Chris116

There are two reasonably simply ways to stop gardening at the tapes. 1) Concrete starting area, like tracks used to have. Never saw a rider try to dig up a concrete starting grid! 2) A line ten feet from the tapes. Riders are not allowed over that line until the start marshall gives them a signal and then they are only allowed to move forward to the tapes with NO backing up allowed. Any rider who does not go straight from the line to the tapes and stop will be put on 15 yard hadicap. (1) would mean a cost to every track so (2) may be preferred by promotors but (1) does solve the problem with no chance of gardening!

At Rye House we had three 125cc and three 250cc races before the start at nearly every meeting during 2017. We also had two rounds of the Youth Championship. Most of the crowd do not want to watch the juniors but we constantly hear that the BSPA should help the juniors. Maybe if the fans supported the junior meetings we would have more stars in the years to come. The crowds at Rye House were so small for the Youth Championship meetings that it would have been quicker to introduce the crowd to the riders! 36 races of which over a third were good close races, what is not to like?

The statement on the BSPA website reads as follows:- Following the Speedway Control Bureau Court Hearing into Peterborough Promoter Mr Ged Rathbone conduct in relation to releasing a contracted rider against both the SCB and ISLB Regulations and Agreement, Mr Rathbone made a public statement after a meeting at Peterborough, a statement which was repeated in the Speedway Star dated 21st October 2017. Mr Rathbone statement contained serious allegations which were of sufficient importance and concern to warrant further investigation. The SCB Members sought the guidance of the ACU and were advised to set up an independent Judicial review panel to enquire into the allegations. The Members of the panel, none of whom took part in Mr Rathbone SCB Court Hearing have been chosen and it is proposed that the Judicial Inquiry will take place in early November. This ends the SCB Statement This reads to me as if the ACU has told the SCB to put their own house in order. I would be much happier if the ACU were running the review.

Since they have told the SCB to hold a judicial review I do hope that the SCB know of a JUDGE they can employ rather than keeping it to friends of the BSPA. Maybe the ACU should investigate both the SCB and BSPA!

No, but I have always thought the promotion was one of the better ones. That view has now changed sadly.

I am glad that the team who I watch most often has not put out a statement like the one by the Somerset promotion as I would be writing to them to point out that I support SPEEDWAY not buffets and booze ups. My support for those at Oaktree Arena is now NIL and I have always had a high opinion of that promotion.

So if Jake had turned up with two bikes that both had blown engines he would now be riding in the Play offs. I am all in favour of following rules but the rules have to be correctly written and what has happened proves that the rules are badly written.

I do not doubt it but it did not come up on my phone so I suspect my phone used an old version of the website when I looked which can happen! I am glad we now know what is happening and look forward to next season. NOTE TO SELF:- Check web site on computer, not phone, for updates!

Exactly, that did not appear when I checked before writing my original comment but I am glad it has done now.

I have no problem if Rye House management have decided not to run another meeting but I think they should have let their supporters know by now that we have seen the last for 2017 or that they are still trying to arrange a final meeting. The total silence is what annoys fans and looses support for a team.

The meetings in that last week saw one of the biggest crowds for the TV meeting followed by poor crowds. Talking to regulars around me, many of them did two or three out of four because they could not afford so many meetings in such a short time. Running regular meetings means supporters follow their team but the way things were this last season you never knew when the next meeting would be. That makes it very hard to get new fans involved which is not good for the future of either Rye House or the sport as a whole.

I only got to a couple of Saturday meetings but based on those I got the impression that the crowds were nearly the same midweek as they were on Saturdays.

I would agree that from a fan point of view then a Raiders team is a great idea but sadly I suspect most of us have seen how few of our fellow fans will watch a Premiership/Championship team and also watch a National League team at the same track on a regular basis. I have seen the size of crowds over the years at National League meetings at tracks that have a team in one of the higher leagues and with that knowledge I can understand why promoters do not want to run two teams at many tracks. What is needed is fixture lists that give a full programme of fixtures in the league of choice then tracks could run a full programme with just one team. Rye House has been the track I have visited the most in the last year and this season they ran/planned home meetings as follows:- April - 4 Saturday night May- 2 Saturday night (1 rained off), 1 Bank Holiday afternoon, 1 Junior on a Sunday afternoon June - 1 Wednesday night, 1 Junior on a Sunday afternoon July - 1 Saturday night August - 4 Wednesday night (2 rained off), 1 Saturday night, 1 Bank Holiday night, 1 Tuesday night September - 1 Friday night, 1 Monday night Just shows how uneven a fixture list Rye House landed up with. Two senior meetings in two months during the middle of the season with four meetings in eight days at the end of the season. I would agree a Raiders side could have filled some of the blank dates but would they have broken even, let alone made a small profit? The questions we really need to find an answers to are how does a track run a season with regular meetings that will be supported by the fans? Are we willing to have a meeting once a fortnight or do we want weekly meetings? Do we want to watch racing in two leagues or will we only support the team in the higher league? Personally, I am happy to watch racing in all three leagues given the chance but find weekday meetings much easier to attend due to other committments at weekends.

I hope there is another meeting but only if it is midweek like meetings have been for the last few months. If they revert to Saturday I will not be able to be there. I was very pleased when the meetings in August and September were mid week as it meant I could see more meetings.

That was what I thought but I always live in hope!

At the last two meetings of 2017 at Rye House it was mentioned that the Kings Lynn meeting would not be the last meeting of the season and we should look out for news of the last meeting. Still no news which makes me wonder if the idea has been dropped. If it has I can understand why but it would be nice to have confirmation or is that expecting too much?

I am going to be at this meeting, spending the day on the IOW Steam Railway and then the speedway in the evening.

Always got home on time and many a time he got meetings over before the rain came when with other refs we would have only seen 8 or 9 races. I wish all meetings were run the way he used to do it.

In amongst all the doom and gloom there are some bright spots. Teams are able to ride tracks other than their own far more than back in the sixties and seventies. I have seen some excellent meetings this year and last. OK, I don't like guests but provided they are kept to a minimum I understand the reasons and prefer a team with guests who can make a close match rather than a meaningless thrashing due to a team being short of quality riders. But then I would prefer to watch my team get beaten by two points rather than win by thirty! You can put that down to having watched White City Rebels bore me every meeting in their last season when they won the league but the crowd vanished due to boredom. I have booked my rail tickets for Isle of Wight on 21st September and just have to hope the visitors have at least half a team of their own! If we want the sport to improve then the supporters have to SUPPORT it. If we stay away we are signing the death of the sport we claim to love. EDIT for smelling pistakes! 😁😉

Please understand that I did not miss the ferry and I am very impressed with the service provided and with the whole set up at Smallbrook. However the Smallbrook station is a National Rail station on the electric Island Line that runs from Ryde Pier Head to Shanklin and as you say the station is also on the steam railway The foot ferry from Portsmouth to Ryde is £19 return for Adults and £14.20 return for Over 60's. I always go in the morning and visit the Steam Railway during the day and then the speedway in the evening. The fares I quoted are for 21st September when Cradley Heathens are visiting and the Steam Railway has a two train service. Wightlink also do a special fare which includes the Ferry, Island Line to Smallbrook Junction and all day on the Steam Railway which is good value but I do not use it as I volunteer on another steam railway and get my own special deal on the steam trains. I have nearly convinced myself to attend the meeting having looked up the details!

Smallbrook is both Island Line electric trains and the Steam Railway. At present the electric trains only stop when the steam trains are running but that could be changed so they stopped for speedway meetings as well which would get rid of the need to have taxis for fans from the mainland.

My biggest wish with Smallbrook stadium is that they could have a pathway to Smallbrook station so we could catch the train that links with the ferry. It would make the journey much less of a worry as last time I attended I nearly missed the ferry due to the first taxi being full and the second one not arriving for some time.

I went to my first speedway meeting, aged 3 months, at Rye House in 1954. My parents moved to Southfields in 1957 and we started going to Wimbledon within a few weeks. During the next few of decades we went to meetings at New Cross, Hackney, Wembley, White City, Reading, Coventry, Cradley Heath, Oxford and Crayford. We also went to a similar number of Stock Car tracks and enjoyed both sports equally. As tracks in London closed I spent time living in Basildon and Skegness and saw racing at Arena Essex, Peterborough, Kings Lynn and Skegness. Now I am back living near Wimbledon and sadly went to most of the last season of car racing there. I no longer drive a car and this restricts me to Rye House for Speedway, Aldershot for Stock Cars and a few other meetings when I can get a lift from a friend. As I am a railway enthusiast I volunteer as a guard on the Mid Hants railway which means I can not attend Saturday meetings so I have been pleased they have been racing midweek meetings recently. I just hope they keep to midweek dates next year so I can continue watching some great racing.

So you have the problem of not really wanting them to race mid week while I cannot see more than a very few Saturday meetings! Looks like whatever happens one of us will be missing next season which is sad.

You can add Grimley to the list of stock car tracks. It was nearly lost last winter due to planning problems but they started racing again once the problem was solved.