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RECENTLY I was invited to meet a member of the BSPA to discuss their relationship with Speedway Star and, indeed, the media in general. I told him that in my opinion the BSPA had become more of a secret organisation than the Vatican. It is all well and good publishing daily news items, which are fine, but there is no official spokesperson for the BSPA empowered to make official statements. It is only after an AGM that any official announcements are made and then, a few days later, changes are often made which are not made public. They are their own worse enemy in this respect. It is no wonder that the general speedway public are suspicious and often put two and two together to make five because no one says otherwise. Quite often one promoter will say one thing and another something totally different. Many years ago when Martin Rogers, a journalist by trade, was a member of the BSPA Management Committee he would brief the media, and especially Speedway Star, after meetings, some of which was "off the record" but at least we would know exactly what was going on and could do our best to keep the paying punters properly informed. With regard to the current situation with Rye House ... I am sure there are people that know as much as I do, which frankly isn't much. But it is situations like this which the BSPA as an organisation handle so poorly. Of course, they can not be expected to release confidential information but just a holding statement along the lines of "the BSPA are in negotiations with the Rye House management to resolve their current difficulties and in the meantime their immediate fixtures have been suspended" would have been better than total silence which invites fans to draw their own, frequently inaccurate, conclusions. What is not in doubt is that British speedway is facing a crisis the like of which I have not witnessed in over 50 years of covering the sport.

Southern fans don't seem to like to travel North for some reason - although there were a few Panthers fans there. You would have enjoyed it if you had made the effort Excellent contingents from Berwick, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Newcastle. Nice for the Northern tracks not to have to travel massive distances for a change.

I don't dispute that the absence of the top riders may have contributed to the sports problems but the reality is that the decline started in the 1980's, long before the top riders started to disappear, which was about 2005. We lost more fans in that period than we have since. I can only speak from personal experience but I can't recall that crowds dropped noticeably at Belle Vue when Zagar departed or, returned when he came back, or even when we lost Crump. We are now down to the hardcore and I suspect that many of those are more concerned about seeing good racing than the absence of a GP star. I didn't even notice any increase when Somerset visited this year with the World Champion. The SON had the rare appearance of Woffinden in the UK and other world class riders but attracted a very poor crowd at the NSS although, to be fair, the ticket prices may have put off some. The public profile of the sport is zero so advertising the appearance of a world class rider isn't likely to attract many newbies to attend. They won't have heard of him so won't have a clue who he is. Go back to the drawing board. Use only riders prepared to commit to the UK, pay out only what is affordable, rebrand the sport as extreme, emphasise the dangers, allow riders to react to situations and to the referees decisions, make the governance and operation of the sport credible and make the presentation dynamic and up to date. and maybe crowds will start to build. Over time new stars and heroes will be made. Ensure that they interact with the fans. Continue to develop British youngsters and the standards here will improve and if the sport prospers we will at some point be able to compete again with the Poles and Swedes. There isn't really an alternative. We can't afford to bring back the top riders now, the money isn't there and they don't want to come. We can't carry on as we are this year because it isn't working or even providing a basis on which we can build fur the future.

I don’t. He spent 95% of his time on here being abusive to nearly all and sundry. Puts himself on some kind of pedestal when in fact he is nothing more than a speedway fan, like the rest of us. Calling people names in virtually every post that are brimming with venom. Not a nice person.

The weakening of the top league has been going on for many years but more significantly over the last 5-6 years. It has always irked me that the team that wins the league one season has to be broken up the next to be within a points limit that more suits the bottom team than the top one! For years Eastbourne was the team dragging everyone down, then Ipswich etc. Sadly that decline in standards has continued and hit a low when fast track reserves were introduced - these riders were primarily NL riders who weren’t good enough to secure a CL slot but were blooded in the PL - total madness. This was the final straw for me and I have only been to a handful of meetings since - waiting for Speedway to solve their major issue - value for money. Rather than solve that issue they continue to dilute the league, tinker with the rules (astride the bike at the gate etc) and meeting scheduling is all over the place - sometimes no meetings for weeks and then 3 in a week and appear to do nothing positive while more and more fans desert the sport - never to return! Some people will say that the fast track system was a success because it brought on some of these riders - but they would have equally progressed in the CL - the main success was in reducing costs and driving more people away from the sport. Even today there are several reserves who are out of their depth in the PL e.g. Max Clegg, Jack Smith (and Mitchell Davey before him) etc. As a sport, I am just watching the decline continue until it finally dies what has been a long and painful death. Rant over!

This is a desperate situation for british speedway, it has to be resolved for the good of the premiership and British speedway in general but I just don’t know how it can be, sad sad times for our once great sport and I feel for the rye house fans and riders

Well you tell him what he wants to know then nit picking as usual give it a rest

Spot on. Yes, it is nice to have to have "superstars", and they obviously draw the crowds. However, these days - certainly in the UK - the cannot draw sufficient crowds to warrant their inclusion. How many times has it been said on here that speedway is "four blokes racing motorbikes"? However much some don't want to believe it, that is true; it is not about ONE "superstar" showing up. It saddens me to hear those who say, "To me, it's all about the top guys. Second strings and reserves aren't important, and neither are the lower divisions." The top boys only represent - and have historically only represented - the top 5% or so of the sport. We can lose the top 5% - and of course, we pretty much have done - and the sport will survive. Lose the other 95%, and we are done... Whether we like it or not, speedway can be very exciting and entertaining WITHOUT that 5%, but the important thing is that we run a sensible and VIABLE sport. Steve

For me, the fundamental issue that must be sorted is that far too many Promoters see it as a hobby in which they can chuck away a few quid and maybe even (who knows?) get a few tax breaks from their other business interests by investing in a loss making business... Years ago many, if not most, Promoters were business men who worked together (in the main), to generate a bit of overall return for the whole of the Sport, knowing that their own individual business would ultimately profit from a thriving League.. Sometimes it seemed a bit 'somewhat contrived', however, never the less, the fans lapped it up and everyone from Promoters, fans and riders seemed happy, and more importantly the sport was 'successful'.. Nowadays it seems everyone is out for themselves, trying desperately to put one over their rivals, all in an effort to win Leagues hardly anyone in their respective fan bases gives two tosses about such is the nonsense way the Sport is ran in Britain.. What they appear to fail to see is that without any 'rivals' their own business also disappears.... Maybe one day, someone will notice the impending 'meltdown' that is happening in front of them and do something to prevent it..?

I also think it was very unfair on Philip, however there is a huge difference between him and Rob McCaffrey who, however good his intentions, is abusive and has no respect for any opinion other than his own as far as I can see.

It would be better as a whole if speedway could have the old bikes back permanently .As a kid I fell in love with the sport for the speed,the atmosphere, the smell and the noise. Sadly only the speed remains. I can't argue with kids now who are not hooked,because the things that hooked me are no longer there.

That rather harsh Steve, you have every right to disagree with anything/everything that Rob has written but he desperately wants speedway to survive at Rye House and he himself has taken some damn right abusive comments. Whether he is a nice person is for you to judge if you actually know him? but if not, can I let you know that when Rye House was closed and closed for good in 1998 (the track was tarmacked) he put his time and money in supporting the Ribbons & Entwistle plan to re-launch the club and if that had never happened then there would have been one less team for Poole to beat. In short he is not the typical fan who pays £18 to watch a match, turns up 15 minutes before the start and then feels he has the right to spend the promotors money on a fantasy line-up but strangely never actually chucks in £10,000s of his own money. Finally I hope you reconsider your comments above that will only help push another fan away (even a fan with different opinions to yourself as the sport needs everybody right now).

As Redcar were the only track to offer to host the event (according to Kevin Keay) they should at least get some credit for trying.

Yep, could've broken his army.

Speedway in the UK has spent far to long with promoters looking after own interest, look around at the dropping crowds and the notable absentees are the younger generation. When Sky 1st got involved the BSPA missed a massive opportunity of reaching the newer younger speedway fan. They should of worked together for the future of Speedway in the UK and used Sky as a massive advertising tool to attract new fans and old fans back to British speedway. The standard at Belle Vue has not dropped it's increased tenfold, but the younger generation are still not there. They are the future of British speedway, if we keep missing them of the radar, then this long sloping road we are on will soon bottom out and Speedway with it.

You mean he taught you to be 10 different people?

Was a cracking day out apart from the dust which Redcar couldn’t do anything about with the scorching weather. Some great racing and provides a lot of entertainment! with everybody saying where this should be held in my opinion the national stadium at Belle Vue is the perfect option, middle of the country, cracking race track and good seating facilities, or is it to obvious to use “the national stadium” to host major shared events?!

Last track done now great day out and thought Redcar did a great job, dusty obviously but without watering every two heats and then the meeting going on all night not much they could have done better. Will definately revisit for a league meeting

Great day well organised plenty off extra car parking and additional catering/Pop up Bars/Ice Cream vans etc etc. The track was well prepared and made for some excellent racing right up to the 35th heat. Well done to Kevin Keay for taking this on at Redcar and giving everyone a great day.

Jeez you either took an age to find that Nov 2017 post or you been saving it for such a day as today, either way its good to be wrong sometimes and in this case very wrong indeed,

You could be waiting a long time.

Err what about the workington fans???? Plenty of us there!!!

Well from a Redcar point of view whilst disappointed that the Bears didn’t qualify (particularly after making such a good start) I thought it couldn’t have gone much better. Obviously there was a lot of dust but given almost a week of unremitting sun I thought the track held up remarkably well. When it’s that dry you expect it to be first out of the gate processions but there were some fabulous races and spectacular action. Congratulations to the Panthers who had strength in depth, Glasgow unlucky not to finish second after Harris EF on the last lap (couple of fantastic races from him earlier) and Edinburgh were excellent, really impressed with all their young riders. Massive well done to Kevin and the Redcar promotion - couldn’t have done a much better job in terms of organisation imo.

Spot on. The paying public are entitled to voice an opinion,, and promoters should ignore t hose opinions at their peril, if they want to stay in business. However there is an obligation on the public to be fair and constructive when posting opinions on a public forum. However, when the critic thinks he is funny when he isn't, constantly posts things that go beyond fair and constructive criticism in a manner that is snidey childish and boorish, not only about his own club but knocks others clubs and their supporters, and just goes on and on without knowing when to stop, then the promotion are entitled to consider whether that sniping is damaging their business and take action as they think fit. The sport can't afford to lose a single supporter or even less so a single club. For the sake of the sport let's all try to be constructive, fair , articulate and balanced when we criticise. Workington didn't chose to be in they situation they are in. I wish them and their supporters well and hope they come through these difficulties.

YOU know that, I know that ... but do the people who hold the reins know that?

They have 'walked' the league so far -- certainly their gating has been at walking pace!!

I remember one Promoter saying that the 'Sky Money' ultimately "paid for the No1"... As it was circa £100k per track a season not a bad little earner for the man who invariably meant his team had to use Guests when he was often riding somewhere else rather than at his own teams' track..! A resounding success of a Business and Operating Model if ever there was one.... Edit: And when tracks paid this money to ten or so 'top riders', crowds still dwindled at an alarming rate...

Folks we have just seen a proper Speedway match.

Anything to add ?

This is a familiar story of a once avid Speedway supporter the era of Barry Briggs, Ivan Mauger, and then many top British riders of the time. Since this time, as a spectator I have had sporadic returns to the sport, the last time being two years ago at Swindon. I came away rather despondent through lack of entertainment, and not value for money, what I had witnessed was each race identical. This brings me to a recent televised event, a European Championship I began watching the meeting and soon realised this is exactly the same as I was watching two years previous at Swindon...…I only watched part of the meeting. And before anyone says, "You have lost interest", all my life motorcycles have been a passion either racing or riding on the road, which I still do. I will explain, we know the format four riders appear from the pits and progress to do practice starts, they return to the pit gate were upon clutch adjustment is carried out and rear chain tensioned, why??? There is no such thing as chain stretch, being a retired Mechanical and Electronics Development Engineer I can say the only reason drive chain require further adjustment is due to other inerrant engineering faults. Eventually one at a time they gather at the start where upon they all have a go at digging the starting gate up with their boots, if I wanted to watch gardening I would watch Monty Don. The race is ready to go, oh, we may have a tape breakage, the above events are then repeated all over again, but this time with three riders. Hold on, I'm a paying spectator I come to see four rider in a race...…….and so it goes on. When a race does get under way it will be more times than not a drag race for four laps and no overtaking. I would suggest Santa Pod for that. When watching the recent televised event, one of the heats was re-started due to a rider getting an allegedly unfair start. The rider in question did not roll, did not touch the tapes, he got a blinder of a start. What other sport penalizes a sportsman for being to good, which brings me to team averages. The team manager puts a lot of effort hopefully building a winning team only prior to the next season to change the team again to comply with academic averages. Now ask a question, "If you did not know about speedway and went on the description above, Would you pay money to watch this ??" Again what other sport penalizes success. Being a supporter and hold a technical position of professional British Superbike, and supporter of World Superbike, and Moto GP I cannot for one minute imagine these shenanigans going on in those sports.

Round 1 today in Heusden-Zolder (Belgium) A group (result after A/B/C final): 1. Henry van der Steen NL (3,3,2,3) 11 2. Jannik B Sorensen DK (3,3,3,2) 11 3. Rob Shuttleworth GB (2,2,3,3) 10 4. Sascha Stumpe DE (2,3,3,3) 11 -- 5. Dave Meijerink NL (3,3,2,2) 10 6. Dennis Helfer DE (0,1,2,2) 5 7. Jarno de Vries NL (1,2,1,1) 5 8. Lars Zandvliet NL (0,2,2,1) 5 -- 9. Sjoerd Rozenberg NL (2,0,R,1) 3 10. Martin Cazemier NL (2,1,1,0) 4 11. Mika Meijer NL (1,0,3,0) 4 12. David Wallinger GB (1,1,1,1) 4 -- 13. Anne Spaan NL (1,R,N,N) 1 14. Buddy Prijs NL (R,N,N,N) 0 B group (result after A/B/C final): 1. William Kruit NL (3,3,3,R) 9 2. Jeffrey Sijbesma NL (2,3,3,3) 11 3. Nicolas Chansard FR (3,2,3,3) 11 4. Audrey Dupuy FR (3,1,2,3) 9 -- 5. Kevin Luck DE (2,2,0,2) 6 6. Bart Uil NL (1,2,2,2) 7 7. Margriet Diever NL (3,1,Fd,1) 5 8. Sem Ensing NL (1,3,2,2) 8 -- 9. Ferdy Gelsema NL (0,0,1,3) 4 10. Dennis Smit NL (2,N,1,F) 3 11. Bertus de Wit NL (2,0,0,d) 2 12. Andy ter Schuur NL (R,1,M,N) 1 -- 13. Mike van de Noordaa NL (d,1,M,N) 1 14. Willy Kennis BE (N,N,N,N) 0 125cc youth (result after 4 heats + final heat): 1. Sam McGurk GB (5,5,4,5,4) 23 2. Luke Harrison GB (4,4,5,4,5) 22 3. Harry McGurk GB (5,R,4,5,3) 17 4. Niek Meijerink NL (4,3,3,3,2) 15 5. Nigel Hummel NL (3,3,2,1,0) 9 6. Nynke Sijbesma NL (2,d,2,3,1) 8 -- 7. Freddie Fox-Baron GB (1,2,1,2) 6 8. Luca Drenthe NL (0,2,1,0) 3 9. Delina Kruit NL (1,1,0,0) 2 Second, and last, round will be held in Veenoord on 28.09.2018.

stop talking sense - its obviously not wanted on here. Let those who are moaning about no 'stars' pay for one themselves cos nobody else will -it would be suicide. Theres only one side of this argument with its head in the clouds

Unlucky to Sheffield they finished as the best of the rest placed team this time around in the qualifiers but still didnt make the final.

Well done Peterborough on their win. Fantastic effort from the boys to come 2nd especially with missing the leagues top man.

Congratulations once again the BBSC who have stepped in to help out David Howe and NB Jacobsen with cheques for £500 each to help them with repair bills so they can continue to race for Berwick. Sadly it seems the presentation wasn't done from the centre green as it should have been.

Spot on yet again Vince

GOOD LUCK TO ALL RIDERS,TEAMS AND SUPPORTERS TODAY MAY THE BEST 4s WIN . ALSO GOOD LUCK REDCAR SPEEDWAY IN HOSTING TODAYS EVENT

80 quid!!! You're having a Turkish?80 bloody nicker for that!!!! Dick Turpin was the promoter was he?

Rob, I hope you rescind your decision as I for one appreciate your views.

Whatever standard of rider we have in UK it doesn't matter until the sport is promoted far better than it is now and with new ideas. The sport is so lacking in that respect, it has no chance unless that part of it improves significantly.

I was joking. "Ringers" are always going to be part of speedway. This year Poole had lots of potential improvers and as a result a lot of people, myself included, thought they would walk the league.

People who go to Belle Vue or Peterborough would probably disagree with that.

So who is going to pay to make the product stronger and with what riders ? The ones who keep saying we need it stronger are the ones that have top level speedway as it is now. We have just 8 teams in the top level, one not running as it can't afford to and needs to run at weekends and a few others running at a level it can't afford and running in the red as a business. However fans of Ipswich, Redcar, Glasgow etc are happy with the level they are at and that's what the current Premiership clubs need to be running at. The 35 limit suggested is using Premiership averages all over which is where Glasgow, Ipswich etc are at now and it's getting Swindon, Belle Vue, Wolves etc to get to that level too. Yes there are riders available to come in but not of the standard to run a top level as it is. Denmark have riders that would come in as do Sweden and other countries but none of these are riders that would improve a current Premiership team but would help fill the gap of doubling up riders we are currently doing. New NL riders moving up would also cover the gaps and hopefully a few NL tracks would look at riding at this level like Birmingham. Can anyone really say that the current Premiership can survive as it is now. We can't afford as a sport to pay top riders or for that matter the next level like Kildemand, Kasprzak etc but we can offer a good entertainment package of a big league where Glasgow face Belle Vue and Kings Lynn face Ipswich or Poole v Lakeside if tracks work together. Swindon fans would still follow their team if it dropped a level just as they do in football. If they tracked a team of Morris, Musielak, Ellis, Zach W and three lesser riders it would still get enough fans at £10 entrance fee to watch them ride against Lakeside or Peterborough and a different team each week, not the a,e teams over and over again and most importantly on the nights it wants to ride on. Fixed race nights are fine for a top level league but only if you can afford one and Britain can't unless it rebuilds

Nigel Pearson is a plonker of a commentator. 23 races, he started about 20 of them with 'Here we goooo'. I lost count of how many big races and big points. … awaits the usual 'Pearson promotes speedway well' defenders to his inane woeful commentary.

They haven't found me mate and I've been here for years!!

What is clear is that the "crowd" is now so thin at many clubs, that someone with strong but fair views of the promotion can be easily spotted and picked out.

As a walk away fan, who is the team isn't an issue. All standards of Speedway can be brilliant. The issues are the selfishness of promoters, inability to acknowledge and treat the fans correctly and value for money. For new fans, they also couldn't care less about the rider's, what they do care about is value for money to continue to come back. 15 minutes of racing over 2 hours, rubbish music, nonsensical waffle from the centre green and appalling stadium standards is all a massive turn off.

I don't go to Speedway to see so-called big names, I go because it's Rye House v Whoever. I go to see the 7 Rye riders against 7 riders from the opposition. How many times have a Team turned up only for their star man to have been injured last night in Sweden/Denmark/Poland etc. I won't go if it is pre-publicised that the away side are running R/R + 2 guests. I also think that if a rider is going to be out injured for more than 28 days, then they should be forced to sign someone else instead of running R/R all season. It is nice to have riders such as Bomber, Scotty & KK at Rye, but I would be just as happy to have say, Wells, Shanes & Garrity riding, as it would still be 7 Rye riders. I think most people go to Speedway to watch a match, not individual riders. On a previous post about fans stop going after LA left Swindon, why didn't they all return when Doyle(so called star name) was there. It isn't about Star names anymore, it's about 7 Riders in a Team, on a night that suits and continuity of a fixture list.

Perhaps I should first say that I am a huge fan of Workington Speedway. To me, though, its a question of how you respond and, in this case, I think it has been unnecessarily heavy handed. Surely a chat and a warning would have been more appropriate if the comments were considered to be unreasonable ? It is easy for me to say but you just cannot allow the pressure that you are under to affect how you treat your paying customers. You can't do everything for them and its a case of sorting the wheat from the chaff, but I don't think that the consequences of how you reply can be underestimated - be that for good or bad. I have stated the following example many times and apologise for doing so again, but it sums up my position in a nutshell and it is based upon personal experience. I went to one track, saw an awful meeting on a dreadful, ridiculously dusty track (the meeting itself was eventually abandoned) and took to this forum to state my opinion in no uncertain terms. As a paying customer I believe I am entitled to do that. A co-promoter at that track sought me out and gave me 15 minutes of aggressive abuse. I went to another, Isle of Wight. Same dusty track, same response from me. I then got a truly remarkable - for speedway - reply from their promoter, Barry Bishop. It was : 'We're sorry about the dust,. We are new and learning and we will try to make sure it doesn't happen again. We really hope you come back and see us again and, if you do, we'll take you on a pits tour and the centre green'. It perhaps says a lot that I couldn't believe my eyes. Same problem, same criticism, entirely different responses. One track I have not been back to since, the other has become a huge favourite for whom I bang the drum on every occasion.

This could end up being a very quiet place. The forum is a sad reflection on some of it's contributors though, particularly those who refuse to accept opinions when their own offering is merely another and those (with multiple IDs) who send PMs threatening violence to others (one of whom is actually a rider).