RobMcCaffery

Well, I have seen 46 years of almost continual decline, in terms of support and numbers of professional tracks and the riding talent employed in the country. While this last point, as I have argued many times in the past is not as vital as many would think, it is a reality. To say that because the sport is still here then it's always been like this does seem rather odd logic. I have never claimed that "The sky is falling in" and predicted British speedway's doom. I am fully convinced that it will always survive at least in a semi-professional or amateur form, say today's Championship or NL level but I have had my severe doubts about sustainability at the fully professional level for many years, and certainly since its loss of Saturdays and now Fridays too. Outside speedway my academic background and my consuming interest still is in aspects of economic and social history. I study history in many forms, both through books and magazines and by video. I occasionally also visit source material when I can. I think I am in a fairly good position to be able to judge how aspects of society change over time. I certainly don't subscribe to the view that the past was automatically better. I'd like to think that despite having enjoyed many things in the past I am not in possession of 'rose-tinted glasses'. I do not lament lost youth. However, I do know what I enjoy and have enjoyed, and equally the reverse. I have seen wonderful things arrive such as the very technology that allows me to make this posting. I have equally seen matters develop that appal me such as the rise of social selfishness and erosion of basic human respect and consideration. I have no doubt whatsoever that British speedway has declined appallingly in that near half-century, mainly due to the impact of SGPs and Poland. I didn't see the disaster years of the 1950s but I did start about six years after the 1960s revival brought about by the creation of the BL. Off the top of my head there were about 36 professional tracks in the top two divisions in my first year, 1971. Now we have just over half that number. Nobody can suggest that is anything but a disaster, despite the existence of the theoretically amateur NL. In 1971 there were seven first division tracks running on Saturdays, over a third of the league. These included Wembley, the old Belle Vue, Coventry, Cradley and Halifax. All are gone. Outside London it could be argued the backbone of the sport has been lost. We have lost all speedway in London as well. No, things are far worse than they were in 1971. As for racing, that is subjective but while I feel domestically that racing has picked up slightly in recent seasons, viewing my videos of the 1980s I have no doubt that racing has declined, principally through the decline of outside passing. For years I watched racers take the brave challenge of opening the throttle and going for the outside pass only to be let down by cheaply-prepared or maintained tracks that failed to give them the grip to reward their bravery. There is still some. but not enough, and if a speedway lover like me sees this, what do you think the attitude of the casual supporters is. Id'd ask them if most hadn't voted with their feet. In Poland and the SGPs I feel the racing has recovered to the standard I once knew here, but feel that is a product of expenditure on tracks and incentives for the riders. Here though neither exists significantly enough. Just by bringing back GP riders you won't get GP racing without money. Yes people have warned speedway about its foolishness continually for years and have been ignored. I'd suggest that many who did have long-since found other things to occupy them. Claiming that just because the sport survives these messages are invalidated does nobody any good, neither the sport or contributor. The biggest problem with people or sports involved in a negative spiral is to convince them they haven't got a problem, whether they be a drunk or a sport that's lost its way. Speedway should be grateful that some still care enough to put over reasoned and constructive criticism. Certainly it does little to encourage such loyalty and carries on in its own complacent way, occasionally telling supporters off for not attending..... The fact that Philip can justifiably level the same allegations 36 years later is not a failing of his.

Quite, Philip. I dare say these wise words are still dismissed as 'troublemaking' by those in power. Promoters are capable, in most cases, of running a speedway track, often against all the odds and many pour in time and money to keep tracks going, but all that good work seems to drift away on the wind once they act together as the BSPA. It would almost be a kindness to put control in independent hands. Sadly the sport, even after 90 years is still not mature enough to do this, or more crucially accept the decisions taken by an independent controller or body. Short-sighted pragmatism rules and certain riders exploit it to the full. Your comments about rider commitments are at the heart of the current crisis. Riding in Britain for too many is just something to do while waiting to make big money in Poland. Of course you don't do anything to risk that, such as putting full effort into racing. People rightly praise the quality of commitment of riders in the GPs and Poland. Sadly it's unrealistic to expect similar commitment in races, or even turning up here, when the pickings are so poor. Compromise after compromise erodes integrity. Adding in a disregard for the paying customer by promoters and riders creates the current toxic situation. The problem is, I should be angry, but all I can really feel is pity.

No, it's about having teams of relatively equal strength so that you don't have a race to financial extinction for those who cannot compete economically. It's a case of not having the insanity of paying highly expensive 'star' riders blasting round half a lap in front and taking home more than the total attendance money. Sadly too many fans hide behind the "watered down" mantra that totally fails to realise that the sport in Britain is a brown ale sport trying to live off champagne. Yes, there was a day when we could afford the top talent but those costs have been disastrously escalated by the money being paid in Poland and riders' expectations soaring as a result. The bubble will burst but for now Britain has to find a way to survive until then and if it does not then find a way to survive. Having fans that see that the quality of racing is vastly more important that the quality of names in a sport like ours might help. At this level it's all about putting on meetings that will attract and entertain new crowds, not provide them with uncompetitive meetings but telling them,"Who cares, that's Tai Woffinden half a lap ahead of Jason Doyle". Most would say "Who the hell are they and why is there no action?". British speedway's situation cannot be simplistically laid entirely at the BSPA's door. The competition of Poland and the Grand Prixs have battered British speedway which never stood a chance. When the sport here tries to do something to survive it would be useful if these posturing 'supporters' actually demonstrated that support by dropping this damaging "watered down" rubbish, but then that would ask for a view of the bigger picture that too many cannot or will not even begin to try. This will be my 47th season in the sport and in those years I have watched speedway and often worked in it all levels from World Finals to training tracks. Thankfully I've learned that I was just as likely to see a decent speedway race at Iwade as I would be at Cardiff of Wembley. I would have missed so much joy if I had stupidly stuck to the "I don't DO second division" or "It's watered down" approach. In most sports the greater the talent the greater the entertainment, but that doesn't work in racing unless you have the enormous hype budget of F1. I adore the sight of a match being won by a rider bravely taking the outside line to win on the line and I don't care what his name or reputation is....

I've already recounted the story of a former speedway promoter handing out the fivers to his stock car racers so won't bore the forum with a repeat. I had to get involved in stock car racing (banger racing is popular but often minor aspect of the sport, depending on location) in the early 80s and it was clear that crowds were quite superb for it, despite the lack of media coverage, and respect from the outside world. I'd go to speedway tracks and see them full for the car racing : Belle Vue, Coventry, Long Eaton for example. Even the smaller,. more remote locations like Aycliffe, Taunton, St Austell and Newton Abbot had crowds that would have been the envy of speeday promotions, even then. Speedway is torn apart by some for lack of credibility yet I lost count of the number of World Finals I would meet in oval car racing. It seemed every promoting group had its own World Championship for its various formulae, although at the higher levels BriSCA and Spedeworth managed to keep their world finals unique. Okay, so crowds were higher and costs lower, despite often 50-60 cars racing, many of which cost five figures to put on track. By contrast some other 'Banger' meetings featured cars dragged off the scrapheap, only to return after a few crashes. One other key difference from speedway was the lack of foreign racers. In fact in the cheaper formulae such as 'Stock Rods' or 'Saloon Stock Cars', outside championship events the drivers would all come from roughly a 40-50 mile radius. Even the 'World Finals' would often include just a handful of foreign racers, a few from the Dutch tracks and drivers from South Africa or Australasia imported for the event to drive loaned cars built to a different formula than their cars back home. As you can imagine the World Champions tended to be British..... So we have a sport with limited credibility, little international competition, almost zero media coverage, but with minimal costs attracting huge crowds. Why? I expect much of the crowd just wet to watch crashes and ignored the race order, nigh-on impossible to follow without lap charts and a commentator with access to them (I certainly didn't). The public didn't seem bothered by results. There was a following for 'names' on a national scale with both BriSCA stock car formulae and Spedeworth's Hot Rods having a troupe of travelling stars but I do suspect the attraction was simply action and entertainment. A society that drives far more cars than rides motorbikes is perhaps inevitably attracted more to four-wheeled racing. You could see though that this was a sport that simply got on with it outside the media spotlight, didn't waste a fortune attracting 'names; in from all over Europe, with competitors tracing for the fun of it, not the money, put the saved money into advertising, and one that stood no nonsense and just put on what the crowds enjoyed. There was one shining example of this. I went to Crewe just after the speedway had folded. Stock cars crashing on that track tended to stay crashed. The promoter had a way to deal with the mayhem after each of the several races. He had effectively a truck with a fork lift on the front with which he just picked the cars up and dumped them on the old cricket pitch and got on with the racing as soon as possible. It was astonishing to watch. No messing about and no taking the paying customers for granted by having a huge gap between races. Perhaps instead of sneering at Stock Car Racing or treating it as a destructive cuckoo in the nest speedway might find it useful to take a look at what it gets right. If they need to know when the next meeting is try the local paper which may well have a full page colour ad in it to inform them...... It made me realise that importing up to about a dozen riders from all over Europe and Australasia to race for big money in front of a crowd as small as a minor non league football club was insanity. It still is.

One day I was supporter then a fire alarm at a supporters' convention saw me become a commentator. It's hard to believe it happened now. There is a book in it but the lawyers would have a field day. Bear in mind even when something is true you have to prove it is. I was never an insider which did rather complicate things. The odd thing is that every job I performed in the sport I was asked to do - I never applied. Anyway, the BSF has more important matters to discuss. I was just a bit taken aback to be quoted by Peter Oakes!

That's very kind, thank you. I'm just trying to pass on what I've learned over the years. I want so much for this wonderful sport to recover and thrive.

The statistical overload is an American import where no commentary is complete without a barrage of totally incomprehensible statistical rubbish that I'm sure is intended to impress viewers who haven't a clue what they are being told but it "sure sounds impressive". Isn't there an outfit called Opta producing this stuff for football? Having said that it was the statistical side of speedway that helped draw me in - racecharts and averages but those are meaningful stats. The rest is just filler.

.....both of you, especially Peter Oakes ;-) That'll sort out which of you have read the Speedway Star this week. Okay, and the rest of you, even if you are called SCB or follow Poole ;-)

Do they not have young riders in the SGBC? You would rather see the Bees cease to exist than support a team of "kids riding round"? I am sure that those loyal supporters of the rest of the NL teams would have been overawed at having such all-important supporters such as yourselves deigning to visit them. It must be wonderful being such important speedway supporters. We bow in awe ;-)

It is fascinating to note that offensive comments by scb can be considered part of an "excellent post". Whatever sense he might make in his other points is devalued by his ignorant use of ageism. People have a right to enjoy speedway irrespective of race, gender, sexual orientation or AGE. Yes the sport needs a younger age group following it but is that really to be achieved by sneering at the elderly who do attend meetings? Where do we stop in SCB's nasty little world, an age limit on attendance and proof required of being under what arbitrary age limit he considers 'old'? I have to admit though that he is in fact doing me a favour, along with other posters of his nature. For a few years it hasn't been possible for me to attend more than a handful of meetings. Thankfully my circumstances have changed and with it came the joy of being able to start going to meetings regularly again. Then I read things like "Don't worry about the old, they'll die soon" make me realise that I have other interests to spend my time and cash on. After 46 years I'll make that one less oldie to be despised and sneered at in future.

That is downright offensive. Perhaps if instead of your ignorant ageism we have someone post some equally obnoxious homophobia and see how you like it. Comments like that destroy any respect for the rest of your occasionally intelligent comments. Just because you post in detail and some are taken in by it all doesn't mean you're in the right. I've worked damn hard for speedway in my time and it would be good to think that I could still go to speedway without facing obnoxious comments from yourself about people in my age group. Anyway, hopefully I'll be dead soon, eh? Uteerly disgusting. We should cater for all not just overgrown children like you.

No I didn't have time to read what was a rather irrelevant article in full. Apologies for not spotting a very minor point hidden in it. Perhaps if the original poster had actually drawn attention to this rather than just lazily post a link to the article and post an intelligible header then there might have been a little less confusion? I really have no interest in games like darts. The pettiness and stupidity on this forum when trying to have a reasoned discussion is deeply saddening at times, but perhaps to be expected.

The answer is to promote it as an 'extreme' sport. All kinds of usually American manufactured sport are skilfully sold under that banner. It's all sensation and image based. Speedway needs expert selling. Many years ago I was invited by the BSPA to discuss a proposal I had made that they set up their own in-house marketing and TV production business so they could control the 'message' and maintain control over TV revenues and the spin-off sponsorship. I was naive of course. They heard me but admitted that they didn't have the expertise to do it themselves. Tellingly they didn't have the vision to realise that it might be an idea to hire those who did have that expertise. The sport needs stable management, clear, intelligent policy, a vision of where it's going and to find people who can sell it for them. I actually feel sorry for the BSPA at times. They come across as reasonably successful small to medium businessmen who care about the sport but when it comes to TV, sponsorship and general marketing they're way out of their depth. Reverting to the 'extreme' aspect I have taken occasional looks at what gets lumped into this 'product' and to be honest speedway is far more interesting than most. It is a triumph ofd style over substance. Sadly we need a little of that American hucksterism. All we seem to get are expensive attempts at American style with only a vague connection without selling turning that image into revenue. The flashy trappings and irrelevant costs would look good, if anyone was looking. Do we want a sport fuelled by hype? Well, that's what got it started and thriving. Hype's moved on from our old showmen though and the sport's been left behind.

Back in 1974 I lost my speedway track with the team moving forty miles away. I didn't hold my breath, vow to boycott or go off in a huff. I was too young to drive so each week I would get to the old stadium and board a coach to the new track, which wasn't a patch on our old one. It was an appalling experience but I stuck with it for over 20 years, despite the journey for me personally growing at times to 200 miles. I stuck with my team - because without me and others it would have died. Tragically Coventry fans are now going through that same appalling trauma. It's depressing to see how few are prepared to save the Bees beyond empty words. If there's a Coventry Bees side out there, support them, just as I would even after four decades I would if a Rayleigh Rockets side was out there. In 1999, after no promoters seemed interested in reopening Rye House a group of supporters relaunched the Rockets as a nomadic team. I was one of them. It didn't matter whether we were racing at Mildenhall, Eastbourne or King's Lynn we were the Rockets and many of our fans came with us. As a result we got the Rockets back permanently. Sadly for deeply personal reasons I couldn't enjoy that return but I and many others did out bit twice to rescue our team. Is a relatively short trip up a motorway to Leicester that much to ask? Will showing how tough you are solve the situation?

He should have received a lengthy ban for his contempt for British Speedway last year. He had a contract to race here and walked out on it the moment he could smell better money. I suspect had he not been a Poole asset he would have received that justified ban.

Just staying with the BBC for a moment, I once met the then head of Sport for BBC Nations and Regions at a rugby event held by BBC Radio Gloucestershire. Nations & Regions covers all localised BBC radio and TV across the the three nations, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, plus regional TV and local radio in England and the Channel Islands. It does not include national TV programmes or the main national radio networks. With varying levels of success, notably high in the Midlands with BBC WM this is the side of the BBC that is far more likely than the national side to bother with speedway. I asked him what was their policy on speedway and the response was that it was up to the relevant sports editor whether to feature speedway but that he was totally open to coverage of the sport, with the obvious proviso that what was offered was suitable. A secondary point is why does media at a national level so often shun speedway? My feeling is, you must remember that most senior national journalists started out as junior local journos, some of whom might have been sent out to the local speedway track to get copy. Having seen the attitude shown to the press in speedway it would be no surprise if they simply got the job done and hoped to move on to more appreciative sports. It was claimed that one very famous BBC sports commentator of the 1960s-80s was extremely hostile to the sport, chiefly because of resentment at how he felt he had been treated as a young journalist. Now some tracks do know how to look after the media, or have in the past and the momentum carries on, and they are the ones that you will find have great local coverage, or others may be lucky to have a speedway fan working locally as a professional journalist. Sadly I suspect far too many think they have a divine right to coverage or amazingly view it as something that will stop fans coming, the "If they want to know the result let them pay to come in" mentality. When you buy a local paper and find speedway on several pages including the back it didn't happen by magic. Hard work won that space. The occasional advert would also help smooth the relationship. Speedway seems to think it's something special that demands attention. It isn't.......but it could and should be.

Excellent post Dean. Sums it up perfectly.

To me there is just one key factor. In the minds of far too many people speedway is no longer viewed as being worth spending £15-20 per person on. Whether that is a false or genuine perception is irrelevant. It's basic economics that the price is a product of supply and demand. The supply side is still reasonable but demand has plummetted. Abysmal marketing, a shoddy attitude to customers, a focus on rider needs rather than customer, rules based on constant compromise, usually to paper over loopholes, failure to control unnecessary costs, pitifully poor racing in several cases, constant rider absence are all details. Speedway has to be or either be seen to be value for money.

Yes there is, if you were following the discussion elsewhere. For many years riders with a top division (EL/SGBP) average over 6 were not allowed to double up in the second division (PL/SGBC). In 2017 all were allowed temporarily. The 6 point rule though has been reintroduced for 2018. Those riders over six who took up the option in 2017 are allowed to carry on in the second tier. Those like Nicholls who didn't are not. You may not agree with the logic. I don't but it is there, even if only at BSPA level.

A true character and I'm sorry to hear this news. Back in 1983 my producer and I were pulling up in the car park for the Norden World Final. "Well, this is one place we won't see Noddy". Wrong - he was helping out as a car park attendant... Another time I arrived at Leicester in a hurry to cover an England v USA test match. I'd had to get a train and taxi to Blackbird Road and urgently needed to find the press gate. Noddy was on hand and used his specialised knowledge of such entrances to point me in the right direction. Somebody once suggested he was a self-employed cobbler which would have helped him to have time off for his travels. He seemed to know everyone.

Rather confused by the headline and how a darts story can relate to "Auntie Beeb has remembered what Speedway was, once" (sic). What exactly does that phrase mean? Moving into the real world, darts has been successfully hyped for many years by professional businesses which specialise in such work, because darts went out and found someone to do this. Speedway has not. If the poster is trying to knock the BBC perhaps he should pay attention to what BBC WM are doing right on his doorstep? You have to sell the sport to broadcasters as much as the rest of the media. Instead speedway views the press as freeloaders who are likely to stop people paying to watch the sport. It's remarkable how much coverage speedway actually gets, usually down to the personal enthusiasm of a local editor. You can't just sit back and expect to be given coverage such as that darts piece. You have to at least meet these people half way. Most press and publicity in speedway is undertaken by willing amateurs. I know, I was one. You get what you pay for. Don't blame the media if they're not interested in what is offered to them, if any is.....

If you're referring to my posting no. This was down in the west country and a man who had promoted domestic speedway at the very highest level.

I've worked in other branches of lower level motor sport and they found it laughable that speedway riders expected to make a living from it. A former speedway promoter who had switched top stock cars only invited me into his office after a meeting which had attracted a crowd that would have been the envy of any speedway promoter. There was a queue of drivers, many of whom had spent several thousand pounds on their cars (we're not talking bangers here). Each in turn took a few pounds off the promoter. Occasionally one would get a few pounds more if they had won a race. At the end the promoter showed me the money left over and said "THAT'S why I gave up speedway". Only at the top levels of motorsport where there are very lucrative TV and sponsorship deals do racers make a living and then it usually comes from a sponsor. Over the past near half century I have witnessed a sport whose competitors seem to increasingly want a Formula 1 lifestyle without realising that the money's just not there. If they want the champagne lifestyle or just to draw a full-time wage they need to be in a sport that attracts more than a few hundred people, has not blown its TV deals and whose sponsorship is not generally based on charity from those who love it. Expectations must change.

BT Sport have four channels to fill at that time. Sky have more. Are you really saying that they will not show anything on the other channels whichever gets the contract for this handful of games? Of course they will show other sport and there's no reason why speedway would miss out. This year there were several occasions where a 6 pm SGP programme clashed with the second half of a 5.30 Premier League football match on BT.

Yes it has changed, but other sports survived. We were so reliant on dog tracks and it's the decline of that sport that's dragged us down in London. Land is worth more used for commercial units or housing than running minority sport. Unless the stadium is making good money or has protection, either through a benefactor, legal or council policy you are inevitably under threat. In many ways the Weir was a signpost to the future. I had to break a vow a couple of years back. My wife (an ex-Hackney Hawks fan) persuaded me that I really needed to buy clothes from a shop situated I reckon about on the old fourth bend terracing site. And so, after thirty years I finally returned to the Weir, under protest ;-) I'd made one other visit since 1973 - in 1980 after the Rockets had won their first title at Rye House I went back as part of a personal celebration/commemoration/contemplation. I'd been tempted to ask if we could take the NL trophy there just for a small private parade of it round what was left of the track - a bit of sad sentiment to today's supporters, I expect. I doubt whether the then promotion would have understood the sentiment. It was sickening to see it still derelict after seven seasons that could have given us so many more speedway memories there. It is one of the greatest truths that you do NOT know what you have until it's gone. I hate it whenever I hear of another track's closure, and it hurt like hell when we lost Rye House in 1994, almost two decades to the month after Rayleigh. Thankfully that wasn't permanent but so often tracks, like lost loved ones have an awful habit of staying dead. It's easy for others to say "Well, I'm okay".... With the promotional changes at Rye House I hope to get there next year. It would have been this year if not for poor health and other problems. I'll just take a quiet seat in a corner and remember.