E I Addio

Except that Christer wasn't the top man. Olle Nygren was.

Spot on. My views entirely. Add to that the fact that we are now rid of the ridiculous system of meeting some teams once and some teams twice, although none of the moaners have applauded that. In a perfect world I would rather not have NL reserves ride in EL teams but we don't live in a perfect world. We live in a world where clubs like Eastbourne were losing over £9 on every punter that walked though the turnstiles. In Peterborough's case it was nearly £10 lost per customer per meeting. Several others, including 2 of the 4 play-off finalists were losing big money. We clearly couldn't go on like that. The starting point for me is the if we didn't get more regular league meetings the sport would die anyway . That issue has been addressed. Having increased the number of meetings , costs clearly had to be cut. If some clubs were losing unsustainable sums in 14 meetings there is no point in increasing the losses by increasing the number of meetings without cutting the cost per meeting, and that's what they have done. We are where we are not where we would like to be. This could be the start of the long road back to where we want to be, but I think we should at least wait and see what the team sheets look like and how the season starts to pan out before passing judgment.

Wrong. Every year the riders get fixed up in Poland first, Sweden second and UK third because that's where the money is and that's where the sponsorship is, and if you doubled the UK points it would still be the same because the money abroad d is so much better.

Maybe you should return to your true home before the men in white coats come to take you back.

http://www.lakesidehammers.co/content/?p=6462

It may not be necessary to cut the points limit. If, as Cook seems to be hinting, every rider has to commit to a full British season without disappearing for big international meetings abroad in preference to EL matches, all the top earners will be gone anyway so presumably they could build to a limit of say 42 without breaking the bank, and we could still be left with some decent riders like perhaps Peter Karlsson and Rory Schlein, possibly even Kenny Bjerre, who says he wants to ride here. Depends what is finally agreed. CLearly cost control is the priority in all three leagues because a number are saying that won't run again at the present level of losses. If Eastbourne lost £70,000 last year, and Peterborough lost £100,000 as has been publicised, then without the Sky income those losses would be £170,000+ and £200,000+ which would be unsustainable even for wealthy men like Frost and Dugard. At the same time with average attendances of 770 for Eastbourne and 700 for Peterborough Dugard and Frost are astute enough to know they can't afford to lose any more support. I don't know about Bellevue but I presume their figures are equally as dire and the problems at Swindon and Brum are well publicised so personally I think that they all must know that they have to work together and things have moved on since 2010.

From the Lakeside website- Representatives of the Vortex Hammers travel to Coventry for this year’s British Speedway Promoters Association’s AGM, hopeful that the sports leaders will oversee a return to more regular racing and also banish the unpopular Tactical Ride rule to history. Vortex Hammers Co-Promoter Jon Cook commented: “There is no getting away from the fact that this is the most important AGM of modern times and a real opportunity to bring about changes that will put British Speedway, its fans and its own riders first. Whilst we await the conclusion of TV contract talks, the period has given us time throughout the sport to reflect on both the good and bad elements that have evolved ever since the Elite clubs made the decision in 1997 to form a league to secure TV coverage, which was achieved a year later.” He continued “For our own club and many others, we are now running at too large an expense per meeting and as a result of other clubs wishes, have reduced our league programme to below a level acceptable to our landlords, our riders, who don’t have the luxury of riding in multiple leagues, our sponsors and most importantly our fans. The problem we now have is that expense is too great to add in another half a dozen meetings at the current levels, as we have all got business plans dependent upon dividing our off-track revenues by 14 meetings and not 20. Therefore, real change is required to return to regular Friday speedway, regardless of what future TV contracts bring to the sport. That is our priority over the coming weekend. At the very least we want three meetings a month with the fourth week free for potential rain offs. Team strengths should be secondary to that need. Let the riders that want to commit to British speedway first and foremost and not hide behind the international calendar when it suits, be our priority too. And finally let’s throw the Tactical Ride rule in the bin. The greatest promoter of all time, speedways father, Johnnie Hoskins used to set fire to his hat. I think we should start the 2014 season with a ceremonial burning of the black and white helmet colour from Plymouth to Edinburgh and every track in between.” Fair play to Jon Cook for nailing his colours to the mast before the AGM. I think most fans will agree with his sentiments so lets hope none of the others torpedo it. Based on what Cookie said over the mic in the summer I daresay CVS and Matt Ford are of the same mind. The sport is now drinking in the Last Chance Saloon. Let's hope that between them they pull it off.

To put the t/r rule in its proper context and to give it the importance it deserves they should do away with the black and white helmet and the rider on the t/r should come out in a clowns outfit with a red nose and riding a unicycle. I f that doesnt' work just give up and abolish the rule completely.

For as long as I can remember there has been talk over Arena being swallowed up as pat of the Thames Gateway redevelopment and one day it very likely will go the way of Hackney, West Ham ,Crayford and Wimbledon but we all know that talking is one thing and doing is another. Plenty of vested interests working against it at the moment even though Thurrock Council have given it the so-called green light. .Won't be happening in 2014 though. IMO the scarcity of building land is the biggest threat to all speedway in this country but I wouldn't say Arena is under a bigger threat than Coventry or a number of othjers.

That's hardly surprising. He came into the side at short notice with a reputation as someone who couldn't ride small tracks and he applied himself to the task and progressed brilliantly. To be fair, he had a lot of help from Dave Watt off track and a lot of shepherding on track from Lewis Bridger who at times team rode quite brilliantly to let Richard pick his line while Lewis backed him up, but Rich is still a deserving winner of Rider of the year and one of the few highlights of a disappointing Lakeside season. Well done Richard

That statement about as stupid as the idiot who told us that diving round on a motorbike stoned out of your mind is what all young people do these days Jealousy might be normal behaviour for you but I can't think of many speedway fans I have met that suffer from it. It seems that you and The Know seem to have this problem in trying to convince us that you are a cut above the rest and that because for geographical reasons you support a club that is successful it somehow makes you deserving of respect, although yo made no contribution to that success yourself. Not jealous. Just disdainful of an immature and unsporting attitude, by s small number of supporters.

I would say Darcy is probably the best rider in the world around Lakeside at the moment, but that is only one track. Judged over a variety of tracks its different ball game. Not fair to judge Tai on single guest appearance at Lakeside this year when it was only matter of days after injuring his shoulder. Bit of a futile argument to say who is best. Horses for courses, but as I said before Tai has jumped through all the hoops to claim the title, Darcy hasn't done so yet. Enjoy them both while you can.

Yes. The surgery Tai had done on his ears was very similar to the surgery carried out on Starmans brain.

Woffinden also needed surgery-twice !How do you think the screws and steel plates got into his collar bone ?

Szczakiel's win was an obvious Stitch=up in front of 170,000 Poles who would probably have rioted if a Pole didn't win. You can't go by EL averages because the balance of the Poole team means Darcy is able to team ride more often so BP's probably artificially lower his average. Averages are not really an accurate comparison. Personally I would just about pick Darcy in my dream team ahead of Tai to compete in the EL but the fact is that Tai has jumped through all the hoops in the GP's and Ward hasn't as yet. He might achieve it one day, he might not. There is very little to chose between them. Darcy is spectacular and exciting, Tai is more of a thinker. Speedway needs both types of rider. I don't think you can compare more closely than that.

Seems like The Know has been awarded the Order of The Brown Nose for services rendered

Well Gavan has clearly rattled your cage for you to go into one like that so maybe there is an element of truth in what he says.

Oh come on. You were not asking him his age you were asking if he was eight ,when he is clearly an adult. That is attacking the poster not the post. and lowers your own post to a level of childishness you were accusing Gavan of. Simply describing a post as imbecilic is not attacking the substance of the post. It is name calling. All the more ironic because you are the one that is always on here preaching to the rest of us about how much you pride yourself about never resorting to name calling.

That's strange I could have sworn there is some sort of forum rule about attacking the post and not the poster. I seem to remember some pompous individual lecturing Gavan about it recently. Anyone remember who it was ?

Read my post again. Unless I have missed an odd post or two I don't think anyone has said that Matt Ford as a BSPA member is anymore responsible for the collective shortcomings of the BSPA than any other promoter, the criticism of Ford is pretty much restricted to the way he runs Poole. I don't think many would disagree with that proposition. If you look at my post again the bit about telling us how poor the other promoters are was in specific reply to Steve Shovlar as he is the one that continually peddles the line about Matt Ford being the greatest thing since sliced bread while at the same time complaining bitterly (and childishly) when people like Gavan put up the other side of the coin. It his clear from his posts that he knows very little about what goes on behind the scenes in terms of the way a club is run so his comments really have to be seen as an attempt to destroy sensible and informed debate. He is not the only one but he is a serious culprit. In short. people who don't like taking it shouldn't dish it out. Finally, my post that you referred to did get a "like" from The Know so I guess it struck a chord somewhere. Fair play to him for that

It cuts both ways, Gavan knocking Poole and you and others going the other way and over-egging the pudding, telling us Ford walks on water. To be fair to Gavan, a number of posters have said he makes some good points even if he doesn't always present them well. We seem to have pattern that Gavan makes a point forcefully, Starman as usual misses the thrust of whats being said and defends a different point then the Poolites jump on the band wagon. Then we have these claims that no other promoter works as hard as Matt Ford when you haven't a clue how much other promoters do or don't do. Matt Ford doesn't spend hours on a tractor like Dugard or Chapman for example, so when it comes to workload the truth is you haven't a clue what's involved or what local difficulties other promotions have to deal with, so those sort of cheap shots are as disingenuous as you claim Gavans are. Like I said, tone down the cheap jibes and other fans will likely give Poole a break. You are deflecting the point. The one issue that probably takes up more bandwidth than anything else is the collective shortcomings of the BSPA and nobody is singling out out Ford for special criticism on that front. But consider this=: why do you think there is not thread after thread criticising the likes of Chris Van Stratten or Rick Frost and the rest ? Its not because people are jealous of Poole, its because apart from the collective shortcomings of the BSPA none of the others are constantly on the edge of controversy the way that Ford is. Speedway fans tend to be tribal and support their clubs come what may, Not many are jealous of other clubs success, only irritated by the way it is SOMETIMES (but not always) achieved. He might have been a good sponsor but his posts are a bit "Gor Blimey where,s me 'ob nail boots" in tone, and at times deficient in grammar so we can see where Gavan is coming from

If you replace Stevebrum and Gavan with the words "Shovlar, and Skidder 1"and change the words" anti-Poole" to "Pro Poole" that statement would be just as true. If the blue=rinse-tints brigade don't like it, the remedy rests with them. Stop sneering at other clubs and you may well find other fans take a more benevolent view of yours.

Whats wrong with "Ethnic Minority Jacks and Jills" you bigoted misogynist?

Lees previous convictions are in the public domain. Most speedway fans know about them anyway and its highly unlikely that a non-speedway fan will be looking on here. The jury system is very robust and you can't stop others talking about a case. Nobody is suggesting he has any relevant previous history of similar offences/