Updates

In Issue 27 of The Voice I wrote about the Academy League in 2007 and how little was reported about it in the Speedway Star and how the BSPA web page didn’t seem to know it existed.

Well it seems that I wasn’t the only person to be concerned about this lack of coverage judging by a letter that appeared in the Speedway Star dated 23rd February 2008. A Mr Thacker wrote asking if it would “be possible during the coming season to give more information on the Academy League, such as teams, scorers and results and perhaps give them their own page” The reply from the editor was “it was our intention to publish a weekly round up of the Academy League results and fixtures last season but a lack of information from some of the clubs taking part made that impossible”

Regarding fixtures why couldn’t either the BSPA or SCB provide the information after all between them they claim to be in charge of British Speedway and therefore they should know when fixtures are scheduled to take place? Two solutions to the problem of the lack of results spring to mind. Couldn’t the SCB provide them because the AL matches are run under the control of a SCB appointed referee or at least a trainee referee and as part of their official duties according to the Speedway Regulations they must provide a marked copy of the programme to the SCB within 24 hours? Alternatively seeing that the Star have staff at the main meeting who provide match reports couldn’t they be asked stay behind for the AL meeting and provide us with the result if a match report is out of the question after all in the 1950’s and 1960’s the then Speedway Star and News match reports gave full details of the second half and the Star in the 80’s/90’s gave the result of and the scorers in the junior match which followed the senior match.

If the British Speedway authorities are serious about wanting to avoid finishing last in the World Team Cup final until hell freezes over, assuming of course we continue to reach the final, the whole question of where we find and then develop young British speedway talent must be addressed and we must learn from how other nations seem to get things right.

On my recent trip to Australia with Travel Plus some of the best races we saw were not the races in the Australian championship but the races held between heats involving riders aged under 15 on 350cc machines and it was very hard to tell that the young riders were on smaller machines. Seeing these races it is easy to see why Australia seems to have a never-ending supply of young talent compared to Britain. Another country that seems to have got its junior rider training right judging by the riders coming through is Denmark. Maybe it would be worth while for someone at Wood Street Rugby to hand out copies of Erik Gundersen article on how the Danish system works that appears in the January/February 2008 issue of Backtrack magazine and ask why the British system seems so slap dash in comparison and maybe even take him up on his offer to give them a talk about it.

In issue 28 of The Voice I gave the amount that the riders earned in 2007 for taking part in the SGP, which were far from impressive for risking their lives to provide our entertainment. Therefore I was interested to read in the Ole Olsen interview in the January/February 2008 issue of Backtrack magazine his comment

“It was a radical change when we brought in the Grand Prix and they said when it first came in that “Ole was going to finish speedway” Even Phil Rising and his colleagues at Speedway Star were against it from the start but they now have to admit that it’s the best thing since cut bread, And we’re improving things all the time”

So I wondered if the 2008 prize money was one of the things that had improved. I checked the rules for the 2008 SGP, available at www.fim.ch, and was disappointed but not surprised that they had remained the same as in 2007 and of course as in 2006 and 2005 in fact since 2000 the riders have only seen two increases in their prize money. This would be bad enough but due to the fact that the riders are paid in US dollars the riders have suffered a double wage rate due the falling exchange rate of the dollar against the European currencies plus the effect of inflation.

In the same interview Mr Olsen said he was disappointed with the prize money he received in 1978 when he won his final world title at Wembley. He felt that the £500 plus and additional £500 from the meeting sponsors, The Sunday Mirror, was poor reward for the effort he had put in. He would have been more upset if he had known that when Tommy Price became the first post war World Champion in 1949 he won £500 plus £92 10s in points and start money. According to the web site, www.eh.net/hmit , £500 in 1949 would in 1978 have been worth £3,077 if linked to Retail Price Index or £5,730 if linked to average earnings and if carried on to 2006 the

£500 rises to £12,200 (RPI) or £36,888 (Average Earnings). In 2006 Jason Crump earned $8,140 (approx £4,680) per GP whilst in 2007 Nicki Pedersen earned $8,013 (approx £4,191) per GP. The question Mr Olsen needs to ask himself is if he was riding now would he happy riding for the money offered by SGP especially when the organisers keep telling everyone how successful the series is yet in 8 years can only give the lads on the shop floor two wage rises one of which was due to having their hours increased (or in speedway terms the number of races increased) Its good to see that the spirit of the Victorian mill owners towards their workers is alive and well in 2008 and living in Sommersted Denmark.

MCM