Hawk127

If you look at the Polish scene then you will know that they have enough talent at all levels and really do not need to rely on a third rate provider such as the UK filling team spaces. Many other European based riders will fill those spots way ahead of U k riders simply because these youngster have a different mind set. One or two U K riders might make the grade but a pipeline of Dan Bewley’s (a rare and unique talent who never knows when he is beaten) is not going to happen so no fear of riders en masse disappearing to Poland. Agree a feeder system is needed and long ago the UK sport had one but today’s promoters nether provide the opportunity or are of the right calibre to recognise what is needed to make a success of the sport.

No not me but you have so many on here who share the views, Mike, Ian and many others who can offer so much more. I agree with all that you say and it needs to gather momentum to stop the sport falling off a cliff in the UK. I would rather watch seven riders trying their best than seven gate and go merchants. As I said standardised the machinery and if necessary grade it in formulas and the top riders can spend thousands chasing the crown while those emotionally involved in the sport ride to entertain and be competitive and gain experience whilst putting on a show for the punters. Short track riders do it and can put on a show. Perhaps ST should consider league racing. At least you would get regularly weekly meetings.

What about next Thursday. Nothing else happening and think of the savings with a curtailed league programme. Just pull two names out of the hat and get on with it. That will have as much credibility as seeing the campaign drag on for another four months with meetings interspersed by weather. It has become a fragmented programme with little to get excited about. A sad state of affairs. If only those in charge took on board some of the feedback from the punters but alas the contempt shown towards the supporters in this country will back fire on in the short term and more tracks will close as the finances will not stack up and they have no chance of getting the lapsed supporters to return. Heads up arses and fingers in ears best describes those who oversee this once great sport.

Apart from the supporters of many years including those lapsed followers It is doubtful that anyone else cares about the facts and now the sport at its highest level in the UK is of little interest and is unlikely to survive many more seasons in its current form. It needs to gamble on starting again with one league and riders who commit to the British league without fear or favour of overseas leagues. Poland pays top dollar and can dictate what the clubs riders do and that is understandable but in the UK that luxury does not exist so stop pretending and stop paying for the service of the European league riders who cannot/ will not commit 100% to UK speedway. That is fine and clubs in the UK just need to build teams without these guys. If the sport wants to have these riders grace tracks in the UK then hold an individual open tournament. For the domestic scene build from the ground up, use a different business model, appeal to a new generation of supporters and make it more accessible to prospective riders by standardising the equipment and embrace modern technology and new formats. Make a meeting more than just a league meet of x number of heats. Have scratch races, the fastest one lap competition, head to head for golden helmet and handicap races. It needs something different and it can be so good but it does not always need the worlds best riders to produce good racing or exciting racing. Can it happen, possibly, will it happen, unlikely given the management of the sport and the fickle supporters who believe the world revolves solely around league racing and then complain about the lack of a pipeline of new talent. Riders of all levels need track time and back in the day they got it with the second half of a meeting, now they are largely ignored by the mainstream clubs.

Ipswich to Leicester would for mostly be by road and no airport exists within a thirty mile radius of Ipswich town so saving on flights is a little bit of an exaggeration. 😀 The problem with the sport in this country is that it employs riders who are hell bent on topping up earnings they make from the European clubs and it is these clubs that provide them with a living and they are not going to take risks that could jeopardise the overseas earnings. British speedway is in the invidious position of failing to offer a competitive form of entertainment because of the participants ultimate goal and it insists on pandering to a bunch of jerks who fly in and out of the UK ripping off UK punters. If anyone believes UK speedway is a viable proposition and stacks up then take a look at every overseas rider who plié’s their trade here and ask yourself do they care about the the UK supporters who partly put money in the pockets of these rip off merchants and will they go the extra mile to ride and entertain. The answer is no. Few punters buy the call off’s and the saving money excuses any longer. It is not a sport but a past time funded by a few soles who use it as a hobby and rely on the die hards to make it work in part for the profit and loss account. How anyone can make money running a business along the lines of UK speedway with a model that gives no control or management to the club owners is up with the fairies.

Tried them but dog fish O’Leary and Salmon Slicer Fillets are the main sponsors who can possibly override any decision by Snatcher Neil Thatcher and the rest of the BSPL. Mayfield might take the line on this but do the ledgers add up. My money is on a float your boat followed by barbless hook two protagonists who are always up for a bit of ground baiting to reel in the punters. We have a chance of turning this around but hammerhead could be a stumbling block, however shrimp o scallop and winkle prawn could be outsiders with the roe to make a difference. I will get in contact with squid malone, he knows every marine mafia. Until then let’s keep this under water .

They do not understand the talent planning to attend, Tanker tail fin, bruiser dorsal fin, bugsey gills alongside handsome predator pike and dodgy lend me your maggots perch with substitutes Roach and Gudgeon and you have a first class field. What is Phil Morris’s problem. Has he ever discussed it with BFRA. No wonder the sport is in a tail spin. I’m off to watch a spot of worm aerobics.

Tanked out again. Can no one cope with water😅 An island surrounded by water as it would be and gold fish following speedway riders by not even giving it a go, no hope for sport in this country. I’m off to the Sahara desert for a bit of sand racing.

How serious? It must be worrying with all that donner and blitzen around. Have they not heard of hair dryers. A job lot from Argos and half a dozen extension leads would have done the trick. No thinking outside the box is the problem with the sport😂 Oh well always got the next round of the European gold fish racing championship.

I assume based on what has gone before the sport is bollocks and will never get back to its heyday and the hard core supporter iit had and is simply left with the remnants of what was a spectacle to be enjoyed by a diminishing number followers. All very sad

Fine, an acceptable response and I bow to your superior standing. Thank goodness standards are alive and well south of the Thames. Unfortunately I cannot claim the elitist status that you hold by living on the Essex Suffolk border but I can that being within local proximity to a prominent politician who will transform Jaywick into the next Sandbanks and believe me the beaches could do it but everything else needs a serious injection of investment to bring it up to the standard that the Victorians enjoyed, Jaywick was the place to go back in the day and it does not need any boat people to raise the standards. It is a hidden gem needing investment but the beach / coast alone takes some beating.

Unless you can grow the core base of the sport it is unlikely that you will ever have 80k plus attend a speedway meeting in the UK.. Those days have long gone. However, and it is a gamble, but you almost need to do a “Kerry Packer” and consider thinking outside the box and put on a high value/stakes individual series over and above the GP where the winner gets to take home a substantial amount and for example you have a three or four meeting challenge where the overall winner gets to take home Euro1m plus. The sport itself is high octane high risk and with a format that has a winner takes all it has to be worth a punt assuming you can get the sponsors but it will take a good sales pitch and the Poles are best placed to do this. If it can be sold to sponsors you have one round in Scandinavia, one in UK and one in Poland and it has to be the top riders based on averages not just pandering to smaller nations. The sport needs to invest in its profile and the current GP format generates little interest outside the current hard core following hence it plays in spectator terms, to a mediocre audience in the stadia which in the main leave a lot to be desired and it is never going to take itself to a higher level or reach the previously historic support that you saw at a Wembley final. It needs vision and marketing and unfortunately only the Polish authorities can sell the concept to a European/world wide audience. The UK cronies have no chance of being instrumental in selling the sport at the level needed

Are you an RNLI member or simply an inshore fisherman who makes a living catching crabs and towing inflatables to Dover.

Please leave this topic immediately your age disqualifies you from any salient discussion that will make any sense. I am off to get a height cap.

Sheffield.

Have you got dementia? 😂 Foxes do not live in Sheffield and the only thing that city is famous for is cutlery. Get a grip for goodness sake or you are going to make this forum look like a hotbed of sensible debate much to the detriment of the average contributor.

Are you a converted boat person who has a vested interest in becoming a speedway supporter to gain asylum status. Sadly you are many years too late. Labour has moved on to those who they believe have human rights and no U k resident qualifies for that. Try Latvia or better still Rhodesia. Alternatively I hear Iran is a decent option. 😀

Can you please have something positive to contribute like the state of the economy or the latest weather forecast, this topic is not at all interested in the state of speedway in the UK. Now I will get the dominoes out to play on line😄 Bingo follows shortly.

It’s more like a post season thread these days. Who won the play offs? Has the AGM taken place? Sad really when but a few years back it was a hotbed of banter between rival supporters and regular weekly speedway. Now it has very little to offer even the diehard supporters and you cannot hold out any hope of change for the better going forward given the way the sport is run and the speedway tail being the riders attitude who are the wagging in the dog and the sport as a whole with the punters who follow it largely treated with contempt. I feel for the next generation of riders who see the options for them diminishing at a rapid rate. It needs wholesale changes but it will not happen. For the time being we have Poland to relive what used to be the sport in the UK.

Agree and I am sure if Bewley had been riding the meeting would be at another level. Yes a rider of his calibre can make all the difference and hopefully in 2027 he will be at Belle Vue showing them how it is done. Onwards and upwards and fingers crossed Dan can get back in the saddle soon. He is a future world champion and his time will come.

Not sure you can get too excited by tonight’s racing. It is OK but certainly not worth the ticket prices being asked for tonight’s meetings. Sadly not many if any can compete with a Polish round and the enthusiasm of the Polish crowd. Another point, are the Polish riders finding the UK track difficult?

You forgot to mention, tax screwing measures, youngsters priced out of jobs due to tax and employment regulation changes, no youngster can do paper rounds etc. thanks to legislation, young employees who recognise that the hospitality industry is screwing them by insisting you read your menu on an app and pay on line and when they ask if they can get you anything else to be told by the waitress/waiter that you need to go to the bar or use the app sums up how the younger generation are on a hiding to nothing. I know a minority want to screw the system but many really do want to work. Perhaps this is the generation that the sport should be reaching out to and using the various social media outlets to get them to suggest where the authorities could take the sport.

Unfortunately nothing to get excited about the presentation or the running of the meeting. It is a shame that the whole package in the UK simply cannot compete with a meeting put on by the Polish federation. Oh well always tomorrow’s Polish matches to look forward to.

That sums up speedway. What a meeting and a huge thank you to every rider who took part and showed why as a spectacle speedway can produce high octane entertainment when needed

Great race and this sums up what the sport is all about and takes you back to the days of Hackney on a Friday night. The Polish scene has got it so right and the UK just cannot compete at this level. Speedway is good in the UK but does not come anywhere neat this standard.