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I realise that some people will not like Poole. As a Coventry fan I understand that. In football depending on who you support you may not like Man Utd or Liverpool. But I will say this, I have been disgusted by the comments I have read on here and social media from so called fans who seem to be gloating at the fact Poole may close. Poole have been the best team for years. Love em' or hate em' hats off to Matt Ford. If Poole go under any true speedway fan should take heed.

Just go back and read the threads at the time. Ford was the biggest cancer in the sport, hundreds, if not thousands walked away from it in disgust at his actions season upon season.

Matt Fraud is one of the reasons British Speedway is in terminal decline, even before Covid. Whilst being brilliant for Poole, British Speedway has been decimated. Now he reaps what he has sewn.

The 80's were that last peak and that peak was filled with mostly Americans who were flamboyant and sold the sport and the Danes who were marketable and professional. By the late 80's the rot set in and despite a few positive times that feel-good factor has never returned. The GP formula moved the power outside of the UK and many will still yearn for the old WC format, starting in Australasia early in the calendar year, rounds in dozens of countries culminating in a final in UK, Sweden or Poland. Sky came along, threw previously unseen sums at a cabal of around 10-12 Promoters and they did the drinking equivalent of peeing it up the wall. Paying over inflated sums to average riders from various parts of the Globe, NOTHING was put back in to the grass roots of the sport. The recent move to take Team GB and GB Academy away from the clutches of the BSPA, staffed as it is by a majority who to this day want to stuff their teams with foreign riders at every opportunity, is a positive first step. Woffinden and Lambert now lead the fight back, we can but hope that Ellis and Bewley can join them and then hope that the likes of Brennan, Flint;Rowe and Kemp can step up and attain those levels, behind them the likes of Palin, Edwards, Thompson twins etc. There is a glimmer on the horizon but still the nagging doubt that the idiots at the top table will do everything they can to look after the interests of their own small circle before they look outside the window and see the bigger wider picture. The Sport is ruled by the equivalent of the flat earth society, in complete denial of the real speedway world. Painter, Blackwell, Sinderson, Cotton, Adrian Smith (speedway fans but also successful businessmen prepared to put their hands in their pocket for the sport and not their own ego;s).....let them take over the Sport, run it with independent governance and line promoters in to them, not Godfrey and his cohorts.

Brilliant stuff. Other riders need to look at Woffy's performance in that race and take note. Too many times in Poland I've seen a rider go after the lead and leave his team mate vulnerable and in the end they end up giving away a 2-4

For me, it started to decline when 'England' stopped ruling the Speedway roost at international level.. The TV companies and tabloid press lapped up (no pun intended), the way England regularly won Best Pairs and World Team cups, and obviously in Peter Collins had a dare devil young hero that transcended the Speedway world and was amongst the most well known sportsmen in the country. Not only winning a World Title, but doing it in a way that showed just how exciting and breathtaking the sport can be.. Then, towards the late 70's and early 80's the UK started training up many Danes and Americans in particular to take over their previous World Champion mantle.. All of a sudden, there wasnt quite the same coverage given to USA and Denmark victories by the mainstream media, (and why should there be?) However, instead of focusing on getting back on top of the pile by having a detailed, fit for purpose training plan to provide young English riders with the opportunity to progress, the authorities instead then opened up the 2nd Division to foreign riders which allowed them to train up even more nations' riders, who took up team places that young British riders used to have.. And finally as we hit the 90's winning at club level became all that mattered with Promoters trying desperately to get one over their fellow promoters by ensuring that their team was best. Completely ignoring the blatant fact that league title wins for Poole, Wolves, Belle Vue, Coventry etc etc etc had not one jot of positive impact to the sport nationally amongst generic sports fans and national media.. And had lessening yearly impact to even die hard fans when they considered the often 'Mickey Mouse' operating model that facilitated the winners' victory.. Hence winning at club level became all encompassing so clubs filled their teams with journeymen foreign riders, who would then throughout the season get replaced by even more journeymen foreign riders when averages dictated. And would also every now and again unearth a foreign 'wunderkind' on a ridiculously low entrance average which would provide that team with a 'fourth heat leader' at reserve, which would decide so many matches in their favour.. However, the team with the next '4 point superstar' may have cared about their victorious season , but hardly anyone else did.. In short, it's been a crap operating model for nigh on 40 years and if your intention was to promote your sport positively to millions of the nation's sports fans then it was as wide of the mark as it possibly could have been.. However, looking at the work being done around the young talent that's out there now, maybe, just maybe, the penny has finally dropped and a successful 'Great Britain' team will soon be regularly back on the top step of international meetings, with all the extended coverage from the wider sports media it will bring. In Woffy and Robert Lambert the country truly already have two who can compete at the very top, which can only help enormously to start generating wider interest in the sport if they get publicised well.. However. Four or five other World Class riders in the top 20 would certainly add to the publicity the sport gets, and can only have a positive knock on impact to the domestic leagues and their teams..

Plenty of validity .. i was showed the text messages being sent at the time .. The dispute was about Ford being bitter after losing the final and then going out of his way to make sure Cov never could track the side they wanted . Pure bitterness and revenge at the expense of sport . .Boro sadly just got caught in the crossfire . That winter cause untold damage to the sport

i would hardly say driving most of your crowd away and having to end up in Div 2 takes much drive and brains ..He started off ok but then started to cheat before running it into the ground the last few years .

and you have proved that your opinion is worthless

I don’t think this is true. The issue I find is that individual meetings are no more than half-assed fixture fillers these days, in the same way that “B” league fixtures are. 12 rider individuals need to get in the bin and the individuals that are staged need to offer something to the fans or be meaningful in some way, be it riders championships or just showcasing riders at a track who may not usually race there. The sport cannot sustain being individual meetings only but there is a place for individual, pairs, fours meetings etc. alongside the team meetings.

many thanks to the administrators......all changed with apologies

Laguna lifted, nothing more just hard racing. Realised his error and went over to Holder.

Fisher I think? And Sundstrom at P’boro. orion hit the nail on the head with his post.

Incidentally, I know this thread had been going some time but could either the originator or an admin please change the title to Arthur Forrest out of respect to the man please?

How did he pander to Lakeside and Eastbourne ? Swindon, Belle Vue and Wolves were also opposed to the higher points limit Coventry and Peterboro wanted . Eastbourne had been losing big money for years before 2010, The claim being made by Toto above is that Ford wanted to “ put Coventry and Peterboro out of business without a care in the world “ . He/she was asked to explain that but hasn’t done so.

Home team chose the gates for Heat 13-15. If they chose 1/3 for Heat 13, they have 2/4 Heat 14 and 1/3 for Heat 15. (Vice versa if they take 2/4 in Heat 13)

Now you're getting there. Ford bought the votes he needed by pandering to the likes of Lakeside and Eastbourne.. who basically dragged the sport down and destroyed it.

Happy days! I loved Weymouth's old ground and that's where sports venues should be, in the middle of town. Sadly bought out by Asda and moved to an out of town industrial estate. The trouble is towns like Weymouth, Poole & Bournemouth are just commodities now. People move there because they are a nice place to live but they have no affinity to the towns or the sports teams and their venues just become valuable building land.

12 rider individuals is pathetic and I have cursed every promoter whoever has done this, always flatly refusing to support such a meeting like many others and then they the promoters wonder why the fans won’t come to anything but league meetings.

Really? You are proving my point from my last post.

I think Woffy deserves credit for some great team riding.

You telling me normal business is not full of spivs and wideboys? I have been in business for 40 years and that’s what most business is made up of! Speedway is no different from the real world.

Wasn't a red card after I watched the replay. It looked worst at first glance.

Seen worse he picked up a bit of grip.

Don’t know how they put up with Kasprzak, certainly not aTeam man and doesn’t try a leg at times.

Not often I agree with Steve , but yes, I agree with that . One might also ask, if Frost thought he was being screwed over why did he let Lakeside sign Piotr Swiderski while it was all going on ? He spent a lot of time behind the scenes with Jon Cook trying to resolve it, and those two remain friends. Its just a shame Rick Frost got caught up in something he didn’t have enough experience to foresee at the time.

Poole currently are in the best league. As you'll hopefully find out.

I've sent you a PM Rob.

Rule changes were agreed to that benefited certain clubs, ones that wouldn't normally have past. It was you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. Lakeside were infamous for rolling over to Poole.

The demise of "World of Sport" was a major factor in my opinion...although not probably seen as that at the time. The likes of Briggs, Mauger, Collins etc were names that many outside of the sport had heard of as they plied their trade on national TV.

Making Cov weaker quite suited Ford and of course that was the main point . Ward being under 8 was also perfect once the one rider over 8 was brought in, a point made by many at the time . We all know that rule would never seen the light of day if Ward and Holder were both over 8 . it also allowed bjane to go to Eastbourne if i remember what of course is very handy when you want another club to vote for the same rules as you .

Well done all involved - a very well run event. Great to attend a Speedway meeting once again! Hopefully there will be a few more rounds of the Championship at other tracks.

Thanks, spiegal. I wasn't having a go at you. Inadvertent errors are easily made on Internet Forums, but I just felt that if we are discussing Arthur, it is only right to spell his name correctly.

So it takes 7-8 years to develop a vaccine to prove theres no side effects etc and you think its OK for the Government to force people to be vaccinated with something not fully tested

Leszno's balance isn't right. Kolodziej should not be riding at number 2. He should be at 5.

Wroclaw certainly look up for it.

Great race by Drabik

The winter of discontent was not caused by Coventry winning in 2010. It was caused by a couple of clubs jumping the gun with team building before the AGM. Some clubs in the top flight were struggling financially and didn’t want a higher points limit at the time. Matt Ford, devil incarnate for some and a promoter who could afford to put together a team in the higher points bracket, realised it would turn the EL into a have a have not League, which was basically half the haves and half the have nots. Whilst it is not good to pander to the lowest denominator, it is no good having a league of 4 clubs, with a further 4 or 5 making up the numbers. The idea of a points limit is so that clubs can all start on a fairly level playing field to give the sport some credibility. Matt Ford backed this idea. I am sure if Eastbourne and another club had been able to afford a higher points limit he would have gone along with that as well. Alan Trump stormed out of the AGM, and was naively followed at the time by Rick Frost, who regretted it later. Trump, a property millionaire, backed by Sandhu, could afford the best. So a high points limit was no issue. Same goes for Rick Frost. Take that against Eastbourne for example should couldn’t and wouldn’t afford the top stars. What’s the point of whipping boys? We see this current season what that’s like in the Polish leagues. Matt Ford said at the time that he was very disappointed in the outcome of the 2010 playoff finals. The bending of the rules by Coventry left a foul taste in the mouth but that had nothing to do with what happened that winter. It was all to do with keeping the EL to the maximum amount of teams and to keep it competitive for Sky. Matt Ford can be an easy target but if the sport had other promoters with the same brains and drive then it would be in a much better place than it currently finds itself. My opinion and many of course will disagree.

My reason for rooting for them is local patriotism. Im from Zielona Góra

Hampel is a second division rider these days. Always a gater, this form of “racing” has started to desert him more often than not. Fast out front but almost clueless these days when behind.

Teams confirmed in Wroclaw Wroclaw 9 C Holder 10 Drabik 11 Janowski 12 Fricke 13 Woffinden 14 Chugunov 15 liszka Leszno 1 Sayfutdinov 2 Kolodziej 3 Smektala 4 Lidsey 5 Piotr Pawlicki 6 Kubera 7 Szlauderbach

A couple of glances behind while half a lap in front constitutes team riding now

Report and results https://www.junior-speedway.de/hannah-grunwald-faehrt-auf-den-3-platz-im-finale-der-europameisterschaft-in-gedansk/?fbclid=IwAR1JDkhLqHDXdWdlir0AbUM3q_9_2Qb5tbSq35HiI1-WFsi54IINpWoNGjc

Bet 365 go Gorzow --6 against lublin Wroclaw + 4 against Leszno Kolodziej under 10 value for me

whats happening at the third level is good but there is a definite block to progress at the second level which has become far too strong.

The only things Ford was ever interested in was 1. Winning the Title. 2. Making Money. Once he couldn’t guarantee either he lost interest, he never gave a stuff about UK speedway.

I actually believe that in the long term neither Britain or Sweden will be able to justify using riders who have contracts in Poland. You are not being naive but you are missing one key point. Poland have already suggested that it will be a condition of future contracts that the rider will only be allowed to ride in the Polish leagues, apart from international events. Yes the Poles are running a tight season and can do without unneccessary risk. However we have already seen them add Fridays to the Extraliga schedule with League One mainly taking Saturdays, a day worryingly referred to in a recent interview as "formerly" being reserved for international events. NSport then announced the running ofestablished non-league events such as riders' championships, pairs and Golden, Silver and Bronze Helmet events on Monday nights, thus producing a schedule of up to nine televised meetings from Friday to Monday,with two being televised by Eleven Sports rather than NSport. When the four GP weekends occur the Ekstraliga will run on the Sunday and Monday. Okay, this COULD be just for the remarkable circumstances of 2020. However there are no guarantees thaty this will indeed be the case and Poland seizing Fridays to Mondays long-term. I read a large number of articles o Sportowe Fakty's website and while that site is rather sensational and you have to rely on Google Ytanslate you get a clear feeling that Poland's economic power could well be wielded long term so they get what they need with Britain, Sweden and Denmark herded into Tuesdays to Thursdays. There is no direct evidence yet but it doesn't take a huge leap of imagination to see it happening. We shouldn't be paranoid but it would be wise to recognise the potential problem.and prepare accordingly. The first step would be to plan for the possible need to run without riders holding Polish contracts and to reshape the international priority day system that currently limits our Premiership to Mondays and Thursdays to, in good time look at regaining lucrative Fridays and Saturdays, subject to an acceptable compromise with the Championship with a view to ending doubling-up thus allowing both leagues to run on the same night, thus avoiding the farce of teams having to change leagues at great risk just to retain their race nights. Okay, that calls for extra riders. With the UK exiting the EU sureky now is the time to lobby the government to remove many of the obstacles that currently restict the number of Australians riding here. It won't be an immediate, complete solution but it would be a significant start. An Aussie committed to a season in Britain is far more effective than another rider whose focus is on Poland and will be missing frequently. Times have changed. Time for British Speedway to change. The possibility of being dictated to by the needs of Poland could be even more ruinous than our current position. It could be the same in Sweden. Let's see how many squad members with Polish contracts actually get to ride in their league which starts in two days with an ominous silence on team line-ups when I last researched it on Friday. The money in Poland and needs of saturation TV must not be allowed to further damage the sport outside Poland. As a tailpiece, with the exception of meetings in Daugavpils Polish s[peedway fans can expect TV coverage of all league matches n all three divisions, with up to ten matches per weekend, plus regular Monday programming, leaving aside BSI events. That's saturation and might be a less beneficial long-term than you might think. If they take a hit it's sure to rebound on the other major speedway nations.

Yes. It clearly wasnt intended. Stuff like that just happens

FOOTBALL its FOOTBALL