AndyM

Salty, my memory may well be faulty. Think it was 72 though not absolutely certain which club. Would have to delve down into my programme collection to find that one out...

Not having seen the incident in question I can't comment, other than to say that unless you want total anarchy all riders (and fans) must abide by the ref's decision, even when they screw it up. In cricket, football and rugby, for example, players are fined or banned for any display of petulance or dissent. In speedway you might argue riders have got away with too much for too long. Gollob must know that parking his bike on the track was an unacceptable action and that a ban will result. Ultimately, the cause was frustration - the fact that he knows in his heart of hearts he will never be world champion.

Very accomplished rider on his day. I remember vividly seeing Howard Cole ride from reserve at Coventry for the Heathens and score a 12-point max in 1972. My dad, who had been a Bees fan for many years, was indignant. What on earth was he doing riding at reserve?

Peter Collins was 22 when he won the world title in 1976! Coming back to this topic after working in NHS circle my immediate thought was that people will always need doctors!!

Generally true, but remember Ullevi 2003? Start with a pool of, say, 24 riders and select them so each rides a certain number of GPs but not all?

Phil, with all due respect to those who prepare tracks for the GP circus, this is an art and/or science proven over decades. If you have the right expertise, the right tools and the right raw materials, it should be quite possible to provide a track capable of high quality racing at every venue - just as our cricket authorities insist on a minimum standard for pitches, which are uniformally inspected and punishments meted out to those who fail to provide pitches meeting the required standard. It should never be a "holy grail", it should be the very minimum we expect. Your point about what people expect to see is also erroneous. People might cheer if their own riders are in front but the expectation is clearly for close, exciting racing with multiple racing lines so the most skilled rider can always win whether or not he gates first. If you cannot provide a track with that capability, something is wrong.

RIP. Does anyone know how old he was?

That wasn't my question. I asked what he had contributed to speedway. By what achievements has he earned his role with Team GB?

Fair question - who IS Rob Lyon? How has he ever contributed to speedway?

How will that happen? Fans are simply not organised at present. High time we were!

Definitely time for a fan rebellion. What's the best way to set up a poll or a petition?

Totally agree. Do we know what Ole's grounds for disagreement were?

So that leaves Ole believing slick is better, or the third option: it's entirely accidental because the people preparing the tracks really don't know what they're doing. Which do we believe? Coincidence or conspiracy?

We should not let this rest, even if 1 were the case. Sponsors need to be educated that racing is the product. If that means finding other ways to display sponsor logos that don't prevent riders mixing it in the shale, so be it. The product has to come first, and Olsen and anyone else complicit in taking away the core component of racing needs to realise that fans come before even sponsors. Without fans, there is no sport.

So why does Ole apparently disagree? Is there any direct way to contact him, because I think we should be organising a petition or bombarding him with emails - anything to improve the tracks for GPs!

You think Nicki is losing interest now he's 99.9% certain to lose? Agree he won't drop out of the top 8 though. Would be nice to have someone coming up through the ranks to challenge for the last spot.

No, but that prevents the decent well-behaved majority enjoying a drink because of the behaviour of a minority. If it were a well-publicise condition of entry that no alcohol could be brought into the stadium and that anyone giving the appearance of being drunk and/or disorderly would be refused access, people would moderate their behaviour.

Yes, but I still saw no evidence to suggest the people concerned were not already well gone before they got in the stadium. Rather than banning alcohol in the stadium it would be much more effective to refuse entry to people who look drunk and potentially disruptive before they get to their seats.

You can buy beer at cricket matches, albeit at a price, and everyone is usually quite civilised. Does anyone really abuse the privilege at speedway GPs? And how do you know they weren't already drunk before they got in the stadium?

Very sorry to everyone but I've decided not to go to Cardiff, primarily because of the distance and the fact that I am working and have a long commute on Friday and Monday and could already do with more sleep than I currently get! I hope you all have a splendid time and see some great speedway.

Yes, and this isn't just nostalgia - this illustrates how everyone involved in speedway has lost all perspective. Change is not necessarily for the better, but the decline happened because the vision and determination was never there to sustain speedway through the golden years. An element of complacency was definitely around, that the crowds would stay, the production line of fine riders would continue, clubs would stay in business and everything would be hunky dory.

Happens to all decent riders sooner or later - they peak and start to decline just as new blood starts to rise to the surface. Some last longer than others, but Leigh's best days are probably behind him. He'll remain an excellent rider for some years yet, just won't achieve the same heights...

In the scenario I described, you could still have a UK round in some format, with the final worth double points or whatever being the final round.

Well, they had to come up with some form of pre-match entertainment that would draw in the crowds...

I would much prefer a return to the old fashioned world finals, albeit with a much changed qualification process. You could combine the two so a series of rounds was used as qualification for the big final event, not unlike the Grand Prix series of individual events in the UK in the late 70s (can anyone remind me when this was? I know Mort won it one year.) Without a big event to focus on the process seems meaningless to me, and it totally destroyed Saturday night UK league speedway (OK, so the Eagles and the Rockets ride on a Saturday, but time was it was the biggest night of the week.)