Hawk127

It seems a few are blaming Ipswich for the current impasse yet no one on here or in the wider speedway fraternity knows that for a fact. It reasonable to assume that if you have fought to build a business to a certain level that sells a product to a local audience who buy in to what is on offer you would fight to protect that format and opportunity. Each club can do the same but regional cost factors and marketing determine where a club sits in selling what is on offer to a local audience. If the current top tier want to throw money at another team to protect the format then why not take the sport back to Swindon with a track in place and underwrite the costs but that is not going to happen. As to rider availability to fill one league or two look at a mix of young up and coming British riders and those plying the trade on the European circuit (excluding Polish riders) and riders further afield where the regulations permit them to ride in the UK. It does not have to be all gloom and doom but as it stands the arguments on here as to the right or wrong way to go forward are nothing more than personal opinions from those who have no financial investment in the sport. It is always easy to tell others how to spend money. Few people know about speedway and frankly Joe Public who are outside the limited number of followers of the sport really could not give a fig about it and far too many in the UK have any knowledge about speedway or who the top riders. They are not household names. Accept that the sport in this country is a pastime that no one really cares about and it does not register on the social scale of things one must view/follow. It has had its day in the current format and needs to reinvent itself to get recognition amongst a wider audience and that is not going to happen with the current set up of club owners or the body that runs the sport.

Whilst many advocate keeping today’s top riders gainfully employed in the UK at a cost that no club can afford without generous sponsorship, that is a questionable position hold in the overall scheme of things. All who dismiss the lesser known riders and those coming through the ranks at NDL level as not being worthy, please explain where tomorrow’s top star riders are going to come from. Doyle, Lambert, Bewley etc. will not go on forever so where are the stars of the future coming from in the UK. The sport in this country does not have the facilities that the likes of Poland have who are able to have a conveyor belt of talent. Something has to give as the sport means diddly squat to all but a few thousand punters, it does not make good live TV and from an investment aspect you have to be a raving lunatic to put money into a business model where the terms of running are dictated by people and factors over which you as the club owner rarely have control. The sport can survive and rebuild itself but it will never attract a mass audience in the UK to warrant big pay days for the top riders in the world so it needs to cut its cloth accordingly and all the banging on about the need to keep the top tier and top riders and TV deals are just topics that can be debated to death but the reality is that outside the loyal followers no one is interested or listening and while many ideas put forward on here have some merit it is it is not going to influence the way the sport is run now or in the future.

Agree and last year they had a flurry of announcements in early November with Tom Brennan being the final one on the 12th November. Not a peep from anyone involved in the top tier. It is not looking good. Perhaps having some Championship clubs announcing signings is a way to divide a conquer the one league idea and a shot across the bow of the Premiership. Who knows but one thing is for sure, those on the top table will let the punters know what is going on when they are good and ready and not before. The war of words between various supporters on here can continue unabated until such time something is revealed. One thing that is certain, whatever the outcome, you will see speedway at Foxhall in 2026. Chris and co would not walk away after all the hard work that has been put into the club and the loyal support from folk across East Anglia. A parting thought, should we read too much into the signings by the Danish sides with the likes of Doyle and Bewley pretty quick off the mark. Could it be a sign of a reduced number of rides in the UK?

Best not tell Starmer about his other job. How come Rachel from accounts has not found out about the gold mine that is known as speedway? Riders doubling up and earning twice as much as they declare, promoters taking cash at the turnstiles, overseas riders popping into the UK for some extra cash without paying tax and meetings taking place under the guise of an amateur sport. Need to get a grip and deal with all the tax avoidance going on. Alas a non dom status is but a pipe dream and then reality hits home. Then you realise the majority of clubs hide the true financial state and without an undisclosed cache of funds the sport would be dead in the water. Is speedway run by the Masons. Why else is it such a cloak and dagger arrangement with a failure to be open. Only joking but why do those in charge hide so much and keep the supporters in the dark

Is that the latest version of the Good the bad and the Ugly starring David Lammy ?

Don’t know but I am sure they have a few old farts running around.

Banger racing?

Far too expensive. They need to start nicking sachets from hotel rooms together with the sugars, tea bags and the occasional hot chocolate for those special and memorable decision days. They could also take the biscuits.😂

Don’t be silly they cannot afford coffee😄

It could if you stop the tail wagging the dog. Riders who want to double up can ride in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. If you had one league of five rider clubs with two home and two away meetings surely that would see riders pay broadly unchanged. That may also ensure that the youngsters come up through the ranks getting second half rides. Where do today’s supporters think riders came from in yesteryears. They came from the second halves, eventually rode at 6 and 7 in the second division, then the main team then progressed to the top division. Without that support at the lowest level, the pipeline of riders dries up and the sport is dead in the water. The talent is out there it just needs nurturing and that includes backing from each and every supporter.

it should revolve around whatever day best suits the club and its customer base. Many on here are advocating that clubs should do this or that for the good of the sport as a whole but in fairness it is not their money being put on the line. I certainly do not agree with many things those in charge do and those who are the custodians of the sport have brought it to where some clubs find themselves now, but until you have an independent body running the sport including central rider contracts and riders payments coming from the governing body (funded by contributions from each club) so as to get rider costs under control and get some stability to that element of the financial side the sport is going to continue to be unmanageable and will eventually price itself out of business. Speedway U K needs to get a grip and reinvent itself and stop staggering from one annual crisis to the next. One final point slightly off the subject but the speedway website still shows TNT as broadcast partners.

I think everyone needs to wait and see what unfolds. Unless you are on the top table it is just here say and talk of the likes of Ipswich being put up for sale is rumour mongering with no real concrete evidence. The only thing that is nailed on is that speedways top tier in the UK is facing a crisis that it has not been seen in many a year. However as a sport it will survive given who is left even without the top tier and just maybe speedway UK needs to reinvent itself and come back with a completely different business model that provides some form of entertainment to a wider audience who are not the fickle diehards like those who currently turn up week in week out for league meetings and want nothing else. How are second strings suppose to make it if they do not get track time because no one on the terraces is interested. To see how far behind the media coverage is in the UK You only have to look at the current news on the Ekstraliga.pl website and the FIM website to get a feel for what is happening in Europe and realise that the sport in this country is so far up its own backside the rest of the world does not exist and it is being left behind. Logistically it must be a nightmare for riders to have equipment in various locations, employ mechanics etc and then ask yourself why would any contemplate the commute to the UK when travel around the rest of Europe is far easier. Speedway in the UK needs to adopt a domestic policy for the local fans and participate at international level at the various competitions on offer and try and attract international meetings with test matches against those competitors willing to travel over here. Stop pretending speedway has something to offer Joe Public, it does not and unless you get back to grass roots and pursue the hard sell involving various disciplines not just 15 heats of borefest and riders dictating when and if they will get out on track, the same old same old does not work. You might just as well have team racing in any other two wheeled sport. Speedway needs to be an event each week, not just a match between fourteen riders.

It’s postponed because of poor weather forecast😄

Unfortunately U K speedway cannot compete with the rest of Europe to attract or retain the top European riders. Brexit has been one issue with others including the movement of machines, parts and riders themselves plus you need bikes and mechanics spread across three or four different countries which is adding to a riders costs pushing up the return the riders need and the demands from clubs to pay and then put yourself in a riders position, do you drive from Poland to Sweden or Denmark or faff about with flights at unsociable hours simply to top up the pension by riding in the U K. and rely on the fickle riders as to whether a meeting will go ahead because of grey clouds and drizzle. Then you have how the sport is portrayed and promoted. Take a look at the Polish Ekstraliga official website which is in English and has so much going on both with news, rider profiles, past year’s events etc and lots of YouTube videos and when you see how they deal with the sport is it any wonder the Poles have stolen a lead on the rest of the world. Whatever supporters crave, speedway in the UK as it stands cannot currently compete with the rest of Europe and just take a look at this forum. All who follow the top league are so insular with what they want and what everyone hopes for 2026 whereas those in the lower leagues are getting on with planning for 2026 with what they have. Poole Glasgow, Scunthorpe etc are just getting on with preparations and then you question why should those teams bail out a failing business model which is the top league in the UK. I doubt many on here have the financial wherewithal to put a team in the frame in the top tier of UK speedway and why should astute businessmen in the lower leagues risk all because five clubs want to chase the impossible. The only shining light is the return of Buxton. If you could get the Isle of Wight back then from small beginnings who knows what will come of it. The reality is that no one on this forum knows what is planned for 2026, whether a new TV deal has been done, what the team points limit will be, whether riders from the lower echelons of the sport will have any progress because they are blocked by the double uppers and the fact that Joe Public and the main stream media neither knows about the sport nor gives a toss. Speedway UK lost its way a good few years back and really needs to take a reality check. 2026 is a big question mark.

Agree. Rye on a Sunday afternoon was a a good place to watch racing and I use to do the music at the track and did the same at Hackney on Friday night. Rayleigh on a Saturday night was always well attended and whilst the racing may not be up to today’s standards it was riders who raced from the heart and soul and you were always entertained and it just seemed to be less of a gap between the heat leaders and the second strings. You also had your characters and Brian Foote for example was was the arch enemy from Romford until he joined Rayleigh. Terry Stone was a real stalwart and Tiger Beech and Trevor Barnwell were great to watch as was Ivan Miller. I look and today’s racers and wonder how many will still be fondly remembered in fifty two years time. Dingle Brown was another character and Geoff Maloney was also up with the likes of Hughie Saunders where incidentally most doubled up with Hackney so doubling up is not new but because Len promoted both it was like lending a member of the family and a good opportunity to watch a riders progression. I am still young enough to remember Johnnie Hoskins at Rayleigh with his Canterbury team and Dave Lanning with Eastbourne. Great days and fond memories. I doubt many of today’s young supporters will have such memories fifty years from now unfortunately. I must stop reminiscing because some on here will come down on a contributor like a ton of bricks because you look back on what it was like back in the day.

Just an observation but my experience of Rye House from the early days of the open licence and the Ace of Hearts to the time that the Rockets moved from Rayleigh to Rye House (and many a rockets fan took the coach from the Weir), RH was a weekend track and Saturday, Sunday and the odd Bank holiday Monday but no way should it ever have been run as a week day track. It a great venture and a shame that it has been lost to the sport.

Second on the left was Peter Moore, Pete Wigley standing behind Bob Young, I think the one next to Peter might be Stan Stevens, and the one to the left of Pete Wigley may be Red Ott. I will dig out the old Rayleigh and Rye House programmes to get the full team line up. I suspect the year was either 1972, 1973 or 1974.

I think it depends on what company runs the sport at the respective tracks. Take a look at Companies House and the last set of accounts filed for the teams in each of the leagues and most file abbreviated accounts and few have a decent net worth despite the longevity of the trading and you question how much goes through the companies that run the sport at the relevant tracks versus those riders where the cost/expenses are picked up directly by sponsors so the cost and overhead never appear in the figures for each track operating company. It is difficult to get to the bottom of who is earning what. For example do a search of Ipswich and then the Directors and then the accounts and the resultant filed figures do not match the presumed costs of running the club. Who knows what the real cost is of running a club at the highest level in the UK so to suggest who can and cannot afford to participate in which league is pure conjecture. Financial Transparency is key but it does not exist. To suggest that the likes of Glasgow should move up has no foundation without financial information in the public domain to support that argument.

What a good rider he was for anyone who watched him. Peter Moore was another one with an unusual handlebar for his machine and one of the fastest away from the gate particularly during his time when riding for Rayleigh. Those were the days.

Agree, it is about what works for the local business model. Tracks/promoters/home teams can no longer rely on swelling the coffers with income from the opponents spectators attending away matches. Firstly you have the cost of travel, then the possibility of a call off because a dark cloud is expected at around the first race and add to this the fickle attitude of riders who cannot cope with damp tracks etc. and that is just a few of the reasons why racing from yesteryear does not work today. Week day speedway works for a number of clubs but others have seen increased support from weekend meetings when at least the chances of away support increases. Tracks need to promote what’s on offer when they can get the best number through the turnstiles. It is so difficult to come up with a formula that works for the speedway demographic given the self interest of the club owner/promoter and the influence of overseas competition where some riders can, assuming they are good enough, earn top dollar in places like Poland but I still wonder how many riders sit down and work out the risk factors should they end up on the sidelines because of an injury and are asked to repay the advance fees. it is a shame that so many on this forum have good suggestions on ways to improve the offering but no one is listening. Oh well we await the annual debacle in November and thankfully ignore the outcome and instead look forward to another season of racing from Poland which seems to be so much more organised.

All the thoughts and ideas on here have some validity but the unknown factors are the state of the TV coverage, the level of sponsorship for the sport and to a large extent the set up of the leagues which are largely determined by the self interest of the business owners who are ploughing money into a sport in decline. It seemingly has no major media coverage in the U K and is largely ignored by the average person on the street and or is unknown to the average sports follower in the UK nor does it have any profile beyond the anoraks. Despite this it can be one of the most exciting two wheeled sports and needs to be marketed correctly. Take a look at the recent Polish Gala event and watch some of the races of each season going back to 2016 and watch the likes of Gollob winning races and find another sport that can match it. Like almost all on here we do not put money into the sport other than the entrance fee and whilst some have the answers to its failings we are not the custodians and until the club owners work for the overall best interest of the sport it will stagger from one crisis to the next and without a major change in 2026 it is the same old same old followed by a further decline in attendees.

Some terrific races and anyone who wants to promote to a wider audience should show some of these races. That aside I was lucky enough to see Tomasz Gollob at Ipswich but those races from 2015 and 2016 are phenomenal. What a class act the man was reading the track and the riders to pick them off with apparent ease.

Agree with that and you would hope that the top table realise that. Perhaps I am missing the point but if you reduce the number of home meetings, stadium owners are still going to want a decent return on the asset or decide it is not worth leasing the stadia out to speedway if the revenue is not coming in from rent food and drink. I guess if you normally run a season of 16 meetings which is agreed under the lease and you end up running eight, the rental cost will remain the same as if it were 16 and so no real saving on that overhead. It may even go up because of the loss of the profits on food and drink. Unfortunately so many issues affecting a sport which is on its knees with no real appeal to joe public and the mainstream media having long since deserted the sinking ship. Fingers crossed someone somewhere can bring something to the table.

Following it on the updates was tense, congratulations to both teams for what was seemingly a cracking meeting. On to 2026 and more to look forward to. Chris seemed to do the usual in raising his game, never fails to entertain, a legend of British speedway.

Well done to the riders and in particular Cooper.