AFCB Wildcat

Well I was born in the Speedway season so on seeing this thread I thought I'd see what was happening on my date of birth and if there were any connections to me. There was a round of the Provincial riders championship at Cradley Heath and it was won by Colin Pratt No don't, it's a cheap shot! Any takers on the date though?

Exactly. The stroke is determined by the offset of the crankshaft so the only way to increase capacity would be to use the bottom end of a long stroke engine with a barrel & piston of a short stroke. I would have thought that the barrel of the short stroke would be a different length though to that of a long stroke? If so it would have to be a bored out long stroke barrel but that would be easy to spot. Maybe they are the same length but use different length con rods? Long strokes were about in speedway till more recently though. My lads Jawa 884 laydown engine which he bought 10 or so years ago was long stroke and that had been used in what is now the championship league by its previous owner. Nobody uses them now though. I've got an upright Jawa 898 which is long stroke too. Maybe longer stroke versions of the modern speedway engines are produced for different disciplines. Grass track or long track etc. providing swappable parts? I'm a bit out of touch these days.

No that's logical. They won the meeting after all

Fine by me but with the small tweak of standing the rider who took the most points out of the meeting on the top step of the podium instead of the one that won the last race, then it would make sense.

Swings & roundabouts for me. Championship winning race points could be earned off the back of the misfortunes of others in the ways you described in the old system. Also riders gaining points by having the favoured gates at the right time in the meeting have inflated scores too. If you top the score chart in the heats, everything is stacked in your favour for the semis & finals so if you get beat from there your not the best in my opinion. Of course you could suffer an engine failure etc. but in the old one off finals that people think we're best, one engine failure, tape exclusion or poor refereeing decision could & did cost the best rider the title, that's speedway. At least with this system a rider can bounce back from a misfortune or two outside his control and still prove he's the best. I'm not saying this system is perfect and it's not the one I'd have chosen but I prefer it to the old one as I didn't think the guy that stood on the top step at the end of the night was adequately rewarded and the finals were a bit pointless when it was simply a point totting exercise. As I said, just my opinion.

You're right, but unfortunately there's a few that get aggressive if others don't agree with them! There are merits on both sides but regarding your point as to if BZ had slipped up and missed the semis, could it not be argued that if that had happened it was because the pressure had got to him and he bottled his last ride, in which case would he be a worthy champion? I didn't like seeing riders looking dominant in the heats then go missing in the semis or final but come away with the spoils. As it was BZ showed he was the best rider in the series and won it in the style of a true champion. I like the new system too but as you say we can agree to disagree.

The British Final was my first experience of streaming and I was impressed with the professionalism of the whole production. Unfortunately I couldn't watch it live but did it on catch up first thing this morning after work. I used my basic smart phone & Chromecast to my TV and all was good except the occasional pixelation on some shots but fortunately not during the racing. The only thing I struggled with to start with was not being able to accurately move it on to the start of the racing i.e. skip the build up accurately from the window on the sport central site but I later found I could do this better from the Google home app. Personally I have no issue with the price. I've paid more for 2 pints of beer in London! I hope it was a success for the production company and if that's the price it takes to make it happen I'll happily pay it for future events. If it wasn't for the Covid restrictions I'd be paying around £30 admission for football plus another £40 or so in the pub before & after plus travel costs to away games. I rarely get to see live speedway since Weymouth's demise because I work nights Monday to Thursday and can only do weekend tracks so to stream speedway and Football for a little over £20 isn't breaking the bank for me but I understand everyone's circumstances are different so I'm not criticising anyone.

Having in the past seen my football team fall foul of so many poor refereeing or linesman decisions after watching the replays on M.O.TD I was always in favour of technology to eliminate injustices. However after witnessing the farce of VAR completely ruining the Premier League in my opinion, I would be against using it in Speedway. It's easy to watch the slow Mo's in retrospect and criticise the referee who has to make a split second call on if it's a perfect start or a jump but I'd rather live with the odd mistake being made than go down the technology route to be honest. We enjoyed Speedway's best years without it.

Happy days! I loved Weymouth's old ground and that's where sports venues should be, in the middle of town. Sadly bought out by Asda and moved to an out of town industrial estate. The trouble is towns like Weymouth, Poole & Bournemouth are just commodities now. People move there because they are a nice place to live but they have no affinity to the towns or the sports teams and their venues just become valuable building land.

I remember that but I didn't go. I think the only football match I ever saw at Wimborne Road was a game between a speedway riders team against Poole Town which I think was to do with Pete Smith's testimonial in 1976? I could be wrong, it's a long time ago. One thing I know is that since Poole Town left the stadium they have been thwarted at every attempt to relocate to another venue which would allow them to progress so they're stuck on Tatnam field. Residents up in arms at plans to have a football ground near them so I fear for the Pirates if they lose their home. How long have the Wildcats been trying to find somewhere?

Quite right, and not a transgender player in sight. The Premiership is institutionally racist & homophobic! I feel that strongly about their agenda of hate and discrimination that I won't attend a single Bournemouth game in the Premier League next season.

I don't disagree. I have used Ryanair a lot over the years and have never had cause for complaint. Yes, last year my wife & I flew to Prague from Bournemouth for about £75 a head with priority boarding and chosen seats. This year however it was nearer £200 each for the GP weekend but cheap as chips for the weekends before and after so I decided not to bother as we'd paid less to fly to Tenerife which is a 4 hour flight. I just hope the days of cheap flights aren't over for good because of this current mess!

I'm just glad Ryanair sussed the Prague GP date this year and charged rip off prices for that weekend, hence me deciding not to bother. Otherwise it would have been even more money they owe me lol.

Yes I agree, I have nothing but admiration for what he has achieved and the sacrifices and work he has put in to achieve it. I'm certainly not a hater. It must be frustrating too when you're putting in the hard yards and your team mates aren't, I get that. He's right about fitness, no doubt. Look at Dave Norris. He spent most of his career playing at it then after cutting out the booze and getting himself fit he almost became a world beater till injury ended his career. I wonder what could have been if he'd done it earlier? There's been plenty of Aussies too though that have come here and lived the party life style without attracting Tai's criticism. It's his almost resentment of his heritage that doesn't sit comfortably with me. I understand though that after living surfboard lifestyle in the sun then moving to a caravan in Scunthorpe you might have a tainted view of the UK!

I'm very late to the party on this as I was saving the book for a holiday that never happened and have only just read it. I hadn't even seen this thread but thought I'd see what others had said and your post pretty much matched my thoughts after reading it. I think his stance is quite disrespectful to the British fans who support him. Apart from the sponsorship thing he'd do well to remember that it's unlikely that he'd have got his GP pick in the first place without his UK status. The heartbreak watching the Aussies pull on their race jackets was particularly disrespectful I thought. To me it's a bit like being told by your partner "I only married you for money and to further my career. I will still fulfill my obligations to you in a patronising way but it breaks my heart when I see my ex who I really love. I'm only being honest so you should be okay with that"

I see that all the time. I give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they were doing drugs! It's sad but unfortunately public toilets are used for that as much as their intended purpose these days.

Looks like Ryanair have cottoned on to it this time. Flight prices from my local airport are double the normal price for the GP weekend next year

Err yes Thanks!

Just out of interest, how do you do that? I don't have a computer only a phone but whenever I try to put one it says content not allowed? That's the trouble with texting and social media all over though isn't it? Without the expression or emotion of speech things often get taken the wrong way.

I've been trying very hard to learn Spanish as I spend a lot of time in the Canaries and think it's rude not to make an effort. I can make myself understood and can understand a lot of written Spanish but when they speak back to me 19 to the dozen I'm totally out of my depth at the moment!

I was speaking to a Polish colleague about that and how they all seem to speak such good English while we struggle with other Languages. He put it down to the fact that they are exposed to English constantly from an early age in the form of films and popular music so it was easier for them to learn whereas we are not exposed to to foreign languages in mainstream media or entertainment.

Absolutely, yes it's pretty simple, that's never been in dispute and as I've said I dont really have a problem with it either tbh. It doesn't affect my enjoyment of the series in any way but I can see the flaw that BSI think might be hard to sell too hence my posts. The system the O.P says they are proposing certainly wouldn't be my preferred option anyway so yes, I'd rather they left it alone than did that.

But it's not armchair critics or the BSF in this case that are saying it's flawed is it? It's BSI hence the reason for the thread. The pros & cons of all the different formats have been discussed to death on different threads and like most topics we all have different opinions and agree to disagree. All I will say is that for all the examples you have stated of other sporting anomalies none have resulted in the person or team standing on the top step of the podium not being top of the official standings at the end of the event. You know more about darts than me but it's not about averages it's getting the shots out when under pressure and that's what makes a champion.

I don't think that the problem is seen to be it being beyond the wit of the the layperson to understand the system, it's more getting them to buy into the credibility of seeing a rider crowned GP winner but only being 3rd or 4th in the score chart. I agree that comparing sports is apples & pears but snooker was mentioned as a sport where the winner has not necessarily scored the most points which is true but as someone else pointed out the points don't count towards deciding the the championship like in the GP's. Imagine player 1 winning 18 frames to 16 in the world championship final but then after totting up their scores over the 34 frames player 2 was declared winner because he scored more points. For me the current system is neither one thing or the other. If it's about totting points then just declare the winner after 20 heats. If its about a grand final to decide a winner then use the knockout system and award points for places. It's not been an issue this year really and I think there was only one GP this year where the winner of the final didn't top score or equal top score but I still think the format lacks a bit of credibility.

I'm in the camp that thinks the winner of the final should take the spoils but It doesn't seem fair that a rider who has gone through the card unbeaten in one GP would take the same 21 points as someone who limped through on 7 or 8 in another GP. I'd tweak your idea and suggest that the semis and final are non scoring heats but the winner of the final gets 7 points (or whatever) added to their score. I don't have a major problem with the system as it is but I do think that that there should be a bigger reward for winning the GP. Obviously BSI think that it lacks credibility when the guy on the top step of the rostrum hasn't really won anything other than the last race which maybe hard to sell to a wider audience and I tend to agree.