RobMcCaffery

Bad attitude? You clearly don't know Ron.

You forgot to mention a chaotic fixture list that sees too many tracks' seasons ending two months early.

Obviously I can't say that for certain but normal business practice is that if you have someone manage part of your business for you you usually give them a budget to spend. Logic isn't that frequent a visitor to Rye House however. The indication was that Silver was supposed to be managing the speedway side of the business. Are you saying he's not the manager and just the guy who does the track and gives a bit of advice? Now THAT would be even more surprising.

No but I expect he's still in charge of spending Scott's money for him.

Yet again the paying public are shafted. People wonder why the sport's lost so many customers? Poor value for money. Contempt for those spending it. Average-fixing, sending out substandard teams, caring only about the result not the entertainment. It all adds up in the long term and it has. You have to feel for those trying to improve the situation like the Facennas.

It is not cynical to express concerns regarding this scheme given what happened in Reading. The lack of development so far both on and off site only heightens those fears. I'd love to see the new stadium built but previous plans to put the car park on the infield and to have homes right by the track including an old people's home rather does stretch credulity and can't help increase those fears. On the positive side if I wanted to pull the wool over someone's eyes I wouldn't tackle Terry Russell....

Obviously you'd need to see the books to be sure but most of those Ekstra Liga tracks seem to be getting excellent crowds so if one like Zielona Gora is in financial trouble they must simply be paying out far too much. Sometimes too much money in a sport can be as damaging as too little if it isn't spent wisely. I'd be interested to know how Torun have coped this year with their previous benefactor having pulled-out. Great stadia with great crowds might be impressive, but not if they still pay out more than they take in, or worse still, promise to pay then fail to do so and leave others to pick up the pieces.

You'd have thought Czestochowa would have been a warning. Not so perfect in Poland as people try to tell us.

You just need to look at the gaps on the terraces to see the plight Bydgoszcz are in. It's so very sad. I can imagine TVP aren't too happy at the prospect of a trip to Latvia for the final.

Doesn't do a heck of a lot for the play-off either way.

Ever considered that people can have logical, thought-out opinions that don't deserve childish insults? I just prefer league racing and have always viewed individual events, whatever the label to be an 'extra'. Yes there have been some very good meetings but give me a match anytime. It was team racing that saved the sport from being a nine-day wonder in the 1920s and it was the fact that I had a local team to support in league racing that appealed when I first wandered into Rayleigh in 1971. If I wanted individual motorcycle racing I'd have followed other branches of motorcycling that do it far better. Whoever is World Champion is pretty irrelevant to me but then some people go for that kind of thing. I'm interested in the World Championship and watch the GPs on the basis that some speedway is better than none, but don't like it when it wrecks the core team side of the sport. That's my preference, and one that's been formed over four decades.If that makes me a 'fossil' then your insult is rather irrelevant. I'm not changing that opinion due to childish insults.

So you are rightly entitled to a choice but those who disagree are dismissed as fossils? Charming and so very helpful. I prefer a one-off world final simply because to me the world championship is far less important than league racing, but that's MY choice. So if those who don't like the GP are fossils, what shall we call those who prefer to let the GPs kill British speedway? Oh yes, fools....

Are Vargarna financially sound enough to accept promotion if they win?

Tie a 15 kilo weight to the dirt deflector?

my desire for the Devils to get four points tomorrow has nothing to do with me spending a week in Devon next week ;-) Honest!

A quiet week's suddenly become rather lively! Thanks.

Sadly it's not just a case of receiving the channel's signal, the first two at least are pay-TV so need a decoder and subscription. I suspect the only FTA coverage might be on Eurosport - the SEC and Swedish League (when they can be bothered). The SGP is only on the British version. Once with a good motorised system you could have fun scanning the skies for all kinds of free international TV including the likes of Polsat showing Polish speedway in the clear. Sadly far too much is encrypted now. It's much easier just to use the internet.

Historically the only noise complaints received at Rye House related to the karts, not the speedway. Of course times change.

First second halves, pairs, four team tournaments and individuals were meaningless, now some league matches are apparently meaningless. At what point do speedway supporters stop trying to talk their sport out of existence? Whatever happened to enjoying a good night's speedway racing? No wonder the sport's falling apart if only part of the remaining short season isn't 'meaningless'.

I helped out at Eastbourne a couple of times in the mid-eighties where the starting gate was controlled by a mechanical system using a lever, not a switch. One prominent ref showed me how he'd learned how to give the lever the necessary thump without moving his upper arm since certain star Eagles riders were known to watch the refs' shoulder move so they could anticipate the start...

Unfortunately incorrect. In 1964, following the collapse of the National League and the running of the Provincial League as an unlicenced league during that season over a dispute over the attempted forcible promotion of Wolverhampton, 1963 PL champions into the NL, Lord Shawcross was commissioned to report on the future of speedway. He recommended a merger of the two leagues to form the British League which commenced in 1965. In 1968 a second division was formed which included Berwick. After operating for seven seasons as British League Division two the lower league renamed itsewlf the New National League to emphasise how it wished to be seen as an independent body which it progressively became. After a few seasons the 'New' was dropped from the name and the BL and NL ran pretty separately until the end of the 1980s. In 1991 the two leagues came back together to reform as British League divisions 1 & 2 with a controversial and ultimately unworkable promotion and relegation system. In 1995 the declining numbers of tracks saw another restart attempted by the forming of one league, the Premier League. In that and the following season the former NL clubs weren't helped to rise to BL standards and it was clear that the merger had been near-fatal to the former second tier clubs. In 1997 several teams broke away to form an Elite League, the situation that still exists today.

That would be relevant if you had chosen the three meetings we were actually discussing. PNYC liking your post says it all given that he was part of the discussion..... Better luck next time.

Those previous transmissions carried the FIM id, rather like the ice racing. I take it Dorna have been involved in the past working for the FIM. I've been wondering who was producing it for the FIM and who was commentating since the coverage carries no credits, just the FIM logo.

For the past couple of years it's been carried on Motors TV in the week following. Sadly there's nothing there this year. I've checked up to the 25th. For it to appear on You Tube it has to be televised first......

Must buy a copy for "The Return" and his mates ;-)