RobMcCaffery

Well it does help if you have the basic facts if you're trying to persuade someone you know what you're talking about.....

Agree 100%. Nonetheless I'm sure you are exactly right ;-) The Monday and Wednesday race nights suited Poole & Wolverhampton but could kill other tracks. I suspect Rue House will soon be in trouble. They were reportedly getting great crowds early last season, but that was when they were racing reliably on Saturdays. I doubt whether a fragmented series of Wednesdays and the odd Monday is going to work. The point about trying to use talent that can't be afforded, it looks like our crowds are now down to the level of semi-pro football, say their National League or its lower regional divisions. Can you imaging those clubs filling their teams with players commuting in from all corners of Europe! It's the economics of the madhouse. 'Names' may count amongst speedway supporters but the people who we need to attract don't know them. It's time to wake up and fit the costs to the revenue, then re-grow so that both will rise enough to start allowing the higher-ranked riders in due course, assuming we need them and their luxury costs. Some riders seem to want the lifestyle of F1 and Moto GP racers. You don't get that in front of 700 people in Manchester.....

First showing on Freesports is 9pm on Thursday. The following week it's Wednesday at 10pm so it looks like the pattern is going to be live on Premier then one or two days' delay on Freesports.

The best way to reward a sportsman for their efforts on your team's behalf is to support them later when the going gets tough. It seems that Rye House has quickly adapted to the top tier, love them when they're winning but the moment anything goes wrong put the boot in. As for the pathetic excise of "We pay their wages, we can say what we like", well firstly you don't pay the wages, the promoter does, and with the state of modern speedway in this country the 'fans' only make a contribution. The proof of a true supporter lies not in how they deal with victory, but how they deal with defeat. Constant calls to sack this guy or that guy do NOTHING to help. Yes, you can say what you like, within the law, but it doesn't mean you should. A grain of intelligence might be useful.

Because they have imported many of the factors crippling the top tier: chaotic fixture lists, excessive guests and costs. It's also been busy supplying tracks to prop up the higher tier and as a result has become predominantly a shrunken east coast league with large tracts of the country remote from its members. The guest problem is hopefully being addressed this year but the clash between Swindon's fixtures and those of the Thursday CL tracks has already arisen. The road ahead is not to create a league based on today's CL but one based on, for argument's sake the original British League where the few surviving National League (D1) teams finally realised they had to work on the Provincial League's (D2) terms to build one strong, healthy league with a robust, varied fixture list and teams that the sport could afford, the latter achieved through rider control, later points limits. An amalgamation would not be an instant remedy but it would be a significant step forward in providing realistic fixture lists and hopefully teams where guests are a rarity. As ever, it's a little more complex than saying "Well, if the second tier's so good then why aren't they getting better crowds?". Evils that cripple the top tier affect all levels of our sport. Continuity and team stability are key to getting the faith back of the disappearing supporters, but most crucially we must re-create a sport with credible governance, where riders don't treat it as easily avoidable paid practice for more important pay days elsewhere, and give a sense of value for money and leave people wanting more. Sadly today we seem to be dependent on those who don't really care for the sport, just the glory of their team winning. That may work in football but not ion a minority sport like ours.

Pre 1990 it was only the communist isolation of Poland and the consequent lack of hard currency there that held them back in terms of world speedway, and I'm not necessarily talking about the riders and their equipment. Under the planned economy sport was tightly regulated and highly subsidised. In a society where consumer goods were partly-restricted or extremely expensive sport was a cheap way to enjoy life. Speedway in Poland, raced in stadia usually built with public money, attracted huge crowds even back then and once the old system fell and Poland could trade in hard currency the floodgates opened to hiring foreign talent to entertain their huge crowds. The explosion of conversion to a western consumer society saw a wave of controversially-regulated opportunism in business and sport now saw the benefits of sponsorship and large TV audiences to back up the crowds in the stadia. With that momentum it's no surprise that Polish Speedway now dominates and that with all of their money on offer they wanted to expand from just one day a week racing to a full weekend. Sadly, weakened by the BSI calendar robbing us of Saturdays and many Fridays it's Britain that's had to give way. We used to be the honey pot for riders, now it's Poland and we're left with the wreckage. There are many reasons for the success of Polish Speedway and the failure of the British version and it is far wider than us having bad promoters and them having great ones. Despite the wealth over there there has been a disgusting trail of unpaid debts caused by insanely false promises. You could understand British promoters struggling to pay their commitments but not a Polish equivalent with 10,000+ crowds! We cannot compete with Poland and it's not all about BSPA incompetence. Wouldn't it be great if we had local government, sponsors and thousands of customers paying for great stadia? Apart from the case of Belle Vue we don't and have to get by with what we have. If we can't compete we must isolate and rebuild under our own terms. We must not have our best tracks racing on the worst nights.

We are in a vicious downward spiral. Part of it comes from Poland, part from BSI and partly through domestic incompetence, some of it just bad luck. For many years life for me living in east London revolved around speedway, not through my commitments in the sport but as a fan. Friday night was speedway night at Hackney and Sunday was the day to see my beloved Rockets at Rye House. The idea of doing other things on Friday nights or Sunday afternoons was just inconceivable. Yes the close season was hell for me. Thankfully both of my 'local' tracks ran full seasons so the close season really was only four and a half months of relative hell. Of course that wasn't enough and the temptation of 'extras' at Reading, Wimbledon, White City and Canterbury, Crayford then later Arena Essex were always there. The core was Friday nights and Sunday afternoons. Now it's a mess. I live in the west country so my closest option for speedway at the weekend nearer than 100 miles away is Stoke. Still the scenery and pace of life is better than Upton Park.... I do have several tracks much closer to home, all running midweek and it seems whenever I'm able to go they're not running! Going back to running full seasons and on the nights that pay is not idle nostalgia, it's a vital necessity. It means running independently of international interests and ideally one large league with a supporting equivalent such as the present National League. One main league avoids doubling-up. Not using riders who have contracts in Poland will also cut out more absences. Instead of doubling-up a much larger league will give overall more bookings for riders than if they were in two British leagues thus removing the need. The key problem, apart from allowing for the fact that further 'names' will have to be lost is that I suspect that the sort seasons are favoured by promotions because they budget for a loss over the year, a budget that will only pay for about 14 meetings. The painfully-thin fixture lists in the CL this year with just 10 home league matches a year is a new low for the professional leagues. It's not those of us wishing to learn from the past who are the dreamers, it's those who think we can keep struggling on as we are blindly hoping that riders and fans will magically return. Whether the sport has the intelligence to make the necessary changes is doubtful though. It'll stagger on. How long can you stagger on your knees by the way? Mind you, for most here as long as their team's winning many who use the BSF won't care - until they find themselves facing a track closure.....

I think you're exactly right but the key problem will be persuading those who worship 'names' that this right. We need, sadly, to isolate ourselves from Poland before their needs and demands destroy what remains of British Speedway. Unfortunately losing the remaining 'names' is probably too much for the short-sighted that post here. People believed the fairy tale that switching to fixed nights would bring back the 'names'. It didn't, only money and the occasional bout of loyalty (c.f. Jason Doyle) will. We need to rebuild and get our weekends back. All we are doing now is retreating to accommodate the needs of the Poles and their chequebooks.

For the first time since league speedway began we are now 'enjoying' the first year when top-level speedway will not be staged in Britain at weekends (including Friday nights), with the exception of Cardiff. Once we had six senior tracks racing on Saturday nights with several more racing on the also lucrative Fridays. Now we have none. Fridays and non-GP Saturdays are Poland's playground now. Add in endless breaks in continuity and you have a toxic situation, as I fear several tracks will find to their literal cost. From a six day a week sport, top level speedway is now on two nights that nobody else really wants. The sport and its supporters will wake up one day, as usual far too late.

Thank you very much.

That has to be the easiest game of "Where's Wally?" ever known...... I take it the Echo are trying to put their readers off going to Wimborne Road. That reminds me, The Living Dead's on.......

They say ignorance is bliss. You must be very happy. Attack is often the best form of defence. Not in this case. No wonder you have to hide behind a stupid name. I'd be ashamed to put my name to comments like that too.....

I wrote it on the morning of the decisive match. There was only a slim mathematical possibility but if I'd said they were already down the usual suspects would have hijacked the thread. The Gulls' supporters now face more balls in the media than they ever saw on the pitch.....

You have had it explained to you already. Speedway For All was a very useful service that carried 30 minute edits of Polish meetings showing all heats. Speedway Portal is a UK service that just carries interviews. They are entirely different. It is Speedway For All that has featured in this section of the forum, not Speedway Portal. Just because Speedway Portal puts this stuff online it doesn't mean that anyone watches them apart from fans of the tracks 'covered'. Fans can be 'weird so and sos' but not necessarily for the reason you have chosen to use here. Please feel free to thoroughly piss off Holsted.... Anyway, back to the matter in hand rather than this irrelevance, it is amazing that Speedway For All survived so long.

The CMA works on a basis of riders taking four rides a meeting. Seven riders taking four rides each covers 14 heats. Say you have seven 6 point riders in a team. The total average would be 42, under the limit. Then two riders take a heat advantage in heat 15...... A combined team average of 42.5 converts to 45.53 over 15 heats. (15/14x42.5).

I visit Devon frequently and the plight of Torquay United obviously gets a great deal of media coverage there. For those who don't follow the lower reaches of football Osborne runs that unfortunate football club which has during most of its existence played in the bottom tier of the Football League. For the first time in its modern history they are on the brink of relegation to their lowest status, National League South, two tiers below their traditional level in the Football Lleague. All kinds of promises have been made which will sound familiar to speedway supporters. There's the purchase or lease of a stadium in a prime development area, the running-down of the venue amidst talk of a shiny new replacement stadium. Recently his business has taken back control of the pub adjoining the ground. The newspaper report refers to Stadia UK's 'record in running leisure facilities'. Funny, to the outsider it would seem their principal activity, rather like the GRA is to groom stadia for highly lucrative redevelopment. One of the promises is to sort out the Gulls' training ground, which apparently is literally bogged down by poor drainage, again a familiar concept to those familiar with the tattier end of the Abbey Stadium car park, once also a planned site for development.The football club itself is supposed to move from residential Plainmoor to a new site further out of town. People are getting a touch suspicious in Torbay. In some ways I'd respect them if Stadia UK came out and admitted that they simply want to redevelop stadia and stop putting up smokescreens. Hopefully Torquay United will prove to be a step too far. Despite their status football matters to communities, and not just the local market and will get noticed well, outside their area in a way that speedway has never been able to. I suspect that serious journalists, and not from the sports desk, will be taking an interest in the business as the situation in Torbay worsens.

I find One Sport and their events an irrelevance that clutter the international schedule. Your assumption that by being a British Speedway supporter that I must be a fan of an American (IMG) owned business is a shocking misjudgement. Indeed it seems that this is a line being pushed in Poland these days, judging by Sportowe 'Fakty' where BSI are portrayed as working in league with British Speedway against the interests of Poland. I think you'll find that most British supporters couldn't give a damn about BSI and I'm pretty certain the BSPA would have even less sympathy! Portraying poor old innocent Polish Speedway being bullied by the nasty Brits is morally and intellectually bankrupt. BSI are nonetheless running the premier international events. I have my reservations about the revived World Pairs but the SGP decides the World Championship. That's a little more important than seeing which sponsor wins a curtailed 15 heat 6 pair tournament mainly staged on minor circuits. Whether or not BSI or the FIM are doing an acceptable job is also irrelevant to me. I enjoy watching the Grands Prix but speedway for me is a team sport and my real interest lies purely in the major leagues. I've seen the sport over 40-odd years bend over backwards to stimulate the sport in minor countries and I am still waiting for those efforts to bear any fruit. The 'tail wags the dog' in speedway and the needs of tracks that stage maybe three or four meetings a year often seem to be a greater priority than those in the major nations. The blunt truth is that these efforts aren't working and the developed speedway nations are paying the price! Of course the links between business and sport are there. The question is having the right balance. Just what ARE One Sport achieving, apart from being parasites? I am not here to justify the actions of any speedway organisation, and ceretainly not BSI or the BSPA. Been there, had the T-shirt nicked. ;-) Right now in Britain we have rather more pressing matters - trying to keep our 90 year old sport from collapsing. I'll watch tomorrow's pairs but only out of a deep love for watching speedway. I've watched and worked in the sport at all levels since 1971 and still love it deeply, despite some of the deeply depressing people, some of which were downright crooks, that I've had to deal with over the years. Sometimes I wonder why, especially when reading this forum, bit I still just love watching speedway, but preferably a team match. As you can imagine I can 'smell' bull (trying to keep it polite) from a long distance after all these years and if people are out to pull the wool over people's eyes I'm not the best target.

Lambert looked good in Poland at the weekend. Hopefully he can make real progress this year.

Maybe Poole need to look to Poland? There was a promising young lad who scored 12 for Torun at the weekend. Goes by the name of Chris Holder... Perhaps they should give third division rider Greg Hancock a call..... .....to see if any kids in that league need some paid practice.... I'm sure it's a one-off tonight, but that doesn't take away the pleasure of seeing the complacent boasting followed by a pratfall.

Not the place or time for past grudges. The girl was close to death for quite some time. I think she has gone through enough.

Former Sky Sports pit interviewer and Sky Sports News presenter Charlie Webster has just appeared on BBC News' Victoria Derbyshire programme in her new role as a campaigner to fight malaria. She had a serious, life-threatening attack while on a charity bike ride to the Rio Olympics in 2016. I thought some might be interested in what happened to her. Sad to hear she was so close to death.

Simply the greatest speedway rider I had the privilege to watch, and thankfully meet in person. He won the first race I ever watched in the First Division at Belle Vue in 1972. He looked unbeatable that night, and a huge contrast to the other riders, from the leathers through to his dominant armchair style. Ivan was a star and a lasting one, not just a few season wonder. Later I was to have the honour of commentating on his British farewell meeting at Hyde Road and very nearly was assigned to cover his home New Zealand leg of his farewell tour. Sadly that wasn't to be but at least I can say that I have attended a business meeting with him. He was equally a class ahead in that arena. i was lucky enough to meet many world champions in my time, but only one mattered, only one was I star struck by, Ivan Mauger O.B.E. The best in so many ways. Rest in peace, free of that appalling illness that also claimed my mother, the death before death.

No you get the stick because of your arrogance and complacency and seeming inability to realise that childish gloating only offends those with a brain. You hide behind "prove it" and try to comfort yourselves that "the haters are just jealous". No, there are serious concerns about Poole's role in the current collapse of British Speedway. The sport has lost credibility here and the never-ending 'pure coincidence' of rules being changed to suit Poole's needs is a root cause. You boast about being champions. Try behaving like champions and you might finally get some respect. Blind faith isn't supporting your club or sport.

Only after Jack (Mr.Loyalty 2017) Holder pulled off the nastiest piece of fencing since they demolished Exeter in his fourth ride.

Equally many people in speedway prefer to watch and support a team, be able to watch all the action and have no interest in motorcycles. Speedway is a team sport that happens to use motorcycles rather than a motorsport and also has the odd individual championship as an extra bonus