Ben91

I’m not an Edinburgh fan. Plenty of better two pointers out there, Ruddick would be scraping the barrel for any team in honesty. If the limit was 42.5 he’d be worth the gamble, not so sure with a 38 point limit. Is he really a point and a half better than some two pointers? Looking at his NL form last season, probably not.

So many far better options out there than Ruddick. Clegg’s been poor for a couple of years now. Would be better served signing a two pointer and having a point to use further up the order.

A bit of handbags is never a bad thing. Well done to BT for keeping the cameras on it too. Etheridge had nothing to complain about but it escalated because of involvement from the Lynn side once the riders got back to the pit gate. I’ve never seen Simon Lambert move so fast, on or off a bike. If he had that kind of speed on the track he’d have had a much better career.

Doyle was signed as a temporary replacement for Boxall. Doyle performed, Steve’s return date was coming up and we could have released another rider (Bowen or Hawkins iirc) and accommodated both, which would have strengthened the team no end. Instead Doyle was let go and Boxall came back, we went on to have a crap year. Fast forward just five or so years and Doyle is a World Champion while Hawkins is retired and Bowen and Boxall are racing in the NL.

I don’t think we ever claimed to be responsible for discovering Tai. We played an important part in his development and seeing him currently the best rider in the world drives home how lucky we were to be graced by his talent for two seasons. Scunthorpe aren’t solely responsible either however, Tai cut his teeth in Australia and came over here in 2006 without a team spot with his Dad looking for a ride anywhere. Scunthorpe used him in a challenge I believe where he excelled and so they snapped him up, the rest is history of course. Even Auty isn’t a Scunthorpe discovery, he was the hottest property in youth speedway pre-2006 and started out riding at Sheffield I believe. Certainly not Scunthorpe as he was riding before they re-opened as a youth.

You’ll find that in 2007 Scunthorpe only raced in the Conference and Tai rode for them as well as the Rockets in the PL. We didn’t nick him, we made him an offer and he took it.

Didn’t notice the extra column on the Stoke averages, looking on my phone, my bad!

Atkin’s average is lower than Cockle’s. So he can replace him.

Len’s Kent interests certainly helped him let Rye go easier I think. Speedway attendances are declining year on year and have been for as long as I can remember and as you say the last two years have seen that rate accelerate. The sport should be an easy product to sell but self-interest from promoters is driving away the most important people, the fans.

Why were the crowds poor in 2016 though? It’s rumoured that we had Rob Lambert pencilled in but Newcastle made him a better offer and that threw a spanner in the works. On top of that the other rumour was that NBJ didn’t come back because there couldn’t be an arrangement made over who would clean his bikes. There was the Karger debacle. Absolute rubbish and given far more time than he should have been. Lanham was a spent force going through the motions. In short, the team was rubbish, if a good team is assembled then second tier racing is viable at Rye House, just ask Len Silver.

If we were then we should have been going in to the AGM last winter telling the BSPA that we would have to drop down a level if fixed race nights were voted in because it is only viable to host Speedway at the track on a Saturday night.

There are many Rye House fans, myself included, who have lost our club and are devastated by this. Yet it seems to have turned into a crusade by Rob to make himself out to be the most hard done by. It’s sad. And for the record he isn’t. Those who were on the terraces EVERY week and who went away as often as they could in the name of supporting Rye House are (not counting myself as one of that number, as I wasn’t). I don’t care about crowds at Belle Vue, or how Coventry are doing at Leicester. They have their own threads. And above all else I don’t care about reading Rob McCaffrey name calling and being a big part of the reason this thread has descended because he can’t enter into a debate without making things personal as opposed to giving a reasoned answer to those who have a different opinion to him.

All round to Rob’s for a cup of tea, his kettle boils the quickest.

Fans are leaving the sport in masses now anyway and it isn’t because of the standard of teams in the main. It’s the growing costs for the same, if not less in terms of product. Sides wouldn’t have to weaken to “Redcar’s standard,” there would be a points limit for all teams to build to with the intention of producing evenly weighted teams as there is now. You’d be surprised. Even with the sarcy comment about not having the finances. It depends who is running each club as to whether they’re Speedway people and will take a loss each year because they love the sport or if they’re in it as a business, which I can’t imagine many are. The National League is gaining clubs year on year at the moment, they can’t sustain racing in the top two tiers. That should be an indicator that we need to change things. Be it going semi-pro, or the more radical step of these NL clubs breaking away from the BSPA and setting up shop for themselves in a similar manner to how the PDC split from the BDO in Darts in the early 90’s when that sport was dying on its arse.

Only two clubs have GP riders in their line ups. The league isn’t exactly flooded with them. So we’re at a point where we hope our clubs are just breaking even? That’s only going to end one way and that’s more clubs going the way of Rye. When things are rosy at your own club it’s easy to take the if it’s not broke don’t fix it attitude but there are serious issues with Speedway in this country and they need fixing. If one league (which there are enough riders for) is the answer and the standard drops slightly so that we can all prosper in future then so be it.

Rye House using the fish and chips as a selling point stopped about a decade ago. The stadium does need work doing to it though and what has been done by the promotion to this point hasn’t improved it from when Len Silver left. That said, you don’t just put it out of its misery because we’re going through a rough patch. Until this point we’ve been one of the most stable clubs in the country since our reformation. When there were calls for us to move up a league in the mid-00s Len always said it wasn’t viable. He may not have been the best at promoting the club at that point but nonetheless it looks like he was right from a business standpoint.

It isn’t the fault of the fans that the sport in this country is a shambles.

One league would be somewhere between Premiership and Championship standard. So the point about Poole is somewhat irrelevant. They’ve been scouring for a world class rider to come over, not a rider who could do a middle order job, of which there are plenty from abroad who would come to race here. There are enough riders. I’ve proven it to you. Until the day there are only 132 riders left in the sport willing to take a team place in Britain, there are enough riders to fill 19 teams.

As I said, if we were to have one league, it would be somewhere between the standard of the current Premiership and Championship. Realistically that means that riders such as Doyle would probably be the ones to miss out. And in reality, how many World Class riders do we really have here anymore anyway? Doyle, yes. NKI, KK? Maybe at a push but that is it. The way the current system works you have Doyle racing against the likes of Clegg, Sarjeant and Smith anyway in the top tier and in the second division you have riders such as Nicholls, Harris and Morris to name but a few. That's no different to the scenario which isn't your idea of fun. The sport here needs a radical shake up. I was anti one league for a long time. It always seems to have been a suggestion from some. But at the present time I think it is something worth looking at. Steps back to make steps forward in effect. It would stop doubling up, as there wouldn't be an option any longer. Doubling up was initially introduced to help riders transition up the leagues, a tool for progression. Now it is a free for all to make sure riders don't have to go out and do a 9-5 and race as a hobby on the side. We're the people who lose out. Whether we would retain a set race night, which was only half-assedly implemented anyway, or revert to clubs racing on the night that best suits them to draw a crowd I'm not sure but having 18 different opponents at home across the season would provide much needed variety too.

An often wheeled out excuse when it comes to the one league debate or when there are calls to scrap doubling up and one that simply isn't true at all. One league would be somewhere between the already close standard of the top two leagues. 19 teams, 133 rider spots. At present in the top two divisions there are 104 different riders. A shortfall of 29. So how do you address that shortfall. A quick scan of the greensheets show that between the top two tiers there are at least eight riders who for one reason or another have lost a team spot. That shortfall becomes 21. Cast our eyes back to 2017 and there are at least 30 names who featured in one of the top two tiers who have no spot at either level this time around. That shortfall has already been wiped out. Granted some have retired and some names may not wish to return next year. But we also haven't factored in the plentiful riders from overseas who would bite your arm off for a team spot over here, then there is also the National League where another quick check shows at least 15 riders averaging over six points a meeting without a team spot at a higher level. So in short, not enough riders? Not true. And there are facts to prove it.

I’ve been against a big league for quite some time but am coming round to the idea more and more as time passes. 19 teams means 18 home fixtures, a different opponent each week too which keeps people interested. The bit about part-time riders is spot on too. Half the trouble with doubling up is that it is now just a tool so that riders can earn a living from racing, if you can’t make one club pay then it proves the sport can’t sustain full time racing. Who is being short changed by doubling up now? Us the fans.

Shanes and Rye is not a good fit. He’s not a point and a half better than Clegg’s 2 point average so to sign him would be stupid. At least we didn’t sign him on an 11 odd average!

The Football World Cup is the biggest sporting event in the world. It is stupid to run against it, no matter what form of sport you are trying to run. What does the sport have to do for recognition? Drag itself into the 21st century and give fans a valid reason to part with their cash to watch it. Stop shooting itself in the foot with silly rules etc. The reasons are plentiful. As for tonight, we'll lose. But hopefully it won't be by too many.

I'm not sure where the rules stand on this this season but surely it would have been in our interests to let NBJ 'go' without gaining a Premiership average and then singing him again in a few weeks time on his converted Championship average which would see him on a 4.42 as opposed to his current 5. Kus would be a gamble. Very similar to KK (albeit not ability wise) in the fact that if things are going his way he can be a decent rider. The move to Rye helped KK last season, if we could do the same with Kus then he'd be worth a punt. I'd rather gamble on Kus than bring back Morley or Perks. And he can't be worse than Clegg.

Sure I saw over the winter that riders who hadn't raced here in 2017 and had been in the GPs would be reassessed as nine pointers in the Premiership and Kildemand wasn't. If Nielsen didn't get an average in 2017 then fair enough, although the race format used when the EDR system was in place gave skewed averages.