Leicester v Sheffield

[IainB]

52 minutes ago, GeneralMelchett said:

how was the crowd to normal? - in the old days sky meetings were notorious form ruining the crowd - that coupled with seriopus in meeting delays cant be great for fans on the night. It looked fairly decent - one of the mpre embarrasing things is seeing minimal amounts of spectators for a TV match.

Despite what some people, who weren't there, have said the crowd was fairly healthy, compared to the other Thursday matches that have been held so far this year... but understandably down on previous years Saturday nights.

Personally, I do wish I had gone to Peterborough instead. There was a complete neglect for the paying fans in the stadium with constant delays and the only interruption to the PA music and distant chugging of a tractor, the meeting presenter coming on to say we're just waiting for Eurosport.

The sport really should be asking itself what is it getting out of TV coverage and especially that of Eurosport. When the cameras do decide to eventually turn up the track is generally prepared differently to normal and invariably produces poor racing. There was dust after heat 1 last night, unforgivable, clouds of dust bellowing up after 4 or 5 races and as I repositioned myself to a different part of the stadium I witnessed people with a coating of dust on their clothes as I went walked around. 

It didn't help that the Sheffield team didn't really turn up apart from the always impressive Tobiasz Musielak, but normally when this kind of thing happens the track is normally on point and the meeting is run at pace.

The beauty of the BSN coverage is that it doesn't effect the running of a meeting, they are just there to capture it and work around it. I hope that the sport is getting a big chunk of money for the televising of Speedway, whether directly or indirectly with the recent league sponsorship deal. I for one will not be attending another "TV meeting" when there is an alternative until the powers that be provide something to fill the gaps... maybe this will be something that Mr Morris will turn his attention to at some point?

Edited May 23, 2023 by iainb

[keepturningleft]

The technical coverage last night was truly awful and reminded me of the 60's when BBC Grandstand would have the camera glued to the leading rider whilst all the action was going on behind.

In terms of the technical coverage, I don't think I've seen a worse meeting.

Kelvin must wince when he gets home and watches the replay and you wonder if he is in a position to wield some power and advice with Eurosport.

 

 

[IainB]

19 minutes ago, DJC said:

Wasn’t good but wasn’t terrible as an overall production but echo the camera angle comments from everyone. 
improved as the meeting went on but heat 1 I felt sick it was that bad.

also, how many seasons have we seen the top level on tv and not show progressive scores for riders? Can’t be hard to pop a programme up after each block of 4. Sky seemed to do it pretty well. Watching on a quick skip through the ads I didn’t have a clue who was scoring what bar Fricke

 

2 minutes ago, keepturningleft said:

The technical coverage last night was truly awful and reminded me of the 60's when BBC Grandstand would have the camera glued to the leading rider whilst all the action was going on behind.

In terms of the technical coverage, I don't think I've seen a worse meeting.

Kelvin must wince when he gets home and watches the replay and you wonder if he is in a position to wield some power and advice with Eurosport.

 

 

It's been the same for the last 23 years though, we MUST see the winner cross the line and we MUST see the scorecard result after the race, it doesn't matter if all hell is breaking loose elsewhere on the track we MUST see those 2 things... and when a rider or a team win something meaningful we MUST cut to the crowd for their reaction... even if it's one man and his dog waving a flag of that riders country! I've noticed even BSN are starting to fall into this trap

[Fromafar]

30 minutes ago, keepturningleft said:

The technical coverage last night was truly awful and reminded me of the 60's when BBC Grandstand would have the camera glued to the leading rider whilst all the action was going on behind.

In terms of the technical coverage, I don't think I've seen a worse meeting.

Kelvin must wince when he gets home and watches the replay and you wonder if he is in a position to wield some power and advice with Eurosport.

 

 

BSN are making them look like Amateurs.

[1 valve]

To add some perspective to the negative points being made here.
The "delays" during the meeting were down to waiting on TV advertising, coverage of the match at Wolves as well as interviews being made - not all were shown on TV. this combination even caused delays after the track had been graded and watered, not forgetting between the introduction of riders & heat 1. 
Kelvin was alone in the commentary box because his usual co-commentator was with his team at Wolverhampton.   
The crowd was affected by Leicester City being on Tv as well as the Lion. 
There was a camera on bend two which having viewed the recording appeared to be out of use?
Can only agree with everybody who has criticised  the production in terms of what was being shown - hopefully they will get better as more matches are covered.   
The Lions rode well as a team - the Tigers did not - doesn't help for good TV.  

[keepturningleft]

Yes, and we could easily watch the winner cross the line and the action behind by simply back zooming the camera at the appropriate time. Simple.

I've always maintaned that the best way to film a speedway race is with a single camera. Often it's easy for even knowledge fans to get disorientated when there are constant camera changes, especially irritating when an overtake is happening.

 

[IainB]

7 minutes ago, 1 valve said:

Kelvin was alone in the commentary box because his usual co-commentator was with his team at Wolverhampton.   

His usual co-commentator for GP's. Last years league coverage had him with a different co-commentator each week. Scott really should have been with him in the "box" as it was pretty pointless him standing in front of a large TV doing more or less what could have been done from the box

[Happy Hunter]

BSN televise a meeting. Eurosport/Discovery run a meeting! BSN every time for me!

[geoff100]

1 hour ago, keepturningleft said:

Yes, and we could easily watch the winner cross the line and the action behind by simply back zooming the camera at the appropriate time. Simple.

I've always maintaned that the best way to film a speedway race is with a single camera. Often it's easy for even knowledge fans to get disorientated when there are constant camera changes, especially irritating when an overtake is happening.

 

A camera on turns 2and 4 covers everything simples

[GeneralMelchett]

1 hour ago, keepturningleft said:

Yes, and we could easily watch the winner cross the line and the action behind by simply back zooming the camera at the appropriate time. Simple.

I've always maintaned that the best way to film a speedway race is with a single camera. Often it's easy for even knowledge fans to get disorientated when there are constant camera changes, especially irritating when an overtake is happening.

 

This 100% when I attended a meeting I usually watch from a fixed point - the constant camera changing drives me nuts!

[GeneralMelchett]

2 hours ago, iainb said:

Despite what some people, who weren't there, have said the crowd was fairly healthy, compared to the other Thursday matches that have been held so far this year... but understandably down on previous years Saturday nights.

Personally, I do wish I had gone to Peterborough instead. There was a complete neglect for the paying fans in the stadium with constant delays and the only interruption to the PA music and distant chugging of a tractor, the meeting presenter coming on to say we're just waiting for Eurosport.

The sport really should be asking itself what is it getting out of TV coverage and especially that of Eurosport. When the cameras do decide to eventually turn up the track is generally prepared differently to normal and invariably produces poor racing. There was dust after heat 1 last night, unforgivable, clouds of dust bellowing up after 4 or 5 races and as I repositioned myself to a different part of the stadium I witnessed people with a coating of dust on their clothes as I went walked around. 

It didn't help that the Sheffield team didn't really turn up apart from the always impressive Tobiasz Musielak, but normally when this kind of thing happens the track is normally on point and the meeting is run at pace.

The beauty of the BSN coverage is that it doesn't effect the running of a meeting, they are just there to capture it and work around it. I hope that the sport is getting a big chunk of money for the televising of Speedway, whether directly or indirectly with the recent league sponsorship deal. I for one will not be attending another "TV meeting" when there is an alternative until the powers that be provide something to fill the gaps... maybe this will be something that Mr Morris will turn his attention to at some point?

Thats  good the crowd was OK, I know Ipswich used to suffer terribly when the sky lot were in town years back - I have never yet been present at a TV meeting but th delays and everything make its seem like its not worth it - at least at football / Rugby matches they have to keep to time.

[JoeW436]

It was just bad timing last night with Leicester being on tv, if Newcastle wasn’t on the verge of champions league or Leicester possible being relegated after being champions a few years ago that game wouldn’t of clashed 

[SteveLyric2]

So Richard Lawson in hospital for a couple of days to monitor lung/chest damage from the heat 15 crash. Fortunately no broken bones but he'll miss Thursday's meeting.

Justin Sedgman takes Richard's Poole place on Wednesday!

[Col]

Quite enjoyed the meeting but the camera angles were poor, don't recall it being that bad when watching meetings from Beaumont Park on TV previously.

Strange decision to put Fricke on the inside gate 2 for heat 15, he'd been flying around the outside of everyone on turns 1 & 2 all night.

[Diamonds85]

The meeting seemed to take forever, loads of gaps between racing, I know there was advert breaks etc but even disregarding them, there seemed to be a lot of time just watching the previous race, or was it just me? I don't normally like to complain about that stuff either. Other than that I thought the tv coverage was alright, no problems with the camera angles imo.

[1 valve]

30 minutes ago, Diamonds85 said:

The meeting seemed to take forever, loads of gaps between racing, I know there was advert breaks etc but even disregarding them, there seemed to be a lot of time just watching the previous race, or was it just me? I don't normally like to complain about that stuff either. Other than that I thought the tv coverage was alright, no problems with the camera angles imo.

Just to emphasise a particular point. At no point was the meeting delayed by riders not being ready to go nor by the time taken to grade/water the track. All of the extra time taken was to accommodate the requirements of Eurosport and I'm not saying that is a bad thing at all, its just what was required. Speedway is actually "made for TV" given its regular breaks between races and track maintenance, its not unlike American football where the TV breaks add quite a considerable amount of time to the overall  running of a match. The key is to optimise the timing of on and off track requirements. 

[Diamonds85]

27 minutes ago, 1 valve said:

Just to emphasise a particular point. At no point was the meeting delayed by riders not being ready to go nor by the time taken to grade/water the track. All of the extra time taken was to accommodate the requirements of Eurosport and I'm not saying that is a bad thing at all, its just what was required. Speedway is actually "made for TV" given its regular breaks between races and track maintenance, its not unlike American football where the TV breaks add quite a considerable amount of time to the overall  running of a match. The key is to optimise the timing of on and off track requirements. 

Yes, there was no doubt in my mind that it was the riders/track work/club that was causing all the additional time, there was time when riders seemed to be sitting ready to go out on the track for ages before the 2 minutes came on, it was fairly obvious that most of the delay was down to the tv.

[The Dog]

Seemed strange to me that the camera by the start line couldn't focus on the leader at all, but could on 2nd and 3rd.

A lot of gate and go from memory and bar a Harris pass and the last heat crash, I can't recall anything interesting tbh. 

[Spittaler]

Is it just me or do other fans have same gripe?

This flipping eternal digging by riders at start. It's mind blowing 

I watched highlights of Leicester and Sheffield and imagine same at other meetings   it takes an age to get them settled at start with boot digging and scuffing 

Easy answer  Ban it or exclude under 2 minutes   be same for all riders if they just stopped it 

[Gambo]

2 hours ago, Spittaler said:

Is it just me or do other fans have same gripe?

This flipping eternal digging by riders at start. It's mind blowing 

I watched highlights of Leicester and Sheffield and imagine same at other meetings   it takes an age to get them settled at start with boot digging and scuffing 

Easy answer  Ban it or exclude under 2 minutes   be same for all riders if they just stopped it 

The same has been said by many people, many times! The two minutes rule as per FIM should have been adopted years ago. Not ready to race as the clock ticks down to zero...excluded!