YeOldPitGate

Brilliant days I had stopped going before Ott joined but remember Loram , Henka and Dennis Lofquist at reserve, I would have been late teens then, stood on the second bend with one of my oldest friends and his dad who drove us to meetings all over the UK. A great character we christened Nutter would spend 99% of his time in the bar and pop out for ten seconds whenever Richard Knight came round and would bellow Richard's name like a man possessed for 10-15 seconds then straight back to the bar without watching the actual race. Wild Wayne leading the war cry's, Bill Barker who should have been on the stage doing comedy wandering round selling raffle tickets, whilst asking if anyone had seen Malcolm Simmonds, Bills winter talk in's were comedy gold. The racing when Loram and Henka were involved was out of this world in those days, Henka in my opinion was a more naturally talented/better rider than T Rick when they both first came over but I guess Tony had that extra 5% of grit/determination that led to six world titles, but I've always thought for natural talent Henka and Ward are the best two riders I have ever seen on a bike. Fantastic times I would be back there again in a heartbeat.

The mental strength of these riders is incredible, another example is Chris Holder not the rider he was but still a very good rider after a terrible crash that put him in a wheel chair for months and seeing what happened to his best friend, incredible grit.

Has anyone been down to the stadium to spray some WD40 on the pit gate yet ?

One thing I have just noticed is Poole have completed more matches than any other team so the Fords also seem to be good at getting matches on and out of the way where some teams have raced just over half of the Poole completed fixtures , or is it just being down South they are in a drier part of the country. The issue is again you have weeks in summer with nothing happening at many clubs then a bit of rain and you can see loss making double headers being crammed into back end of September early October.

Flagrag good to see your still about we were debating on another thread what the current tv deal was worth per premier league team, I seem to remember you used to be close to media people involved and wondered if you had any idea what each club currently receives, no issues if it puts you in a difficult spot and you prefer not to disclose.

Surely it would make sense to have the rising star in the championship rather than slinging them in the top league and maybe 1 in 20 makes it and the rest lose heart/confidence and are lost to the sport. You don't see in boxing the next great young hope being put in with Usuk after 4-5 fights, look at the young UK riders lost to speedway over the years, its bonkers to me miss out the next logical step in the ladder and sling in a boy with a years experience against Doyle and Emil.

Your never going to please everyone but its not really any different from a football manager in a world cup group stage pulling off his best players as soon as the team have got enough points to qualify for the knockout round.

Agreed very good signing you would hope he should do well at championship standard but not always the case as I thought PK when signed would be averaging 9-10 in the green sheets at this level.

Agreed no good/easy choices moving forward but if the premier is reduced to say 4 or 5 teams next season and given no one is daft enough to move up what are the alternatives to say a 10-12 team championship standard top league ?

Any interesting rumours you have heard recently Phil to give us something to chat about on a quite Monday morning ?

Despite his mistakes you can't fault Tolley's commitment there must have been a zillion other things he could have blown north of £250k on.

Out of interest does anyone have any inkling what each prem club gets from the current tv contract ? from memory Flagrag if he's still about was close to people in broadcasting maybe he knows/has some thoughts.

What is the alternative though ? run with a 4 or 5 team top flight.

The best solution I could see if the money was there to make it happen would be the polish model, 8 in top league and 8-10 in division 2, once home and away most promoters don't own the stadiums so this should reduce losses as less meetings but the shortened season would mean seeing the top boys only once and hopefully lead to more meaningful meetings. The top boys could still pick up there 4-6k and maybe a few more would come back with a shortened season, the second strings could still double down to boost their earnings. Try and run meetings at least fort nightly rather than monthly avoiding the 6 meetings in two weeks early October scenario and more fans losing interest due to no regular schedule. This would save seeing the same teams/riders every week, if you knew Emil was coming once a year rather than three/four times you might turn up. As I say the money isn't there to make it happen but its like anything in life if you wanted to get fit maybe you would look at what Ronaldo's fitness routine is rather than sticking with a diet of kebabs and coke and expecting a different result.

I can hear it now "do you fancy moving up and increasing your cost base by 30-40% with minimal increase in your attendance and we only want you moving up as the current club members are either folding or looking to drop out"

But how do you see the top league working then ? given the current format isn't working and no one wants to move up ?

But with no Brum and if Oxford drop out of Prem, Poole have no interest in moving up , nor Glasgow how do you see a five team league (at best) functioning ?

Agreed and yet 90% of clubs still make losses so the point is costs along with a multiple of other things show the format isn't working a top team of only 7 clubs with one definately gone and three rumoured under threat of running in the top league speaks volumes around costs/losses. It might well be beyond the point of no return all i'm saying 3k turning up the other week at Poole shows people will still turn up to watch a team of premier league second strings and two point men in numbers so long as that team is put out 90%.

I'm normally on the same page as you Mike but think a championship standard league set up of say 12-14 five man teams is the way to go, I love seeing the top boys on tracks where they can truly display their skills but we can't afford them. I have said before when Rob Lambert turns up for one of his brief stints he's a brilliant rider to watch, but is probably on 4-6k per meeting and I reckon he won't add 50-100 on the gate the numbers just don't stack up. Look at Poole the other week 3k turning up to watch premier league second strings and two point men its about getting a team out that's there for the fans for 90% of meetings. The Ford's are shrewd they know moving up is financial suicide and they are a well run club look what's happended to Brum they signed Lindgren last season even with Wolves closed and the crowd numbers were still utterly terrible.

I can remember going down to Ippo not so long ago for a lynn derby that pulled in over 5k, no days anything scraping over a thousand people is considered bumper.

Its super difficult but how much longer can the current ever worsening status quo limp on ? if we assume Brum are gone, Oxford just do champ, nobody with any financial sense wants to move up, if Sheffield and Leicester did stop running that leaves Lynn, Belle Vue and Ippo to drop down given two are reasonably wealthy clubs by Speedway standards could three more clubs be fitted into the championship and premier league is done.

Went by the stadium earlier and someone was having a really good look at the pit gate.

I'm currently reading the late John Berry's book he was picked to be the head honcho in the late 80's and I reckon would have given it a good go but it all fell apart before it got started due to restrictions put on him from the get go.

I'm not disagreeing Ian more a case of the fact you can't get hardly anybody to ride here anymore even those starting out 90% don't want to know, look at the situation at Berwick three established riders, r/r and three reserves who are out of their depth most of the time but they don't seem able to find a rough diamond anywhere to take a chance on a 4 point average even.

Another sad fact of state of UK speedway where it looks like Leicester going to try and go with R/R for rest of season for Becker.