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MSDL Results no longer included in Speedway Star?

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Am i the only one who has noticed that the MSDL results are no longer being published in the speedway star? The league and its riders / promotions barely get any recognition anyway so to remove the few column inches that the star used to grant them seems a little unjust compared with some of the other waffle that is included.

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I know it's probably down to drop in sales and having to shave costs. A lot of the effort of the old journalists to find stories seems to have disappeared.

Although the cover is a big improvement, this year's Speedway Star has reverted back to being the type of magazine we had with the Speedway News in the 30s and 40s, which carried little information any researchers in later years could call back on. I think it should try to include all British speedway results and, as I have stated before, I would ditch the grass track pages.

Speedway match reports were important to me. But this year matches get a brief review and all connectivity of having someone reporting the action at trackside is gone. We now have a rush job with a small weekly review.

I even miss race times, as they could offer some form of info as to how a rider was going if, for instance, they had won their first race in a long time.

And it's laughable when you read that a rider broke the track record last week, but you aren't given any clue as to what the record is... It's a pointless piece of info if the times aren't given in the first place!

I can't grasp what it is, but much of the detail I used to rely on the Star for has vanished - unless I want to find out something on last weekend's Grand Prix. And that's tragic, in some way, as the GPs have arguably helped put British speedway where it is now!   

Edited by moxey63
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There are some elements of the modern star that i like, there are more interviews and a few riders/managers etc are actually quite candid and open about the goings on rather than the dull company line. However to not be able to include results from a genuine British league and still have plenty of space for results from Germany & South Africa is baffling. We all have opinions on what should be trimmed (personally i don't care for the dear deidrie style readers letters as they are just handpicked opinions) why not keep it factual and report results? As ever development leagues are treated like trash,i await the uproar when the youth rounds are next to be pushed out. 

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'Speedway Star'  may well cover grass track racing because its research has shown that it has a strong readership base among those who prefer this form of motorcycle racing?

Additionaly the same reason could apply to the fact that grass track racing has a larger  following than the Development Leagues? 

Many grass track riders are also established speedway names which is more than could be said of those taking part in Development Leagues.

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9 minutes ago, gustix said:

'Speedway Star'  may well cover grass track racing because its research has shown that it has a strong readership base among those who prefer this form of motorcycle racing?

Additionaly the same reason could apply to the fact that grass track racing has a larger  following than the Development Leagues? 

Many grass track riders are also established speedway names which is more than could be said of those taking part in Development Leagues.

Im all for the grasstrack section as i follow both sports and i do believe that pages vs subscription base its a worthwhile addition. 

There are also plenty riders who ride both sports which i also agree with but to knock those taking part in the development leagues isnt on as there are plenty of established names who started out in DL's and im sure they were very appreciative of the tiny amount of press coverage they received.  To completely omit an active UK league while offering space to other world leagues or memory lane chatter is insulting to all those involved.

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7 hours ago, moxey63 said:

I know it's probably down to drop in sales and having to shave costs. A lot of the effort of the old journalists to find stories seems to have disappeared.

Although the cover is a big improvement, this year's Speedway Star has reverted back to being the type of magazine we had with the Speedway News in the 30s and 40s, which carried little information any researchers in later years could call back on. I think it should try to include all British speedway results and, as I have stated before, I would ditch the grass track pages.

Speedway match reports were important to me. But this year matches get a brief review and all connectivity of having someone reporting the action at trackside is gone. We now have a rush job with a small weekly review.

I even miss race times, as they could offer some form of info as to how a rider was going if, for instance, they had won their first race in a long time.

And it's laughable when you read that a rider broke the track record last week, but you aren't given any clue as to what the record is... It's a pointless piece of info if the times aren't given in the first place!

I can't grasp what it is, but much of the detail I used to rely on the Star for has vanished - unless I want to find out something on last weekend's Grand Prix. And that's tragic, in some way, as the GPs have arguably helped put British speedway where it is now!   

Race times are surely provided in club reports. Eastbourne do it, both home and away for all their matches.

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I have to say that I have totally lost patience with the mag this year ... Every Thursday I get more and more frustrated and disappointed with it.
I'm really unahappy with myself for leaving them after decades but my subscription will be ending at the next renewal.

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16 hours ago, Richard Weston said:

Race times are surely provided in club reports. Eastbourne do it, both home and away for all their matches.

That's brilliant, but I expect to buy the Star to have all the things in it I have always purchased it for. Race times have always been there. You don't always look at them but they are handy when seeing how fast a rider who doesn't win races that often was travelling compared to others.

I know something like £11,000 was saved by getting rid of match reports, but the mag has taken on a soulless state in which you probably find out more in reports about Polish matches than our own! There are surely wanna-be journalists out on the terraces that would send the Star copy of each match. Look how Natalie Quirk started as a 14 year-old at Belle Vue and where she is today.   

It seems like they have given up hope on British domestic speedway. But if you want to find out about a GP you have probably just watched on various devices, you are given seven or eight pages the following week.

We don't see every domestic match and therefore reports from each were good. With the quarter-page section of every match for the week (and, I know, there aren't that many nowadays), you are merely finding out the minutest of detail.    

GPs, I'm afraid, are now just an individual arm of the sport that I didn't start to follow this supposedly team game for. The riders in it are far removed from any one club that I find it difficult to imagine any British team fan bothering who wins the thing or not.

Maybe it's just me.

 

 

Edited by moxey63
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1 hour ago, moxey63 said:

That's brilliant, but I expect to buy the Star to have all the things in it I have always purchased it for. Race times have always been there. You don't always look at them but they are handy when seeing how fast a rider who doesn't win races that often was travelling compared to others.

I know something like £11,000 was saved by getting rid of match reports, but the mag has taken on a soulless state in which you probably find out more in reports about Polish matches than our own! There are surely wanna-be journalists out on the terraces that would send the Star copy of each match. Look how Natalie Quirk started as a 14 year-old at Belle Vue and where she is today.   

It seems like they have given up hope on British domestic speedway. But if you want to find out about a GP you have probably just watched on various devices, you are given seven or eight pages the following week.

We don't see every domestic match and therefore reports from each were good. With the quarter-page section of every match for the week (and, I know, there aren't that many nowadays), you are merely finding out the minutest of detail.    

GPs, I'm afraid, are now just an individual arm of the sport that I didn't start to follow this supposedly team game for. The riders in it are far removed from any one club that I find it difficult to imagine any British team fan bothering who wins the thing or not.

Maybe it's just me.

 

 

Perhaps the Speedway Star could ask club's to provide the times for each race. Wouldn't take a minute to do.

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29 minutes ago, Midland Red said:

PHILIP RISING is very quiet on the subject! :o

Think it would take just a quick email to club press officers - along with the style for how they wanted the info presented. 

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33 minutes ago, Richard Weston said:

Think it would take just a quick email to club press officers - along with the style for how they wanted the info presented. 

I HAVE read all of the above and respect everyone's opinion even if, as in this case, I don't agree with them. 

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I've not read the Speedway Star for a good 5 years now so I can't comment on it's current format. I found it to be boring, repetitive and not worth the £2.90 it was back then (sorry Philip Rising but that's just my honest view) What I can say about the development league from my time running it is that you have to rely on the guys that run those teams to feed you back the results, heat details and times etc so you could submit them to the star on time for it's next publication. At times it was difficult getting the results let alone heat details without chasing but that was just a minority and most of the team managers/organisers were spot on. Of cause I can't speak for now. There is a facebook page for the MDL (MSDL) so maybe that's where the majority of people look nowadays? 

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Wasn't a lot of the problems dealt with in the previous thread?

It was a case of a cheaper Star or no Star at all. And in that it seemed to be cheaper on the report side

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14 minutes ago, kelvinlapworth said:

I've not read the Speedway Star for a good 5 years now so I can't comment on it's current format. I found it to be boring, repetitive and not worth the £2.90 it was back then (sorry Philip Rising but that's just my honest view) What I can say about the development league from my time running it is that you have to rely on the guys that run those teams to feed you back the results, heat details and times etc so you could submit them to the star on time for it's next publication. At times it was difficult getting the results let alone heat details without chasing but that was just a minority and most of the team managers/organisers were spot on. Of cause I can't speak for now. There is a facebook page for the MDL (MSDL) so maybe that's where the majority of people look nowadays? 

Probably right about the facebook page (as could be said about most teams) i just feel its a shame that the Ukrainian league or USA div 2 gets coverage and yet a UK based league that is designed for British rider development (however flawed or mistreated it may be) has been omitted completely. 

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