weatherwatcher

I personally think there are great big problems at Brandon. From the pictures when it was announced that the meeting had been cancled, it gave me a feaing of going back in time to some of the stadiums of the late 50 and early 60's. It seems to have lost it's way and now that they have been given 3 years to the close of the stadium. I think they would be better to make the move now. Even if it meens sharing a track until they are up and running with thier own stadium. It looked an absolute tip in the centre of the track. Not sure what they do there but it looked like a piece of waste ground. It is a sad thing to see, what with the report on the BPSA website from the Coventry promoter that until things get sorted out, there will be no home races at Brandon. There are quite a few stadium close by but would they let the Bee's race there, if not it looks like the Bee's will not be making a very good start to this season.

I can see it years from now. F1 cars and speedway bikes with no engines that you have to pedal around the track and the spectators can't clap or shout in case the can be heard from 10 miles away by the banker that brought his house in the country who complained about the cockrels crowing and the farm near him. What a sad old world we live in now. I can remember the days at the old Long Eaton track with so much noise it made your teeth rattle, and yes it was near houses and no one even bothered to complain in those days. Has something gone wrong with peoples hearing or are we just a load of wingers and moaners. I for one don't come into that bunch of idiots.We should all enjoy our sports and encourage people to be involed in them, that way it stops them moaning about kids sitting about on street corners doing nothing but they can't because they all moaned so much that all sports where stopped and all animals where destroyed and all motor vehicles where scapped to cut down on noise levels. You can't talk in public because it will be above the level of noise allowed. Just forget it and let us get on with our lives how we used to do. We should all enjoy our lives and live them to the full. If you don't like the noise then move somewhere else. Let us enoy our speedway and you can all go and bury yourselves in a big hole in the ground for all I care.

There was only really one winner. Well done PC.

Same here when I get a bag of buttons for the grandkids that used to be a tanner and now they are half a quid a packet. That dosen't boil down to infaltion to me jst sheer greed on the manifacters part. As you say I can remember the Daily Scetch at 3d. Not sure what a paper cost now as I stopped buying them. Save the forests.

White Knight. I agree with you. Why they ever got rid of fett, inches, pounds weight and pounds shillings and pence. I will never know. Some shop assistants I have seen these days, can't add up in the new coinage would hate to think of the mess they would make with the old money. Luckily for me being in engineering I had to learn to use the new metric system when it came in. It was hard work when you had drawings coming onto the shop floor with some measurements in metric and some in imperial. Like everything else in life things change, not always for the better.

The only product I can think of that could be used behind an air fence, is used converyer belting. It could be sourced maybe free of charge from belting people when they re-new an old belt as they only throw it away.. It would come in long enough lenths to cover the air bags and can be easily joined and could be buried under the ground part way with the rest abouve grouns fixed in some way. It is flexible enough to stop the rider from going under the fence and bring them to a safe stop. Just an idea to work for the re-cycling industry. May just help to save a few guys from some bad injuries.

I am afraid that is the way people are today. You can have noise as long as it is 20 miles from anyone living or working near the source. They just do not live in a real would. You get the yuppy types, who move into the counrty and then complain about the noise and smell from the farms. A poor old chap living close to us had kept chickens on his land for over 50 years. The farmer who owned the land behind his, sold it off at a price of over £2 million to a mate of his who was funnily enough a builder. They build a large housing estae behind him. The first thing the new residents did was complain about all the noise his chickens and cockerals made. Even though he won umpteem first prize awards with his birds. The poltry breaders assotiation fought his case and they, for all thier hard work lost the case, and he was made to get rid of all he had worked for for so many years. Soory to say within a couple of years he died, maybe through the loss of his hobby and the love of keeping his poltry. We live in a world where all people seem to do is complain about anything that doesn't suit thier way of life. Big house fast car or a housing estate of like wise people who are out just to spoil everyones fun. What chance do we speedway fans stand against a bunch of morons like this. Who live 2 miles away from a speedway stadium, with huge American bomber taking off and landing. When all thier tiny little minds can think about is, us the speedway fand enjoying our sport. Perhaps we will have to end up with the speedway riders using electric speedway bikes just to cut down on the noise. But then again they would still find something else to moan about. Like all the noise of the speedway fans arriving and leaving in thier cars. What a sad old world we live in.

I am afraid curling has about the same qualty has watching paint dry. Why anyone even bother to watch it beats me. Throw some stones down a strip of ice wait for the last but one to go in the circle then blast all the other stones away so you can get a point. Sorry give me speedway any day.

It is a shame if this goes ahead as a housing development. So many stadiums around the country have had to suffer this over the years. Poor old Weymouth is one that sticks in my mind. They lost thier track to housing and have been turned down, on a few more occasions with planning application for a new site. They haven't given up the fight the last time I looked but it seems that they are fighting a losing battle against the local autharities. It is a shame to see the loss of any speedway stadiums in this country. All they can do is try to fight as hard as they can to keep our sport going at tracks throughout the country. The biggest problem being the land holders who can make far more out of the land by selling it for housing than they ever will from renting it out to a speedway club/greyhound track.

With the GB team selection, don't think they are going to rip up many trees. We really have no one over here bar TW that can put up a show against the rest of the world. The Ben Fund race is at my home track and was thinking of taking the grandson to it. Might wait until the first race meeting against Wolves, to see TW in action. Would not want the team GB managers job for all the tea in China. What a sorry state our British speedway riders are these days. Just hope that one day soon we will have a fighting chance against the rest of the worlds best. But at present we are a group of also rans. Hope this idea with the reserves bring on some new talent as we badly need it. Personaly think that Bomber Harris is past his best now.

I just don't like the way that Darcy Ward rides. Not a lot of skill level but a great deal of speed. With no consideration to any other riders on the track. His control over the bike is practcally non existant. Giving it far to much thottle and the bike goes onto the back wheel and at times into other riders. I just wished now after the years he has raced at Poole and around the world he would by now have started to use his brain, if he actually has one. If he can't slow it down then at least learn to control the bike a bit more. He would then be a great rider.

Surely. Speedway riders could say that they fall into one of the below categories and not need to get a Visa to work. After all it is the government who have made these silly rules. High-value migrantsInvestors, entrepreneurs and exceptionally talented people can apply to enter or stay in the UK without needing a job offer - but you will need to pass a points-based assessment. Skilled workersIf you have been offered a skilled job in the UK and your prospective employer is willing to sponsor you, you can apply to come or remain here to do that job. Temporary workersIf an employer in the UK is willing to sponsor you, or if you are a national of a country that participates in the youth mobility scheme, you may be eligible to come and work in the UK for a short period.

Besr Wishes to Chris as he takes his first role as a speedway manager. It will be completely different to what he is used to doing and something he will only learn as the season goes by. I don't think the Whitches could look to a better person to take on this role. All the best to him

Next thing we know the start marshall will be there in his boxer shorts

That was part of the leak in the paper that published the article some time back. When it should not have even been made. What I ment to say even with set top boxes and Sky boxes not all people subscribe to Sky Sports.

At least they have come clean in the end. Great news that our sport continues to get screen time every week throughout the season for the next 5 years. Now all we need to know who is going to be the sponser. Not only for this year but the next 5 years unless it will be a year at a time. Now the BPSA have some hard work to do to find the right company that can match the £1 million that Sky invested every year for the past 10 years. A big boot to fill at prices like that. But now they have at least the carrot to dangle for the sponsership deal that thier products are going on the TV and will be seen in thousands of homes and speedway stadiums throughout the British Isles. Can any one tell me why speedway has never got a foot hold in the R.O.I or Eire.Have they ever had a speedway stadium over there.

It seems that this year the poor Ausies are having a rough time with the authorities who issue the visa's is this some sort of racial hate campain against them. I can't axctually see one of the aussie lads when the season ends, dissapearing and going to work at some seaside, surf boarding shop. When all it would mean that he would be an illeagal imigrant and he would never ride speeway in this country again. What a shame, don't actually know how many have been refused so far as I have only seen a couple so far. How this is going to affect this years teams I don't know. What with the Poles saying the riders in thier teams can't race on a Saturday, in case it affects thier team on a Sunday. With a few of them not bothering to come over here at all. Maybe the BPSA didn't have to put 2 riders in as reserve riders, because teams will be using more riders from the young Brithish riders next year if things carry on the way they are going. You may just as well put a block on all foriegn riders and just make British speedway, what it says all the leagues made up of British riders. Then the S++t will really hit the fan.

I remember back in the days of Black and White television. When the screens where 10 inches squre in a cabinet as large as a fridge. The only speedway we saw was on the BBC on Grandstand on a Saturday. You may have got 2 or 3 shown a year. Most from Wembly. Times have changed, the way people do things have changed. Nearly every town had a dog track that was packed out on a Saturday nights and doubled as a speedway stadium in the week. People went out to socialise. Now they have to go to the gym, play football on Sunday. If you had done anything on a Sunday in that eara, you would have been branded as if you where in league with the devil. I see no problems with speedway on the TV. That is not the cause of the drop in attendance figures at our speeday tracks. The problem lies with people changing life styles. It is up to the BSPA, to get people out there interseted in speedway again. Would it have hurt any to have put some adverts on the TV and the papers to let people know that speedway was still alive and kicking. Not everyone has Sky Sport on thier TV's Lots of people have got Free to view set top boxes. It is a need to let the public out there know, that they can go to a speedway stadium near to them. Have a night out, with a graet crowd of people and a good night out, with no violance as in some sports. Bring Speedway into the 21st century, before it slowly fades away, and people will be trawing the internet in 30 years time to look and see what the sport was all about. That is unless you go to one of the countries that make a big thing about the sport. This countries learders have sold it short for far to long. I remember going to Long Eaton and there where posters, on and around the stadium showing you every week who the where racing against. How many speedway towns and Citys, have a poster anywhere on or near thier stadiums these days. Come on don't let our sport do a dying fly, with it's feet flopping around in the air upside down. It is a great sport and one I love. Lets not let it die, like the fly.

We need the BSPA, to do something in someway to advertise the sport. Don't think that showing it on the television hurts our sport in any way. How many towns and city's that have speedway meetings actualy let people in that region know that there is actually a speedway track our a race night going on. I know my team do. It is in the local paper on the radio. With posters around the town centre. There must be more the BPSA can do though. Not everyone has SKY and not everyone has the internet. So come on it is time to get your act in gear if not speedway will be lost in this country, It will not take to long either. We have clubs folding and in financial difficulties. Clubs having to close due to losing thier land. The rot needs to be stopped before it is to late.

I don't think that showing speedway on Sky makes one iota's diffence to crowd figures. It is on team on one night and if it is not your club on that night you will turn up on your local stadium to watch your team race that is if you are a true fan. Ok like many I have.t the spare cash to go to every race at home and I am not in a postion to go to away matches due to ill health. If you where a true supportwer and it was your clubs turn to be shown on sky then either record it or watch it the day afyer that way you get to watch the racing twice or more. One the one at the track that is the real speedway with all the thrills spills and the smells and bells. All be it a cold shivery expirence. But if the racing is half good then you forget about the cold until you are on your way home. I for one love to watch it on tv and love it even more watching it live at my local stadium. So no I don't think that the tv coverage has done any harm to the droping figures at the stadiums just a changing world, where people now have so much going on in thier lives that very few people, have an interest in our sport. I for one have a feeling of going back in time when I went to Cradley Heath and Long Eaton now that I have my 9 year old grandson at my side. He loves the sport at the moment but I don't know if it will be that way when he gets to the age when he finds out about girls and he wants to go out with his mates on a race night. I can live in hope. The only thing that has changes is peoples life styles. It is a bit like our old corner shops.

Maybe it has been put into the hands 0f MI16 or the KGB or what ever it is now called. Because if it had it would have been out in the open now. Because getting info out of Sky and the BSPA is far tougher than getting it out of any seceret service.

So what went wrong. Since the day of Collins and Lee etc. One lack of funding. Two not enough being done to bring on young British riders, they race in the NL if lucky get a place in the PL. Three No training or get togethers for the team, so they can get used to riding with each other, it is about two riders working as a team not an individual. This year the youngsters may learn a bit from the senior riders in the EL, if they don't then who can you blame other than the senior riders not showing any interest in the young riders. They may not have enough time this year to do anything to stop the rot that has set in with British speedway. Hopefully things will get better, if these youngsters are brought on as they should be. In a couple of years we may just have a British team that we can be proud of. With Phil Morris working with the U21s U19s AND u16s. Hopefully this should if done right will bring on some good riders. That is if they are given the chance to ride in the top flight of British speedway. Get them riding second string in the EL instead of bringing in riders from other countries, some who could not care less if they ride with pride for the teams they race for, or just to get a ride in the EL. Seen some terrible races in the past few years on Sky where the riders may just have stayed at home. You could have gotten just the same effect if you had taken someone from off the side of the track and put them on a bike. Lets hope that 2014 and the next couple of years bring us some riders that will be proud to race for thier country and maybe will just be winners again and not a bunch of no hopers. What a sad lot we are.

It was great to see the article By Phil that he is going to continue. Looking after the young U21S, U19s and U16s. I don't think that they could wish for a better manager. If anyone can bring on this young and up and coming British Talent. Then I think they have got the right man for the job. Best of Luck Phil, we need to get the best from all these young riders to bring back some talent to or country.

Still nothing on the Sky speedway forum. They have appologised for the way they have replied to some earlier post. But are still keeping tight lipped and all they will state is that negotiations are still going on at the moment. So it is still wait and see. Lets hope they can tell everyone what is happening before the season starts.

Lastest post on Sky sport forum. Not sure if it is good news or bad news. But someone posted that Sky and BT had both reduced thier bids seriously and the contract to show speedway was now in the hands of Premier Sport. It is Sky based and you have to cough up £9.99 a month.Just hope it isn't yrue.