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It's madness that every team doesn't allow 16 year olds and under in for free every week!

No point in targeting new audiences, or even trying to hold on to your existing ones if you don't first of all give them a speedway meeting to attend. As has been said before, what those dullards Chapman and Godfrey have done is to unliterally wipe three clubs fixtures from the already sparse fixture list , which cannot fail to hit the attendances of the clubs concerned even further. They then compound that display of mismanagement by telling the fans absolutely nothing, not even the briefest of announcements and merrily carrying on as if nothing has happened, and hope the fans wont notice. The more I think about this utter, crass stupidity, the lack of communication, and the abject short sightedness of those at the helm, the angrier I get. They are worse than useless.

He was unhappy about the way Lakeside and other Friday teams fixtures were removed without warning. He said that ongoing discussions are to be had, and that whilst our next home fixture is in 2 weeks against Peterborough, this is only provisional as the official permission to run it has not been given yet. He stated that decisions were being made to benefit one club at the expense of several others. He didn't name names, but the implication was pretty clear that the culprit is Mr Godfrey at Scunthorpe.

NO! I won't have this... they changed the white helmet colour to green! They did all they could

I have just had to scroll to the top to check that I am actually on the Somerset thread. If you aren’t going to discuss Somerset topics guys can you use another platform to air your views please.

But you are now a serious prospect for the play offs. No one will touch EDI at home with a top four of Wells, Riss E, Worrall and Palovaara. Glasgow have handed you a lottery win by dispensing with their more flexible heat leader and rider most marketable to rival play off contenders on 7.57. Had it been Harris in the low 8's there would have been few takers, especially not Edinburgh. Its a spectacular own goal by Glasgow that could end our own fragile playoff hopes, particularly as the last two league meetings are Edinburgh home and away.

Superb guest choice

The tracks are too small and the bikes are too fast. Has anyone got a magic wand.

Yes but Fred Flange, I’m not the one populating most threads with spats with other posters, and rarely being on topic.

Unfortunately with a PR company you have situations like last Monday. A live TV match on a major broadcaster, 2 evenly matched teams , the most successful team of recent years as the visitors,a modern purpose built track and stadium , beautiful weather and no clashes with the World Cup. And what do we get , 2 hours of dross,a trapping contest with riders strung out like washing after 1 lap with little or no racing. A bore fest, now how could any PR company worth its salt do anything with that ? Unfortunately that's where we are !

I hear what your saying but my point is that in whatever business your in, you have to listen to the paying customer and adapt to keep them happy or you will lose clients..

Yes the troll will come up with another load of rubbish re replacements, just like Chris Harris

Riding stoke most weeks would dent any riders confidence

The sport needs an independent body with a blue print plan for the future of the sport, I think most agree on this. The sport needs to go back to basics and concentrate on the product on offer. We can't afford the top lads so get rid of them for a while, spend the money not on wages but track prep, presentation, advertising and putting on an entertaining evening with fast flowing speedway on a well prepared track with a slick show in between races to keep fans entertained. A consistent fixture list is essential with the only non race night is because the team is away that night for a fixture. The governing body needs to at first win back the trust of the existing fan base with transparent honesty and then look towards winning back the lost fans base and then and only then can it start to attract a new fan base. Stabilise the current business, work within the existing financial constraints and then start to build for a future.. They have to consolidate what they have first, work as a team and then build, this I doubt will happen..

Why should Sheffield Ipswich and Redcar be sacrificed just so the premiership teams can have fixed race nights. The championship / premier league / national league has always been a better run league. Several clubs have been tempted “up” and then been shafted and either closed or ran in the current national league.

You are nothing if not consistent in your anti Lakeside rantings. You may think your comments are meaningful but they just exemplify exactly what you are . After experiencing a truly awful track at Peterborough and then being lied to by the then promotion, I vowed never to go there again (and haven't) but I do not constantly post anti Peterborough comments. You need to get a life!

I must admit it was close and waited for the official announcement before jotting down scores . P.S did you touch the tapes ?.

They have not listened to anyone, as far as I know, or asked any fans or groups of fans about preferences. The BSPA should be going ahead with a survey of the type recently posted ( which was first done 20 years ago ). They neither welcome nor acknowledge feedback from their customers. Such businesses usually end up by closing down. I agree with your choice myself.

Again you are missing the point, I was comparing Klindt score against those of the rest of the team. Such was the advantage of having a strong reserve, any team would have profited likewise had they had the same.... In all of my years , jealousy has never been one of my straits. In fact I believe jealousy is such a juvenile behaviour, that its probably more in keeping with those who think it.....

Agree, but, better a guest, if it had been last night, been down to 5, too risky against a good Sheffield side

maybe give them a free rattle and a club rosette?

A very enjoyable meeting with lots of good races. Much credit must go to Sheffield who gave a real battling performance. The two 5-1s in heats 13 and 15 made the score look a lot more comfortable than it ever felt. Fortunately for the Hammers, Lawson and Morris were superb, and it's that spearhead that may make the difference for us when the trophies are handed out.

I don't know why any sensible person wouldn't go for the heat 15 option when winning the toss.

Not fans at fault it's down to the BSPA who have allowed this to happen , fans, have not created this situation , alarm bells have been ringing for years , when the so called top league started poaching riders from the now known championship to double up in reserve positions for the now known premier league , you see they even nicked our league name because they know we have a better product.

Heaven forbid that someone on a forum gives his opinion about having at reserve an ex-Leicester rider who is a good gater.

They don't respond well to big wide tracks with patchy surfaces either. Big or small, riders need a smooth consistent surface in order to perform well. Unfortunately British weather is not always conducive to that. The quality of the shale at certain tracks doesn't help much either.

KELVIN Tatum has an idea that we will be producing in SS shortly. Fundamentally, reduce the costs for riders and they require less from the promoters. Most British tracks haven't changed in decades but the equipment they are using certainly has.

Yeah, he's very happy these days, got a good life going..

The worry for me is I don't need to fill in a speedway survey. I would just write at the top in big letters ,' The racing is not good enough " and I'm not sure how the promoters fix that ?

People often don't know what they actually want. They know what they like after they've seen it and tried it, but I very much doubt the average consumer product was designed after extensive public consultation. Apple is the classic example. Steve Jobs just dictated what customers would like and offered a very limited range of products. However, he had an innate sense of what would work even though more seasoned marketeers would baulk at dropping the floppy drive or serial port for example. Yet his vision stimulated a stagnant technological market and opened-up an entirely new line of business. Microsoft on the other hand, also dictated their product line early on, but lost the plot when they started to consult user groups which is how the abomination that was Windows 8 came about. They lost me as a customer around that time, and whilst they're far from down and out, they've progressively lost market share, and barely feature in the lucrative mobile device space since their disastrous attempt of buying Nokia's mobile phone business.

I don't think speedway needs market research to tell that its custom has been declining for years. The bigger question is what to do about it, and I've yet to see any Eureka suggestion on here about how to improve the situation. On the one hand you've got the 'too much watering down' brigade who'll advocate bringing back all the top riders but without explaining how that could be afforded even assuming those riders are actually available. Then you had those advocating that 'fixed race nights' would cure everything, without explaining how more fans were likely to turn up on a Monday evening. Now of course you have those saying 'I told you it would be a disaster, we need to go back to racing every day of the week', but again without explaining how you'll resolve the problems with missing riders which was the reason for moving to fixed race nights in the first place. That's before we even get as far as '13 heats with a proper second half' and '2-valve uprights' wheeled out as the ultimate panacea.

lots of riders find it very difficult to get paid abroad when you look at the league matchs from sweeden and Poland sometimes the crowds look low compared to some uk meetings ive often wondered about the big money rumours from such leagues

They had the chance to get a stronger reserve in when the 2 changes were made. IMO, Newman should have been retained & Kurtz released, I know he was injured at the time but he was back with Lakeside a week later, this would have given them a much stronger reserve & a better balanced line-up.

Heres a question. as weak as Scunny is at the moment , will they turn Berwick over tonight. I believe they are preparing the track really heavy for tonight.

Can you imagine a footballer not signing for a club till the fans buy him a new pair of football boots

I’m guessing they wouldn’t turn you away if you offered to help with the track ?

Just in my time following Speedway you can pin point so many beginning of the ends... Thatcherism and the rise of the economy and the value/price of building land The loss of Wembley Wiggy race fixing sting Amalgamation of BL & NL World of Sport ending and the loss of pretty regular free to air TV coverage Sky getting TV rights and BSPA falling over themselves to attend to their every whim... and usually ballsing it up Double Points Cov/Peterborough BSPA stand off Poor tracks Faster and faster bikes The rise of Poland The list goes on and on the truth is it's a gradual chipping away of the integrity and excitement of the sport, lack of decent facilities, a refusal to move with the times... etc. etc.

The other home loss was no slip up, it was a booby trap or buster trap. First league match where the luckless Aces get to track their starting 1-7. If luck evens out over the season as some suggest, we won’t lose again.

Jon Cook was on the mic about it last night. He was obviously constrained in what he could say as he was talking about being fined by the BSPA if he said too much but talking about Lakeside , Peterborough and Worky having their race nights taken away , the gist of what he said was that certain clubs have to accept they cant win everything and they'll soon finish up racing against themselves. Its interesting that the clubs under attack, Lakeside, Peterborough and Workington are they main play off contenders at the moment. Draw your own conclusions.Of course the BSPA could clear up any speculation immediately by issuing a statement but we still have deafening silence from the Chapman/.Godfrey Mafia. So much for Chapmans empty promises of being open with the fans. They cannot see that it is them that is bringing the sport into disrepute and driving the fans away.

https://www.speedwayservice.at/images/racecards/2018/SEC2018-02.pdf

To be fair the ambition was to make Speedway great again and increase crowds so much so that the BSPA wholly funded the first year on Sky. The second year was a shared contribution and year three was the first deal but please don't run away with the idea that it was all bunce. The historical costs of getting it on air had to be restored, TR had knocked on every TV companies door and Ole Olsen had followed him by coincidence (or not) with his GP proposition, no broadcast or production partner were prepared to take a risk on British Speedway! Through Terry the BSPA took the risk and funded it in the belief that it would establish a TV audience that would repay their investment and it did. Sky are not and never have been the problem, this sport parceled itself up for television not the other way round.

Same at King's Lynn,free for u16's. Poole seems extremely expensive for kids.Didn't realise any clubs charged for kids of 5 years old. Every club should at least allow kids of 11 and under in for free.They are the future of the sport and at that age is the time to hopefully get them hooked,before they get hooked on all the other rubbish.

Go on Tony get this years set up on Survey Monkey and we'll give it a go, same questions so that any comparison is like for like

Teriffic article in the Swindon section by Terry Russell in this week's Speedway Star, bemoaning the fact that Speedway's 'second division' are allowed to call the shots over the top league. He cites the case of 3 of his riders for whom Swindon pay all the costs also being used by Lakeside who pay nothing other than points money yet get priority of those riders when there is a (potential) fixture clash. I couldn't agree more.

While the Workington away results continue to amaze me, can I ask when is our next home meeting?? Am I right in thinking that the cut off point for the league is around 10th September, think we have 8 home league meetings to fit in before that, then at least 2 (hopefully) in KO cup, then semi final of trophy match against?, And hopefully a play off semi and final to squeeze in, that's a minimum of 10/11 home fixtures, If the weather returns to normal that's another factor to squeeze in, Not being negative I know that the bspa caused most of this, but is asking a hell of a lot to squeeze in and provided the opposition agrees, Come on comets it's coming home lets get the crowds flocking to Derwent park to see some silverware.

EMAIl star@pinegen.co.uk with your address or where you purchase and we will see what alternatives there are. It is a gamble for us but the intransigence of WH Smith towards not only Pinegen but other small publishers is shameful. Ultimately they will suffer and probably help hasten their demise which is already on the cards.

I can only think it's so riders are available for guest appearances, it's a case of you can't ride Fridays, even though in January we agreed you could on these Fridays.

Read the post properly and check your facts all our Friday meetings were removed from the fixture list due to ..cough cough.. rider availability, the main reason for my post

Hope the 3 Clubs affected by this injustice appeal to the SCB as they have the power to overturn the decision,

Probably not but not to worry , with Teams having to re-arrange fixtures there be plenty of our riders to choose from for Guests to help them reach the play-offs while we struggle to get our fixtures in before the cut-off