G the Bee

A win's a win I suppose but it would appear we are running a charity for less fortunate speedway teams than ourselves. I think we gifted Belle Vue a point there by using JK and DK in heat 15 rather than at least Harris and probably Andersen as well. Obviously we are not privy to what goes on in the pits, but I very much doubt Hans and Harris off 2 and 4 would have been on the wrong end of a 5:1. I know it made no difference to our points tally, but why give the opposition the chance of picking up points? A point gained for an opposing team can make all the difference come play-off time.

But they don't do they? If they did, our stadiums would be packed out week in, week out. If we put a GP on at Peterborough or Kings Lynn, I doubt you'd get more than 8-10,000 there. Cardiff will get between 35 and 40,000 nailed on. And the fans will come knowing that the track will probably rut up and the racing surface will be far from ideal. The big stadiums attract the big crowds. And it's the big crowds the sport needs. The GP at Bydgoszcz last year had a pitiful crowd. And the World Cup Final crowd was also disappointing. Both on what is regarded as one of the best race tracks in the world. Yet last night, they sold out the Polish National Stadium. In a city without a speedway pedigree. People want to buy into the whole spectacle. Good riders and close racing may cut it for the purist, but that's a tiny market. I, for one, believe that the top level of our sport deserves so much more than the easy way out of deciding that the GP will go back to being held in out of date stadiums outside the big cities. The thing is, I believe we can have our cake and eat it. There has to be a way to get a relatively 'normal' condition track into one of these venues.

I'm just left bewildered by the whole thing. Yes it was a balls-up from the beginning but, with the exception of the starting gate issue, I saw nothing that we haven't seen on countless other temporary tracks. Yes it was rutty and bumpy, but riders were hardly two-wheeling into the corners. A few riders fell, but riders have falls all the time, irrespective of ruts. And on these temporary tracks, there will be ruts and riders will fall off. It's not ideal but it happens. Look at the ruts and bumps when Bomber won at Cardiff. A quick YouTube search will show you that the track tonight was no worse than that. I just wonder, when the riders were sitting in their briefing, how many of them considered the thousands of fans who had paid their money to be there. Some who had paid hundreds of pounds plus to attend. And who now, with the meeting result declared, are left short changed (irrespective of any compensation package which may or may not be forthcoming from the organisers). Why was there a will to 'get on with it' back when the GP was initially brought into these stadiums, which seems to have disappeared now? What happened to 'the show must go on'? And before anyone pipes up with that old chestnut of 'rider safety is paramount', unfortunately riders get injured. It's an unfortunate part of our sport. But I've seen plenty of riders injured on 'ideally' prepared tracks. All riders know that the GP temporary tracks are inconsistent. When they sign up for the GP, surely they understand that there is a good chance that some of the racing surfaces they are faced with will be less than ideal. But, of course, I'm not a rider, so I'm not allowed to comment on this, I suppose.

A triumph. Riders, promoters and officials, hold your heads up high.

A triumph. Riders, promoters and officials, hold your heads up high.

Can a result be called after heat 12?

Great result. Puts the result from a few weeks ago into perspective. That was a glorified practise session with Leicester riding against what was, to all intents and purposes, a five man team without its number 1. This was the serious stuff.

You've met him. He is the lad that was riding the motorised scooter up and down the back straight stands during the Storm meeting last year.

I don't disagree with you. perhaps what we need is a modern day version of Mr Ochiltree. Someone who knows what the public of today wants and is single minded in his vision to give it to them. It's a different era now. Life in general is so much more fast paced. Entertainment is instant and can be found in short, sharp bursts at the touch of a button. That's what speedway has to compete with. And, apart from at GP level, it is failing miserably. My little boy is 8. He's been brought up with a father who is a huge speedway fan. I've taken him along on countless occasions... and he hates it. Why? Because he gets bored. He doesn't want to watch a tractor going round and round. He doesn't want to watch riders going backwards and forwards to the pits and back or playing games at the tapes. I've watched him. He tends to watch the first couple of heats, but by heat 4 or 5 he is bored. Because in half an hour, he's seen 4 minutes of action and stood around for the rest of the time. That's when the Ipad comes out of the bag. It's either that or I have to put up with an 8 year old telling me that "he's cold, bored, cold and bored, uncomfortable..." I take him to Villa park about once a month and it's a different story. Even though Villa are doing poorly this year, he sits and watches the whole game and he loves it. He watches the half-time entertainment too. Why? Because something is constantly happening. In my opinion, speedway (not accounting for re-runs or accidents) could get through 20 heats by 9pm with a half seven start if the show was run properly and the riders knew what was expected of them. Get rid of the 2 minute time allowance. It should be 1 minute. It should sound the moment the last rider from the heat before has entered the pits. If a rider has two heats on the trot, tough luck. They have to re-fuel and get back to the tapes. It's up to the team manager to keep instances like this to a minimum. Just imagine the difference. An hour and a half of pretty much non-stop entertainment with the heats coming thick and fast. An MC building the atmosphere. It's got to be the way forward. But it'll never happen.

I agree. No-one can deny, he ran a slick, well oiled operation in terms of the timing of the meeting. But even Mr Ochiltree didn't really move with the times. I suspect if you looked at the show that the Bees were putting on in the late 80s and early 90s and compare it to the show that was being put on in the 1960s and 1970s it hadn't changed much. The presentation at Brandon was dated by the end of his time running the Bees. I remember taking a friend of mine in the early 90s, when we'd have both been about 16 and cringing as the track staff and first aiders all came marching out to the 'rumpetty tumpetty' tune which I can still recite off by heart (but never knew the name of). It was during this time that the sport began it's decline and the promoters of the time (including Mr Ochiltree) did not react quickly enough in so many ways. When speedway was in its heyday, Mr Ochiltree knew how to put a show on according to what was acceptable/wanted then. He ran a tight ship according to very strict organisational ideas. But did he really move with the times? We speak about promoters such as Charles Ochiltree and John Berry almost with a sense of awe and wonder. However, the decline of the sport began during the watch of many of these 'great' promoters.

Voice of Reason hits the nail on the head. The riders coming around on a truck in an attempt to improve presentation is akin to improving the comfort of lying on a bed of nails by wearing a string vest! It's not a Coventry thing though. I'm yet to go to any track which has anything approaching decent presentation. A 7:30 prompt tapes up. Meeting over by 9. No interval. Quick turn around of heats. Compare the presentation of an EL meeting to that of a GP. They are light years apart. In a GP, you've barely got time to fill out your programme before the next heat is coming out. That's how it should be. Loud music between heats (modern stuff - even though it's not to my taste). An MC who gets the crowd going. You've got to create a party atmosphere. On Friday at Brandon, despite the meeting being pushed through at a decent pace, the atmosphere was like a morgue. And it was a local derby against Wolves! There seems to be no concept from any speedway promoter that they are in the entertainment business. Take Friday at Brandon. The meeting got down to a 1 point lead for Bees, a bit of tension had crept into the meeting in the last few heats. Bees got a 5:1 in heat 12 and then... the momentum and enjoyment went out of the window for 15 minutes as an interval was called. Just as the meeting had started to liven up a bit! And we all stood around in the cold, in a stadium that has seen better days, just... waiting... and... watching... the... tractors! Speedway spends too long doing things because it has always done them. We spend too long pandering to the cloth-cap brigade. There is a reason why the local whist club has a younger clientele than the average speedway team. If we can't find a way to get the younger generation into the sport, it is dead at league level.

I've a solution to the Bridger bike situation. Hanging on the wall in the speedway museum is a bike of Lewis Bridger's. An old upright which he rode once in the Newport New Year Classic. It was a bike which struggled to complete 4 laps! In my opinion, it has no place at all being in the speedway museum, so surely the best solution is for Bridger to ask for it back so he has a bike to use! Problem solved.

All of his recent tweets seem to have disappeared from his twitter account. Strange.

And you've made your point. Quite strongly. In fact, so strongly that you have decided to break forum rules and post in capitals to get your point across. Like we can't read! What I would say is that just because you don't like something (e.g. the advent of the GPs), doesn't mean that it's not a historically significant milestone in the history of the sport that shouldn't be covered in a nostalgia magazine. However, perhaps this is a debate for another thread. Maybe Tony might want to open up a thread of its own.

Personally, I feel that by not extending into the 90s, it's an opportunity missed. The 90s were a pivotal decade for the sport. The advent of the GP and demise of the Individual World Final and it's associated repercussions. The introduction of lay-down engines The many changes in the league structure The emergence of Poland as a world force through the emergence of Gollob and the strength of the Extraliga The retirement of many of the 'great' riders of the 70s and 80s The emergence of a new breed of rider at international level (Rickardsson, Crump, Gollob, Adams, Loram). Sky's involvement. In my opinion, what the reader of Backtrack wants are well written, nostalgic, in-depth articles. I personally have less interest in the 1970s but I'll still read the articles on Tony Davey, Martin Ashby etc because they are well written. I can't believe an article or two on the 90s stuff would stop any reader from buying the magazine.

Hi Tony, On a different point, being as Backtrack has been around for over 10 years now, do you not think the time is right to extend its remit into the 1990s? After all, 1990 is now further away than 1980 was when the magazine was introduced. Keep up the good work though. It's a great read every few months.

But British Speedway hasn't been run in a way that's best for British Speedway for years! If it had been, the sport would not be on its backside right now. And let's not paint a picture that all is rosy in the PL, because it certainly is not. One only has to read Mick Horton's comments this week in the Speedway Star to see that. The fact is, the sport at Elite League level should have moved to one race night years ago. Instead, they clung to an out-of-date league format which dates from the time when the British League was the only league for riders to race in. The EL promoters should have recognised the threat of Poland and Sweden years ago, accepted the system and worked within it. Instead, they dug their heads in the sand, constantly came up with reasons for a single race night not to work, rather than create a determination to make it work and, as a result, created the watered down, half-way-house of an Elite League we have at the moment. Something's got to change. The Elite League cannot keep going on the way it is. Farcical doubling up rules, fixture clashes, uneven and disjointed fixtures are killing the sport. The EL has either got to go one race night and get the top riders back or simply shut up shop. Every year, it seems to get worse, crowds are lower, the standard of rider is lower... If the promoters do not have a collective determination to do something radical then they are wasting their time and the sport, at least at Elite League level, will die a slow but inevitable death.

Under my proposal, the riders still can ride in both leagues... Provided they prioritise their EL fixtures. To be honest, I often wonder just how hard it is for riders to find a ride in Sweden or Poland. I suspect that it's more to do with they get (in the short-term at least) a better financial deal which is far less risky and its far less hassle in terms of travelling, to ride PL instead. And once they are riding a full set of EL and PL fixtures, they don't need to ride in Sweden and Poland. Don't forget, if they ride in the PL it pretty much precludes them from riding in Poland due to Sunday fixture clashes.

As far as I'm concerned, the doubling-up rule is a pain in the backside. What started out ten-or-so years ago as a scheme with the intention of, for a limited amount of time, giving up-and-coming British riders the chance to gain experience in the top league without taking the hit of losing their income in the Premier League, has turned into a bloated, out of control monster which is playing havoc with EL fixtures. Of course, no-one knows what the make-up of the EL will be next season. But, assuming the status quo is roughly maintained (another debate for another day) something has to be done about the doubling-up rule. The simple solution, and one I would prefer, would be to scrap the rule pretty much completely. Only FTD reserves would be allowed to double up. However, if that is not possible, drastic changes are needed. We can't have the farcical situation maintained where a team in the lower division has priority over a rider in the event of a fixture clash. Asset or not, that situation is a nonsense. And now there is no limit on the amount of time a rider can double up, the situation is worse. Theoretically, a rider progressing in the Premier League, such as Craig Cook, Richard Lawson, Richie Worrall, Kyle Howarth or many of the new FTD riders, will never need to move-up to the EL full time. So, in the case of Cook or Howarth, for example, they can continue to ply their trade in both leagues pretty much indefinitely (perhaps even, in the case of Cook, as a heat leader in both) but at a continued detriment to their Elite League clubs as both are assets of Premier League clubs. In the past, a PL club, realising their rider wanted to take the natural progression from PL to EL, would have been content to sell their rider, but this is no longer the case. Assuming the rider in question is happy at his PL club, why, for example, would Workington sell Kyle Howarth to Coventry knowing that as soon as they do so, they lose priority over his fixtures even though Howarth would be able to represent Workington for many seasons to come. It's time for the EL to get tough. The fact is, many of these riders are not PL riders propping up the EL, but EL riders providing the PL with its heat leaders. Despite this, at the moment, the deck seems unfairly stacked in favour of the Premier League. The situation needs reversing. Next season, the EL promoters should decide at the AGM that any rider (with the exception of a 'Fast Track' reserve) who wishes to double up will only be allowed to do so if they prioritise their EL fixtures. This will, essentially make the riders (who up to now have had the luxury of 'having their cake and eating it') decide what type of rider they wish to be. If riders like Cook, Howarth, Lawson, etc are content to just ply their trade in the PL, so be it. But, I suspect, if the riders were forced to make a decision, most (and certainly the up-and coming riders) would go with EL. Harsh but fair to all concerned. If a rider wishes to ride in the top division then he must ensure his EL fixtures take priority. If he doesn't, then he can stay in the PL.

To be honest, I think we should. We get Swedish league (which I had to pay Premier Sports £10 a month for last year), SEC, Eurosport Pairs and SGP on this channel. And for a great many viewers, Eurosport (unlike Sky Sports and Premier Sports) is part of their viewing package at no extra cost. Who cares if, to accommodate showing the SGP live, they have bumped it on to Quest for the evening? What difference does it make (other than the minor inconvenience of the loss of HD coverage for the night)? Who cares if the odd Swedish meeting is shown as delayed coverage? Premier Sports did this occasionally last year, and I was paying them £10 a month for the privilege. Some speedway fans need to accept that we support a minority sport. Whilst I don't like it, I can totally understand that Eurosport have made a commercial decision to show the tennis and showjumping on their 2 channels and therefore do praise them for finding a viable alternative for showing it live. We have to be realistic about these things. I suspect that Eurosport have reasoned that they will simply make more money and/or attract more viewers by showing the show jumping and tennis than the speedway. Simple as that. To be honest, looking at the pitiful crowds we get at most speedway meetings, I am amazed so much speedway (more than ever before, mostly thanks to Eurosport's coverage of new events) is televised at all. The fact is, Sky pulled the plug on the GPs. I recall plenty of complaints on here when Sky (with their 4 sports channels, as opposed to 2) used to bump the SGP on to the red button where it cannot be paused, rewound or recorded as has become the norm with set-top boxes nowadays. So, from me at least, here's a virtual cartwheel for Eurosport! Anyone care to join me?

The next meetings are on Saturday 21st in Poland and Croatia. Hopefully, the riders will be able to fly out on Saturday morning but its a big ask. It would be a real shame if this meeting, one of the highlights of the season, turns into a watered-down farce. Surprised this hasn't been allocated as a Sky meeting. Sky have no meeting scheduled for w/c 23rd June. Perhaps we can hope this will be televised on Sky instead and moved to the Monday.

Thanks for that. Hopefully something can be done.

Just tried to order tickets online for the race-off and final. What a waste of time. Firstly the website is in Polish, so we have to go through Google's auto translate which, whilst broadly ok, does not provide translations for every word. Then, having registered for an account, I tried to buy tickets only to find I had to enter identification details (e.g. passport numbers) for the people I was buying tickets for. Like I have those for all of my friends! All the time, trying to navigate through a translated Polish site. So I suppose I'll have to ring for tickets tomorrow on the ticket hotline (and probably pay through the nose for that). Come on BSI. Is this the best you can do?

I've just read Bomber's Twitter. Seems both he and Lewis Bridger were on bikes supplied by the club and they weren't quick enough.

I never said he was questioning his nationality. I said he was taking advantage of his nationality. Which he is. One one hand, he wants to be treated as British when it suits him (to ride in the NL and sign for the EL on a 3 point average) but not be treated as British when it comes to deciding who he represents at international level. Your second paragraph is absolute nonsense. At the moment no one knows whether Lambert will even make the grade at international level. Believe me, I talk from experience. Ten years ago, Coventry signed Morten Risager at 16. He was immediately on the pace in an Elite League which was far stronger then than it is now. The general consensus amongst Bees fans was that if he was that good at 16, how good would he be in a few years time. We all know the answer to that. With respect to Morten, he never developed into anything more than an EL second string. Then one can look at Josh Auty. When he was 16, he was on a par with Tai Woffinden. I remember Josh flying around Brandon in second halves when he must have been 14 and 15. Again, what happened to Josh? It would not be unreasonable to suggest that his career has leveled off somewhat and he never progressed to anything like international level. Not even riding in the EL this year. Form at 16 years of age is no indication of how a rider will progress.