RobMcCaffery

If anyone doubts Eurosport's thoroughly inadequate coverage of speedway just look at tonight - the superbike racing is over but the punditry and lengthy close is more valuable than showing our racing. Their handling of the Swedish Elitserien is even more woeful.

I keep reading these wild comments about Britain's non-participation in One Sport events, as if they're too stupid to get involved. If those of you experts on the subject had undertaken even the most basic of research (Google's quite an idea) you'd know that the BSPA are deliberately boycotting these events, not through short-sightedness but sheer survival instinct. Having seen the serious effect of the SGP and SWC on the BSPA's ability to run meetings not only on the 14 weekend staging days day of the events but also on the days leading up to it the addition of a further 7 One Sport dates understandably was not well-received. It's not a case of being short-sighted, it's a case of drawing a line in the sand and saying 'no more'. Most of you whinge about the weakness of the BSPA and yet on the occasion that they stand up for their businesses and customers you still whinge. Think it through. It's called fighting for a principle - and survival. They can't ban non-Brtits from racing in it but they can in the case of their own riders. For once they have my complete backing on this stance. Having Team GB winning in Denmark or Poland might help the sport in the UK in the long-term but that's no good if it perishes before the effects filter through. And before people start on that red herring of switching to single night racing, do you really want a 7-8 match home season with a possible couple of play-offs like they have in Sweden and Poland?

Let's hope the Falubaz girl wins or we'll have 25 pages of paranoid ravings about it being a plot by BSI, the SCB, BSPA, MI5, Special Branch and the Brownies..... ;-)

What do you think the word 'shared' means? The profits (if any) are shared throughout the BSPA and are not exclusive to the staging club. Thanks for your expert contribution.

Now you promised to give up on this thread. How sad that we can't trust you to keep to your word. Obviously you need things putting very, very simply. If you believe that there is a plot to get at Polish Speedway by Britain, using BSI you are a fool. If you believe British Speedway is responsible for and supports BSI you are an even greater fool. If you believe that the reserve rule in the SWC was introduced to deny Poiand you are a grade 1 fool. If you believe that the only thing that matters in speedway is Falubaz Zielona Gora then you are deluded. If you think you are going to influence or persuade anyone in this forum of your demented views you are going to be very frustrated. Hope those aren't too many words for you. I see from Google Translate that a certain word in Polish is very similar to that in English - paranoja. Get help, for it can really screw up your life. Now get out of my sight you stupid, stupid waste of space. I can see why Zielona Gora's emblem is Mickey Mouse....... The greatest sadness is that we have just witnessed one of the finest SWC/WTC finals of all-time. Instead of celebrating a shining example of how wonderful the sport can be we're having to deal with a prime example of some of the loud-mouthed low lifes that pollute it.

"A wall of text". Sorry, was it too much for you to understand? Don't you like it when someone tears your sad paranoid, ignorant claims apart? My comments were based on knowledge gained through a lifetime's experience and academic study. You've had enough of this thread. Excellent news. Now can we persuade you to have enough of this forum that you have soiled with your stupidity and unpleasantness? You've made a total fool of yourself. 27 wasted years.......

You really don't have a clue. I've seldom seen such ill-informed comments on this forum. Let me put you straight on a few things that you have incompetently failed to grasp: 1 - It's not a fight between Britain and Poland. BSI may be British but they have nothing to do with British Speedway and are thoroughly disliked by many in this country and work often in total conflict with the needs of British Speedway. You really do have a lot to learn. Try getting information rather than making childish assumptions. If BSI are incompetent then it's nothing to do with British Speedway so your clear attack on us is totally foolish. we are as angry as anyone else over what happened in Warsaw and just as disgusted so trying to score cheap points against Britain as it shows just how blinkered and ill-informed you are. 2 - The FIM has a hell of a lot to answer for, but to Britain a damn sight more than Poland since their decision making has damaged the sport in this country for the past 30 years, ever since the World Championship was transferred from stadia such as Wembley, Ullevi and Katowice to a field in Germany and other such disasters in the 1980s. Do some reading because I suspect you weren't around to know about it personally given your immature attitude. 3 - I do not support BSI. Read this forum properly and you will see my opposition to the Grand Prixs over the years and the damage BSI and the FIM have inflicted on speedway in this country. Before we had nearly 40 tracks in our top two divisions with a large number operating on Friday and Saturday nights. The sport thrived and was making money. After over two decades of the SGP we have barely 20 tracks in those top two divisions with just one in the upper league racing on Saturdays and just a couple on Fridays. Now when the SGP runs we can't. We don't have a Sunday afterwards to make our money - we are confined to midweek dates largely. Tracks used to run full seasons from mid-March to the end of October, often staging over 30 meetings a season. Now you're lucky to see more than 14-15. BSI tried bringing their great ideas into domestic British Speedway. They failed appallingly at Reading, which is now long gone. You think that people in Britain love BSI, the FIM and the SGP? Many enjoy Cardiff and a few the other meetings. But the cost has been enormous. The rise of One Sport, clearly designed to ultimately take over the SGP and SWC from BSI and run both in Polish interests has only made the situation worse with yet more weekends being taken up by their second-rate tournaments. They pay though, like the Polish League does for now (well, usually...see Czestochowa again) so riders will naturally wish to ride in them irrespective of their flimsy status. Riders go where the money is. 4 - I have been fortunate enough to have seen many years of speedway racing - this is my 45th season, and I've seen the good and the bad. I've sat in 80,000 crowds at Wembley, I've seen pretty much every track that staged speedway in this country and a fair number outside. I've written professionally on the sport and I've commentated on it on TV both in Britain and in several other countries, especially regarding ice racing. I watched fine Polish riders fighting to be able to ride over here - men like Zenon Plech, Edward Jancarz, Roman Jankowski, Marek Cieslak and many more who earned great respect and affection over here. Now when I see Polish speedway I see 'ultras' on terracing, behaving like football fans. I see greed and corruption. I see nothing of the honour and respect that Polish Speedway once quite rightly earned. Under the communist system speedway was encouraged in several Polish towns and cities at the expense of football and it shows today with football-sized crowds and behaviour at your tracks. Now like spoilt brats you whinge about missing a race day and stupidly assume that there is some great British plot against Polish Speedway with BSI our agents. Infantile rubbish. Your comments on the absence of reserves in the SWC would disgrace an idiot. I don't begrudge Poland its success. Once the system changed and allowed the flow of equipment and money into your version of the sport you predictably finally took your place on the world stage but now, to be honest I'm quite sick of Polish Speedway. In fact I'm quite sick of international speedway, although I do enjoy the Swedish League which manages to feature top talent without the brutality of the Polish version. The BSPA are far from the sharpest tools on the block but I still enjoy my speedway here. Many big names may no longer race here but I can go to a meeting and still feel safe. We have deep problems but as long as I can see four well-matched guys race in a fair environment I'm happy. Some of my happiest times in the sport have been working at the lowest levels, watching families fight to earn their kids a place in a sport they love. It's a healthy, purer form of sport than the one that it's mutated into in your country. You have a hell of a lot to learn, now how about spending less time shooting your mouth of and instead listening and learning?

It's the weather that's caused the problem this weekend! You may get the largest crowds in speedway as a legacy of your communist past (and as a result sights and behaviour at stadia that thankfully we would only see at football) but that does NOT mean that the world of speedway revolves around the Ekstraliga. The SWC is the modern development of a tournament that has existed for over fifty years and has a fine pedigree, the World Team Cup. It is an official FIM event. If we are looking for lame, irrelevant events with no official status we need look no further than One Sport's Best Pairs. As for the Lagutas, since you are such an expert on speedway I am astonished you're not aware of the dispute between them and their own federation regarding payment for racing in the SWC. Now we get it that you are passionate about Falubaz and the league they race in,. but there is more to the sport globally than your own selfish needs.

Poland chose to schedule a league programme the day after the SWC - nobody forced them to. Yes, eight teams get no matches in Poland tomorrow but they will - the programme will be raced in full, just on another date. In the UK our league programme has been wrecked for years by the needs of BSI, Poland and now One Sport are getting in on the act. You get to wait a while to watch your matches, but your problems are really quite small in the overall scheme of things and taking it out on British fans here and BSI, an organisation that has little respect from them either is totally pointless. You get to wait a while, we're fighting to survive, as your former opponents at Czestochowa will know only too well.....

Sorry, you're in the wrong forum. The "We want One Sport and the PZM to take over world speedway" is next door......

Eurosport/Quest/Discovery have a lot of sorting-out to do. They have a real problem and I doubt we'll know until tomorrow.

Sportowe Fakty initially reported that the Ekstraliga matches were still going ahead but now confirm the cancellation. http://www.sportowefakty.pl/zuzel/528069/w-vojens-przegrali-z-pogoda-final-dps-w-niedziele

If the meeting starts at 1400 CET that's 1300 here obviously. Quest and Eurosport 1 both have Le Mans scheduled until 1400. There's a one hour overlap unless they're staging the 23 hours of Le Mans... In case you're wondering why show Le Mans on both channels, well Quest is a free channel here, available on Digital Terrestrial so it's a way to give a wider audience to the final hour of Le Mans here and I very much doubt they'll want to give that up.

People who can't stand doing business with a Murdoch company? There's plenty of people out there with principles you know.

Al, the moment Andersen fell and it was clear that the track was no longer safe. Instead we had to do whatever was possible to get to heat 10.Is speedway now a 10 heat sport with an optional extra five races? It's all about 'the result' whether anyone cares about it by that point. Yes it's unfortunate that it was spoilt by the weather but you don't press on short-changing your public and putting your riders at risk hell-bent on getting that 'result'. Speedway used to be about entertaining the public and giving them value for money. Now it's just about getting the 'result' and to hell with how it's achieved.

A perfect example of one of the many reasons why many Poole supporters are held in utter contempt.

Just a quick reminder of something that gets totally forgotten in this situation. People, not many, paid £18 to watch that. More fool them. Next time a promoter complains about fans not turning out on wet nights show them a video of this farce. Odd how so often it's Poole - pure coincidence of course..................

Preview of new Sky Sports Speedway opening titles.

I spent the weekend in Brixham, partly in the hope of watching my second trip to the SBA, having thoroughly enjoyed the first, late last season. Having travelled down on a wet Friday night and knowing of the dire forecast for Saturday night I wasn't totally surprised to find the meeting off first thing on Saturday, despite the fine weather which lasted through to about 6 pm, at which time steady drizzle began which soon developed into steady rain. Even if the meeting had been called off at start time I wouldn't have been there. Noble though the efforts have been at Plymouth to build facilities that can't be permanent it still has very minimal cover and my days of standing in the rain watching riders cautiously ride round a waterlogged track are long gone, especially at today's admission prices. I'm getting on a bit - and determined to get on a lot further so sitting (as I must now due to a gammy hip) in an open field getting soaked just isn't an option. I'll only take a chance on weather at tracks with cover, ideally where I don't have to take my seat in so I'm afraid the open tracks just don't get my money when the weather's doubtful. Now, I love my speedway but it's got to be a pleasure these days, especially having seen too much on the 'other side of the fence' over the years and if you want to call me a fair weather fan then fine, I've paid my dues at more mud heaps than most. Times have moved on, not just for me and in the 21st century it's not just me who wants basic comfort, especially at £20 to get in (including the vital programme), not to mention the extras. I think some promoters have finally caught on to the fact that the public just won't pay to watch poor meetings in the rain. These days so few meetings are staged they might as well be staged when the weather allows everyone to enjoy it. It's not as if promoters have to cram 30+ meetings into a season now.

This forum can be rightly criticised for ill-informed, excessively offensive comment but in the case of the Warsaw fiasco I think the sport got off very lightly. It seems the Poole disease of "let's deny everything, make insincere promises about the future and hope it all dies down quickly" is more pervasive than one would suspect. If that's considered poisonous then great - it was intended to be. The sport's in denial and needs shaking out of its cosy complacency. I'd be interested to know who made those comments and how much they're covering up in their own contribution to the sport sinking to its knees. At least we care - still - for now, but it's the silence of others that the speedway establishment that they really should be worried about - silent because they're long gone.

I'd suspect that it will still be far more fascinating than that waste of time at Tampere, if only because it's a team event. Anyway, that's not really the key point I was making.

What's puzzling is that the Swedish match is only scheduled for one hour, between 8 and 9 pm but between 7 and 8 they're showing highlights of the weekend's GP! So it looks like we get a potentially interesting match condensed into one hour while they waste 60 minutes on Saturday's tedium. ATP Tennis is on Eurosport 2 which would explain the failure to show the match live given Eurosport's reliance on tennis, a great schedule filler.

You have the situation summed-up perfectly. Some of the happiest times I have had in speedway were working at the grass-roots level in speedway, especially the re-launch of Rye House in 1999 and then at Sittingbourne below our third division level in the mid-2000s, seeing the young riders fight to make their way, and seeing their families working so hard to help them achieve their dreams, light years away from politics and cynical manipulation of the sport - best summed-up simply as stupidity - that blight it elsewhere. Sometimes you just need to watch four riders race and forget the rubbish that people stupidly allow to get in the way of this. To me It's not about the names or the quality of riding - it's about the racing. Many others think differently - they seek success and glamour, which is why they desert the sport. Winning's fun, but despite what the Americans say, there is more to sport than just winning. I know I'm in a minority - I know I'm a dinosaur - I still love speedway.

So a private event organised by a sports promotion company in partnership with a TV channel, and not an official FIM event is taken seriously in some countries? We have a saying in English "More fool them". But then I suppose in Germany you will take such an event seriously given the tiny number of meetings staged in your country and almost all at a much lower level than this event. So, it was a disgrace for Britain not to withdraw. I take it then the Czech Republic should also have withdrawn from the 2013 event when they tracked Slovenian Matej Zagar in their trio. Let us not be blind to what is going on. This pairs event, along with the European Championship is part of One Sport's attack on BSI and has very little to do with the wellbeing of speedway. Obviously it is taken seriously by countries who are desperate for any form of international standard racing but until it comes under the official sanction of the FIM it is as important as my local track deciding to put on a pairs event and calling the pairings after nations. The event has potential but not the way it is currently being organised. As for Britain, we have relied on Friday and Saturday night racing for over 80 years here but the ability to run on these key nights has been severely damaged by the arrival of 12 Grand Prix weekends. Adding-in another six One Sport events is just pushing it too far. British Speedway has been walked over for many years now and while its own incompetence hasn't helped for once they've made a stand to defend themselves. Okay, Britain did well out of using riders from other countries over the years but many riders made a damn good living out of racing here. Now those riders have better pay cheques to chase - for now....... Of course the BSPA weren't interested in helping the development of One Sport's events and for once they've shown some intelligence and balls. Now, how about looking at why once it was agreed to enter a British pair our number one was denied access by his Polish club? Wroclaw obviously have a problem with One Sport and that's why Schlein had to guest, or doesn't that fit in with your anti-British agenda?

Ht1: Cameron, Sturgeon, Farage (ret), Milliband (f/x) - Clegg (n/s) 66.6