RobMcCaffery

Then perhaps it should be included in the next GP TV contract, as a service to the loyal followers of the sport. If we can have meaningless practice sessions televised (I know the cost is marginal with the cameras already there), there must be a way to provide the pictures and show one of the most significant individual meetings of the season outside the GP itself. One Sport can get their irrelevant meetings televised, even if in Britain we're supposed to be grateful to see more than a couple of races. As for those practice sessions, the hype is truly at desperation level and was beautifully punctured by Woffinden at the last GP. Practice timings work in a sport with grid positions or where timing is essential . Neither have ever been relevant in speedway, well unless you include 'fastest second' from the days of second half Rider of the Night events..... Yes it's good for the sport to get an extra hour. The interviews are the only point of interest to me. I'd rather have three hours of highly significant racing tonight, involving the only stats that matter in speedway, 3 for a win, 2 for second, 1 for third. EDIT: Secondary thought: Surely Dorna are there for FIM TV? They have been in the past so if that is still the case the question of finding someone to televise it would be academic. The FIM TV highlights package used to be sold to channels such as Motors TV, like their ice racing coverage. #;

I'll make a very rare return for this. Welcome back Ghostwalker, you've been missed.

Here we go again, having to put you straight yet again. . I started out as a fan of the Rockets at Rayleigh in 1971 and was a loyal supporter for the next three decades. In 1999 I was part of the team that revived the Rockets and despite ill-health presented all of the Rockets' 'home' meetings that season. In 2000 the Silver promotion took over from us and that meant the return to Rye House as part of his management team someone who I detested even more than nasty idiots like you. I worked at Mildenhall and Boston/King's Lynn during 2000 then moved to my current home, about a 250 mile round trip to Rye House. With the management still including the person I refused to have any dealings with I stayed away and tried to build a new life away from speedway. Sadly my love of the sport saw me start going again, to tracks local to me in the west country and west midlands. When BMR took over I was delighted at now being able to return to Rye House, Unfortunately ill-health and an inability to work ruled out £50 trips (fuel and admission). Despite recent hospitalisation I was keen to get to the track this year and was all set to go over in July. If I am such a poor 'fan' how come I was asked to write a substantial part of the eulogy for Kelvin Mullarkey's funeral, which I would have delivered in person had I not been 400 miles away in Cornwall convalescing from my latest hospitalisation. You really are scum.

My best time to go to speedway is at the weekend. Right now, the only weekend tracks that are within 100 miles of me are Stoke and Coventry (at Leicester)!

Yes, names may increase the crowds but by how much? Enough to cover their costs? Will they use their best efforts or bikes or just use Britain as paid practice? Anyway, ask Rye House fans what they think. They probably won't be alone by the end of this wretched season. I really wish Wolves and their fellow elite good luck in their star-studded four team league. Should be fascinating to see the 'names' back - every week..... As ever the supporters of clubs like yours live on in dream land where everything has a simple, easy solution that can be summed up as "If only everyone were as perfect as us".

I'd be intrigued to know what alternative they think is possible. Perhaps they could just go off and run their little fantasy while the rest of speedway rebuilds on sane lines? That's three times now my Rockets have died. My worry this time is that it is the stadium leaseholders involved and any replacement future promotion would have to deal with them rather than a third party, as is usually the case in speedway. One promotion goes and a replacement does a deal with the landlords. It's not so easy this time. I tried to prepare people for the worst..........

I watch Sabmar's coverage frequently. It's just about acceptable if you don't mind the very limited quality, constantly inaccurate captions and general feeling that it's made by amateurs. Still, it's only speedway, doesn't deserve having it done properly eh? Let's just do it on the cheap and hope the punters are desperate or easily pleased, eh? Lovely jubbly!

Many years back I appeared before the National League/Division 2 BSPA Management Committee to propose a scheme to indeed take broadcasting 'in-house' and produce programmes for sale to the network. The response was "But we don't know how to do it". I'd rather hoped they'd got the point that they'd need to hire someone who did..... I doubt very much whether the attitude has changed. It would be interesting to know how Sweden is coping with the lack of a TV deal this year. They have a deal to sell matches to Poland and Britain with the Swedish (and international) markets covered by pay per view. One small point that is ignored by most BSF people, probably because of its subtlety, is how promotion of speedway on BT Sport treats it as a major sport, slotting in promos alongside their European football and Premier League matches and their Rugby, either sharing ad breaks or being promoted in the ad breaks of those matches. For example, during the Champions League Final, watched by about 3 million people, a record for pay-TV, there was at least one promo for the Rye House v King's Lynn match the following Monday. Just as you can have guilt by association so you can have credit by association. Anyone watching BT Sport's premium events would have no doubt that they covered speedway and see promos that made it look like one of their top sports.Of course you could pay for such publicity - if you could afford it. The last time I tried to explain this one BSF charmer responded "Well it was a crap meeting" which does rather sum up the BSF and perhaps speedway as a whole. Unless something gives direct cash in the hand its benefits are too hard to understand.

If The Groveway was unviable they did a damn good job of hiding the fact when I worked for them!

Okay, you win. I regret trying once more to help the BSF. I will remove all postings on the matter and you can all whinge on about how nobody ever tells you anything and maybe work out why? EDIT: - There, all gone now. Apologies for disturbing the ignorance.

I announced at the Groveway in 1985 and it seemed to be doing no worse than any other track and closed due to stadium availability, I believe. Elfield Park was a different matter.

"Improvements" we're made but most had to be taken down, for example the 1980s home straight scaffolding 'stands'. Len Silver widened the track by scrapping the dog track but more recent developments have appeared to be abortive. The main stand's access was questionable in 1974 and certainly hasn't improved since . I constantly had to read out safety warnings about people blocking stairways at the then lease holder's insistence . Every meeting would see their representative burst into the box shouting that the meeting was off unless people moved. All part of the delights of trying to help your team........

It was an emergency bolt hole for the trackless Rayleigh Rockets in 1974 and really not a lot has changed. It was there or oblivion.

Expectations. It only takes one promoter to give in and the costs rise. Are you really so naive to expect promoters can simply name their price to riders they really want? Polish pay rates change what riders expect to be paid elsewhere. Think it through instead of blindly dismissing a point you're unable to understand please.

I've known the place for 44 years now and almost all improvements made over those years have had to be demolished due to poor workmanship. Many of us despaired when we were thrown out of Rayleigh and found ourselves at the slightly upgraded training track in 1974. There just haven't been enough clicks on the turnstiles to fund proper development plus the actual ',footprint ' of the place is too small to properly upgrade. It's place is in semi-pro weekend racing and always has been. Oh yes, the bike dealership. Showroom open 7 days a week bringing in sales of high cost motor cycles or a tea bar open 25 days he a year Think it through...

These are serious times, not just for Rye House. I read all the comments about product dilution with despair that people cannot see that the house of cards is collapsing. Our worries will not be who is in the team but whether there will be a team. The matter of whether the sport will be semi-professional or professional itself is dangerously close to being taken out of our hands. what is killing British Speedway is rider cost, inflated by the money available in Poland. I've felt for a while that the collapse of professional speedway in Britain is sadly imminent and it seems that the apparent collapse of Rye House is just the opening event Of the final act. Of course Poole, Wolverhampton. Belle Vue and Kong's Lynn will be ok and I wish them and their supporters well in their 4 team league. No Swindon? Count the houses........ Meanwhile the rest need to find a way to continue but in a very different directiin.

Many thanks. It's been a while since I've written like this. Partly it's down to having been rather il lately and that tends to make you reassess priorities and partly that I've been honoured to be asked to write the eulogy for Kelvin's funeral. It's a great honour. Sadly I'll be recuperating in Cornwall so a suitable stand-in will be reading my words. I still love this sport despite everything it threw at me over the years. It does leave me a little lacking in patience with certain types posters though. Does it show?

After ten years as a supporter I foolishly volunteered to help out on the supporters club. From then on I was subjected to endless venom from a member of the promotion to the point where it all just fell apart for me. I could barely face attending meetings and spent several years away from the track subsequently. You wouldn't treat a dog like it, and certainly not a dedicated customer of ten years' standing. On one occasion we were told very arrogantly that the team had signed a rider who was going to be the next great thing. Being then a keen student of the sport as a whole and avid statistician I said "Isn't he the one just dropped by Exeter?" It was a pretty appalling thing to say, I must admit. It was met with "You supporters think they know EVERYTHING!" and a slamming of the office door. The rider lasted about a month, The person concerned almost destroyed speedway for me. Thankfully it was just before I was 'discovered' as a commentator and that saved my interest in the sport. It was only Ron Russell who could get me back to Rye House. When the person I referred to earlier showed up again in 2000, that is why I immediately walked away from Rye House. I know some were mystified at the time but I could not let my personal life be severely affected by speedway again. What relevance has this to current events? I see promoters who treat supporters like dirt being hailed as heroes and the genuine ones often treated as idiots by fans. BOTH PROMOTERS AND FANS HAVE TO WORK TOGETHER. THE SPORT IS TOO SMALL NOT TO. Just the right information at the right time can keep the supporters' faith. Communication is all for silence can easily be misconstrued as contempt. Anyway, I'd better walk away from the Rye House discussion now in case I cop for a ban before I even get the chance to see my second meeting there in 25 years....

One of the absurdities of the current system is that Rye House and Lakeside, natural rivals, have so rarely raced each other for many years. Those lost derbies could have made a heck of a lot to the finances of the track over the years. Neither track really belongs in the top flight. They should be racing each other. Imagine a fixture list including the Rockets racing Lakeside, Ipswich, King's Lynn, Peterborough, Kent and Eastbourne, before you even look further afield. It'll never happen,.........but just imagine....

You might be interested to note that Drozdz, while being named weekly in the Wroclaw side is hardly getting a ride over there, being replaced by the number eight each time.

What went wrong? The second division was shafted to put it bluntly. They were expected to trade up the D1 costs and somehow find stronger teams when the former D1 tracks made sure they held onto their stars. Unsurprisingly the likes of Middlesbrough, with one heatleader tackling undiluted former D1 squads took a hammering in all ways. The Scottish Monarchs was a disastrous attempt to keep Edinburgh and Glasgow going, at Shawfield. Edinburgh had lost their track at Powderhall in the city while Glasgow Tigers had gone bust so had a track, but no team. Long term it resolved itself with the Monarchs' 'temporary' move to Armadale and a revival of the Tigers who eventually decamped to the cheaper surroundings of Ashfield. As you can imagine there was a certain amount of resentment and mistrust amongst the former D2 clubs. When ego and an excess of 'playing pennies' amongst a certain 'Elite' saw them disappear the PL could rebuild. The whole point of the 'watering down' of the EL in recent years I would suggest is to bring the two leagues closer, apart from pure cost saving, to allow the possibility of a merger, but on D2 terms. They've managed to avoid it so far by encouraging D2 sides to join them and plug the leaking holes in the D1 ship. If there is to be a future merger I suspect it will be VERY different to the 1996 con. Now, regarding full-time racing, Riders don't attract enough paying customers to allow them to race full-time. It's that simple. Finally, (god, this is like writing the Rye House programme again after 25 years, without getting a tenner from Ron!), regarding the 14 fixture season, I have no doubt that Eastbourne knew they would lose x pounds per meeting and the parent machine tools company could afford to subsidise 14 matches. No, we don't need to compress the season down to a few months. We need to run affordable meetings using the full range of dates available and maybe realise rather than try to compete with Poland we should just sort out a system that allows promoters a profit and most of all entertains the public and makes them want to come back! I suspect the real downward spiral came when promoters decided that lossmaking was acceptable - it could be covered out of their personal leisure budget (as one said -"It's either a season here or a new car") or the Sky money, which proved that money DID talk, usually saying "I'm off". I just want to enjoy loads of speedway a year with the shortest possible close season. Don't you? What's the mattter, don't you like speedway? (Where do I send the invoice? Oh heck, giving it away again...I'll never get rich).

What is needed is stability. Stability of fixtures, stability of rider appearances, stability of teams. Weekly fixtures have always been a key to speedway success. A season of say 26 dates was and should be the norm. If the racing's good enough and perceived to be of value for money then individuals, challenges and pairs can give a varied, attractive fixture list. There requires a change in mindset that destructively says "Ifg it doesn't take my side one match closer to glory then it's meaningless". We must recreate the desire for a 'night out at the speedway' where the actual format isn't essential. You can't have riders constantly going missing for more lucrative paydays elsewhere. Obviously foreign riders have domestic commitments that must be honoured but right now the feeling too easily seen is "Well, if the riders can';t be bothered to be here then why should i?" Teams - You need to have teams that supporters can identify and care for. It's an essential part ofv drama that you care about the characters and so it is with low-level sport where there isn't the glamour to create a mystique. You also need to think that your favourite rider might still be with you next year. Britain may not offer the cash but it offers the opportunity to race, in a properly planned fixture list, several times a week on wildly varying tracks. We still stage more meetings than any other country. We are the home of league speedway and gave a living to overseas riders for decades. A little more respect is due. We are not somewhere to come when you have no better things to do.We are not somewhere to test equipent or put in virtual practice performances with little commitment to racing. Right now it seems like nobody cares. Until someone does we're going nowhere. If riders have commitments in Poland, with BSI or One Sport then there is sadly no place for them in Britain while they do. Let them go and chase the cash. Leave us to run speedway that people give a damn about.

You assume that all new promotions are full of sustainable ideas and are better than the present members of the BSPA. That isn't automatically the case. Yes BMR have ambition but how much of the planned works on site are completed? I take it the motorcycle dealership is up and running and giving that vital income to the site. Is it? It seemed like a key revenue stream. Something seems to have gone wrong. Is it purely frustration with the BSPA? Ron Russell had great plans and hopes for Rye House too and was far from the hapless fool some try to portray..... Based on getting on for fifty years' knowledge of Rye House speedway, partly professional but sadly from afar since the Silver revival, I firmly believe it needs weekend racing. If I were some stupid nostalgist I'd be arguing for Sunday afternoons. I'm not. If someone had offered me a return to Saturday nights, as at Rayleigh back in the 70-90s I'd have bitten their hand off. Yes, we need a league where we know the riders will give it top priority, except for meetings held by their respective federations. Once we have a pool of riders then we can have an idea of points limits. It has to be about the racing, not the names. The most successful years at Rye House were with Kelvin, Bob Garrad, Karl Fiala, Ted Hubbard, Hugh Saunders, Ashley Pullen and a cast of supporting triers. Nobody gave a damn about their position in the overall world of speedway. They were our heroes and the likes of Barney Kennett our beloved 'villains'. Most importantly they were part of the Rye House family which was a pretty good one to be part of. Remember when you could make money on a challenge match against Canterbury as long as it featured Kelvin v Barney? Now it has to be league matches only, no room for fun, in a fragmented ultra-short, joyless season where the main task is just to, get it completed as as soon as possible and with riders being flown in from around the world. To ride at Rye House? Progress? Madness? No, I don't want the past. I want a future based on the same principles though and which give supporters a proper season full of value for money matches. Is it that too much to ask? Oh I wouldn't mind the white rocket on blue and gold halves back. It wasn't a Len Silver creation but dated back to the founding of the Rockets at Rayleigh in 1947. You wouldn't mess with the Belle Vue Ace or the Wimbledon star. Isn't our heritage worth a bit of respect too?

Just been doing a bit of surfing regarding the track staffer who has been arrested and bailed on a very controversial matter. Now, this has to be handled very delicately to avoid this person's possible crimes, if convicted and we still has a system that presumes innocence before guilt is proven, from affecting the good name of the speedway. Well, I say good name but in the past we were rather considered as literally 'the wrong side of the tracks' in Hoddesdon as we tried to drum up commercial interest. People don't necessarily see the drawbacks to trying to promote speedway at the location. It's vital this is handled correctly, not just by the management, but also by the supporters. Too much comment has been known to bring down cases so certainly no names please, and ideally on less-regulated platforms like Facebook although it does seem the horse has bolted there. Just what we need!

You are very kind and I don't mind being mentioned in the same breath as Dave, the best of the lot by far. I'm also delighted you've got such a collection. Hang onto it because I suspect it's the biggest out there. Jan Staechmann's now got the KM masters. The Screen Sport ones are long lost. All I ever did on video, at Rye House or here was to do the best I could for the sport I loved. Money and ego I could leave to others. I guess that's why I'm broke now. I miss Hackney. I miss Rayleigh so very much. I do not want to miss Rye House.