RobMcCaffery

Belle Vue railway station only has a pretty irregular service so it's best to get one of the many buses from the city centre along Hyde Road. You can get a train from the airport to Piccadilly and get a bus from the road outside or get a Metrolink tram to Piccadilly Gardens and get a bus from there to the track. The buses are numbered 201, 203 and 204 and start from Piccadilly Gardens, passing by Piccadilly station en route to Hyde Road. Transport for Greater Manchester have a great website with plenty of maps and a journey planner. https://www.tfgm.com/

It's a speedway match! Don't you like speedway?

Well, I hope I was able to help some of you enjoy a meeting where the scoring was probably more interesting than the actual racing, with the biggest surprise probably being Drabik not winning. I do wonder just how deep Poland's seam of upcoming talent is right now. There's plenty of riders but where are the Pawlickis and Zmarzliks of just a couple of years ago?

Many thanks. Hope the midges are behaving up there. I'm heading out soon and will watch later so I hope those of you watching live have an entertaining meeting.

1 Karol Zupinski 2 Daniel Kaczmarek 3 Dominik Kubera 4 Maksym Drabik 5 Igor Kopec-Sobcynski 6 Wiktor Lapart 7 Bartosz Smektala 8 Michal Gruchalski 9 Dominik Kossakowski 10 Patryk Wojdylo 11 Sebastian Niedzwiecz 12 Kamil Wieczorek 13 Arkadiusz Potoniec 14 Alex Zgardzinski 15 Oskar Bober 16 Robert Chmiel 17 Wiktor Trofimov jr 18 Maksymilian Bogdamowicz Both this and the Bronze Helmet seem to draw on the EL and D1 reserves. Can one of our Polish correspondents please confirm the eligibility? I assume it is age-related. It was a straight 20 heats at Krosno last year. Result: Drabik (13), Kubera (13), Smektala (12). Hard to see a different top 3.

Line-up here: https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/zuzel/relacja/85521/final-srebrnego-kasku-w-lublinie

Feed here on You Tube. It'll be available to watch after the event as well. You can also link via Sportowe Fakty https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/zuzel/756510/transmisja-telewizyjna-z-finalu-srebrnego-kasku-na-wp-sportowefakty

Freesports have also taken out a full page ad in next week's Radio Times which pretty much repeats the website except it states that they hope to be on VM in July. It shows that Premier are prepared to invest in marketing their sister channel - and giving speedway a good mention. I sometimes think that outsiders looking in on the sport like what they see far more than those already involved who perhaps look too deeply and too cynically.

Shhh, you're supposed to forget that. That was the start of a squalid downward spiral.

Yes, Premier Sports is the main channel and anything that is also carried on Freesports is something of a bonus. Having this on Virgin Media will be very useful. While Freesports is carried in an HD channel bundle on Freeview it is not actually in HD itself. It means you need an HD Freeview receiver to get it, even if it's only in SD. Their website mentions that the HD version will be on Sky and Virgin from July, but it doesn't mention it being on Freeview and it's never been realistically expected to be coming to Freeview - it doesn't have the spare capacity. Running HD in satellite and cable is much, much easier and cheaper. It's down to bandwidth. Yes it is confusing, even for those who monitor the media.....

It's blatantly obvious that British Speedway is in decline. However, an individual not having a favourite rider isn't exactly a fundamental reason. I seem to have been labouring under a misconception that it was a team sport.....Yes, it shows your declining interest but I suspect the reasons that others have lost interest is rather more complex. Anyway, what does this latest 'knocking' thread offer that the many others on the same subject don't?

I have a very simple answer. Emil Sayfutdinov, with an honourable mention for Bartosz Zmarzlik. Both superb racers. Pity neither are British.

Pointless meeting that even the Poles couldn't be bothered with. I'd have that 4,000 crowd claim audited . At least Czestochowa produces excellent racing, well normally, but this really was just an exercise in cashing in on sponsorship and a little track time for the riders. Like back in the seventies when England were unstoppable the only worthwhile opposition for Poland is a Rest of The World team. No doubt that'll be the 'climax' of the series.

Because the FIM show no regard for league racing or domestic speedway for that matter. All too often the FIM is run by people for whom speedway is a sport staged occasionally on Sundays in minor nations. The rights and needs of the major nations have always been secondary. I saw an FIM report many, many years ago on an FIM event held in Britain. What was the first section? Quality of product? Value for money? No, it answered the question "Were the FIM representatives looked after and were there requests met?" or words to that effect. Now we have a speedway man in control in Armando Castagna things should have improved but for too long the FIM was the preserve of the small-time motorcycle club organiser who had risen, usually way beyond their competence.

I suggest you look up the definition of the words sport and sporting. Sport can be charitable but sadly much has become a cynical, ruthless, money-grabbing business.

Yes, Belle Vue raced on Mondays, but certainly not out of choice and it nearly killed them at the dog track. When the NSS opened it gave them the lifeline of switching back to Fridays. Now that lifeline's been cut. Still, Wolves, King's Lynn and Poole are ok.....

Good luck. It seems the crucial point is to totally reject Brandon Estates' claim that the site is redundant, that both sports have moved on to alternate venues and that there is no professional interest in running the sports at the stadium. This is where the supporters can make a difference in proving there is still a demand for the sports, that the running of the Bees at Leicester is and can only be a temporary move, rather like Coventry City's enforced short-term move to Northampton, and that there are promotions waiting to take it on. In the case of the stock cars I would imagine there would be quite a queue. Bear in mind for BriSCA stock car racing Brandon is their equivalent of Manchester's NSS and if it is their leverage that is needed then it must be totally embraced. Brandon is one track where speedway and stock cars have shared in harmony for decades. That unity is never more vital than now.

It's sad (that was edited!) that a serious attempt to make a point about the relative state of speedway in response gets petty point-scoring drivel from the usual suspects. Tony mentioned that he couldn't comment on ice hockey. I don't have involvement with that sport these days but their league structure until recently has been similar to ours, with a small top division supported by a middle section of around a dozen clubs but then, unlike us, regionalised hockey in the third and fourth tiers. I noticed when taking a look at the structure during the winter that their second tier appeared to have self-destructed with the former members now picking up the pieces in the regionalised minor leagues. Yes, we're not the only sport with problems but we are the only one where it ios pressures from overseas that are damaging the sport domestically. I've said before the BSPA has its great limitations but I rather feel sorry for them trying to face up to the onslaught of Poland, BSI and One Sport and having to surrender weekends for the top tier in response. They weren't really equipped for the battle. Football is a sport apart, if only for the money. You only have to look at the success of Manchester City and Chelsea, backed up by virtually unlimited subsidy from private individuals and their businesses to see that the sport side is rapidly disappearing. Sadly football has been relentlessly hyped so far in the 25 years since it sold its soul to Murdoch that normal economic factors are long gone. Despite protests the clubs can practically charge what they like and run up debts with impunity that they can walk away from, just creating new phoenix clubs where necessary when it gets too bad. People though let them get away with it because football is simply too important to them, and they will put up with anything and pay anything for their 'fix'. I use that last word carefully. Yes, UK speedway's in a state, but it's far from being all the BSPA's fault. With skills which they sadly don't possess they might have been able to deflect some of the harm done by foreign pay-days but. in reality they were on a hiding to nothing. It might help if the 'supporters' who mouth off here might actually see the bigger picture than whingeing about 'watered down' leagues and accepted that structural change is sadly vital and on the whole we simply can't afford to pay the top talent, although some are somehow finding the cash. More fool them. It's time for the genuine speedway fans to stand by their sport, make allowances and for those who are simply in it for championships and the 'glamour' of names to let the rest of us try to enjoy what we still have and work to rebuild the sport rather than play pathetic 'whooshing' and 'fishing' games in this forum. The BSF should be a sounding board for ideas to rescue and rebuild UK speedway. Sadly it seems that's beyond the playground mentalities of too many 'heroes' hiding behind their hilarious false names.

When I was directly involved in the sport I used to wonder how successful it would be if the promoters kept the rivalries on track and stopped wasting so much time shafting each other off-track. For too many it seems to be some kind of very expensive power game.

Again, very wise words. The sport in Britain needs a thorough rebuild from the bottom upwards. Get the foundations right then focus on building the top layers. Making the sport value for money, or to leave the customer believing they have had value for money is fundamental. A credible structure with a solid, respected rule book and a focus on the customer is a crucial start. Giving the customers credible teams with minimal absences, racing to make them want to return and a regular and reliable fixture list is the next layer. Once you have a sustainable product then start shouting about it to the world. To even begin to follow that path there has to be a massive change in attitude in all corners of the sport. Somehow, despite all that has decayed so far I don't think there is the will, intelligence or integrity to tackle the job .... yet.

Mark, I do want to watch the meetings. They are speedway and I love the sport. But I can also have my reservations whether the meeting should be staged. Yes money comes into the sport - and goes straight to the wealthiest sector of it, Poland. Few benefit overall except those already coining it in. I've worked in speedway and followed it as a supporter for long enough (getting on for half a century now) to hopefully have earned a voice, now whether you don't like what I say, if you can understand it, if I feel that a point needs to be raised for the good of the sport I will. I leave it to others to have their petty wind-ups and vendettas. If I have to switch off the TV just because I feel that something is wrong, can I suggest you switch off the forum if you equally see something you don't like? Everything I have said or done in the sport has been for what I believe to be the sport's own good. Obviously I will often be wrong, but my comments are genuine and honest, unlike much of the drivel posted on the BSF, and I am not afraid of putting my own name to what I say, instead of hiding behind a pseudonym like a coward.

Your mention of Eleven Sports reminds me of a bit of media news from the past week. Despite not having a broadcast channel in the UK Eleven have outbid Sky for the UK rights to Spanish La Liga football. This may be offered as online streaming or it could mean that they are considering launching a UK channel. With their involvement in Polish speedway it might be an interesting development over here in time.

If that 'tail' didn't keep supplying your league with tracks you'd be in even a far worse position than you are now.

Of course if you're a regular Monday or Wednesday night track then the new arrangement's great. That takes care of three tracks, while Swindon have mainly kept their Thursdays. Now what about the other half of the league? The argument to adopt fixed race nights was to avoid guests caused by fixture clashes. The situation with Denmark blows that straight out of the water.

There are various conversion web sites that use prices and incomes history to give the historic value of money. The main one I use http://inflation.iamkate.com/ shows £1 in 1980 being worth just under £5 today. So, a £17 admission today would convert to about £3.50 back in 1980. I seem to remember admissions were about £1 in 1980 so on that basis in real terms speedway is well over three times as expensive now.