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I often disagreed with him on here ... In a very enjoyable way. His view was to be respected and I greatly appreciated the numerous times he instigated one to one discussions via personal messenger that greatly enlightened my understanding of the 'real story' that would not be possible to print. My respect for him was greatest just because he did have the balls to come on here and engage in real debate with us. He did so with the passion of someone still in love with the sport but with the deep knowledge of his lifetime of covering it so magnificently in print. A wonderful combination. His biggest legacy is of course Speedway Star, which PR curated for so long, offering Michelin Star coverage of what is often a transport cafe sport. I trust the team will carry his torch well. Farewell Philip.

I've always loved the Speedway Star. I adored the stats page, and spent more time reading with that magazine than anything else while I was growing up during the 1980s. Of course, the editor of the Star during that period was Phil Rising. He made such a huge contribution to speedway, while at times, it could be argued that magazine is better than speedway has deserved. RIP Phil.

A crass stupid pointless posting. Speedway has enough problems as it is. Poole Pirates should not forfeit this fixture in any circumstances.

Sorry Bob, but I disagree entirely with you. The meeting should be restaged to allow riders to earn money and the club to earn revenue. The sport is in trouble with dwindling crowds add in the delayed start to this season and at Poole Stadium because of Covid restrictions the club lost money with only being allowed 1300 spectators at the first two meetings. Without supporters and meetings, clubs will not survive. Tomorrow's meeting being cancelled is beyond the control of Poole Speedway. Stadium staff being pinged by the NHS Covid App to self isolate. Therefore the club has no access to the stadium tomorrow evening . I will also take you to task on the fact you stated Redcar fans won't trust the Poole management to honour tickets for any restaging date. That remark is not only inappropriate its borderline slanderous. You are entitled to your opinion but its not constructive and I don't consider your post is a fair reflection at all.

Says it all...

I'm sure it's more of a pain in the arse for the suspected covid cases, don't you think... Lets hope they don't end up in Hospital eh... Or worse !!! All you are worried about is the bloody money ffs.. Seems Ford thinks the same, saying they have lost thousands already.... Lives come first, or it should do. Having know 2 people die with Covid, and my daughter and Grandson tested Positive 4 days ago. I find your post out of order.

I often didn't agree with him on here, but it was never personal and we had some good banter along the way. I would fully agree that the Speedway Star was a higher quality magazine than the sport deserved, and I did appreciate his insights into the sport on here.

What is it with this postponement? The Poole management have tried every angle to get this to run. It is out of their hands completely. And I'm pretty certain to become a licensee you can't do it in 2 days.

Message to all the Redcar Bears Speedway Fans on the Southern tour, who have extended it to visit the Isle of Wight. We are all very sorry to hear of the meeting cancellation at Poole, so we wanted to do a small surprise to cheer you all up while you are at Smallbrook Stadium with us. We will organise a centre green visit at least during your visit and if we can extend it to other treats we will. Send me a DM or email speedwayontheisland@yahoo.co.uk and we can go from there . All the best from us all and we look forward to welcome you If you are coming there will be Gates open 5.15pm Pits open 5.45 - 6.15pm Youth demos from 6.15pm Lady races - 3 races featuring 4 female riders. 6.45 Parade Upright challenge 6 races of Team MPS Body and Paint Jawa V Metro Timber Weslakes. 15 races of 3TT Warriors V Oxford V Heathens. 15 races including Handicap races, and nominated races. BRUCE CRIBB rides an ice bike and if there is time we will have a few japs out and about at meeting close

Message from Barry Bishop of the Wightlink Warriors for Redcar fans coming shortly.

Steve why do you bother? The situation has become another reason to knock Poole.

He could probably go round in a wheelchair and pick a few points up from KK & Berntzon

What's he been up to then . I Suppose he was part of a team who was involved in an attempted robbery of a result last night

Phil was a great journalist. H was a man who didn't suffer self serving short sighted "johnny cum lately"..hence his contempt of the recent governership of British speedway. We were friends for 40 odd years..always great company and he was actually very shy .# An evening in his company along with Frosty..Oaksie, Scoop, Scotty, Clarkie, Mike Patrick, Terry, Briggo, Ole, etc..magical.. Rest well my Sarasota golfing mate...you were a class act Jimbo x

We have lost a giant influence on the sport. His legacy will be the magazine that he saved from ipc's scrapheap and made it survive as an independent title. The Star has been a far better magazine than the sport often deserved. Thank you for that Philip. My condolences to his family, both at home and at Pinegen.

Its actually my bike so its not so old... well not as old as Bruce..... Never tell him that ha ha

Tell ya what I will bring Rob over on Sunday and he can explain what the true situation was... cost never came into it with Claus it's people trying to be diplomatic that muddy the water... I would rather have it all out there... then the truth can't be denied... on the riders that have been approached the biggest stumbling block has been Poland and racing on a Sunday not costs... Regards THJ

As the intended sponsor of the Poole v Redcar meeting, as soon as the rearranged date is confirmed, I'll ask Danny Ford to see if the meeting can be streamed - especially for those Redcar fans who have missed out this week. Maybe Redcar could arrange the same next Friday for those Poole fans not able to travel?! (Assuming its not rained off of course)

Birmingham should be banned then, they just run meeting when they want and pick their opponents.Get a Grip.

No , no need, Willie is usually socially distanced and well tailed off out the back.

Willie or the bike.

Yes and yes. I would have loved Sverre to have gone one better too.

What's the point of the SCB awarding a point each. Another stupid pointless reply. Restage the meeting so both sets of fans can attend and create revenue.

Not going to get into your spat but Zane Keleher was the worst rider of 20 there by the proverbial. Regardless of the behind the scenes issue he would have been out by now from his on track riding.

This is very heart warming, on the fact of it everything is still pretty much in place, a bit more work and you could run practice on that track no problem.

I'm glad you said something! I've been wanting to say that, but I didn't want to have to deal with the responses... Why should a rider have to go down in order to get something done? People whine about those who drop the bike too easily, but if you've been given a hefty whack and fought to stay on, why should you be the one penalised?

Interesting that @chris4gillian has nothing to say about Bowtell's score for Poole compared to ZK score for Plymouth! Totally gained from that! Only meeting we missed him since he left is prob at Berwick.

They weren't for the club as the deal had been done... and Claus wouldn't comitt to Newcastle and said his Danish team would come first unless he got a second British club... he wanted to come in and out of the country as per the old days... pre Brexit... which at that time would have meant that his availability could not be guarenteed... there was also other outside interference that dictated the action taken... if you were aware of the European riders this promotion have approached you would be astounded... They have tried for six Scandinavians and five British based riders (in the last 6 weeks) all to no avail and cost has never come into the mix... neither wages or travel expenses... there's one thing for sure this guy pays his riders as per contract unlike the previous shower who run the spot... who still owed money to 4 of the 7 at the end of their last season and left this promotion to pay the bill... It's just another sorry saga in Diamonds history that this new promotion have had to contend with but with the support that come to the for this weekend hopefully Rob will feel revitalised from the good will and support he received and he carries on fighting the good fight... The show of support on Sunday was absolutely fantastic just a pity the team couldn't rise to the challenge and my only wish would have been to race against Plymouth first then Poole and although I still think Poole would have been good for the points it would have been a bit closer (and two heats shorter) but never mind it was a fantastic turn out... Just need half of those in attendance this week to come back next week and build from there and it will be a different story next year that's for sure... although three quarters would be better... Regards THJ

We know we are the weakest of the six teams so all fans want to see is effort, commitment and fight and in scoring 38 at Wolves I think that was the case tonight. Thought we'd do well to get thirty so fair play to the team.

Eurosport are going to be showing the same amount of meetings BT did,,, I don't remember all this non stop whinging about them. Should think yourselves lucky anybody is showing it

Does it matter? Godspeed Phil

Just taken a look at the British Speedway News website and I agree, a disgracefully brief obituary, lacking in facts, poorly researched and without depth for a man who should IMO have been inducted into the Speedway Hall of Fame for his services to UK speedway. One can only hope that a more adequate obituary will follow shortly.

A sad loss... did more to "Promote" our sport than many track owners! Should be the next inductee into the Speedway Hall of Fame!

British speedway is in a downward spiral thanks to the way it’s been run. I agree we should have had more meetings. Going without home meetings when the weather is fine is a joke. The sports managers don’t ride the bikes tho and as I’ve said in other posts bachelor can go and practice at Leicester any time as the Bates own it I know it’s not the same as proper racing but he said he doesn’t feel comfortable on the bike so surely if you get an opportunity to have a blast you would take it as it’s his profession. I’ve watched him home and away this season and half his races he can’t be arsed. When he gates he looks class. All I ask as a paying fan is 100% effort and when we have time off work to travel to support him I don’t think that’s a lot to ask.

I think we have all established that most clubs clearly don’t want to take the risk of running their own track shops , but Iainb won’t accept that for Leicester Speedway it is the best business decision , if the rent from jaybea allows us to sign a better calibre rider or helps keep the club afloat then I have no issue with it . @iainb can i ask if you have any issue with the quality of product from Jaybea or is your opinion purely on the your belief the club should run their own track shop ?

Long story short the chances of my employers ITV showing speedway anytime soon or frankly in the future are somewhere around zero. Resources are a lot tighter than they used to be and the truth is production costs make it unviable for the commercial returns it would generate. Speaking as a fan of 40 years plus the simple fact that we've all had to come to terms with, is speedway is now firmly looked on as a minority sport. When I read Backtrack Classic Speedway etc see the big crowds and know the way ITV used to cover speedway nationally and regionally with full OB's it breaks my heart that apart from sporadic coverage on the regional news the interest is no longer there. But that's the way it is and it isn't going to change.

That fiction certainly suits your user name.

And there lies the problem.

They will no doubt correct it..... To 'Ben' Bewley.....

Panthers giving it to the Aces again,,, whatever happened to Geoff the Aces fan

All maintenance free, don't have to do a thing, just watch the money roll in

I thought you were being a tad melodramatic, until I read it. It basically translates as "man who disagreed with me died" Do I detect the hand of the notoriously thin-skinned Mr Godfrey?

Whatever "deal" BSPL have done with Eurosport, they have been sold a pup. Not looking good for next season , when they have the UK rights to the SGP.

They've explained why they have changed the fixture, a local derby when the kids are off with good weather will bring in much needed revenue when the club have admitting their going from week to week. Or would you rather the club fold just to keep a handful of fans happy that may or may not travel the 200 miles from Edinburgh? I really sympathise for fans that are down south already but the promotion are trying to save their club. I'm not sure they had much choice tbh

Yeah I think Tatum was wrong. Although of course transponders don’t necessarily tell you who has finished ahead. It is theoretically possible for a rider to actually be beaten technically (ie his wheel doesn’t touch the line first) but have a quicker time than the other guy in a tight finish and be awarded the placing. It’s possible for someone to be finishing faster than someone else and although his wheel isn’t first to the line his transponder could cross the line first if he’s accelerating quicker.

Of course he has; he's better than everybody else!

Tip of the day Research wildcards who have won a Speedway GP,, then take the opportunity to take your foot out of your mouth

Greyhounds re-opening to the public 5 days a week from August 16th.

After seeing this letter we arranged an urgent meeting with Dave Busst, which took place last Monday. He has since clarified his comments to the planning officer. The position remains that the football club do not support the application.