G the Bee

One has to wonder who is advising this lad. He's just a kid and, as far as I'm concerned, should not be giving any interviews to the press without an adult present. Not because of any child protection issues or anything like that, but simply because any young kid is more likely to go and say something to the press which is better left unsaid. The fact is, no benefit can come to Robert by making a statement like that. All it's going to do is antagonize people. My own take on it. No matter whether Robert feels the BSPA have given him enough help or not, he should respect the rules that are in place for the sport in this country. And, to me, the rules seem very sensible. There should be no rush, at the age of 14, to feel you need to ride competitively on a 500cc bike. You are allowed to ride at the age of 15 in the NL and, to be honest that age, and that level, seems about right. And, of course, Lambert has benefited from the system in place in this country. He rode a good portion of last year for Kings Lynn in the NL and he has signed for their EL team on a 3-point average this year, again as a result of his nationality. If I was the head of the BSPA, I would be on the phone to Rob Lyon straight away informing him that should Lambert not wish to take advantage of his British nationality, they would be happy to adjust his EL average accordingly.

If you are going to have a rant, make sure you get your facts right first. Garrity will miss no matches for Rye House to ride for Coventry. He is a Rye House asset, so their fixtures take priority. To be honest, this train of thought that the EL is being propped up by the PL is a load of utter nonsense. Sure the draft riders are pretty much all PL riders and, without the draft, they would probably not have had the opportunity to ride EL and therefore no fixtures to clash against. However, rather than seeing it as PL propping up the EL, it should be seen as the EL giving these riders the opportunity to better themselves. The crux of the matter is that the doubling up rule has allowed the PL to become artificially strong and retain their top riders who, under normal circumstances, would have progressed out of the PL into the EL years ago. As far as the PL 'top stars' are concerned it is the EL that is providing the PL with their top riders and have done for years. To add insult to injury, up until this year, the PL has had first call on their services too. It was always an utter nonsense that lower league fixtures should ever take priority over top league fixtures. At least this year, the EL has seen some recompense in this state of affairs, although not enough in my opinion. Kennett, for example, is the asset of an EL club, so, as an EL rider first and foremost, I believe he should have to prioritise his Birmimgham fixtures over his Rye House ones. The same for Ben Barker, who remains a Coventry asset. As far as the top PL riders are concerned (the PL 'box office' riders) it is the EL which is propping the PL up. Without doubling up, it is my opinion that: Cook would have chosen Belle Vue over Edinburgh Richie Worrall would have chosen Belle Vue over Newcastle (especially being as he is a Belle Vue asset) Fisher would have chosen Coventry over Peterborough Barker would have chosen Bimingham over Plymouth Lawson would have chosen Lakeside over Redcar Kennett would have chosen Birmingham over Rye House Morris would have chosen Swindon over Somerset (and did before Somerset re-signed him) Grajczonek would have chosen Poole over Workington Wells would have chosen Wolverhampton over Workington You've also got to look at Josh Auty who has doubled up for a few years now and wonder what decisions he might have made had he been forced to choose between EL and PL a few years ago. Obviously Josh wanted to double-up again this year but (as far as I can see) did not fit into the team plans of any EL club when they were putting their teams together (although I suspect we'll see him and Ashley Birks doubling up at some stage this season). I wonder whether any EL clubs would have taken Josh this season on a non-doubling-up basis and what his decision would have been then. Then, of course, there is the example of Jason Doyle who, when forced to choose between his EL club and his PL club, chose to sign for the EL club (for whom he has no real affinity to, having never rode for them before) over the PL club with whom he won the league (and other trophies) last year. Also we must consider the Nick Morris case. Obviously there was a little speculation at the time over whether he would move on from Swindon when Somerset initially released him. But we all know that this was in order to enable him to ride both EL and PL rather than EL only. He was never going to opt out of the EL to ride PL. I have never been a fan of the doubling up rule other than as a one-season arrangement to help aspiring riders move from PL to EL (as, for example, it did for Chris Harris in 2003 when he had one season doubling up with Trelawney and Peterborough before moving to Coventry full time in 2004). In my opinion, the doubling up rule has been a farce since it was extended a few seasons ago. And it's generally favoured the PL. But, I say again, the idea that the EL is propping the PL up is nonsense. All that's happened is that riders who reach a certain level can now have their cake and eat it rather than taking the common sense route of reaching a certain level plying their trade in the lower league before stepping up to a better one in order to better themselves as a rider.

We always go top tier. Buy the cheapest tickets and then usually move to get a row where we can spread out a bit! That's the advantage of the top tier, many of the rows are half-empty. No one seems to mind you moving about. It depends whether you like being so high up. Personally I really enjoy it because it makes such a change from how I usually view speedway 'live'.

I agree wholeheartedly with the vast majority of the above post from Ivanobe. What happened tonight was nothing short of an absolute disgrace. Still, we know Neil Watson reads these posts and I am sure an explanation will be forthcoming. I was quite vocal at the stadium in voicing my disgust at the meeting being called off, and for that I make no apology at all. Certainly I am of the opinion the meeting should never have started. However, there was no rain during the meeting itself and, as we all know, tracks tend to improve as a meeting goes on. If the track was unsafe after heat 6, it was unsafe before the meeting began. The only area of disagreement I have with the above (excellent) post is that, to a point, I do also hold the riders responsible. I am sure I will get shot down in flames for this, and I await the 'the riders' safety is paramount' argument. But my reasons for stating this I'll set out below. Firstly, I understand that the NL riders have less experience than other riders. However, of the 14 riders there today, for right or for wrong, 6 of them will be riding in the Elite League this year. The track was heavy. It was difficult to ride. But, as far as I'm concerned, if that had been an Elite League meeting, especially a Sky meeting, that meeting would have gone ahead. The likes of Morris, Sargeant, Nielsen etc will have to get on with it then. I also appreciate the argument that some will say that the NL is a training league so allowances should be made. I actually disagree with that sentiment. The MDL is a training league. The NL is a league where the customer pays to come through the gate. It does not market itself as a training league and, when Cradley (Dudley) won the triple last year, no-one undervalued their achievement because they had 'only won the training league'. The NL markets itself as a serious league which is the third tier of the sport. This meeting itself was marketed as being part of a big opening weekend. As a result, there has to be an element of collective responsibility here. All participants, whether they are rider, referee or promoter need to remember that they are, first and foremost, in the entertainment business and have an obligation to those paying customers. Once the decision had been made to proceed with that meeting, there should have been a determination, from all parties concerned, to get through that meeting. That determination did not seem apparent tonight. I think this is a general problem at all levels of the sport. They (both promoters and riders) lose sight of the fact that the product is there to entertain. One only has to look at the deserted terracing at speedway meetings week-in, week-out to prove this point. The supporters are not a by-product of the sport, they are the reason for it.

I thought I read on here that new rules had been agreed. If the rider is an asset of the EL club, the EL fixture takes priority, otherwise it is the PL fixture that takes priority (unless the PL fixture is a re-arranged fixture). Assuming those rules have been implemented, Coventry on Good Friday, as far as I can see, will not be affected. Looking at the BSPA website, Fisher is the only rider with a clash as Workington (Howarth) and Rye House (Garrity) are not riding on that day. Fisher is a Bees asset, so his Bees fixture takes priority in this instance. For Bees at Leicester on Easter Saturday, Howarth has a fixture clash as Workington are at Berwick. However, Rye House are not riding, so Garrity should be ok to ride for Bees. So over the two days, Bees should only be missing one rider in their away fixture.

Well I'm sure most of us can recall the All Party Parliamentary Group for Speedway, which was set up with such fanfare a few months ago. Surely this is the exact kind of situation where they should be able to bring their influence to bear?

With respect, why? In my opinion, simply because of its timing, the New Zealand GP is an inconvenience the sport could do without. A GP on the other side of the world at exactly the time when the domestic leagues in Europe (and most specifically the Elite League) are starting up. The fact that this year's GP is two weeks later than last year's means even more disruption than before for some clubs. Granted the impact on the Elite League is somewhat lessened this year because of the lack of GP riders in Britain this season but we will still have a situation where 5 of our 10 teams will have to manage the disruption of limited availability of their star riders until the latter part of the second week of April. If New Zealand was a speedway hotbed then, perhaps, I could understand the need (and almost, perhaps, the entitlement) for them to have a GP and accept the disruption it causes. But the fact is that the glory days of New Zealand as a speedway nation as good as ended 20+ years ago when Larry Ross and Mitch Shirra (the last two international standard New Zealand riders) wound down their international careers.

Watching on my Google Nexus through the Livestream app. Excellent quality on full screen. That's with a slow 4mbps download speed too. Very impressed.

And on that point, a huge well done to Coventry for taking a stand at the event. A brief article is on the Bees website on http://www.coventrybees.co/news.php?extend.2523 I suspect that stands like this do not come cheap but this is precisely the sort of event speedway promotions should be involved in. Lets hope it pays off.

But they haven't done anything other than introduce NL riders into the league (a questionable move at best) and dropped the points limit. The (supposed) expensive riders (in other words the GP stars) who want to be here will still be. Ward and Holder will still line up for Poole. Iversen for Kings Lynn etc. So where's the cost cutting?

So the draft system allows teams to have pre-allocated riders they have already signed? What sort of draft is that?

Will be fun seeing how that works. Who is to say a Bees team of, say, Sundstrom, Harris, Hansen, Larsen and Szczepaniak (which comes in at 31.99) is better than a Poole team of Holder, Ward, Tungate, Grajczonek and A.N. Other up to 4.61)? At least it looks like if Poole go with that top 4 they will not be able to fit Bech in as his PL converted average is 5.05.

As far as I can see, they had a real chance (yet again) to do something positive. Instead we've got some sort of halfway house designed to try to cut costs by lowering the points limit yet retaining the GP stars. SCB has just predicted Poole's top 4. I suspect, if averages allow, they'll stick Mikkel Bech in there with Holder, Ward, Josh G and Kyle N. All they'll have to do is make sure they have a couple of half-decent NL reserves (who do not even seem to have averages) and they will stroll to the title again! Kings Lynn, if they can keep Robert Lambert will have one of the top heat leaders in Iversen and the top NL rider. If there is no NL points limit ascribed to the reserve positions, essentially these rules mean you can build the strongest 1-5 possible and also have the best reserves in the league. The usual team-building scenario of a weaker 1-5 being off set by a stronger reserve pairing (Bham this year for example) has gone out of the window.

The beginnings of a statement on BSPA site. But click on it and nothing happens. It is not January 1st 1970!

Let's face it, the sport has been on borrowed time for years now. A direct result of having no strategic vision for the last ten years and stumbling on from agm to agm with self-interest dominating. If the sport had been managed properly we could still have the top riders over here and a healthy Elite League too. But it hasn't been and we can't have. Unfortunately, the league can't keep going on the way it is. This year, as I see it, the sport had two options: 1) To adopt a single race night model and bring back the top riders and form the kind of genuine Elite League that this country has not seen for ten years. 8 teams racing once a week. This would have been dependent on a long-term tv deal and a lot of good will amongst the promotions. It would also have meant that home meetings would only be once every two weeks (but, lets face it, we have been not far away from that this season anyway). 2) Plan for a league without the tv money. Get rid of the high earning riders who are streets ahead of the opposition, bring back weekly racing to each track and cut the cloth accordingly. My only concern is that Tai becoming World Champion may have thrown a huge spanner in the works. We don't want to have the new British World Champion not riding over here but if Wolves field Woffinden on a nine point average with a total points limit of 38, they are going to have to make some astute signings further down the order to be remotely competitive.

Apparently Nigel and Kelvin were seen on a grassy knoll in Dallas, Texas on November 22nd 1963.

Put simply, we must be the only sport who has had a decade and a half's investment from Sky and come out the other end in a significantly worse position than when we entered it. A damning indictment of how the sport in this country has been run. Clueless promotion, no long-term plan, stumbling along from agm to agm making rule changes on a whim... Need I go on. As far as I'm concerned the management team of the BSPA as a collective (and I know it's membership has changed over this period) has blood on its hands and owes each and every speedway supporter in the country an apology for the shambolic and ineffective way the sport has been governed over this period.

When you see a ride like that by Kasprzak in heat 13, it makes you realise why Coventry fans were so frustrated by him this season. It's also why I believe Havelock was a failure as team manager for the Bees. When he is on form, Kasprzak is one of the top riders in the world but he is a confidence rider. Middlo and Rosco seemed able to get the best out of him but often this season I was left wondering whether Havelock had any kind of approach or strategy to managing Kasprzak to get the best out of him. I know it's not a truly relevant thread for a comment like this, but it's a discussion forum and I certainly believe if Kasprzak had been able to turn out performances like the one I have witnessed this afternoon, the season could have turned out very differently for Coventry.

Perfect team riding by Jonsson and Hancock.

Then, of course, there was the changing of the rules regarding assessed averages for foreign riders. To ensure that Bees could not have tracked Shamek on an average of 4 (I think that was the figure it was previously). As it stands, I felt that the rules regarding assessed averages and PL to EL conversions had needed looking into for some time. But it was oh so convenient to look into all of these rules in the year when certain clubs did not stand to benefit from them and one team, run by an owner whose face did not fit, did. We all know that Coventry had assembled a team which would have made them dead-cert favourites to retain their EL title in 2011. Therefore it was pretty much in all the other clubs interests to weaken the Bees over the winter so that's what happened. Bees and Peterborough stood alone. The annoying thing is that this was the third time, following a Bees team winning the league, major changes were made to the points limit so it's hardly surprising people sensed a conspiracy. Now, three years on, and irrespective of whether people believe Coventry and Peterborough were right or wrong for making the stand they did, a few things to me are clear: Speedway is still crying out to be run by an independent body with no vested interests The sport is in a bigger mess now than it has ever been Coventry, as a club, have never really recovered from those events in the winter of 2010/2011. I wonder if, with the benefit of hindsight, whether certain promotions now wish they had stood alongside Bees and Panthers during the winter of discontent.

And only, of course, after Wolves had benefited from the rule with Tai Woffinden and Poole had benefited from the rule with Chris Holder and Darcy Ward in the seasons leading up to it.

Disgraceful set of affairs. With Torun using RR for Holder there was always the possibility one of their riders might have been injured whilst fulfilling some of their other riding commitments. Especially with a GP the night before! I can't believe that a contingency plan was not in place. As Dave Rowe spoke about on SpeedwayTV, they had squad riders, so why did they not have one of these riders (Sullivan, Kennett etc) on stand by? It appears that Torun will now have the book thrown at them and quite rightly too. Nevertheless, it's such a shame because it will be the Torun fans that suffer.

Come on Speedway TV lets at least have a commentary of events. I'm just watching a screen with no sound.

Well I have subscribed to the pay per view feed on www.speedwaytv.tv. The commentary is with David Rowe so it's excellent and whilst for the first heat there was no sound other than commentary (no bike sound) this was sorted for heat 2. However, the picture quality I am receiving is not particularly good. Quite blocky once the action starts. Admittedly, though, my broadband connection is not good (only about 4.3mbps). However, I can watch iplayer and Youtube clips in very good quality so surely it can't be just down to my connection? The picture quality I am getting is not much better than a stream and nowhere near the quality of a decent YouTube clip. Any other comments? edit... Further to my previous comments, I noticed there is an icon on screen to change the picture quality. I didn't see it before, despite looking for it. Has it just been added on? I changed the quality to HD and I've got an excellent picture now. With good picture quality and commentary from David Rowe I am very pleased I paid for the meeting. Well done to all concerned.

Why? Whether they qualified by the meeting by right or were handed a wildcard, it is how they performed in the meeting that counts and whether they like it or not, Bomber finished above them. Anyway, surely it would be no more galling than it would be for a hypothetical rider who genuinely qualified for this seasons GP seeing a rider who was handed a wildcard for the series becoming World Champion. And I bet not a single person on here will begrudge Tai a World Championship win (if it happens - fingers crossed) because he was gifted a position in this year's GP series.