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WROTE the following in an edition of Speedway Star in June 1981. Could have repeated it every year since including the present one. SPEEDWAY in this country is facing a crisis which threatens the foundations on which the sport is built. Unless something is done to stop the squabbling, the wastage of money, bending of the rules and, in some cases, blatant breaking of regulations, speedway will lose even the support of the hard core of fans. Vast numbers of followers are becoming disenchanted either with the way speedway is run or by the attitude of riders who seem prepared to bite the hand that feeds them. Any rider who doesn't fulfil his commitments is cheating the public. It is as simple as that. Speedway has got itself into such a mess with foreign riders that there is no easy way out. But a remedy must be found. First, however, the promoters who run league speedway in this country must put their own house in order. Speedway desperately needs a clearly defined set of regulations which are strictly adhered to without exception. The rulebook as it is at present is bent, manipulated, rewritten, ignored or changed at will. That cannot continue. Sadly, it seems it has.

Quite, Philip. I dare say these wise words are still dismissed as 'troublemaking' by those in power. Promoters are capable, in most cases, of running a speedway track, often against all the odds and many pour in time and money to keep tracks going, but all that good work seems to drift away on the wind once they act together as the BSPA. It would almost be a kindness to put control in independent hands. Sadly the sport, even after 90 years is still not mature enough to do this, or more crucially accept the decisions taken by an independent controller or body. Short-sighted pragmatism rules and certain riders exploit it to the full. Your comments about rider commitments are at the heart of the current crisis. Riding in Britain for too many is just something to do while waiting to make big money in Poland. Of course you don't do anything to risk that, such as putting full effort into racing. People rightly praise the quality of commitment of riders in the GPs and Poland. Sadly it's unrealistic to expect similar commitment in races, or even turning up here, when the pickings are so poor. Compromise after compromise erodes integrity. Adding in a disregard for the paying customer by promoters and riders creates the current toxic situation. The problem is, I should be angry, but all I can really feel is pity.

Dead right and that is what sticks in my craw more than anything else. We can all debate the rules that apply to speedway but, however controversial they might be, they can at least be applied consistently by an unbiased, impartial adjudicator. Simple truth is, though, all too often they are not. They are subject to inconsistent, arbitrary, incompetent and illegal rulings by interested parties - parties whose identities are hidden and whose reasons are rarely disclosed. That is almost totally contrary to our system of law and breeds frustration and anger amongst not just fans but officials of clubs as well. Isle of Wight asked for average reduction for Harland Cook last season, a rider who had been out of the sport for years,. They were refused, despite the precedent set for David Wallinger and Luke Clifton the previous season. Later in 2017 Paul Hurry was given an average reduction of almost 3 points, two clubs having been quoted an average in excess of 10.50 during the close season. Matt Marson, who has never ridden in Britain and has a British passport, was at one point graded at a 5.00 - which doesn't even exist in the NL rulebook. You can only believe that such rulings are motivated by spite, jealousy, backscratching and one-upmanship. People can complain about the rulebook and individual rules as much as they like but until its contents are applied consistently, fairly and openly by an independent arbitrator we might as well not have one.

I think if betting became widespread in speedway there's a risk the sport could become corrupt

It is quite a breathtaking level of arrogance that has been shown by those who run the Sport in this Country that they have continually ignored the feedback of their very own patrons for so many years.. I would say that since this piece was written crowds are now approximately 20% of what they were then, meaning 80% of its customer base has been eroded either sadly through natural causes or the disillusionment of an ageing fanbase.. You cannot have any greater help in running any business than your customers telling you what they like you doing and what they dont, and Speedway through various weekly and monthly magazines during the past thirty years, and obviously the Internet in the past 10 in particular, have had literally thousands of pieces of 'feedback' which incredibly have been completely ignored... The frustration for the few fans that now remain is that the feedback the governing bodies have received has been year on year very, very, similar in content with many common themes running through the fans' discontent... When the mantra should have been "We are listening, thanks for the feedback , we will change" it instead became "We are right, and you fans have absolutely no idea what you are talking about". "British Speedway, now reaping what it has sowed over the past thirty years"... That would be a good strap line for the 2018 season....

I think that's a decent team, certainly one worth watching. Klindt is the only one I have real concerns about. He was awful riding for Scunthorpe in this league, averaging two points lower than his starting one here and only being interested if he gated.

Im sure many will

It was . . . . It really was!

Don't worry. The country is being turned into a throwback to the 1950's, so Speedway will fit in very well indeed. Keep calm, and stay analogue.

I don't care if Ludvig is a 7 point rider, a 10 point rider or a 2 point rider for the rest of his career, some of his races are entertaining to watch, and that's all I'm bothered about, entertainment, one of the most entertaining riders I've seen over the years (in my opinion) is Chris Schramm, and by the time I was watching him regularly, he was below 4 points, but he was still worth at least half of the entrance fee alone, but of course, everyone can have opinions In my opinion, Rene Bach, Ashley Morris, Stuart Robson and Ludvig Lindgren doesn't get much better for entertainment purposes, just need the interesting story of a young number 7 getting better every week (Alfie) A massive number 1 who can just blow riders away (Nichols??? Maybe they will change the rules as rumors have suggested) All of these riders would go into my dream team... But that's it, a dream lol

Mmm....Blunsdon in mid-March makes the Arctic seem like a beach holiday!

Worky have named their full 1-7 and so cannot stop Howarth riding anywhere he wants now and can only demand a standard loan fee and nothing else

Looks a team of second strings... whos winning races?? Think Bewley will end up as number 1 by the end of the year

In fairness I think we have a really solid team. With Mason starting as a reserve it could prove to be a master stroke especially with Bewley being the next rider up the pecking order if they were to swap places at some point we would still have a strong reserve which is something we have lacked for a few seasons. I think Rene being number one is something he will want to keep hold of. If rasmus rides at two it will be a strong pairing. Also I think putting Ty and Dan together would be another good pairing leaving Klint with number 5 linking up with the reserves.

In fairness to Jack he made great progress in 2017. Went from reserve in 2016 to heat leader in 2017 in the NL and has gained valuable experience at the 2 higher levels as well. Think he should concentrate targeting number one at the Colts and moving up into the main body in the Championship. Can see him back in the top tier in a couple of years. Nice little talent developing nicely.

Well, I have seen 46 years of almost continual decline, in terms of support and numbers of professional tracks and the riding talent employed in the country. While this last point, as I have argued many times in the past is not as vital as many would think, it is a reality. To say that because the sport is still here then it's always been like this does seem rather odd logic. I have never claimed that "The sky is falling in" and predicted British speedway's doom. I am fully convinced that it will always survive at least in a semi-professional or amateur form, say today's Championship or NL level but I have had my severe doubts about sustainability at the fully professional level for many years, and certainly since its loss of Saturdays and now Fridays too. Outside speedway my academic background and my consuming interest still is in aspects of economic and social history. I study history in many forms, both through books and magazines and by video. I occasionally also visit source material when I can. I think I am in a fairly good position to be able to judge how aspects of society change over time. I certainly don't subscribe to the view that the past was automatically better. I'd like to think that despite having enjoyed many things in the past I am not in possession of 'rose-tinted glasses'. I do not lament lost youth. However, I do know what I enjoy and have enjoyed, and equally the reverse. I have seen wonderful things arrive such as the very technology that allows me to make this posting. I have equally seen matters develop that appal me such as the rise of social selfishness and erosion of basic human respect and consideration. I have no doubt whatsoever that British speedway has declined appallingly in that near half-century, mainly due to the impact of SGPs and Poland. I didn't see the disaster years of the 1950s but I did start about six years after the 1960s revival brought about by the creation of the BL. Off the top of my head there were about 36 professional tracks in the top two divisions in my first year, 1971. Now we have just over half that number. Nobody can suggest that is anything but a disaster, despite the existence of the theoretically amateur NL. In 1971 there were seven first division tracks running on Saturdays, over a third of the league. These included Wembley, the old Belle Vue, Coventry, Cradley and Halifax. All are gone. Outside London it could be argued the backbone of the sport has been lost. We have lost all speedway in London as well. No, things are far worse than they were in 1971. As for racing, that is subjective but while I feel domestically that racing has picked up slightly in recent seasons, viewing my videos of the 1980s I have no doubt that racing has declined, principally through the decline of outside passing. For years I watched racers take the brave challenge of opening the throttle and going for the outside pass only to be let down by cheaply-prepared or maintained tracks that failed to give them the grip to reward their bravery. There is still some. but not enough, and if a speedway lover like me sees this, what do you think the attitude of the casual supporters is. Id'd ask them if most hadn't voted with their feet. In Poland and the SGPs I feel the racing has recovered to the standard I once knew here, but feel that is a product of expenditure on tracks and incentives for the riders. Here though neither exists significantly enough. Just by bringing back GP riders you won't get GP racing without money. Yes people have warned speedway about its foolishness continually for years and have been ignored. I'd suggest that many who did have long-since found other things to occupy them. Claiming that just because the sport survives these messages are invalidated does nobody any good, neither the sport or contributor. The biggest problem with people or sports involved in a negative spiral is to convince them they haven't got a problem, whether they be a drunk or a sport that's lost its way. Speedway should be grateful that some still care enough to put over reasoned and constructive criticism. Certainly it does little to encourage such loyalty and carries on in its own complacent way, occasionally telling supporters off for not attending..... The fact that Philip can justifiably level the same allegations 36 years later is not a failing of his.

I cannot see anyway that Jon Cook would apply to join the Championship without assurances that Hammers would get Friday or Saturday as their race night. Any other night and we might as well pack up now.

Solid team throughout happy with that

To be fair to Jack , Sheffield and the NL for the Colts could be a good springboard for him in 2018. he has the talent but neeeds to take things steadily. I do hope that he is in Belle Vue’s long term future.

Yes Shouldnt be allowed in 14 either IMO

Josh Bates riding in British speedway has got to be one of the best bits of winter news yet. We look forward to being entertained by this all action, 100% trying, British youngster.

i think it would be easier to look at the attendance figures - that tells the actual story

Scrap that! Bates has just announced he will be racing next season on his Twitter. Great news

Dog racing is as corrupt and bent as they come.

I hope Craig receives offers that can enable him to get equipment he needs. Good luck Cookie.

He could REFUSE to do that!

DEPENDS what your definition of contradiction is in this case. Mind is obviously different to many here but, no matter, we all have own own opinions. As far as I am concerned rules should encourage progress, to make the sport, in this case speedway, as good and simple as possible, to encourage those involved to aspire to the highest levels. The opposite is currently the case which as far as I'm concerned is a contradiction. But it's hardly worth an argument about semantics and if my interpretation doesn't align with yours that's fine. Mine is that the current regulations do more harm than good, starting with the one eight point rider per team fiasco.

What a load of rubbish

if workington want too much then it will go to arbitration the problem with arbitration is its agreed by the bspa isnt it and we all know they look after there friends but as kyle was in 2 tittle winning teams last year and they both want him back that suerly must up his value get your hand in your pocket wolverhampton and buy him before sheffield do

Things don't change. In 1948 there were 28 stand alone tracks. In 1968, 28. In 1988, 27. In 2018, 28.

I'm assuming that there have been no announcements as to the team lineup is that everything is on hold until confirmation is received from the authorities as to the suitability of the new co-promoter.

It would be extremely surprising if Workington were paying out more money than Glasgow could afford.

Didn't ya know, the worst kept secret around town over the last few days. At least we have a team to support.

Great news, really pleased Josh will be back with us.

Rene an rasmus are the final 2. To be fair to the promotion I don't think it's a bad team under the circumstances

Romulus, J

NEWS: Josh Bates boost as he shelves retirement plans. Read the full story here: http://www.sheffieldspeedway.co/news.php?extend.2479 …

Me too - I seem to remember Somerset done that one season and it was much better from my point of view. Promotors piece, a page full of adverts, fixtures list and a scorecard. What more do you need? Nobody really cares anymore when the visiting no.1 was born, nobody really cares what happened on this day 10 years ago, nobody really cares what happened in the premier league at another track last week... all that stuff can be found online if you really want to know it. 99% of preppie who buy a programme want a scorecard and that's it. I don't want to pay £3 for that and I won't be either, like I'm sure many others won't either. From memory when we had the race cards before they were all printed in house on the day so cheaper to produce and also they were up to date too.

give us it all in 1 swift bowel movement So beautifully put!

the rulebook will continue to be bent until there is an independent governance. And i dont mean turning it into a darts like circus. Answer me this - apart from airfences and other safety measures what has improved? Tracks - worse, bikes - worse, team consistency - worse, body colours (trivial i know) - worse, etc etc etc As a sideline there has been a few pics of Dewayne Keeter on fb lately. - fondly remembered as a tryer who, frankly, wasn't all that good but stayed in the Lions team all season. He'd be dropped after a month now in the insane rush to win at all costs.

Its the new year but nothing changes. Two Berwick fans having a disagreement, I'm with you on this one screm, assisted by a worky fan, who else but jenga. Happy new year to all fans, owners, riders and sponsors especially if they are rich

That would mean he was under contract and that Poole would be on the hook for his wages whether he rides for them or not. That's how it works in post Bosman soccer.

According to the available sources, MAX RECH, Polish pilot serving in Royal Air Force during World War II was the first ever Pole to ride speedway on British tracks. Max (Maximilian) Rech was born in Poznań in 1920. In the early months of World War II, with a pilot's license, he entered France and then traveled to England, where he joined the Polish Air Force fighting under the command of the RAF (Royal Air Force ). He was flying a Wellington bomber. On 15 August 1943 his plane with crews flew from Ingham Airport in England with the mission of demolishing the area of Borkum Island, part of the North Frisian Islands archipelago. Four minutes before the landing, the engine of the aircraft took fire after the attack of a German hunter. Twenty minutes later, at 23:50, the Wellington HE768 from the Polish squadron 300 crashed into the North Sea. Two crew members, Maximilian Rech and Czeslaw Poddany, survived the disaster and were drifting in the North Sea for eighteen days in a salvage boat . They were eventually "rescued", and actually taken captive by the German Kriegsmarine. Max Rech was sent to the IVB prisoners camp at Mükhlberg on the Laba river and later to another camp Luft VI Heydekrug in Lithuania, and later to Luft IV Gross Tychow in West Pomerania. The first mention of a competitor bearing the name Max Rech, then 26 years old, and referred to as "the former Polish airman serving during the Second World War in the Royal Air Force (RAF), dates back to 1950. He had a short spell with Fleetwood Flyers on the Lancashire coast. In that same year, Max Rech was one of the riders of the Exeter club in Cornwall . He never participated however in any of the team official meetings The next mention is that Max Rech moved to St Austell's "Cornish Gulls" club in the National League Division 3 and debuted in its colours on August 22, 1950, earning 5 +1 points in two races. He stayed with them through 1951 and into 1952 (when the name of Division 3 was changed to the Southern League). On 15 July 1952, Rech crashed at St.Austell, sustaining 3 broken ribs, a broken right arm, and a fractured collar bone. There is no mention of him ever riding again. After retirement from speedway he settled in the area of Newton Abbot. For many years Max worked as a bus driver for the Western National Omnibus Company in Plymouth. He passed away in 2004 MAX RECH known racing records: 1950 St.Austell 9 matches, 20 points 1951 St.Austell 21 matches, 94 points 1952 St.Austell 16 matches, 74 points TOTAL 46 matches, 188 points According to plymouthdevils.proboards.com, after his retirement, he moved to the Plymouth area where he sadly passed away in 2004. He was well thought of by Speedway followers in the South West, particularly Cornwall. I am grateful to Mr Brian Collins who provided me with most of above information. If anyone reading these words know anything else about Max Rech I will be very grateful for any information

There are so many things wrong with your logic, but it is crystal clear to me now that you simply do not understand how social media works in the slightest. To say social media is an echo chamber is one of the most out of touch things I've ever heard. It doesn't matter if you posted the video to a page with 1000 times the followers of SpeedwayGB. It wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference if the initial audience is not relevant. However, I am an expert in this industry and I'd be happy to correct you on any point you'd like to try and make. First of all, Twitter and Facebook aren't comparable. Twitter is not the marketing powerhouse that Facebook is. Twitter is dominated by celebrities and athletes. That's not to say that Twitter isn't an effective marketing platform or that businesses will not maintain a presence there, it is simply to say that it is not the ideal platform for this kind of promotion. And yes, we know speedway riders are athletes, and it's perfect for their personal profiles, but not for promoting a sport in general. Not to mention Twitter doesn't offer half the features that Facebook does in terms of insights, data collection and targeting. Right, to address your post, what percentage of those 537,000 people do you think are speedway fans? Would you say it is even as much as 5%? I mean honestly I doubt it's even that high, but for arguments sake let's assume it is. It is essential that you master the algorithm or you will have zero success. Say I have a page with 1,000,000 sports followers and 5% of them are speedway fans. I then go and post an exciting video about speedway. Facebook will then display that post to a small percentage of our followers to "test the water". The level of interaction that post receives will determine how many more followers that post is then shown to. Now say Facebook show this post to 1% of your followers, which in this scenario is 10,000 people. The number of speedway fans who see it is (assuming it's as high as 5%) is 500 people. Generally you can bank on approximately 25% of your reach interacting with your post. So in this scenario you can expect approximately 125 reactions, be it likes, shares, comments, etc. In the eyes of Facebook this post has been displayed to 10,000 people, but only 1.25% have interacted with it. Therefore the algorithm decides that this post is not worthy of competing with the hundreds of other posts vying for a position on your timeline and effectively instantly fizzles out. Now imagine if instead that post was shared to a page like SpeedwayGB, and in this scenario SpeedwayGB had 50,000 followers. Now say Facebook show this post to 1% of your followers, which in this scenario is 500 people. The number of speedway fans who see it is now 100%. Generally you can bank on approximately 25% of your followers reached interacting with your post, so now this post that was seen by 500 people has been interacted with 125 times. In the eyes of Facebook this post has been displayed to 500 people and 25% of those have interacted with it. The algorithm therefore decides that this post is hot, relevant or interesting. It is therefore worthy of a position on your timeline and Facebook will then increase the number of your followers who will also see that post. Now say that in total Facebook shows your post to 25% of all your followers, and 25% of those go on to interact with it. That's 3125 different people. The average Facebook user has 388 friends. I don't have that many, but it is the average. Let's say that Facebook then goes on to show just 15% of your friends that you have interacted with that post. That's 158,000+ people who have never seen speedway before, getting the chance to watch this video, and in turn, the chance to like the page themselves. Not only have you grown the page following ready for your next big post, but you've also reached over 150,000 people who before now had never even heard of speedway. If you make that video exciting enough, who knows how many of them will like the page? How many of them will watch more online? How many of them will see their local match advertised on the page and pop down with some friends to watch? The algorithm is simple. You need a large number of interactions on a post to boost the amount of people who see it. A page that is comprised only of speedway fans can generate a large number of interactions as the post is relevant to the audience, whereas a page with only a small number of speedway fans cannot generate a large number of interactions and therefore the snowball effect does not take hold. Additionally, how is sharing a clip of Tai speaking Scouse going to attract anybody to the sport? Nobody knows who Tai is. I'm a speedway fan and even I wouldn't be interested in watching something so boring. You need quality content that people will want to watch, and it absolutely cannot require any prior knowledge to be enjoyed. This is a screenshot of last months reach on one of the social media pages I represent: This particular page has under 100,000 followers, and yet over the course of the month we reached well over 2 million people and generated over £1,000,000 revenue in that period alone. Not only that, but as you can see from the graph above it was entirely organic. We didn't spend a penny to achieve that. Social media is anything but an echo chamber. In fact it is the single most valuable tool any business has access to during this era. The companies that embrace social media, learn it's ways and understand how to extract the best from it will succeed. The companies with ignorant and closed minded mentalities like yours will flounder and unfortunately it appears speedway is settling in down that route. Next?

Rubbish comment!

as old racer says ray how can ford legally ask for a transfer fee,with bosman as a legal guideline it would be a very quick legal judgement

rene bachs own words before last season were he would only ride for glasgow or newcastle but im led to believe when he wasnt getting enough rides he did offer his services to another team and also led to believe hes not got sorted this year with teams in his prefered leagues so you never know uk might be on his mind

That's a fundamental misunderstanding of how social media marketing works. It's not voodoo, it's a tried and tested formula that will grow the sport. A speedway themed coffee shop in Poole will only attract the old codgers that are already attending every week, whilst the young hip market you're trying to reach is sat in the Starbucks down the road scrolling through Facebook on their mobile phone. Before you get started... this is a long post. But for those who aren't aware of how exactly social media works, it should prove an interesting read for you. So the question... How do you get the message outside of speedway regulars who are likely going to be the only people who follow Poole on Twitter/Facebook? Every time you interact with something on Facebook, whether it be a like, comment or share, those items are then also shown to your friends. Say you have 200 friends on Facebook, and you click the like button on a cat video, your one like therefore has the potential to reach your 200 friends. Say 2 of those friends also like that video, and they have 200 friends each, there is now another 400 people who have seen your post. In the industry we call this "reach". Now say all the clubs start promoting the Speedway GB Facebook page. It is being printed in every programme, it's being shown on every electronic display board and the announcers at every single club are telling you at each meeting to visit the Speedway GB Facebook page and hit that like button. Maybe you encourage them by saying that every month one lucky follower will win a family ticket? Merchandise? Etc. Now say you've managed to build that page up to 50,000 followers. They've already got 16,000 followers so it's more than doable. You then create a short (professional, none of this amateur tosh) 60 second clip packed full of all the best bits of speedway. Some epic passes, some fighting between the riders, some scenes of packed grandstands, a few big crashes, and you share that to your Facebook page. Now your 50,000 followers interact with the video by hitting the like button, commenting or sharing. That video is then likely to be displayed to many thousands more people. That's how a Facebook page with 50,000 followers can reach 250,000 people or more with one post. A chunk of those people will also like the page. Rinse and repeat. And the best part? You can now advertise to each and every one of these followers, every single day of the year and it won't cost a PENNY. Not only can you advertise to each and every one of them, but you can also segment your posts so that they are only seen by people living in certain regions. You can therefore plug every single meeting in advance and only local people will see the post. Social media works. And that's just one Facebook page. You get every club doing this, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and you start giving away free passes, free merchandise, sharing epic clips and generally interacting with the fans and before you know it you have a marketing powerhouse at your fingertips and it's not cost you more than the annual wage of 1 or 2 staff members split between all the clubs. This coffee shop nonsense, although a nice idea, is just another step backwards. It will be another waste of money with little to no return, that will only further convince the dinosaurs in this industry that advertising and marketing doesn't work.

The IOW Facebook page is saying that their centre green Presenter Chris Popple is standing down because of a combination of poor health and logistics. That’s a shame - I quite liked his style - but I assume it will leave a vacancy for someone looking to get involved. Barry Bishop seems to be a reasonable guy so I’m sure he would be happy to receive an approach from anyone interested.

This is so true. I still wonder how they are allowed be so loud when speedway bikes have to be muffled to death. Grrr.....