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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.

The PL conversion change was a typical Ford move. He used it to his benefit for Chris Holder and Darcy Ward. After missing out on Kenni Larsen and Sundstrom, he was bitter and the conversion rate was moved to 60 percent.

A great job done by Rob and his team with some fantastic racing

Yesterday Vikingarna Speedway from Örebro made their return to Swedish league speedway when they hosted a Div 1 meeting at their track.

Fricke in Heat 15 lol. What a way to hand Leszno the win on a plate.

Luckily Kolodziej team rode at sat behind Slauderbach.

Talking of team riding.. Kolidziej did a decent job of it there..

The AGM was in November. The season didn’t start till March. Its the same every year. The team building rules are agreed at the AGM and then everyone has a level playing field to build a team within the rules set. Ford didn’t get a “little gang “ together. Every promoter left in the room after Cov and Peterborough walked out voted unanimously for the team building rules, including Ronnie Russell.

Drabik is off the boil these days

Zmarzlik from another planet

Own goal not to replace Hampel with Lampart then. Hampel been well off it.

50/50 call here. Impossible for NKI to stay up but at the same time you cant exclude Zagar for that move as the contact was minimal. NKI to go for me unfortunately.

You are not answering the questions. We are talking specifically about him allegedly wanting to put Coventry and Peterboro out of business I wouldn’t go as far as to say he was a cancer but. The controversy he attracted, some of it justified, was not good for the sport, nor were some of his tactics, but they weren’t aimed at one or two clubs in particular. I am thinking , for example of Joe Screen being declared unfit the night before the new greensheets were compiled yet fit enough to score a 15 point maximum in Denmark the next night , but maintained a British average just low enough to fit Hans Anderson in the team. Then of course the dodgy heat 20 rain offs in one or two TV meetings. Those things I know sickened many fans but the reality is most other clubs were up to similar tricks, it’s just that Ford seemed to do much more of it. However , I don’t accept Ford master minded the winter of discontent. Rules were passed in the absence of Coventry any Peterboro because they chose to walk out of the AGM. Certainly Ford wasn’t pandering to either Eastbourne or Lakeside.

Yes, very jealous of seeing crowds fall year on year with scandal after scandal, almost always involving Poole. As has been said, you reap what you sew.

That's why I said what I did earlier. You can't blame any single time or event; it was a collection of events over a period of several years. While British speedway has constantly shot itself in the foot, and the authorities have failed to stop the bleeding, there are a number of factors that cannot be blamed on speedway itself. 1) The demise of greyhound racing. I'm not venturing any personal opinion on the sport, but we have relied on it, particularly where the GRA were the landlords. 2) The ever-increasing NIMBY population who have been largely responsible for driving a very visible and easy-accessible city-centre sport into the rural wilderness. 3) Tied in with number 2), the desire for redevelopment, which has had a detrimental impact on many sporting venues. 4) The fact that for whatever reason, speedway just isn't "cool" anymore...

Dave, take it from someone who's done the job. albeit at a much lower level, if you delivered the perfect commentary someone will always come out from under a stone to attack. Often it's motivated by simple jealousy. You're right to research and try to get it right. You're doing a great job in very difficult circumstances, so remote fro m the action. I thoroughly enjoy your work. You avoid lazy cliche for starters. Thank you. You're doing an honest job and doing it very well. It's a pleasure to have your company for a couple of hours, although five nights a week is pushing it ;-)

Ye. Because of Lindbecks hair-do we call him Predator in Poland. ACtually most significant riders have a nickname in Poland. Examples: Pedersen is being called "Dzik" (Boar) coz boars can just attack running blindly for no reason.

He is Czech - i thought you knew about Speedway

Hope his mum packed a water bottle.