RobMcCaffery

With 'supporters' like this, who needs enemies? Why can't we get behind our team and not write them off even before they go on track? Yes, two teams were unacceptably weak on Saturday (thanks Greg, going to give up your place at Cardiff to one of the kids as well?) but even so to drop just seven points when racing Australia deserves some respect! Like I said before, there's being 'realistic' and there's being ridiculously negative. How do you know we couldn't have made the same impact as Latvia or an abject Denmark at least tonight? Yes we might well finish stone last on Saturday but why oh why do we have to trash a little bit of success when it comes along and write the team off before they even get a chance? Still, if anything would motivate them it's seeing the the abject lack of appreciation here for their efforts on Saturday.

Great tracks please the devoted. Awful stadia repel the general public. Tracks in fields with limited facilities but a great racetrack will appeal to you but not the majority of the public that we need to attract to survive. People's standards and expectations are higher than ever today. Obviously you want a great track AND decent facilities and I have always believed that great racing is more important than 'names'. but in the 21st century people are more likely to notice the lack of facilities rather than the racing on first visits, unfortunately. What the committed speedway fan wants and what the potential fan want do not always coincide. Going back to my original point, which clearly was misunderstood, my comment that undercover seating should be a minimum requirement was referring the stadium, not the track They are two completely different things! I have some very good friends who I've known for nearly forty years now. Without talking to me they decided to visit Kirkmanshulme Lane as one of their 'dodgy sports' nights. The talk afterwards was how awful the stadium was, not the racing.

Fascinating that outsiders seem to see more in speedway than many of its supporters.

Or Mark Loram, Malta's only World Champion. Thank goodness for that proud Bristolian upholding British honour, Jason Crump!

The feeling I get from observing the industry (speedway's not my only fascination) is that BT are happy to just take one of the PL packages but force Sky to over-pay, and rely on Europe and possibly the EFL who are reportedly fed up with Sky's scheduling of their League 1 & 2 matches. It remains to be seen just how large BT's war chest is. It's like watching poker at times - quite fascinating. Getting back on-topic, BT have had a clear need to beef up their summer schedules. Beneficiaries have been boxing and now hockey, with even the Henley Regatta getting blanket coverage. Yes, speedway could be an excellent fit, even in spring and autumn when they are strong in European football weeks from Tuesday to Thursday but weak on Mondays. Looking on from the sidelines I suspect there is a huge opportunity and if so the sport needs to work to expoit it and not just sit back and wait for the fees to roll in.

And on Virgin Media. There is life beyond Sky

At Rye House in the 70s/80s we almost always had a disco in the top bar after meetings. It was all part of the day, Speedway at 4.30 then a social evening afterwards. You didn't need to twist most riders' arms to be there either. I saw the rot set in at Hackney at the same time though - riders leaving meetings early so they could get down to Dover for their proper pay day on the continent. At least Barry Thomas was there to keep the social side going..... My wife's favourite memories of being a Hackney Hawks supporter aren't of wins on the track but having fun with the riders and fellow supporters. Yes, I soon put a stop to that

I said stadium, not track. Anyway a great racetrack in a field will only attract the diehards and there's few enough of those. The general public will say, "Yes a great race, but where do I hide from rain, sit down or go to the loo." I'm involved in other leisure interests and the basic rule is there. It's no use having a great product if there are no decent facilities. BSF members may accept primitive conditions as long a the racing's good but few of the general public will.

Never give up hope. Going further back you can include Edinburgh (Powederhall 1977, ten years after losing Old Meadowbank), Scunthorpe, Weymouth, St.Sustell, Kent, Workington and you might even argue Glasgow after the desperate Coatbridge and Blantyre years, plus of course Essex in the case of Arena Essex opening a decade after the closure of Rayleigh.

One aspect of Nigel Pearson's commentaries that people overlook is how he is constantly referring to the various tracks around the country, clearly hoping to remind armchair viewers that for some of them live speedway was almost on their doorstep. In the SGP coverage he is mentioning the domestic coverage, mentioning any offers and openly encouraging people to attend in person. Short of begging the public to go there's not a great deal more the broadcasters can do. Sadly the task to transfer people from armchairs to terraces is with the BSPA who really need outside help with this, which they clearly can't afford. In the 21st century it is surely a minimum requirement for a stadium to have some covered seating. Not everyone can or wants to stand in a field. Leicester proved what can be done in that respect, opening with covered stands. There are tracks I have to avoid due to the lack of basic facilities due to my increasing age, and I am definitely one who you would term a 'diehard'.

I've also stood or sat alongside countless referees over many years and can totally agree with Albert's comments. In my day I was a licensed timekeeper which involved much more than operating a stopwatch. While nothing like as complex as today's incident recorder duties we had to keep records of the race positions at the end of every lap and, crucially, we were technically responsible for declaring the race result! Thankfully that was something that wasn't applied and referees would take the responsibility but they could refer to you. There was many a time I dreaded being asked the question after a very tight finish. After a while you did get an 'eye' for it and now I can usually get most close finishes right without action replays. It helped if the box was in line with the finishing line. Many, including my old box at Rye House weren't. If you then widen it out to making decisions over racing incidents it becomes fiendishly difficult, especially when you don't have the benefit of video replays, and even then a different angle of view tells a hugely different story. Until speedway has much bigger budgets (if only!) we have to rely on the human frailties of the referee who will make mistakes. As long as they are honest mistakes taken without bias and not excessive then it is acceptable. You cannot expect perfection and I have seen far too many tough decisions made to know just how hard it is. Of course if a referee is constantly making mistakes then they have to be reviewed. The problem I suspect is that there are too few coming forward to start ditching the weaker examples. I've worked with refs in complete control of meetings and who have explained to me their reasoning while fans below were baying for their blood. One of the frustrations of announcing was that you were not allowed to pass such information on. On the other hand there were those who frightened me due to their lack of control. You could see them mentally tossing a coin. One used to have spectacle chains and used to suck on the chains while he dithered. There was another, an ex-rider who was a total gentleman, but just had no control. Another would constantly change his mind. Added to this utter confusion he was also very arrogant. He got me so wound up at one meeting that as I headed down to the track at the interval to do some on-track presentation I missed all the stairs. I still have problems with the shoulder so it's not just ex-riders that have old speedway injuries. He's still refereeing by the way! Another used to be accompanied by his wife to protect him from the fans - and he was a copper! I've known those who lived too close to the track and clearly favoured the away side to protect themselves from accusations of being a 'homer'. I once travelled up to Coatbridge with Rye House. It must have been about 1977. In those days the Scottish refs had a reputation for 'green light, go!' - releasing the tapes as soon as the green light went on. The home captain made a point of telling the Rockets. Why? "Well it's boring not to have a proper race". At Eastbourne they used to have a mechanical linkage to release the tapes. This involved the referee striking a very large lever that could be clearly seen from the track and the home number one used to watch for the referee's shoulder moving. One very senior ref prided himself on hitting the lever without moving his shoulder so defeating the rider. At another track I used to watch at the ref's box was at the back of the stand. I sat alongside one night and realised he couldn't see gates three or four! Rolling starts ruled! The point of all this waffle is that refereeing is NOT a precise science, it involves humans with all their strengths and frailties and until we can afford to improve on the human being we're stuck with what we have! As one manager once told me "Yes, the referee cost us the match.......but we should never have let the opposition get close enough for a refereeing mistake to affect us!" Sometimes you have to accept that humans make mistakes and move on, unless they keep making them...... I do hope the Scorpions' luck picks up and I was saddened to see Sunday's score. I hope I've given a small insight. Working with refs, warts and all was a huge part of my enjoyment when I was involved on the serious side of the sport. It's about the only thing I miss as I now blissfully just watch and enjoy - when I can.

No, heritage counts for a lot of people. Maybe not you. Where would Belle Vue have been without the bl;ack ace of clubs on red and white. Wimbledon's iconic yellow star on red was another great example. "You have to move with the times" is a glib comment to make. On that basis there's no point trying to rescue speedway is there? Much easier to say 'time's moved on' and let it die, eh? It's about the spirit of the club, as supporters in other sports have amply proven, such as Cardiff City F.C. Just blindly (lazily?) accepting bad change is as foolish as resisting all change.. Sometimes it's the little things that matter. Terry Russell was quoted a while back as saying that the mistake he made when moving Crayford into Hackney was changing the name to Kestrels instead of using Hawks. I know the effect it had on people. My wife was a Hackney Hawks fan but would have nothing to do with Hackney Kestrels (or Leyton Buzzards as she termed them). If it wasn't for me she would never have attended another match. I wasn't happy about Ron Russell messing with the design but at least we kept our colours. Like BMR he said he wanted to get away from Len Silver's design. Except it wasn't his - it went back twenty years before Len re-opened Rayleigh in 1968. 'Moving with the times' is no substitute for switching the brain on. The Rockets' colours were white rocket on blue and gold for 67 years, going right back to the first open licence season at Rayleigh. Sometimes little things count. Of course they don't for some, but I've observed some great speedway promotions over the years and they all had one thing in common, they got the little extra details right as well as the basics. Imagine telling an Arsenal football fan that the club colours were changing to white or blue. I can assure you there wouldn't be that many fools blithely saying "we must move with the times".

My happiest season must have been the 1999 Rye House revival when we raced all our matches away from Rye House. The spirit through the team, administration and those supporters who actually backed us rather than pour scorn on the whole project made every match precious. The team knew they were fighting for something more than a few quid and it worked. Mind you, there was one occasion when one rider came back into the pits in a fury and flung his race jacket into a corner. A few of us had to remind him that we would give a heck of a lot to wear it. It quickly brought him round. In a minority sport the fans HAVE to feel involved. It's what keeps sports like ice hockey, basketball and non-league football going, a sense of genuine pride and a determination to beat the odds. You need to share a drink after meetings, have the odd social event, and ideally the combination of both, the good old 'Northern Tour' for the southern clubs and vice-versa for those in the north. You can't make that happen with fractured fixture lists, constantly changing teams and rider absences. TWK is right, it needs a soul. It's still, there in some cases but just not widespread enough. There are more important things than winning - being still in business for years to come, for example. Sadly too many fans today can only follow success which really makes you wonder if we are attracting the right people for a sustainable sport.

Considering how when BT were first mooted as being potential speedway broadcasters the reaction of many was that it would hurt the sport to move to an even more minority channel than Sky this is very welcome news. Bear in mind pay-TV still gets much lower ratings than the main free network channels despite industry propaganda. 100k is a very good figure, and deserved despite the quality of racing at Lynn. On this occasion though the suspense over whether GB would hold onto their lead more than compensated. It'll now be fascinating to see how the Vastervik round rates. By the way, BT have been repeating Saturday's meeting frequently, and in a two hour package, not just 30 minute or 1 hour highlights. It's actually been hard to avoid it. We're being treated well. Let's hope it turns into a good, full-season and paid domestic contract. Good to have some positive news. The sport's not dead yet!

I've known promoters ask announcers not to mention that riders have been fined, in case the fans collect more than the fine and the rider ends up benefitting for his misdemeanour.

The problem with win at all costs is when you get the bill. It just becomes a bunch of mercenaries, not a team. I still cherish the Rockets' first league title back in 1980. I'd seen that team found and grown by the club, not just signed from whoever had been dropped by another team as part of a constant merry-go-round. That was real success. We knew the team as friends. Progress? Extra thought. The team that we had in 1999, the nomadic 'comeback' year will always be special to me. We were all up against it, fighting a league admin who didn't want us, fighting off the onlookers who wrote off our chances of running at all, seeing the white rocket on gold and blue halves back on track (if only that were the case today - heritage thrown away for corporate insensitivity) and just glad the club was once more alive. We didn't win the league though so I guess we were failures. Winning isn't everything and can be bought. Integrity is and can't be. .

It was the kind of speedway that I first fell in love with. At Rayleigh in 1971 my heroes were Hugh Saunders and Geoff Maloney. It didn't matter to me that they weren't the best riders in the world, they were my team's best. It wasn't racing for big money or prestige, costs all-round were cut to the bone but loved every meeting. Some seem to think that the flashy, expensive gimmicks that were adopted by riders in the eighties 'dragged the sport forward'. No, it dragged their lifestyles forward then they expected a minor sport to find the money to fund it. There's too much pressure now to enjoy speedway fully - the desperation to win, riders always needing to be somewhere else. It just strips the joy from what should be a simple sport of four guys racing four laps on an oval track. When that was enough the sport was healthy. It isn't now and the sport is sick.

Speedway For All have uploaded their all heats condensed version of the Polish Championship. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxkr1O2XGd8 I see we have a hooligan in our midst.......

Speedway is all about people. Thankfully Scunthorpe have some of the best. Wish it was nearer

Probably my happiest seasons for announcing were the Rye House nomadic revival in 1999 then Boston and Mildenhall the year after, plus a few meetings at Iwade, all at Conference League/National League level or below in the last case. All the pressures seemed off and we could just enjoy a good match of speedway. I was all fun again and there was plenty of good racing.

Going by a comment from Nigel Pearson in commentary it seems BT were using Natalie's interviews than those on the international feed. The girl who's been doing the interviews at the GPs (Kiri?) instead of Steve Brandon was mentioned but BT only showed Natalie's work. BT have been ignoring many of the between race interviews in the GPs from that international feed. With Suzi Perry handling the main presentation on the SGP/SWC that BT themselves host live at the track it frees Natalie to interview. Perry is a bigger 'name' and the figurehead of BT Sport's bike racing coverage so again there's an interest in their part in having their best team for their two meetings where they are live at the track, the SWC qualifier and the Cardiff Grand Prix. In normal weeks I expect there are too many clashes with Moto GP to use Perry regularly so Natalie gets the studio work.

Maybe, but then all the experts here were predicting we'd struggle to get second. Can't we just enjoy the achievement and just see what happens in Leszno? I expect if we do well there someone will try to sound clever by saying we'll get thrashed the following year or they don't want rider X to ride for us because they don't like what he puts on Twitter. To be honest, some countries don't deserve success - all it does is either make them complacent and arrogant or say it'll all end in disaster. As for Woffinden, after seeing the childish bile on here I I hope he does defect to the Aussies since he isn't deserved by the Brits, even allowing for his own stupid behaviour. I fear for Craig Cook becoming successful - he already gets more than enough garbage from so-called 'fans'. I really enjoyed the GB performance. More fool me for visiting here to have you all prove to me that I shouldn't have. Lovely people. Do any of you like a sport called speedway?

Yes, you're right. This character is just the total opposite of what I love about speedway, representing conflict and hatred. It's too much like football. The only times in 46 years of following the sport where I've really despaired of fellow 'supporters' has been in this forum. It's awful that you have fight past them to get to the interesting discussions and the odd fact.

I think you'll find that such decision making is on the basis of he advice of the medical profession and the sport's insurers than a bunch of small-time businessmen. Still, believe what you wish to believe.

Judging by that low-life I suspect ignorance and Polish fans go together. Still, he's managed one achievement, to make more people despise his team than Shovlar... Good job the fire didn't hit Zielona Gora, they'd have had trouble finding the 10 zlotys to rebuild it. (Well, I'm sure it's a new joke in Poland )