old bob at herne bay

From what I read doubt there will be many UK clubs left running in 2022, so opportunities for youngsters will have all but dried up. So well done BSPL for killing off the National League ….setting a stupidly low team building average to manipulate “old hands” out of the league, and now slowly the whole house of cards is tumbling down. Most sensible fans and some promoters saw this as a mistake forced upon UK speedway by the small dwindling clique of “premiership” owners who like dinosaurs are slowly becoming extinct. (Just 6 left now) People will vote with their feet and will not be forced into paying to watch “BSPL experiments “ with reduced team strengths if they do not find the “product” enjoyable, entertaining and value for money. Sadly there are not too many NDL clubs left offering all 3.

First went to Arlington at the start of the "modern era" when Dave Lanning relaunched the Eagles into the then "2nd Division" (late 1960's ?) Occasional trips then as we were West Ham Supporters. Certainly never been a regular Eastbourne visitor - seen some good meetings there in the past with the likes of Jessup G Kennett M Dugard and the effervescent Dave Lanning running the show. Memories. You only have to look at the fixture lists nowadays for speedway and wonder how anyone can make a succesful business out of an outdoor summer sport that has such a disjointed fixture list with hardly any meetings in the kids school holiday period (and peak tourist season on the south coast ) With both Saturday and Sunday options and 2 teams operating for EB , just dont see why there isn't a meeting every weekend at EB during the peak summer months. Just 2 scheduled home fixtures in August, and one of this was rained off (called of 4 days early !) The alarm bells rang for me when I heard that to be honest. Hope they can sort something out, and make their landmark 90th year in speedway.

That's one view, alternatively after the novelty of returning to watch speedway for a few "masked" meetings , and seeing little had changed, people have settled back down to not going to speedway as they had for the past 18 months previously. Stadium is owned by C. Dugard Machine Tools Ltd as far as I know and rented to the speedway promotion, and to the stock car promotion. Struck me as odd when the CL/NL double headers were cancelled due to landlord complaints Maybe Eric Dugard doesn't like speedway?

I have seen Lawson not taking heat 15 rides in earlier meetings this season against Kent. One could have been excused with EB having already won the KO up tie. The later CL meeting was bizarre , with a bonus league point at stake and Lawson overlooked. EB conceded a 1-5 and no bonus point. I jokingly told my friends at the time maybe EB canot afford his wages.

There seems to be a dearth of fixtures for National League clubs - Kent "Royals" havent ridden for weeks with a just a few home fixures scheduled for the end of September.... whilst i cannot find a fixture list at all for the Eastbourne Seagulls, since the announced demise of any double headers with the Eagles CL team. Occasionally, I see Mildenhall race an NDL fixture . Newcastle Gems pulled out of the NDL early doors, and IoW have moved onto brighter better more innovative speedway down at Ryde. ........ so has the new reduced points limit introduced for 2021 killed off the thrid tier ?

Apart from Peterborough, cheaper to watch and more centrally located for English Supporters.

Most referees are slow nowadays. Seem to be frightened of the riders and the track staff Frank Ebdon would certainly not stood for the incessant gardening, and time wasting tactics , and endless tractor racing that seems to now be the norm at all meetings. I have witnessed him excluding all 4 riders under 2 minutes for failing to get to the start in heat 1 of a meeting.

H Gould I do live in Kent nowadays, but that does not mean I exclude Kent from my awarded points scheme. Rain offs (even those that occur with a stadium full of spectators) should be awarded one point per team. Applies to all clubs. Not really sure I understand the mentality of modern day speedway supporters - who seem to complain but just suck up and come crawling back to the sport whatever rubbish the "promoters" spout. They dont seem to care about being mugged off time and time again by promoters by and large who run their clubs their way come what may to suit themselves, taking little or no notice of fans' opinions, only to cry help when they run aground. As an example Kent are victims of a ridiculous planning consent only allowing one 2 hour meeting per week, yet surprisingly decided to run with a CL AND an NDL side this season, with a bizarre pricing structure. The NDL team have barely turned a wheel at home , and how they will finish the season eludes me. Eastbourne similarly launched full steam into 2 leagues, with double headers and a seemingly attractive budget priced NDL proposition, but halfway through the season, double headers are banned by the stadium owners (too many delayed finishes) and the NDL side have yet to re appear on their own track. Sadly, the whole rotten lot is sliding downhill, with bickering and self interest throughout, even extending down to the fans themselves with their often misplaced loyalty. With even the once immaculately run and managed Poole Speedway losing control this season, the future looks very bleak indeed.

The entire shambolic leagues seem to be run for the benefit of the band of promoters , with NO regard for the paying public. So getting a grip is precisely what BSPL should be doing. YUP - Birmingham should be investigated by the BSPL - I am not just singling out Poole here....... indeed they should have been investigated from their opening meeting which was a total disgrace , and that meeting SHOULD have been awarded with all points to Redcar, due to Birminghams failure to provide a suitable race track. Still not certain whether Birmingham have confirmed that they will be able to honour their remaining fixtures?Sadly if no one wants to watch speedway in Birmingham, (to be honest they seem more interested in cricket at Edgbaston) then running the more attractive fixtures for a few weeks is jsut delaying the inevitable. Newcastle appear to have sorted out a package to run until the end of theseason. Other clubs requiring investigation for premature "non weather" related call offs include Eastbourne.....

STUPID eh ? May the rain gods pee down on you every Wednesday in Dorset from next week till the end of October. Not pointless at all - in fact I was being fair and reasonable - ONE POINT each - if you would take time to read the content of my post ! A re run meeting should only take place on appeal to the BSPL ...where they should review the facts and see if all reasonable steps were taken to run the original fixture. (hire temporary staff ?) Far too many fans plans are being disrupted on a whim by promotions who seem to just take the option of restaging at a later date. Cynics would look a the proposed Poole team and say that it gives them more time to strengthen their side (the Basso lad not being available tomorrow) Although I am certain Poole never would (or ever have) done that in their history I doubt many Redcar fans would trust the Poole management to honour any restaging date. This should be the stance taken for all postponed meetings for weather or non weather related issues , primarlily to avoid fixture congestion. The emphasis should be on running the meetings whenever possible on the original dates.

Just when you thought you had heard every excuse/reason for cancelling a speedway meeting , then you see this. I suppose it had to happen sometime during a pandemic. One point for Poole one point for Redcar , and lets move on.

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.

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.

Very sad news . A life long supporter of speedway. He will be missed Condolences to his family. RIP Philip.

I think that some firm cut off time for postponements due to weather is needed. So meetings cannot be called off before say 1000 on the morning of the meeting..... with promoters needing to seek authorisation from the BSPL before being allowed to cancel. Each team should then be awarded one league point. For other reason cancellations, home teams should forfeit all league points, the away team being given 3 league points.

Thank you for the clarification. Maybe iainB has hit upon a solution ....... postponed meetings one league point per side .... no restaging required. For a KO CUp match the leg should be declared a no result, and the result of the only leg raced decides who goes into the next round.

Sign of a dying sport IMO. There used to be a rule that only the referee could call of a meeting due to a waterlogged track .... later changed to the ref calling it after consultation with the 2 team captains. Now it seems anyone can call off a meeting for a dodgy "forecast" days in advance. Its a vicious circle because no away fan is going ot spend out booking up travel / accom. on the basis of AN Other deciding they don't like the look of the forecast ... so away supporters will completely disappear at most tracks. As for fixture congestion, unlikely that anyone will be bovvered ........as long as they ride the p. offs, thats all they care about. Just remains to see how many clubs complete the season (CL and NDL)

Overheard at Kent on Tuesday evening. Your new member of the management team at Eastbourne (Lee Kilby ? ) was chatting to someone I didn't recognise. Didn't really take a lot of notice until I read the official statement later in the week. Just for your info, I have only been to 2 meetings at Kent THIS SEASON . In my "living memory" would take me a lot longer to work out as I first went to a speedway meeting 62 years ago.

Another nice spot on the Northumberland Coast on a Sunday is Amble. They have a Sunday Market in the harbour car park, lots of independent trading "pods2 dotted around the place with lots of options to eat local fish and seafood. Sunday is usually pretty busy and lively.

Yes agree with you they should not be in the Premiership section .... not active in the 2021 PL. They are correctly in the Championship folder.

Why Speedway is failing? .......how about not enough people want to pay to watch it ?

All this back slapping and self congratulation .... " correct call" , ......" Eastbourne's weather forecaster spot on again " 4 days ago the meeting was called off (Tuesday evening at Kent ) . The reasons later revealed were not just the poor weather forecast ... but other non weather related issues that heve been well aired by the promotion. Far more worrying IMHO than the weather. So, I put it to you ...... would the meeting have still been called off if the weather forecast was better ???

To be honest not sure why this thread is still in the "SGB Premiership " folder. They are definitely not active in this years SGB Premiership, nor likely to be active in the future. Shouldnt it be moved to the "Years gone by" folder ?

Think that's why we will soon end up with Poole versus Belle Vue every week soon - let them have their season of fun. For ANYTHING to work it has to have the co operation of all promoters (can you ever imagine that happening?) ....... and probably one of the main reasons speedway is now rapidly on a downwards spiral.

Think the whole speedway structure needs reorganising from the top down in the UK given the dwindling numbers of supporters who are intersted in the sport. Do you need a full time BSPL HQ ? What are the fixed outgoings of every club - BSPL membership, Cost of referees, Cost of First Aid Cover, Cost of insurance, other payments ?? What are the promoters wage bills - how many paid staff ? Does a UK wide cap need to be imposed on riders earnings in UK speedway based on their CMA and experience. Or a cap on total team earnings imposed on all clubs ? How much of my £20 for admission and programme actually pays for the action on the track ? I know 20% VAT goes to HMG. Are promoters even interested in addressing the elephant in the room of delays to meetings? IF they dont know that this is driving away supporters then they are frankly not intersted in their businesses. The sport is failing, meetings are being cancelled for non weather related reasons. Nobody wants to send SOS until the last passenger has left the ship in the lifeboats. Captain Godfrey (now promoted from private in the home guard) will shout out "we are all doomed" as the ship goes down.