moxey63

That is more serious I than I feared. They know what speedway is, just that they don't know it's still there. I know Belle Vue are quite good with publicity on social networks, but is this only reaching speedway fans?

PC made speedway sexy. Even in his latter years, when he struggled a little, he still had that magic style that was exciting. As for World Of Sport, I bet 20-minute slot every three weeks or so gave speedway more pulling power with new fans than all the hours we have every week on satellite. There must be enough old fans out there who don't go anymore that speedway could win back, perhaps, and by winning them back hopefully they'd introduce some of their children or grandchildren. Sad thing is, I bet most people within 10 miles of Belle Vue don't even know the stadium exists. My view is that speedway needs a root and branch review, and it can ill afford to wait until the close season. It should start now.

Good call! I also seem to remember he was dogged by engine failure in that Final. It is really tragic to remember that by this time PC was perhaps close to appearing unlikely to win another title. I wonder whether his drive and ambition were diminishing and of course, the 1980 Cradley crash all but put paid to him ever really being a serious contender again. He was still good but probably wasn't as hungry. He'd done it all at the age of 26 and then came that injury which forced him out of the 1981 campaign.

Good memories. I too feel PC could have been WC many times in succession. The times you mentioned are well documented, but in 1979, a week before the WF in Poland, he smashed Eric Boocock's five-year-old track record twice at Halifax in the Golden Helmet, and immediately put that bike away for the Final. However, warming it up before the big meeting in Poland, it blew up. I was at Halifax, and he really did fly in the GH against Ian Cartwright. I remember the 1977 grid incident at Belle Vue too, was there and watched him hobble on the centre green after clashing with it, six days before Gothenberg.

Here's a story, I read back in 1978. Belle Vue's local radio station at the time, Piccadilly Radio, wanted to cover the world final live from Wembley. The BSPA at the time wanted a certain figure, which the station refused point blank, as they said it was 500% more than they had ever paid... even for the FA Cup Final. The station must have been relieved somewhat.... as weeks later, local riders Peter Collins bowed out at the British Final (sugar in the tank) and Chris Morton only made it as a reserve for the big night and wasn't called upon.

I personally don't concern my self with what grants football gets. Come on, face it, would you... if you held the power... want to give a sport like speedway a big grant? The SKY Sport cash was used to help pay for riders, a money burning a hole in your pocket scenario, there's more where that came from. I also think, as with engine tuners, a lot of the SKY cash probably went out of the sport. But almost 20 years at a million a year. As the famous Ian Dury song went, What A Waste.

Every club wants what's best for them. The BSPA should really be separate from each club. Speedway needs a body to run it with a firm grip and without any one individual with a stake in any one club, for the best interests of the sport. What is the point in having a super strong team if the weakest loses support and then closes? Now it seems the poor Poole fans are unhappy because they are now having a mediocre season. Bet the crowds have dropped too. But they didn't worry when the weak were struggling. Back in 1987 and 1988, I recall Coventry even threatening to pull-out because they were forced to lose one or two of their riders from their rip-roaring title-winning seasons. Threats like that really do not help. It's petulant and should be met with a fine. Promoters forever bleating about poor support and facing closure doesn't add to fans' confidence either. I remember John Perrin always saying Belle Vue's future was in doubt if crowds didn't improve, or his rows with the greyhound owners met a fragile point. I worried at first but then it happened so much, I wasn't really bothered in the end. What good does it do other than to suggest to the few remaining diehards who bother to listen, that either to bring a friend or your admission are going up next year? They may start even thinking of finding something else to do, promoters always crying wolf. It is no good and straight away must put sponsors off, the media. If Coventry can go, Wimbledon and Oxford too, all regarded as established clubs, then the sport really is built on sand. As a supporter, I really started to believe that it was a bit pointless ploughing all your sweat and passion into a team if it wasn't going to exist the next week or month. Just ask a Rye House fan right now. I ask sometimes why someone risks buying a season ticket in today's speedway world.

As Danny Dyer said about Brexit... British Speedway is a riddle right now. As with Brexit when David Cameron leapt off into the night, it appears speedway's leading promoter Matt Ford is about to be similarly energised. Poole has been the best-run club for years. I am concerned about this one. I agree with mikebv.

The most memorable matches I can remember were when Wolves brought a decent-sized crowd (glory seekers) with them to Belle Vue in the mid-90s. It created some great banter, Belle Vue fans who had stood for years at the side of one another without speaking a word were, for one night only, found out they spoke the same language. Fans do create a better spectacle.

Speedway is one of those sports that, as a newcomer, you're impressed for the first half a dozen races and then it gets a bit tiresome. I was the same when I first went aged 12. It was only after deciding to go again the following week and then being showed how to keep the scores with a programme did I realise there was more to it. Without really not knowing what's going on, it would be quite hard to keep those that may become interested.... interested. It could even be helped as part of a maths lesson with local schools, perhaps, give them a load of free tickets and then when they turn up at the track, have someone from the club advising them. Just an idea. But you really need to know what's going on.

The new Belle Vue, from what I've seen of it on TV, is really brilliant and allows some of the best racing I've witnessed. But the crowds are still poor. Racing in the seventies and eighties was unpredictable. Tracks were bumpy and riders had to really manhandle their machines. Often those in front would make a mistake and allow the other to draw closer. To me, though, it was the style of the riders, who really had to work hard for whatever points they scored.

Penhall was a Star. I wouldn't criticise the man. It was probably because I watched the 1982 Overseas at the time over and over again on my newly rented VCR that it sticks out. I only had the one tape... It also perhaps shows the power World of Sport and Dave Lanning hyping it up had.

My next door neighbour asks, "What's speedway?" As for advertising... that could be true, should be done, budgets allowing of course. But I remember speedway fans saying, words like "once we have an English world champion, the media would take notice." Havelock won it, Loram and Woffinden... and we've had wall-to-wall live speedway for the past 20 years. That's advertising, isn't it? But I agree, there should be more localised advertising. As it is, speedway seems to advertise to the people who are aware it's happening.. like the adverts during speedway on TV telling us about Cardiff.

No... I didn't really notice or can even remember the incident. It wasn't that I had affection for the King's Lynn pair either, as Lee, at the time, I didn't really like...was World Champion and I was a P.C. fan. Even now, I can see Penhall performing wheelies and making it obvious. I feel that stained his character somewhat... and the way he left British speedway, of course. Still a major Star though.... yes, and he rode in Britain.

Speedway's problem is that it has rules that encourage cheating, and the cheats often win. I don't know if getting rid of the points limit would be a better way of handling team building and revert to some kind of rider control, although that wasn't universally popular with those impacted. Bruce Penhall in 1982 (Overseas Final) was the first I recall someone actually not trying to win a race (he made it quite obvious). That was six years into my supporting speedway. Then came the Sunday People revelations of race-fixing. But neither put me off speedway. But the sport seems to open itself up for abuse from the rule-benders. Even the old tac-sub, which I adored, I've heard stories of riders finishing a certain position so that his side could use a tac in the next heat. Is that cheating - or just taking one for the team? Perhaps get away with all form of tactical substitutes and just allow the programmed heats. In football, when a bottom table side beats one of the top teams, Crystal Palace vs. Man City, you don't think City lost on purpose because they want to bring in a new signing next month or they went a goal behind in the first place because they intended to play the nominated goal rule which allowed it to count double. A win for Palace wouldn't have made me, a cynic, question it. A win for a bottom of the table speedway team again a top one... I think, "what's going on here." Maybe I'm just a died in the wool pessimist. As a 15-year-old, in 1978, when the world was pure, as a relatively new speedway fan, I recall seasoned cellar-position side Leicester (who were not even good at home) actually winning at King's Lynn (with Michael Lee, Terry Betts...), quite good at home. When I got home from school, picked up one of the newspapers and saw this result, I was shocked. I didn't think "what's going on here." It was an honest result. When I see a good side lose to a weaker one now, I think "what's going on here." Perhaps seeing too many suspicious things along my time watching the sport has made me like this. Seeing Crump vs. Pedersen in one of the slowest heats on World Cup record, both trying NOT to beat the other so that their country could utilise the Joker... that can't be washed from your mind. Speedway allows rules that allow these things to happen. And it wonders why we are where we are, and thinks new fans will stay as patient as I did.

I remember one season, Oxford playing the game in the right spirit and taking the first half of season Gold Cup seriously, topping the table and becoming a strong force. In the meantime, the canny clubs were taking it easy, waiting for the Elite league to begin mid-season. Rider scores counted towards averages in the Gold Cup, Oxford had become that strong they couldn't sign anyone. Meanwhile, the canny sides, not bothered with the Gold Cup, opened up their chequebook (remember them?) and the purpose of not trying paid dividends when the League fixtures came in. These tactics, though great for the fans of the clubs that benefitted, don't half make the sport look comical with a wider view.Again, this could be one of the instances why I became cynical with the whole sport. And then, more recently, wasn't there a side that was having all sorts of engine failures during matches, suggestions were at the time of some sort of manipulating going on to help bring riders in... in time for the Play-Offs. That is why I feel all the qualifying matches to get to the Play-Off semis and Final allow for all sort of tinkering.

If it had been done right, if strong teams would have released riders to help the ones languishing near the foot of the table and had no chance of making it work, I am guessing the merger of the leagues 1995-96 would have been a better option than the mini-Elite League we had in 1997. More variety with 21 sides meant you wouldn't be seeing the same old faces three times a year at your place, which must have to impact when choosing between buying the kids a new pair of trainers or seeing Wolves turn out at Belle Vue for the umpteenth time that year.

You'll remember the amalgamation of the leagues for 1965 helped save the day for speedway, TWK. We have to do it again.

I don't mind the ganging up. Here's a little story. Over 10 years ago when I was a regular on the Belle Vue site, there were many who slagged me off for my views on the way speedway was going. I got out of the habit of logging onto the site but ventured in it one time... and the number of people who were saying the same things I'd been saying just five or so years earlier. As someone else said, the BSF doesn't seem to be as busy as it used to be. But, eh, here's my voice trying to be silenced by the few who still believe the Titanic was unsinkable.

It is called frustration. I am assuming you are a fan of the old Halifax. One day you'd like them to return. One day I'd like speedway to go back to how it was, not 40 years ago, but perhaps 20 years ago. You could have been lost to the sport when Halifax closed. Many fans have been lost when they took one last punch by a bad speedway experience - a rain-off when the sun was out, an abandoned meeting after Heat 6 when the promoter had cashed the takings. They probably detached themselves from the sport and never read or heard about it again. But you, Halifaxtiger, like me, were unwilling to walk away. My hope is that we'll go back to one big league, give riders chance to race three or four times a week so they don't need double up, double down or racing in Swedish and Polish leagues. The way it is now, the riders are getting more from it than the fans.

There was a time I followed speedway, and I think that gives me some kind of say in what the sport has to offer now. Remember, we are talking about the continuing decline of speedway. Well, because of that, I am one person who has bothered to still tune in to this website. I didn't just swan off and give up on it completely. I gave some of the reasons I stopped attending. The double bubble points have now been sent to the refuse tip of one-time good ideas. But how many fans waled away when one bright idea went too far - like the It's A KnockOut when they introduced that double point rule? Again, how many fans felt they'd had enough when Jon Cook gave us that Man O' Man farce in the KO Cup? I think we all have a limit that speedway tests us, whether it's standing for endless gaps while the trackstaff repair the track they've had all week to do, and then, like me, they walk away. They gave it one last chance. They were pushed one time too many. Rye House is gone, could it be Lakeside next. And you're asking why I am hovering on this site when I don't go to speedway anymore. You could be a promoter with that sort of mentality. The sport is soulless. But, never mind, fingers crossed, the cavalry of new fans will arrive when the promoters finally get their arses in gear and see the ship taking in water. With Coventry recently gone, Belle Vue almost, and now Rye House, surely more effort should have been made keeping fans instead of driving them away. Speedway gave me 40 years of entertainment. I have the experience of what started to turn me off as a fan and why I don't even want to watch it live on telly. I trudged on for five years before I stopped going. I knew it was a great sport, still is, great action. But there's more to it than the racing, the spectacle. Or else it'd be stockcars. We have a league that is worthless until August. We have Play-Offs that when raced leaves the remaining weeks of the season feeling like it had finished ages ago. And you really expect the sport to survive. Where are the newcomers that live TV should bring... who don't have the patience to see a string of re-runs before we've reach Heat 4. Then again, we're set for another winter to thrash out the problems. One big league could be a lifesaver, stop the riders riding for more than one team or in other leagues. That's how a professional sport would start to look. Until I feel it is a credible sport, I could not enter a stadium. Unless there was a Golden Greats meeting where you knew results were secondary. Riders need all the matches they can get, you say, and then one of them begging for extra dates spends £20,000 building a new garage for his equipment. The riders are agency workers, no team loyalty. Forty years ago Alan Wilkinson was confined to a wheelchair. Perhaps growing up in the days of such icons spoilt my judgement on what I expect from riders now. But men today have to earn a living... but so did Wilkie, and we didn't see him riding for anyone but the Aces.

Fair points. But I have stated in the past why I no longer go - a few offhand, from replacing the old tac subs to the ridiculous double points rule, allowing riders to race here , there and the moon and back, team speedway is now individual speedway as many ride for the same team with men they are enemies against on another night, another town another. A season-long qualifying system that allows so much behind the scenes cheating to enable teams to sign new riders and strengthen up in time for the Play-Off, which are supposedly money spinners but people forget how many pick and choose to attend the qualifying matches from March-September as they aren't the be-all and end-all. I can't watch a sport that has no credibility, I have seen so many races being manipulated. I cannot judge now whether an overtake is a good one or wasn't just the leader allowing it for vested interests of his team or personal gain. it is built on sand.

I was a programme contributor. You mentioned in your list(above) - highlighted in colours - you included them as having a right to get in for free as they contribute something to the club. Therefore you agree I was not a freeloader, not that I'm bothered what you think. I watched for free (I contributed to the programme). Your argument is being split to suit your point. There is nothing more I can say. I see your point as just a personal attack on someone who criticises something you like. Seriously, other people are reading these comments and thinking "what the f***." Just keep to the topic.

Apart from the mid-60s to mid-70s, speedway has continuously lost fans that it hasn't replaced. In 2018 it is at its lowest ebb since the 50s. Worrying.

Each fan that's been lost has their own reasons for stopping going. Speedway has changed even in the last 25 years, and it seems a totally different sport to the early 90s.