RobMcCaffery

I'm relieved to see that the excessively restrictive nature of the Go Speed/Sky deal regarding online media is recognised at the highest level and hopefully the same mistake won't be made again. There is absolutely no point in including online rights in a TV deal UNLESS they are to actually be used!

Apologies, the site I used as a source obviously is in error. Still, it was before Brough Park and would indeed appear to be the oldest.....

First meeting at Monmore Green, August 1928.

Sadly it wouldn't be the first time that the top level of the sport screws up and shafts the second tier to survive.

Proved emphatically by Poole's followers - as if they have made the success happen themselves.

Thank you for that essential assistance to those with severe relationship problems. I've heard of one of those programmes. Thankfully I have a device which records TV and I know where to hide the remote from Mrs McCaffery (it isn't her fault - she WAS a Hackney Hawks fan), so no problem with clashes and I can record the Ice Racing ;-) It's very useful, you know.... I note that Friday at 8 clashes with the Wales v France rugby match on BBC 1, Best Walks with a View with Julia Bradbury on ITV, All Loved-Up! 50 Singalong Hits on Magic TV, Ainsi Soient-Ils on TV5 Monde and crucially Cuimhneachan on BBC Alba. Nothing like a nice bit of Gaelic on your TV. I think I'll be in the pub. The second repeat is at 5.15 am on Saturday on Eurosport for shift workers, those with a sleep problem or at 7 am on Sunday on Eurosport 2 for those just getting in from a damn good night out. Coverage of Alma-Aty gets its airings: March 8th 10 am - Eurosport and 13.00 Eurosport 2 March 10th 11.15 and 21.50, both Eurosport. So, only one opportunity to fall out with your partner in prime time there, although there could be discord over Alan Carr: Chatty Man, Ancient Egypt: Life and Death in the Valley of the Kings, Running Wild with Bear Grylls on D-MAX or again, maddeningly the final ten minutes of Japan Railway Journal on NHK World. I suspect we will survive. It is the FIM production that was carried on Motors TV in previous years - no credits so unable to identify the production company (in-house FIM?) or commentator. Heats are heavily edited to get two days' racing into one hour.

Coverage of Krasnogorsk is on Eurosport 2 tonight at 21.25, repeated at various times over the next few days with round 2 set for early March.

68 more like. The Rockets started out in 1948 at Rayleigh. it's now 42 years since the move to Hoddesdon. Very sad to see the colours changed and doesn't indicate a great deal of understanding by the new owners, just making the two teams part of their wider motor sport brand. It's not the first time that the yellow and blue's been threatened - the Lea/Lee Valley Park Authority wanted us to change to the park's green, blue and white once. I'd suggest the supporters keep the colours and let the new owners see the folly of their decision for themselves. Obviously they're new to speedway and still have much to learn. Also sad to see John Sampford lose his job. He's one of the most loyal Rye House supporters and servants I know. Way before he was offered the job in the 1999 comeback season you always knew there would be at least one Rocket fan at a meeting, no matter how far away from home. Sadly shabby treatment of people is one of speedway's biggest problems. Eventually you run out of people to dump on.

How can it be an exclusive interview in the Echo if it's also going to be in the Speedway Star?

I'd rather have a thriving amateur sport than a dying, desperate professional one.

As long as the planes keep to an altitude of more than a few feet above track level the sport should be okay. If the plane's low enough to be affected by a horizontal laser beamed a couple of feet off the ground then I think there would be other more pressing problems to worry about

Someone was talking about 'forum dreamers'. It seems that if stevebrum wants something then everybody else does. He'd rather drag the sport into oblivion than accept great speedway can happen without 'names' riding round on their own, half a lap clear of the rest. Humphrey Appleby and BV72 have given impeccable explanations of the reality of the situation. Sadly characters such as stevebrum can only continue shouting wild assumptions into the wind. Yes we'll lose people him and that could well be a mercy for many. Why pander to people like him if the price is trying to maintain the current farce, dreaming that if we do a few simple things then the 'names' will come flocking back. British speedway needs to rebuild in a sustainable form. Double-upping, restricted race nights and pandering to the constant needs of Poland, BSI and One Sport will simply not do it. Time for a clean break and for people to realise that, pretty uniquely amongst team sports, you do not need the greatest talents to have the greatest level of competition. It's all about four riders racing four laps. Spending a fortune to use riders whose cost cannot be covered by the increase in crowds may attract is the economics of the madhouse. No matter how much hot air is blown, top riders are not in Britain because they can make far better money elsewhere. Rebuild, see if we an get crowd levels back to the point where we can offer good money, then see what happens. Best of all we lose one of the worst forum obsessive bores!

Agreed. Post deleted. Someone else can do the work.

I see, because the PL is far from healthy that makes the EL okay then? It's all relative but British speedway needs to find a SUSTAINABLE level rather than live in a dream world where a few simple things need to be done to make it all perfect and have all the 'names; return. This thread inhabits that dream world where tracks are begging to move into the EL. May I suggest you stick to Fantasy speedway leagues because you're doing nothing to help save the remains of the sport in Britain. The crowds do not justify flying riders in from all around the world anymore. I wouldn't expect you to see the bigger picture but I'd have hoped the Wolves fans might have been a little more clued-up. Just because you want things to be a certain way doesn't mean all you have to do is shout and demand for it to happen. As ever, the situation is a damn sight more complex than your sad, simplistic approach. Look beyond the end of your nose for God's sake. Yes the PL has problems but far less than the appalling mess that is the EL - living on past glories and thinking that something 'will come up'. If your only defence of the situation is 'Well the other league has problems" then the EL really does have no future.

So, having screwed up their own league the EL now wants to strip several PL tracks of their race nights and wreck that league too? Tracks moving 'up'. Why should anyone join a sinking ship? I'm sure the supporters of King's Lynn and Leicester will be delighted right now their teams did it given their inability to recruit number ones. You can solve everything by moving to Thursdays and Fridays? The riders will queue up to return? Dream on.

You're quite right, but then we can see a farce a mile off. This 'World' event features European teams only and draws on a pool of riders many of whom who could easily qualify to represent all four qualifying teams in extreme instances. How can you take an event seriously when the winners could easily be determined by which of their riders are allowed to race for them and not their other team that might also be in it? Before anyone plays the 'progress' card, we've seen more than enough 'progress' in international events, to the point where our upper league is on the brink of collapse. No, the 'British lot' aren't generally interested, and why the hell should we be? The sport doesn't 'progress' by killing off one of its major leagues with a near 90 year old history. which is all these tinpot events are doing. Of course if you are based in a country where you stage as many speedway meetings in a year as we do in a week you might be enthralled by it all.

Sounds like a nasty outbreak of the Hokey Cokey...... ;-)

That's exactly the correct approach to take. It's all very volatile, but then the streamers are constantly having to dodge the copyright holders. Unfortunately many don't realise the questionable status of it all and end up wasting money on something they expect to be as reliable as legitimate boxes.

Enough to cover their costs? Let me know how you get to see clubs' profit and loss accounts.........

Sadly I doubt you'll get your money back. These streams provided by Kodi add-ons are notoriously unreliable and prone to disappearing, with replacements popping up in due course. Sometimes developers lose interest or are caught by the copyright holders. Are you able to update your box by changing the add-ons? If not, you've been truly 'had'.

They bring in some, just far from enough, sadly.

If I could I would watch speedway live almost every night of the week and have very happy memories of when I could do so - and did, and I was paying at the gate, long before I worked in the sport! Sadly, ill-health and the cost of travel and admission today precludes such delights and I have to rely on TV coverage instead most of the time. Thanks for the 'couch potato' jibe - it's a great comfort. I presume you pay at the gate as well for your fun? Anyway, regarding Poland, I don't have any jealousy regarding a version of the sport that needs to segregate its crowds like football does here. I find it fascinating to observe but not to my taste. Others thrive in that kind of atmosphere. I saw enough of the poison in football. I'd rather have a British match, even with all of its problems, if only to know I'm (normally) in a safe, friendly environment where the rivalry doesn't usually turn nasty. Each to their own. The message surely is clear though that British and Polish speedway are going to have serious problems coexisting, especially the Poles are now ';turning the screw'. Whatever the rights and wrongs and who's to blame I see something I love being choked to death and its distressing to see some Brits gloating over this.

Back in the seventies when Britain was running two leagues with nearly forty tracks, the upper league tracking almost every top rider in the world, and a Wembley World Final every three years that there were jealous eyes outside, wanting to see it fall, so they could instead have the benefits. Well we saw the old World Championship 'nibbled away' at with rounds and even the final being allocated to totally unsuitable venues as these forces started to use their political clout. They ate away at the system until they'd brought it down to their own level - amateur events on Sunday afternoons in front of relatively small crowds. The rot set in at Norden and took hold. Without being able to give regular bookings to Wembley we lost it. Eventually the World Final was small enough for there to be a need for several of them a season. The Grands Prix would always damage British speedway with its heavy reliance on Friday and Saturday nights. Adding more and more rounds and now the emergence of One Sport's events have top level speedway in Britain virtually at death's door. Yes the BSPA made serious mistakes. Yes the BSPA were arrogant. Well, you've got your revenge. You've all got your pieces of a shrunken pie. You have the top riders and control. Well, until the money runs out. Cracks are showing in both Poland and Sweden. Riders will one day envy their predecessors who could get almost daily fixtures in Britain. All the talk has been about expanding the sport, but in reality who has benefitted from all of this bar Poland?

I agree that Ted Sear was one of the best. As for your comment about me I really couldn't give a dam. Every job I did in speedway I did because someone asked me too, including the TV work. I was a fan trying to do the best job for the sport I cared for and the team I loved. I must say that people like you have almost killed those loves - they've certainly spoiled it badly, which I suppose will give you twisted pleasure. You insult everything about Ron's efforts to keep the Rockets going. Being on the sidelines I suppose you can't be expected to know much apart from terrace gossip. What you omit to mention is that we had some truly awful 'supporters'like yourself. The wonder is that you still turn up. Perhaps it's just some twisted desire to 'poison the well'? I did my stint on the terraces at Rayleigh and Rye House for nearly twenty years before I held a mic at the track. Thankfully some appreciated my efforts and those of Ron. You don't. Who cares? Some try to achieve something and some just stand by and whinge pathetically. I'd rather be in the former group. Anyway, my chief mistake at Rye House was assuming I was talking to an intelligent audience who gave a damn about the Rockets. Clearly in quite a few cases, especially yours I was wrong. Some of you think you can just insult people's efforts in the safety (cowardice) of forum anonymity. You seem to think that we're not allowed to respond. You're wrong.

I was merely answering questions. Now, regarding this one, last season none of the add-ons that I have installed offered links to Polish coverage with just a tiny handful offering a direct link to NSport+. Apart from one very brief spell all links failed. I use add-ons frequently to watch international TV, not just speedway and football, mainly out of curiosity top see how various countries make TV (the Alpine folk singing on an obscure French provincial channel being one highlight - although brief!) and Polish links tend to be less frequent and less reliable than those to the major European nations such as Germany and France. Many of those streaming via Kodi are using it as an addition to their activities on the web, accessed via web browsers, such as cricfree and mama HD. Kodi is a more stable platform although the whole thing is far from stable. Regarding Andy's point about needing equipment like an expensive Android box to watch Kodi on a TV, I find using a cheap (£30) Chromecast usb stick does the job fine if I want to watch the output on a TV. Cabling would do the same job if I wanted to. Devices like Android boxes sell on the concept of offering something for nothing - once you've paid that initial cost, and hoping the buyer doesn't realise he could do it for himself far more cheaply. Returning the thread back on topic, has anyone heard anything about Swedish speedway being picked-up by anyone yet?