Hawk127

This is dire. Let us hope that those who are Ipswich riders can repeat the performance later this week in the KO cup. Probably not but one can only live in hope.

Too late to change the format now but why not have qualifying races before the meeting (say the afternoon on the day of the meeting) for those outside the top eight. Throw in a couple of local riders as well and then hopefully the main meeting will be a competitive affair. The track can then be prepared for the evening meeting. This also makes it better for the fans as an event to attend.

League meetings held only between April and August. Any team that fails to complete its fixtures by the end of August loses two league points for each meeting not completed by the cut off date. Play offs first two weeks in September. Pre April and post September the British Invidual championship with at least one meeting held at every track. Grand final at the end of September. Then knock out cup or World Cup style meetings on a knock out basis. Three teams progress To the next round then the top two and then the final. Might want some work but it should guarantee regularly weekly speedway during the summer months for most teams. Oh a no excuses re rain offs etc in the league. Use the off race night or lose the league points. Bring back some discipline to running fixtures and stick to it no is or buts.

If a rider falls and it is evident that he seen where his team partner is in the race and as a result deliberately stays down to give his partner a second chance (assumes partner is in 2nd or 3rd) then the faller should be excluded and the partner penalised by having to go off 15mtrs in the restart. Last night at Swindon was an example of this tactic.

Well done to Wolves and a good team effort. Disappointed that both managers do not seem to give each other the time of day and while Wolves seem magnanimous and still do not under esmiate the task ahead the Swindon management leave a lot to be desired in walking away without a bye or leave.Accept with grace the result, shake hands and onward and upward to Wednesday. Rosco simply walking away after the interview is sadly lacking in manners or diplomacy. Good luck to both teams on Wednesday.

Thanks to all for the feedback. Can now book some flights.

I think it will be close and with Scott riding 'at home' it might make it difficult for the witches on aggregate but they may sneak a win. If any of the rumours etc are true about the set up next season, let us hope that Scott is back in the fold and home where he truly belongs. Good luck to all the riders and a hopefuly a clean/competitive meeting and safe nights riding for all.

It is all,about money and why would he not line up for the opposition? If he has no chance of coming back to Ipswich next year, the guy wants to ride and earn as much as is possible and despite the connections you could not blame him for taking up an offer having been shafted really the Panthers recent fixture. None of this would be an issue if the powers that be could run the sport so that riders could earn a decent living even allowing for fixed fees which tend to be in addition to basic points money. Time that the powers that be learned that all most fans want is competitive racing and where possible evenly matched/balanced teams. Not too much to ask for is it ? All the riders want is weekly racing as a minimum. What is it that the BSPA do not get about this? An end of season fixture shambles and why? As many have said, weeks without meetings etc.. Time that the BSPA put the house of Speedway UK in order and insisted that riders carefully chose what leagues that want to ride in and stop keeping UK supporters dangling. It is predominantly a summer sport but the fixture shambles does throw up issues. To the BSPA, the fans want answers and not bull sh.t. Are you up to teplying?

Might be a big ask now but one has to have hope. Still could go either way. A real shame it is not a close score and may affect the attendance on Saturday but as has been said on other threads, this is Speedway. Another day another opportunity. Good luck to both teams on Saturday

Hopefully not game over but the witches seem to be struggling. Shame really but hopefully they can turn it around in the second half.

Does anyone know or have the dates for the Gladiators meetings for 2017/2018?

Good news that Freesport/ Premier Sport are saying that they will be showing speedway in 2018 and in my opinion it will be interesting to hear what is happening in terms of the UK coverage. Thank you for the excellent coverage. My next hope is for someone to cover the Ice Speedway meetings this winter. As to the UK. in 2018 BSPA and alll those self centred individuals remember it is us fans that keep your businesses going. Please act and think and put your brains in gear before messing up the sport any further sending it into oblivion. You are just custodians, temeber that.

Is that possibly the problem. The top riders are pricing themselves out of a job as fewer and fewer clubs can meet the salary expectations and surely the sport is bigger than the individuals. The clubs have to cut their cloth accordingly and one can only hope that British speedway does not shoot itself in the foot by offering silly money to attract the top names given the fallen attendances. Not so sure that a big name would put enough on the gate to make it worth while unless external sponsors are prepared to throw some cash into the pot. One can only hope that common sense will prevail.

A good meeting and a joy not to see the joker. Perhaps the use of a tactical substitute but overall the riders went out and did what they had to do without the comfort/fallback of double points. Good luck to both teams in the next leg.

It fast and furious, dangerous, exciting, average lap times of a minute or less, fifteen heats of mad men prepared to ride at super speeds with no brakes so why does it take two hours to run a meeting. The image created does not match the reality and to me some of the lost interest is a result of the poor way in which meetings are run. I appreciate that you can have hold ups for falls etc. But the delays with restarts, gardening at the gate and rarely the same team riders week in week out does test the patience of many. No new fans can get their head around two hours for fifteen minutes of racing let alone the long gaps in between races. The older fans despair at the rules, close racing at league level is a thing of the past and for real cut and thrust of the sport you need to record it and forward wind. I like a number of two wheeled sports but speedway takes some beating if you look at it in its simplest form. I use to regularly go to tracks in Essex and around London in the 70's to get a fix, was a regular at Rye House when the rockets first moved in in 73 and again at Arena Essex when that first started. Moved slightly North and Ipswich and Mildenhall were the local teams with the occasional visit to Kings Lynn and Peterborough and attended one of the tracks most weeks up until a couple of years back. Now just the odd meeting. Not lost to the sport but certainly not the avid attendee that I use to be. One day the interest might return but until,then I will just be selective about the live meetings.

Totally agree. Where has it all gone so wrong? So many good memories of Thursday night''s with the likes of Mark Loram, Chris, Jeremy, Jarek, Tony R and many more. We probably did not realise how lucky we were at the time and today is just a mere shadow of what still can be a fantastic sport with two evenly matched teams and local riders who wore the Witches race jacket with pride. Add to this the away support that travelled around the country. As a supporter of another team in the 70's, fond memories of the bus loads who descended on Rayleigh on Saturday and occupied the stand on the back back straight. Who knows, one day the good times may return.

It was more case of they did not slag off The UK and using the names was simply to highlight the different approach and so what if they deserted for the money. Did they slag off all and sundry? If the current crop believe that things are that bad simply move on but don''t bite the hand that fed you. No one is making these guys ride here. However be careful because as you pass these people on the way up and think you are too good, life has a habit of biting you on the proverbial and you never know when you might need them in the future. As far as I am aware most of the league clubs in this country guarantee you a weekly ride and in the majority of cases the riders can rely on getting paid. If you fail in Poland or the club over stretches itself what then? The current crop of Aussies are just not particularly diplomatic in the way they go about their business and it is the attitude which shows just how standards have fallen.They have no class otherwise they would deal with the issues differently and probably find it would work out in their favour.

Anyone running a book on how many of the whingers will return to the UK next year? Can I get odds on Jason Crump making a return to racing and showing these upstarts how to be professional and explaining the art of good manners and some common courtesy to the hosts. If not can these unhappy chaps leave the UK in peace and ply their trade elsewhere. That will allow U.K. Speedway to regroup which is badly needed and hopefully the punters will get to watch riders who want to ride week in week out and entertain. I will not hold my breath on any of these counts but one can only live in hope.

Absolutely and that would be best for business but alas if some rumours are correct it might be wishful thinking. Fingers crossed anyway.

If some clubs simply cannot afford to put racing on at anything other than NL or a reformed NL then surely it is better to keep the tracks open and operating then loose them altogether to the sport. Next thing would be they tarmac the track (stocks and other four wheel sport prefer hard tracks rather than shale) and that is it. Many other issues are affecting the sport and it is in the final throes of survival as we know it unless some serious changes are made closed season. As is said elsewhere a few wealthy individuals keep some clubs going but eventually reality hits home and the idea money and a bottomless pit suddenly rears its head for those individuals. Good luck to all clubs and hopefully no more names are lost to the sport.

Difficult balancing act with some who believe it is a £10 sport with the assumption that at pricing level more supporters would turn up but to achieve this either the pay scales are fixed (in reality reduced levels for some riders with start and points money only) to reflect the income through the turnstiles or you reduce the number of races in a league meeting. If the club can arrange sponsors then they could pay bonuses when a rider scores over a certain number of points but the clubs have to cut their cloth accordingly. If you have reduced heats to a meeting or six/five man teams again they need to be realistic about the revenue generation to cover the costs. Today not many supporters are willing to compromise and would be unlikely to support a second half of NL standard riders which in itself would also mean lower fixed rates of pay but more racing. These lads have to start somewhere and it is a shame that many who watch today think only league racing is important and open meetings and well as other meetings such as local 4TT etc are not worth supporting. The reality is that you do not have enough teams in split leagues to provide weekly racing and it is either one big league with other types of meetings giving riders track time and probably weekly racing or you watch a watered down product and the slow demise of racing. I doubt that the powers that be take any notice of what is said on this forum but when you watch them destroying each others business without a second thought for the overall good of the sport, is it any wonder speedway has fallen so far and by this I mean to include the fixture fiasco with weeks without a meeting and teams having three home meetings in seven days. The fixture compiler should be sacked for not understanding that it is easy get out of the habit of attending with just one or even two home meetings in one month and then expecting supporters to turn up to three in a week. If you want away supporters to attend more would probably go if they could plan in advance in terms of booking holidays etc. but the compiler makes even that simple task difficult for supporters I really hope that someone somewhere can get through to the chumps at the BSPA and perhaps it might take a petition from supporters and then they might think a bit more about one of the streams of income which they gladly take every meeting without a second thought when it comes to entertainment or value for money they give back in return. Probably not a straight forward solution to sorting out the issues but some are basic and are not rocket science.

I don't think anyone doubts Doyle's ability but the attitude leaves a lot to be desired. He may have an opinion on the other teams riders but at certain times you show restraint and keep those thoughts to yourself or a chosen few not a TV audience when the future of TV coverage hangs in the balance and a professional stance is required. He started his career the same as others and with determination and the right backing has clawed his way to where he is today but that does not give him the divine right to show such contempt for fellow professionals. Unfortunately his actions together with those of his compatriots such as the Holders and Batchelor who disgraced himself and Australia in the World Cup added to which the whinging from other Aussies over here and you question why they bother riding in the UK particularly if the grass is greener elsewhere. I do not see the sport would be any poorer if they stayed away and if the top stars cannot fit the UK into their schedules then British Speedway should move on a look after number one and stop trying to cater or placate the few when the many simply want to race weekly and the supporters want to watch weekly racing. It worked until the tail started wagging the dog. Time to get back to basics.

Doyle's on camera gestures were a little uncalled for but hey the guy has a major advantage over most riders at yesterday's meeting, financial backing which enables him to 'buy' some of the best equipment, back up team etc and probably largely due to his sponsors that he is where he is. Mock all you like Mr Doyle but you were once in a position of chasing every point to earn a living. Why not give something back instead of sneering at those not as fortunate as you from a financial perspective and be a bit more constructive. Or maybe it was a case of sticking by his compatriots and having a roundabout dig at KL and Mr Chapman. We will never know but perhaps it is time that the GP circus riders kept out of league racing altogether. Swindon have not done too bad when Doyle has not been available to ride for them and does British Speedway really need them?

Totally agree. Maybe the answer is reduce the price to a tenner, go back to 13 heats and let the up and coming youngsters have the second part of the meeting with a Gt Britain Championship and every track holds rounds weekly until the end of August then the top 20 or 30 scorers make up two semi finals with a final held In late September to crown the champion who then qualifies for the Next seasons riders championship. Just a thought but I fear for the survival of many of the clubs and it may well be that circumstances force the powers that be to have just two leagues and regular weekly speedway if the sport is to come back from what must be amongst one of the worse lows.

Disappointed and had expected Lakeside to put up more of a challenge but well done to Mildenhall. Sorry about the delay but obviously the paramedics did a great job and we wish the supporter well and a speedy return. The way they got through those races after the delay really shows what can be done if they put a mind to it. And finally what a change to restarts without messing about. Riders straight back to the tapes. Other leagues and riders take note, these lads put you to shame. Thanks for a reasonable meeting.