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I'm not a regular on this forum and indeed, this being only my third post, it has to be approved by a moderator. Though I previously registered under the name of FifteenPointMax, let me make it clear my name is Jeff Davies. I was advised by others about comments being posted about the Save Coventry Speedway group, particularly from one or two individuals including Simon, sorry 'adonis'. He previously posted under another name and appears for some unknown reason to decry everything we do in our efforts to Save Coventry Speedway. He says we've 'appointed ourselves as saviours of the realm' and implies we (or me) 'are always on local radio giving people false hope'. Well, let me address a few of Simon's points: We are simply doing our very best to see speedway and stock cars return to Brandon. We have no 'axe to grind' with anyone. We've refused to be drawn into public debates about any of the individuals involved. We believe we've acted throughout with honesty and integrity and will continue to do so. We've said all along, we don't know if our efforts will be successful but if we're not successful, it won't be through lack of trying. That's hardly giving people false hope is it? With regard to being on local radio - yes, I've personally been on local radio many times talking about Brandon and our fight to save it. We've been on BBC Midlands Today (twice) and ITV Central News. We've twice delivered letters to 1000 local residents in Brandon and Binley Woods. We made a presentation to supporters and local residents in Brandon Club, updating them on the status. We created an electronic newsletter, which several hundred people subscribed to, as a means of updating people of progress. It's called communication Simon. And it keeps the issue of Brandon Stadium, so dear to so many of us, in the public spotlight. And just in case you're not familiar with other things we've been doing, here's a brief summary. We've: Had had a total of 7 meetings with Members of Parliament, one of which was in Westminster. Submitted a very professional 80 page document to Rugby Council in response to Brandon Estates' planning application, exposing numerous misleading, inaccurate and blatant untruths in their application. Submitted a similar document to Rugby Council regarding the Local Plan. Created a document called the 'History of Brandon Stadium' which we've had printed and circulated to the members of the Planning Committee Spoken at the Local Plan Public Hearing and accompanied the Government Inspector on a site visit to the stadium. Escalated the plight into the national press with a full page article in the Mail on Sunday as well as a feature in the Times on Line. Co-ordinated opposition to the redevelopment resulting in an unprecedented 1800 people sending in letters of objection to the proposal. Managed to get 11 Members of Parliament / Lords to sign a letter 'urging Rugby Council to reject the planning application and actively work towards a return of the sports to the stadium' Met with Sport England to get their support for the stadium to remain as a sports stadium Met with the Local Enterprise Partnership Met with the leader of Coventry Council and his team Met (several times) with the leader of Rugby Council Met with the BSPA and the ACU Got more than 100 skilled tradesmen / women as well as many local businesses to support a rebuild of the stadium should it fall back into the hands of a party who wants to reinstate the sports Got Greg Hancock, Barry Briggs and Frankie Wainman Jnr to produce videos in support of the campaign to save the iconic stadium Met numerous times with the Principle Planning Officer dealing with the planning application, as well as the Head of Growth and Investment at Rugby Council Staged an exhibition at the Brandon Hall Hotel (to counter a Brandon Estates exhibition on the same day) Had a double stand at Motofest to highlight the fight to save Brandon to 150,000 visitors Communicated with parties that are interested in taking on the stadium in the event of Brandon Estates choosing at some point to 'offload it' So, those are some, but by no means all, of the things we've been doing. We've been honest with people. We've tried to keep people informed. We've most certainly not given people false hope. With regard to Mr Horton running National League at Leicester, look at our website and read the messages of support we've posted regarding the venture. We've not said anything negative about it at all. If it's successful, all well and good. If it fails, it's because supporters, for whatever reason, choose not to go. It may interest people to know, I sent text messages to the Bees team manager (Martyn) and to Mick, wishing them all the best prior to first meeting of the season. Running at Leicester whilst at the same time campaigning to save Brandon is not incompatible. One final point. Please take note of what the Government Inspector said in his report following the public hearing of the Local Plan. He agreed with the argument we put forward at that hearing, that Rugby Council Policy did not adequately protect sporting stadiums like Brandon. As a result of that, Rugby Council are in the process of revising their policies which will make it more difficult for the developers to get planning permission. And further more, if they did get planning permission either locally, or on appeal, something called Paragraph 74 would apply, requiring an alternative venue of equal or better standard, to be in place. So that was a huge positive for our campaign. Will all this effort achieve anything? Will we get back to Brandon? Time will tell. But we've got off our backsides and had a go. It disappoints me therefore, that people like you Simon, sit at your keyboards and knock us for trying.

As a former fan I have kept an eye on this forum over the years and this topic is very interesting but at the same time sad as it appears that the sport I once loved is close to the end. I was driven away 10 years ago but mid season rule changes the farce of guests and tactical rules. I made one trip last season to my local track Ipswich and that was it one trip in 9 seasons! What drove me away was still there guests daft tactical rules and then you got to add in the double up down shake it all around rule. As an ex supporter looking in it appears that the main issues facing the sport are that it's to expensive for the fans riders and every one involved. The bikes are to fast the tracks to slick the racing not great. Add in all the daft rules the fact that you no longer have your team because they ride for everyone else the local community cannot form a bond with these guys. You need to cut costs for all provide value for money and have seven guys contacted to your club and your club only. I think I read somewhere that Jonathan Chapman suggests a franchise and draft approach didn't the late great John Berry suggest something along those lines in one of his books years ago.? The BSPA need to wake up or this once great sport will be gone by 2020. Work on getting the product and rules right then try and intice the list supporters back and then go out after new ones. While I'm a used to go to speedway man I'm only 42 so not an old stuck in my ways chap.

If they want to be at speedway they will be. If they can’t not drink for a day (irrespective of the situation) then they require medical help, as their drinking will no doubt lead to anyway at some point.

young kyle starting to get closer if he can start getting among the points this team are defiantly tittle contenders but the team needs support from fans and a little help from other teams in rearranging fixtures without politics and gamesmanship if this is to be the last season for Workington what better way to end than going all the way

Logically they will cancel the Lakeside meeting as that is a cup match and have a double header on one of the other Sunday fixtures. They can then run Sheffield meeting at 7pm. Problem solved.

Then there would be no league.

That’s an unpleasant response to a genuine offer by one of the nicest and most knowledgable people in speedway.

It's riders wages that need reduced for the financials .!

As an EXAMPLE only this is the sort of standard we need to be looking at and charging no more than £12 entrance fee for adults and £25 a family ticket (2/2) BELLE VUE - Craig Cook, Steve Worrall, Dan Bewley, Paul Starke, Damian Drzodz, Kyle Bickley, NL 2.00 BERWICK - Josh Grajczoneck, Kevin Doolan, Aaron Summers, David Howe, N B Jacobsen, Jye Etheridge, NL 2.00 WOLVES - Rory Schlein, Kyle Howarth, Thomas Jorgensen, Luke Becker, Ashley Morris, Nathan Greaves, NL 2.00 With teams of this strength as an example you could run at wages that won't break the bank (see original post) and lower entrance fee to no more than £12. You still have seven riders wearing your club colours and they are not doubling up (NL only) and fans can relate to these riders much more when they are yours and not shared. You get a varied fixture list with a different team visiting each week on your chosen race night. We have a wage bill that is affordable and as original post, the home track pays the set wages for riders from both teams using the attendance money so riders are not owed money and paid on the night they have just earned. We see more places for British youngsters progressing and getting rides and we see just as entertaining races watching Worrall v Howarth or Howe v Becker as you do watching Doyle v Fricke or Thorssell v Bjerre. COST EFFECTIVE - RIDERS PAID - VARIED FIXTURES - YOUR RACE NIGHT - MORE BRITISH RIDERS - WEEKLY MEETINGS - YOUR TEAM

That crowd was probably down by at least 100 if not 200 on any other crowd this season, can you blame them? NO Awful performance at Edinburgh last friday, awful racing last Saturday, awful performance on Friday v Worky, world cup quarter final on in afternoon gave the people a reason not to go, just go to the pub watch the game and have a good time instead of going to the speedway and coming out depressed. Track is awful, no dirt, drier than Dry House, crowd looked awful, same old same old...

But there must be stacks of capable riders.... people keep telling us there are loads of capable riders to fill up enough teams for one big league

More to the point, we have 5 of the 7 riders we started with so certainly no revolving door here. Vissing was only ever going to be a stop gap.

If we are looking at both sides of the argument then one could say that there wouldn't be rumours if it wasn't for Chinese Whispers on internet forums.....in the case of Iversen last week the fact that MPT had already been declared as absent and NKI not mentioned should have been enough to confirm his presence whatever the tittle tattle was doing the rounds. Football clubs don't comment on speculation in what is a far more professional sport and speedway clubs shouldn't need to quash rumours every five minutes either. That said I accept that the club could communicate more and that a short statement could have nipped it all in the bud but they shouldn't always have to do that.

What a wonderful world you live in, If the club were to promote their meetings and inform the fans of forth coming information, there would never be any rumours, cos everyone would know... the problems only exist because of the lack lustred approach of the management, and fans like you who think they do no wrong.... I suggest you look at both sides of the argument NB: Well impressed with Buster's announcement of re-admission from the Leicester match. The fact he has gone way beyond that he is responsible for, shows he is being more than FAIR....

We're talking about SGB lower league speedway on a Sunday afternoon though so not the best comparison.

SIMON!! now I've got it. The guy who, posting under another forum name , was put in his place very firmly by Jeff Davies right here on the BSF. He disappeared very quickly after that, gone for good we all thought. But no he was here all along posting under one of his other forum names, surprise surprise. It explains his attitude towards the Save Coventry Group as he is a confirmed "grudge carrier" . The guy is a loose cannon , can fall out with his own shadow, & gives me the impression that he has a mental disorder. It explains so much about what's been going on recently.

Again this is totally untrue. The Campain Group have no moles on the Forum. We are happy to post under our own names. Unlike yourself.

Not having regular racing each weekend is a massive issue. Makes a mockery of starting our league the third week in March when we could have started over a month later. Last year we had A and B fixtures against each team but the problem on top of too many meetings was you could already see long before the A fixtures were completed who were the strugglers and who were top end material. This year its not enough meetings as well as a poorly planned fixture list for some clubs like Workington. Sometimes wish the clubs in our league would form a breakaway and take control of their own management rather than play second fiddle to the alleged Premiership.

Once again our sport has been hit with a so called 'business man' who has loads of money and will change everything 'for the good' (what happened to the 5 year plan) and then the usual thing happens the money isn't there and club is finished. Do these people not realise while they are on their ego trip what they are doing to the lives of people who have supported their club for years (win or lose home and away) - they are not usually interested in the sport itself (its history etc) and somehow manage to destroy something that has taken years of hard work (often by volunteers) to build up. I am sure of one thing if Len still ran the club (and I know he didn't always get things right) we would still be watching speedway at Rye every week because quite simply he still has a passion for the sport which many so called promotors do not have these days.

We are in the situation that pertained in 1960. The biggest success story of my 60 years of an interest in speedway was the Provincial League. The National League was down to about 8 teams and strugling but the PL settled down well. No big stars, some who were but past their peak, but rising talent (Mauger, Monk, Eric Boocock, George Hunter) ensured good if not really top notch racing. We do not need the GP stars. We need one big league with as many teams as there are riders, no doubling up so that the fans can relate to their riders. Accuse me of being a dinosaur if you like but the present path is the road to ruin IMHO.L

Saving your best stuff stuff for the girl on twitter eh ? To be fair, you might have saved your a-game for the missus before she jumped ship i guess.

There you all go again only looking at foreign riders this is why British riders get pissed off

Exactly, if clubs have been dictated to as to when to race their home fixtures, surely the away teams need to be told when they must race unless they have a compelling reason not to. We need all teams to compromise for the sport as a whole , not one or two teams selfishly looking out for themselves only. Is that too much to ask, recent history tells us it is unfortunately.

I've been embracing the positives since 1964 Solidmango......but I just feel that this year's decisions re fixtures by the BSPA have not done the sport any good whatsoever. That, on top of our inability to sustain regular racing days, has had an impact on attendance and interest.

Pay per view will make the sport even smaller and insignificant.