2014 Season - Good Or Bad

[Star Lady]

This has nothing to do with how well or otherwise the club you support did but how the sport as a whole did in 2014.

 

Injuries - bad - could it have anything to do with the silencers as many have suggested, if so at least that can and should be sorted.

 

Fixture List - bad - stop go, no consistency at all. Big gap in the summer months. Easily sorted, just need some thought and co-operation. Get it out early to avoid foreign fixture clashes.

 

Track prep - some good, some dire and some in between - at the very least each track should have the equipment, materials and knowledgeable personnel to provide a safe, reasonable track. Any that on more than 2 non weather affected occasions do not comly should be fined and if no improvement demoted.

 

Referees - some good, some bad and some in between. Ms Turnbull showed how a meeting could and IMHO should be run. I got the impression at the back end of the season an edict had gone out about riders returning to the pits unneccessarily so maybe someone listened to the fans (has to happen sometime). Long may they listen and act. Basically we want consistency.

 

Rain-offs - never good. I've long advocated that the final decision should be taken by he REFEREE (not a meeting steward) after consultation with all 14 riders. That should be done by secret ballot. Quite simply each rider is given a piece of paper they put a cross for continue or stop. Ref adds them up and vote can and should be made public. No names should ever be given. It's the rider's lives on the line and they IMO should have the final say with no pressure put on them. Fans might not like the decisions at times but that's tough.

 

Guests - never good. They have always been a necessary evil for the near 50 years I've followed speedway and in the case of a No 1 rider, I think clubs should have that option. However I've long advocated that each EL club should have a tie up with 1 or 2 PL (depending on numbers in each league), PL in turn with NL clubs and except for No 1s use those associated clubs riders. It may take some working out and a certain amount of co-operation but it would solve the "select" sides we've seen in 2014.

 

Play Offs. Never been a fan, so yes I'm biased. I see no reason why the league winners cannot be crowned as such and then the top 4 teams compete in a comp the same as the play offs to be crowned Supreme Champions (or any name a potential sponsor might come up with).

 

Encouraging British Talent - some good, some not so good. The under 16s from what I saw was a great success and shoulc be applauded and supported in future seasons. The Fast Track system had some success. Without it I'm not convinced the likes of Kerr, Newman, Garrity and some others would have improved as fast as they have and certainly wouldn't have gained the EL experience they have. For others, who I will not name, it was maybe a step too far which hopefully will not have knocked their confidence too much. The system needs tweaking but it has to remain in some form or other IMO. Not impressed either with the regs that denied a young Brit, Robert Lambert, the chance to double up when quite a few foreigners of the same and at times lower standard were given that chance. That has to change. Change the rules so that they favour British riders above foreigners. All the other leagues do it, let's copy them.

 

Communication - mostly poor. Clubs not releasing details of away fixures, not giving riding orders or even telling fans that a rider will be missing. need to show fans some respect, give them the information. I doubt very much more than 4-5 fans will print their own progs and not buy one.

 

Rider Loyalty - some good some bad. I get really annoyed by what I call the journeyman riders, who fly in ride, collect their money and fly out again then the following season go to another club cos they pay more (well that's how it seems to me). Maybe some kind of system should be introduced which gives an average reduction for each years service to a club. I know it would be complicated but as it stands now kids especially build up a following for a rider and then the following year that rider disappears and rides for a different club.

 

Sky - difficult one this. Yes TV coverage is good. I don't know enough about the financial details to know if it's good for clubs, but have to assume it is, if not why do a deal. What hasn't been good is the influence that Sky has had over the way the sport is run. Double points thingy - I've never liked but that's an old issue, Play-offs - see above. The main problem for me is that they dictate the timing of the meetings. It was made so obvious this week when the semi was not shown as a live prog, and the bad weather was incoming that the sport can and did get a meeting run to it's conclusion. A day later, same situation, bad weather incoming at more or less the same time and Sky prevaricated, showed unnecessary VT, had unneccesary interviews etc result a meeting curtailed unfinished when it could quite easily have run it's full course. That is not good for the sport. So speedway has to decide IMHO whether the sport or Sky are the most important. I'm not sure if Sky had any influence in the result stand after 10 heats or not, but that sucks as well. Nothing wrong with going to Heat 12 and in any 2 legged comp i.e play offs, KO cup if the first leg is curtailed the second leg should be over the same number of heats.

 

 

That's quite a diatribe from me, but it's from the heart. I used to love this sport, gradually that love has changed to like, after this season I really ain't bothered too much one way or another and that saddens me cos I know how wonderful 4 riders going for it hell for leather over 4 laps can be one of the best sights there is.

 

I wonder what everyone else thinks about 2014, and PLEASE PLEASE don't let any discussion descend into a bullying, slanging match based on club loyalties. The sport is too important for that. Save that for other threads.

Edited October 18, 2014 by Star Lady

[The White Knight]

Only ONE thing in your whole, very well reasoned and excellent Post which I could find to disagree with.

 

Under your heading 'Track Prep' you intimate that Clubs producing consistent poor Tracks should be demoted. I take this to mean relegated, in the case of the Elite League, to the Premier League and in the case of the Premier League to the National League.

 

The only problem with that is that the Elite League is too small already and if you relegate one Club it will be even smaller. It would also give problems to the Premier/National League as to how to accommodate the miscreants within their Fixture Lists. Not sure how SKY would feel about this either.

 

Other than that - an absolutely superb Post - I would hope that some Promoters will read and inwardly digest it.

[Halifaxtiger]

Quite clearly very sincere comments and as such they are of value.

 

I have done 79 meetings this season across all the leagues (a new record for me, with one or two maybe to come) and have been to all tracks except Cradley,Poole, (due to logistics) Coventry & Buxton (by design).

 

I actually think that the racing as a whole has been slightly better this season than last. Those tracks that are usually pretty good have maintained that standard whilst others (Belle Vue, Redcar & Glasgow in particular) have stepped up their game. The quality of presentation, too, seems to have improved a bit and I'd agree that referees seem to be getting the message about the fact that most fans don't like delays. All that is to the good of the sport.

 

Sadly, some tracks still take fans for granted and seem to have 'a get what you are given and be grateful' attitude. That's reflected principally in track preparation but also in other areas too, and some of the responses to genuine and justified criticism have been appalling.

 

I agree that guests are a necessary evil in that they are better than the alternative, but this season it has descended into farce with few meetings being completed with 7 declared riders. That has to change.

 

The play offs are here to stay. The PL ones, though, need to be 4 teams not 6. 6 just doesn't work.

 

The fast track system is OK but it needs tweaking and I think that has been recognised.

 

Attendances haven't been good but I remain unconvinced that they have decreased significantly from last season.

 

It might be said that with Birmingham closing and Peterborough on the brink of closure it hasn't been a good year. However, both clubs are subject to rescue attempts, noise has been made about a new track at Milton Keynes and Isle of Wight could be coming back. The NL next season could have more teams than it has had for a decade. Its not all gloom and doom.

 

The shananigans that go on behind the scenes and the greed, cheating and spite that seem part and parcel of speedway annoy the hell out of me. I have to say, though, that when I am watching a meeting of the quality of Glasgow v Plymouth, Scunthorpe v Ipswich or Redcar v Workington the last thing I am thinking about is what schemes Matt Ford or Chris Van Straaten are planning and long may it stay that way.

[Phil The Ace]

Racing wise excellent. New format as been a pleasure for me. Just the odd tweak needed on that

 

Everything else, well...........

Edited October 18, 2014 by Phil The Ace

[weatherwatcher]

A good, down to earth post, with lots of good true thoughts there.

I have enjoyed watching the FTR, but as you say it does need some looking into for next season. Some of the riders in there have got to move up to full team honours because they are just to good to stay in the FTR scheme. It has got to be sorted out to be much fairer.

Promoter wise they still have a long way to come to work with the fans. I have been trying all season to get a simple job done at our track, I will not say what it is but have had words with the promoter and his other co ownere and all it has done is fall on deaf ears and lots of forgoten promises. It is not that it would cost a fortune what we are asking for or for that matter not a great cost, but if it was done it would make a few fans lives so much easier.

Some of the stadiums are also in great need of a bit of a spring clean even a coat of paint and a general spruce up around the stadium would go a long way to say that they think it is somewhere that the fans would not mind going to, instead of an image of a 1960's dog track.

I just hpoe that this years AGM goes a long way at sorting out quite a few problems in the sport. A major sponser to replace the money lost from Sky would I think be a big issue to sort out.

Far to many bad injuries this year leading to lots of guest riders, no one knows from one week to the next who is riding for thier team.

I think now the bikes are just to fast and have no control, other than giving them full throttle all round the 4 laps. Fast dick follow the leader race, and when we have a crash the outcome can be very bad. As we have seen this year, with brain injuries and very badley broken bones. It has always happened in the sport, but it just seems to be happening far to often now for my liking.

Lets hope that 2015 bring us a good years speedway that we can all enjoy.

[R87]

Agree something needs doing with the fixtures. Particularly in the EL. The current March-October span is too long and means clubs often go weeks without fixtures at peak times of the season.

 

I'd like to see the season begin on Good Friday with all of the teams in action on the opening day (tricky to implement as it changes every year I admit) and finish on August bank holiday (again with all of the teams in action on same day). Followed by a condensed play-offs following in September (semi-final leg on Monday and Wednesday in one week and then the same for the final the following week).

 

I'd rather see a shorter season with more regular fixtures than a longer campain with weeks of inactivity.

[Blackadder]

An excellent post Star Lady. Well done.

My comments:-

Meeting Stewards are Referees and are used at certain meetings so that 1 Referee is in the box controlling the racing, and the other is in the Pits overseeing everything else.

Delays are usually caused or requested by Team Managers, Team Captains, Clerks of the Course or Promoters rather than Referees, who always seem to get the blame.

Something to be done to encourage team riding. I find it annoying when a rider takes off miles in front and doesn't even look to see where his partner is, and doesn't get criticised for it. There are situations where it's fine, but not always.

[weatherwatcher]

The days of team riding seem to be something that has been lost. We see very few riders now who seem to even know how to ride a race as speedway was ment to be and that is a team sport.

All they do now as you say is blast off to the front, and never once glance back to see where thier team mate is.

If they only learnt how to ride together then I am sure that teams would score far more points than they do, but now all it is, is a matter of who wins the glory of crossing the line first, never mind that they could have made ity a 1/2 if only they rode together.

I don't think it is even something that they bother to even paractice now, So it also partly on the blame of the team managers and promoters to get them to ride together and work for the team as a whole insted of the personal glory of winning and getting a higher points total to your name.

If they would only bring this back we would see far better race meetings than the strung out racing that we have all got used to these last few years, some of they skill has been lost by the riders.

[Trees]

You missed Darcy Ward at Lynn this year then, fantastic team riding!

[Agrotron]

Crap that is all I can say

[lucifer sam]

I've enjoyed this season, like I have the last few.

 

It's because, these days, I tend to be selective of the meetings I go to. 23 out of 53 have been at Scunthorpe, and you can't go wrong with going to meetings up there, somewhere between 8/10 or 9/10 are a good meeting.

 

There have been things that have annoyed me: going to Coventry twice at the start of the season and seeing a grand total of 6 heats (I won't say races) thanks to balls-ups with the track, the doubling-up between the leagues getting out of hand, and the attitude of some promotions to the National (Development) League, which should be all about developing riders.

 

But at the end of the day, it comes down whether I've seen decent racing. And I have.

 

All the best

Rob

Edited October 19, 2014 by lucifer sam

[Blackadder]

Re Injuries - bad - could it have anything to do with the silencers as many have suggested, if so at least that can and should be sorted.

 

Following the miserable failings of my best Speedway Star FSL team, which dropped from 5th to nowhere, I had a quick look at the final Green Sheet averages for the EL and PL and counted 25 riders who didn't make it safely through to the end of the season. That's a shocking number.