Buster's Views

[TheReturn]

Getting the big names is not the be all & end all of fixing British Speedway. The big names are completely irrelevant.

 

British Speedway needs to create it's own big names and we could be heading in the right direction with that already.

Some great promise coming through, Robert Lambert, Dan Bewley & Jack Parkinson-Blackburn to name 3

The issue is and has always been the organisation of the BSPA in helping these kids out.

 

The rules is absolutely the right place to start to fix all evils, then hopefully things move in the right direction from there on in.

Surely it would help attract more TV interest if the best names in world speedway are competing here on a set night, especially if channels like Sky and BT Sport need something to flill the void left by football in the summer months.

 

I welcome the sports body looking at the rules (we all know some are plain confusing and silly) but the sports rules are way down the list of problems:

 

- Poor quality tracks

- Poor shaped tracks not conducive to good speedway

- Lack of national media interest (needs a top PR company on the case)

- Lack of big name riders (Hancock, Emil, Tai)

 

I accept some of those are outside the BSPA's influence of change with the first two. But lets be honest, great racing and people will put up with naff rules. Even with perfect rules, poor racing won't keep people coming back.

 

I don't have answers, but I do know that the sports problems in this country are not down to just poor rules.

[OldBulldog]

The last time I went to a meeting 2 years ago there was not a single pass the whole meeting.

 

There was huge 'gaps' during the meeting when nothing was happening, so it was a matter of listening to the music over the PA.

 

It took a couple of hours to see 15 processional 'races' and not much else happened.

 

Fair to say there is a bit of room for improvement.

 

 

[Steve Shovlar]

If the rules were not so complicated there would be far less potential for them to be bent.

The rules themselves are not complicated. Its all the addons to seal up holes that are being exploited. No good having a set of rules a team can dive through like water through a seive.

 

The average fiasco must be number one on the adjenda. Secondly, as someone else posted the other day, there only has to be two more rules.

 

1. Poole to win.

2. If Poole are losing, see rule one.

[Starman2006]

Surely it would help attract more TV interest if the best names in world speedway are competing here on a set night, especially if channels like Sky and BT Sport need something to flill the void left by football in the summer months.

 

I welcome the sports body looking at the rules (we all know some are plain confusing and silly) but the sports rules are way down the list of problems:

 

- Poor quality tracks

- Poor shaped tracks not conducive to good speedway

- Lack of national media interest (needs a top PR company on the case)

- Lack of big name riders (Hancock, Emil, Tai)

 

 

Lets put this into perspective. You will never get the top boys back here whether you have one night a week or 6, they are not going to come back here for a pittance in comparison to what they get in Poland Sweden and the GP'S, they are very happy with there lots.

Poor quality of tracks, yes there are many of them, but you cannot have it all ways. To run a speedway club it costs a lot of momey, to bring back the big boys it would cost a hell of a lot of money to bring in good track equipment would cost ALL club a lot of money, and the majority of clubs are struggling now.

I do agree with the point of poorly shaped tracks, speedway is an entertainment business, and having drab 1234 speedway is not entertainment.

 

And yes, the rule book needs shredding and re writting

Edited May 26, 2016 by Starman2006

[RobMcCaffery]

The last time I went to a meeting 2 years ago there was not a single pass the whole meeting.

 

There was huge 'gaps' during the meeting when nothing was happening, so it was a matter of listening to the music over the PA.

 

It took a couple of hours to see 15 processional 'races' and not much else happened.

 

Fair to say there is a bit of room for improvement.

 

 

Apparently it's no different to when the sport attracted decent crowds and had plenty of fixtures. So they tell us.

[Trevor]

My changes would be:

End double points, but allow a team 8 points behind choice of gate positions.

Fast track riders can only move up to be second strings.

Otherwise the actual rule book seems fair enough to me, the sport could be promoted far better etc, but the rules themselves aren't the problem.

[Bald Bloke]

Busters just sold King's Lynn FC stating he's to busy to put the time into the club it deserves.Maybe it will mean more time for speedway..

[PHILIPRISING]

Speedway rules are not complicated.

 

Try looking at some other sports and comparing.

IF they are not complicated then many are at best a nonsense.

[robert72]

The last time I went to a meeting 2 years ago there was not a single pass the whole meeting.

 

There was huge 'gaps' during the meeting when nothing was happening, so it was a matter of listening to the music over the PA.

 

It took a couple of hours to see 15 processional 'races' and not much else happened.

 

Fair to say there is a bit of room for improvement.

 

 

 

you shouldn't of gone to Leicester

[SCB]

Far from encouraging, I found it depressing and really rather embarrassing.

 

The titular head of the sport in this country openly admits to the grotesque failings of the organisation he has been a member of for almost 20 years. And can offer no solution whatsoever.

 

The best he can come up with is that the referees have to sort it out for him.

As if it a proven fact that, as a group, they represent the intelligencia of modern Speedway!

Really?

 

The entire article revolves around a lament that neither he nor any other member of the association had the brainpower to foresee the bizarre nature of their plans for team formation and how they would develop.

 

Thick as mince.

Yet one of the top guys in the BSPA decided to call fans "think, biased or both" when they saw the farce coming.

 

I wonder if Jon Cook still think it's the fans who were thick now with the benefit of hindsight? If he does he's quite clearly "thick, biased or both"!

[Humphrey Appleby]

ENCOURAGING comments by BSPA Chairman Buster Chapman in this week's Speedway Star about basically tearing up the rulebook and starting again. Someone is seeing the light.

Yawn - it's been said over and over again, but when is it actually going to happen and what does it mean in practice? Some detail about what's wrong and what can be improved would be good.

[stevehone]

get an eAGM on NOW, get looking at what needs sorting and why, and how to put things right.

don't leave it all until the end of the season, this is going to take time and thinking, with loopholes covered.

[PHILIPRISING]

Yawn - it's been said over and over again, but when is it actually going to happen and what does it mean in practice? Some detail about what's wrong and what can be improved would be good.

WHERE have you been these past few weeks?

 

It doesn't matter how many times it has been said before. Give the guy a chance to actually try and turn over a new leaf. He did go into detail about several things that are wrong and there is any chance for fans to voice their views at Belle Vue shortly.

[Pinny]

Lets hope the tactical rule stays in place, if only to keep racists like the white knob away from speedway tracks around the uk

[steve roberts]

IF they are not complicated then many are at best a nonsense.

Remember the late Bernard Crapper commenting that there became a time that he could no longer understand the rule book. It became too complicated and unwieldy. I once owned a copy of the regulations and you needed to be somewhat of a magician to understand many of the minor rules and regulations.

[Halifaxtiger]

WHERE have you been these past few weeks?

 

It doesn't matter how many times it has been said before. Give the guy a chance to actually try and turn over a new leaf. He did go into detail about several things that are wrong and there is any chance for fans to voice their views at Belle Vue shortly.

 

The problem Phil is not that the rules are too complex or that there are too many of them.

 

The problem is that they are subject to biased, inconsistent rulings by jealous people with vested interests. The Craig Cook and Richard Hall decisions recently are two clear examples.

 

Fans don't get angry about the sports rule book so much as the way it is manipulated to suit the needs of individual members of the BSPA.

 

Even if you drew up an entire new set of rules if the same process of adjudication is in place nothing whatsoever would have changed.

[steve roberts]

 

The problem Phil is not that the rules are too complex or that there are too many of them.

 

The problem is that they are subject to biased, inconsistent rulings by jealous people with vested interests. The Craig Cook and Richard Hall decisions recently are two clear examples.

 

Fans don't get angry about the sports rule book so much as the way it is manipulated to suit the needs of individual members of the BSPA.

 

Even if you drew up an entire new set of rules if the same process of adjudication is in place nothing whatsoever would have changed.

Trouble is, in my opinion, is that the sport has become even more obsessed with averages and statistics which are manipulated to suit a particular case and/or circumstance. This scenario has existed for many years what with the introduction of the points limit back in the late seventies early eighties but from my understanding has become increasingly more difficult to legislate.

 

I've always thought that the 'assessed' average is the one that is most difficult to legislate. I recall Tomasz Gollob being assessed at 7.5 and later the Dryml brothers being burdened with the same (?) although they had no real proven record unlike Gollob.

 

Mitch Shirra has gone on record to say that Coventry purposely dropped race points so as to be able to declare certain riders under the points limit. I'm sure that they weren't the only team to do so either!

Edited May 27, 2016 by steve roberts

[Halifaxtiger]

Trouble is, in my opinion, is that the sport has become even more obsessed with averages and statistics which are manipulated to suit a particular case and/or circumstance. This scenario has existed for many years what with the introduction of the points limit back in the late seventies early eighties but from my understanding has become increasingly more difficult to legislate.

 

On the first point, I think you're right.

 

On the second, though, all legislation is subject to interpretation. What happens then is that a ruling is made which becomes binding in circumstances that are the same in the future - ie it becomes case law.

 

That doesn't happen in speedway, so what you get are inconsistent decisions made by interested parties.

 

I'd maintain that until the adjudication process is in the hands of an independent, unbiased person or body it doesn't matter how many new rule books you write.

 

Thing is, though, is that that is never going to happen.

[OveFundinFan]

Hi Phillip, did Buster give a timescale for when this task of re writing the rules? For the start of 2017 maybe?

[steve roberts]

 

On the first point, I think you're right.

 

On the second, though, all legislation is subject to interpretation. What happens then is that a ruling is made which becomes binding in circumstances that are the same in the future - ie it becomes case law.

 

That doesn't happen in speedway, so what you get are inconsistent decisions made by interested parties.

 

I'd maintain that until the adjudication process is in the hands of an independent, unbiased person or body it doesn't matter how many new rule books you write.

 

Thing is, though, is that that is never going to happen.

I agree. The sport needs an independent body and it was on course to happening when John Berry was given the job (1987?) but soon withdrew his name because he could see that he wouldn't get the necessary approval from certain members of the BSPA. A lost opportunity in my opinion and of course, as you say, it will never happen due to vestige interests.

Edited May 27, 2016 by steve roberts