Chris116

With all the comments about riders possibly having incorrect averages, surely it is wrong that the BSPA do not confirm a riders average as soon as the rider is declared? With it being left until all the teams are declared if a team has got the wrong information they could be left with a very weak team due to no riders of the right quality being available. That situation could have an adverse effect on the whole league and therefore the sport in this country which is hardly good news for the BSPA!

So the seventh Rocket will announced Friday morning at 9am.

On the subject of food, I have found the sausages, burgers and chicken with chips all nice but not tried the fish as I am not keen on fish. One thing not to relie on is the pub outside which informed me one evening that they were not selling food until after the speedway started as the speedway fans cluttered the place up! That was the last time I went in there! Due to my own circumstances I am very pleased that racing will be midweek as I am busy on Saturdays and would not be able to see any speedway if they ran on Saturdays!

That computer generated image looks all to like an updated version of Crayford! I used to go to the old stadium for Speedway, Stock Car and Banger racing. The viewing was good from all around the stadium. Then they knocked the old stadium down and built the new Greyhound racing only stadium which only has viewing on the finishing straight. The stand at the new Crayford, like the one shown above, is flat fronted but does have viewing on two levels. Sadly on the lower level people can stand in front of you outside so you cannot see the racing and on the top level you have a reasonable view if you are on the front row but anywhere else you can only see the back straight as crowd in front block your view completely. Crayford and many other dog tracks has seating around tables for four which means the track is not in front of you but at your side! Much of Wimbledon and Walthamstow had the side on seating which means you have a job seeing one end of the track. From my memory (my last visit was in the mid 80s) the current Swindon stand allows you to see the track easily with seats that face the track rather than being a restaurant with a track on the side! I pity those who watch at any track that is built like that. The 700 people may well be able to be housed in the stand but I fear only about 100 of them will have anything like a good view of the track and while that may be acceptable at dog racing it certainly is not acceptable at speedway.

Having watched speedway all my life and over the past 20 years or so seen racing at all three levels that have run under different names to keep eveyone guessing what the names mean I have come to the conclusion that good speedway only needs teams that are matched evenly. Some of the worst racing I have seen has been in the top league (I have also seen some magic meetings in the top league) and some of the most exciting meetings have been in the third division. Yes, the riders in the top league are faster, more skillful and make fewer mistakes. Sometimes that makes for excellent racing but it can also make for matches where no one overtakes anyone after the first half lap of each race. In the third league the riders are slower and make mistakes which means that you can have overtaking on every lap or they can get strung out with the crowd yawning! Balanced teams where all the riders are able to beat all the others will give exciting racing. A team with two 8+ riders, three 5 to 7 point riders and two reserves of 4 and 3.5 would be inside the 42.5 but most races would end up being two match races. If the top riders have a lower average that leaves room for higher scoring reserves and so makes each race more likely to be close. The big problem with all of this is that at the end of the season some of the 6 and 7 point riders will have gone up to being 8.5 point riders and under current rules they could be lost to British racing which will then bring even more upset during the following winter. Do I have any answers? Probably not but I do have a few ideas which I think might help the sport in this country. 1) Premiership to allow two 8+ riders in a team. Championship to allow one 8+ rider in a team. This makes the two leagues different instead of the situation we have where the standard is nearly the same. 2) Riders who have not ridden in this country for the previous twelve months to have the averages of the countries where they have raced added up for the previous season that they raced in this country and for the last season compared. You then find the multiplier and use this on their last British average to find their new British average. For example a rider had a 6 point average in 2014 in British racing. In 2014 his Polish and Swedish averages added up and then divided by 2 comes to 5.8 and in 2017 his Polish, Swedish and Danish averages added up and then divided by 3 came to 6.5 which produces a multiplier of 1.12068966 and applying that to his old British average gives him a starting average of 6.72. 3) At all meetings the visiting team should be allowed a 15 minute practice session before the meeting. How often do you find that the away team only start to compete in the second half of the meeting. Allowing them to get their set up right will give closer racing from the start of the meeting. I realise that some home track only fans only want to see their team win all their home meetings but for me I want to see a close meeting with close racing. I enjoy being on the losing side of a 44-46 meeting than on the winning side of a 60-30 meeting. Let's hope we have lots of close racing and close scores, enjoy your racing. Chris

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.