RobMcCaffery

Only the BSF could disown a lad born in Britain to British parents, brought up in Australia but who has spent most of his adulthood racing back in Britain. Yes he's made plenty of ill-advised decisions of late but to say "let's face it he's really an Aussie' doesn't exactly help British Speedway and the (limited) attention it managed to get from having a British World Champion. No, let's just give him to the Aussies.........

Perhaps our insurers have different views on concussed riders racing than the FIM's insurers?

They have come out fighting, boycotting One Sport's (failed) attempts to make the situation worse and realising that a period of rebuilding through partial isolationism and accepting the reality that the star riders do not need British Speedway - for now. When the BSPA staged the One Sport boycott they were accused of being fools and when they reorganised the leagues to reflect the current realities of the sport they were accused of stupidly watering down the league. The BSPA wasted a fortune in the Sky money trying to pay the star riders to race here. It didn't work and now what money is still being paid from the last deal is still trickling through unless BT come up with a very generous deal it's not coming back. So, since you and many others cannot or will not see that they have indeed 'come out fighting' exactly what are they supposed to do? Despite the face-saving comments about too many race nights made by many riders, the overall race schedule in Britain is at its lowest for decades which does reveal what I believe to be the truth - we don't pay enough. Now how are we going to pay enough? It's too easy to take the assumption that the BSPA are clueless idiots and rubbish anything they do but instead of vague generalisations how about some specifics apart from the ruinous one race night scheme?. Yes the GB team showed great spirit last night and could go on to get us noticed by the national media again and congratulations to them. In the short-term that does little for domestic league racing except prove that you can always find new heroes to replace those who have deserted us. British Speedway has come out fighting, firstly by reorganising the leagues into some form of sanity as effectively one large second division plus the NL. Tracks like Birmingham, Lakeside and Eastbourne have found that operating at a more affordable level is not the end of the world - their fans have their new heroes and the tracks seem now to be stable. I don't think many can see the fundamental change that came in the winter, beyond rtidiculing the assessed averages necessary to bring the two top leagues together. Changes like that don't settle straight away and there have been flaws such as what to do after the first real averages are achieved but at least the correct course has finally been set. The top stars are available to us through cheap foreign travel and plenty of TV coverage. For now we have to accept that's where they are, and along with chasing the big money in Poland, its where they only seem to show their true skill and full commitment rather than having a paid practice 'skid'. Next priority is to sort out the ridiculous rule book and for goodness' sake simplify the rules regarding averages and team building!

No, only the extreme cases like Poole. You use judgement, not a silly over-reaction.

How can you adapt to a situation where others are holding all the aces? Be corralled into racing about 7-10 home meetings a year on a Monday? If that's survival, give me the NL any day....

I suspect he simply doesn't wasn't to ride in Britain unless he absolutely has to. I really enjoyed that GB performance. Australia were without Doyle, we were without Woffinden. For once things went right for us. At least I thought I enjoyed it. Apparently Cook only passed people because of their mistakes, we only won because others lost and other team managers were incompetent, the commentator made a mistake, we're doomed in the final ....... What a joyless bunch speedway supporters, or at least those bleating here have become. Not so much a 'glass half empty' mentality but 'someone drunk it all and then smashed the glass, as they always do and will do'. Yes things went our way but to drop just 7 points in 20 heats is worthy of some little pleasure isn't it or is only blind negativity allowed here now? There's one thing being realistic but what I've read here is just beyond belief!

One of my criticisms of Sky is they confuse gimmickry with innovation. Sometimes, just because you can do something it doesn't mean you have to. Anyone found where Molecam is buried? I fear Martin Smolinski must have hit it.... If they won't only go there when you have to, just as if their lighting wasn't up to scratch.

I had to work with a Canadian co-commentator once who knew nothing about the sport concerned (only a bit less than me - no it wasn't speedway!). He relied on about half a dozen stock phrases including "He's pourin' it on" and "Nobody's leaving their seats". Our boss at the channel asked why we were using him. Well he's got an American (sic) accent" was the response from our producer. "We've got American commentary coming out on half our programmes!" was the blunt response (cleaned up). I became sole commentator.....

Can just see Berwick wanting out of Northumberland if it comes about. Imagine the place as a frontier town, with people desperately smuggling scotch, haggis and square sausages past the border guards Did you count the man and the dog stopping them getting out?

Never used to be and it was in a damn sight healthier state then. Yes they were important, but not life or death as now. People actually enjoyed the racing and the wins were a bonus. I know many people would go to watch and have no idea of the result, or in extreme cases not even know there was a match on. They'd just turn up to watch a night of entertaining racing, not buy a programme or bother listening to the p.a. I'd say they're the ones that have gone missing, just leaving the results-obsessed seeking reflected glory. Most supporters notice home defeats far more than away wins. I know of at least one track where it was rumoured the promoter banned all talk of away matches by the announcer/presenter, especially defeats, apart from running coaches, on the basis that all most fans cared about was what happened at home and there was no point is disillusioning them.

Then you have a problem which you fix by improving the racing, or making sure the TV companies avoid the tracks that can't, as with Leicester in recent years. Shame Poole wasn't included in such an exclusion list given the appalling stage they provided for the big BT league racing launch. Thankfully they'd had Belle Vue the previous week.

Poland's huge crowds are nothing new and it's down to tradition more than a professionalism that British promoters do not possess. Once the stifling control of Communism was lifted and the sport there started trading in 'hard' currency that was convertible to western equivalents it was inevitable with such crowds that the money would become available to capture the world's best riders. Now, Sundays had long been reserved by star riders for racing in lucrative meetings, usually long track or grasstrack, mainly in Germany. Eastbourne attempted to run Division One on a Sunday and came a cropper. Poland then became the target for the 'extra income Sundays' which in theory should not have affected Britain, but for the fact that the monies available from one day's racing in Poland soon started to exceed those from a week's racing in Britain. With up to 14 SGP and SWC Saturdays as well riders didn't need Britain anymore. Even the most adept British promoter couldn't have stood up to this onslaught. It's far to easy to blame the BSPA, too easy. They were up against too much, especially when some Polish tracks were running to massive crowds in stadia provided by the local council! Poland and to a lesser extent Sweden have kept up momentum they've had for years, although Sweden now seems to be faltering. Britain lost its momentum, partly through the BSPA's lack of vision but I would say they didn't stand a chance. And then One Sport started putting the boot in too....... When the BSPA tried to stand up to One Sport they were accused of being short-sighted! I've been deeply frustrated with my few dealings with the BSPA, often indirectly but in this case they have my sympathy. The constant fiddling and changing of the rules, turning the regs into a labyrinth of ambiguity and contradiction is another matter. I used to have a good grasp of them but the rules on team building and changes are just too far gone to bother trying to understand now.

If the racing's good enough, who's got time to count the crowd?

Can we now put a transcript of the co-commentary through Google Translate as well?

Looks like Gaming International have been rumbled in Devon. http://www.devonlive.com/torquay-united-s-plainmoor-ground-won-t-be-sold-until-new-stadium-plan-revealed/story-30414780-detail/story.html

Pity it counts f.all since he failed to qualify.

Do we know if the "For Dummies" series of books do one on speedway promotion? If not there is surely a gap in the market....

It was all about cost, not just supporters failing to turn up. I strongly suspect tactical subs were replaced by your bugbear, along with match races disappearing when the cost of asking senior riders to take an extra ride got too high. Open meetings and second halves weren't helped by riders not taking them seriously, especially by way of 'split points' in the latter. Riders reportedly hated trophies - unlike cash you couldn't split them four ways. So by using open events as practice sessions they lost those extra pay nights. In about 1990 Barry Klatt suggested a special second half event at Rye House, the 'devil takes the hindmost'. Four riders would race one lap. After that lap the last man would be eliminated, then another start with three riders, and finally a match race. Riders complained it was costing them too much to make three clutch starts... The criticism of the 4TTs was that promoters had to pay for three away meetings on the proceeds of one home match. The idea of course was that this would be offset by having three sets of visiting fans. I remember seeing my first Ken-Ex fours at Rayleigh in '71 and being fascinated that the sport could have so many formats. Rayleigh, Romford, Canterbury and Eastbourne at each others' throats made a heck of an impact on this 13 year old. Today it would be dismissed as 'meaningless'.

I was saying it over 30 years ago (well, not insulting the BV car park!). It takes time to get a message through sometimes, especially in speedway. At least the racejacket tip was taken up by a few teams. I was watching some baseball after the SEC - needed waking up. You have to wonder how much businesses pay for the ad boards behind the batters and catcher. It's all a matter of studying what goes on screen and for how long and making sure you make money from the opportunity. The Polish tracks' centre greens are full of ranks of boards but you do wonder how many can actually be read as the camera fast pans past or another views them almost end-on.

You do make a very good point. Perhaps familiarity does genuinely breed contempt. I recall Len Silver speaking out about Hull visiting Waterden Road without Ivan Mauger, on the basis that it was his only 'free' appearance. You would expect with Ivan that any appearance apart from a league match would come with a hefty appearance fee. With so many absences it does make you wonder if it does help people see a star rider on the basis that there are two chances? But, with so few open meetings now the maximum number of times you might see another team at your track is four, barring cup replays - (2 league, 1 cup and 1 play-off). Add in guest appearances and you could see one 'away' rider in about 1/3 of your home meetings!

You never know, we might just get 20 heats of entertaining speedway. - okay, maybe a few.

They've departed from the revised schedule! Presumably the tennis finished early. Virgin's epg shows Tennis until 6, as does Digiguide which is usually very accurate. On Eurosport's website they show Speedway 5-6 then the SEC at 6 and that IS what they are showing. They also show an SEC round from ITALY at 6 That website offers 'subscription from £29.99" - I take it if you pay more they tell you the real schedule. So it looks like all is well. The only confusion now will be on co-commentary... That's the scheduled highlights. They don't make i easy, and here we're just talking about the British version. There's several different versions around Europe, all with differing schedules.

Wonderful news. I make no secret of being a huge fan of their work on other sports so am delighted to see our sport becoming a valued part of it. Let's hope for a proper, permanent deal. The tide is turning in pay-TV and judging by the proposals I've seen for a complete reshaping of Sky's sports packages which smack of sheer desperation we would be in much safer hands long-term.

Of course. 12 GP Saturdays plus the 'oh-so-vital practice' session plus 2 SWC Saturdays and that's half the season's weekends wrecked. The fear was that One Sport's made up events would add another six but thankfully they seem to be confined to midweeks now, often on a bank holiday Thursday somewhere near the Carpathians. I still can't believe people here can't see why the BSPA boycotted the One Sport events which essentially only benefit One Sport and their sponsors. We can't live with the GP circus so have to live without it.

Eurosport have changed the schedule at the last minute (tell me something new) so that Eurosport 2 is now showing the qualifying tournament for Wimbledon until 6pm with the European Championship still starting at 6 pm. It looks like their usual scheduling chaos has confused Sky's electronic programme guide. Virgin's is still okay. Those whose boxes are not showing the event should either set up recordings for all the programmes shown from 6 through the evening or do a manual recording. In both cases allow an hour or so beyond 9pm to allow for any over-runs. Eurosport have made up their schedules as they went along since they started in 1991. Until I did a reset of Digiguide it was still showing Eurosport as carrying highlights of the third round of the One Sport Best Pairs from Gniezno, an event called off weeks ago and not being run until next month. You couldn't make it up......best leave it to good old Eurosport Sportowe Fakte say it's on by the way. https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/zuzel/relacja/73430/1-final-sec-w-toruniu Now watch the tennis coverage over-run.......