RobMcCaffery

Four years on people are still fighting to save Coventry. It's 13 years in the case of Oxford. Sadly now it may well be our turn. It'll be very easy to just give up and say it was inevitable. Don''t the Rockets deserve being fought for or do we just subscribe to the depressing (literally) attitude of the BSF that nothing is ever worth trying, nothing will ever work and everything is doomed to fail? I'm not sure if my current health will allow me to go too far but hopefully I can make useful suggestions. There are four bodies that need to be lobbied: 1 - The Musk family that own the karts. The angles should be (a) That the track was in a short-term downward cycle under poor management and can still be worthwhile. (b) There's over 80 years of sporting history here. This isn't some skateboard park or laser arena. (c) The enormous cachment area for speedway, including the whole of London and an excellent rail link giving opportunities to exceed even the pre-BMR gates. 2 - Broxbourne Council - Is there sufficient change of use to require fresh planning permission? 3- Lee Valley Park Authority - These people OWN Rye House. Musk only has a lease. The well-quoted covenant that it must be allowed to stage speedway racing may not be valid, but it must be thought through. The Musks are proposing to offer facilities that exist elsewhere. This the only speedway track for a considerable distance. 4-The press. I'm out of touch with the local media but we must have contacts at the local papers or BBC Three Counties? Of course we could just give up and content ourselves with b"Well I knew it would never come back, aren't I a genius? Do people want the Rockets back? If the news is right they'll need to take a saner attitude. Or maybe we just hope the news is wrong? Maybe? Anyway, it will take better than me to take this up. I wish them well.

'Rayleigh' has opened a thread in the main news section of the forum. Since that will attract more vital attention I suggest we transfer the discussion there. I've just posted this in there. Any further comment from me will be in that thread. "I've made a start by posting this on their Facebook page. Obviously it is only an opening shot. "A story is circulating in speedway forums that despite encouragement to believe that speedway had a future at Rye House that that is no longer the case. Is it possible to issue a statement to confirm or deny this story please? I am one of many who have been following speedway for nearly half a century at Rye House and are dismayed that one failed promoting company could spell the death of London and the South East's last remaining speedway track. If so, imagine how you would feel if the situation was reversed?"

I've made a start by posting this on their Facebook page. Obviously it is only an opening shot. "A story is circulating in speedway forums that despite encouragement to believe that speedway had a future at Rye House that that is no longer the case. Is it possible to issue a statement to confirm or deny this story please? I am one of many who have been following speedway for nearly half a century at Rye House and are dismayed that one failed promoting company could spell the death of London and the South East's last remaining speedway track. If so, imagine how you would feel if the situation was reversed?"

Here we go again :-( One bad promotion and over 80 years of history swept away on a whim. How would the kart people feel if the situation was reversed? Yes, there's no sentiment in business, but karting and speedway are meant to be sports... At least with Eddie Lesley the track was still there, albeit under tarmac. With the Musks having had to endure BMR even after the takeover I suppose it's inevitable that they have no respect for speedway. Hard to begin a fight with the pandemic taking priority. Our sport can be so fragile. One bad promotion and extinction, as at Coventry and Oxford.

My goodness, the weather in Ipswich has a time machine?

Sadly once repeated errors can quickly grow into myths. The stadium is well to the south of the old track and as BomberHammer says the BT Sport studios are on the site of the track. The studios were formerly the Olympic Media Centre. We have a similar if lesser problem with Rayleigh. The Sainsbury's often quoted as being over the site of the track lies well to the west, by the stadium approach road and car park. The actual stadium site is covered by the industrial estate to the east. I occasionally use a shop there and I'd say it sits between the entrance and main stand, on the fourth bend.....but then it's been 47 years....

The conversion of the stand to a gym was a concern. Sold down the river, almost literally. Seems they were playing us along to buy time, eh?

It does vary from country to country between 1m and 2m. Canada and Spain also use 2m while the World Health Organisation recommends just 1 m. If only we followed that it would make reopening the sport and leasure here so very much easier, not to mention transport.

Funny then how football and rugby are able to run right through the winter if it's the cold and damp that matters. Of course their playing surfaces aren't so affected by the weather but I am hearing here is several people complaining that November will be too cold which doesn't seem to affect the followers of other sports. Maybe speedway fans are more delicate? It's not as if it's proposed as a regular thing, just one way to compromise in a difficult situation. I just feel for the Glasgow supporters who are now facing over an 18 month break in racing.

How arrogant to think that your negativity is automatically 'realistic'. That's an easy cop-out. Yes people's lives are essential but that's no justification for trying to destroy the efforts of those trying to save their businesses and sport by fighting to the last chance is extinguished. Reality hurts, but nothing damages more than people trying to be clever by saying nothiong's possible and we should all give up. The right path is to monitor government guidelines and respond accordingly. What damages is just sitting on your hands, decrying the efforts of others and claiming the 'realism' moral high ground, but then that's far easier isn't it and if you're wrong people will be too delighted to think of your comments. I don't know whether we'll get any speedway this year and given the speed now with how matters are changing it would be damaging and stupid just to give up and say how 'realistic' you are. If the efforts don't work, fine, but at least they TRIED.

The situation is truly over-complex and there is no way to get it over to the general public. Sky used this as a major part of their marketing during the digital switchover period, effectively saying, "Confused? Pay us money and we'll deal with it all for you". The best way is to go to the Freeview website https://www.freeview.co.uk/ , enter your postcode and see what the engineers think you'll receive. Whether you're on a main transmitter or a relay doesn't even depend on how remote you are. You could be in the middle of nowhere and have direct line of sight of a main transmitter, while someone in a major city could have hills blocking the signal, causing a local relay to be needed - and the result is Freeview Light. This does have relevance to speedway. The recent TV deal with Eurosport made claims about highlights being available to all on free channels. It's not true - some of their free stations are not available to over 25% of Freeview users.

Distribution is where the digital subscription wins. I get my copy of the Star at midnight every Wednesday without fail. I have a decent-sized pc screen so it's actually easier for these ageing eyes to read it than the print version. Each to their own of course but there are ways to avoid the Royal Mail's problems.

There is a technical difference between 'Free to Air' (FTA) and 'Free to View'. (FTV). FTA means the programme or channel is available to all without any paid for subscription and are shown without any encryption. FTV still carries no cost but is encrypted so you would need to have a pay TV subscription box, either Sky, Virgin or BT even if the programme or channel itself doesn't have to be paid for. So with FTV you have to be paying someone a subscription for other services. FTA is completely free. Freeview and Freesat are mainly FTA. The added complication with Freeview is that certain channels are not carried on all transmitters and some can only be watched if you have an HD receiver even if the channel itself is not HD! Yes, it's that simple! If you live in a place served by a relay TV transmitter rather than a main regional mast and do not or cannot have satellite or cable you will miss out on many channels unless you find them on the internet so I'm afraid 'scoobydoo' is right. Not all free matches will be necessarily available to all. The only way to ensure universal access is carriage by the BBC, ITV , Channel or 5. Channels like Quest and Pick only are available to 74% of Freeview Viewers, Sky One to 0.

Well said James. We've crossed swords occasionally but I sympathise with you totally in this situation. Clearly you are doing your best. Your business and Sharings are rather different. You don't have a large fleet of coaches and a chain of hotels to run. I do hope that this will carry out through, as I do with all businesses involved with speedway at this awful time. Real people are getting hurt, apart from the tragic loss of life.

How on earth can you be so certain, and....why? Who knows what the situation will be in like in days, let alone weeks or months?

Times change. I prefer to observe and hope rather than find ways not to be optimistic. Life's too short to just work out ways in which things can't happen. Very little we think or say here will have any impact. We are not privy to the whole story so I just leave them to get on with it rather than just give up and take the easy, negative way out.

I'd say that practice could be held at Rye House without Peter Schroeck. In any case what we are looking for is league speedway, not practice sessions.

On the other hand Richard, he's probably talking to people who know the situation rather better than supporters.

Rob Godfrey, the chairman of the BSPL (formerly BSPA) gives weekly reports on the situation to the Speedway Star, so there's mo need to involve rumours. This week's piece states a hope to start in August, depending on on the government's July plans for the easing of lockdown. He mentions running a Premiership of six home and six away matches per club and possibly a north/south split in the Championship with playoffs. No need to know the right people when the Speedway Star is reporting what is going on. The information is out there......

Following closure for public racing BMR carried on running speedway practice and Flat Track meetings at Rye House, even after the stadium had been bought by the Musks of the kart track. BMR had been hired by them on a one year deal to run the stadium. Since then there has been substantial building work at the stadium but there are no reports of the track itself being affected. The practice sessions were running up to lockdown.

Yes.

Reported as "case adjourned for sentencing", I believe. Someone posted a link to the court records earlier in the thread. It's a case of waiting for that next step.

Thanks Ben. I lost touch during the FIM period. Certainly the box seen in photos and on TV was not in alignment. I'd hoped to find out for myself in 2018 after my illness but they'd gone bust before my recovery!

Relying on old memories here so I can't comment on all subsequent box positions but the last one seems to have been pretty much as far from the start as my era's. To be in line with the start it would have been very tight against the main stand. I know it's been a while now but I did spend about 150 meetings in the old box. Apart from announcing I was the timekeeper and that involved determining race order at the end of each lap, including the final result so I was pretty focussed on how difficult it was to compensate for the angle and distance from the line. It would have been interesting to work in its replacement(s) but that wasn't to be.

There's nothing wrong with using historical perspective but we could now re-learn a great deal from what was good practice then. That's not blind, sentimental nostalgia talking. We had our own stars, a hugely varied fixture list with the league supported by early-season contests, the fours and pairs. The fixtures were full and varied and the crowds responded.