G the Bee

To be honest, I think we should. We get Swedish league (which I had to pay Premier Sports £10 a month for last year), SEC, Eurosport Pairs and SGP on this channel. And for a great many viewers, Eurosport (unlike Sky Sports and Premier Sports) is part of their viewing package at no extra cost. Who cares if, to accommodate showing the SGP live, they have bumped it on to Quest for the evening? What difference does it make (other than the minor inconvenience of the loss of HD coverage for the night)? Who cares if the odd Swedish meeting is shown as delayed coverage? Premier Sports did this occasionally last year, and I was paying them £10 a month for the privilege. Some speedway fans need to accept that we support a minority sport. Whilst I don't like it, I can totally understand that Eurosport have made a commercial decision to show the tennis and showjumping on their 2 channels and therefore do praise them for finding a viable alternative for showing it live. We have to be realistic about these things. I suspect that Eurosport have reasoned that they will simply make more money and/or attract more viewers by showing the show jumping and tennis than the speedway. Simple as that. To be honest, looking at the pitiful crowds we get at most speedway meetings, I am amazed so much speedway (more than ever before, mostly thanks to Eurosport's coverage of new events) is televised at all. The fact is, Sky pulled the plug on the GPs. I recall plenty of complaints on here when Sky (with their 4 sports channels, as opposed to 2) used to bump the SGP on to the red button where it cannot be paused, rewound or recorded as has become the norm with set-top boxes nowadays. So, from me at least, here's a virtual cartwheel for Eurosport! Anyone care to join me?

The next meetings are on Saturday 21st in Poland and Croatia. Hopefully, the riders will be able to fly out on Saturday morning but its a big ask. It would be a real shame if this meeting, one of the highlights of the season, turns into a watered-down farce. Surprised this hasn't been allocated as a Sky meeting. Sky have no meeting scheduled for w/c 23rd June. Perhaps we can hope this will be televised on Sky instead and moved to the Monday.

Fricke rides for Edinburgh. Problem over Friday fixtures.

Bad luck for Kyle. Hope he's not out for too long. However, if he is, looking at the latest averages on the BSPA site it looks like we can sign anyone up to 5.1 as a replacement. Perhaps Aaron Summers would be the logical choice. He's good around Brandon and has a clear link with the club. He's even got a team race suit! I don't think Summers for Howarth would really weaken us at all. In fact Aaron is averaging more than Kyle in the Premier League at the moment.

After questioning on here whether the management were looking to maximise our chances of success I'm just eating a piece of humble pie for tea. Got to be pleased with this signing. Well done to Mick Horton and Neil Watson. That swan was kicking hard under the surface.

Thanks for the response. It is appreciated. I know you are swimming against the tide a little as you are pretty much the only promoter who regularly posts on here. That means you stick your head above the parapet occasionally. I don't think anyone expects the club to conduct their business on the internet but it comes down to the issue of where to draw the line. My own frustration came from the fact that you contributed a couple of times on the Hasen average issue on the Kings Lynn thread but then went quiet. To me it gave the impression it was being ignored. From your post above, it seems I was wrong.

I just don't think they are interested in maximizing the chances we have of success. Perhaps they are under the deluded impression that a lucky away win at Poole makes us title contenders. If the move was possible, Larsen for Fisher this week was a no brainer. I stand to be corrected but in my opinion, the fact Neil Watson hasn't commented on the subject since the suposed mistake to Hansen's average was pointed out to him speaks volumes. At home we were run close by Leicester, scraped a win against an injury hit Lakeside team and got out of jail big time tonight against the league's basement club. The later two results both went to last heat deciders. Then we lost our other two. We have dropped points in every home meeting this season except one. The form of Ryan Fisher was always going to make or break our season. I understand he has had personal problems but he's gone right off the boil. We can see from the terraces that this team is not good enough to challenge for the title this year. I wonder why it seems to be so hard for the management to see that from the pits?

Thanks for that. Hopefully something can be done.

If these 'armchair keyboard moaners' watched this meeting on a paid-for Sky subscription, they are very much part of the paying public. I, for one, felt more than a little short changed tonight.

Just tried to order tickets online for the race-off and final. What a waste of time. Firstly the website is in Polish, so we have to go through Google's auto translate which, whilst broadly ok, does not provide translations for every word. Then, having registered for an account, I tried to buy tickets only to find I had to enter identification details (e.g. passport numbers) for the people I was buying tickets for. Like I have those for all of my friends! All the time, trying to navigate through a translated Polish site. So I suppose I'll have to ring for tickets tomorrow on the ticket hotline (and probably pay through the nose for that). Come on BSI. Is this the best you can do?

It would be absolute madness if the Bees have a chance to include Larsen instead of Fisher not to include him. The question is, should Hansen's average be 5? SCB, who is pretty accurate when it comes to averages, has replied directly to a post from Neil Watson that he believes Hansen's average of 5.25 on the BSPA site is wrong. Neil Watson has quoted the BSPA site a few times to state it should be 5.25 but has not responded to quotes from SCB and others who have stated that the BSPA have it wrong. This is what I and, I suspect, others are finding frustrating. IF the BSPA have it wrong, there's no point Neil Watson quoting the BSPA's provided average to state that Hansen's average is not 5.00. Put simply, if Larsen can be fitted in instead of Fisher it simply HAS to happen. In my opinion a Bees team with Larsen in would have a genuine chance of play-off success this season! I'm not sure the current team (as some of our home results have shown) is at that level. Any chance of a response, Neil?

I can see where KKB is coming from though. Everyone could see the issues with this Brummies side. As your post alludes to, the side appears to have been built to a tight budget, but as a result it's simply not good enough. As a result crowds will inevitably suffer as we all know that only hardcore fans will turn up to support a losing team. It's a vicious circle. My own opinion is that Birmingham should never have stepped up to EL. I don't think they have a consistently large enough fan base to sustain EL speedway on a week-by-week basis. Even last year, when the team was winning, we saw appeals for more supporters to attend. Again, it's just my opinion but I think Birmingham should have followed Peterborough's lead and dropped into the PL this year. I too fear for the club if they are not in a position to make changes. Someone like Kenni Larsen is not going to turn the team into league winners but might just make them more competitive at home.

I've just read Bomber's Twitter. Seems both he and Lewis Bridger were on bikes supplied by the club and they weren't quick enough.

Not the end of the world for Coventry, and it shows how expectations have changed over the course of the close season, when you come away from Birmingham having got within two points of them but yet still feel disappointed. However, early season though it is, that has to go down as one that got away tonight. Birmingham were much sharper out of the starts for the first 2/3 of the meeting but we managed to keep them in check until heat 7. However three poor heats in succession (heats 7, 8 and 9) where we conceded two 5-1s and a 4-2 cost us the meeting. We really needed Harris to step up in his final two rides to counter that, but it didn't happen. It's both disappointing and encouraging that we were in a position to consider Howarth for heat 15. Disappointing in that it shows just how lacklustre Bomber's performance was tonight, but encouraging that Kyle is showing such promise early on in the season.

I very much doubt it was Coventry who called for the track inspection after heat 9, a heat before a result could be called. A tactic which I suspect backfired spectacularly. Just sayin'......

Yes. Two minutes back on. Well done the ref. Although he should have still said "Race this then Rosco and we'll call it off!" Now Cov should play them at their own game after heat 10!

Then the ref should have shown some balls and said, race this and then we'll call.

Here we go. Request for a track inspection with three heats before a result can be called. With both Bees riders at the tapes.

I never said he was questioning his nationality. I said he was taking advantage of his nationality. Which he is. One one hand, he wants to be treated as British when it suits him (to ride in the NL and sign for the EL on a 3 point average) but not be treated as British when it comes to deciding who he represents at international level. Your second paragraph is absolute nonsense. At the moment no one knows whether Lambert will even make the grade at international level. Believe me, I talk from experience. Ten years ago, Coventry signed Morten Risager at 16. He was immediately on the pace in an Elite League which was far stronger then than it is now. The general consensus amongst Bees fans was that if he was that good at 16, how good would he be in a few years time. We all know the answer to that. With respect to Morten, he never developed into anything more than an EL second string. Then one can look at Josh Auty. When he was 16, he was on a par with Tai Woffinden. I remember Josh flying around Brandon in second halves when he must have been 14 and 15. Again, what happened to Josh? It would not be unreasonable to suggest that his career has leveled off somewhat and he never progressed to anything like international level. Not even riding in the EL this year. Form at 16 years of age is no indication of how a rider will progress.

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.

Hey ho. Was looking forward to that. Thought we'd got away with it.

My thoughts exactly. Rules need to be applied consistently across the board. Either the PL fixture takes precedent or it doesn't. If it does, both Barker and Starke should be at Somerset. If it doesn't they should both be at Brandon. It shouldn't come down to the goodwill of certain promotions to release riders for fixtures, or certain clubs choosing not to enforce their priority status over riders for particular fixtures in order to help other clubs or riders out. By having situations like this, it gives the impression gamesmanship is taking place (even when it might not be) which does the sport no good at all. In this case, one might make the supposition that it's convenient for Birmingham that Starke misses this fixture, but less convenient for them that Barker does so. Therefore, Birmingham call in a track specialist guest for Starke whilst Barker retains his position for Birmingham. Jacobs riding at Brandon makes the Brummies team stronger in my opinion. I suspect it might be the opinion of a great many others too.

Cheers for input FTM. Only thing is, you say the damage was done last November. However press and practice day went without a problem as far as I could see. Lots of laps put in and track held up fine.

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'.