Mylor

Hilly, You may wish to cross post this in the 'International World of Speedway' section.

Hunting round the FIM site I found reference to the European Motorcycle Union who's Track Racing Rule Book lays down the rules for a European Speedway Club Champions Cup!! The Group A round was held in Latvia on 10th August and the final will be held in Debrecen, Hungary on 27th September. It's format is similar to the SWC. So who's reached the final?? Debrecen HUN Pardubice CZE Togliatti RUS Bydgoszcz POL Ljubljana SLO And how far did the British and Swedish teams get?? Why wasn't there any coverage on Sky?? What was Benfield's role in all this?? What the?.........how?.........when?...........why?

Team Man, The 2003 ACU Handbook calls it the Speedway Control Board. It's available for free download from the ACU website and shows the members on page 6. Having said that, it wouldn't surprise me if a Bureau exists somewhere as well.

Thanks for the update Dekker. The organisation of the BSPA committee(?) doesn't appear to be on the BSPA website. Do you know where I can find it?

The SCB (Speedway Control Board) is a committee of the ACU on which CVS and Alex Harkess represent the BSPA. (Page 6 of the ACU Handbook http://www.motorcyclinggb.co.uk/) CVS and Alex Harkess also happen to be Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the BSPA which is located in the ACU headquarters in Rugby. The SCB has 5 members in all, 3 from the ACU including the Independant Chairman, E P Bartlett (who is also Chairman of the ACU) and 2 from the BSPA. So, from what I've gleaned from their websites, the organisation looks like this: The FIM have a Track Racing Commission on which sits Ole Olsen as the SGP Race Director. The Auto Cycle Union (ACU) and other national bodies are FIM Affiliated Federations. The SCB is a committee of the ACU. Several Continental Unions are recognised by FIM. Great Britain is a member of the European Motorcycle Union (UEM) which lays down rules for European Championships (including, would you believe, a European Speedway Club Champions Cup(!!?) The Final's in Hungary September 11th.) The speedway representitive on the UEM commission appears to be Andrzej Grodzki, Mail: speedway@pzm.pl This last body may come as a surprise to many of you.......it did to me!! Now I'm sure Mr Grodzki and his fellow commissioners are very nice people but they do seem to have an extraordinarily low profile. So low in fact that they manage to organise European Championships without anyone in Western Europe knowing about them. Now 10 years ago I could have understood it, but the iron curtain has been down for a long time now. Perhaps we should blame Mr David Willoughby, Mail:willoughby.33@virgin.net who also sits on the commission. I can't find out anything about this gentleman but I'm sure someone out there knows him. Methinks this is a body that needs a d**n good shakeup! It should be structured and have the same powers and responsibilities, including promoting the various motorcycle sports, as Uefa does for some other sport that escapes me at the moment. Ah well, Time for bed. Must think on this some more.

Hunting round the FIM site I found reference to the European Motorcycle Union who's Track Racing Rule Book lays down the rules for a European Speedway Club Champions Cup!! Methinks, why should they bother laying down rules for something that doesn't exist? Then I find on the site that the Group A round was held in Latvia on 10th August and the final will be held in Debrecen, Hungary on 27th September. It's format is like the SWC. So who's reached the final?? Debrecen HUN Pardubice CZE Togliatti RUS Bydgoszcz POL Ljubljana SLO Bydgoszcz?? And why didn't we compete?? Why only East European countries? What the?.........how?.........when?...........why? So many questions, so little time.

Bit misty in Cornwall today Sandman.......... would that be WSW of here? Must get some new bino's!! Damn, still no good, do they have a webcam?

Och........you Scots!! Nice try. I do have one solution though..............less football, more speedway!!

SCB, Speedway is a business like any other. Ultimately businesses that don't look after their customers will fail to thrive (the state the EL is in now) and eventually fail altogether. In an 'us and them' culture managers won't listen. Enough customers putting forward reasonable ideas over a long enough period will influence the best of them, and only the best will survive. The forum is becoming more respected in the circles that count. Managers and promoters (Coventry, Oxford and Wimbledon) are browsing the threads and beginning to post without needing to hide their identities. The more we encourage this, the better our chances of getting the best of our ideas adopted and the sport can move forward. Hopefully the best managers will post their ideas too. It may take a little while but it is within reach. From this moment SCB, you are no longer scum but a valuable asset who can make a difference. Keep posting

yes Mylor but not when it mattered. On the day it mattered Team GB were simply not good enough. Sorry but that's a fact. You're a hard lady to please SL. Even a full strength Aussie team with all their top riders.......................'were simply not good enough!!' Even a powerful Danish team, riding a Danish track prepared by Danes for a Danish race director.....................................'were simply not good enough!!' Neither of these teams beat the Swedes in the whole competition so I can't really see any grounds for condemning the only team that did. Ah well, time to move on.

SL, as I said before ........we didn't only beat the minnows, on a good track we beat the Swedes................the World Champions! We didn't only beat them............we beat them by 17 points in the same meeting as we beat the Czechs by 19 points. We were good enough........it just wasn't our day.

Hi JoD. As a forum I think we're making progress on the links to 'those in charge' front. We know Coventry, Oxford and Wimbledon managements, and probably others, not only follow some of our threads but post as well (thank you guys, much appreciated). Neil Middleditch posted a few days ago so word must be getting round. Now is a very good time to post your questions, concerns, ideas and solutions. 'Those in charge' will be formulating their ideas over the next few months ready for their seminars over the winter.

Thanks SCB, good reply. I think short of asking our Polish & Swedish members to do a translation job for us the best we can hope for is that one of our more influential members will raise the issues with the powers that be. It's what happens in speedway and other sports at all levels. Poole appear to be more affluent than many others in the EL and can attract the best even though there would be fewer of them available. Some riders may chase the money, others may wish to win a few trophies. It's by no means certain that the two would go together. With all the goings on in the BLC I see the need for a strong international controlling body to make this viable but then we need one of those anyway. I'm not sure the fans would take to supporting 2 separate teams (even if they could put 2 together without affecting the PL) and can't see how this would fit in with the aim of reducing costs. Methinks we're on the right lines though. Do you?

Thanks for the reply lupus. I'm just trying to gauge people's opinions of how we get from where we are to where we want to be. There are several ways to achieve it, of course. Am I right in thinking you would favour a form of rider control?

The minnows??? The Aussies, Danes, Poles, Brits, Czechs, Finns.......................... We're in good company!!

Should they be compelled to join the EL lupus or do you have an incentive in mind?

Thats the difference, the spot in the final was likely even with the weakened team, but to get carried away with beating the minnows was the wrong attitude. The final showed that reality hurts. But Dekker, my point was we didn't only beat the minnows, on a good track we beat the Swedes................the World Champions We didn't only beat them............we beat them by 17 points in the same meeting as we beat the Czechs by 19 points. Now no-one would call those 2 teams minnows would they????

No-one would deny that we have a manager who has proved that he can get the best out of any rider.......and they love him for it!! So do we. Well done Team GB. Middlo, Stay exactly where you are..............your country needs you!!

Too true Gemini, its easy to beat a rag tag collection of russians and slovenians, but come the big test ................. But...............on a good track, didn't the exact same team already beat the Swedes and run the Aussies a very close second!! Ok, we finished 5th on the night but from the tone of your posts you'd think we'd been outclassed. A week ago many of us would have given our right arm to be in the final with a chance of a podium. We only missed it by 10 points. If your team lost to Poole or the Isle of Wight by just 10 points you wouldn't feel as if you'd been outclassed would you? It will come. No-one would deny that we have a manager who has proved that he can get the best out of any rider.......and they love him for it!! So do we. Well done Team GB.

We all think you and the boys deserve a lap of honour!! Start at Trelawney, then Exeter, Somer.......................... Excellent work, thanks for posting, come back soon!! 'The Way Ahead' section looks good.........(You guys knew I'd get that in somehow. )

SCB, Thanks for your contribution If I were a top rider under the present rules I may think much the same, however, we have already ascertained that the present setup should change as there doesn’t seem to be a bottomless pit for riders to take money from. It all comes out of your pocket and my pocket whether we attend meetings, buy the merchandise or subscribe to Sky. The goose that laid the golden egg for the select few is dying. The discussion on the future of speedway is about much more than how we can maintain the top rider’s earnings at their present level. That’s not what the sport’s about and not what this thread’s about. It’s about viability, expansion and popularity, the sort of popularity that would ultimately bring millions of pounds (or Euros) into the sport. Riders can only take what’s on offer but if it’s not on offer they, like the rest of us, learn to live within our means or find other ways to top up their income from such as sponsorship and, if the sport gains in popularity like it should, advertising and merchandising. The European Club Championship? I can’t see where you got the idea that it would be held in one country or that riders could ride in it without traveling. I’ve copied part of it below so you can read it again. I did edit it slightly to make it clearer. In another post I did make it clear that we could expect admission fees to be higher for the 3 (minimum) home ECC matches as you would expect. For 2005………..All teams would ride in their national leagues. Perhaps those qualifying for the ECC would become exempt from the BLC if it’s still running. The ECC teams, say 16 or 20, would go into a draw to produce 4 mini-leagues. They would compete home and away. The top 2 go forward to the 2 leg quarterfinals, 2 leg semis, then a final held possibly on a GP track within a few days of the GP (because the corporate & merchandise infrastructure, TV etc would already be there?). Qualifiers would get a full league program, including local derbies, of course, and a minimum of 6 or 8 ECC matches. TV (Sky and/or terrestrial, who may become interested at this level) would get a larger EL and 25 or 33 ECC matches. Promoters get more through the turnstiles and more TV money. Supporters get...............to breathe a sigh of relief at least but I get the feeling it will put smiles on quite a few faces. For those who haven’t read the thread you’ll find it here: http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forum/view...opic.php?t=3294 To be fair SCB, you did make some suggestions for improvement in an earlier post. A little confusing for newcomers methinks but valid just the same. The difference between our two approaches seems to be scale. The ECC should grow the sport to such an extent that everyone who wants to should make a good living at it and give the enthusiastic ‘amateurs’ more opportunities should they wish to move up. Your last paragraph ‘Would the EL fans turn up….’ Threw me a bit. PL fans turn up to see teams without GP riders every week, often in greater numbers. Many of them argue that the racing’s better but that’s for another thread. I agree that teams relying heavily on riders who ride in more than one country would find things tough during the transition but, perhaps by extending the timeframe, that should be manageable. They may even wish to invest their savings in young British talent, start a training track or lease someone else’s for a day or two a week, and/or enter a team in the CL or CT. Yes riders would move up, even whole teams may move up. If we’re not careful we may have a viable EL.

Excellent post Star Lady...........I also like RogH's reply. Must give this some thought..........

Gemini................................YOU ARE A STAR!! (or two...... ) Thanks Sandman, I'll need to think about this one, raised covers, blustery day............hmmmm Meetings never cancelled. Ahh those were the days. Black & white pictures in the Speedway Star of half a dozen riders covered head to foot in grey stuff, just a white patch where their goggles used to be. 'I think that's Ivor Brown.........that fold in the mud looks like his jersey!!' It happens occasionally now, but not as often. Or is it me mind playing tricks, perhaps it's down to the adhesive qualities of shale on leather. Mind you it was in the era of 2 valve Japs, cut tyres and winning times nearer 80 seconds than 60. Methinks riding should have been a lot safer then..............but occasionally reality bit really hard.....................we miss you guys

Should be able to find some in the forum archives. Are the archives still accessible? Clicking on them on the homepage just brings up a 'Page cannot be displayed' error

Thanks for the replies guys & gals. Should have booked it ages ago. It looks like the wheels are coming off me plans. He who must be obeyed (the boss) has landed me with a 4 week project which is scheduled to finish on the 8th September. I'll have to ask that nice Mr Olsen if he'll put the GP back a week. Thanks again, enjoy yourselves and have one on me!!