foamfence

I didn't think the Star was being that critical, the article is simply an interview where he revealed his thoughts and attitude.

I see he's still named today in the under 21 final draw.

If you've paid to go in you expect a better effort than that and better presentation. I doubt members of the public could have done much worse than some of Redcar's "professionals."

Bandits will get far tougher tests than against that bunch of throwouts.

The Draft riders get the same rates.

Then of course there's Bridger.

Yes but he doesn't speak English.

BSPA representatives will have been at the stadium long before the cancellation was announced. It sounds as if it was obvious all along that the track was unfit, therefore an announcement could have come much earlier.

I think it has to remain at two, otherwise one kid on his own really would be swamped by it all.

I agree that winning isn't everything, but having hope is! Every year in every league we see teams start the season with no chance at all of challenging for silverware, and that is (in my opinion) a problem. The other problem (at least on here)is people's obsession with foreign leagues. Lets support and make the best of what we have and hopefully we'll see a few underdogs have their day.

I think of darts and wrestling as something of an amusement rather than sport. I wouldn't be interested. In sixty years of watching, mechanic and sponsor I've seen a wide variety of off track novelty attractions, they just turn me off. I think that the current set up could be speeded up and that seems to be most peoples complaint on here. How often do they get 11,000 at darts by the way? With the exception of the big televised events.

Having seen those that make up the crowds at darts and wrestling, All I can say is "no thanks" if that's the way it's going, fair enough but I won't be there.

One with an injured number one.

Newcastle and Redcar.

I gather that a new silencer is coming in for next years GPs. It's a lower decibel model from the current ones but is a straight through type without the restricting plate that the current ones have. So it'll be likely that the various national authorities will adopt it.

I quite like them, not overdone or anything. There are some good pictures of them on Hugh Skidmore's Facebook page.

It was "excluded" in my day.

Nice to know it went well. The play off's would be a surprise, but you never know. How many times did Wilko fall off? :-)

Theme songs have been done lots of times over the years. The last bit wouldn't add any interest to me to be honest.

I would allow the race to finish and THEN exclude the offender! That would soon stop it.

Not everyone is the same, personally I think bad presentation is worse than no presentation and all the ideas that people here have put forward, wouldn't attract me. I don't even like the parade! All I want to see is racing, so whatever the other attractions might be, I don't want them. The best thing that could happen (too expensive probably) would be a giant screen with replays of the last race and replays of other events before the start and during the interval. And also heat results that you often miss because of crap sound systems.

You should know all about them! :-)

I would prefer not to have things that reduce it to the level of a circus.

The Polish tracks have dropped attendance by a lot, years ago you were talking 20,000+ as the norm, they are nowhere near that these days, despite having club sides stronger than most countries line-ups.

I think everything boils down to cost. It's too expensive to run speedway, too expensive to ride speedway and too expensive to watch speedway. Plus nowadays too many tracks are out in the sticks and inaccessible by public transport. I also find the presentation is mostly embarrassing, a bunch of riders on an old trailer waving at empty terraces. Instead of all that crap, I'd prefer to see 15 minutes (before the start time) practice and then get straight on with it. I would make it that the two minute rule meant that the rider was at the tapes and ready for them to rise, or he's out! I like the Draft system and would like to see it as a progressive system from PL to EL (one big league would be better with all clubs having a second team in the development leagues).