westhamboy66

To be fair other sports such as Football, Rugby Union and Cricket do the same or worse. Just look at the makeup of the Japanese Rugby team, The Irish Football team and yes even the English Cricket team that jumped on the distant relative get out or the limited domicile rule all of which are more farcical than than Mauger Briggs etc representing GB Once upon a time it was a given that almost all World Champions would be riding in Britain , oh how the sport has sunk. As far as Tai is concerned it is highly debatable as to whether he would have gone on to become World Champion without his British League experience I actually found it very disappointing when, during the Austalian GP Tai seemed to be proud to sing the Australian National anthem but laughed his way through the British Anthem with his hat on. Not interested in the Royal Family but i do think it was a bit of an insult to his "fellow" Brits. So it's hardly surprising he turned his back on our domestic scene when he had the ability in his Position as World Champion to really give British Speedway a boost.

What surprises me is how they have managed to go about team building in such an amateurish way considering their experience in another motorsport. I know we have strange rules regarding team building / average requirements but you would have thought that with twelve months in the background learning the business and given their team experience in car racing that they would have gone about things differently. We now have the situation where only the introduction of a really top quality rider (and how many of those are knocking around awaiting a call) and another risky 3 pointer can save the season and we still have four months to go before the start of the season. Can't say i believe in any of this making changes in May either should it all go wrong. Although it would cost surely a restructure of the management would have been more sensible thing to do before they started team building but they burned their bridges by getting rid of probably the best, most obvious candidate mid season. Even though he made a hash of things long term Big Ron threw everything at it he simply didn't really know what he was doing. The difference with the new Promoter is he clearly doesn't know what he is doing but unlike Ron he isn't throwing anything at it either. A sure way to lose even more support

So far the sort of team that len Silver is known for lately. Nothing to be inspired about until the next name comes along, Makes the release of Jakobsen more of a mystery unless there were too many clashes on a saturday in his diary Tungate and Nelson being mentioned but can't see it Maybe but so far no signs of a master stroke in the first five. Again we seem to be light years behind our local rivals which is always a decent yardstick.

No one knows the size of the overall budget nor how much is allocated to the Stadium and then the team in that order i would presume That said the budget is only as big as the ambition. On the assumption that one of the two remaining names is Lambert i still see it as a steady rather than exciting team but one that may well succeed or fail on how well Kasper rides Nothing wrong in that they were great times

Apart from Len and the new bloke i doubt many can claim to know the in's and out's of the contract made between them to sell / buy Rye House. I was under the impression that Andrew wanted the move to Arena all those years ago and i doubt there is anything sinister in the NBJ deal either. As far as Len and barbed comments, i am no lover of the new owners (have no reason to be) but Len let himself down during the season especially comments about Andrew and the track prep for NL meetings, stuff that should have been kept in house. He must have known that his Managerial style would grate against the new owners too. Rye House was a mess last year from the team down to the worsening state of the stadium. Now Len has moved on the new bloke has no excuse if he doesn't get things right. Last season without saying anything it was easy to shift the blame on Len. For me the stadium facilities must come up to scratch and the team most importantly must be strong enough for a play off spot, anything short of that and the crowds will diminish even further. No interest in twitter so i can't say but that surely is a cause for concern. Just hope that in a year or so those who called for Silver to go won't be thinking the same about the new bloke. It was a long and lingering death with RR but i fear this time it will be quicker

Must have a pretty decent team lined up to avoid a sure fire 8 pointer but maybe their hand was forced with many saturday clashes with his plans for next year. Probably suits him to be away from a saturday track but to loan him to Peterborough is a major error for me. Mistake allowing this news to break before posting some top signings themselves

Completely agree Simon Wigg was an advocate of having common race nights. What he failed to understand as does everyone who attends meetings without paying i.e riders, promoters etc is that there are so many spectators who attend multiple tracks each week. Going back a few years the top flight contained clubs like Reading Monday, Ipswich Thursday, Oxford Friday, a huge amount of clubs running saturday,in fact only tuesdays were blank. I used to attend maybe four or five top flight fixtures in a week and guess what i used to see the same faces at most of them. Speedway has,unlike Football, fans that aren't content with one match every two weeks and are quite happy to attend neutral fixtures. Wind the clock forward to today i watch the same amount of meetings but almost exclusively in the NL plus as many Rye House meetings as possible and i still see fans faces that visit multiple tracks. Yes it may encourage those riders who have fleeced British speedway with their over the top financial claims only to come back, then not to return and effectively kick the sport in Britain when its down. Crump, Hancock, Pedersen etc are all guilty, sadly even the current British World Champion does nothing to promote the sport in this country. No the crowds overall wouldn't increase and how long would it be before the so called Elite was down to six teams. I hope it isn't tried but if it does go ahead it might cut out all the top paid riders and bring the sport to some sort of realistic financial approach and save British Speedway. The approach that the NL and PL take is generally correct. Just by having limited nights racing for me is a sure fire way to bankrupt most top flight clubs. Just lucky for Kings Lynn that they would be one of the clubs unaffected but then who is the Chairman of the BSPA?

depends how many meetings he would miss through other engagements

Not really. Easy for the Monster boys and the wannabes to act together like playground bullies. Quite honestly Doyle, the Holder Family, Hancock now Masters are just embarrassing themselves which is pretty sad. Couldn't agree more. You may not be able to drown the noise from the haters but you are far from a lone voice.

Ken I liked what you say about screensport and Rayleigh. True they are gone but you go on to spoil it by wanting to turn the clock back God knows how many years to a 13 heat format tac subs etc. Sadly with the riders available to the sport these days the 13 heat formula would no longer work, far too much of a gulf between the qualities of heat leaders and todays reserves. As for the new Promoters they have to earn respect not assume it is there. Like many they will have no idea what it is like to have to juggle finance to enable you to have your speedway fix. Last season their first i saw nothing to make me see better value for my money and i don't just mean the quality or should i say lack of quality on the track.

Quite right lets dig out some Ronnie Russell music to remind us of the bad old days that should get rid of a few more punters Surely we need to move away from the Boxall Bowen days and Ben Morely with all due respect to him is nowhere near a good enough PL reserve unless he has a strong partner to take the pressure off of him

Yes well lets hope the new broom has a few more bristles than the last time Len left. Russell had the benefit of a well versed Brother but took Rye to the wall without too much difficulty. Lets hope the new mob know a little more than they claim to which is basically nought. Still they filled the car park potholes by the time the season finished so can't be all bleak. Before knocking Len Silver i'd like to say thanks for the memories with three League titles after his enforced move from Rayleigh. Thanks for providing me with plenty of excitement from the like of Garrad Hubbard Fiala Mullarkey Cox.....the list is endless. So it went south in the latter part of his tenure but without Silver at the helm there would have been no Rye House speedway. Sometimes when reading some pretty negative comments i wonder if thats what some contributors actually wanted. Fingers crossed for next season.

Can't see what all the fuss is about poor lineup in my opinion with 50% of the field National League riders with the prices jacked up to EL level...well done Warren

Given the size of the rulebook i doubt anyone knows it inside out. At Mildenhall on Sunday One rider touched the tapes and went off 15 metres, in the re run a second rider touched the tapes, the re run was delayed while the Ref checked the rules and found the second rider had to be excluded as you can't have two riders off fifteen in a league match. However you can in an individual meeting. How many people knew that? Not many including the refs as it doesn't happen often neither does racing without goggles.But the rule Seems daft as in wet meetings riders discard their eye protection during the race Everyone knocks the Refs but its not an easy job especially the pittance they are paid. So the ref at BV missed a trick, Newman did break the rules and should be excluded and the result amended to a 3-3, they have time to meet and decide just as they do with red cards in football and missed incidents in Rugby, If they do nothing then thats another reason for people to say our sport is a joke.

Complete waste of time probably the most boring meeting of the season for so many reasons. Hour and forty minutes to run eight heats. Did the little bundle outside the pits really need the ref to make the long walk to the pits to sort it out. One quick phone call could have done it but no another half an hour delay at which point they chose to have an interval. They call the track staff back but by then they had another ridiculous round of watering and grading. Overwatered so no surprises to see yet another race stopped immediately after the interval. Had this gone on at Rye all the comedians would be out to take the mick but of course this is Eastbourne where things are done right No sour grapes as Eastbourne are better by two riders absolutely no reason to doctor the track. Between the Ref and the track people this was the sort of meeting that make fans think twice before coming back.

If it means Ipswich don't qualify then i would hope Plymouth get all four poins.

Obvious this would happen. Ignoring the injuries, to put a side out that is so top heavy is asking for trouble. Can't cope with RR and the expectancy for the top three to come up with 30+ points in every single meeting is ridiculous. Historically it never works unless you have two very good reserves in place and that we have not got. Knee jerk reaction from the promoters to replace the two Swedes. Think they were looking for brownie points with the inclusion of Robert Lambert but the idiots have made the side weaker (If that was possible)

I wonder if Kings Lynn are aware of that don't they own his Contract. EL at Rye thanks but no thanks think they would lose fans rather than gain them unless of course we want even more RR and Guests.

Completely agree with Dave but it doesn't stop there The Ladies who were the first point of contact with the public at the turnstiles and were first class and always gave a smile disappeared, not a good start for me No work on the stadium contrary to what we were told at the start of the season. The whole place has an unfriendly feel these days Developing riders such as the raiders need a wise head, someone they can listen to , learn from and look up to. For me that was Andrew Silver and i listened to him in the early season match at Eastbourne where he gave his mid match team talk, he then took Kyle Hughes to one side to gee him up and advise him on his starting. There has been a massive improvement to Karl both scoring and the way he is riding, most of which i reckon is down to Andrew. To lose the ability to have training schools is so stupid. Where is the future talent going to come from for a team like Rye House? One thing i will say (and this is to those who go over the top in knocking Sampford) though is get off John Sampford's back. There is little to be done as a team manager as there are little tactical needs anymore. john has like me been a fan since the Rye team came about following the closure of Rayleigh. he has been a fan travelling home and away and only became team manager when we were a nomadic set up prior to Len Silver and our return to Hoddesdon. He has provided a service to the club when no one was willing to do so, he is still very enthusiastic about Rye House, he isn't a Promoter nor does he make money from what he does. I have no doubt than in the near future he will be cast aside like many others by Mr Scott who for me is doing his very best to alienate most people. A word of advice for Mr Scott, have the courage to show your face at a meeting, get on the mike and say a few words you may well get a bit of respect that you deserve but until you do you'll not get much support from the remaining few fans Rye House have left

First Hand information is on the website

Personally i'd be surprised if Lambert isn't riding PL next year, If this was just for the rest of the season it wouldn't be worth it. Luke was showing little form at reserve i think he will be really scratching for points now. as for heat two it seems to revolve around whether Danny gates or not. Enough to go places like Glasgow and Newcastle and expect a point i'm not convinced. Top heavy teams are ok when its all hunky dory but not when one of the heat leaders is having an off night or we have to carry RR as has happened again so often this season. The need for good quality reserves is missing and thats quite a stumbling block. That said great to see Robert each week and best of luck to Greenwood

Memories of Colin Pratt with a massive hose when we ran as a Sunday Afternoon Club. Dust was much worse in those days That said can any club claim to be better placed for a water supply. On a road that that leads to a water treatment plant and two rivers within a couple of hundred yards of the track. Yes he has the equipment such as a bowser much in the same way that he has similar equipment at Kent. He choses rarely to use the equipment for reasons known only to himself.In fact at Kent so rare is a tractor on track that it is cheered every time it ventures near the track. For so long i have been a supporter of Len but i admit i was wrong as the last couple of seasons he seems to have become a bit of a sad old boy who when challenged doesn't listen and goes to opposite way to prove a point.Sad really as he continues to cut his nose off to spit his face.

The way its going at the moment you can chalk Edward up for five wins before the meeting the trouble is when looking at the programme is where any other wins will come from and if we don't get a big advantage from Edwards races we aint going to win a match like this. For me this is a poor Ipswich team compare to other years and we should be beating them at home no problem but we're not and that shows how poor we really are. Not only can't we cope with RR but we lose NBJ for the final race too. To be successful you need a big number one which on current form we have, but you also need decent reserves and we haven't. Robin hasn't really done it for me all season and last night i felt he was poor and giving up in two rides doesn't help. If we are looking to next season then only Kennett Jakobsen and Lykke should be retained, But of course this is Rye House so i suppose Boxall and Bowen are already pencilled in and i can't see much improvement even if we did bring in someone like Lambert

And what time did the meeting start? show me any track that can put on an afternoon meeting without dust, I go regularly to Mildenhall and Eastbourne and always feel guilty about taking half the track surface home in my hair. funny that you didn't mention the quality of racing that was far better than any i have ever seen at Workington. Probably were regulars at Ipswich and thats the reason they haven't been to Speedway in decades

Spiller = The Real Deal, the way he team rode on the outside of Owen was superb. Not my team but what Eastbourne have done is within the rules and to complain about them is simply sour grapes.