uk_martin

To which Neil Fiddlesnitch tells the world to expect an answer within a week.

Did anyone other than Neil Diddleswitch (and/or his minions) mention the 7 day thing? Are we all blaming the FIM for not playing to Muddlo's timescale now? C'mon...you've all fallen for his trap...hook line and sinker. Yeah, Ackroyd will send you down to listen nicely to Nicki Pedersen calmly telling you why crashing into the air fence with another rider wasn't his fault.

Excellent - Stal Torun, Stal Rzezow and Stal Gorzow. Mickey Mouse Zielona Gora must be feeling outnumbered. Maybe we need more Disney characters to balance things up...how about "Donald Duck Leszno"? "Goofy Tarnow"? or "Pluto Wroclaw"? lol Mind you, I've only seen "KS Torun" mentioned....Does "KS" stand for "Klub Stal" then?

I would have thought that the "why" bit was obvious. FINANCIAL SURVIVAL Mind you look at the poll results, and the reaction to my post. Over 40's reacting badly to the idea of making speedway accessible to the late teens and early 20's. Don't suppose you can really ask turkeys to vote for Christmas can you? Let's be blunt about the major problem with trying to make this an old people's sport - and that's that the fans that a team needs to turn up regularly are the same ones who are at the ages when they become ill, disabled and die (but not necessarily each to every one). There you go. And then where will the clubs be when their fan base can't attend any more? Just from those whose names are friends (or friends of friends) on Facebook, I know of about a dozen people from the Birmingham regulars who have died in recent months. Sadly, it's what happens in later life. No getting around it. And Birmingham for one, has a particularly old fan base and can't afford to lose any fans.

Seems to me that people who don't like the notion of the World Speedway League have objected to it primarily on the grounds of it will feature teams for whom the same riders ride for. Now that the FIM are doing something about the riders issue, the same people are objecting to the FIM proposal, just because it eliminates their arguement against the World Speedway League, Well, hard luck. Despite the fact that the World Speedway League wasn't invented here, and despite the fact that it will show British Speedway to be the poor relation (again) it's going to happen. Get used to it, and cut your cloth accordingly. In the long term it will be the competition that teams will aspire to, in the same way as the Champions Leage is for football.

With all due respect, 10 year olds aren't the answer. Or at least not the imperative answer. What the sport needs is the people in their mid to late teens and in their 20's. These are the people who either pay full fare or are only a year or two away from paying full fare. These are the people who the sport needs to provide the revenue that will enable it to survive long enough to still be around for your 10 year olds to enjoy in the future. Poland has managed to get this demographic on board so it can be done.

Not to mention "dehydrated" from drinking as much Monster Energy Drink as he can can handle, free of charge from one of his main sponsors...

Stal Gorzow have been raising the subject on Social Media...maybe if Poole can't get their act together, Stal will host the event? Just wish Poole would put as much effort into organising this meeting as they spend on sticking up for Darcy Ward. We'd have a firm fixture in the calendar if they did. EDIT 1 It seems that the FIM may be acting to solve one of the biggest objections to the WSL / SCL that has been voiced on here. Has this been reported in any British publication / web site, so as a proper English version of events (as opposed to Google's electro-mechanical translation) can be read? http://www.sportowefakty.pl/zuzel/499881/lwim-pazurem-25-wielkie-tak-dla-zuzlowej-ligi-mistrzow-koniec-z-cyrkiem-objazdow EDIT 2 Well good on Stal Gorzow for doing the honourable thing. Sadly, SHAME ON POOLE for their portrayal of British Speedway's inability to orgainise a pi$$-up in a brewery. This I suspect won't feature in any British publication or web site. http://www.sportowefakty.pl/zuzel/499912/stal-gorzow-rozwaza-organizacje-ligi-mistrzow

I think that Darcy would have passed his breathe test...else he wouldn't have had the ability to take and fail a breath test...

Yes...sort of...You cited my comment about my observations about males being over 40...well my other observation is that 40%-50% of fans are female, and that isn't represented here. Ony 10 women from the entire nation have voted. There are more speedway teams than female voters. Ths is where the salt is needed, because you have to pinch an awful lot of it to be bold enough to draw conclusions from a poll of a third of a female fan per team in Great Britain. You'd get better results with people armed with clip boards pens and questionnaires, getting actual data off fans who are really on the terraces and not behind keyboards.

First question is whether users of BSF are a representitive sample of the cross section of speedway fans who attend meetings. That is something I severely doubt. Second question is whether those voting on this thread are a representitive sample of all users of BSF. No reason to suspect one way or the other really. I have grave reservations about the split between male and female fans in these results. HOWEVER, the fact that 78.5% of males who voted are over 40 years old, although having to be taken with a pinch of salt, does seem to ring true from what I've observed. Assuming that there are good reasons why females do not take part in this poll, my suspicion is that if the same number of females as males were to vote the age differential would still hold true. What it does show is just how old the average age off speedway fans is. That has impacts on the future of the attendances on the terraces, it has an impact on how hard it will be to attract younger supporters to an "old peoples sport" and it will have an impact on potential sponsors who will look to see if the elderly are the ones who they can market their products to. Saga Holidays may be very interested, Club 18-30 may be less so. The biggest question is...who's going to take any notice anyway?

I'm ammused by all the "I love Monster Energy Drinks" tweets too. Is Darcy trying to suckle up to Monster to save his sponsorship after his massive product endorsement coq-up over being left "dehydrated" in Latvia?

Team race suits won't happen at Birmingham again.

Probably right. Recipients of charity says it all about the state of speedway in this country.

Probably right. Recipients of charity says it all about the state of speedway in this country.

7 days down...38 to go lol

http://companycheck.co.uk/company/04588536 I tried to find out a bit more about this company to see how there is a fit with speedway. If there were terraces full of engineers and mechanics, I could see the point. Well, there may be some "retired" engineers and mechanics in the crowds, maybe... Strange though that a company will have invested some money to raise their profile, and public awareness, but then when an interest is sparked, they are nowhere to be found. I "Googled" their full business name and their web site (if they have one) was very hard to find. Still, thank you to Mr & Mrs Drinkwater for putting your money where your mouths are. I shall look forward to the end of they year, when looking back on the car cleaning bucket being raffled off will no doubt be ranked amongst the highlights of the season. http://www.speedwaygb.co/news.php?extend.28283

To be quite honest, what I think should happen is that we need to go one stage further with the big European project. I'd like to see something along the lines of 4 each of British Swedish and Polish teams plus the best German Danish and Czech teams forming a European Super League. Let them sign riders on a one rider one team basis, with these riders riding for that team and no other. Beneath this Super League level, we in Britain can take the remaining EL teams and add them to the PL / NL to create a new British League (Div's 1 & 2?) The Super League can then avoid the SGP / SWC calendar, whilst the "BL" can run independently of outside influences, and probably a lot cheaper too. That way if you want real top flight speedway, there will be 4 teams who you can go to watch in this country. If you want grass roots, jumpers for goalposts speedway, the rest of the BL will be happy to oblige for you. At a guess, I'd think that media companies on the continent would be delighted with the opportunity to provide the coverage on a pan-European level. It may have to be Polish-led but if that's where the money is, and where the sponsors are, then so be it.

All these tournaments start of as a seed in someone's imagination, and then encounter all the objections of the bah humbug brigade. It takes bravery and resolve to drive the tournament forwards, to let it develop and evolve, and along the way to pick up followers and fans. Football's Champions League is the result of a 50+year process. What do you expect from speedway in only 2% of that time? Yes there are only a hand full of leagues of note in European speedway...but then there are as many "top 4" leagues in football as there are "top 4" leagues in speedway - count them - 4! So if the big objection to the WSL is that the teams are "made up", then we'd better scrap all team speedway in Great Britain immediately. There were plenty of EL fixture last year with more guests and R/R than there were own-team riders. The situation in the PL and NL is no better sometimes. If you are happy enough with a sport that has sewn into its DNA: guest riders, R/R, doubling-up, trippling-up and NL fast track reserves, then what the hell is there to moan about with the WSL? And this in a year when there are no rider conflicts between what should be the competing teams?

Interesting comparison made...I always said that Darcy Ward was the second coming of Michael Lee...all the talent but all the inability to walk the straight and narrow. Cassius Clay / Muhammed Ali had to stay out of the sport for a while...he was bigger box office when he made his comeback than he ever was before. A lengthy ban won't necessarily be a bad thing for the media in the long run.

Echos of what people connected with football were saying in the 1950's when European teams were organising pan-European competitions that became what are today the European Champions League and the Europa Cup. As ever, British arrogance and self importance took a while to sweep away before first Scottish and then English teams started to take part and eventually do well in these competitions. Oh well...talk about being doomed to repeat the mistakes of history.

So appalling is a big improvement on extremely appalling....still makes it appalliing though.

It's February now and there's nothing in the Poole fixture list to say that they are hosting this event. So one has to wonder. Matt Ford stated their desire to host the event, so were they incapable or organising the event or were they prevented from organising it? Most likely that a venue in Poland will now be chosen if the WSL goes ahead at all. If this is the demise of the competition, then Poole / BSPA / SCB / Britain** can proudly add it to its list of international accomplishments, can't they? Anyone who thinks that GB should have a second SGP should look at the administrative mess that the sport is in, in this country. Who seriously thinks that this shambles will ever deserve a second flagship event? ** delete as appropriate.

Will he have any bikes ready for the start of this season? (BEN Fund meeting - anyone?) He had difficulties in being ready in time last year and he's had 3 fewer months to get his stuff sorted out so far this winter, so what state will he be in, come mid-March?

Ha ha, reminds me of CJ from "The Fall And Rise of Reginald Perrin". His famous quote - "One two three four, make them wait outside the door...five six seven eight, it always pays to make them wait" Poor, poor, Darcy...having to stew over his foolishness for a few days longer...