Midland Red

I cannot believe that you continue to make this comment, despite others trying to have explained it to you - so I'll try Coventry, assuming they make the play-offs, will not generate from that achievement any extra funds/profit to recover the losses they clearly made over the debacle of the Poole/Sky meeting If the weather had been good, and the attendance on that night had been as big as expected, or budgetted for, the income from the play-offs will be still be the same - therefore, those losses will not be recovered [it would be interesting to know, by the way, if any figures for losses on that night are losses against break even (ie the cost of the debacle) or losses against expected/budgetted profit] Whatever the figure, £10,000 is different things to different people - to me it's a vast sum, to Richard Branson a drop in the ocean - to virtually all speedway promoters in the UK, I suggest it is a big sum - so for you to say that £10,000 "isn't that much money" is a very poor, misleading comment Mr Horton is probably more keen for the meeting to be rerun as it would be the only opportunity to recover some, if not all, of the losses he has incurred Remember, the losses are due to the (dis)organisation of GSI (with Sky) over the running of televised meetings in bad weather, and this was a meeting virtually everyone agrees should never have taken place As far as the league points are concerned, it is perhaps time to take stock of how they are awarded in rain-offs At present, a home win brings 3 points for the home side - after 15 heats It cannot be right that 3 points are also awarded at the "cut-off" stage of 10 heats, if the home side could still lose, or draw, a meeting had it gone the full distance Similarly, an away win brings 3 points (1-6 match points up) or 4 points (7+ points up) - if those are the scores at the "cut-off stage" of 10 heats, they could still be overturned if the meeting had gone the full distance I do not offer an alternative league points suggestion, merely to say that the rewards at heat 10 should not be the same as at heat 15 My stance on the meeting on 1 June is that the responsibility/blame lies squarely with GSI/Sky, which includes the actions and inactions of the meeting steward, and absolutely no blame can be attached to either team manager [since clearly with the regulations as they are, the winning team manager will almost always want to get to heat 10] or to the riders - the only time I would blame a team manager is risking the safety of a rider, and the only time I would blame a rider is risking his safety, of that of another rider Hopefully, some good will come out of all this - it's time for a full-blown review on how UK speedway operates, and perhaps a 2015 version of Nelson Mills-Baldwin should be brought in as soon as possible

Calling Mr Neil Watson, of this parish - sorry, this forum So, where were you Saturday morning? Down the Asda with your mobile switched off? Shame on you! Mr MD of GoSpeed International wanted you! Look what a mess you got us all into by going AWOL at such an important time!

Top post The fault lies squarely with the live televising of meetings - we all know from experience dating back to the late 1920s that when bad weather intervenes, there's either no meeting, a poor one or an abandoned one The poor weather is never going to go away, and until Sky came on the scene, weather disruptions were dealt with, in the main, with little or no problem Now we have the situation where track preparation is taken away from the promoting track, meetings which should never start are forced on, hopefully to reach heat 10 for a result, and it also seems that the general governance for a televised league meeting on Sky is totally different from the norm I attach no blame to Havvy, or to Muddlo, or any team manager in fact, who wants a meeting called off immediately heat 10 is reached when their team is in front Sky live league meetings are the main contributor to the devaluation of a decent family sport and have helped to cause the BSPA to generally lose the plot on how to run the sport (black and white double points, green helmet covers, heat 10 cut-off, play-offs creating champions from 4th place, loss of a decent cup competition, televised meetings off tracks' normal nights, etc etc) Let's get our sport back! Peter Clarke, who promised a track inspection after heat 9, live on TV, then reneged on it, was sporting an SCB logo on his coat

Oh dear - no more Comedy Gold!

Not total nonsense! Look at the sparse attendance last night, compared with the same fixture a few weeks ago, not televised So many chose to stay in front of the TV last night - yes, the weather played its part, but that's the point - more would have taken a chance and attended in the terrible weather had it not been on TV

I said earlier the 10 heat rule should be abolished In addition, I would say, for the sake of British speedway, let's do away with live televised meetings Perhaps a weekly " highlights" programme - there still are highlights in this wonderful sport Get the remains of the speedway public back in the stadia instead of their armchairs

Bomber and Garrity will ride, and race, almost everywhere - but clearly the track was too dangerous even for them

Abolish the heat 10 rule

If Garrity thinks it's dangerous, then it is Steward doesn't keep to his word about inspection Poole rule - sorry, Poole's rules

TONIGHT's meeting at Brandon between the Buildbase Bees and Poole is ON. The track is currently dry and the stadium has escaped any significant rainfall during the afternoon. As at 5pm, conditions are good and it is all systems go for the meeting, starting at 7.30pm.

Financial suicide to reduce admission prices for a televised meeting when the weather's like today's - cold, wet and windy - which is likely to deter a number who would have attended in better weather Imagine - the meeting goes ahead in bad weather, many choose to watch on TV because of the weather, those who do attend pay reduced admission Not very clever I know the meeting at Swindon last week looked good on TV with a big crowd - but it won't always work, and today's a day when it wouldn't

And for those of us whose first language is English?

"Footnote: When we have a situation where our leagues are struggling through the shortest of top riders" So - who's the shortest of top riders, then, and how are our leagues struggling because of the riders' size?

I know we've been over this ground before - several times - but it does seem that we are revisiting 1963/64, when the top league (National League) was dying through falling number of tracks, and the lower league (Provincial League) was reportedly doing decent business and providing good racing So what happened? Amalgamation, the creation of the British League, the saviour (then) of the so-called dying sport - and BL2 too was created for the up-and-coming riders on tracks who couldn't afford to go BL1 and some second teams of BL1 outfits Does this not sound familiar??? Provincial League riders raised their game, against the so-called National League star riders (and there were a lot more of them than there are now in the Elite(?) League) - and it worked, it worked very well - indeed, new tracks appeared And it could work again, if costs are cut, admission prices are reduced, live televised league racing is abolished, and those that want to race a full British league programme can do so, those that want to ++++ off to Sweden, Denmark and Poland, well, let them go - no more prima donnas, please! Just a thought! Oak Tree Arena

Apologies! BV is incorrect by 10 points Revised chart; (no. of meetings; match score; EDR score; 1-5 score) +/- +/- +/- Coventry h 4 28 20 8 a 7 31 23 8 11 59 43 16 Poole h 4 26 11 15 a 4 9 10 -1 8 35 21 14 Kings Lynn h 5 70 1 69 a 5 -20 2 -22 10 50 3 47 Wolverhampton h 5 38 7 31 a 5 -55 -6 -49 10 -17 1 -18 Belle Vue h 4 24 -3 27 a 6 -40 3 -43 10 -16 0 -16 Leicester h 5 -12 -6 -6 a 2 -48 1 -49 7 -60 -5 -55 Swindon h 5 30 -3 33 a 3 -52 -17 -35 8 -22 -20 -2 Lakeside h 6 61 -21 82 a 6 -90 -22 -68 12 -29 -43 14 It doesn't alter the EDR figures It's 1 different from your figures as I exclude the double-points, as explained so Leicester at home is taken as 55-35, Coventry at home 39-51, Kings Lynn away as 40-50 Apologies, once again, for the error (I did say e&oe!)

On the Poole website, Fat Maud says Magic is resting for a week Is he?

Cheers! It also shows how under-performing at home the Bees top five is!

Have been interested to see the impact of the Elite Draft Riders, with some suggesting they have too much impact on match results Taking EL matches only, and excluding double point tactical scores, the figures so far (e&oe) are as follows: (no. of meetings; match score; EDR score; 1-5 score) +/- +/- +/- Coventry h 4 28 20 8 a 7 31 23 8 11 59 43 16 Poole h 4 26 11 15 a 4 9 10 -1 8 35 21 14 Kings Lynn h 5 70 1 69 a 5 -20 2 -22 10 50 3 47 Wolverhampton h 5 38 7 31 a 5 -55 -6 -49 10 -17 1 -18 Belle Vue h 4 14 -3 17 a 6 -40 3 -43 10 -26 0 -26 Leicester h 5 -12 -6 -6 a 2 -38 1 -39 7 -50 -5 -45 Swindon h 5 30 -3 33 a 3 -52 -17 -35 8 -22 -20 -2 Lakeside h 6 61 -21 82 a 6 -90 -22 -68 12 -29 -43 14 It highlights those teams with the strongest 6 and 7s, and also gives an insight into the performances of the top fives

I repeat my opinion from other threads - attendances will suffer through live televising of meetings, GP or League - especially when you see the prices for Cardif! Posted at the same time as mine - with similar sentiments

My point was . . . . The only chance to see themAny "mystique" disappears if you've seen them regularly on TV Comparing seeing Real Madrid live with attending a speedway meeting is plain daft Can't comment on darts

Is that the official line from BSI, or the FIM, or Pinegen?

It was meant as ONE item of explanation, and not necessarily a MAJOR point OK - I still hark back to the "good old days" - and from where I stand (or sit) they WERE good old days At Brandon we had extremely good attendances each and every Saturday (apart for the Stock Car Saturday, when the stadium overflowed!!!!) and we watched out "local heroes" 1965, we had Boocock, Mountford, Lightfoot, France, Cottrell, Owen and Harrison 1968, it was Boocock, France, Cottrell, Owen, Harrison, Hill and Ridley There's another point there too - consistency of team make-up - Mountford was out most of 68 and 69, returning in 70, so from 1965, you could say there was only one line-up change So, fans could really identify with the team members, knew them, met them - it all helps, for fans not only support the sport, or their team, they also support individual riders, and if they're local and consistently appearing, they'll stay on the terraces and in the stands to watch them Look at non-team sports like grasstrack and motocross - the riders have huge individual following, and the value of that should not be lost to speedway One reason the second (and third) halves used to be popular at Brandon was watching up and coming locals having a go I hoped Coventry Storm might be able to follow the local rider route (as per Cottrell, Ridley, Lomas, Booton, Mattocks, Hill, from years gone by) but sadly the make up of the 2015 team is anything but local Journey foreigners flying in (or not) for one season is not the route to establishing a firm supporter base And I agree that the drawcards are not around any more - and that's largely due to television exposure In the "good old days", it was an occasion for Fundin, or Briggs, for example, to appear at Brandon, and if we didn't go, we didn't see them Nowadays, whatever top riders there are within or without the UK, they can be seen week in, week out, on TV, so there's little or no encouragement to pay out to watch them live anymore Imagine the draw Tai Woffinden would have been around the British tracks when reigning World Champion if the only chance you had to seen him was by going to a track and paying your admission money

It doesn't help that teams these days are made up almost entirely of journeymen riders, with little or no affection for their club Gone are the days of teams including a number of local riders, home grown riders, whom fans could relate to on and off the track And, of course, there's the self-inflicted increase in guest riders because of the doubling-up situation - I'm all for riders getting as much track time as possible but not where it causes team selection problems week in week out throughout the UK A new blueprint for British speedway is desperately needed - NOW Squads have been mentioned to allow for "star riders" to reappear in our leagues - but squads are just as much needed to obviate the doubling-up absenteeism

Can't wait to read all the positives and justifications for tonight from Mr Rising!

Didn't Marvyn Cox and Andy Smith ride on German and Polish licences?