RobMcCaffery

There is no greater corrosive influence in sport than money. It is far too easy to buy things that should never be for sale.... Clearly Torun believe they are bigger than the sport. Now where have I seen that before? The sport has to prove they aren't although I do suspect they'll be there in the Extraliga next year - money talks. I had my suspicions about excessive 'influence' during the semis. In the first leg a Torun rider ended Sayfutdinov's season and wrecked the climax of the GPs with a disgracefully ruthless piece of riding and escaped punishment, with even Emil picking up the exclusion! In the second leg we then have the red card for Szombierski for heinously staying down on the wrong end of a 5-1. The inconsistency was clear, and it was far too easy to suspect that Torun were being 'favoured'. They could and should have used R/R. After all, Czestochowa had to battle on with it after falling foul of the money machine. As for Go Speed's TV service, I was a customer and unimpressed on Sunday but not with Go Speed who I am sure are as dismayed as the rest of us. It was a good service despite the lack of care by the Poles over the first meeting on Sunday and the subsequent disgrace. Nice stadium at Torun, shame about the stench. I'd rather support a sport on its uppers but honest...

Thanks for this Philip. It's a very troubled time for the sport. As one who paid for the Go-Speed streaming service I am very frustrated at the Polish situation where Torun's power and influence are similarly worrying. Miedzinski's riding in the play-offs was deplorable and the red card for Szombierski totally over the top. Both were huge factors in Torun's relative success. I'll just throw one point into the debate on potential broadcasters of domestic British Speedway. Until recently I would have totally dismissed British Eurosport from the list of possibles - as you said earlier they have traditionally bought or been given programming rather than gone out to make it. This is a product of their origins as the sports arm of Eurovision, (yes, it's not just a song contest) carrying programming made by state broadcasters that couldn't be sold on the open market. I've noticed a change recently. Taking on the GPs wasn't an enormous surprise since they fit the international nature of the channels. Lately though they've bought the UK rights to the Monday night NFL game which is a heck of a change in direction from international cycling, tennis and motorcycling. Now I've just read that Sky's coverage of the British Basketball League is switching to British Eurosport! I'm pretty sure this is the first time they've acquired a minority sport's domestic British league. Now I'm pretty sure that there are many behind the scenes reasons why Eurosport aren't a contender since I can't see anyone wanting the coverage unless the rights were very cheap, having seen this season's farce. The editorial search for 'winners' does suggest a lack of faith in the overall product. The BBL deal does show that things may be changing at British Eurosport. It was very noticeable how they improved their contribution to the GP coverage during the year, using Steve Day and Scott Nicholls instead of the original far from acceptable presenter who babbled his way through reviews of the heats during the gaps in the main BSI programme in the early programmes. Perhaps they realise that there is potential in the sport and it's worth investing in the coverage? Personally I would love to see BT get involved since they currently have a major gap in midweek live sport and will need something to plug the gap next summer when the football and rugby finish. They have a very intelligent, polished approach. Oh well, it would be nice to think that speedway could fit that....

The backbone of British League Division One was weekly Friday and Saturday night racing and that has been lost. Tracks rode 20-30 meeting seasons, not 14. Nobody can tell me that we have made progress from that position. Yes times change but that doesn't mean we simply let things fall apart in response. You wouldn't say "time's moved on, there's nothing we can do" to a sick person so why say it to a sick sport?

Paul, it is possible to be happy to be out of something without needing therapy, you know? I'm glad to be out of both, mainly because of the type of people I encountered. On the media side (not just sport) I grew very tired of having to deal with what were often cheap hustlers running video companies, although there were one or two guys who were a pleasure to deal with. As for speedway, well sometimes making your hobby your living ruins a good hobby. I still love my speedway but it again its the people who run it and a lot of those who follow it who take a lot of the pleasure away. These days I'm happy to just watch, enjoy and leave others to take all the rest. When you see the ridiculous, spiteful hammering that Pearson and his colleagues take I'm very glad to be out of it all. Back to the speedway, I've really loved this Swedish season, it brings back some great memories of working over in a beautiful and very civilised country, although one of our cameramen did try his best to change all that ;-) Thanks to Premier Sports for taking the risk of buying the rights to an overseas version of a minority sport and for Dave Goddard for making the difficulties of working off a monitor in Dublin while filling in long gaps work so well. Thanks also to lastword for his kind words. I've watched the match on its repeat showing so I've been able finally to see the end of a damn good story.

Very much an 'ex' lastword, but I'd rather watch it with Dave's expert commentary. Thanks to Alan for the help. No question of any 'stooping'. I've just been a viewer and supporter for years now, and very, very happy to be out of it all.

Ah well, I'll have to watch it 'On Demand' later. Shame to pay for a legitimate feed only to have it fail in heat two of the final! Enjoy.

What a time for Premier Sports' player to go down!

Sadly the Somerset Speedway programme has a rather limited circulation so thank you for putting the key points here.

Injury's kept me away from the tracks this year so we didn't get the chance to meet up this year Bryn. Let nature take its course and I let's both look forward to next year. Hope it's a full recovery. Rob.

Yes of course. I've long suspected that the club, as opposed to promoter model would be the way forward over here, but things have probably evolved too far. We did have a go at that with the Rye House revival in '99 - £50 a head and a vote in what the club did but that was soon snuffed-out. Wandering Europe for sport in the 80s it was very frustrating seeing so much sport using excellent facilities provided by local government for the local common good while back over here too often it was every man for himself in dilapidated stadia in the private sector, unless you were one of the 'pure' 'athletic' sports. It IS literally a very, very different playing field over here. I do enjoy the Swedish racing far more than Poland which to me is too fast and ruthless. Sweden brings back a sport I remember so well, strong teams in front of decent crowds on a good variety of racing tracks, and with proper tactical battles being fought using the real tactical substitute rules. How much we have lost!

The general, but not universal principle with 'International feeds' is to go to a wide view on a locked-off camera while the home broadcaster has pieces to camera and interviews which are mainly in the local language. In the case of Premier Sports poor Dave has to keep going, filling in over a pretty useless shot, which isn't the easiest thing in the world, hence his skilful use of social media to fill the gaps. The same applies to David Rowe on GoSpeed's coverage of the Polish play-offs. I've never seen the actual racing coverage differ, just the gaps between. Interesting though that the Poles seem to take the straight Sky feed of the Elite League and talk over Messrs. Pearson and Tatum which would no doubt delight the petty whingers on the British area of the Forum... Not a bad match tonight and I have a soft spot for Vetlanda since it was the first Swedishj track that I visited. Looking forward to seeing the superb Motala circuit tomorrow though. Just one sad sight tonight - flares on the terraces - uncomfortably like the unpleasant side of football for my tastes and Vetlanda were also guilty last week at Malilla. Taking the point about the relative strengths of the Swedish and Polish leagues, I'd love to see the stats. I feel though that Sweden's had a higher level this year. Perhaps the Poles are seeing economic sense a touch - seems there are a lot of 2.5-3.00 averaged Poles in second-string positions over there this year. I do wonder how the Swedes manage to track these teams on gates of 4-5k, although there are suggestions that they can't.

Poole is a fairly nice place. Shame about the people. Prefer Devon and Cornwall myself....

I can't remember the exact years offhand but the first division promotion failed, then there were several blank years as attempts to reopen at the lower level were then met by very stringent safety regulations brought in by Sheffield Council in the wake of Hillsborough. I'm sure the local fans can fill in the details. I seem to remember that when Owlerton did re-open the back straight remained closed. I haven't been for far too long. Can a Tigers fan confirm if it's still the case? At Sheffield RL's current level Owlerton's probably just about large enough but if the unlikely event they were to go to a higher level I doubt it would meet requirements.

Not initially, the speedway was sadly closed for a few years. I presume the RL team is homeless after the closure of the Don Valley Stadium. Let's hope the pitch size regulations haven't been changed. The infield was also used for American Football for a while, wasn't it?

Here's my posting on the other GP Challenge thread. " If anyone is interested there are six more showings, including one genuinely prime-time slot: 17.09 05.05 (yes, 5 am) 19.09 20.00 20.09 04.10 20.09 14.15 27.09 03.40 27.09 09.35 Motors TV UK is on Virgin 545 and Sky 447, but not on Freeview.

Just watched it through. All heats shown but no end titles. It went straight from a shot of the riders opening the champagne to an ad break so thanks to Pete Ballinger for his alternative insight into the production. If anyone is interested there are six more showings, including one genuinely prime-time slot: 17.09 05.05 (yes, 5 am) 19.09 20.00 20.09 04.10 20.09 14.15 27.09 03.40 27.09 09.35 Motors TV UK is on Virgin 545 and Sky 447, but not on Freeview. Hope this is of use to someone.

Despite being omitted from Virgin Media's EPG this programme was given its first airing tonight on Motors TV UK at 11.05 pm. The coverage is better than the ice racing - full heats and it looks like all heats were shown. Picture quality's a bit ropey and the commentator could be better informed, but well worth a viewing. It has been packaged as an FIM production with the FIM graphic present throughout. The replay timings are all over the place during the next week, sadly all well outside peak times. I'll try to confirm the production company and commentator but if it's like the ice racing it'll just be an FIM TV logo as credit to close.

It's simple enough, both meetings are compromised, one by doubts over Swindon and Lakeside's abilities to put on a fair and entertaining fixture, and the second over riders missing the Belle Vue fixture due to other commitments in a lower league. Neither situation is going to impress Sky.

Motors TV are showing a highlights package from Sept 12th - several showings, mainly well outside peak hours. If it's anything like the FIM coverage of the ice racing shown on Motors earlier in the year I wouldn't expect too much either, unfortunately. It's nearly thirty years since I last voiced a speedway video. While there are some excellent productions the market doesn't seem to have come on that far in certain other areas....

"Okay Sky, here's how it is. Next Monday you get two choices: 1 - You go to Swindon hoping that Lakeside aren't as abject as they were at Poole and hoping that the home side don't throw the match to get Poole out of the play-offs. 2 - You go to Belle Vue where several key riders will be missing because they have commitments in a lower league. Oh yes, enclosed is a copy of the 2014 agreement, can you sign where we've almost marked a cross please?. Sorry we've had to call off the social at the local beer factory."

A fourteen meeting season ending on September 9th? My what fine forward strides the sport's made in the past few seasons.

That's been changed since I checked earlier this evening which suggests that the match is indeed off.

Looks like it may well be off. The banner featured the word 'aflyst' after the match title and my on-line translator converts that to 'cancelled'. The club website, Danish Speedway League and Sportowy Fakte sites show it as on though but this could just be a matter of them not being updated yet.

Why, just because you're the most important poster on these threads? Ridiculous. By the way, number 19 Daniil Ivanov is the World Ice Racing Champion. Thought someone might be interested, evidently not.

For a novice, Day's doing a superb job.