moxey63

As I have said numerous times, a loss of support on the terraces usually means the loyal fans who still attend pay more at the gate. That's how the promoters seem to look at the sport's long-term strategy.

In 1977, though it was blamed on some iffy weather, Belle Vue's crowds were 2,000 down at one point on the year before.

Do you know, Dean, I think my current stance of British speedway is a result of all the stuff I've witnessed over the decades. But we are not like the thousands of others that just gave up altogether... yet. Sad thing is, in a few years we may not have the choice of whether to stop going or not, as it won't be there to go to.

After a few years, Sky's coverage got slightly repetitive. It was two and half hours for 15 minutes of speedway action - and then it quite often overran! I used to sit through it all, but now I ask how I however did, even standing for two hours at the track itself. There was and still is too much padding out for live matches on the television. Live speedway, and it's only my opinion, helped the sport for a few years, maybe introducing new fans, but I feel it also cost many who actually wanted to attend the stadium and instead save their money and remained at home. Though the ardent fan would say he'd never miss a match at his track, It's an easy habit to get into. And with the Play-Offs as we have them now, the whole season is pointless apart from the last six weeks or so. It is like watching wrestling where you know the guy who's being smashed about is going to eat some spinach and then win out eventually. From day one of the season, a match should be important. The Play-Offs allow a team so many sleepy days before anything matters. And, do you know what, I think fans have cottoned on. I mean, Where do they all appear from when Play-Off Final arrives - surely it's like the fans you see outside a stadium when it's raining, waiting until the last minute to part with their cash in case the match is rained-off and their money is tied up. Unless there was a relegation system to go with it, a serious one and not where clubs can decide if they want to come up or go down, then Play-Offs have probably impacted on the whole seven months of the speedway season for the benefit of a couple of teams that make the Final. Once finished, they leave you cold and empty, all the hype when really they are anti-climatic. The only one that sticks out is 2006 - Reading v Peterborough - and that's because of the dubious double point rule that cheated the Berkshire club.

Never mind it being the end of speedway... what about the Speedway Star? I have every copy, you know?

Once I got into speedway in the mid-70s, I liked its team ethic. You also had the side-dish of individual meetings where you'd support your team riders. But team speedway was important to me. I often felt what the lure was of other motorsports, to be honest, and often got annoyed when people though speedway was what Barry Sheene did. When Hamil and Hancock went all plastic with their Exide-sponsored bikes, it started to look then as if individual racing was taking a front seat. I don't give a damn about the mechanical side of the sport. In fact, I still recall when riders of the past took the arrival of a brand new machine - indeed. It was a talking point. First-year rider Kristian Praestbro didn't get a new bike until mid-season 1976, and his form improved drastically flor Belle Vue. The sport is living on the never-never all the time. When riders have four helmets of each colour and the sport is on its backside, wtf.

You sense that promoters act like a group of spotty teenagers that gather regularly at one of their homes to play the old style tabletop speedway games, doing it purely for self-fulfilment and to have a sense of power, locked in a little bubble that only they know about.

Could I blame SKY for the red blazers the managers wore?

You name them for me, I can't be arsed. We are discussing speedway and, as you mentioned, the much lower fanbase that is... err... rapidly growing lower.

I'd begin to lack any confidence in a single promoter who year upon year states he has lost money.

The promoters spent the SKy money like you did when you were young, wasting your last few shillings because you thought tomorrow was another payday. I recall the excitement I experienced when news broke that Sky was going to cover live speedway. The first few years there seemed an upturn in the sport's profile. The Duguard-Anderson incident at Eastbourne made it big in The Sun, I believe. I don't think it helped the relationship when meetings began being called off and SKY had gone to all the expense of setting up the equipment. The ELRC at Coventry about five years ago was the last straw, I think, from the view of this supporter, who knows there are so many last straws.

It'll depend on whether they can all agree on where to meet first.

This could be just a ploy by the Tory party to take the limelight off them for a day or two. Nobody does a cock-up better than the BSPA.

The riders you mentioned there, Steve, had the ambition to race in the top flight and were seen as part of your team for the oncoming years. In 1976 we had it with the likes of Chris Turner and Les Collins at Belle Vue. In 2018 it isn't the same, as most double-up and downers use it as another paynight and will be off elsewhere in 12 months. And I feel a lot of fans know the difference. A rider from the lower division doesn't need the ambition to ride in the top flight now, as he can do both throughout his career if he wishes. It's simply the best of both worlds.

Speedway is really doomed then, if what you said is true. It is supposedly a team sport where secondly individual riders can chase certain glory in the likes of the GPs. Once we had the Team Exide thing with Hancock and Hamill 20 years ago and the bikes began resembling the plastic Sinclair C5s of the mid-80s, perhaps it began going like other highly-polished motorsports where image overshadowed personality. As for an off-form rider and people wanting them replaced as soon as. Me, personally, I loved watching an off-form rider eventually finding his form. For example, my first favourite was Paul Tyrer, who was often given a hard time at Belle Vue by sections of the crowd. I supported him because of this. It added interest to the evening. Likewise with Ryan Fisher and Chris Manchester, when they had disastrous spells at Belle Vue. In fact, some of my best speedway was watching some of the weakest BV sides that were near the bottom. But I see where you're coming from. A guy that stood beside us at Belle Vue once threatened he wouldn't bother coming again if a certain rider was in the team the following week. I suppose Poole fans are going through a bit of this now, judging by Matt Ford's uncertainty.

Think Donald Trump's supplying him with his news, Phil!

I thought we were chatting about the continuing decline of British speedway? I am aware of the above, but let's try to save British speedway first of all. I'll get back to Poland and Sweden if I manage that. Only got one pair of hands.

If you are happy with that, and I suspect you still attend, then that's fine. But this, I feel, is one of the reasons the belonging to one team has gone. It put me off. How many others? But we'll never know if they just disappear, or they're being encouraged not to post anything negative that will hurt the few that still attend and are told to go and do something else. We want a serious sport, to keep what we have on the terraces and perhaps make it credible to potential new fans. When Nigel Pearson says "He's riding here tonight, for someone in Sweden tomorrow, Denmark on Wednesday..." I got a bit cold and feel nauseous If they were doing it in foreign individual meetings, that would be fine, but I'd have felt betrayed if Peter Collins was allowed to do this. In fact, he couldn't even enter the World Championship when he quit Britain in 1981... and he was the Champion five years before. How standards have dropped.

Why are there weeks without meetings?

You can't commit full effort to everything you do, so why should speedway riders be able to do it. They often have numerous clubs, so which one isn't getting their full whack. Is it Britain, Sweden - where I've heard they can earn 10 times more? Surely let's look at the crowds. I know this isn't the main cause, but Sweden and Poland seem to be enjoying their speedway judging by their attendances. Have we in this country been left as third choice, riders perhaps using their tired mood to race in this league and not trying as hard. It all adds up. Deep inside their minds, British fans wonder if their rider loves their club as much as their Swedish or Polish one. Then the fan begins to think... "why should I support my club?" They aren't my team, just agency boys on another paypacket. I told someone the other day about some of speedway's problems - and they laughed about the rules they allow. Never mind about fans being disillusioned - do the riders feel less energised to actually put in a full effort when a stadium is almost empty? It says a bit about where we are. You need a crowd, a bit of banter. You need tribalism, otherwise, you have no need to cheer. Riders need to marry into a one-team ethic, otherwise they can wander off and ply their trades in foreign climbs. British speedway needs to save itself. One big league, proper rules, one-club men, a sense that fans are supporting a set of lads and this set of lads wants to repay that set of fans. Simple.

That happened during the night of the abandoned WCQR there in 1991, which had MIchael Lee riding in it.

But aren't there so many pubs closing?

I was actually thinking of that idea the other day.

I echo exactly what you say. In fact, this could be me writing this. To me, I don't care if it's a boring match, racing not up to much. I do care that I am following a so-called sport where the rules are set in concrete, novelty ones aren't introduced to bring some kind of quick, shortlived air of excitement at the detriment of the whole sport to existing fans and fans that have long grown fed up and departed. I would say a lot of them got fed up because of the silly rules over the years.