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Turning to the current scene, sadly my planned trips back to Rye House have been scuppered so far by health so my chance to comment on actual sightings hasn't happened. But I've watched TV and video clips, read carefully the reports of others and yes, I'm worried. Knowing a little about losing money at Rye House (thankfully as an onlooker only) I suspect it's haemmorrhaging again. Like it or not, Rye House's history lies in weekend racing and has since Dicky Case ran it as Wembley's training track prewar. It grieves me to think of the place dead at weekends just so the promoters can run in the 'big time', or at least as 'big' as Britain can get these days. It was ambitious of BMR to take the Rockets up. It might have been more sensible to mix the ambition with knowledge and experience. I suspect it might have been cheaper. I've heard of last years figures and they were frightening enough without running without the TV money this year. Have there been demoralising pay cuts? Something's wrong. I will not speculate on reliability of payment - I have no evidence and that would be wrong. I want to see a stable Rye House running at weekends and whatever league it takes to achieve that then go for it. Steve Ribbons evokes the days of the Infradex team. Is what we've got now really better than a thrilling team of home-developed talent who were always free for a chat after racing? No it's not about 'rosy glasses', it's knowing what does or doesn't work at Rye House.

It's a shame how the place has turned out, it's being run into the ground and it would be a sad state if it did shut but that is all that looms in the future for Stoke. Needs a new promoter but the current promoter wants ridiculous money for the sale. It has potential to be a great stadium but not with this current shower running it!

Like how far our heads can get in the sand before we stop breathing?

Well just to keep this post going I've just noticed that every Glasgow rider is now doubling up or, in the case of Jack Thomas, down. I don't care what anyone, rider, fitness expert or psychologist says but no one can give 100% to two or more jobs especially with the amount of travel involved in speedway. Fans are yet again being short changed while the sport is being diluted by stupid rules.

WHEN I was assistant Race Director for a Copenhagen GP at which Madsen was the wild card, he was late for signing-on, late for riders' briefings and late for practice. Remember asking him whether he was on a different time zone. Seemed in a world of his own. Strange character.

Hello back!

Maybe he should stop with the golf carts and walk with his club's...

Shanes and Rye is not a good fit. He’s not a point and a half better than Clegg’s 2 point average so to sign him would be stupid. At least we didn’t sign him on an 11 odd average!

Even Keith Chegwin wouldn't take that swap

We were warned about KK when he signed. His inconsistency drives you mad. Most of the Rockets side have been up and down all season. In fact the only consistent rider had been Max Clegg.

KNOWS his way round Rye House

Unfortunately that's what it is all about nowadays with riders,how many meetings can I ride a week ,doesn't matter who for.

Still going through old mags, and back in 1978 Belle Vue were celebrating its 1502 member to the Supporters’ Club. I know it is 40 years since, but perhaps the lure of following a team – you needed to join the club to travel on club coaches – was one of the reasons. Belle Vue, admit ably, had an attractive side, but they had a decent line-up for much of the seventies. My belief - back then; it was the lure of following a side you could identify with. They were your boys, which you felt all sort of emotions when they won and lost. Racing was no better, but you had the belief that it was your side. You were energised to follow it on its travels, even the odd individual meeting that one of your riders was in at some far off corner of the country. But that has gone. And so-called promoters scratch their scratched-scarred heads wondering why. Speedway has suffered a continuous decline since 1978, but modern day speedway puts two fingers up at the fans that want that team ethic back we had even 20 years ago. When you see men on television riding in a Swedish match and scoring well after having had a bit of a stinker for your club just 24 hours earlier, it makes you think – why should I support a team of riders who don’t really mind what they net for you or your team, because they have a preferred match in Sweden or Poland later that same week?

Id be surprised if a well respected Speedway man like Vasey puts his name to the shambles that is Stoke Speedway

Anyway...back to planet speedway..glad to hear Ulrich has no broken bones.

You worry about Poole, Somerset seem quite happy with Garry May.

Jack has knuckled down and gets on with his job. Very easy to work with. Must be happier this year.

best thread in the championship section i’ve seen in a while I have to say! Sheff fan realising his team isn’t anywhere near as good as he thought and unhappy that they was knocked out of a competition even though everything was followed by the rules...

when i was on a bike i was living the dream, the money side of it really wasn't an issue, and when i rode in the first team i didn't have a clue what money i was on i just wanted to get out there and ride. when i was at Canterbury they rode Saturdays so i just didn't work that day, and when at Exeter (3 hrs each way) i just took half day holiday from work on a Monday (BT) and took the bike in to work on the back of the car and left it in the BT yard ready to drive straight down. away meetings were holiday from work unless it was Wimbledon which was 10 minutes from me. at times i'd take 2 bikes on the trailer but it was very rare. basically what i'm saying is that now it just seems to be nowhere near that, even for MDL or whatever, it's all moved into being a business and self-employed and not about getting out on the bike

Meaning?

Hes annoyed because his mate Becker couldnt ride... Greg is now and has always been a d**k

Calculator to hand I hope. Those scores get tricky come heat 14.

Maybe he should just try and be a modern day pro speedway rider.

Although totally different circumstances I recall - with a slightly wry smile - when Poole dropped the 'loyal Kyle Newman' last year there was an outcry in favour of the rider, but when Somerset drop the 'loyal Charles Wright', some are totally supportive of the management! Strange bedfellows some of speedway's folk!!!

Same old KK tho. He has been doing that for years. How he ever got to be world number 2 once is beyond me.

He was merely a shadow of the rider we know he can be on Sunday , Witches fans and management must be totally frustrated with his recent performances when you know there is a much better rider in there somewhere, your management need to get to the bottom of whatever is problem is, be it mental block, physical, injury, or machinery problems, no one likes to see riders with talent just wasting away when know they have something about them and know they can do a great deal better. I was very disappointed in his efforts at the showground.

Quite honestly it was so dire in terms of racing and passing, I felt we would have been justified in asking for our money back. If it had not been for the return of Robert it would have been a match worth about £2.50p.

Woeful indeed were Rye House and their team structure needs a re-think for next season. Their veteran riders are just about past it away and they have little to offer lower down the team last night. Robson in heat 15 says it all. As for KK it's a good thing for him there is no retrospective action in speedway as he definitely brought the sport into disrepute. He threw his toys out of the pram after being caught out moving at the start in every ride. Cheated the paying fans as I have seen him score a brilliant five ride maximum around Saddlebow Rd in the past. He will never rise again to world class heights with that temperament. The return of the Prodigal Son was wonderful, both in the photo opp. with the British Championship trophy and on track later - There's only one Robert Lambert! Sadly the battle with the first England football match was lost as there were less than 1,000 people there and I don't feel it was because of it being a Monday. Better holding matches on a Monday with a full KL team than on Weds with several riders riding in Denmark.

Matej Kus

Ha ha! Brilliant. I will always bring up the truth as long as it's relevant and it was to the post I quoted it was. Pretty ironic people complaining about CW talking to people a certain way when Jack was way worse and I doubt he has changed much, I guess Somerset pander to some riders (to an extent). Yes I am gutted he isn't at Poole, NOT!

I would think Comets v Peterborough as our best/better option being as we have riders that like to go AWOL at the other two, at least this way one of those tracks will be removed from our equation!!

“Get what you pay for” ...ask any of the team who’s getting paid at all.!!!??

So you say for the 162nd time.... not that you're bitter that he is now riding as a heat leader

As Pirate Nick says there's 2 sides to every story.

.....and was there not a problem when he and his father went to Glasgow to sign for the Tigers, and walked out on the deal claiming that Glasgow had welched on the promises regarding accommodation and workshops. In the late 00's.

As JCF I trust knows the cost etc is not the point.

While we may have all the cover we need it does not seem to speed things up that much.IMO It is more important for the rider to have the proper attention though.

Well Charles certainly gives the other side of the story on his facebook page.

Best thing for him and the team

What did your promoter say then. But if Sheffield had gained one more point away then they would have qualified, and they had one more chance than Peterborough.

You could also say teams from the southern group were denied the chance to have equal amount of matches to be able to compete with the other 2 groups and to say all this is news to you about the percentages used to calculate best second place is utter nonsense , it been banded about on here 5/6 weeks but you never heard about it.

You yet again ignore the defeats Pboro 3 pts per home meeting Sheffeiled 3 pts per home meeting Identical records Pboro 3 pts from 2 away ave 1.5 Sheff 4 pts from 3 away ave 1.33° Now which is the better away record??

You fail to take any account for the 2 defeats that Sheffield had whilst Peterborough only had 1 Pboro won half their away meetings and Sheff a third - when I went to school a half was larger than a third Even 1 losing point in either of those wouldve given the Tigers a better match point average and they didnt manage it You talk of mathmatical advantage of a smaller group when the larger group had the advantage of an extra chance to gain an all important losing point That team didnt even have to win or draw to gain an advantage only lose by less!

Thank you I didn't want to have to say it myself.

Yes and 2.25 trumps 2.167 and that’s the one that matters so stop acting like such a child.

The reality check is that if we hope for speedway to survive in the UK in a league racing structure , we have no option except to go that way. Do without riders involved in the Polish leagues ( whoever they are ) and hard sell weekend racing all over the country. That is the only idea that will work, as the first step to building up crowds and interest in the sport. The world has moved on and speedway has not,

Seems like the only person Phil has criticized in the sport is Charlie Webster and the NZ promoter.And it was funny that he only criticized him once he pulled out of promoting a GP!!!!Before that,he was a great bloke lol

A sad fact is a good percentage of young riders don’t understand the importance of a good clean air filter but strangely think it’s important to have an anadized joker throttle

Don’t get me wrong, although it may come across that I’m out to get at riders I’m not, this is about the bigger picture of the future of the sport, the fact is the crowds are getting smaller and the money is getting less, now we can all blame the bspa or cradley or Donald trump or whoever you want but the fact still remains we are where we are and now buxton are struggling to field a team because of riders demands , my angle on this far too much is spent on unnecessary equipment by the riders, there is no need for a lot of it but riders want it and believe they need it and so pushing costs up and who funds the costs? The fans who are not turning up, the sport as a whole needs to get a grip on costs and machinery but to get this to happen is like pulling teeth, there are many people in the sport who don’t understand or just turn a blind eye to just how bad things are financially at some clubs, we are slowly dying and as painful as it is, we need to take steps to address this and we are not doing anything and I can honestly say the sport I love and have devoted my life too sometimes deserves to die, it is it’s own worst enemy, I listen to riders talk about money from speedway and quite frankly they couldn’t care less if a club shut down as long as they got their money, i know it costs a fortune to race, when i was in the premier league I spent a fortune on engine bills with top tuners like blomfeldt and bullet and I still have the eye watering bills even by today’s standard and I was on piss poor money , infact it was less than national league riders today and I lost £1000s but that’s what I had to do, i didnt spend on unnecerary bits that I couldn’t afford , you could argue that I didn’t make it but it wasn’t through lack of ambition or money, I rode against some big names and rode in all 3 leagues but at the end of the day I didn’t have enough talent but I never set out to or expected to earn a living from speedway, I was in it to be the best, I suppose world champion in some fairyland day dreams and when that didn’t happen I just decided to change the way I approached speedway and had a blast , just want to add my finest moment was I beat Nicki Pedersen and there ain’t many riders in the sport who can claim that lol. One other point I have made before is you get the best 10 NL riders on the best bikes money can buy v Jason Doyle on a 10 year old GM who will win ? Until the day comes when it’s a NL rider wins then I will keep plugging my point about unnecerary costs, we could just ignore the whole thing and put £5 rise on admission for the fans

To me its fairly obvious, there are 15 minutes of racing in speedway meeting, yet meetings tart at 7.30 and finish at around 9.15 on average, stadiums in general do not have full under cover stands, pa systems that are pizz poor, announcers/presenters that are ta best average in terms of geeing up the crowd and keeping everyone entertained. Fans and riders used to moan about Frank Ebdon but maybe just maybe he was ahead of his time in pushing meetings through, todays youngsters are the one's that will need to sell speedway to their youngsters going forward, nobody wants to stand out in the elements for nigh on two hours for 15 minutes of entertainment and lets be honest most races or even meetings may not be entertaining!