Chris116

On 26th November the official website apologised for the delay in commenting on the AGM. It is now 25th January and we are still waiting! The fixtures have been announced but we still don't have a seventh rider. Towards the end of last season the promotion said they had a final meeting planned after the league matches were complete but then just never ran the meeting. Am I alone in starting to lose faith in the promotion?

Yes, you are right and I seem to have forgotten how to count! But both Harris and Nicholls have higher averages than 7.28.

Rye House only have 6.78 to play with which means Chris Harris is number 1 and not 5.

Fixtures are up on the BSPA and Rye House web sites. Interesting that the Rye House site says that fixtures will take place on Saturday evenings at 7pm and some Monday and Wednesday evenings at 7.30pm! I think someone needs to stop cutting and pasting from last year and actually read what they are publishing!

I would like to see the National Trophy run at the end of the season. Once all the league matches have finished the top four go into the play offs and the other teams contest the National Trophy. It would mean that tracks would not close early due to lack of success and teams could go for a trophy even though the main part of the season had not gone well. ALL League matches to be raced by an agreed date which would mean that no league matches would be held after the cut off for the play offs.

I think Rye ended having more meetings mid week than on Saturdays last season which suits me fine as I am busy most Saturday evenings. When I was young I was taken to Wimbledon who at that time raced on a Monday and it was never a problem. The junior riders raced at all the meetings so mid week will not stop them. My only concern is that if the start was put back to 7.45 it would mean I would arrive home later and living near Wimbledon the train journey takes nearly two hours so my vote would be for sticking to a 7.30 start but maybe advertise the parade at 7.30 and tapes up for heat one at 7.45 which is what really happened last year but would mean those who had to work and then get to the racing would know they had an extra 15 minutes to do so without missing any racing.

I agree they may change their minds but at the end of the day only the referees opinion counts even if everyone else in the stadium disagrees!

It has never mattered what anyone sees. The only opinion that counts is the referees and if they get it wrong that is just tough luck! Same in football, rugby cricket and most other sports.

I was brought up as a child going to Wimbledon on a Monday night. When I was working in the City of London I used to go to midweek meetings regularly. Now as a pensioner I am busy nearly every Saturday evening so if the racing is mid week then it suits me fine but I understand others may disagree but personally I am praying they don't race on a Saturday.

There are two reasonably simply ways to stop gardening at the tapes. 1) Concrete starting area, like tracks used to have. Never saw a rider try to dig up a concrete starting grid! 2) A line ten feet from the tapes. Riders are not allowed over that line until the start marshall gives them a signal and then they are only allowed to move forward to the tapes with NO backing up allowed. Any rider who does not go straight from the line to the tapes and stop will be put on 15 yard hadicap. (1) would mean a cost to every track so (2) may be preferred by promotors but (1) does solve the problem with no chance of gardening!

At Rye House we had three 125cc and three 250cc races before the start at nearly every meeting during 2017. We also had two rounds of the Youth Championship. Most of the crowd do not want to watch the juniors but we constantly hear that the BSPA should help the juniors. Maybe if the fans supported the junior meetings we would have more stars in the years to come. The crowds at Rye House were so small for the Youth Championship meetings that it would have been quicker to introduce the crowd to the riders! 36 races of which over a third were good close races, what is not to like?

The statement on the BSPA website reads as follows:- Following the Speedway Control Bureau Court Hearing into Peterborough Promoter Mr Ged Rathbone conduct in relation to releasing a contracted rider against both the SCB and ISLB Regulations and Agreement, Mr Rathbone made a public statement after a meeting at Peterborough, a statement which was repeated in the Speedway Star dated 21st October 2017. Mr Rathbone statement contained serious allegations which were of sufficient importance and concern to warrant further investigation. The SCB Members sought the guidance of the ACU and were advised to set up an independent Judicial review panel to enquire into the allegations. The Members of the panel, none of whom took part in Mr Rathbone SCB Court Hearing have been chosen and it is proposed that the Judicial Inquiry will take place in early November. This ends the SCB Statement This reads to me as if the ACU has told the SCB to put their own house in order. I would be much happier if the ACU were running the review.

Since they have told the SCB to hold a judicial review I do hope that the SCB know of a JUDGE they can employ rather than keeping it to friends of the BSPA. Maybe the ACU should investigate both the SCB and BSPA!

No, but I have always thought the promotion was one of the better ones. That view has now changed sadly.

I am glad that the team who I watch most often has not put out a statement like the one by the Somerset promotion as I would be writing to them to point out that I support SPEEDWAY not buffets and booze ups. My support for those at Oaktree Arena is now NIL and I have always had a high opinion of that promotion.

So if Jake had turned up with two bikes that both had blown engines he would now be riding in the Play offs. I am all in favour of following rules but the rules have to be correctly written and what has happened proves that the rules are badly written.

I do not doubt it but it did not come up on my phone so I suspect my phone used an old version of the website when I looked which can happen! I am glad we now know what is happening and look forward to next season. NOTE TO SELF:- Check web site on computer, not phone, for updates!

Exactly, that did not appear when I checked before writing my original comment but I am glad it has done now.

I have no problem if Rye House management have decided not to run another meeting but I think they should have let their supporters know by now that we have seen the last for 2017 or that they are still trying to arrange a final meeting. The total silence is what annoys fans and looses support for a team.

The meetings in that last week saw one of the biggest crowds for the TV meeting followed by poor crowds. Talking to regulars around me, many of them did two or three out of four because they could not afford so many meetings in such a short time. Running regular meetings means supporters follow their team but the way things were this last season you never knew when the next meeting would be. That makes it very hard to get new fans involved which is not good for the future of either Rye House or the sport as a whole.

I only got to a couple of Saturday meetings but based on those I got the impression that the crowds were nearly the same midweek as they were on Saturdays.

I would agree that from a fan point of view then a Raiders team is a great idea but sadly I suspect most of us have seen how few of our fellow fans will watch a Premiership/Championship team and also watch a National League team at the same track on a regular basis. I have seen the size of crowds over the years at National League meetings at tracks that have a team in one of the higher leagues and with that knowledge I can understand why promoters do not want to run two teams at many tracks. What is needed is fixture lists that give a full programme of fixtures in the league of choice then tracks could run a full programme with just one team. Rye House has been the track I have visited the most in the last year and this season they ran/planned home meetings as follows:- April - 4 Saturday night May- 2 Saturday night (1 rained off), 1 Bank Holiday afternoon, 1 Junior on a Sunday afternoon June - 1 Wednesday night, 1 Junior on a Sunday afternoon July - 1 Saturday night August - 4 Wednesday night (2 rained off), 1 Saturday night, 1 Bank Holiday night, 1 Tuesday night September - 1 Friday night, 1 Monday night Just shows how uneven a fixture list Rye House landed up with. Two senior meetings in two months during the middle of the season with four meetings in eight days at the end of the season. I would agree a Raiders side could have filled some of the blank dates but would they have broken even, let alone made a small profit? The questions we really need to find an answers to are how does a track run a season with regular meetings that will be supported by the fans? Are we willing to have a meeting once a fortnight or do we want weekly meetings? Do we want to watch racing in two leagues or will we only support the team in the higher league? Personally, I am happy to watch racing in all three leagues given the chance but find weekday meetings much easier to attend due to other committments at weekends.

I hope there is another meeting but only if it is midweek like meetings have been for the last few months. If they revert to Saturday I will not be able to be there. I was very pleased when the meetings in August and September were mid week as it meant I could see more meetings.

That was what I thought but I always live in hope!

At the last two meetings of 2017 at Rye House it was mentioned that the Kings Lynn meeting would not be the last meeting of the season and we should look out for news of the last meeting. Still no news which makes me wonder if the idea has been dropped. If it has I can understand why but it would be nice to have confirmation or is that expecting too much?