Chris Brown

They of course managed to have enough people to take the money in the first place I have given up on the sport over recent years but this one really sums up everything that is so wrong 1. Failed to take any responsibility 2. Blamed contractors but I suspect had the meeting been a success would have gloried in the credit and not mentioned the contractors at that point 3. Failed to process refunds 4. Still want to blame everyone apart from themselves Its a pitiful position to take and really is about time them took bleeding responsibility.

So unless I have ridden my opinion does not count ? The only disrespect is choosing not to ride for your country and then suddenly changing your mind and expecting to be brought back. Correct me if I am wrong but the issue was sponsors names on the racesuit and for me that is no reason to decide not to ride for your country I stand by the fact he should be told he is not required. Just my view

With you 100% on Nicholls. While his nation was struggling he was sat at home (well actually taking money to commentate on them) sulking. Maybe I am in a minority but I would go with just about anyone else to be honest Drives me nuts to see riders deciding not to ride for their country...................unless its on their terms On the flip side I disagree with you 100% on Woffinden

Tickets now taken Cheers

Anyway, away from the name calling.............is anyone interested in making use of these hospitality tickets ?

The Oxford SOS group are sponsoring a race and a rider and therefore we have 2 complimentary tickets as part of that deal which come with a buffet on the day in the Hospitality lounge As we will not be using these tickets if someone would like to offer the face value of a normal admission ticket then they are welcome to make use of them. All we ask is that on the day you pay the £16 per ticket to Paul Ackroyd and that can at least go back into the fund Can you send me a message if you are interested and I will send them to the first person that asks

Just to let people know that Lukas and Theresa had a new addition to their family yesterday with the birth of baby Ales. Clearly named after Grandfather and Uncle and a brother for their first born, also Theresa

Wondered if it was you Steve, good to see you are back in circulation. I have only been to 4 meetings in the UK (all in the IOW) since Oxford closed in 2007 so fair to say I also have really been lost to the sport. Used to go to 4 a week !!! As for Oxford, while Swindon seem miles away and do not have planning permission, the silence in Oxford where there is a ready made stadium suggests there is no chance. Hope I am wrong but we all thought last December when the planning consent was chucked out and then the Conversation Order put on the stadium was the catalyst. Seems the owners have deeper pockets and less business sense than anyone gave them credit for. The campaign has been completely silent for months now Time in my mind to accept we have seen the last speedway in Oxford. Not sure I personally have the appetite any more, I think people move on and find other things to do

Problem is Tsumani I suspect there are very few who actually believed when the 'End of an Era' meeting was held was really going to be that. Given that the Swindon promotion knew that no planning permission had been sought then to kid people that the stadium would be ready for March is surely treating people as fools. As the article from March demonstrates its not exactly moving at a pace that suggests its achievable I admire their optimism if they ever thought for one minute it would really happen

Is he ? Did they move with the previous promotion ?

And when they gave him a 1 in 10 of survival so did I. But like many riders even that was not enough to say that enough was enough. These guys are junkies when it comes to riding bikes fast and despite anything that id done they will continue to want to go faster I remember Steve Purchase saying to me when he was running Oxford that he believed that at the time if you gave the riders the choice of an air fence or £5 a point they would pretty much all have gone for £5 a point. They do not think they will crash or to be honest you would not do it would you ? The sport is surely on one hand safer now than ever with the protection from helmets and racewear that has developed immensely over the years and air fences that have surely saved many horrendous injuries but the strive for speed will always mean that the riders are ahead of anything that is being done to improve safety. Has air fences generally led to riders doing things they would not have done without an air fence ? Possibly, only they can tell you but whatever is done to make it safer, the riders will by their nature continue to push the boundaries of their performances which will surely counteract the safety improvements to some degree Not sure what the answer is really

Saw that picture in the Speedway Star and thought they looked like a couple of stroppy kids. Since when has it been OK for a promoter to lead that sort of protest. Doesn't seem right to me whatever he may think

Dreadful news and so sad to hear RIP Shaz and thoughts to your family at this awful time

I apologise, no negativity intended, I was using it to make a point

You are missing the point I am making. Its not about finding someone who could do better, if the team is badged as a GB team (which it was) then the riders representing GB should be bleedin British. I really couldn't care less whether they would score more points than Rory Schlein or not I say it again, there is no criticism of Schlein, he at least had the passion to ride in a meeting but it shouldn't happen. And people can talk about cricket and how we have overseas riders, well that's doing well for the national team isn't it. And what happened 40 or 50 years ago in Speedway is completely irrelevant British speedway is in a mess and being unable/not bothering to find a GB rider to represent GB is pathetic at every level. Of course we could argue that the meeting should not be allowed to use country names for meetings like this as well So for the World Cup who are we looking at, lets wait and see who the Aussies, Poles, Swedes and Danes leave out of their squads. As long as they have had a holiday in the UK that surely qualifies them Its pathetic

Can somebody administer the injection for British Speedway and put it out of its misery. Its frankly embarrassing to accept an invite to a competition and then have an Aussie representing us Fair play to Rory Schlein for doing it. Good job Robert Lambert decided to be a Brit after all or it would be an Aussie and a German. British Speedway really is a shambles Frankly ANY British rider would be a better bet than Rory Schlein (again no disrespect to him) as he is not even qualified to ride for GB

Great post. Problem is that FIM sold out to the greedy gits who continue ruin our sport. Get the World Championship on speedway tracks. Can you imagine the FIFA World Cup being played on park pitches

We just seem to be missing the point. If GP's are raced on speedway tracks rather than a compressed beach put together at the last minute then none of this would happen These problems are driven entirely by greed to take the sport to places that make the most money and sod the consequences to the riders, supporters and frankly anyone else

Not sure I agree with this to be honest. The Speedway World Championship is about speedway primarily and I am being old fashioned in thinking that to run a speedway meeting you need to have a speedway track, If the stadium that track happens to be in can wine and dine the sponsors and looks pretty on TV then great but for me the track surface comes first Yes you can argue the TV likes to show speedway in plush stadiums but that didn't work last night did it and TV stations will surely at some point run out of patience. At that BSI (or whatever they call themselves) will walk away from speedway with its reputation in tatters and people who care about speedway left to pick up the pieces If the tracks can be sorted then I am all for decent venues but the speedway track HAS to come first. This is the Speedway World Championship not a bloody circus So the organisers do not lose on the night. Its brilliant isn't it Good job they managed to get that 12th heat in

Anyone know the re-admission policy ?

Just take speedway meetings to speedway tracks rather than the stadiums where the organisers can make the most money. These people continue to rip the heart out of our sport and they will not stop because I genuinely do not believe they care one little bit for the people who will have spent a fortune on travel, accommodation, time off work and tickets only to see another unacceptable shambles But look on the bright side the speedway press will have enjoyed brilliant hospitality so they won't criticise them This is 100% caused by going to a stadium without a natural speedway track, don't blame the Polish, don't blame the poor people who worked their socks off to put the track down, don't blame the riders blame the greed of the SGP rights holders, no-one else

But as was reported was OK to practice for 3 days in the week before. Didn't sound like a particularly good reason to be honest. Having said that the fund is there to help all riders and if he needs help this should not be held against him Now whether he feels comfortable asking is another thing

Is there a time when the sport is trying to tell you something. He is incredibly unlucky but sometimes it just might be worth calling it a day when fate is seemingly conspiring against you so often

Interesting article in the SStar this week related to the Ben Fund and the decline in the revenue it gets from the Bonanza meeting and compares to its expenditure. Its a real shame that such a fantastic idea is seemingly withering But there are issues apart from the rider line up. For example, as the trustees of the Support Oxford Speedway group which raised money for around 12 years (we stopped a few years ago) we have consistently supported the meeting having sponsored at 6 of the 7 occassions. In most cases we have then sold on our admission tickets and the fund has benefited further. This year the sponsorship deal on offer was significantly improved and for £250 we had 4 admissions, a meal in the restaurant and an advert in the programme. What was really noticeable was the lack of sponsors in the sponsors area. We actually paid an additional cost to get an extra person in. There were lots of BSPA officials but seemingly very few companies, groups etc who were putting a few quid in as sponsors. The meal was very good, the meeting was very good but nothing in the programme, no mention at any point of the fact that our group had sponsored and other than a quick 'do you want to watch a race from the centre green' did anyone at any point ask us if we were OK, thank us for our sponsorship, explain why there was nothing in the programme. It was the first time I had attended the meeting as it was close to home this time So I guess we left a bit miffed. Now of course we are a speedway support group and we are about supporting speedway but were we a commercial enterprise who had decided to sponsor the meeting it may have been the last the Ben Fund saw of us and that has to be a major issue. For us as a group we will of course sponsor next year but while I am really loathed to criticise such a magnificent fund raising event there are things that need to be addressed around the commercial aspects of the event. Just a view, and maybe one that deflects from the criticism of the riders for a bit. We should all be back on that one soon though because the SStar article puts the different shape of the line up over the years very well

I believe he was given an award yesterday. His 100% record was certainly mentioned a number of times on the PA and so it should be Terrific record