RobMcCaffery

Surely it has to be money. Of course if you're not riding that's academic. Have they gambled and lost? Are riders over there paid if they are registered and not used, just to encourage them to sign and be available, kike a 'retainer'?

If the contract demanded that they have priority then yes. On the wider point, he is a British rider and therefore that contract should not be accepted. When we were dominant in world speedway we acknowledged the principle that home federation fixtures took priority, especially with Poland. It would be good to see the same courtesy offered now in return. Just because a contract is signed it does not make it right.

I'm quite happy with my wording and note that both criticisms come from two people who I have 'crossed swords' with in the past. Perhaps we should be debating what is a serious problem rather than make playground-style attempts at point-scoring? Yes the BSPA may have upset Harris as well. I could have written a paragraph or extended sentence as thread title but I follow a basic principle - 'Keep the headline brief'. The rest can be included in the main body. I know nothing of Harris' position regarding this nor was it speculated upon in the story. I therefore left this out since there were far wider matters at issue than an individual. Whatever the theoretical position of the 'slot system' Britain is already in breach by using Wednesdays and what I considered the most significant part of the story was Poland claiming that our lower tier also only was allocated the Monday and Wednesday slots. This is all semantics. Poland are drawing another line in the sand to claim Friday to Sunday running, excepting international weekends, and no doubt in the long term would love to see those either under their (via One Sport?) control or bundled away on nights they don't want. This is not a case of 'teething problems' of a new, acceptable system. Sweden and Denmark have long worked with a one or two night a week allocation. Britain's needs are different due principally to stadium access and ownership and a need for weekly speedway from March to October, not fortnightly for a dozen weeks or so mid-summer. We've lost that and we've lost our way. Our successful years were based on weekends. We've virtually lost these crucial weekends and this latest Polish muscle-flexing will make that problem far worse. The present PL supporters may be happy to watch 'stars' racing midweek but what we need to re-grow is to recapture the weekends and if that relies on lesser names then fine - I really, really doubt whether the new supporters who we need to attract would even notice their absence. We need to be selling a good night's racing on the right night and regularly. This 'new order' and its 'teething' pains are in direct conflict with this. Is that now clear enough for you? I've written enough professionally over the years to accept critique by those who are qualified to so obviously hope to also meet your demanding standards, Anyway, apart from having to deal with such inanities I'd suggest that Hawk127 has it exactly right. British speedway is fighting for its future and despite the limitations of the BSPA it doesn't deserve to be treated with the contempt it is now receiving. We have given a huge amount to the sport over 90 years - until recently being the only serious place for riders to earn a full-time living for one or to race at the highest levels of team racing. Yes those days are over for now but we deserve a bit more than simply being told to "Go sit in the corner we've given you and don't dare to speak". I'd be a lot happier if I could trust the business controlling Polish speedway. I don't. A rebuild here is required but I do fear that the scale of rebuild will be too much for many 'supporters' to accept.

It's remarkable that such a weak on-paper team is doing relatively well. There's not enough big names in the team beyond Nicki for big-time TV.

This is where the slot system should not have been agreed. It is potentially crippling to the Championship and it's not exactly doing much good for the Premiership. It's sadly got to become a choice and with the money on offer in Poland we will have to find a way to run without those riders or face perpetual guest rider chaos.

Down in League 1, all seems very far from healthy in Krakow. Their provisional licence to stage the sport expired on May 13th and home fixtures are currently suspended with the most recent scheduled, against Rybnik last weekend, rescheduled for July. Full story here: https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/zuzel/757696/kolejne-zawody-w-krakowie-odwolane-kiedy-zuzel-wroci-na-stadion-wandy Also in L1 there's a row over Harris' absence from the Pila v Lublin match. Since this has wider aspects I've put a thread in the main news section. The BSPA withdrew Harris' start permission which let him ride in the Glasgow v Edinburgh match. The Poles are claiming that they have priority over our Championship matches that are not staged on Mondays or Wednesdays.

The Polish speedway website Sportowe Fakty has a report on a row brewing between Britain and Poland regarding Chris Harris' absence from last weekend's match between Pila and Lublin. The report claims that the BSPA refused start permission in Poland for Harris who instead rode in the Glasgow v Edinburgh cup tie. Ironically this was the first match for a while that Pila had selected him. There are arguments to have him suspended but the story has another, perhaps more worrying aspect. The Poles claim that the international agreement regarding race nights that limit the Premiership to Mondays and Wednesdays (in theory anyway) also apply to the Championship and so Poland have priority on every other night of the week, especially weekends for that league as well! Full story here: https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/zuzel/757719/w-pzm-nie-maja-watpliwosci-harris-powinien-byc-zawieszony-po-kieszeni-tez-dostan Translation can be made via Google Translate - just copy and paste that url. https://translate.google.co.uk/ You really are left with the feeling that riders now have to choose whether to ride in Poland or Britain. It may be possible at the top level but how on earth can Championship sides sign riders who will be taken by Polish speedway whenever they feel like it? We are just being pushed further and further into a corner. Money talks and right now it's laughing at British Speedway.

Rye House for years was a training track trying to be a league venue. Now it's a second-tier track trying to be one of the 'big boys'. The track is a better shape than in my days with the back straight moved out but it was always a compromise venue - a bolt hole for the homeless Rayleigh Rockets and we had to make do or die.

Same old "We're superior clubs and supporters - do what we say and want" crap from D1 supporters. As long as that mentality continues the sport has little chance.

We're talking about the High Definition (HD) version which isn't starting until July.

Polish Silver Helmet, Lublin 24.05.18

Belle Vue railway station only has a pretty irregular service so it's best to get one of the many buses from the city centre along Hyde Road. You can get a train from the airport to Piccadilly and get a bus from the road outside or get a Metrolink tram to Piccadilly Gardens and get a bus from there to the track. The buses are numbered 201, 203 and 204 and start from Piccadilly Gardens, passing by Piccadilly station en route to Hyde Road. Transport for Greater Manchester have a great website with plenty of maps and a journey planner. https://www.tfgm.com/

It's a speedway match! Don't you like speedway?

Well, I hope I was able to help some of you enjoy a meeting where the scoring was probably more interesting than the actual racing, with the biggest surprise probably being Drabik not winning. I do wonder just how deep Poland's seam of upcoming talent is right now. There's plenty of riders but where are the Pawlickis and Zmarzliks of just a couple of years ago?

Many thanks. Hope the midges are behaving up there. I'm heading out soon and will watch later so I hope those of you watching live have an entertaining meeting.

1 Karol Zupinski 2 Daniel Kaczmarek 3 Dominik Kubera 4 Maksym Drabik 5 Igor Kopec-Sobcynski 6 Wiktor Lapart 7 Bartosz Smektala 8 Michal Gruchalski 9 Dominik Kossakowski 10 Patryk Wojdylo 11 Sebastian Niedzwiecz 12 Kamil Wieczorek 13 Arkadiusz Potoniec 14 Alex Zgardzinski 15 Oskar Bober 16 Robert Chmiel 17 Wiktor Trofimov jr 18 Maksymilian Bogdamowicz Both this and the Bronze Helmet seem to draw on the EL and D1 reserves. Can one of our Polish correspondents please confirm the eligibility? I assume it is age-related. It was a straight 20 heats at Krosno last year. Result: Drabik (13), Kubera (13), Smektala (12). Hard to see a different top 3.

Line-up here: https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/zuzel/relacja/85521/final-srebrnego-kasku-w-lublinie

Feed here on You Tube. It'll be available to watch after the event as well. You can also link via Sportowe Fakty https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/zuzel/756510/transmisja-telewizyjna-z-finalu-srebrnego-kasku-na-wp-sportowefakty

Freesports have also taken out a full page ad in next week's Radio Times which pretty much repeats the website except it states that they hope to be on VM in July. It shows that Premier are prepared to invest in marketing their sister channel - and giving speedway a good mention. I sometimes think that outsiders looking in on the sport like what they see far more than those already involved who perhaps look too deeply and too cynically.

Shhh, you're supposed to forget that. That was the start of a squalid downward spiral.

Yes, Premier Sports is the main channel and anything that is also carried on Freesports is something of a bonus. Having this on Virgin Media will be very useful. While Freesports is carried in an HD channel bundle on Freeview it is not actually in HD itself. It means you need an HD Freeview receiver to get it, even if it's only in SD. Their website mentions that the HD version will be on Sky and Virgin from July, but it doesn't mention it being on Freeview and it's never been realistically expected to be coming to Freeview - it doesn't have the spare capacity. Running HD in satellite and cable is much, much easier and cheaper. It's down to bandwidth. Yes it is confusing, even for those who monitor the media.....

It's blatantly obvious that British Speedway is in decline. However, an individual not having a favourite rider isn't exactly a fundamental reason. I seem to have been labouring under a misconception that it was a team sport.....Yes, it shows your declining interest but I suspect the reasons that others have lost interest is rather more complex. Anyway, what does this latest 'knocking' thread offer that the many others on the same subject don't?

I have a very simple answer. Emil Sayfutdinov, with an honourable mention for Bartosz Zmarzlik. Both superb racers. Pity neither are British.

Pointless meeting that even the Poles couldn't be bothered with. I'd have that 4,000 crowd claim audited . At least Czestochowa produces excellent racing, well normally, but this really was just an exercise in cashing in on sponsorship and a little track time for the riders. Like back in the seventies when England were unstoppable the only worthwhile opposition for Poland is a Rest of The World team. No doubt that'll be the 'climax' of the series.

Because the FIM show no regard for league racing or domestic speedway for that matter. All too often the FIM is run by people for whom speedway is a sport staged occasionally on Sundays in minor nations. The rights and needs of the major nations have always been secondary. I saw an FIM report many, many years ago on an FIM event held in Britain. What was the first section? Quality of product? Value for money? No, it answered the question "Were the FIM representatives looked after and were there requests met?" or words to that effect. Now we have a speedway man in control in Armando Castagna things should have improved but for too long the FIM was the preserve of the small-time motorcycle club organiser who had risen, usually way beyond their competence.