singy13

The opening sentence jenga makes a very valid point regarding the current state, and future, of British speedway.....Those who 'run' the sport are very close to 'ruining' it and thereby losing their jobs.... You mention fixture planners, perhaps suffering insomnia, then you rightly slam the bspa/scb as guilty parties...so what about the riders? their UK jobs must be in jeopardy...Can all please wake up and smell the danger hurting British speedway and by any means all concerned try to revive this great sport...?

"if they dont know where we are now they never will"............yep true enough....but the key factor is.... when.!!!!!. And therein is a major problem regarding 'fixtures'..... it's been well documented that even die-hard regulars are finding it difficult to fathom them out this crazy season.....

Great post Taylorj......the Comets 2018 are up there with the best ever at Derwent Park.....however appealing for support on here is probably not very effective given that it will be the already committed Comet fans who read it.......with perhaps a few who used to turn but now just 'read all about it'. It might be a bit late to save the Comets but a campaign of some sort needs urgent attention to try and capture 'new support' from the west Cumbria region.....doesn't advertising always pay?(e.g News and Star/Times and Star/Whitehaven News)...flyers, roadside boards..anything to make folk aware.

Ok....................you will have probably seen the Comets legend Carl Stonehewer riding on one of your visits tho.....

Workington Comets of the Lou Sansom, Mal McKay, Taffy Owen, Reg Wilson, Bob Valentine era were a Friday track, with some Sundays - so 1970 to 1981...........only changed to Saturdays when Mole/Thomas re-opened track in 1999.

Whilst the actual racing was the main factor of your speedway fix......other factors had the crowd excited...sometimes incensed...and at Workington the original promoters, messrs. Thomas and Brownhutt, certainly knew how to fire up feelings during a meeting....e.g. home riders rushing to centre green phone to lambast ref... or an upset Comet racing into pits, apparently to sort out 'dirty' rival...it all made for excellent entertainment. I have read past posts with ref. to this and don't think such antics will ever surface as frequently again.....more's the pity.

The heading is 'The continuing decline of speedway' and most of it is interesting reading...makes you wonder why decline is the keyword when so many obviously still love the sport? But it seems speedway is always used to a rollercoaster existence........attendances especially. I first met up with speedway at Workington in 1970.....the novelty of it had crowds in excess of 3,000..all mad for the Comets...I remember travelling watch Workington soccer team play at Crewe during that year, and decided to have a look at the Crewe Kings track en route.....did this and was surprised to see a bloke appear from a caravan next to the track....wow it was top Comet Bob Valentine who seemingly helped with Crewe track?..... great stuff and we had a good craic with 'Bluey'...... he mentioned he had been at Wolverhampton, so I asked what crowd did they get.....his answer of around 1000 shocked us...blimey 1st Division only pulling in that many?...we had 3 times that at Derwent Park.....but as the years rolled by those figures plunged..and that is what happens with speedway....the novelty wears off and is hard to rekindle.....what is the answer to maintain interest....I've no idea!!!!!

Yes I agree.......it's just something that's been in place many years, a difficult prob, and we fans tend to accept it while ignoring what 'outsiders' think? I mean we turn the proverbial 'blind eye' to the situation because of loving the sport !

I'll never forget sticking up for Speedway when the Workington RL club Directors were slating the sport during a coach journey with them.....speedway, incidentally, did bring much needed earnings to the RL hosts...(maybe still does?). However to a man they were convinced that Speedway was seriously unreal....the example they touted as their evidence was when Stoney had guested, and scored well, for Newcastle who were challenging the Comets for honours, how could that happen?...They wouldn't wear the 'guest' system at all.......and maybe other non fans see it similarily.??

It's a very very windy Whitehaven.

Yeah you are right with that ha,ha....and there's an Asian - ish meeting at Somerset tonight..i.e. 'Chanpionship Pairs'...

Pardon my lack of Speedway nous......but does that figure include paying for the visitors points scored in the meeting? Or does a home gate income need to pay for the 'home teams' corresponding away meeting costs?

Your maths bit out there marra.... 1/3 of 750 = 250 x £11 = £2750.......plus remaining 500 x £15 = £7500. £2750 + £7500 = £10250. Just couldn't resist saying ok ......figures still don't add up to a speedway utopia for anyone.

Even my optimistic 800/900 isn't going to cover that outgoing then is it? And it must be awful for those promoting the Comets.....hope they manage tho. It's a great sport but sadly the general public have in the main lost interest in it........Possibly one Division looms for 2019? Is there any club, in all 3 divisions, running at a good profit......? I'll answer that myself in that I can't think of any club not struggling.

Yep... "Really????" re exodus at heat 15, same thing happens at 'final hooter' of Town match.......but not sure re 'guesstimate'......but certainly more than 400 though.

Never been any different.....some people still seem to think they will be stuck in traffic so make a dash to avoid that....it would be very nice to see traffic galore nowadays lol...although I did think it was a decent turnout last night.....something around 800/900 being my guesstimate ????

Thanks a lot....I enjoy the banter, keep it going marra.....And I did think the crowd wasn't too bad on Saturday...in fact as I was parking nr. the grandstand I heard the car park attendants shouting "no more room turn them back"...although presumably our friends from over the border will claim it was there input creating such a good turnout....???

Enjoy reading all the Comets craic....don't add much at all. Did think there was a decent attendance on Saturday though. BUT can I , dare I, ok I will ask a big favour.....so here goes.....is there any chance 'Jenga' of you possibly reducing all of that typed stuff on your profile pls....it only needs a couple of remarks by you and my laptop page is almost filled...thanks in anticipation......

The coffee was so hot at the Rugby League match on Sunday it blistered my top lip......didn't stop me shouting 'Town' home tho.

I see the headline...'Replying to Next Season..promotion and Relegation'. And I couldn't help but wonder if there will actually be enough speedway teams left to accept this idea anyway.??? I mean how many of the current crop are going to survive after this season? I was reliably informed that my team had an attendance of 349 last Saturday.....there must be alarm bells ringing regarding that figure. And who knows how many other clubs have similar headaches to ponder over? Plymouth for sure, Redcar ?, Scunthorpe? others ?, and watching a video of a recent Rye House meeting the track terracing had more heaps of rubble around it than speccies. However that then makes it an ideal situation for using one league only...no promotion/relegation...then the doubling up would be kicked out, and a more varied fixture list would surely prove a bigger attraction.? Speedway is a fantastic sport and will hopefully recover from the current downward spiral.....but promotion/relegation is not a good answer. The formation of one large league, for now, is better for the future well being of the sport.