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It's time these pit crew thugs started getting bans for their attacks/attempted attacks on riders...

As I understand it, once Craig Cook had qualified towards the end of last season for this year's GP-series, Workington were then keen to avoid running home meetings on GP-Saturdays as they knew (especially in borderline Cumbrian weather) that a significant chunk of their home crowd would prefer to watch Cook live on TV instead of turning up at Derwent Park and settling for a Sky-+ trip through Cook's races along with the rest of that night's GP afterwards. Hence it was reckoned Friday nights with no counter-attraction of GP-TV would be better financially for the Comets than Saturday night clashes between the two and, at that stage, the BSPA didn't seem to have a problem with such a plan and its likely scattering of a few Workington home-Fridays throughout the 2018 season. But then came the actual declaring of the 2018 GP-schedule, crucially the first such schedule to be fitted into not just a World Cup football year but a World Cup in which Poland were expected to go a long way within it (yes, I know they actually crashed out straight away but on FIFA pre-tournament rankings they were the top-seeds in Group H ahead of Colombia, Senegal and Japan). Hence there weren't many GP's (just a couple of them plus the Speedway Nations week) during May & most of June, followed by the much busier GP-schedule that began (after the football groups were over) with the Danish round at Horsens on 30-June and yet still included one of the Swedish rounds at Hallstavik on 7-July which could have been getting underway only a few minutes after a Poland-Sweden quarter-final penalty shootout if the World Cup draw had tumbled that particular way (that was the actual game in which England beat Sweden 2-0). Even once both the GP and World Cup schedules were settled (shortly before Christmas 2017), there still seemed no serious objection from the BSPA to Workington's occasional GP-swerving Fridays and that still remained the case when the Comets' fixtures were announced early in 2018 with lots of Friday home meetings for them packed into July and August rather than a wider scattering of those home-Fridays across April and May as well. Then, as has been well (and very understandably frustratingly) documented on umpteen threads on this forum, it was only decided to scupper more than just Workington's Friday-plan at disgracefully short notice when a regular Friday home-track threw all its toys out of what needs to be a rather big pram for that particular baby. Hope all the above answers jenga's question.

I know Tony Jackson personally, quite well, and I can assure you that he could not attend the AGM because of personal family commitments (and believe me you would not wish to have those commitments yourself !). His place would have been taken by other management members, but I also know for a fact that they had untimely personal family commitments too !! I appreciate you werent inferring it, but please....no-one should think that our management just simply "couldnt be bothered" to attend the AGM. If you knew just how MUCH of his personal time Tony Jackson puts in week in and week out to sort team issues out, you would find it almost impossible to believe ! And he has a full time job to go to, plus he has long term family commitments to battle with on a daily basis too...so lets give him some credit !

Then why did the BSPA adopt the official fixturelist?

Couldnt get last night work again but second son went for first time in 15 yrs with his 2 lads and they luved it will be going everyweek ,now if only we could find a few more like that !

But according to Rob Godfrey you were told about Fridays before the season started and did nothing about it. They have only taken a tough stance because Lakeside, Peterborough and Workington did not sort it themselves. why is took 12 weeks to sort is probably because Rob couldn’t get guests as documented but due to no appeals to overturn the decision I would suggest it was in place at start of the season. British speedway is worse off under Buster and Godfrey but their ego’s won’t let them see it

not too bothered really what he scores.speedway in general has gone off the rails with rider changes galore.will i be ar..ed next season?who knows.

I totally agree Jenga. Tony Jackson has always been totally and utterly devoted to his work for the Comets, over many many years. He should be given an award for all his work, much of which is done in his OWN TIME ! I cant help but think though, that with all the shenanigans that the poor bloke and the other club management have had to constantly battle against this season, he and they must be at the end of their tethers.

Your last paragraph is a contradiction... Pedersen all action last night and won the thing. if hes capable of nights like that still, he should still be in the series. If hes still mixing around the top 8 at the end and requires a wild card, then taking into account his Swedish and Polish league form, where he tops the averages, and his recent GP form, he deserves to have another wild card regardless of how many he has previously had.

He might be referring to 'ginger beer' as in Cockney rhyming slang.

So the powers from above(not bspa) have heard the pleas of Cumbria and the fair minded speedway fan(but not all)and declared this mismatch shall not commence,proof that good will always triumph over evil

Thats a lot of £10 notes, even with tiny writing I was gonna say something like that, but av only got a fiver

The one thing Berwick is NOT is a dump.Its one of the best stadiums in the league.The track might not be the best but there was not one rider fell tonight so you are obviously talking through your A#se.

Yes paid 8 from 4 rides

That is probably the one thing that really annoys me, when riders literally give up before the end of the race, I can except break downs, falls etc but a rider giving up is not acceptable.

Not been said - however the Match against Rawicz was declared a 40-0 victory for bydgoszcz as Rawicz turned up without the minimum 4 Poles- so a challenge match between the teams was raced and Bach didn`t ride.

Deserved win for Berwick - the best team on the night from 1 - 7

Tell them to embrace the unpredictability of it all

The way I see it is that Hancock for several years now has preferred to ride safe rather than take a chance (not knocking him for it), he rarely overtakes on the outside and his gating has seen him thro. In the last couple of seasons the newbies have shown no respect for his reputation ( why should they) so his points haul has gradually lowered. Woffinden now seems to have a similar mindset, safety first as he has a significant points advantage. Pedersen on the other hand still has the points scoring hunger and is prepared to put himself on the line to get points which means we are entertained. i personally wouldn't give Hancock, Holder or even Pedersen a pick. The series needs new blood not oldies prepared to go thro the motions.

Yeah, well done Shaggy, tho you almost blew it yesterday you've recovered the situation, good job!!

Funnily enough, I am not ginger.

unless of course you are called richie worrall LOL .

Two theories? Maybe you only remember the good parts of the meetings, the rest is forgotten? Or perhaps as bikes develop and get faster, the quality of racing deteriorates, especially around fast, narrow tracks like Berwick? Maybe when the bikes were a bit slower, the racing was better?

More likely BFH

I will answer it for you then. I doubt that even Poole's owners could insist an interval was taken at Speedway matches if it looked like it was going to rain before the end of a match.

Has that made you feel better after the football? Your continual bitterness towards Edinburgh is rather dull without explanation. Don't think any Monarchs fan went along tonight with any great confidence. Look at the bandits reserves.

The rain spoilt a decent meeting .. the scoreline flattered Sheffield, when the rain started and our boys knew we had the cushion they didn’t risk themselves .. crazy how heat 15 was ran when Sheffield couldn’t win the meeting but Mr Bates thought they were only 3 points behind thinking Charles had scored double points in his tac ride so wanted the race run .. 3 points nice one boys

He said he had been told he had been sacked, that was confirmed, what happened after that we don't know presumably someone realised without a ready made replacement it was a stupid thing to say not sure it is Bjerre that looks a berk

That was more than enjoyable. Never thought the meeting would go ahead when the first TV pictures were shown, what a job the track staff did to get that on. Pedersen was inspired, fully deserved for how much he gives to the sport, whatever personal opinions he attracts.

Not a NP fan, but showed what it meant to him . Well done. No fault in the Woofy clash.

Malilla GP showing what an utter joke it was to call off the Poole meeting!!!

So it will be available in Workington then ?

It p**sed down all night and most of the morning. Whether it's raining now, or not, is pretty immaterial as the track was flooded. 7.45pm and starting to hammer it down

Our riders are all going well too so hopefully a cracking meeting and the right result for us .

Normally in Oct they will take the top surface of and start the meeting. Shame the ref didn't let the track staff attempt to sort it out.

Bob was riding alongside Olle Nygren when I first went to Plough Lane.A speedway man through and through from one of the great speedway families.Involved in South Coast speedway almost from the very beginning I think RIP

i think most people @ workington have a wee bit of knowledge as to why no management were available for the AGM . its just a few outsiders putting their spin on it and causing upsets . about the AGM. tony jackson deserves a huge amount of credit for the day to day running of a speedway club . a fan of many , many years . a truly nice and approachable guy . if speedway had a tony jackson in every club , none of the r u bb i s h that goes on in speedway would be happening . tony is up there with the legends of workington riders and promoters .

The rain dance worked

Well done Pinny, you got that call Pederson to win dead right. However they managed to turn that track into a race circuit I don't know, but however they did it British track curators need to take note. As for the racing, obviously early to mid races were a bit predictable, but towards the end some fantastic racing given to us. Like others I not too keen on the moves that particularly NP and Freddie do, but tonights moves by them were just about ok IMO. Certainly TW was winging about something which was ok. Interesting how the 2 top Poles crumbled in the semis, they could easily have been 1-2-3. Well done Zagar, just wish he could be consistently good, he has a good style and he is clean. Roll on the next meetings, it will take some to catch TW but sure is a lot of interest in positions 2-10. Unless things change Artum, Greg and Emils places are looking dodgy.

Proof if proof were needed that posting on an empty head is alive and well in Redcar.

Decent meeting tonight. Plymouth battled hard with limited resources.

The weather played a big part in this meeeting, first of all in how the forecast influenced track prep and then the heavy rain turned the remaining races into a bit of a lottery. I didn't think the last heat was going to be run especially after the time delay following heat 14 with the rain still falling i was a bit surprised when the bikes came out. Before the rain the racing wasn't brilliant but a good few races were close . The Comets built up a decent cushion which we eventually needed because we generally lost our way in the wet conditions . Congratulations to Young Kyle Bickley on his 4 points from 3 rides, he his developing more of a racing edge now which is good to see. We got the 3 points we needed, not sure the Tigers would have got a point if the weather hadn't intervened but they probably deserved it as more of their riders adapted better to the changing conditions.

Not seen a GP for quite awhile. Seemed to me just right that Nikki - my kind of rider - should bring some fire into the meeting

Worky had this won a long way out,sensibly took their foot off the gas when the rains came,all about getting the fixtures in and getting the points which they duly did

He's rubbish anyway just a waste of space always has been.

Trouble is too many riders have conditioned themselves to the point they are only happy riding a track that is slick and bone dry, a lot of skill has gone out of the sport since they brought in the laydowns, its now all about whack the throttle and hold on.

Do some of the responses on here reflect part of the problem with British speedway? Again, playing Devil's advocate...

Jack Smith for me. Not done much on the bike but he annoys ReadingRacer2017 more and more every meeting, so he gets my vote.

Sad news indeed. Promoter at Oxford, White City and Eastbourne and was always passionate about the sport. Remember when 'The Rebels' signed Tony Lomas and Bob took to the track at Cowley to demonstrate the best way of riding the track and promptly broke his ankle! A great servant and a great loss to the sport. RIP

Josh Bates is out for the rest of the season.