AFCB Wildcat

Thank you for the explanation and sorry that I took it the wrong way.Obviously the flag has deeper meaning in the States than it does here and the thread was specifically about if Somerset should continue to use it. My concern was that by making an issue of it's racist implications in the UK it might now be adopted by idiots here to cause offence or indeed take offence when all the flag has been is a symbol of country music, the rockabilly culture & the dukes of Hazard type stuff that people here enjoy and should be able to continue to without being made to feel guilty in some way.

I didn't really mean my ignorance of the history of the flag TWK just my ignorance that people were offended by it and I still think that is their problem if they wish to attach a sinister significance to it and take offence where none is intended. My late next door neighbour was a big country western fan who went to line dances and had the flag across the bonnet of his Ford Sierra. There wasn't a racist bone in his body so why should his enjoyment of the flag be spoilt by someones offence. Okay I take Iris's point that it may be wise to know it may case offence to a minority but we can't all spend our lives treading on egg shells because people want to hold on to hitorical grievances and that was my point. Just seems odd to me that you get accused of arguing on a discussion forum just because you have a different view to them. I'm not suggesting other peoples views are less valid than mine, I'm just saying what I think and to be asked if I want to return to the racist attitudes of the 70's because I don't think the flag should cause offence seems a bit rude!

Who needs educating? I'm 51 years old & until recently I had no Idea that the flag was offensive & I suspect that not many people in this country black or white did. Now we all do. So now it gives idiots who want to cause offence something to rally behing & those it's aimed at a reason to be offended. That's my point. Oh well I'll just carry on being blssfully thick and let superior people like you educate people how to cause offence!

Well go on then im intrigued. I tried to treat your post with the contempt it deserved but explain why anything I wrote would lead you to ask that pathetic & insulting question. A bit like Iris who had to suggest that "I don't understand a statement" when in fact I just don't agree! For the record I don't think humanity has evolved. Racist remarks have had to be policed out of the mainstream but thats not to say that the same bigotry doesn't exist anymore because unfortunately it does. Sadly racial hatred & intolerance on all sides is still alive & well for those who wish to persue it but Somersets flag is the least of the problems.

But it's only offensive because people either choose or are told to be offended by it. Can't you understand that? Like I said, most people are happy to get on with life whatever colour they are. If my biggest problem in life was a flag I would be a happy man!

How on earth is telling people to be offended by something that isn't intended to be offensive educational? It's just creating a problem in places where previously it didn't exist. There are always going to be places where racial tension exists unfortunately but why create a problem ? If people aren't offended by something, why tell them they should be?

and that's the problem. We've had to be told that it's offensive or to be offended by it where as previously we didn't know or weren't offended. This is the PC that people complain about. There wasn't a problem and now there is. If people want to hold on to historic vendettas they will always find something to rally behind or be offended by but just let the rest of us get on with life whatever colour or race we are! I

so what conclusions can we draw from this? I

Very sad news. My sincere condolences to her family & friends. RIP Shazzy, I will raise a glass in your memory at Cardiff.

For me the incident was pretty much what we see week in and week out. A rider overtaking on the inside and moving to the fence to block the run on the outside. Hancock seemed to be unsettled and went wide so obviously Pedersen was going to make the move. I don't believe for one minute Pedersen intended to fence Greg he just thought he was clear of him when he moved to the fence. It's fine margins when you're at that speed. I can see why Greg was annoyed and Pedersen was rightly excluded but the reaction was OTT in my opinion. Funny though :-)

I remember many meetings being forced to run to heat 6 in the old days so we didn't get our money back but did the result stand after 6 heats? I can't remember! I certainly don't remember any controversies between teams as to whether to carry on or not but then we didn't have Sky or social media then.

I think you took my post the wrong way TWK as I was in no way implying that you were anti Poole. I have always found your posts reasoned and unbiased . You said that the the view of the incident depended if you were a Poole supporter or not (which incidentally im not) I made my views on the Belle Vue incident clear at the time and as many others have said already if Coventry had been winning by a margin on Monday they would have been prepared to go out in heat 10 and I'm sure Middlo would have done the same as Havvy except he would have been slaughtered to a bigger degree on this forum! I was pointing out that it's a shame that any thread involving Poole cannot be discussed rationally on here without the usual suspects bickering. I myself like to think I can view incidents and make my own judgement, right or wrong without prejudice.

But surely if that were the case every debate involving Poole would just amount to a lot of pointless bickering and blinkered posts driven by blind loyalty or irrational hatred! ............. oh hang on .... :-)

To be fair I think Holder would have ridden a completely different race had all 4 been at tapes.It struck me that it was just show boating with no opposition trying to make it look easy and he got it wrong!

Still a couple of places left at Poole?

So have people found the elite league meetings on Sky better quality than the GP's? I have enjoyed both and the Swedish league but I just don't feel riders are passionate about team speedway any more, just mercenaries. Just personal opinion but to me the GP a better product. Having said that I'd kill for another chance to watch the Wildcats at the Wessex.

At one time I would have disagreed but it does seem that team speedway at elite league level has lost its way a bit. Maybe run the elite league as per the world cup format? 4 man teams named from a 7 man squad in 4 team tournaments. Less fixtures, more top riders able to commit, less guest riders along with the benefits mentioned by the OP. Okay, no team riding but how much do we see anyway. If it leaves teams with not enough fixtures then run a NL side and develop the next generation of riders?

Signed. Good luck to everyone involved in this campaign.

Agreed, he could but they never do! If he hadn't been forced to stop the race I'm sure he would have let it go. That's the problem we see all to often.

Didn't Scunthorpe used to be in Yorkshire? Certainly further north than Sheffield. Trouble is it's not a case of north and south it's accessibility. I followed AFC Bournemouth on the road for over 20 years and remember taking less time to get to Carlisle than it took me to get to Southend!

Yes I think you're right, that's as good as it can be. I can't see how Scunthorpe could possibly be considered south! North south devide is always talked about but people forget that the country is as wide as it is long and for teams like Plymouth or Somerset located on the M5 I would think Belle Vue would be an easier drive than Eastbourne or Peterborough so it's a tricky one for sure.

That's what I was trying to say, so in your example of 5 pints we would probably be talking nearer 9:30am to be clear not midday. Personally I wouldn't drive after 1 pint as I feel slightly impaired but I normally feel fine by midday the next day even after a session. I don't offer this as any defence for Ward but to read some of the comments on here you would think he was rolling drunk and liable to be causing carnage on the track. Yes it was unacceptable and all avoidable risk should rightly be removed but I would suggest that trying to hang on to a speedway bike when carrying a major injury is more of a risk to rider & fellow competitors than a small amount of alcohol from the night before but that happens all the time. I await to be slaughtered and of course I can see the moral difference between the 2 scenarios but you are either putting fellow competitors at risk or not. To drink before an event is extremely irresponsible and he deserves all he gets but as in the Eddie Kennet silencer thing he was just the one that got caught not the only one to have ever done it. Hopefully this will serve as a wake up to both him and other riders that like the party lifestyle!

Does it work like that? I understood that you started losing the unit an hour 1 hour after your first drink so in your example 3 of those 12.5 units would have been gone by midnight. If I drunk 12 pints between midday and midnight it wouldn't take a day and a half to clear my system would it?

I guess that comes under bottles and cans. Ithink they allow cartons.A bloke in front of me in the queue at the food kiosk at Cardiff askef the assistant why she had to pour his plastic bottle of water into a plastic cup before he could take it away. The reply was that people had been known to urinate into bottles and throw them into the tier below. I guess that would be impossible with a plastic cup with a lid on it then? !!! I has to do the same as you did with my refreshments at Cardiff a good few years back but it was four cans of cider! I seem to remember their being a bit of a bottle mountain of confiscated booze that year. I wonder where it went!

I've been to many football stadiums and I've never heard of not being allowed to take food in. Bottles cans and alcohol have always been prohibited. I just checked Wembley's website and food is permitted, thats a pretty major venue!