iris123

Have it at the Oval.Easy to get to from my parents place and the name just cries out for speedway.........

That is how sports clubs are generally run in Germany.HSV in Hamburg also run Handball and even Dancing I think among a numer of sports.Local rivals St.Pauli also have a very good Rugby section for both men and women.Bayer Leverkusen also have a big athletics section and one of their club embers won a gold at the World Athletics championship yesterday.Think both Gorzów and Zielona Gora were up until the end of WW2 a part of Germany,so maybe that tradition comes from the German sporting clubs.Wroclaw was also up til the end of the war part of Germany and the German national side even played a few home games in the city

How many times have we said that over the years...............

Ok,how many of the existing clubs can afford to run a whole season at the moment? Think in the recent past we have had Matt Ford and Bob Dugard both saying they would like to hold less meetings and they lose money every time the open the stadium.Like I said before I don't think the idea would suit all or most,but maybe a couple.It might save one or two clubs from closing all together.Why couldn't they re-negotiate their agreement?Why can other sports hire a stadium for 1 meeting?Flat track for instance or the recent sidecar meeting at Brandon http://www.sidecartrackracing.co.uk/ If sidecars can do it for a meeting,why shouldn't speedway be able to do it for 6 meetings.Surely the owner would be far happier with 6 meetings than 1.And i'd guess he would be far happier with 6 meetings than none! I don't imagine there is a long list of sports waiting in the wings to hire some of the stadiums.Just a thought A club like the Isle of Wight seemed to struggle outside of the summer season,so they could well be a possibility to run just around the summer holiday period with maybe a couple of side car and flat track meetings thrown in

I used to love it at Plough Lane to get into the pits or wait outside in the car park or outside the grandstand bar for a chance to get autographs.You had to be quick to get Ivans Some were miserable though even in those days.But now I don't really care to mix with riders.Just like Gemini.She doesn't.That Iversen,does he ever smile?Nicki is great though,especially with the youngsters.Like chalk and cheese those two

That is something that Egon Müller often points to as a problem with modern speedway.He uses his own career as an example,that he often used to stay behind after the meeting and mix with the fans and even do his singing on stage.Ok that was in Germany at the weekend.But he say's that nowadays the riders turn up an hour before the meeting,get ready,race,pack up and are off to the next country ad infinitum.Don't really think it is one of the major problems,but every little helps

Maybe nobody said there were too many clubs in the 60s/70s because circumstances were different like you say.But the problem has been that not enough was done by promoters to attract youngsters and train them up.It became easier to get some youngster over from the continent rather than try and do the work themselves.We became over reliant on foreign riders and are paying the price nationally and internationally(Tai excluded).Now we are stuck in a situation where promoters just say we can't do anything as we don't own the stadium.We can't choose our race night and we can't train up riders.Basically as Harkess said,"we see the problems,but we can't do anything......."

Cardiff runs one meeting a year Brighton ran 1 meeting a year as did Telford etc.They were all a bit special,at first anyway.But that isn't the point.My point was to try and save some clubs from going totally out of existence,could a season of say 4,6 or so meetings help save them?I only went as extreme as 1 event to try and answer TWKs good point of would people get out of the routine.Look to Poland,Denmark and Sweden and most other countries(in fact all countries apart from the UK) and a season of 2-10 meetings seems to do the job,so why should the UK be so much different to the rest of the world?I am not even saying it is the answer for all or even most,but maybe,just maybe for a few It is quite obvious speedway is on a big downturn.We have been having the discussions on here for over a decade.We have been told that the promoters know best and it is after all their money.But what has happened in the last decade?Has the sport got its house in order and started to re-group or has it stumbled from one problem to the next?Belle Vue getting a brand new stadium is one light at the end of the tunnel,but I don't think that alone is going to save the sport from even more problems in the near future

Don't you get it?The sport is commiting suicide!!!!.Something needs to change and a "one size fits all" idea isn't working.Maybe if some clubs only ran a few meetings a year it might make the event a bit more special and might be able to gain more sponsorship.I used those examples as an extreme to combat the rgument that would people support something that only happens 4 - 6 times per year.The more often something is held doesn't mean people will attend.They might well just pick and choose.As for your counter argument about throwing live music out a pub,well just your usual crap.Now comeback with a better idea or throw your toys out of your pram and bleat on about how you used to commentate on some tv channel,so you must know everything there is to know about the sport and should be in charge as you have all the answers

People flock to Silverstone or Wimbledon and possibly/probably don't attend another F1 or tennis event all year.Just as examples

I'd also say there was some prejudice against Robert(or Germany) because he rode in Germany.When I posted videos of him at 14 beating the likes of Smolinski and Zabik people were saying it was "mickey mouse" in Gerany despite the calibre of rider he was beating.Think obviously the way he went about riding over here at a young age and the reported attitude rubbed people up the wrong way as well

I think some members here watch any and every meeting that has a livestream,so they are experts on speedway in most countries without ever having been here and know all the riders without ever seeing them in the flesh.Not really the same as following a team and seeing riders week in week out.When you see someone sporadically you tend to get a false impression imo.In my own experience you can seemingly always see a bad/good meeting from someone if you only see them occasionally.But they are far more dedicated than me as I can hardly ever watch a whole meeting on the net........

Have said for years that there are too many.At least for league speedway.It would be better imo if some "clubs" just ran maybe 4 or 6 meetings per season and not have to do a whole league season.Run once a month during the summer months and let the other clubs do a full league season.Would never be allowed even if some clubs wanted to do that though.......

Not sure that is true.Thought scientific evidence proves speed is a big factor.Slight reduction in speed makes a big difference.But you will always get freak accidents like someone falling off a sofa and being very badly injured because of the way they fell or someone falling from a few storeys up in a block of flats and hardly having any injuries at all

I am not sure there is a hard and fast rule,but haven't some of the worst accidents taken place on the big fast tracks such as those in Poland,Germany and Argentina?Earlier today while at work I was thinking one of the answers was to make the tracks smaller so as to reduce the speeds.One of the reasons that came to me was that I have hardly if at all heard of any bad accidents on the small 80cc tracks in Sweden or Denmark and these kids are inexperienced.So is it because of the less powerful bikes ?

Who remembers the controversy of whether it was Boycie or Boycey and the Poole fan who used to get her knickers in a twist about it

A youngster of 15 years old died in a road race in Germany over the weekend.Rider in front made a mistake and fell and the kid had no chance to avoid him and crashed and unfortunately two others hit him.It was the third death so far this year at the track in Ochsersleben.Was also someone in a German grasstrack or sidecar meeting killed at the weekend http://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/sport/Tod-mit-15-Jugendlicher-stirbt-bei-Motorradrennen-id35236172.html

Härtel v Howarth here and I would say Howarth comes twice very close under Härtel and even seems to flip out a bit on the second occasion.The ref is looking from much the same position as the video guy stands under the ref box,so would see it much like the video.You decide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2CgzVoOI5k

To make matters worse all the german team come from the south and can't have ridden that much at Güstrow.It also shows a regional problem in Germany because the Güstrow area has over the years always produced decent youngsters,so to have a representative teams without anyone from north east Germany is quite worrying for the area

I take it that your theory ignores any success in Team or Pairs events at world or junior world level and probably doesn't even consider individual junior world level ?

Exactly....like you said "next birthday".That is next year and as you say he is getting a manager.Seems all quite normal to me.Just growing up and slowly getting his independence.He even goes abroad on his own sometimes,like 17 year olds.His girlfriends is also from a german speedway family I think and right or wrong(I don't particularly agree with the practice)but in Germany the pits are often crawling with friends and family,so it is something he has picked up along the way.Might seem strange in GB though for sure

Like I said before it seems only right that as a teenager your dad/mum are looking after you,but as you near your 20s you become more independent.Personally don't think there is anything wrong at this stage,but Robert will probably get a professional mechanic and he will have his driving licence and want to make his own way.Not always for the best as some people here keep pointing out about Emil

lots of heats from the meeting on youtube,just search for "Andreas Abels".Looked at a couple of random heats and no passing at all....... This was very close to going right inside the white line!!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhG18UbeNd4 See on the german forum a bit of a rubbishstorm because Robert Barth went on the track after the first heat and mishandled the Finn.Had him round the neck and had his fist ready to give him a whack......also saw that GB had a protest about Grobauer not going straight to the parc ferme with his bike after his last heat,but then withdrew it.....

Floodlight have packed up somewhat Back on again.... Finland still on 1 pt after 8.Denmark on 22

I did see Phil at GPs,but he seemed to let Jason and his team get on with things.There hasn't been that many mums in the pits though from memory Robert is still very young though and it is his talent that has shot him into the limelight at an age when I guess a lot of riders still have their dads with them.Mike Lee was probably still with his dad at this age wasn't he?Ronnie Moore still did,although he came from the other side of the world,so maybe more understandable