RobMcCaffery

I suspect he's been in all night.... He must have got bored and switched accounts. Thanks to both sides for producing a fascinating and memorable final. I'm pleased that the table-toppers won the title but have to sympathise with Wolves' awful luck with injuries and being unable to deal with the problem due to past misdemeanours by others. Once more BT managed to show the sport in a far greater light than perhaps was true of what's been overall a pretty wretched season. Somehow British Speedway's managed to present itself very well for the televised meetings with thankfully the farces taking place well away from cameras, with minimal guests and no obvious rider tantrums. Perhaps it does show how the sport can still function reasonably well on a night when no other leagues or international competitions are being staged. I don't approve of the fixed night idea but it might be a sad necessity if we're going to make the rest of the sport here as professional as it has come across on BT. I'm sure a casual viewer would be shocked to know the full off-camera story of the 2017 British speedway season. Now, if we can get it right when the cameras are there we must surely be able to do the same when they're absent. There's still hope.

If you argue that an asset should not be considered a guest it would favour those teams with the greatest asset list. If say Harris were a Wolves asset but on loan to =Rye House this year he would still have been a guest irrespective of asset 'ownership'. To create a situation where Wolves could have brought in Woffinden you would really have to create a squad system - and I suspect that would cause utter chaos to police in Britain. In Poland riders are desperate to get in the teams and earn the big money so are prepared to wait as unused squad members. Would they wait to be called upon for pin money in Britain? Whatever the temptation of allowing Woffinden in you either have a guest or squad system. They are logically excusive. Although the Lindgren case is obviously genuine, given some of the 'convenient' injuries at play-off time in past seasons the situation could become chaotic if a team has a useful asset not riding, as we have seen very recently. Whether a rider is an asset or not, if he's in another team's declaration or not involved in the sport here he's still a guest. Sadly Wolves are the victims of rule-bending by other teams in the past. Okay one team.....

No it shows how much contempt there is for it and its obnoxious supporters.

I have read the whole thread and made many contributions. Unfortunately there's not enough hours in the day to study the overall contributions of most individual members. I was merely highlighting that it is easy to be cynical but far more important to have healthy scepticism. The GI/Stadia UK/ Bristol Stadium story needs pulling together by a proper team of investigative journalists. I have read with horror the naive acceptance of the many platitudes being issued by those involved in this story. You only have to look at the poor planning applications to ask whether they are a sign of incompetence or deliberate confusion and delaying tactics. Last time I looked at the proposed site I saw a large puddle and a shack. I take it this is a sign of the reported drainage problems. 'Due diligence' should have dealt with that at the outset of the scheme. It stinks.

It's a case of doing what Poland want and hope all will work out. Watch Poland add Fridays and possibly Wednesdays to their racing calendar once we implement this. Easy. You have the riders ride for the team you want to run in the Premiership next year Might be useful if someone forwards this to Go Speed.

Bristol Stadium (Knowle) Bristol Stadium (Eastville) Oxford (briefly in the late 1970s) Reading (Smallmead) Milton Keynes ...................... Swindon? Torquay United? Poole? It's healthy scepticism, not cynicism. Sometimes the alarm bells have to be sounded since these people seemingly rely on complacency and gullibility.

It's odd that the story claims the Italians won't let the cameras in but Sabmar will be transmitting delayed coverage at 10pm UK. It must have lost something in translation.

I recall during 1974 that it was admitted that the stadium plans were having to be scaled-back in order to get the Racers back in 1975, thereby just missing one season. There are parallels in how the replacement Swindon design has been severely compromised compared to the original. We just have to hope that if it ever is built then the present stadium is still in use up to the point at which the replacement is ready. I also hope for world peace and intelligent conversation with Poole fans....... Much is said about how the loss of speedway in London was a mortal blow for the sport. The decline of the Oxford/Reading/Swindon cluster has also been very significant. Now the Midlands has lost Coventry to go with Cradley, leaving Wolverhampton also on their own like the Robins. We can't afford to lose Swindon.

I once was shown the original, detailed drawings for Smallmead which showed a much more elaborate and substantial stadium than that which was built. I do wonder if there was a link between this and your points.

There's nothing on the BBC Commentaries website so I assume not. As soon as the football season returned WM were going to be stretched to have their team available for speedway. Monday's meeting at Swindon is beimg covered by BBC Wiltshire for those unable to watch on BT. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/speedway/17839601 There was an obvious chance to put even a single camera pay-TV feed on the internet tonight but as usual the 21st century is still awaited in Rugby.

That's a relief. I'd heard that the £2 coin was busy elsewhere and they were going to have to find a €2 instead or use change-replacement of 4 50 pences.

If it's off tonight will BT be invited to film the coin toss for the place in the final? ;-)

If, as rumoured, the intention by the BSPA is to run a 12-team Premiership next year, I suggest they keep very quiet until after BT Sport have televised what could well be a totally irrelevant pair of meetings - apart from them probably being quite entertaining. BT only seem to be publicising one meeting on October 9th with no mention of a second leg.

Bear in mind the launch publicity for Freesports has included live, not delayed Swedish Speedway in 2018, but I don't recall it saying ALL matches. There is no mention of Polish speedway. You could find that you abandon a Premier subscription only to find that not everything is on Freesports, assuming it lasts. Considering it's now been going for a month it still hasn't got a reliable schedule on its own website. I'd wait and see what happens next spring.

Sadly too few realise this. In most sports the higher the calibre of competitor the better the sport, but in racing it's different. It's about riders being evenly matched, but then many seem to want to watch 'stars' rather than racing. Value for money, or the perception of value for money is speedway's central problem, and until it wakes up to that the decline will continue. Much, much more consideration needs to be given to the needs of fans than those of riders, promoters, or even TV.

It's unlikely anyone will know until next spring whether they'll be carrying it on either channel. Considering Premier is normally £9.99 a month, £25 a year isn't that much to pay to guarantee being able to watch all matches.

I expect the ice racing will be covered, by Dorna for the FIM, as it has done for many years, but it's a question of whether a UK station will take the programmes. This year no-one took them but they were uploaded to You Tube, eventual;ly. Bear in mind there's a difference between taking programmes made by another company and making them yourself. This year BT have taken the BSI-produced world feed for the SGP/SWC, just adding their own presentation/discussion and interviews, liker Sky before them. For the domestic coverage they have had to go out and make the programmes themselves, again like Sky. In the case of Premier/Freesports they simply take the pictures from CMore Sport in Sweden and NSport+ in Poland,just adding Dave Goddard's commentary. Apart from coverage of British meetings all the speedway you see on TV here is actually made by overseas or international broadcasters just with English commentary or presentation added where necessary. Re Quest TV, it has been used very occasionally as an overflow channel for Eurosport but in the whole of October their only sport coverage will be snooker. It was created to put programmes from the various Discovery channels in one single channel on Freeview and Freesat.

Thank you Dave, you've done an excellent job and shown a deep knowledge of the sport. It's not easy doing it live 'off tube'.

Dave, THAT's my highlight of the season. Congratulations Ghostwalker. Why not give him a mention for all his efforts here, eh Dave? Mrs McCaffery agrees with Mrs r&r by the way. Well, she was a Hackney Hawks fan......

12 home meetings plus possibly up to two play-offs a year and a wrecked second tier? That really the death of speedway. Final abject surrender to BSI and the PZM.

Sadly Freesports is not yet on Virgin Media - they have apparently yet to do a deal for VM to carry the channel. Freesports is not available to all Freeview users sadly. Although it is broadcast in SD for technical reasons it can only be picked up on channel 95 if: 1-Your TV or Digibox is able to receive the HD channels. 2-Your local TV transmitter carries it. Only main transmitters have the capacity to broadcast it. The many relay transmitters cannot. Apart from that it's all simple ;-)

It's not rules or race nights that keep the top riders out of British Speedway. IT'S MONEY! Perhaps those who are deluded enough to think that it's a simple thing to achieve could raid their piggy banks and make a contribution? No Monopoly game money accepted though.

People rightly bitch about the lack of fixtures then when the KO Cup is revived it gets described as 'tin pot'. Just what exactly isn't 'tin pot' then? No wonder the seasons are so pathetically short if this mentality is commonplace. Why can't people just go to enjoy a night out at the speedway instead of sneering at anything that doesn't directly involve winning the league trophy in order to sound clever? After all, by your standards aren't all speedway matches 'tin pot'. Sorry, just realised I was talking to a Poole fan. Second halves (tinpot - axed), pairs (tinpot, axed) fours (tinpot, axed), individuals (tinpot, almost axed), challenge matches/regional tournaments (tinpot, almost axed), cup (tinpot, should be axed?), league matches after cut-off date (tinpot, should be axed?), league matches (tinpot?), speedway (tinpot?). Why can't we just enjoy speedway and enjoy a night out without obsessing on how 'meaningful' it is. After all, isn't all sport actually meaningless, if enjoyable(*)? (*unless you're sadly the type that can only enjoy winning).

Anyone thinking that BT Sport would shift a Champions League match to the red button in order to accommodate speedway wants their bumps reading. So, we have a situation where the logical, allocated and highly televisable reserved date can't be used because one of the teams has scheduled a cup tie that night when they've had all season and still over a month of season to stage it, even allowing for the final. Then the restaging is switched to a night when BT Sport are showing blanket coverage of their biggest financial commitment they have, by a huge margin. In a destructive and incompetent season that was lifted only by the sport being on best behaviour for BT (reasonably complete teams, no walk-outs) when it comes to the final hurdle it all falls apart. I'd love to hear the conversation between Go Speed/BSPA and BT Sport over them shifting a CL match to make for speedway unnecessarily scheduled for one of their peak nights of the year. I think I know the second word, "off".

Certainly no intention 'lose' the thread - I just answered a point raised. . I should have realised you were in the thread and not posted - it's too important a subject to have to deal with the likes of you....