RobMcCaffery

Preview of new Sky Sports Speedway opening titles.

I spent the weekend in Brixham, partly in the hope of watching my second trip to the SBA, having thoroughly enjoyed the first, late last season. Having travelled down on a wet Friday night and knowing of the dire forecast for Saturday night I wasn't totally surprised to find the meeting off first thing on Saturday, despite the fine weather which lasted through to about 6 pm, at which time steady drizzle began which soon developed into steady rain. Even if the meeting had been called off at start time I wouldn't have been there. Noble though the efforts have been at Plymouth to build facilities that can't be permanent it still has very minimal cover and my days of standing in the rain watching riders cautiously ride round a waterlogged track are long gone, especially at today's admission prices. I'm getting on a bit - and determined to get on a lot further so sitting (as I must now due to a gammy hip) in an open field getting soaked just isn't an option. I'll only take a chance on weather at tracks with cover, ideally where I don't have to take my seat in so I'm afraid the open tracks just don't get my money when the weather's doubtful. Now, I love my speedway but it's got to be a pleasure these days, especially having seen too much on the 'other side of the fence' over the years and if you want to call me a fair weather fan then fine, I've paid my dues at more mud heaps than most. Times have moved on, not just for me and in the 21st century it's not just me who wants basic comfort, especially at £20 to get in (including the vital programme), not to mention the extras. I think some promoters have finally caught on to the fact that the public just won't pay to watch poor meetings in the rain. These days so few meetings are staged they might as well be staged when the weather allows everyone to enjoy it. It's not as if promoters have to cram 30+ meetings into a season now.

This forum can be rightly criticised for ill-informed, excessively offensive comment but in the case of the Warsaw fiasco I think the sport got off very lightly. It seems the Poole disease of "let's deny everything, make insincere promises about the future and hope it all dies down quickly" is more pervasive than one would suspect. If that's considered poisonous then great - it was intended to be. The sport's in denial and needs shaking out of its cosy complacency. I'd be interested to know who made those comments and how much they're covering up in their own contribution to the sport sinking to its knees. At least we care - still - for now, but it's the silence of others that the speedway establishment that they really should be worried about - silent because they're long gone.

I'd suspect that it will still be far more fascinating than that waste of time at Tampere, if only because it's a team event. Anyway, that's not really the key point I was making.

What's puzzling is that the Swedish match is only scheduled for one hour, between 8 and 9 pm but between 7 and 8 they're showing highlights of the weekend's GP! So it looks like we get a potentially interesting match condensed into one hour while they waste 60 minutes on Saturday's tedium. ATP Tennis is on Eurosport 2 which would explain the failure to show the match live given Eurosport's reliance on tennis, a great schedule filler.

You have the situation summed-up perfectly. Some of the happiest times I have had in speedway were working at the grass-roots level in speedway, especially the re-launch of Rye House in 1999 and then at Sittingbourne below our third division level in the mid-2000s, seeing the young riders fight to make their way, and seeing their families working so hard to help them achieve their dreams, light years away from politics and cynical manipulation of the sport - best summed-up simply as stupidity - that blight it elsewhere. Sometimes you just need to watch four riders race and forget the rubbish that people stupidly allow to get in the way of this. To me It's not about the names or the quality of riding - it's about the racing. Many others think differently - they seek success and glamour, which is why they desert the sport. Winning's fun, but despite what the Americans say, there is more to sport than just winning. I know I'm in a minority - I know I'm a dinosaur - I still love speedway.

You think that is an intelligent response? How terribly sad, but then that is rather typical of the desperation shown by most Poole 'supporters' in this forum. Do you really think you are all helping Poole Speedway? For decades I had a great deal of respect for Poole Speedway but the sheer dishonesty of the past few years at all levels make me despair for what used to be a credit to the sport. Now it wins, but only in a way that a fool would enjoy. (She was a Hackney fan, not Ipswich by the way, not even for a spell). It's all part of the decline of the sport in Britain as it just becomes the plaything of those who have absolutely no care or love for the sport and who have the gall to hide behind "the best interests of the sport". The stench of hypocrisy is as disgusting as the blind faith expressed by those who excuse it in the delusion that they are 'sticking up for their team'. I used to think that even fools had their limits but sadly this is now rapidly being disproved. I still love my sport and it sickens me to see the way it is being perverted.

"New Corporate Logo for Poole Speedway - Entry Number 1"

So a private event organised by a sports promotion company in partnership with a TV channel, and not an official FIM event is taken seriously in some countries? We have a saying in English "More fool them". But then I suppose in Germany you will take such an event seriously given the tiny number of meetings staged in your country and almost all at a much lower level than this event. So, it was a disgrace for Britain not to withdraw. I take it then the Czech Republic should also have withdrawn from the 2013 event when they tracked Slovenian Matej Zagar in their trio. Let us not be blind to what is going on. This pairs event, along with the European Championship is part of One Sport's attack on BSI and has very little to do with the wellbeing of speedway. Obviously it is taken seriously by countries who are desperate for any form of international standard racing but until it comes under the official sanction of the FIM it is as important as my local track deciding to put on a pairs event and calling the pairings after nations. The event has potential but not the way it is currently being organised. As for Britain, we have relied on Friday and Saturday night racing for over 80 years here but the ability to run on these key nights has been severely damaged by the arrival of 12 Grand Prix weekends. Adding-in another six One Sport events is just pushing it too far. British Speedway has been walked over for many years now and while its own incompetence hasn't helped for once they've made a stand to defend themselves. Okay, Britain did well out of using riders from other countries over the years but many riders made a damn good living out of racing here. Now those riders have better pay cheques to chase - for now....... Of course the BSPA weren't interested in helping the development of One Sport's events and for once they've shown some intelligence and balls. Now, how about looking at why once it was agreed to enter a British pair our number one was denied access by his Polish club? Wroclaw obviously have a problem with One Sport and that's why Schlein had to guest, or doesn't that fit in with your anti-British agenda?

Ht1: Cameron, Sturgeon, Farage (ret), Milliband (f/x) - Clegg (n/s) 66.6

If I were a senior producer at Eurosport I'd be looking very carefully at the contract after last night. Note how few league matches there are on Sky this year? A lot of damage has been done but it might take a while to see the effect due to contracts.

Oh congratulations, I write a lengthy piece from the heart trying to help the sport I love and you find one minor point to pick on. Congratulations, you win the cardboard medal! Typical speedway forum. You claim to be interested in debates and free speech but all you want to do is score cheap points, which is why most people don't bother now and just leave your type to childishly bicker away. There's plenty would disagree with you about most of those sports. Perhaps you don't understand them? People take WWF as an entertainment - like an American pantomime. So, any other points you want to discuss? Do you want them explaining? Do you want to know how to trim a post you're responding to rather than rely on large coloured fonts? You claim to be a fan of speedway but in reality your posts show you just want an argument. Anyway, sadly there's plenty who will play with you. I'm not one. Pathetic as ever.

I do suspect that tonight will be a very significant turning-point for the sport at international level. To me, the sport's been trying to over-reach itself for many years, based on the ability to pull off meetings at Cardiff, although that's been a very close-run thing on a few occasions. Trying to take the sport to a new stature and level of public awareness are of course noble ambitions but I do wonder if the sport simply has the resources to pull off these grandiose schemes often enough? Is this a brown ale sport pretending it drinks champagne? (No Darcy Ward jokes please - there's a separate thread for that). Just how far can speedway reach? Is it wiser to play it safe, run meetings on tracks that can allow a decent product to be offered to the world or do we keep aiming too high and falling on our noses? Yes, it does work sometimes but you cannot build a sport on just atmosphere and hype. You can fool some of the people etc. etc. What we saw tonight was simply deplorable. It was like seeing a former love in the gutter, begging for fags or another drink. Jim Lawrence was not in control. The failure to exclude Troy Batchelor was questionable but the inability to either see the problem with the starting gate or why riders were pulling-up, or simply to choose to plough on regardless was simply unacceptable. The Grand Prix tries to provide us with the best riders, the best stadia and best racing. Is Jim Lawrence one of the best referees? If so, we need an urgent training programme! His on-screen body language during the early problems was worrying. It did not look like someone in control, and I've been in the company of enough referees over the years to have a clue about this. Regarding the role of the Race Director, Phil Morris faced three crises in his first meeting - practice, starting gate and then the track break-up. The fact that the meeting failed after 12 heats shows that it was not a happy start. But his predecessor in the role Tony Olsson was clearly there, as seen on TV and I presume that his predecessor Ole Olsen was also present, given that he was in charge of the track installation. Surely either or both were on hand to advise? Just how many times will we suffer these fiascos and just how many more times will we hear that lessons have been learnt and that the problem can't happen again? It has. It has many times. It's been happening for years, even back at Wembley, such as 1975. Speedway cocks up, eventually. Gelsenkirchen, Riga, Ullevi. The list goes on. I am certain that BSI's rivals One Sport will be delighted to see them fail so spectacularly in the most prominent stadium in Poland. Is this a turning-point in speedway politics that sees Poland trying to take control of the sport it already financially owns? (Ask any rider fined by a Polish club for getting injured riding for a team outside the country, or at least threatened regarding that latter point) It's time for the sport at ALL levels to live within its means, to stop thinking that a few flashy risks will bring riches. They won't. Solid development will, putting good value for money meetings on at sustainable venues. Let people grow to love an all-action sport rather than use smoke and mirrors to convince people that crap is gold-plated. It's time to focus on the product, the racing, not the wrapping. Then, once the product is strong enough, organisationally and financially then take it to those higher levels. We can see some great racing at GPs. Not enough though. Any fool can reach for the stars and fall. To get there you have to do more than reach, you have to build on solid foundations. In Britain, in a week of generally fine spring weather we have staged how many meetings at out highest level? Two. Just two. This is to accommodate tonight's hubris in Poland. That's a high price to pay and once again the British public have been mugged as much as those fools who think that flying to Poland's going to automatically give them great speedway. Still, the atmosphere was great I suppose and the beer was cheap., Who needs more? So far this year for various reasons, notably health I've no been able to get to any live speedway. Fortunately that's changing and I can hopefully start getting to some league matches, ideally in the PL or NL. I'll leave the rest of you to be dazzled by the shiny shiny....... Speedway cannot afford to self-destruct like this yet again. Sadly it will. It mustn't. (P.S. - "So, this time in English please Tomasz.....")

I think the only way to save the situation is to get the start tarts to start a burlesque show.......... Plenty of Polish tracks free tomorrow with there being no league schedule.

One Sport.

I can't see this continuing. Despite all the hype about shoehorning speedway into spectacular stadia but downright unsuitable tracks this just is not acceptable and is sadly a continuation of a trend seen in Gelsenkirchen, Riga and (nearly) Cardiff. If this were at Bydgoscz we'd all be proud of our sport, watching a thrilling advert for speedway.It's not. The stadium's pretty but that's no good if you destroy the sport's reputation in the process. I waited six, months for this? I felt the same about the first Sky meeting. Much as it pains me to say, the Eurosport Best Pairs meetings were both far better. Perhaps it is time to hand over to One Sport and let Poland run the sport that they already own?

One Sport will be loving this, and on their own turf. The referee and race director need to take control now! No excuses.

It's also available on TVP's own official site. Since TVP isn't a premium sports channel like nsport it can carry an official free stream like Kanal Sport did in Denmark for their league: http://sport.tvp.pl/19526334/zuzel-i-liga-zks-row-rybnik-wanda-instal-krakow I believe they also keep these available as video on demand which could be useful for those with busy Sundays.

Google Chrome/Google Translate to the rescue: Sales Period: Starts Wednesday, 15-03-18 10:00 Ends Saturday, 15-08-15 23:00 Stands380.00 SEK (Incl. 30.00 SEK fees) Standing room120.00-275.00 USD (Incl. 20.00-25.00 SEK fees) You just click on how many tickets you want of each class.

BBC Radio WM is not a commercial radio station, however, but a public service broadcaster, like all of the domestic BBC services. It has no need or reason to 'fill up air time' since all midweek sports content is in addition to the normal service between 7 and 10 pm on weekdays which is to broadcast the networked Mark Forrest show, a service imposed on all BBC Local Radio stations by the necessary cuts to BBC broadcasting caused by the freezing of the licence fee. Any sport coverage has to be argued for within the BBC with a strong justification why they Forrest show should be replaced. So, BBC WM is not involved in speedway for any form of commercial gain. It is not looking for material to fill the gaps between adverts. It clearly chooses to cover speedway on the basis that it is part of their public service remit to the West Midlands. Speedway should be delighted that the BBC shows such interest locally since our sport takes its place as a major sport in the area, not the ignored minority status given elsewhere. Our sport receives prime coverage by BBC WM, secondly only to football. Lord knows why! And faced with this publicity windfall what does speedway do? It bans them from covering Birmingham meetings last year and they get turfed out of King's Lynn over petty broadcast fees. This at a time when many minor sports pay to be broadcast! Speedway's chronic lack of vision is exemplified by this behaviour. It can only see the short-term financial gain and can't see it needs to invest in publicity in order to prosper. Sometimes this investment is in care and consideration, not monetary. On the whole it refuses to advertise in local press or commercial radio yet still expects free publicity. Too often its journalists are regarded as 'freeloaders' and met with suspicion. It is clear that is not the case in some enlightened examples and they in turn get excellent coverage in their local media. Speedway needs all the help it can get and perhaps one small step forwards is to recognise that you can't monetise all coverage. Petty fees for short term gain are acting as a strait-jacket on the sport, but then given the squalid state of it these days perhaps its best if journalists and the wider public don't look too carefully. Speedway should be embracing BBC WM's interest, not viewing it as a threat to suck money out of.

And they do it so very well with such cutting effect. Ah well,, shows what you get when you try to help idiots.

As I pointed out in post 11: "The Warsaw GP is in the British Eurosport 2 schedule for Saturday 18th April at 18.00. "

The Warsaw GP is in the British Eurosport 2 schedule for Saturday 18th April at 18.00.

I recently bought a digital copy of the Auckland-based New Zealand Herald and was pleasantly surprised to find a Speedway article on Hayden Sims. Good to see the sport does get coverage in NZ still. Article's also on their website: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11384426

Enough is enough. You clearly favour the idiots. Please delete my account with immediate effect. Life's too short to battle with the foolish and malicious. Will the last sane person in the BSF kindly switch out the lights?