RobMcCaffery

Nick, thank you for the link. It's always difficult reviewing first efforts like this but my comments are meant as constructive. I don't want to put you off. Firstly, I started out ion the speedway video 'game' 36 years ago with the sport's pioneering company, KM Video and went to record about 200 commentaries for them and later the country's first Sports TV station, Screen Sport. It's been a while since I held a mic but I hope my comments can be helpful. Incidentally, I commentated and presented the video of the first-ever speedway meeting at Arena Essex in 1984. First, there are some technical points that you need to address: Camera framing. There was far too much what is termed "headroom" in the interviews. The camera needs to be angled down slightly. We want to see the people, not the sky. Sound: Riders are generally quiet. You need to get the mic right into them. It looks like you've kept the mic with the camera. It does need to be in the presenter's hand and right up to the rider when he's talking. The levels are all over the place. The action inserts and music boom, the presenter's level is fine but the riders are a strain to hear. This will also help if you do have bikes revving in the background, or planes going overhead. There was excessive wind noise on the Pottinger interview. I'd suggest tighter editing, especially where the interviewee briefly freezes or wanders off the topic. Your presenter seems reasonably comfortable and bubbly -, good for a first attempt. The dinner party question was a little trivial for my taste, but that's just me, but it's a bit clunky to use it three times. One key point. You have to get facts right (something even Nigel Pearson's fouled-up lately). Dudley were renamed Cradley some times ago. It grated to hear it used twice and note how Will Pottinger emphasised 'Cradley' in his answer. Cradley fans are proud people and many weren't happy with the Dudley name ;-. Preparation is essential, even on something like team names. You have got a foundation to build on. It's not a mess and much more professional than efforts I've seen from long-established video companies. In fact I despair to see how little progress has been made by some since my day. I'm uncomfortable with the term 'Niche Sport'. Speedway takes minor placing in the national press and even the local press in the south east but in other parts it does get very serious non-niche coverage. I was reading the Stoke daily paper which ran a half page on the National League Potters lat Friday while tracks like Poole and Ipswich get coverage almost as equal as football in their local dailies. It all depends on where you are. As I suspected you weren't able to show racing apart from the action montages. I take it another company still has the rights to race videos at Lakeside. So, after the interviews the only real reference to the meeting is the statement "Lakeside have beaten Workington and go top of the table". No score even. You need to decide what you are trying to achieve. If it is a report on the meeting then it's tough not being able to show racing. Perhaps you need more 'reaction' interviews such as asking the away team manager "So you lost tonight by 10 points, where do you think things went wrong. Did that heat 10 exclusion cost you?" (Don't forget to say what happened). Then over to Will "So, they think the ref got heat 10 wrong - what's your view". If it's not a report on the meeting just treat it as a chance to meet the people behind the scenes. As I mentioned before there is another business trying this, Speedway Portal who are covering Poole and Isle of Wight. They have their weaknesses but the key difference is that they have filming rights at the Isle of Wight. Good luck with the project. Is this a hobby or a business? If the latter, where's the revenue coming from? Take a look at Speedway Portal's work. It may give you ideas and food for thought on how you would tackle what they have. I hope you take these comments in the spirit in which they are intended. I have seen many come to the sport claiming they're going to do this and achieve that, and watched and waited for their product. You're on the ground. I hope my suggestions can help you to run. At all times you have to ask "What am I bringing to this particular 'table'?"

Yes Tony was very prone to gaffes, which is why it was such a relief to see Nigel taking over. I've been trying to offer constructive criticism after Saturday's serious error, despite the efforts of some to try to derail it into a playground squabble. There is clearly a need for someone to be monitoring commentary for factual errors and to intervene on talkback when they occur. Nigel and Kelvin are delivering 'high intensity' commentary which actually involves a lot of effort and it's easy to neglect factual details. It needed someone to say "No, heat 21 IS relevant, Ukraine can be caught, check the scores" and a correction could have been made at the time without the embarrassment. Likewise when an incorrect scorechart was on screen after heat 14 on Tuesday someone just needed to tell graphics and the commentators that there was a problem. Surely somewhere in the budget there's room for such support for the commentary team? I know the British League coverage is on a tight budget but surely BSI can be persuaded that their expensive SGP/SON product needs 'protection' from avoidable errors. No, I am NOT looking for a job .

Thank you for the clarification. 'Highlights' generally implies exclusion of parts of the actual action. Equally full coverage does not have to include 'tractor racing' as another poster stupidly claimed. The latter is when you go to the pits for interviews and analysis. As usual some here see what they want to see, usually to score cheap points. There's one key aspect of the TV coverage that I am sure flagrag would confirm. Your proposal would produce say a half hour programme which in TV terms is poor reward for the cost of sending a crew which is costly and the cost per hour of a thirty minute programme would be sky high compared to a two hour version featuring racing plus analysis and interviews. Now some clearly feel no need to see or hear such 'colour' but I think you'll find the less 'hard-core' fans might actually welcome a chance to see and hear the faces behind the masks and to hear analysis of what's going on. One person's 'mindless waffle' is another's interesting TV. If it was so overwhelmingly unpopular why after over twenty years' experience do sports TV channels use it? Clearly they see value even if some may not. I return to an earlier point. Sport TV today is about full live coverage. Where highlights programmes exist they are normally supplementing the live coverage, as with the fotball review shows on BT or Sky, or are because that is all they can get the rights to, such as Match of The Day or Football on 5. There are few sports whose prime coverage is reduced to delayed highlights only and I would hate to see speedway becoming one of them.

Utter rubbish. Try reading what I posted again, as long as your finger or lips don't get tired. You clearly have no clue.

Excellent news. This reflects the level of promotion on the channels I referred to earlier. Given that nearly a remarkable (for pay-TV) 3 million watched the Champions League Final it's even more impressive. Hopefully the next step is deal renewals with better monies on offer. They seem to be showing more enthusiasm for the sport than many 'supporters' .

Careful, you'll be taking the title away from ytsjam for ridiculous comment. In any other team sport what do you think the response would be if the commentators got the score wrong? There would rightly be an outcry. But, because we're dealing with speedway, among the more dimwitted people who follow it, it's okay. I am now convinced that you kept posting your witless 'we all make mistakes' rubbish because you were too stupid to actually follow the discussion. Now you make a cheap comment like this. We had another score error tonight, this time on BSI's graphics. Thankfully it was corrected. Getting the score wrong would not be accepted in any other sport, so why is it okay in speedway? Is it such a worthless sport that it doesn't matter? Regarding tonight overall, unsurprisingly the NSS and professional organisation made a silk purse out of this sow's ear and thankfully we had some good racing with the minor nations not being complete cannon fodder. The ridiculous failure of three nations top provide full teams thankfully didn't compromise the situation. i do hope we get a couple of good meetings at Wroclaw. I love the sport and don't want it to fail. but there are too many weaknesses in this 'second and third take all' format which could have an embarrassing finale in heat 43 on Saturday. Yes I love the sport, but the sheer pig-headed stupidity of some of the supporters drives me to despair sometimes. Anyway, to shut iainb up I'll save him some work. We all make mistakes We all make mistakes We all make mistakes We all make mistakes We all make mistakes We all make mistakes But not always on live TV when in front of thousands of people when you're paid well to be taking care not to make mistakes. I understand Nigel has apologised, and it's only right that he did. Apparently to some he doesn't need to get it right in future though..............

Good luck with this, if you indeed have the proper rights and permissions in place, which is a little surprising given BSPA 'form' on this kind of thing. Since UK domestic and FIM TV rights are held by BT Sport, One Sport events by Eurosport and Swedish/Polish by Premier Sports/Freesports I'm intrigued to know what your content will consist of. Are we looking at just interviews and opinion plus scenes away from the track, as with Speedway Portal or are you able to show actual race action? Now, noble as it is to give 'niche sports' exposure I'd suggest that with coverage of three European leagues, BSI and One Sport events sharing space on channels which also feature top-class football, rugby, tennis, motorsport and professional American sports and whose on-air promotion is bundled-in with our own whether the term niche is actually that appropriate, at least in TV terms. Yes these are pay-TV channels but that's where most sport is these days, sadly, bar the occasional highlights deal or what they term "sporting crown jewels' like the Cup Final. I do hope that you can offer a service that is useful to the sport and respect your efforts in setting it up. I'm sure you can understand my curiosity that while the sport needs as much help as possible, exactly what your service will 'bring to the table', given that no actual content has yet been published? I see you are starting out wisely with the underserved Championship and look forward to finding out.

The racing was fair but there didn't seem to be the same commitment as in league racing. Riders seemed just happy to get enough points to make the top eight then put the effort in in the semis and final - except Kasprzak that is. The GP format works superbly in hat tournament because every point counts. In this, as long as you made the top 8 the first 20 heats were pretty irrelevant. Two good rides were all Zmarzlik and Dudek needed.

So, if TV televised a concert you'd only want to hear the few chart successes in the gig? Just get it all finished after 15 minutes? Wonder why Sky and BT spend all that money on live sport when just a 'Match of the Day' style programme would be enough for the undemanding viewers with limited attention spans? All sport has its moments when action isn't rivetting, but viewing figures show that the public want live, full coverage of sport, even if others settle for third rate. The divide between the real world and the BSF is quite staggering at times.

Sorry, highlights just don't cut it. You have to see the full story to understand the scoring. Many people want to keep a scorecard going while watching and the result would probably be known which would ruin it all. If you want to watch bikes going round then fine, but I think speedway supporters look for more. To me, if it's not the whole meeting I couldn't be bothered. After all it only takes under half an hour to show a complete meeting. Also the emphasis on services like BT and Sky is very much live sport. As for highlights of other meetings much of the video footage shot at UK tracks isn't really of broadcast TV standard technically, especially when shot single camera from the back of the terracing. Of course some are up to standard but it would be a tangled web. I expect you'd have to pay out for full match coverage rights of Polish and Swedish matches - and then just show one or two heats? Not cost-effective. If nothing else doesn't such a line send out the message that speedway really isn't worth watching unless you just cut it down to a few minutes of action? Things are bad but not that bad! While BT aren't paying much for their coverage their on-air promotion of the sport is top quality. Trails for the SGP and Premiership coverage are shown constantly, often during their coverage of major sports. In addition you often see a trailer run between say a top football Champions League match trailer and one for a top Rugby match. These are big money deals and there is speedway being given equal prominence. During the Champions League final, which was watched by just under three million viewers which is incredibly high for pay_TV, during a break in coverage, there was the Rye House Rockets logo on screen as part of a promo for the following Monday's Premiership match. As a Rockets fan of old (back to Rayleigh) I could never dream of the team getting a mention during what used to be the European Cup Final! You can't buy publicity like that! Well you could, but we certainly couldn't afford that. On air, BT take the sport very seriously, promote it heavily and give it high prominence. Hopefully in time the financial deal will reflect this.

Yes, I really can't see how Poland are going to be any less dominant.

One race, possibly two. Is that enough?

Supposing a surgeon messed up an operation he was undertaking on you or someone drove into you on a zebra crossingf. I think the 'we all make mistakes' rubbish would soon stop, eh? The entire point I'm making is that this one should not have happened and of course should be prevented from happening again. There I've made it as plain as possible. If you can't understand after all this then it's your problem. Yes we all make mistakes. Mine was talking to you, obviously. "We all make mistakes" x 256

Thank you. At timers like this your inside knowledge of the German scene is vital.

I have made mistakes. There are degrees of mistakes however. Comparing a typo to a huge commentary gaffe is ridiculous. I have commentated on nearly two hundred speedway meetings in the past, for video and satellite TV in its early days. Included in this were world finals. I also hosted my own studio-based speedway news programme. I think I might have an idea of what the job entails and requires, don't you? As most will know I rarely attack Nigel and Kelvin's work. This is not because I am looking after 'mates'. I can't recall ever meeting the former and I haven't spoken to Kelvin since interviewing him when he was the new reserve at Wimbledon. In any case I was scarcely a member of the speedway 'establishment' when I tried to help the sport out. I know that commentators do not have the freedom of choice or action that the public assume they have. They are answerable to producers and directors, literally through the meeting. Commentating while your boss is screaming in your ear isn't the easiest of jobs. Yes mistakes happen, but this one was sloppy and perhaps a product of overconfidence that needs to be learned from. I agree with those who acknowledge Nigel and Kelvin's knowledge, love and respect for the sport. Nigel's constant inclusion of mentions of events taking place in Britain in the coming week clearly goes over the heads of many people's heads but it's clearly an attempt to use commentary to sell the sport directly to the casual viewer. "Hey if you like this you can go and watch it yourself". The question, as ever is one of balance. At which point does repetition earn diminishing returns? It's been mentioned that they are under constant pressure to cater for the casual viewer who may have joined the coverage part way. The question is how far should the balance tip away from those who know the sport, know what is good and don't need the hype in favour of those whose attention needs to be grabbed and massaged. That's not the commentators' role. They do not run the programme and I'd suggest that BSI and BT at least review whether excellent content is being damaged by the volume and hype. Unlike other sports like football I do suspect that the majority of viewers are 'casuals'. Yes there are mistakes. Yes they are acceptable. When they're serious enough and avoidable enough it's complacent and arrogant just to shrug shoulders and carry on defiantly.

Yes, but then I wasn't being paid significant amounts of money to share my work with a large international audience. And yes, I have done the job myself, albeit not at such a level as live to an international market. I do know what the job entails however and what is required. Declaring heat 21 as irrelevant and insisting both teams were eliminated wasn't just a minor slip-up. It could and most definitely should have been avoided. It just needs a little bit of the budget to be used on hiring someone to monitor the scores and correct the commentary team over talkback when they are factually incorrect or have missed a vital point. Add in dreadful camerawork and I'd be asking some very pointed questions of the producer. It didn't hep that it was a dreadful meeting on a dreadful track. I'm sure the rest will be better but you only really get one chance to make a first impression. This was not the SWC. To be honest I've enjoyed Rye House v Crayford challenge matches far more ;-) (and they were far more meaningful, well to us and the budgies...)

You got this exactly right. Thank you.

The point about venue options is actually quite chilling. Have we really reached the situation where our supposedly premium events can only be staged on a handful of tracks? If so, why run them? Now, I've been in love wit the WTC since the Wembley thunderstorm in 1973 but if the only option is to switch to the rightly discarded World Pairs format then the time is sadly here to ditch the whole thing and just carry on with the GPs alone - and be more selective on venues there with choices based on excellence of venue, either for racing, accommodation or hopefully both, rather than political choices. Sadly sporting politics are even less pleasant than politics themselves, with the exception that nobody has to stand for election outside their own closed group. No it wasn't a good start. When have we ever had a classic on the German tracks? It's tempting to ask when we've ever had a simply memorable (for the right reasons) meeting.To them and other nations it's a Sunday afternoon amateur sport and they simply can't step up to the level required. That's been obvious since Norden. Instead we get the usual pious bilge about expanding the sport. I've watched this process long enough to know it just does not work and all it does is compromise the sport in the developed countries. How? It diverts riders from their league racing which despite the attempts to portray the sport as an individual one is the rock on which the sport was built nearly a century ago here and which was exported to great success elsewhere. I'm sure the Poles are only interested in anything other than their leagues unless the nation or an individual are winning. A track or nation should stage these events on merit.

Busy weekend so had to watch this on delay tonight and for once I really do wish I hadn't bothered. The line about adding to the variety of teams and giving those a chance who couldn't raise a full four man team. Well, several 'teams' tonight couldn't raise two competitive riders. It was a night of nostalgia, but not of the pleasant kind, watching Germany capitalising on home advantage on a crap track in a poor stadium. It was so reminiscent of Norden in 1983, but for some reason we have to do our bit to prop up German speedway by allocating meetings to their inadequate tracks. Oh yes, another bit of nostalgia, 'Pocking Hell'. Oh for the good old World Team Cup, whatever happened to it? Then next week, more nostalgia with a two day final. Oh the triumph of Amsterdam in 1987! Some learn from mistakes. The FIM just plough on, propping up the backwoods of speedway while letting major nations go to pot (Poland excepted) as a result. The tail has wagged the dog at the FIM for decades. Back in the 70s the World Championship qualifying system was rigged to favour the east Europeans with the result being endless Pole, Russian and Czech no-hopers occupying the bottom of the scorechart. Nothing changes - the minor nations had too much say then and do have now, although who is major and who is minor has changed. We didn't need to change to a poor race format to get the Latvian upset last year and I very much doubt whether we'll see any this year, apart from pious comments about "wonderful to see the minor nations competing", - but are they? Will they? They're in the meeting and while some had one good, competitive rider overall they were just making up the numbers. The only surprises tonight were how poor the Latvians were after last year's success and even with home advantage, how many the Germans scored. The track looked inconsistent and was catching too many quality riders out. There was nothing on the outside line with the little racing on offer giving 'kerb crawling' a bad name.... The delays at the end were unacceptable but the least acceptable aspect of the whole TV 'extravaganza' was the commentary over heat 21. Declaring both teams out so definitively was sloppy commentating and well below the normal or required standard. I'm sure both they and their producer will know as well. Surely someone on the production team can monitor the scores and tell the commentary team when they're wrong? I know back in the early days of Sky coverage the late Bryn Williams was on hand to advise Tony Millard if necessary. Like someone else said, it made even One Sport's pairs events look good and I never thought I'd ever say that! Let's hope for better on Tuesday, and that we aren't bored rigid by 42 qualifying heats to see who makes it to a final where it's not about winning, just not finishing last. Good luck, explaining that to those casual viewers that are so carefully cared for in the commentary! Pairs events just do not suit knock-out systems. I was going to say winner takes all but, well, er.....can you hype "second and third TAKE ALL". I fear we will find out all too soon. It's okay having semis and finals for events like the Championship Pairs at Somerset - that's a fun night out before Cardiff. This isn't, and certainly "Raceoff 1" was far from amusing, unless you were a drunk German.......

Look we all know if Poole came to the point of not affording their electricity bill their fans are convinced all they have to do is get Ford to point his backside at the track and it'll be fully lit by glorious sunshine. There's nothing like winning to get blind faith. Wonder how they'll deal with failure?

I commentated on stock cars many times there in the eighties. They call it Northampton. It would make a great speedway track and I'm very surprised they're laying shale because they really do prefer tarmac in that sport. Of course it was a speedway track, on and off until the late 60s. I think the final year of the Brafield Badgers was 1967. It was only ever a junior track, never in a pro league.

Ridiculous! We have started the season in BL2/NL/PL/Championship in April since 1969 (1968 was a late start due to the lack of teams in the initial year). I don't remember the second tier having gaps like this. Perhaps the problem lies in having the shortest league schedule since 1968? 10 home league matches is a disgraceful offer to the public, even allowing for the limited additional Championship Shield meetings that in the south add a paltry two extra fixtures making a grand total of 12! So, just what ARE we supposed to do? Start the season in June then move on to the play-offs in September? Trying to defend this year's schedule is ridiculous. The second tier has foolishly followed the top tier into a fragmented season and will pay the same price if it's not careful. Perhaps the promoters can only afford top stage a dozen meetings? If so the least they could do is be honest and inform their remaining fans.

Times have probably changed since I had direct experience but the promoters I encountered tended to be speedway enthusiasts who'd made a fair bit of cash from a small to medium-sized business and either fancied having a go at the speedway off-track power game or wanted to save their tracks from closure after the failure of the previous promotion. Few I encountered could be described as 'dimwits' but they weren't exactly from the business elite. I would even say that most seemed well-meaning although you could scent the odd all-out rogue. Petty rows though seemed to cloud matters when they met at BSPA level. Feuds would then resurface and decisions made to spike a rival rather than in the best interests of the sport. Many would talk reasonably about key decisions, then somehow a totally unreasonable decision would be taken by the BSPA which of course nobody had voted for ;-) So no, not dimwits individually but I suspect that 'power game' really is at the heart of the problems.

Thank you and yes, I can see that rationale for having an agreement. However I am still very concerned that the lack of priority for home federation fixtures seems now lost, or at least ifg you're British. As most will know, most of my speedway viewing over the years has been in the second tier. I have always enjoyed the friendlier attitude of those involved and supporting and learned a long time ago that a good race between two reserves can be as good as a race between two superstars. Racing is racing. I am naturally dismayed to see international politics entering this sector and the thought of Glasgow having to race a derby with Edinburgh without their British number one because of the demands of a Polish club that hadn't used the rider concerned for weeks appalled me. To then have the Poles effectively saying that we have no right to run on days other than the allocated slot days added fuel to that flame. Considering the deal on 'slots' was partly a response to Polish abuse of the previous status quo is also very ironic. I was one of the hundreds who stood on the terraces at Hackney wondering whether the Poles would release Zenon Plech to ride for the Hawks that week. Yes, systems change but having money and large crowds does not entitle the Poles to severely damage the sport in other countries. My initial reaction is that the slot deal should have applied only to the senior divisions with the argument being that the lower leagues should have domestic riders only policy or face the risk of crippling rider absences. Yes, EU employment law allows freedom of employment for its citizens but it does not allow constant absence from the workplace due to having a better offer elsewhere.

Rather disappointed by FreeSports today. I can only record TV that I receive via Virgin Media. I can only watch Freesports via Freesat which I can't record, so it's watch the programmes as they are broadcast or rely on our Polish friend. Having been out at a business meeting last night and seeing that this week's Swedish match was being shown at 2 pm today I decided to stay home and watch. With a near two hour timeslot allocated I assumed I could rely on getting the whole match. The programme started at the tapes for heat one giving no time for team listings and after heat one we moved straight on to the riders at the tapes for ...... heat 3. I didn't wait to see if heat 4 was shown.... Even allowing for ads a timeslot of 115 minutes is surely enough to show 15 heats of speedway and a look at the team line-ups? Yes it's free. Yes it's great they're showing it. Yes, Dave gets better and better at commentary, so why mess it up with shocking editing?