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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...

Don't think you would find anything conclusive. Most posters on here all want different things. Supposedly 81% of speedway star online wanted fixed race nights. Now about the same amount on here don't

Egos... Simply too many egos... Some promotions heat up the salary market for every team by paying daft money to riders to try and win competitions, which because of the lack of credibilty of the Leagues, hardly anyone actually cares about... The end game of course is that when there are no teams left to ride against then that team will be the Champions of their very own League... Hurrah! Yippee! A Nation Rejoices etc etc etc..

Please explain what they are learning as the league is now that they wouldn’t if everyone was on £15pp? What they are learning now is that they expect to earn a living as soon as they get a bike now , this is not just me who thinks this, it is a wide spead belief around speedway and while we all agree riders should earn millions, the money isn’t there, there are not enough fans coming to watch and everyone who try’s to justify riders pay in all league is just making it harder to get things to change, I’m not sure how much longer we need to say this before people get the message but we are dying as a sport and we are causing the death ourselves

Jason Doyle has inspired many riders by being focused fitter leaner and more determined. None of those attributes cost anything apart fro spending time in the gym. I believe cam shared a workshop last year with Scott Nicholls and went to the gym too when Scott went. Sadly that’s not the case this season and it clearly shows.

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

Can't see any imminent changes at the moment. A think Kus will make a mockery of his 'sub 5 ave.' and seems the rest are just about doing their job.

Approaching half the league matches completed for some teams, about time to examine relative performances, as at Sunday 16th June:- 1. Workington +5 (5M - 0H/5A) 2. Lakeside +4 (6M - 4H/2A) 3. Peterborough +3 (9M - 5H/4A) 4. Ipswich +2 (4M - 2H/2A) 5= Edinburgh +1 (5M - 2H/3A) 5= Glasgow +1 (7M - 5H/2A) 5= Berwick +1 (9M - 5H/4A) 8. Newcastle -1 (9M - 4H/5A) 9. Sheffield -2 (6M - 3H/3A) 10= Scunthorpe -3 (5M - 4H/1A) 10= Redcar -3 (9M - 3H/6A) E&OE Underlines how crucial away wins are.

Another way of looking at this table is:- If all teams win all their remaining home matches and pick up no points away from home, this is the order in which they will finish in the League. However, in general terms, losing at home will drop them down this order but gaining points away from home will lift them up the table. So, as Neil Watson said, it is a good way of comparing teams with varying numbers of home and away matches remaining.

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!!!

Have you ever worked somewhere where the people talk continuously about it closing, eventually after several years, even tens of years the place closes. It's called a self fulfilling prophecy. This thread is a bit like that. Why don't those people find something else to do.....

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

Swop you him for Clegg

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.

The regs dont allow his average to drop below 4

I see KK is bringing his Poole 2017 form to Rye tonight.

.....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.

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

You hope that May will regret this move and you call yourself a Somerset supporter. I don't think any fan would wish their club would take a downward turn for one rider. While I agree Wright has been a good servant and a popular rider if he made his position untenable then no rider is bigger than the club. I'm as big a fan of Wright as anyone but if he is arguing in the pits and demanding money to attend the end of season presentation night then the club is right. I don't think Vissing is the answer though.

But the away matches HAVE taken place ..... me thinks you are tying yourself in knots!!

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 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!

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,

When was he out of control? Having watched him regularly he has great control, he gives 100% every time just awful out of the gate. Could be a great rider if he learns to gate

Good win last night for the KLS Bandits Academy. Last night's junior meeting was sponsored by the Berwick Bandits Supporters Club.

How did he know if they were on a 4-2? He never looked behind once from the start of the race until Tai went past him. Watch the race again. Then, when Tai passed him, he looked round and slowed down a bit, but never did anything to make sure Emil never finished last. Just the token "look over the shoulder", which is not team riding. Neither side did any team riding in the final.

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

One things for certain and i agree with Dean on this,,, costs in all areas of the sport need to come down dramatically if the sport is to survive....

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

where does it say if you ride a speedway bike you have to make money at it ? costs to riders are what they are and that is vastly inflated by themselves having all the latest bling that isn't needed , ive seen riders lately buy a complete new set of rear sprockets and then sell them for another set because they changed the colour scheme ,not cause the sprockets were worn or in some cases even used but because hey the fans will pay for it, strangely you don't hear motox riders saying they want paying cause their costs have risen, I know exactly what the costs are but if you don't like it then go do something else, sick to death of hearing this costs this and this costs that, go do some other motorsport and tell the organisers you want paying because the price of diesel has risen or you just had an engine serviced, they will tell you to go away, we are talking about the lowest league riders and they want paying about £300 to do something they supposedly love, they should be greatful they have a league to ride in, ive tried to put forward ideas to reduce the costs to the riders but they are not interested and give a million reasons why they need this and that, if your big sprinter van doesn't do 40mpg get a smaller van that does or cant you fit the girlfriend in the back ?