RobMcCaffery

Quite right. While I respect anyone who has the courage to get on and race a speedway bike the power in the sport has moved to those riders who in the main seem to have totally forgotten the rights and needs of the paying public. Sadly that malaise goes further than the riders. Every instruction to a rider to drop points to fiddle the average, every time a dispute between rider and promotion is played out in public at meetings, every time a rider goes missing for a more lucrative pay day elsewhere, every meeting that's rushed through to heat ten with no racing possible, the constant team changes wrecking loyalty between fans and riders, every time a rider chooses an early night rather than socialising with the fans, every little thing that tells the fans they are the least important people at the meeting, they all serve to damage the sport and we are seeing the bitter harvest of it all now. It is an essential truth when selling a product or service that the needs of the customer come first. Speedway's forgotten that and the bill is now being presented for that stupidity.

If it's true that there will only be the same number of matches televised then I am disappointed. Now, just one small point, why do we have to divide speedway supporters into those who attend (presumably goodies) and 'armchair supporters' (presumably baddies). Isn't it possible to do both? I certainly intend to to this year now I have the chance. Am I alone? I fully endorse the comments about the quality of coverage. Having spent a few years trying to broadcast speedway on a very minimal budget I'm aware of how resourceful you have to be to compensate. You could see the rough edges in 2017 but I'm sure in less expert hands it would have been even starker. Now flagrag's involvement in the modern day industry will hopefully confirm, the whole area of sports TV is entering a very interesting period. Sky overbid for Premiership football and clearly BT are seeing that their occasional matches perhaps also carry too heavy a price. The key difference coming up is that traditional, channel-based and schedule-based TV is under direct attack from legal streaming services like Netflix and Amazon. So far BEIN Sport (Al Jazeera) and Canal+ (known to speedway fans as C-More in Sweden and NSport+ in Poland) have had minimal involvement here but that could well change. Sky will also soon be under the control of Disney rather than Murdoch. The whole industry is in flux again. It could be a very apt time for a sport to show that it is a value-for-money supplement to a network's sports offering. It could be very important that we have another excellent year of speedway on TV. I do so hope we do.

Oh dear SCB, are you still trying to defend your moronic and offensive ageism by sneering and ridicule? For the benefit of those that haven't seen this person's constant attacks on older supporters and blaming them for the ills of speedway elsewhere the worst example was "Why pander to them, they'll be dead soon?" Treat him with the contempt he deserves. It's pathetic that someone who passes himself off as vaguely intelligent can make such ignorant and offensive posts and when rightly criticised tries to ridicule those who dare to do so. Truly pathetic. Stick to regurgitating the rule book. Anyway, welcome back to the second tier, Lakeside, you have been missed and I hope you have a superb year. Those of you old enough to be despised by the likes of SCB will at least take some reassurance that they are unlikely to have to put up with the individual concerned this year since he is far too self-important to attend Championship level speedway. Despite my involvement at Rye House over the years I still have a soft spot for Arena-Essex, especially since I recorded the commentary on the first-ever meeting there in 1984. Oops, that shows how old I am. I should be ashamed of myself, not having died yet. ;-)

Only when dealing with people like you. You were trying to seem clever by the scheduler remark. It didn't work. There are those who use the forums to discuss and celebrate speedway. Then there are those purely flexing their egos like you. Sadly my patience is long exhausted by the likes of you.

Shame on them for daring to put it on their channel then, eh? I trust you have complained to them for their attempted oppression of the poor TV viewer.

Talking Pictures is available free of charge on Freeview channel 81, although whether you can receive it depends on which transmitter your TV is tuned into. The main ones carry it so the majority of people do but the small local relays don't. Almost all TVs have Freeview built-in, although not all are connected to an aerial to allow it to be used.

First two transmission dates are: 19th Feb 18.00 25th Feb 14:00

So, you all boycott and help to kill it off. You'll then have plenty of time as the bulldozers and houses to move in to say "Well, we showed them". You have a golden opportunity to show that there is still a genuine interest in the Bees. It's sad that so many of you are throwing it away.

A friend mentioned team riding to the new manager last year and got a baffled response.....

Great news and thanks for letting us know. Talking Pictures is a charming channel, run by a small business who love old film and TV so it's a labour of love which is thankfully gaining respect and viewers. Readers may be interested to know that another classic film featuring speedway (at Lea Bridge/Clapton) is freely available to watch online at the BFI website. https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-britannia-of-billingsgate-1933-online

The World Cup requires careful scheduling, not abject surrender, but then the extreme, simplistic response is always the easiest when you're too lazy to think things through properly as you so ably prove. By contrast, one of our respected members recently reported on a conversation with a TV sport editor who explained his station's lack of speedway news coverage was because speedway was not a "serious sport". I rather suspect that ours is the only summer sport planning to virtually close down in the face of another sport's tournament. I can't see even the much-maligned stock car racing behaving in such a manner. Next you'll be telling me that the top tier of speedway lost Saturday nights because of Strictly Come Dancing and The X Factor. It doesn't reflect well on the BSPA's confidence in being able to get people through their gates, does it? Continuity was always speedway's strength - the public knew each week or at least there would be a meeting on the same night each week, so say Friday night WAS speedway night. Losing that has been a very important contribution to the sport's near demise. Traditionally you never let the fans think there were other things to do in season on your racenight. Now the promoters pick and choose when to run. Is it no surprise that supporters in turn pick and choose when to go? We've given people too many excuses to stop going to speedway, and haven't so many seized on just that?

I'd have thought it was obviously a ploy to demolish the current stadium then find some good reason why a new stadium can't be built on top of the smoking ruins and how they will sadly be forced into completing the housing estate instead of a new stadium. I hate to be cynical but this plan has stunk to high heaven ever since the initial proposal was to put the new stadium car park on the centre 'green'!

And we'd have plenty more if we didn't keep forcing British riders out of the sport because their average doesn't fit.

Having taken a look through the Premiership fixtures there are still some alarming gaps mid-season at several tracks with more than one case of only one home date in June and others similarly 'thin' in July. For a 'summer' sport we certainly manage to avoid the best weeks of the year. Progress has been made but continuity is still desperately weak at crucial times in the season. As ever it comes across as a desperate rush to get fixtures in before FIM events start and then to rush to catch up after they wind down.

Well, after being told that it would be SGBP only on Good Friday and SGBC on Easter Monday reality turns out to be completely different. After all these years I really should have seen it coming.....

The Polish racing calendar has now been issued and while there's no league racing on Easter Monday they are intending to stage an international test match that day. There's no mention yet of who the opposition will be. I expect the BSPA were aware of this when they avoided scheduling SGBP matches that day after all.

I was just wandering through the old posts in this section and found this. The coach survives and is kept at the Transport Museum, Wythall, south of Birmingham. It's back in Midland Red colours but in store, not operational. A model was produced of it in the yellow and black colours.

You forget to mention that they will be standing in the puddle by the shack to show the huge obstacle that's so far prevented it being built.

He can't even spell a basic word like rubbish. It doesn't say much for his intelligence does it?

A very sad aspect of the BSF is the loudmouths who love to insult all and sundry in the sport who are actually trying to make it work, while very conveniently hiding behind stupid false names and claiming 'freedom of speech'. When someone working in the sport and prepared to talk openly under their own name here then tackles them they then hide behind accusations of 'unprofessionalism'. Yes, this is a forum. No it doesn't give you the right to behave like a poisonous anonymous coward and squeal when someone rightly stands up for themselves and bites back. Good luck to Laurence in his new job. I had no idea he had the divine power to shut tracks though ;-)

By preventing the collapse in supporters and the handful of sponsors from being far worse.

Apologies, this is one year when with an early Easter the Poles won't be hijacking that Monday. I wonder if the BSPA made the same mistake?

It's one Friday, and a response to the Poles taking Easter Monday. Of course it makes sense to use it as an alternative. Surely even the speedway market won't be confused by one week's variation from the regular schedule? Why race on Tuesday night when you can race on a holiday?

When it was announced that Swindon would be allowed to race on certain Thursdays the phrase "protected Thursdays" was used, suggesting that these would be nights when only they could run to avoid clashes with SGBC meetings. There's so few fixtures in the SGBC this year that it would seem an easy job to have frequent missing Thursdays such is the wretched state of the Championship schedule this year.

SCB's thin veneer of intelligence is once more stripped away by his rancid and repugnant ageism. It's a familiar argument - "I know a pensioner who's well-off so every one of them must be." It's as intellectually and morally bankrupt as "All these foreigners are taking our jobs". I do wonder if he's got a problem with his parents or other elderly relatives, given the sick bitterness and prejudice he continually shows to the elderly. In another recent thread he came up with what were superficially intelligent comments about the way forward but which were invalidated by his comment "Stop pandering to the old, they'll be dead soon", or words to that effect. I'll leave you to consider for a moment just how repugnant that is. Don't be taken in by someone who is obsessed withe speedway rule book and averages. It doesn't make them intelligent, merely fixated. I had to correct him ages ago when he was spouting this regulation and that to point out that he was completely ignoring the key part of the rule book, the supplementary regulations which are issued during a season and regularly amend those rules., I remember SCB complaining about the car park at a certain track on the basis that it was damaging his very expensive car. Lovely chap. I'd park mine outside ;-) If people were singled out for such abuse on the grounds of race, gender or sexuality they would be rightly condemned by most reasonable people in society and in many cases prosecuted. So why is ageism allowed? Speedway may have an age profile that could do with reducing. The SCB's of this world would achieve that by making the sport hostile to the elderly and forcing them out on the basis that the young and 'cool' (i.e. his own perception of himself) are put off by the sight of geriatrics viciously sitting down because they can't stand up for two hours and callously drinking hot drinks from a flask because they know that the stuff on sale at the track is awful quality and overpriced. Shame on them! It's not the elderly that are the problem, it's the shallow, ignorant outlook of certain people at the other end of the age spectrum. Still, there's one consolation, given the modern trend to despise the old by the time he gets to be in that age group life's going to be pretty appalling for him. Yes I have attacked the poster, and I have not one iota of apology for doing this. I've posted some strong views on here over the years but they have all been based on a deep love of and concern for the sport, and not my ego. I had my brief spell in the spotlight and I can tell you I am much, much happier sitting quietly in the shadows now. When I see SCB's posts I see raw ego. I worked with a few TV technicians like him in the past and you would sometimes get those who developed appalling arrogance through working in the industry. I thought I'd seen the worst.......until now. I remember years back Sittingbourne getting their only away Conference League win at Newport. Almost everyone on the BSF were congratulating the then Crusaders on finally getting a win. One kid wasn't though. He went through every decision made in the match, every pass and incident, desperately trying to prove that the Kent side hadn't deserved their win. Ever since then I've been waiting for SCB to grow up. Seems like I've got a longer to go. Still, I'll probably be dead first, eh? Rob McCaffery - aged 60 and expecting the basic state pension only, if that when I can finally afford to retire. You see, instead of building up a career I spent too much time with speedway. I'm now partially disabled so have to have a seat at a track even if it's a folding one which SCB so despises. After 46 years of course I don't deserve a small concession on the admission in my advancing old age.....It would be nice to be able to enjoy the sport in my final years without having to put up with prejudice from this shallow clown.