Hawk127

You are entitled to your opinion and I respect what you are saying. However a business decision by a club many months back is just that and only time has proved them right. What you are seemingly referring to is a risk assessment and that is not a level playing field as it is a matter of personal judgement. Each rider determines the risks in normal circumstances but these are not normal and for example many riders compete in open meetings at the beginning of a season and blow engines, have crashes, damage frames etc. so the same risks apply. Wrecking a frame or blowing an engine is irrelevant, it is part and parcel of the sport. Those participating in speedway have ideas and goals above expectations. To all intense and purposes speedway in the U.K. is an amateur sport filled with riders who have expectations beyond those which can now be fulfilled and many riders think it owes them a living but in reality it cannot afford these people any longer as the money is not in the sport.

Call it a Commonwealth Championship or whatever title fits those riders who are willing to underwrite the even by turning up, subject always to the BLM and any other group or movement not getting the hump because it falls foul of their agenda but for christ sake support it to promote British speedway. Who cares if they are Australian, European or British. Having a stream so that those who wish to tune in can do so given that the current owners of the rights to broadcast will not show it live means the stream is a plus and will make a difference. Why not see how it goes but do not knock it before those willing to gamble financially on the event and have invested in bringing it to a live screening have been given a chance so it could be just what the sport needs. If it works an a price point that can be agreed who knows where it could lead with lower league meetings being screened. As to those riders who do not want to ride, it is up to them. Just remember when the sport really needed you, as the opt out group, you decided it was not for you and you have turned your back on U.K. speedway which is fine but don’t expect many to welcome with open arms in 2021. The fact that this meeting is going ahead is an attempt by the sport authorities to comply at a professional level with government guidelines so it is not comparable with Plymouth or any other streamed event and I really do not get all the criticism given this is not a normal situation. Everyone has been starved of their weekly fix and this is an opportunity to get behind this one off meeting as you will never know what you have missed until it no longer exists. Riders and supporters need to be on the same wavelength for the sake of Speedway U K and those who can get behind this, think on.

Whose fault is it that these so called stars continually chase sponsorship because financially they cannot make a living solely on their own skill so buying the latest equipment to outpace the opposition and become a gate and go throttle merchant enables them outpace those riders who cannot compete financially. Getting that little bit of extra bit of power at a price is the route cause of why the sport is where it is. Also sine when did it become obligatory to buy new equipment every season? Put the likes of Cook on standard workshop bikes and see how good they really are and whether they really have honed their rider skills. It is not a case of getting a grip but more a case of creating a level playing field in the sport so the argument about spend is not relevant as long as the likes of Cook chase the pound and not the sport or the supporter. Why also have one or two riders questioned those who have opted out or perhaps you know the answer as well. If these riders feel they are above all others and do not want to compete in a one off event when the sport is on its knees and needs all the help it can get, why should anyone pay to watch then in 2021?

An admirable idea and CL is doing his best for speedway so no blame should be attached to him for the on off situation but with it being a one off and riders not willing to take any risks it is partly understandable that some do not want to participate but that in itself sums up why U.K. speedway should do its own thing with riders who want to compete. Some of those who have opted out need to think what they want to do in 2021. If I was a club owner I would think long and hard before choosing any who are sitting on the sidelines and do not want to compete. Just when the sport needs all the help at a difficult time, few of the ‘stars’ think of the bigger picture. Time to forget those at the top of their game, they do not want to know about UK so the sport needs to wake up and embrace those riders who are willing to commit to racing in this country. Start to rebuild with what is available and stop looking at the wider game plan, enough talent will emerge to make the U.K. scene an interesting option. To those new riders chasing a team place or career in the sport, now is your time given that many of the established community is less than committed

A bit late in the day but I have just watched the youth championship held at Scunthorpe and those who bemoan the quality of racing at this level should take a look again. Heat 6 is just one example. Raw talent reminiscent of speedway in the late sixties and early seventies when grass track riders gave speedway a go. In those days it would throw up some riders who would excite and my most memorable was at Rayleigh when Ivan Miller beat Boston's Arthur Price. What a race for those who were in the stadium on that bank holiday Monday These young lads today deserve every speedway fans support. They get out on track and give it a go and the gutsy performances deserve so much more and not the criticism that seems to be par for the course. Speedway purists will understand, those who believe the current league set up is the be all and end all a requires the skills of Doyley or similar to make the sport entertaining are deluded. If only tracks like my local, Ipswich , would put on a few of these amateur meetings I am sure the ‘anoraks’ of the sport would support the meetings and many would be happy to pay £10 to watch these lads entertain. To those at grass roots level you are appreciated.

It seems that all is not well on the Polish speedway front and after many years of hearing how good it is, with the exception of one or two races and riders, it is pretty bland and possibly a missed opportunity to showcase the sport and themselves to the world which thus far has be relatively deprived of good racing with so many countries unable to hold professional meetings. Maybe speedway UK should focus on its own product for next year, race on days that suit the tracks and build teams around riders who commit to British speedway first and foremost. If the standard falls so be it but it can be rebuilt if you give the riders a chance to race week in week out in the UK. It cannot be any worse than what is currently on offer.

The final followed the above match. Programme was 15p and the guests of honour were Ed Stewart and Carol Hawkins. Prize money Winners Trophy and medals plus £100 to each rider Losers - Medals plus £40 each rider The rider scoring the highest number of points in the winning team got £50 The rider scoring the highest number of points from the losing team - £25 Bonus points counted For GB versus ROW Winners - Trophy plus £500 and a watch to each rider and team manager Losers - Nothing Special Award of £100 to the best rider of each team Life was so simple in those days!!

And the results of the two matches First Match in the final was GB v ROW

Yes, sorry about that and if I had been bothered to dig out the programme I would have seen that. For anyone interested below are the results which were summarised in the final programme

If I recall correctly, this was team speedway with seven man teams riding at a range of tracks and I seem to recall seeing Russia riding at Hackney but old age let’s me down on who the opposition was. I do remember it got great coverage in the media and was held over one or two weeks. It would good to see something similar rather than the 4TT event that is today’s offering. Seven man teams riding as nations over three or four weeks with the right sponsor could be the making of a revival. What I do not understand is those who favour the recent World Cup format yet would never go to a a U.K. track hosting 4TT meeting made up of local teams.

Another issue is that many believe that league racing is the be all and end all when in fact the seven riders are self employed individuals chasing the money to earn a living and the concept of ‘team riding’ rarely crosses their minds. Yes they race under a team banner which helps promote themselves as riders but you might just as well be the ‘Tesco Seven’ riding at track near you. More of a circus then a serious league competition so why not structure racing around those elements. Have a set number of meetings at each track and riders can be drawn weekly or monthly so that they know where they should be. They race under the banner of an existing team name so you have for example Ipswich riders racing on the same night but at different tracks. Add up all the points scored by the ‘team riders’ and you have the seasons champions. Something could be worked out but as it stands at the moment, we have no speedway apart from amateur individual meetings, the top riders that Speedway U.K. cannot afford so no point in structuring anything around overseas rider availability, you do not have an independent body running the sport and a awful lot of disillusioned supporters who may or may not return assuming that their track makes it through to when speedway can resume. This is the time to think outside the box and come up with something for 2021 that is as far removed as possible from what has been served up to date.

Speedway in years gone by had personalities and rivalries and these characters and behaviours have long since been banned by the the current establishment. Take a look through the history of the local derbies and for example the shenanigans that took place between Rayleigh, Eastbourne and Canterbury and then throw in the big fuel debate between Rayleigh and Eastbourne, leaping Len entertaining from the Centre Green, Johnnie Hoskins, Dave Lanning kicking verbal wotsit out of each other plus the Romford Bombers in the Essex Gold cup and speedway had a great mix of rivalry with some entertainment thrown into the mix. The same scenario applied to other teams around the country. You had riders who were personalities with the likes of Arthur Price, the Kennett brothers, Ted Hubbard, Brian Foote, Lou Swanson, Peter Moore, and these were in the lower divisions. Move up a league and you had the greats such as Olsen, Mauger, Briggs, etc to name but a few. In the second division added those at number six and seven who were invariably ex grass track and starting off were probably the equivalent standard of riders plying their trade at the IOW and Mildenhall. The sport was entertaining albeit the racing was no more spectacular but these were guys using effectively standard bikes or the track spare who honed their riding skills. Now you have a sanitised watered down form of entertainment that is no longer a raw sport where you support the guy next door who was giving it a go. Today you have the gate and go merchant who throws more money at the equipment then that are likely to earn hence the need for sponsors and treats the punter with contempt, most have zero in terms of personality, little in the way of team rivalry and the belief that as a sport it owes them a living. Professional some may be but as entertainers few make the grade until you move down to the third tier where the riders are willing to give it a go irrespective of the conditions and most of them do it because they want to prove themselves and enjoy riding. Without sponsors those in the upper echelons cannot make a living and is financially unviable hence the sport is now at a crossroads in this country. The third tier will be here long after some of the others have fallen by the wayside.

Interesting comment from Jason Crump during an interview about a possible return to Ipswich in 2021. He will not sign until he knows what the league structure will be and he fears a few clubs will not survive to run next year and I guess with CL in the know, I suspect they already have an idea as to who will not make it to the tapes. Maybe with fewer clubs and more riders than places available, every party involved in the sport will have their hand forced into doing something markedly different. We will have to wait and see but one thing is for sure it will never be as it was in 2019. A new era and enforced changes are probably on the cards which is no bad thing but to keep more tracks running, those that cannot afford league speedway ought to be allowed to go back to the old open licence which would allow them to run individual meets just as Rye House used to before the rockets moved in in the early 70’s. Time will tell.

That may or may not be true but it was also a different time. Neither Poole Speedway or the owners are responsible for the pandemic, the actions of those who run greyhound racing or the local plan. I suspect that many clubs are possibly under the cosh as we live in different times and different priorities and who knows what will be left of the world of U.K. speedway. One thing you may well find is that most Redcar fans could do without your sort of support. You are not a true speedway follower but I guess you have something that you get off on but let us know when you next visit the southern part of the U.K. and those tracks that are left, many will be more than happy to put you right and god help you if you turn up at Poole and are bold enough to make yourself known.

Its an amateur sport they are watching which does not count so anything goes and it is probably no more than four or five extended families from the same street added to which you have an amateur running the stadium. Then you have a government which does not know Norfolk exists and is under the radar and when Corona virus found out what this part of the world is like, it turned tail and headed for the Midlands. Hope that helps.

Quite a few meetings are a mix of stox, bangers, mini rods etc. If you consider that each racer probably brings the family along and then the rivalry that exists between drivers and teams and this often does boil over and the fact that in most cases they knock seven shades of sh.. out of each other on the track and you get three or four hours of entertainment some of which is fast and furious and in other races it is stop the competition at a cost that is accessible to most who want to have a go and with kids who love the crashes etc it becomes all round entertainment from the youngest to the oldest and I suspect an aggression outlet for most who watch. In many ways why is WWE so successful and think about the parallels. I do not pretend to understand it but having watched the original early versions at Rayleigh back in the early 70’s with races held after the speedway meeting when the only way to stop a race was to turn the stadium lights out, it has certainly stood the test of time. Why, I simply do not know but most speedway teams would die to get the crowds that turn up at Ipswich. Perhaps speedway forgot the important word - entertainment.

It may not completely stop the decline but if those in charge had the opportunity and the balls to hold their nerve, they would start addressing some issues including standardising the machines for league racing in this country. All rides have a choice as to where they ply their trade. In the U.K. we have nothing to gain by paying top dollar. A number of options are available to have standard bikes and if you get away from the expensive machinery you then are not held to ransom by riders over money. Riders to be classified according to their average and then impose a fixed fee per point and start with bonus paid for team riding a partner home. Review the average every two months. Until you get a grip with the variable costs of rider pay rates (fixed costs I would class as stadia, medical, insurance, track staff, referees etc all of which are probably standard and non-negotiable’ ) they are on a hiding to nothing. Control this cost and it might allow the promoter to fund the promotional side and perhaps offer incentives to the paying customer. The club owners may be to blame for many of the failings but the riders are a huge expense and this will remain out of control as long as the riders go for more and more expensive equipment. If you cannot get around a track on a standard machine and use your track craft and skills to win races rather then being a throttle merchant, then perhaps they should look for another job.

It would seem that the BSPA are not united in trying to get the sport on. It is like individual having franchises defending their corner and that will not work. You only have to watch CL from Ipswich on BBC East last week when speedway cannot run but Spedeworth can put on a meet and even with the restrictions, the attendance that you can se on recordings on YouTube of the event was probably better than speedway get. Those who control speedway have not gone beyond the call of duty for a variety of reasons. Some tracks who share facilities are unlikely to get the green light particularly where greyhound racing is involved but with a number of operators outside those constraints surely the controllers could have come up with a plan to get some format of racing on and with the right promotion it may well have kept the sport in the forefront of entertainment when all others around are not making it happen. No wonder things are floundering.

They did, I think it was Blackbird Road Leicester but not sure it really made any difference. Speedway is not a factor nor is most sport apart from say the likes of F1and Hamilton who has made a fortune from all the WASP support and now feels the need to make a stand without donating financially to the cause. It makes no difference, those who support these actions have an agenda that is so insular they will never accept the wider view. So many down trodden members of society and those that are suffering in huge numbers from a range of abuses be these racial or religious or sex or disability can garnish the support of BLM and few stand up for them in the way that the hard done by BLM movement claim is their position. The BLM is but a pimple on the arse of the world yet gains publicity from the dregs of the media who give credence to this while ignoring, not least on a numbers basis, those who are are abused and suffering in far greater numbers. The BLM movement fail to look outside the box and cannot see what is happening in the real world and yet the media across the spectrum gives them airtime. Why do they deserve it above all the other causes?

Instead of saying BLM and those endorsing the cause by taking the knee (which may have had a double meaning back in the 70’s and 80’s particularly if you were North or South of the border) why don’t those aggrieved and in particular those supporting BLM say ‘why don’t we all try and get along together’ rather than break it down to colour and race and create friction. Many people are tired of every Tom, Dick,Harry and whatever you wish to call those classed as black, Asian, South American, etc. who simply object to anyone that does not agree with the BLM or similar point of view. Through history groups be they religious, colour or otherwise have come in for criticism, derision, the butt of jokes etc. and in some cases certain people need to be held to account, but has it not gone too far? To read that someone complained about a 1967 episode of the BBC Radio programme ‘Around the The Horne’ being repeated on 4 xtra and the corporation apologised says it all about the society we live in. Those who complain, get a life, those who have views, speak out without violence and those who disagree respectfully object and move on. Everyone has a right to an opinion, not just the BLM movement or any other movement. If you want to live in a sanitised state, move to China, they have ways of dealing with Muslims and others and do not tolerate any nonsense. Where do the BLM supporters sit on this issue?

At Ipswich it is far moe popular than speedway. For the most popular meetings such as the speed weekend or the Bonfire Bonanza it is completely full. On one occasion that I went to the firework event you needed to get to the stadium at least two hours before to get a decent spot. Take a look on YouTube at some of the meetings at Foxhall. Other meetings such as the one in December the crowds are nowhere near as good

Seems that the confusion has arisen as to who said what with regards to bangers versus speedway at Ipswich. Chris Louis has given his view and the head of Spedeworth stated in a radio interview on BBC Radio Suffolk that oval racing such as that taking place at Ipswich involves drivers who pay to participate and do not get paid by the promoter. CL questions this but as of yesterday that is the way it is. Foxhall will see racing with fans through the gate for the oval four wheeled motor sport. Speedway might run in October but my reading of the article in the EADT is that it is a governing body decision insofar as it relates to league racing meant no league meetings at Foxhall. The fickle supporters would probably not turn out for an individual event so the promoters are between an rock and a hard place. Everything is either in the press or can be heard and no it is not made up.

For those doubters who think I made it up. Taken from the Spedeworth website not five minutes ago Plus listen to the interview that Chris Louis gave on the topic

To add to the confusion stock car and banger racing goes ahead at Ipswich with fans allowed in because both are classed as amateur sports. Are you any safer in the stadia because they are not professional paid sports people. You could not make it up.

I do agree with the sentiment. What I cannot get is the mix messages. Today through until the 23rd masks are not necessary and all the data shows that cases etc are at a low yet come the 24th masks are necessary to go into shops. I can however go to a pub, restaurant, lido or theatre but cannot stand outside in the fresh air with a mask and watch sport be it Speedway or any other sport. Amateurs can go ahead but professionals are prohibited from working. Poland and Sweden can run but the U.K. cannot. Boris and the government have totally lost the plot and frankly it is time that the majority of law abiding citizens told these amateurs to f... off. They have cocked up the pandemic, the Brexit negotiations and left the country with a huge financial debt. Thankfully the 60 and 70 year olds are not to blame this time it is the morons and younger generation who lack any business acumen added to which you have the career politicians who have never held down a job in the real world and have mortgaged the economy up to the hilt. All those who bang on about government financial help, where is it suppose to come from, someone will have to pick up the tab. You rep what you sow.