RobMcCaffery

Changed my mind Skidder when reading your ignorant and hostile drivel and thought I'd have a little fun.Clearly that's not possible since you are such an arrogant piece of work. You will be totally out of place in the CL. This was my fear when I heard Poole were self-relegating - your unpleasantness along with too many like you at Wimborne Road can only pollute an otherwise relaxed and fun league. Hopefully it'll only be for a year since all you and your club can do is corrupt the league you're in. Keep signing the cheques, it clearly makes you a very superior person....

They'll come to terms when the trauma eases. Eventually.

Oh dear, have we hijacked a Poole thread? Oh deary me. Keep up the good work....

No no no, Crayford were the budgies! They used to sell toy kestrels on stands and some were waved by the home fans to celebrate wins. We used to ask them if their budgies could talk....

Huge changes in 2022 then total reversal in 2023 when the bills come in?

Only in Carlisle within the city walls with a bow and arrow. A separate adjudication is required for Berwick to prevent people shooting themselves ;-) Enough politics.

In my 48 years in speedway one of the best groups of supporters for having fun and taking the rise out of the opponents (and me) have been Middlesbrough/Redcar fans. Poole will have to re-learn that we have fun in tier 2(BL2/NL/PL/CL)and leave the nastiness (on the whole) to the upper 'elite'. One reason I've always preferred this level - it's competitive but still fun. Some of the Poole fans who don't remember the 80s won't know what's hit them ;-) Here's an example. Local derby Rye House v Canterbury. Recent tensions on track with Barney Kennett 'putting it about' at Kingsmead. As he makes his way to the pits he is accosted by a Rockets supporter, who presents him with a large lollipop "Because he's such a big baby). The fun is rapidly running out in speedway. Time to lighten up and have some fun. Educating Pirates could be fun in 20.

One trip to Redcar will soon sort him out ;-) We know what'll be on the breakfast menu.

Krakow and Pila both out of racing this year. Most of the Ekstraliga teams on supervised conditional licences, including the champions, Leszno. Huge crowds and high income are great, as long as you don't have higher costs. Pila withdrew because the local council wouldn't subsidise this year's losses. Sometimes you need to look past the glitz.

We lived with Ian Thomas's expert shenanigans for years in the second tier. I doubt whether Poole will be anything like their tier 1 version, well at least for a while.....

Thanks for the clarification. The debate about the NSS pre-opening was pretty ill-informed on many levels, and coloured by naked jealousy from some fans that a track in Manchester could dare to carry the title National Speedway Stadium. In most situations like these there is a chance that they will be fulfilled, and equally a chance that they will not, which is why, as surely if you were trying to pick a winner in a race, you have to study 'form'. Having said that there's no reason why an appalling record can't change. I hope so much that in Swindon's case it does. It's a great set-up with a good fan base and a superb record of continuity in the sport. It would be another cruel blow to lose it, and we've had far too many of those.

Have to give time for Discovery to do their deals with the third world. Their arguments for getting the SGP circus are similar to getting British Speedway - wonderful new opportunities, millions of new viewers, and of course the key aspect - money, loads of it. Easy talk. Let's see if they deliver. Transmitting the programmes in full and at the right time would be a good start.

Either way, they tend to get what they want, and it doesn't usually match the words.

Manchester wasn't built by Gaming International. Check the latter's record of false promises and abject failure to deliver on promises, especiually in Reading and Milton Keynes. The NSS was a totally different case - backing from the city council plus Manchester City through their local sport initiative is a rather different scenario to a company with a record of fine words and zero action in far too many cases. They've even spread into football with Torquay United. They own the club and immediately promised to demolish Plainmoor and move the club to a new stadium. They promised, they promised.....then said it wasn't going to happen. https://www.devonlive.com/sport/football/football-news/torquay-united-scrap-plans-new-3412818 I'd love them to build the new stadium but it would be foolish not to keep a very close eye on these people given their shocking record under various names.

I let live sport get a head start and then start watching after about 15 minutes. Then I can just f/f the ads. At one time ITV was allowed six minutes of ads per hour. Now a one hour programme on a commercial channel indeed is about 40-45 of actual programme with the rest ads and programme promos. When it comes to sport channels it's sheer greed to sell advertising on top of charging viewers extortionate monthly fees.

Agreed. As someone involved in the dawn of satellite TV I know we were out to broaden choice and offer specialised programming that the existing networks couldn't or wouldn't show. Then along came Murdoch and we are swimming in endless American TV, especially drama, to the point where some people seem unable to realise they don't live in America ;-) As has been proved by Discovery/Eurosport both in Britain and internationally, money counts. It would be comforting to know that the money will filter through to benefit the sport and not just a handful of competitors. Past experience does suggest otherwise....

For commercial reasons. BT would prefer you to watch their channels on their own service. So, by restricting what they give Sky and Virgin they hope to get people to switch to them for the full service. Sky do the same, restricting UHD and not allowing Virgin to show Sky Atlantic. Again they hope viewers will switch to Sky for the full service. On Virgin we get all the BT Sport channels but not access to their app, player or catch-up service. Again, they want us to get their TV, and more crucially broadband internet from them. When you pay Sky, a proportion of what you pay then has to be paid on by Sky to the owners of channels that are not owned by Sky, such as Eurosport. Part of your payment goes to Discovery, Eurosport's owners. This is why many people think Eurosport in the UK is free - you don't have to pay a separate charge, but it's there in the monthly package fee. BT decided not to do such a deal with Sky. They instead decided to sell subscriptions direct, so if you paid £30 a month to Sky you'd need to pay a separate £30 to BT direct instead of £60 to Sky. The channels would be on the Sky satellites but not in Sky's own package. Since they started their multichannel service in 1989 Sky have always been happy to let people think they own all the channels. They don't and never have done. As we know, Discovery own a large number, as does UKTV (Dave, Gold etc) anf Viacom (MTV etc). They all get their cut out of Sky's monthly charges. Until now BT did their own 'thing'.

Talk is cheap. Believing what you hear can be quite expensive. Discovery are making some pretty wide promises. Of course the question has to be whether they realise why these new territories haven't been tried or in the case of the Middle East and USA tried and failed at the level required? It all seems so much like the promises made to the BSPA for British coverage - many more potential viewers, new opportunities to attract sponsors. Eurosport is pay-TV in some countries, not in others. In Britain it's included in most basic pay-TV deals so many don't realise they are actually paying to watch it. The argument that switching from premium pay-TV such as BT Sport, NSport+ or C-More to Eurosport will give higher audiences is questionable. There is a much larger potential audience but the reality in Britain is that BT Sport gets a much higher audience than the cheaper Eurosport and even beats sister channel Quest which is a free TV channel. Hopefully that potential can be realised but I do fear that after after the fine promises we'll still be seeing meeting coverage starting with just a few heats to go, or banished to Eurosport Player. Maybe, maybe in the case of SGP with Discovery running the events as well as the TV coverage there might be a better approach - but their record so far is very unimpressive. It does look like a whole new level so we have to hope it works out. Ten years is a long time to regret a mistake.....

Unlike with British Speedway the switch to Eurosport for the GPs does not take effect until 2022. The next two seasons will still be on BT Sport.

I know the site well and it would be perfect for a speedway stadium. Yes, there would be ample space for a Metro station. It won't be a terminus - that will be in Brierley Hill so should only be a basic station like the rest of the tram stops - a couple of lines and a couple of platforms with cover and ticket machines. The BCLM doesn't have the best of reputations for co-operaton though. The site's at the junction of two major roads out of town, right by the zoo and Dudley Castle and only a short walk from he town centre and bus station. There is no railway station in the town centre. Taking all of that into account there can only be one explanation why the Heathens aren't already racing there....

Rest in Peace, Heathens. as a former resident of Dudley Metropolitan Borough (and briefly employee) I find it staggering that none of the many disused industrial brownfield sites in that borough, or indeed neighbouring areas were considered suitable for a speedway stadium by the council who have obviously decided that professional sport is for others. Indeed Dudley must be the only borough in the old West Midlands county with no professional sport at all. Shame on them. Well done for surviving for 10 years without a home of your own. Only a special speedway club could achieve that. You could say that the killing of Cradley Heath Speedway over 20 years ago would be unlikely to have been allowed for most other sports where authorities bend over backwards to save sporting teams. Cradley was a rarity - a genuine part of the local sporting fabric. No question of "Oh, is it still goingt" when I lived in the area, Speedway needs Cradley needs speedway!

They probably thought speedway related to car racing, as in America.

Among the prejudices we face is the mistaken idea that we were American-style car racing with the track used daily for hours on end with cars belching out petrol fumes is a major problem. As Brian Buck points out, only face to face education can solve this. People get scared and then start believing more and more rubbish that reinforces that. Many years ago attempts were made to introduce speedway to Southend Stadium (ironically designed as a speedway track) met with two objections apart from noise. "We don't want those hyell's angels here" "We don't want all those programmes thrown into our gardens" Ignorance supported by fear is a heck of an opponent.

Farewell, Mangotsfield United of speedway.

They would say "As long as it doesn't affect my house value who cares?"