4thbender

Quote from Josh Bates video interview on Speedway GB website: "I feel more cleverer on a bike...."

Sledging season starts straight after Christmas.

And you'd still get home in time to see the other antiques roadshow (the one on telly at 8.00pm I mean)

Even worse.

Absolutely agree - 4.00pm is neither one thing or the other. Too early for an evening match and too late for an afternoon match. Sunday tea is a special time in many families and taking dads away from 3.00 till 6.30 will ruin family time on Sundays and won't be popular with mums. We spend our weekends at Brid and I can't see my missus agreeing to have an early dinner and leave the caravan straight after in order to get back by 4.00 so I guess that's the end of over 50 years as a supporter.

If speedway in Poland can encourage families to attend and a younger fan base can be created, is there any reason why the UK can't emulate their success?

For a sport that delivers only 15 minutes of action, it's rather remarkable that it celebrated its 90th birthday in February 2018. Don't you think that the paying punters should have twigged by now?

They said that about rugby league in the 1980s; they said it about cricket for decades; in 2015 it was alleged (by none other than Damon Hill) that Formula 1 was dying. Every sport has a 'BluPanther' who tells everyone else what can't be done. The truth is, if we all listened to nature's 'BluPanthers' they'd probably be proved right. It's lucky for us there are still people with drive, commitment and ideas. I'll throw my lot in with the latter.

Nice to encounter one of life's natural optimists.

I understand your fears but I think putting barriers between the leagues is not the answer. We have to recognise that any rider would want to compete at the highest level his ability allows and to place punitive conditions on riders moving from NL to CL (or CL to PL) is not in the best interests of the sport or the riders. The reality is that Speedway operates a progressive regime. Generally speaking, young riders start out their careers in the NL and, when their skills allow, move to the CL and thence to the PL. To place an artificial 'glass ceiling' above the NL to prevent riders fulfilling their potential in the upper leagues (and punishing them if they dare to try) is not in the best interests of the sport or its riders. Speedway needs to find ways of encouraging teams and riders to work together progressively for the good of the sport and improve its marketing image as an entertaining and competitive family sport to attract people back to the terraces. The Pathfinder report does it for me.

Or a single league of 18 - 20 teams.

Considering the vastly reduced number of fixtures this year, (and the fact that Worky went through almost the whole of May without a home meeting) it's nothing short of scandalous that they should have failed to complete their fixtures. The fault lies entirely with the SCB and the promoters for the totally dysfunctional league programme which was unfit for purpose from day1 of the season.

I agree. Perhaps some people would prefer to go back to the 1960s when all leathers were black, except Nigel Boocock (blue), Mike Broadbanks (red) and Olle Nygren's white boots.

…. And HERE he is wearing 'em

I believe Doug Wyer of Sheffield was the first rider to wear tassels when someone bought him a set of tasseled leathers to wear at the 1976 World Final at Silesian Stadium in Poland. I seem to recall reading somewhere that he was always embarrassed by the fancy tassels.

David Howe has announced his retirement from the sport: http://www.speedwaygb.co.uk/news.php?extend.35762

As someone from the steel city, I couldn't agree more. Starting out as an unfancied team you're now mopping up all the silverware. Well done Comets!

Exactly! In any team sport that takes itself seriously doubling-up and guests would be unthinkable - it runs totally contrary to the spirit of sporting competition.

Yes, but the trouble is they'll probably earn enough to buy tickets to come back next March!

They'll still be racing at Christmas. Comets' season didn't start till June, whereas Sheffield's finished in August. Is it a new policy to stagger the season so that more riders are available to fill guest bookings?

How many more ways can the promoters contrive to coq-up this joke of a season?

"Doubling up" - along with speedway's insidious fixation with using "guests" - makes speedway a laughing stock within the serious sporting community. In any other professional team sport the idea of participants representing more than one team would be a non-starter. Can you imagine the outrage if Liverpool's Mohamed Salah did a bit of moonlighting for Tranmere Rovers?

I'm beginning to wonder if the light has started to dawn on the speedway authorities at long last, 'cos I've just come across this on a lesser visited forum on this site: THE PATHFINDER REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS 2018". The report has the feel about it that suggests it may have been commissioned by someone with authority within speedway. It identifies all the major challenges facing the sport in the UK, contains a detailed analysis of speedway's current assets, and makes recommendations as to the way forward in 2019 (which all look eminently do-able.) It makes some astute observations about where UK speedway is letting itself down as a marketable product and gives some really practical signposts as to how it might improve its marketing potential. Overall it contains some radical and controversial suggestions but my view is that it reads like a breath of fresh air. If someone in the higher echelons has really started to think along these lines then our sport may yet even manage to drag itself into the 21st century. One thing's for certain: if the powers-that-be stick to the 2018 formula in 2019 (as some have suggested), we are all down the pan.

2018 has been one of the hottest, driest summers on record.... and the speedway authorities - in their wisdom - delivered the shortest speedway season in the history of the sport, with endless numbers of blank dates in the diary and many teams going weeks without a fixture. Yet here we are in the midst of October's gales and deluges trying to stage the season's most important play-offs on sodden tracks. Am I alone in seeing the irony of this? You really couldn't make it up.

Now THERE's a coincidence!... With regard to "root and branch investigations," I've just come across this on a lesser visited forum on this site: THE PATHFINDER REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS 2018". I don't know who's written this but it has the appearance of something that could have been commissioned by the sport's authorities. It identifies all the major challenges facing the sport in the UK, contains a detailed analysis of speedway's current assets, and makes recommendations as to the way forward in 2019 (which all look eminently do-able.) In short, it seems to recommend two leagues: a National League and an 18/20-team unified Premier/championship league, which it calls the British Speedway Champions League. Each of the teams in this league will sign a core of five premiership/championship riders plus a "reserve" team of 3 riders made up mainly from National League doublers-up. At the start of each match the 3 "reserve" riders from each team will compete in a 'B' team match over three heats, from which managers can then select two riders to make up the nos. 6 and 7 in the team proper. The League match will then follow over 13 heats. If I'm reading it correctly, guests and R/R will be completely outlawed! The report then goes on to make some astute observations about where UK speedway is letting itself down as a marketable product and gives some really practical signposts as to how it might improve its marketing potential. Overall it contains some radical and controversial suggestions but my view is that it reads like a breath of fresh air. If promoters have really started to think along these lines then our sport may yet even manage to drag itself into the 21st century. THERE COULD BE HOPE EVEN YET!