal with the impact of cancer and its treatment, life after treatment and, in some cases, bereavement.
The charity also undertakes research into the impact of cancer on children and young people. It uses this evidence to raise awareness and to seek to influence government and policy-makers, and those who provide public services across the UK.
A spokeswoman for the Charity explained-:
“Every day, 12 children and young people in the UK are diagnosed with cancer. This devastating news changes the lives of the whole family. When cancer strikes young lives, CLIC Sargent fights tirelessly for children and young people with cancer, often when they feel they can’t. We are there from the point of diagnosis, throughout treatment and beyond to help children and young people, and their families, to cope with the financial and practical challenges that a cancer diagnosis brings, including bereaved families living with emotional pain.
Cancer wants to destroy lives, and it isn’t going to stop for Coronavirus.
Parents will still hear the devastating news that their child has cancer every day; children will still be going through brutal treatment and families will still be struggling to make ends meet because of the added financial costs of cancer. Added to this is the extra anxiety Coronavirus brings.
Young cancer patients on treatment have a weakened immune system, which means they could become seriously ill if they catch the virus. Our social workers have been inundated with calls throughout the pandemic from families who are really scared for their children – We are here for them”.
The Clic Sargent Cancer Charity is a registered charity, number 1107328
Clic Sargent revenues have been severely hit due to Covid 19 restrictions in 2020 , so we are delighted to support the Charity by donations from our Video. Click here to learn more about the charity
Speedway Riders Benevolent Fund
The Speedway Riders’ Benevolent Fund or “Ben Fund” as it is known was formed in 1948 by Lieutenant Colonel Reginald Vernon Charlesworth Brook OBE, Sir Arthur James Elvin MBE,
Managing Director of Wembley Stadium Ltd, and Major Cecil Laurence Smith, Managing Director of London Motor Sports Ltd., with an investment of £6179.
The Fund was registered as a Charity for the purpose of assisting British Speedway Racers, their dependants and family, following serious or life-changing Speedway related accidents.
Over the years the Fund, which is now regulated by The Charity Commission, has evolved and its main purpose is to benefit former Speedway Riders, Current Speedway Riders, and their families, following serious or life changing injuries whilst racing for a British Speedway Club or representing Great Britain at International Level Speedway.
The Fund can assist in many ways for example necessary home adaptations to allow wheel-chair access etc., Medical Equipment, Specialist Care, Financial Support and the General Welfare and Wellbeing of those who have suffered life changing injuries, as deemed fit and proper in deserving cases.
Great Britain is the only Speedway Nation in the World to have a specific charity to assist its injured Racers.
The Fund is administered by a team of 5 Trustees and a Secretary/Treasurer who look after the day to day affairs. There is also a team of loyal helpers who assist with fund -raising events and activities.
None of the Ben Fund helpers or Trustees receive any financial remuneration for their input, all are unpaid volunteers.
The main source of income for the Fund is the annual “Ben Fund Bonanza” Meeting, bucket collections held at tracks, individual FundRaising Events, donations and bequests.
The average annual expenditure for assistance provided is currently around £100,000.
The Speedway Riders’ Benevolent Fund is a registered charity, number 208733
The Ben Fund usually raises around £30,000 per season through Track Collections and this shortfall due to Covid 19 restrictions in 2020 needs to be addressed, and we are delighted to support the Charity by donations from our Video. Click here to learn all about the Ben Fund.
Plymouth Gladiators Speedway are planning a major event weekend in 2021 to commemorate 90 years of speedway in the city.
The first recorded meeting took place at Pennycross stadium on the 13th June 1931 and that venue was the club’s spiritual home for many years until 1970, before relocating to The Coliseum Arena in the Marsh Mills area of the city.
Club Historian Helen Charlesworth confirmed.
“We have formed a working committee to look at staging a speedway event and also an ex-riders and supporters’ function over a two-day period during the summer of 2021.
We have some exciting plans for other ways to commemorate this milestone and will keep supporters and former riders, far and wide, updated during the winter months”.
Club Press Officer Andy Riddle also confirmed that the Gladiators’ new stadium events related project, Plymouth Arena Community Events (www.plymouth-events.co.uk) is working on some major new non-motorsport events, and hopes to be announcing an initial tranche of these for 2021 before Christmas.
Plymouth Gladiators Speedway are delighted to announce an innovative new partnership with Atkins Financial Management.
Mike Atkins, the Practice Principal has 28 years Financial Services experience dealing with both personal and business clients. Mike is an appointed representative of St. James’s Place Wealth Management Plc.
The Partnership with Atkins Financial Managementhas come about after Mike Atkins offered the innovative advice scheme with the Directors of South West Power Promotions(who promote Speedway at The Coliseum).
This will mean that South West Power Promotions (Plymouth Gladiators Speedway) have become registered introducers to Atkins Financial Management with the backing and support of St. James’s Place Wealth Management Plc, who are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
The Agreement will benefit the supporters and followers of Plymouth Gladiators Speedway and Plymouth Gladiators Speedway Club themselves. Atkins Financial Management will provide a wide range of Regulated Financial Services solutions to meet the needs of our supporters and followers.
How this works: after contacting Atkins Financial Management for Financial Advice, Mike will follow a full review and advice process.
After this introduced case has led to a successful completion of advice, the Club will receive an Introductory Bonus for the introduction passed to Atkins Financial Management. Mike is also keen to see a percentage of this payment go towards the Speedway Riders Benevolent Fund as this is a worthy cause which helps riders (and their families) who put their own lives at risk to entertain us.
Commercial Director Ian Jordan explained the major significance that the deal will mean to Plymouth Gladiators Speedway.
“We are delighted to announce this innovative new Partnership as we believe it perfectly synergises the commercial concept that we feel Sports Partnership and Sponsorship will need to take both in the post Covid-19 era and to secure the long-term future of Sporting Clubs and our Sport in particular.”
The concept is simple, with a positive outcome for the supporters, followers and Plymouth Speedway with the benefit of an experienced Financial Adviser.
The Scheme is for our supporters and followers of the Club allowing them to access Financial Advice and the knowledge that the Club will benefit from an Introductory Bonus for completed transactions.
I passionately believe that this is the way forward for Speedway and indeed other Sports at the semi-professional and even elite levels. The days of going to a potential Sponsor/Advertiser and asking for money, then taking it and offering little or nothing back should frankly ultimately be consigned to the rubbish bin.
We have to optimise the asset of our supporter base and offer them something which is of value to them and will provide the club they love and follow, a new income stream to help run and develop the club further, to grow with our supporters having an input and added benefit of top class advice, products and service.
We are delighted to announce this Partnership with Mike Atkins and his Practice, Atkins Financial Management and we as a club will provide specific details on how to use this new service this Thursday 8th October.
Mike Atkins of Atkins Financial Management said: “I am over the moon that someone in Speedway has listened to me and is taking onboard this concept, with the British Speedway Promoters Limited (BSPL) aware of what we are doing and watching to see how this scheme will benefit UK Speedway Community as a whole.
It’s a win-win situation for both the supporters and the Club, plus the Riders Benevolent Fund. For me, I will work with someone who wants to secure their own financial future. I am fully aware of the cost of the sport of Speedway as a fan, sponsor, and parent of a rider.
I already have fans of both Speedway and Grasstrack that come to me for Financial Advice, and it was an obvious choice for me to set up the scheme with Plymouth Gladiators as the first Club in the UK.
Plymouth Gladiators will be a role model for the rest of the UK Clubs to follow, with Ian Jordan already starting the same process to set the same arrangement up for the supporters of Eastbourne Speedway.
I look forward to working with the fans, supporters and anybody who wants to help Plymouth Speedway succeed.”
Full Details and the official process to indicate interest in the new scheme will launch on Thursday 8th October. Please note that the scheme will only run via the Gladiators website, and Atkins Financial Management should not be contacted direct.
To learn more about Atkins Financial Management, click on the logo below.
Main image: Richard Andrews, Henry Atkins & Mike Atkins
The management of the Plymouth Gladiators have reluctantly decided to draw stumps on the 2020 season, cancelling the planned Saturday Fixtures on the 10th and 17th of October.
Club owner and Promoter Mark Phillips confirmed that a combination of circumstances had led he and fellow bosses to unanimously make the ultimate decision.
Mark commented:
“We have staged two extremely successful fixtures at our own imposed capacity of 400. The feedback from everyone who attended and participated, and those who also watched our innovative Live Streaming of the initial Fixture has been universally positive.
We have learnt a lot, which will stand us in good stead for 2021. I’m particularly pleased too that the track, which was subject to a lot of criticism in the early months of 2019 , has benefited from many hours of toil and hard work, and delivered exciting racing, that some who have watched Speedway since its arrival at the venue, say is the best they have seen here. Rider feedback has been excellent too.
However, and despite the fact that we have confirmed with all relevant parties that regulation changes don’t prevent us from carrying on, we can’t hide from the fact that the national situation with Covid 19 has deteriorated significantly. Locally there are some worrying hotspots and we don’t want to be adding to those concerns in the City and surrounds.
We have an excellent online Ticketing portal that generates a huge amount of data, and whilst we have had no reports of anyone who has come to either of our Fixtures subsequently reporting any infection, or contacts with third party infection, there remains the worry that with increased levels of infection, we could be playing with fire, if continuing in to October.
We also get excellent meteorological data and that indicates both very wet weather in October and also some abnormally High Tides, which is a major concern, with the nearby tidal River Plym, regularly causing flooding to the Top Bend and Riders Car Park when we get high Autumn Tides..
We would like to thank everyone who has helped us to stage 2 excellent fixtures, all who came and took part.
We’ll now start to focus on exciting plans to transform The Coliseum in to a 365 day a year Community Stadium and Events Centre from 2021, through the PACE initiative, and ponder what direction we may be allowed to take in the Speedway League structure in 2021, which is frankly out of our control, but we rule nothing out and everything in. We will be ready to step up if asked or given the opportunity.
We have some exciting Commercial and Partnership initiatives in the pipeline that should only add to the progressive image we want to show, in both stabilising and taking the Sport forwards in our part of the South West.
The Promoters and Directors of Plymouth Gladiators Speedway have reluctantly decided to cancel the proposed Challenge Match v Leicester Cubs Select on Tuesday 28th September, but remain cautiously hopeful that further Fixtures scheduled for October may be able to take place.
The Club explained the reasons for their decision:
“Following the statement by Boris Johnson to the House of Commons at 12.30pm on Tuesday 22nd September, we were initially instructed to postpone that evening’s Fixture v GB Young Lions Select.
There was naturally a lot of confusion in the immediate aftermath; and only the intervention by our local MP Gary Streeter, who was able to clarify that our DCMS (Department of Culture, Media and Sport) and Council and Sport Regulatory permissions would remain at that time unaffected; were we able to finally confirm that we could legally and ethically go ahead at about 4.00pm that afternoon, an hour before the Gates opened.
We were delighted with every aspect of the Match on Tuesday night and thank everyone involved for their support, cooperation, and positive feedback.
We have subsequently confirmed with Gary and the DCMS that as of today; that those approvals are still in place. However, we have been made aware that there can be a time delay of up to a week, between an announcement being made by Government Ministers and the specific and often complex details being passed even to the Statutory Department (like the DCMS) for final publication and implementation.
We do not wish to therefore commit to a Fixture; book Riders; sell Tickets and spend considerable Meeting set up costs, until the situation is 100% clear.
We hope that everyone will understand both the stress that we went through on Tuesday afternoon fearful of letting everyone down, even if outside of our control, by not therefore rushing to potentially have the same scenario next Tuesday.
We feel that our 2 recent Meetings have left a very positive impression locally and nationally, and we don’t wish to tarnish that perception.
Once we have the final confirmation that our status to continue is intact; we will seek to confirm our October Fixtures, if our status to stage Fixtures under our current Covid 19 Regulations and approvals change we will of course inform you of that too.
We are very concerned about the rise in the rate of Covid infections nationally, even if locally the South West seems to be less adversely affected at this time, and the local and national rate and public perception of that rate, will very much drive our decision making for October.
We would anticipate giving a further update no later than Friday 2nd October.
Please stay safe and abide by Government and Local Guidelines in the meantime and we hope to see you all at The Coliseum again in a few weeks time and remember the safety guidelines and objectives HANDS, FACE, SPACE, RACE..
For the second successive meeting, West country speedway fans witnessed a thrilling meeting at the Coliseum as the home side defeated a Great Britain Young Lions side that contained some of the most promising young riders in the country.
On yet another superbly prepared racing surface, the meeting came to life in Heat 4 when Henry Atkins swooped around the outside of Tom Brennan. This was to set the tone for Atkins’ evening as he showed stunning speed, being unbeaten in all of his six rides to secure his first ever maximum.
Home skipper Alfie Bowtell was also unbeaten by an opponent and the duo were ably supported by Jason Edwards and Richard Andrews.
For the Young Lions, Dan Thompson, one half of the ‘Thompson Twins’ was impressive in top scoring for the Lions.
The Gladiators gradually extended their lead as the meeting progressed although the final score did not do justice to the efforts of the Young Lions team.
Lions boss, Neil Vatcher was not too disheartened by the defeat. ‘We obviously came here to win’ he said, ‘but it was more valuable experience for our young riders on a technical circuit. I was very impressed with our two young reserves, Harry McGurk and Archie Freeman and they both rode well above my expectations on their first visit to the track’.
For an understandably overjoyed Atkins, it was reward for the hard work he has put in off the track over the past few months.
‘I have worked really hard on my fitness and nutrition over the summer’ said the Exeter based rider. ‘Plus, the closed practices that I have attended at Plymouth really helped to get the bike dialled into the track perfectly and it all came good tonight.
I had a good meeting at Scunthorpe on Sunday in the British under 19 final (finishing fifth) and that also boosted my confidence’.
Scorers:
Plymouth:
Henry Atkins 18 pts (from 6 rides), Alfie Bowtell 13 + 2 bonus (5), Jason Edwards 8 + 1 (4), Richard Andrews 7 + 1 (4), Arran Butcher 4 (6), Sheldon Davies 1 (5), Chad Wirtzfeld rider replacement.
Young Lions:
Dan Thompson 10 (5), Tom Brennan 9 (5), Alex Spooner 5 + 2 (4), Joe Thompson 4 + 1 (4), Harry McGurk 4 + 1 (4), Jordan Palin 4 (4), Archie Freeman 3 + 2 (4).
Meeting Report: Andy Riddle -Plymouth Speedway Press Officer
In the light of the news of further Covid 19 Restrictions announced by the Government on Tuesday 22nd September, most of which come in to place on Thursday 24th September, we will consult with The BSPL/SCB/Local Authority and the DCMS (Department of Culture Media and Sport) in the next 24-48 hours to seek official guidance as to whether we can stage any further Fixtures in 2020.
We would like to thank all Riders, Officials; Supporters and Sponsors for their assistance in completing the match between the Gladiators and Young Lions last night and especially the BSPL / SCB / Local Authority and our local MP Gary Streeter for their assistance in interpreting the announcements made at 12.30pm on the day of the Event by the Prime Minister; to ensure that we could make an informed decision as to whether we were able to race last night or not.
We will update everyone as soon as we have clear concise and accurate information about the possibility and legality of further planned Fixtures in 2020 taking place”.
