moxey63

What other sports encourage rules which allow competitors to cheat? We all know of speedway riders dropping points purposely. But what other sports do?

OK, BWitcher, see you later! In my mind, I always make good points; in yours, you're always right.

Gee... you really like your popcorn! Do you wear those big spongy gloves? Do you think if speedway was pushed as much as American Wrestling and its sister sport, American Football, that it too could sell out Wembley?

It may be all about money to you, but are they proper sports. Maybe you just like popcorn. You also watch Ant & Dec, the Jungle and X-Factor, right?

Don't give a toss about how much money it takes. They have tried to push it 40 years over here, and it's still a daft game.

Do you watch it for all the ad breaks?

Do you like American Wrestling, too? Seriously, though, Superbowl.

But because you're a speedway fan you'll put up with anything. But for how long? And when you don't like the current form of speedway, do you walk away or keep in there, because you have spent most of your life following it and still like parts of its past. It would be like a divorce without seeing the kids and throwing away all the family photographs. You still have a connection. You will notice I don't comment on modern topics, like the league sections. I have no idea who's riding where this week or next. I feel I can contribute to where speedway is heading, after seeing where it's been, and why people may not be interested anymore (apart from the cult followers).

So, perhaps some ex-speedway fans gave up bothering because they couldn't keep up with the rules. How many were put off by the ridiculous Golden Double, like the 2006 Play-Off Final that made the sport look a laughing stock for anyone not defending it? Reading were the best team all season but were done by a ridiculous rule which punished them for actually wanting to win, and it allowed Peterborough to gain (approx) 14 extra points that Reading weren't in a position to. The current day speedway system is flawed. Mark Lemon at Belle Vue says you are punished for stating the season to well and winning matches, being top of the table. Now, please tell me, who on the terraces in today's speedway really knows which team is trying to win and which team is trying to lose, if you put Lemon's words into the equation? A lot of teams are like Popeye before he consumes the spinach. VAR could do the same for football if they don't watch it. There you are, I've compared both again.

How come it's only people who pay to watch current day speedway, and some who don't (good morning, chunky), who can have a say about the plight of the current speedway? Does it tell you perhaps that they're the last few on the boat letting in water, but they have buckets? They have little chance of rescuing it and will keep trying. Don't tell them it's a lost cause. They say you're the lost cause for abandoning the boat and are on shore.

I am a speedway fan, just not the modern stuff. For example, I prefer the David Bowie stuff from the 70s than his 80s offering. Does that mean I can't like any of Mr Bowie's music?

Thought I'd lower my standards to be on equal ground.

When has this happened?

Imagine it, if there would have been Play-Offs in Premiership football when Man City won the title by 20 points, and they'd lost in the Final by a dodgy penalty. Can understand why some sports don't even go there. VAR's bad enough.

I didn't say in 2019. In fact, I couldn't name two teams in 2019!

I'll type slowly, so you understand. Other sports have Play-Offs but teams aren't encouraged by rules which allow them to... er... cheat. They don't drop points and lose matches to... er... allow them to strengthen their team further into the season. Other sports have Play-Offs... and they also have regularity in which the best sides remain in the top league, not choosing to drop down at the drop of a hat. Speedway isn't like other sports. Surely you know that? In the Premier League in football, where is the Play-Off? They have them further down, but teams usually want to come up and it isn't a pretence like when speedway has tried promotion/relegation platy-offs. Speedway is a different form of sport. In a way, it probably has less credit with non-speedway fans than at any time in the last 90 years. Other sports would be annoyed if you compared it with those. It would be like saying I look like George Clooney.

Is that the same time warp I'm in?

In football, you don't get sides purposely conceding goals so they can strengthen up. I wish you would stop comparing football to speedway. They used to be comparable, but now speedway is like that American Wrestling. The cult following speedway has right now is laughed at. I mean, the most glamorous side in two decades chooses to be relegated. Try telling that to a new supporter. Explain that Sheffield are replacing them despite not having even attempted the top flight since the Morans rode for them. Doomed to fail.

That is so true. In the olden days, I used to do Sheffield (Thursday), Ellesmere Port (Friday) and Hyde Road (Saturday). It didn't matter who was racing, I just wanted to see a sport called speedway. It was more about the spectacle then, where now it's more about what team can con their way to a title. And fans are being fooled into thinking speedway is worthless unless you're winning.

A serious sport would not need the pretence of keeping a season alive. The league table matches are mugging you off, mate. I suppose it would be more believable if there was a serious effort to get relegation into speedway, then clubs wouldn't purposely drop points to fiddle their way into the last two weeks of the season. Perhaps an idea to keep short-sighted cult followers happy with speedway is to have every team seeded to the Play-Offs. Cut out the middle man and turn it into the boat race. Persuade every remaining fan that their side has a chance to win the Final, and that every match until then is just a nice warm-up. In fact, allow bouncy castles to introduce new fans who like bouncy castles. They might wonder what the sound of motorbikes is and people with badges filling in scoresheets. A lot of speedway fans since the Play-Offs were introduced, are merely the John Terry in Chelsea's Champions League win a few years back. They only turn up and wear the colours to be part of the glory.

Play-Off group matches are open to abuse. We all know teams have suffered mysterious engine failures early on to prove they need strengthening as their poor averages take a hit. The Play-Off Finals may attract added interest, but I doubt that compensates for reduced crowds over the course of the season for matches that either team can afford to lose most of the time. I mean, who can take seriously chasing a top-four place in a table of seven sides. More teams make the Play-Off semis than fail. Fans aren't daft. I have watched a team, which purposely tried not to win a match they could have finished top of the qualifying table by doing so. I think even winning the aggregate bonus point, as it were back then, would have seen them finish table winners. That one instance implies the qualifying matches are nothing more than padding out the season for seven months.

Seriously, BWitcher, I think you've turned into one of those stalker types on poor moxey. You are trolling me, I do believe.

So, you sponsor someone, because you get something back for it. But I am wrong for getting a pass because I spent hours doing speedway work. Something amiss in your thinking, BWitcher. Did I read it correctly?

Brown nose.

Volunteers keep speedway going. Even Peter Oakes said so recently in the Star. The least a club can do is give a complimentary ticket. No doubt they can claim it back in tax. Sponsors give money in the hope they get something back for it. Otherwise, that would be a mug's game. Unless the giver is a brown noser.