E I Addio

A common sense post at last. The point that all the self-appointed armchair marketing experts miss is that lots of other sports and traditional entertainments are in the same situation, especially stadium based entertainments. If speedway can maintain the status quo it will have done well. I don't think its decline is terminal, but there is no reason to believe it will ever be any bigger than it now is. I don't know how people think that replacing the Dave Clark Five with the The Chemical Brothers is going to make any difference.

....and he looks like Plug from the Bash Street Kids

Depends how the gate positions fall and who wins the toss. If Kenett goes off the inside he should be comfortable but No4 can be off gate 4 in heat 14 and Kennett is not the greatest over-taker on that type of track and if he can't get across the Poole pair he might finish up at the back.

I would rather have a bottle infrontofme

Now you have lost your marbles completely. You have jumped from saying Lakeside agreed to the postponement to saying Lakeside was actually happy with the postponement. And still you can't provide us with a link to back up what you have said. EDIT: According to Speedway Star this issue was due to be discussed by the SCB on 10th July but that was the last anyone seems to have heard of it. No doubt it has been put on the back burner and forgotten about by the SCB with nothing heard since, much the same as the King Lynn -v- Peterborough matter was, except the Boro'-v-KL issue was suddenly bought out just when needed.

I know of two EL 6-pointers who approached a PL club and offered to ride for £2000+£80/£85 per point. They didn't get the job but the mere fact they were given serious consideration suggests that £55 per point is not written in stone. I understand that most Pl clubs draw the line at £60 per point though.

Correct. We have struggling PL clubs being told they have to spend £20,000 on an airfence, Swindon and Brum in financial problems plus Belle Vue late in paying away teams, Rick Frost not sure what he is going to do next year, Sheffield up for sale, Sky uncommitted plus whatever else we don't know about. Who knows how many clubs will run next year. I would say its very difficult to make firm plans until the season finishes. No doubt many promoters have their teams pencilled in by this stage though, subject to whatever unfolds at the AGM.

There was very limited action that Cook could have taken, since the visiting promoter has no say in it under the rules. None of us know what went on behind the scenes and the SCB are not the mast transparent organisation in the world when it comes to keeping fans informed. In an announcement on the Lakeside website a week or two back the promotion said they were going to make their views on certain matters known "behind closed doors" (which presumably means the AGM) and I would be astonished if this matter was not one of the matters included, or indeed the main matter. The trouble is that unless and until the SCB are prepared to keep the fans fully informed all we can ever do is speculate. Bottom line is that we all know why Poole postponed the meeting and given the circumstances its inexplicable that Belle Vue should have got a £5000 fine and three points deducted while Poole have no points deducted and no fine. Then again given the farce of the Belle Vue-v- Poole Sky broadcast a few weeks ago we can all speculate on why Poole had no points deducted.

I am quite calm and not crying about it. I do like people to read words that are actually written though, and not what they would like them to say. I read the update on the Poole website very carefully at the time. It did NOT say there was a mutually agreed postponement. It was written to the usual vague and wishy-washy Ford-speak to try to imply Lakeside had agreed to the postponement and those who think the sun shines from Matt's posterior might well have read it that way but it did not actually say that that. Go back and read it again. It was because of this attempt to implicate Lakeside that Jon Cook issued a second statement the following day clarifying the situation and stating clearly that the decision to postpone was Poole's alone, and virtually calling Ford a liar. The key point is that Poole never came back an denied what Cook said .

Once again, and for about the millioneth time please show us a link to an official statement from either side that says in terms that the call-off was agreed by both clubs. The facts are that Lakeside issued a statement saying that the decision was Poole's alone and Poole have never denied that to be the case. I think that we all realise that as far as the Poole Brainwashed Brigade are concerned the truth has a very tortuous journey between the eye and the brain so that by the time it enters the thought process mechanism it has been turned into evidence of Saint Matt's integrity but the reality, once again, is that even Svengali Ford himself has not said, in terms that Lakeside agreed.

Thanks for clarifying that. I didn't realise Middlo only wanted an 8=point deficit. I was thinking he probably wanted another 5-1 to give a 4 point deficit. On second thoughts though I reckon SCB and orion might have a point about tactical ineptitude.

That's correct, and if Poole win on aggregate then they would have won fairly in accordance with the rules, but this is where the ridiculous T/R rule devalues the competition. Put Poole bashing to one side for a moment. If any team in Poole's present position were to win by four points or less we cant' say the best team won because without the assistance of the rule book they wouldn't have won on the track. The whole point of sport is that the best team should win. This is why the T/R rule has to go, especially in matches fought over two legs.

Steve Shovlar said in a post that it was "a bit of light-hearted fun". You added a "like " to that post. Now you are saying the forum has spoken and comparing it to a general election. 159 people, about 1% of forum membership have taken part in a bit of knock-about stuff, some have apparently voted for more than one club so how can it be taken seriously ? People who go to the bookies put their money where their mouth is, but I doubt whether many people on here took the poll too seriously (apart from Starman of course)

We don't know for certain that it is ended, but he'll be 44 years old in December and he has just had two steel rods in his back. He can't go on for ever. I am a big big fan of PK but I would rather see him at the top or not at all. It will leave a huge gap in British speedway if and when he goes but he has had two nasty crashes this year I and don't want to see him hurt again.

Nobody on this thread is complaining about the performance of Team GB. Go back to sleep.

Its not a question of whether he was restrained, a GB and top league team manger should be able to rise above moronic posts on twitter without getting into a slanging match in a private capacity. We have what the vast majority of fans agree was the most disgraceful spectacle of the season, the authorities know very well how the fans feel and yet there is no word of apology, explanation or anything else from the individuals or bodies that run the sport, but Muddlo is prepared to indulge in a slanging match with those who hurl abuse on twitter. A civilised and dignified response to the fans at large, instead of just the half wits, would have been a more professional course, not just from the Team GB manager but on behalf of the administrators in general that contributed to the sorry spectacle going on our screens.

That pretty much sums it up. All I would really add is Middleditch's comments on twitter. The man seems completely unaware that even in speedway the job of GB team manager and team manager of a top league club ought to carry with it a certain amount of dignity and that childish "ya-boo" comments on twitter do him no credit at all. I find his attitude very disappointing. But what's done is done and the bigger questions are "Where do we go from here" and "How do we set about restoring some credibility"y, not so much to the sport itself but to those who administer it? Personally I would like to see some sort of formal statement from the SCB or BSPA at least acknowledging that they understand the fans frustrations, that they appreciate that for a variety of reasons (mostly set out in UK Martins post) the season fell short of what the paying public is entitled to expect and that they will be working hard in the winter to make sure things improve next year. I am not holding my breath but some sort of declaration of intent for the future would be a good first step to restoring public confidence. Any thoughts?

Especially in Pooles fixture list

You might have a bit of a point but the guests were for lower order riders, the names that bring the crowds in were there. I don't think the absence of Tungate, Magic and THJ made a scrap of difference. Read the interview with Stuart Douglas in Speedway Star November 2010. The most sense a promoter has spoken for several years. Unfortunately it got pushed to the background in the dispute between Trump and Ford, but if he was listened to at time the sport probably wouldn't be in the financial mess it is now. Amongst other things he was saying that if you halve your fixtures all you are doing is halving your losses but you are still stuck with a bad business model, and the way forward would be a better business model. Unfortunately others thought they knew better so they finished up cutting their losses by cutting the number of fixtures but still finished up with the same old bad business model which has eventually caught up with them again. Thus we have the to top teams in the league with big financial problems when they ought to be making the books balance.

Its a well known fact that Ford is in partnership with the Forces of Evil, and worse still it seems, has his feet under the table with Sky. Cook announced on the mic at Lakeside 2 or 3 months ago that he was working with CVS and Ford to ensure that there were more fixtures for 2014. Whatever people think of those three, and I am not a Ford lover, the fact remains that they are the ones that seem to get things done while the others tag along. If Rick Frost is on board with them now so much the better. That means he is likely to be running next year.

Lakeside statement from the website:- Vortex Hammers Promoters Stuart Douglas and Jon Cook will take time to review where the clubs Play-off hopes failed in the weeks ahead, before the club mounts a new challenge for honours in 2014. As the sport enters a winter of uncertainty with regards to the on-going talks around its Sky Sports TV contract, which currently terminates in October, the duo are open minded as to the future of top league racing in the UK. Commenting on the disappointment of dipping out of a top four Play Off finish in the final run in, Co-Promoter Jon Cook commented “We feel hugely let down by a number of factors that have contributed to our failure to miss out on that top four spot, several of which were not within our control. However this is a delicate time for the sport and we will make our thoughts known behind closed doors, in the meetings to come. Ultimately it was our on track performances which should still have secured us a Play Off place, and we felt the expensive mid-season changes we made should have put us in the frame for the Play Off final itself. That, unfortunately wasn’t the case and we have to look at how we build future teams and who is in them. At the end of the day we can’t ride the bikes for the boys, but we do pick the team so responsibility for our failure on track rests at our door.” On the club as a whole, Cook was more buoyant stating: “Off track, the season has recovered from the freezing cold start, with crowds back to their 2008 levels. This included one of our highest ever Friday crowds for our final League match of the year. The Hagon Shocks Academy is now up and running and we have terrific sponsors in Vortex Exhaust Systems & Skidmarques, both of whom are already on board in 2014. The racing at The Raceway this year has at times been stunning, with barely any dud meetings and to cap it all off the Highways Agency even delayed the Dartford Bridge repairs every Friday night to allow fans to cross without hold up, as the ending of our meetings was adding considerably to congestion! In short, off track our performance is the envy of many so now we will spend the winter months looking at freshening up the on track side of things to give our fans, sponsors and staff the team they deserve, and we thank them all for their backing of the club” Cook also confirmed that the club were awaiting Premier League play off dates, to see if it was possible to run another meeting at the Raceway early in October with a team to include Richard Lawson & Adam Ellis. A decision on this will hopefully be made early next week. At least its clear Lakeside will run next year. There has been speculation that Stuart Douglas as well as Rick Frost would get fed up with the shenanigans of the Ford Gang and move on. Hopefully this will encourage Rick Frost to carry on next year as there do seem to be good relations between the two promotions. Interestingly the last meeting of the season brought one of the biggest ever Friday crowds. That was the Poole meeting which says a lot for the ability of top riders to bring the crowds in but it says even more about the play-offs IMO as that was point when Lakeside were still very much in contention for a play-off spot. I am not a lover of the play-offs in principle but their commercial success seems undeniable. Nice also to see that both main sponsors who have been very good to the club are still on board for next year. Reading between the lines it seems that the door is not totally shut on the Sky contract but it will be interesting to see what other promotions say on their websites. Perhaps other fans can copy us all in. Looks like Richard Lawson is being lined up for next year already !

I am in the orion camp on this one.

First he says he is not going to show the results early in case of manipulation then when it suits he shows them. Was orion right or was orion right?

The inimitable Peter Karlsson