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Traditional race sheet for 2018 German GP:- https://www.keepandshare.com/doc16/21456/gp-2018-10-pdf-39k?da=y

Just a thought but if mother nature decides to pi*s on our parade literally and we end up not completing the season due to the weather and/or failing to get meetings run, how stupid are the people running our sport going to look after the warmest summer in decades. There decision to alter the fixture calendar could ultimately cost them there jobs (here's hoping).

Very unprofessional what happened this evening. Some action needs to be taken if only to prevent this happening again in professional sport. Very few fans ever seem to make it across the 69 anyway but for the Diamonds to field such a weakened further damages the image of the sport but more importantly adds to the financial burden on the Comets promotion. Sad way for Robbo to bow out of a distinguished career, wonder if the missing riders gave any thought to this being his final meeting.

After reading the latest posts on this thread I decided to do a exercise on the two Saturday tracks Berwick race night Saturday Workington race night Saturday alternative night Friday,From Sat 7/4 to Sat 30/6 is 13 Saturdays Berwick raced 10 meetings 1 rained off, 2 with no meeting. Workington raced 4 meetings { 2 v Glasgow 1 v Edin 1 v BER on a Friday ) 1 rained off and 8 with no meetings . Looking at these facts Berwick 2 no meetings, Workington 8 no meetings in the same period nothing to do with Godfrey and Chapman if Berwick can do it [young promotion ] why cant Workington do it now await all the flak but figures do not lie

Got to balance out the dodgy polish referees somehow!!!

How can you have a long track meeting at Rye??

Strangely 3 of the teams who they tried to screw over , Lakeside & Worky , Peterboro , are in the play-offs now there's a bit of karma for ya

The trouble is it won't cost them there jobs Chapman & Godfrey are as thick as thieves and will back each other as they know what is best for British speedway , wink & a nod and all that sort of stuff . I am still waiting for Chapman's vision of clarity that was promised when he took over as BSPA chairman, if things don't change then it's going to be a long wait with more clubs going to the wall.

Yet again the long suffering supporters suffer. Last time the Diamonds were in town most of them at least turned up (though only Tero could be bothered) and I stated that they should give any of their supporters that made the trip over their money back. Tonight having deceived the paying public by stating that only Kus was missing, they should compensate the home supporters and the home promotion. What a farce. And they wonder why speedway is dying on its a**e.

Always supported George and the promotion 120%. Sorry, just no excuse for this!! Massive disrespect to the team and the supporters.

Guy ropes & pegs will be essential for keeping the folding chairs in place then.

IF you have ever witnessed the draw or actually been involved as I was for a while you will know that it is impossible to fix.

Four of those five are exactly the people who have presided over the slow and steady decline of British speedway. What makes you think they have the answers now? If you want fresh thinking you need people who ideally have no connection with speedway, potentially even from outside the world of sport.

Lets bloody hope so , needs to take the other one with him

Shambles the only word to describe the Newcastle team at Workington tonight, And people wonder why crowds are down and the sport can’t attract decent league sponsorship, Shame for the home promotion too who are clearly struggling to balance the books and will no doubt score 60+ tonight making it a very expensive night .

Surely Newcastle will face some sort of action from BSPA. I know its end of season.... but that really is just so unprofessional. Paying spectators short changed big style!! Sorry for Workington fans and indeed any Diamonds fans who had not given up hope of pulling off a surprise victory. Getting more angry as I write this so will shut up now!! PS Gutted for the remaining 4 Diamonds also who will no doubt try their very hardest to support the weakened 6 man team

Not sure I agree with the out of sight out of mind approach sorry, or with those saying there are no 'physical' victims. This man had 108 Cat A images and 100s more B and C including new borns to 15 years old, this is not a victimless crime! He is going to be released in a matter of weeks so bugger the idea of ignoring it. I almost guarantee he will be on here with an alias with us happily chatting away to him without any idea, very very soon!!

Chuckle brother's comes to mind .

There is no way I was trying to state that Malcolm Simmons has exclusive rights to be called a Legend regarding speedway that would be a completely stupid assertion of mine. There are many riders that I admire right from the beginning of speedway starting in the UK that I would have loved to have seen riding and i wish that I had a time-machine to carry this function out.

I'm sure the CEO of Domino's will have more ideas about how to market speedway than the current incumbents at the BSPA. When Barry Hearn became chairman of the PDC did he change the value of a bull's eye to 75 and introduce a rule where if a player is 100 points down his next three darts count double? Of course not. He was looking at the bigger picture, how to revolutionise the presentation of darts, engaging with sponsors who can bring credibility to the sport and negotiating a multi-million pound TV deal. This is the problem with the BSPA. They think they can turn around speedway's fortunes by endless tinkering with the rules, league structures and names. If anything the BSPA are too close to speedway. How often do the likes of the FA, RFU and so on introduce the types of rule changes we see every year in speedway. What the BPSA as the governing body should be doing is looking at the bigger picture not arguing over rule changes every year.

Not exactly achieved much have they? Quite the opposite more likely.

I know it's only folks having a chat about him but I will be happy when this thread has disappeared into obscurity, the fella is vermin and will probably be revelling in the fact that he's being discussed here. I know I know, by posting in the thread I'm keeping it prominent but if it discourages one or two from continuing then it's worth the effort.

I wonder if he's still able to sit !!!

Not including his stint with Poole Hancock rode 18 seasons in Britain, which I think puts him level with Hans Nielsen in terms of time spent in the British League. Nielsen quit the UK when he was 35, Hancock when he was 37 (or thereabouts). I don't think you'll find anyone claiming that Hans owes the UK anything, who did much the same and rode his final years in Europe. Forgive me if my stats or memory has let me down - I've taken them from Wikipedia but it seems about right. The main difference is that Hancock has carried on riding at the top level long past the usual, and perhaps by his mid thirties felt he didn't want or need to chase around Europe every day of the week unless the money was silly, which it isn't going to be in the UK. He certainly isn't the only one to make that decision I will admit being a Cradley fan of a certain vintage makes me probably a little biased

I've seen no evidence of Zmarzlik being a dirty rider, hard and aggressive certainly. But you have to be to get anywhere these days..unless you have Hancock's gating skills. I think Woffinden tends to get a bit precious over a bit of hard riding, although Nicki's move on him in Malilla wasn't even hard, never mind dirty. I don't know how Woffy (and Janowski) would've coped against Olsen and Nielsen! Being British I guess I want Tai to win, but I wouldn't mind if it was Zmarzlik, simply because I love watching him race.

Right call made by the promotion. Pretty grim evening and a lot of expense on flights etc would have been wasted. Fingers crossed for better weather next Thursday.

Triple headers, why not. You could run the whole home season in five meetings.

He's having a break, so he is.

Zmarzlik dirty, nah, no more than ANY others over the years, the list would be endless!

The nail has largely been hit on the head. Focus on the product and not the names. There si no doubt that a GP star in full flight is a fine sight to behold BUT week in week out i would rather see closely contested races with riders going to the tapes and all having a genuine shout of winning & the potential for some actual overtaking. I care not about who is involved in producing a good race as long as its a good race. The gulf in quality within teams needs to be reduced as does the gaps between teams in leagues. I like many i know want affordable entertainment simple as that.

The sport is not going to recover given the level it has been allowed to drop too.A lot of riders will be working 9-5 shortly.They have only themselves to blame.Still we await the Annual Master Plan that comes out every year.Really can't believe the total shambles the sport has dropped too.

Only met him once a few years ago & took an instant dislike to the slimy knowall little sh**. Hope he's getting the crap knocked out of him on a regular basis.

I think it is more a case of some promotions not having the forward thinking in trying to bring meetings forward & use the excuse that the fixtures were set in stone when agreed pre-season. They then blame the BSPA(a committee of 5) for agreeing to 1 promoters desire to go back to the decisions made at the AGM to only hold 3 CL meetings on race days as guests were hard to find as in our case missing our no1 from the 1st meeting of our season for 3 months but then compounded by losing another rider for 3 months from the end of May. Other injuries occurred in other teams so the need for guests was clearly an issue that needed addressing. Even now teams still racing, are struggling for guests & that includes from teams that have ended their season or are waiting for others to catch up.

I bet if we had to win tonight to win the league or it had of been the cup final where we had a 10 point lead he would of been there or am I being a cynic

niels stuck around until home time. Batch left the track before the meeting was over. Bit different. Maybe 1 has a better character than the other too. Holders our main rival anyway. Batchelor was just his b*tch. Hope you get the pair of them riding for you next season though! Imagine the toys being thrown out of the pram it it was around this years track. . . . Then you would understand why the pair of them are so unpopular here.

There are many parameters that can be used to decide whether a riders deserves legendary status not just how many World titles or other titles that they might have won. You could also include a riders loyal service to a particular club or length of riding within the sport. Plus their attitude towards fans etc. Because of this what one person thinks of a rider is a legend another will not, as you can never please everyone. You list is a good list of 70s and 80s riders and everyone will have their own opinion on the riders mentioned. At the end of the day someone who wins multiple World Titles whether as an individual or within a team deserves all the credit for the efforts and most importantly the memories created and stored in the brains of those who witnessed them riding. Take the TV show Pointless today the 16 most famous Londoners that featured David Beckham he is only famous for achieving club success and not internationally, and for being in magazines all the time, so I was surprised to see him mentioned. London has produced far more successful sportsmen and ladies over the years than him.

Legend is an overused and misused word. I’ll tell you who is a legend - King Arthur. He’s a total ledge. Is Simmo an all-time great of the sport? Hmm, probably not. But in purely England or Poole terms, absolutely.

Proctor declared fit for Workington this evening!!

Think we need to worry about Somerset first with Covatti at reserve they are not out of it yet.

Everyone USED to go. Says a lot.

Next year could be tricky as there is a whole heap of riders lurking on the sidelines next year ready to take up places at 15. With plenty of riders still on 3.00 at the end of the year there will be some headaches over the winter but along with Gilkes the Thompsons are coming, Ablitt, Palin, McGurk, Wirtzfield etc. Think Pavitt will make big strides next year at the right club.

Mid week..... kids back at school... school the next day.. noticeable improvement in attendance during school holidays

I showed two mates that race last night and it did absolutely nothing for them, just bikes going around in a circle. I suppose if you don't get it there's not a lot anyone can do to get newbies through the turnstiles

Honestly That looks like the only available date for Workington/Glasgow is the 5th/6th October 2018 to run this play off Semi Final? Interesting If Workington get past Newcastle in the Knock Out Cup tomorrow I would assume that the Edinburgh Semi Final would be run over the 29th/30th September weekend and if they get past the Monarchs and the Scorpions in the Shield on Saturday it would leave the last three weekends in October reserved for the three finals Or will we run into November? No surely not! no one would have that much clout! would they? Regards THJ

This will be interesting . Just over a month to get three competitions done and dusted and getting dates that suit all concerned . Might need to look out the Santa hats by the time we get to the finals .

The difference is that Batchelor guested rather than having a play off meeting for a team he actually rides for, plus it would seem that at the time Lynn took absolutely no risks with Niels with next Monday on mind. Can see your point but for me the two situations are quite different. Batch used his crash as a cop out as he didn’t fancy the track, and didn’t put any effort in during his last meeting for the club at Leicester. And of course the main point that Niels has been a top bloke and team man for many years whereas Troy has always been a plank.

Nah, Phil wasn't a speedway fan, and he wouldn't go down to Poole when he had Stoke on his doorstep either; Shov wasn't that attractive to him!!! Phil's main sporting interest is Port Vale F.C. Incidentally, we had a similar thread a few years back. Steve

RIGHTLY or wrongly, riders who have completed in a SGP season are considered for wild cards the next whether or not they have participated in qualifying rounds. Different scenario to Madsen.

Workington to win the play offs...good for the club, good for its fans and good for the sport.

Can’t get my head around people not wanting a British world champion. Saying hopefully Zmarzlik can catch him is just a bit strange as can’t see how anyone can support a Pole over a Brit! Was never a fan of Havvy but wanted him to win in 1992. As an Ipswich fan I would never have cheered the likes of Sigalos and Cook over Carter in a test match