Sheffield Speedway Forum and the "Unofficial" site

I went away on holiday recently for two weeks (I had a lovely time, thanks for asking, birding in California) and on my return was shocked to see the Sheffield Speedway forum in turmoil. Usually after such a break it is a real pain in the behind to read up over two weeks posts to find out what has been going off but a quick look at the recent results showed a 45-44 defeat at Stoke, a little more digging and I realised that the last 3 heats of the meeting scored 14-4 in favour of the Stoke Potters - a sure case of the Tigers snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

The extraordinary thing however was not that some people were angry about the result but that it had got to the point where insults were flying on the forum, a Johnny come lately whose name was not familiar was lambasting some of the board regulars who seem to have been around since the creation of the site. This culminated in declarations from 3 of the most regular, and vociferous past contributors that they were no longer posting on the board. The ding dong can be viewed here www.sheffieldspeedway.com/extras/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?1318.40 with the subsequent "resignations here www.sheffieldspeedway.com/extras/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?1480.0

Congratulations therefore to "Sprocket" who appeared from nowhere, caused the resignation from the site of 3 of the most entertaining long-term posters, then disappeared just as quickly. Now Sprocket's member profile states that his real name is Michael Jackson, somehow I'd question this but if it his his real name well done. It seems that at a time when almost everybody who cares about Sheffield Speedway felt humiliation and hurt, he believed that the fault lay with the fans who felt that the management should take some of the blame for the quite extraordinary decisions on the night, rather than with the management themselves. Shortly afterwards there were comments in the local press from Neil Machin where he expressed frustration about "opinionated riders" and how no-one was more frustrated than he, David Hoggart and Eric Boocock, he did however fail to take any responsibility for the decisions made on the night - a significant point. Indeed in the article he berates the keyboards warriors who know nothing about team management and threatens to close the forum down if it doesn't become more positive.

This is followed up a week later by a broadside in the Sheffield racecard along much the same lines. Or was it? I didn't notice it immediately but it was pointed out to me by Sparky (board moderator on the Sheffield official forum) that the programme diatribe focused on the fact that the management team had been accused of being "inept". A quick search through the official forum shows that the word has only actually appeared twice there, once in the aforementioned post where Sparky points this out, and once way back in May, well before this current bout of handbags started. One place where the word inept was levelled at the Sheffield management was on the unofficial site, a site that has been in existence for much longer than the official site and is run by a very dedicated long-time fan who occasionally posts on the forum but interestingly not on the topic in question.

So let's step back and look at this, a fan on a totally independent site says "Our team management appeared inept" (note the word "appeared"), Neil Machin makes a threat in the local newspaper to close down the official forum because of the negativity and because the management had been called inept. The official forum loses 3 key players because of the sudden appearance and disappearance of the Peter Pan of pop (perhaps it was his second coming) and we are now left with a sterile, humourless and unimaginative board where the number of posts and posters has fallen over the past week.

Somewhere along the line there has been a massive over-reaction, several in fact, time to own up to it from all the players in this mini-drama and get on with the job in hand. Neil, if your spat is with Geoff sort it out the adult way even if it means agreeing to differ, tell him why your collective decisions at Stoke which appeared inept were not so, Santa, Third Man and Neil Down get posting again on the forum otherwise I'll be the lone voice of criticism, foolishness and pedantry. Above all let's learn some lessons from this, opinions are like ass****s, everyone has one but also opinions are based on information and observations. With the information they had at the time and with their own observations certain fans formed an opinion and expressed it in probably the only public outlet they had - an obscure website forum visited by like-minded people who will understand their frustrations. In retaliation one of those being criticised publishes his views in the main local newspaper (circulation as at 01/01/08 = 47,216) and then in the official racecard of Sheffield Speedway (estimated circulation 1,000),and threatens to close the fans' only official outlet, a reaction totally out of proportion with the circumstances. An attempt at understanding why the negatives comments were placed in the first instance may have been more appropriate, and the realisation that most of these comments were knee-jerk reactions, not something that has been brooded on and published to near on 50,000 people in a potentially damaging manner.

Yes some fans could do with thinking before they type sometimes, there have been occasions where opinions have gone over the top, but equally there are more professional ways of dealing with this than the ones currently employed. Sheffield Speedway is rightly known throughout British Speedway as one of, if not the most professional outfits around, let's not spoil that over hurt feelings.