old bob at herne bay

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.

Not sure mystic meg operates outside of the UK ........ and the SGP riders seem to be able to ride on mud ankle deep in water if the "Race Director" tells them. Think the novelty of being able to go out again to watch a meeting post Covid Lockdown has worn off.... people have realised what they have been missing (or not) and the attendances have sunk to a plateau now waiting the the p.offs. For my part I have attended 2 local meetings this season, seen enough start gate gardening to completely clear my field of weeds. Nothing that will entice me to attend every week, or even venture to other tracks .

Sings4speedway, agree with you 100% re Brum and Newcastle. Both shaky fixtures at the mo. Thought the cloth had already been cut to small shreds this season, with rising stars, lowered points limits in NDL , but maintained or increased admission charges?

Saw the very early call off - and there were rumours of this call off heard on Tuesday evening at Kent. They must have mystic meg as a weather forecaster, and whilst a contributory factor, the more likely major reason is the clash with the Speedway Circus at Lublin. Really calls into question the wisdom of the fixture planning of Eastbourne running agaisnt the SGP. Coupled with a next to bottom Brummies team not being the most attractive opposition, any dodgy weather will persuade all but the die hard fans to stay at home at watch the SGP on BT Sport. Sundays were/are an alterntive race day for EB and one wonders why they haven't put on meetings on alternative days to avoid the SGP? Lets not forget that EB entertained another near bottom of table team last week with some dodgy weather arround, with allegedly their lowest crowd of the season, who endured a much delayed evening's entertainment with green light starts.... which is unlikely to attract any new fans back. Its ALMOST as boring as supporting English Test cricket in the bad light and rain.

No sign of Troy being unfit......first time he had seen the track, and clearly doesn’t know the passing lines like Scott and Paul. Pretty much finished where he gated on debut - won his race from the hugely advantageous gate 4 in fine style. Rode conservatively getting used to the track would be my assessment. TBH Eastbourne gave Kent a gating lesson last night, making full use of winning the coin toss and having gate4 in the early heats. No hose available at the Kent start line unfortunately!

Never saw this as a home win to be honest, after seeing Heeps get 0 last night at KL . Neither Heeps nor either of the 2 young reserves had a good evening, nothing to back up the 3 heat leaders. Still a crumb of comfort was seeing Kerr passed by both Paul and Scott in heat 15 denying EB an extra point. 2 meetings seen this season, glimmers of some good racing mainly from Scott. Well done Eastbourne, they won without any track doctoring, just landed on gate 4 when it mattered after winning the coin toss.

Looked up this "clean air zone" charge and it's £8 a day. !!!!

Read the match report on the Eagles website, and not a single word of apology offered to the spectators who stood around for “45 minutes” (Trevor Gears timing) , and the dismissive attitude re the tractor hitting the fence. Really exemplifies the poor customer service now being offered to paying customers. We must do better would be nice to have seen written down.

Jaybea sell merch for a number of clubs. see https://jaybeadesigns.co.uk/ Kent do have a club shop - it only recently re opened after the lifting of Covid restrictions. Its Jaybea stuff and all looks of reasonable quality. Seems speedway supporters are much more frugal with spending on merch. Many appear to delight in wearing scarves hats from a bygone era . Also the potential market is pretty small. Other than badge collectors doubt any fan would consider buying another clubs merch, thus limiting the market to a maximum of maybe several hundred.