RobMcCaffery

They get paid more than enough in Poland not to worry

Nor what happened to those who put in all the effort afterwards.........

No the fractured list is due to huge scheduled gaps mid-season, not catching up in the autumn due to rain-offs.

Certainly an abundant supply of hot air down there. I take it the weather radar's been switched off

I do hope I am realistic. Of course stadia need to used to the maximum, especially with the ending of the TV life support for the top division. However the existence of that funding at Rye House had only been in place for a couple of seasons since the Rockets' elevation. Any extra revenue should not be at the cost of the quality of the original product. Of course you could say that rules out stock car racing but as a regular at Coventry for stock cars in the distant past I can testify to how the two sports can co-exist, providing you know how. I hope the moto cross project works and that it doesn't impact on the speedway, but what if it does? We've lost Rye House to other motor sport before and we both know how tough it was to reverse that!

I'm sure there are reasons for the fixture distribution. What concerns me is that we still offer a fractured fixture list. Weekly continuity from March to October has been shattered.

My feelings on the matter aren't based on which newspaper I read or who tries to tell me what to think, whether on social media or in the real world. I'm old and ugly enough to make up my own mind and not idiotically follow others. I appreciate the sight of most women and a touch of glamour always brightens up the world. However seeing girls young enough to be my granddaughter blowing false kisses at me as they have their 'assets' closely zoomed into by TV crews leaves me uncomfortable. It just comes across as phoney and crass. Do they really think I'm stupid enough to believe they're sincere? Much depends on how it's handled and it does seem that the further east in Europe you go the cruder the handling. I feel it's run its course and if a sport like F1 feels the time has come to move on then I suggest it might be intelligent to follow suit. As for P45s I'm sure those who are professional will easily find other glamour work in more appropriate situations, or their agents will for them. I find it baffling how this issue has been turned into political-based rants, but then given some of the participants perhaps I shouldn't be.

Excellent. That is the way to handle the situation. Hopefully any negative feedback will be taken in the correct spirit. Obviously I hope there is no need. If it works and sight lines are not disturbed an additional use for the track is essential and should be welcomed.

Depends how easily excitable the people of Gniezno are

A sample of the summer surrender due to football's World Cup and BSI events: Jun/July scheduled SGBP/KOC meetings: Belle Vue: - 3x SGBP - + Britishb Final & Speedway of Nations (World Pairs) qualifier King's Lynn: 4 (3 July, only 1 in June) Leicester: 4 (+ 4 reserved dates) Poole: 5 Rye House: 4 (+1 junior championship) Somerset: 6 (+ SGBC Pairs) Swindon: 6 (+1 reserved date) Wolverhampton: 3 Given that the survey covers about 9 weeks in many cases it's grim reading. Then we get the rush in August/early September so that four tracks can close nearly two months before the official end of the season.

This one seemed to operate to an odd formula with the heat two reserves race deleted and the other heats advanced by one. I take it since it was technically a training session anything goes. It really does show the pull of the sport over there when the Polish equivalent of the BBC transmits a practice!

All seems typically dodgy like other Shovlar 'discoveries'.

Freesports on TV Player is here: https://tvplayer.com/watch/freesports It's all quite legal and you don't need to sign up for their paid premium service to watch although you do have to register for free and log in. Premier/Freesports really need to sort their schedules and publicity out. They often say one thing on social media and the website that is in direct conflict with their published schedules. I know of rugby league fans complaining that their published coverage had been replaced by football. There's one thing being flexible, bit not if you keep building up false hopes then disappointing their viewers. Sadly we will just have to wait and see.

You could have a great future in speedway administration. Run now, while you can.......... ;-)

Well it's certainly not on their schedule for Sunday April 8th. They have ice hockey and junior rugby league showing. https://www.freesports.tv/ I mainly use the online guide Digiguide which shows football and ice hockey in the schedule. so if what you claim is correct they need to get those listings changed. They do have a history of last-minute schedule changes so you may be correct. Premier Sports are listing ice hockey and Nascar racing with the Polish speedway slotted in at 00.30 as I mentioned earlier. That schedule is supported by their website and the Virgin Media epg as well, as Digiguide. What is your source teaboy? If it's someone involved the deal I think they need to talk to Freesports/Premier.

It's a heck of a long time ago but at Rayleigh in the early 60s the Rockets had to finish on time to let the greyhound racing take over, so they do have 'previous; ;-) One major change in British society in my lifetime is that we are no longer a nation of non-complainers, at least publicly to bad service providers. Instead of just moaning in private or just putting up with rubbish part of the slow Americanisation of our society is the willingness to complain and to expect good service. Sadly few in speedway have woken up to this and believe they can just do what they want, offer what they want and the customer will just take it. Times have changed, expectations have changed and you can't get away with that anymore. Back in the days when meetings abandoned after heat 6 saw no refunds at all and so with just 6 heats to pay for it could be rather rewarding for promoters, I remember one of the 'old lags' of speedway talking in the old caravan office at Rye House. "Old 'so and so' had a result last night - called off after six." Our much vilified promoter of the day, now happily curating the track at Swindon rebuked him pretty directly, "And what about those who won't come back next week?" Sometimes the ones who are alert to the needs of the public are the 'villains' while those who put together winning teams but don't give a damn about the fans are the 'heroes'. I do hope the new promotion do show genuine regard for the fans. An old friend of mine did complain about the stadium work being dangerously incomplete and was banned for it but I do hope that was just a stupid mistake that has been learned from. GWC quite rightly pointed out that with 30 tracks running we are in terms of numbers better off than 1958 but in those days promoters expected to make money from the sport. Now many are fans who are prepared to make losses. So, while I am concerned about the lack of understanding of customer care or respect you do have to appreciate their determination to keep going. Of course we knew there was a crisis the year before, 1957, when the previous three leagues finally collapsed into one and a certain team spent their only year in the top flight - Rayleigh Rockets. That put them out of business for a few years until the arrival of the Provincial League. I do hope the Rye House version of the Rockets fares better.

They only list delayed coverage at 00.30 until 03.00 on Sunday night/Monday morning. I'd be wary of relying on their publicity.

Thanks r&r, that's an interesting move upmarket to the Polish national broadcaster, albeit the local station, for the Polish third tier. It'll be interesting to see if we still have the Lublin and Krosno coverage on their minor local channels again this year.

Not really. Many tracks run at the lower levels weekly, and often twice-weekly during high summer. These tend to be the Spedeworth tracks in the south and other, lesser promoting groups. It's much less cohesive than speedway. The monthly meetings tend to be BriSCA events where there is a national travelling circus of drivers, backed up by local racers. Taking Coventry, a good 50% of drivers at Brandon on a Saturday would be seen at Northampton the next day and the fixtures were arranged so that there were few fixture clashes at F1 level, which Coventry mainly operated at. So to the fans the racing was 2-3 times a week, within a fairly tightly-spaced area with the northernmost track being in County Durham and the southernmost being Northampton. So, most supporters would have a wide choice of meetings and not just a monthly event at their local track. Fans would follow their heroes around the various tracks, just like we would follow our teams. There is also a greater tradition of monthly racing at individual tracks, dating back over six decades. By contrast speedway's successful years were always based on regular weekly speedway. The professional promoters of the past knew this and made sure that the fixture gaps were kept well under control. Len Silver for example would even go so far at Hackney to arrange a top-class individual meeting, Superama, at Waterden Road when the Hawks were away to a Friday track like Wolverhampton, Newport or Glasgow. Continuity was the key. 'Make it a date, Friday at 8' was more than just a throwaway marketing line, nor was the Rayleigh equivalent of Saturday at 8. Sadly "Make it a date, Sunday at 4.30" wouldn't have quite sounded right at Rye House. For several peak months of the year we are now witnessing almost monthly speedway. It doesn't seem to be doing much to raise crowds does it? Returning to Rye House, it's been commented on how the track had good crowds early season last year but they tailed-off later. Perhaps this is because the early season saw regular Saturday night racing before the fragmented midweek schedule came along once the full SGP and Polish seasons became a more lucrative distraction for riders? I worry that a full season like that, of irregular Mondays and Wednesdays could be damaging for the track. We can only wait and see. I do hope it works but I can't help feeling that BMR's lack of understanding of speedway that has see the move to the top level could prove to be costly for a track with decades of weekend racing.

I used to commentate on Banger Caravan racing back in the 1980s. It was a bit of fun, designed as an 'extra' to regular banger racing. There were various forms. One saw two teams , one car from each towing a caravan with about three cars defending the caravan and another three attacking the other. There was another where the aim was to drive a car up into the opponent's caravan at high speed, park in it for a few laps then reverse back out of it. I got into TV commentary to cover speedway but it was soon decided that we needed another sport and since we knew our way round many of the same stadia I found myself covering stock car racing, which to be honest I'd had little interest in before 1984. We mainly covered the serious BriSCA series with rather expensive if brutal cars, but often also covered the less formal, cheaper and fun formulae. It was frustrating to constantly visit speedway tracks to cover stox to find the crowds much higher than for our sport. Places like Coventry, Belle Vue, Long Eaton and Sheffield were close to capacity whenever we visited while former speedway tracks like Brafield, now called Northampton would also have very healthy gates. Perhaps the general public relate more to cars than bikes, or perhaps people were entertained, saw action they liked and wanted more? I certainly remember how well organised most meetings were and how few delays there were, despite the carnage after races. They just got on with matters. Whether you like or respect that sport or not perhaps instead of sneering at it all, like so many speedway fans seem to do, it might be an idea to learn from it? They give the public what it wants. We used to. What happened? I'd suggest we took our eye off the ball. We've been wasting years of time and effort fretting over team compositions, averages and starting regulations instead of just giving people the formula that works - good quality racing, meaningful teams that the public can identify with and a regular supply of entertaining meetings that make people find ways to watch, not, as seems to be the way now, to find reasons not to. Now, back to Rye House Rockets?

I only managed to see a few meetings at The Shay but certainly remember the very high banking at both ends, rather like Coatbridge. I don't remember it for having a huge amount of close racing but when you did get a race it was worth waiting for - a high speed duel around those very fast bends. I wouldn't compare it quite so much with Exeter. Without a dog track on the inside it wasn't so long and the bends quite so sweeping but crucially it was a lot flatter and smoother than the Devon track which could be quite a 'roller coaster". Of course more regular viewers might well differ. It was fast racing but often very strung out. Nonetheless it is missed greatly like all of the other lost tracks, even Crayford........

Well, at Swindon if the meeting is called-off up to one hour before start time you get an instant full refund to your card. After that it's the standard terms, but enough to make it very worthwhile, especially since there's no booking fee and you get a free programme worth £3. It can be done fairly and in a way that supporters can trust the promotion. If they can do it.......

The April 15th schedule shows live Polish Speedway on Freesports at 6 pm. but nothing else in April at least. So it looks like it's going to be a mix between the two channels. We've still over a month before we see the the Swedish pattern. The fact that they are repeating the claim that they will be showing Swedish Speedway does suggest that, unsurprisingly, they have inside information regarding the situation over there regarding TV ahead of the expected April 2nd announcement.

So you have a decent holiday crowd in who have paid full price to watch 15 heats of speedway. "Okay, folks, the weather's beaten us. Hope you didn't mind the riders' problems in staying on their bikes. Don't worry, if you're new to speedway the racing's usually far better. No, you don't get any money back, but hey, we GOT A RESULT!" See you next week!" Too many people believe getting to heat 10 makes it all worthwhile. You get the points and the cash, but what about next time? Isn't it time that giving the paying public value for money counts more than getting a result while we still have a paying public left?

It is probably due to concerns by the FIM regarding the activities of One Sport and FIM Europe. Those minor events are probably believed not to be worth pursuing especially since there's a difference between minor local events in Germany and events that are televised across Europe. Regarding linking the pairs to actual teams, Zielona Gora and Leszno's sponsors are both involved. LInk Trans MF to Smolinski's German club and you're halfway there. There's more money in using sponsors' names of course. #Let's make money and pretend we're helping a sport!