Tsunami

Most of the trouble makers live in the EL section(mainly Coventry).

I understood that they do get protection even if their average is above others.

...or has a sense of humma.

Yes, tried it regularly. The beauty of the connection is that both are Winter sports as opposed to Speedway being a Summer sport. There is a crossover with Ice Hockey as could be seen by the IH fans wearing their jackets to Speedway meetings. Basketball does not have the same affinity with Speedway, but there is some crossover. We also used to have a crossover with Newcastle United and both sports were advertised over the tannoys due to our race announcer Barry Wallace, also being the man on the mike at the TOON. Not too sure of the formal arrangement of it, but Barry never got any stick for it. We also liase with Newcastle Falcons and now Durham Cricket with joint ventures, these arrangements are usually initiated and set up whilst attending the same shows and with some success. Joint Season tickets idea is fraught with probs, mainly about who gets what %age of the dual ticket price. Discount vouchers are possible but the difficulty with free or discounted tickets is where they end up. I do all the presentations, shows and visits to schools, shows, demo's with my show bike with reaction machine attached, on behalf of Newcastle Speedway. We hand out flyers but we know that they find there way to existing fans who strangely think that is is OK to get in for nothing, "as we never get anything free" as if it was a right for going to Asda, Tesco, local cinema or the Ice Hockey. Last year at a show, a guy came up and he knew I had 'intro' tickets and he tried to take some without asking, and he said he had a mate who goes and he would give them to him. Needless to say he didn't get one. With all these activities, there is no way, except for the IH jackets, to evaluate and establish a successful rate. You can gauge how many tickets appear at the pass gate on race night, but you never fully recognise the new people in the crowd, unless you are the one that talked to them and gave them the ticket in the first place. What I/WE do at Newcastle is nothing unusual, as most clubs do it when they can, but other fans don't know about it and criticise there promotions for not 'promoting' the sport. Of course they do, it's just not publicised. At my shows, I always take a photo of the stand, with a rider or a member of the public, and post it on Facebook so existing fans can pop along if they are in the area. Readers of Facebook know when we do the shows, due to the Photo, and then ask if we can attend their school, show or fayre. Got to be done, even though you never know it's success rate.

...or perhaps not.

I think maintaining protected positions for Brit riders in a certain race format, would overrule the need to go back to where we were. Why drop a system that was to fix the "no Brits coming through', just to keep the rules/averages pure.

I agree it is unfortunate to make this decision now, but it does give Rob enough time to look for and sign a decent replacement. Taylor could have dithered for awhile longer, and ruined most peoples time, but he has done the honest thing and withdrawn. Wish him all the best in what ever direction he chooses to go.

Thanks for that Michael. The Scott Smith/Rob Grant jnr incident is well remembered as it appears in many DVD's. Robbie Best tangling with Rob Grant snr to stop him attacking Scott. Certainly an incident packed meeting. It must have been 2002 with Davy Watt riding for us.

As HadrianDog has implied, at Brough most weeks we have 3 Doctors on the centre green, and always 2 Ambulances to minimise accident delays and to cover multiple injured riders. The medical staff employed by agency, includes a full Doctor, and at least one Paramedic, and some of the medical staff come in an emergency Land Rover which is equipped as an Ambulance.

I can't Michael, giz a clue.

What happened to the Ambulance that Peter W bought.

I seem to remember that a Doctor was watching the meeting/crash on TV ? and went to the hospital as he had spotted something that he knew would be helpful to identify his injuries. In the later part of his career Paul Pickering got a bit of a reputation for dirty moves. He came to Brough in about 2002 after being a junior with us, before he had gone to Bradford. He was a trapper and held off KB for three laps, with KB trying the inside line. On the last lap, KB tried to do a full swoop around the outside of the 4th bend, and Pickering just drove to the fence and forced him into it. KB came off with a very damaged bike, and a helmet full of blood. We got his helmet off, and he had bit through his tongue, which was bleeding badly. Eventually got some orange drink for him to wash his mouth out and off to hospital. Pickering excluded.

I also noticed that at the time, and he also did it in Monday night TV meetings. He seemed to occasionally have balance problems and slid off for no reason to blame. Never a bad 'off' just a slide off.

Was it not Stoney that chased Anders across the Sheffield centre green with a shovel in his hands.

Saw the incident with Ivor Brown and Mauger in about 1963 and it was dirty from both riders. Brown was brutal on Mauger on the Saturday at Cradley putting him deliberately in the fence. On the following Monday at Brough got his revenge. Mauger was inside Brown and Bill Andrew was on the outside of Brown. Mauger had told Andrew what was going to happen, and advised him to keep out of the way. Tapes up and Andrew made a good gate. Mauger took Brown to the fence and into it, but unfortunately Bill Andrew got it as well. The only real time I saw Mauger really fired up and dirty. In 1999, Sean Wilson in third place hehind Derrol Keats on the back straight, went under him and made no attempt to turn and drove straight into Robert Erikson mid 3rd/4th bend, wrecking his bike and breaking Robert's collarbone. Sean excluded but allowed to continue in the meeting, and we had to use I think Dave McAllan for the rest of the meeting. Ended as a draw in a meeting we should have won. Sean notoriously hated foreign riders and regularly used to go for Bjarne. One of the dirtiest riders around. Ask Peter Carr after his second bend tumble in a PLRC at Sheffield. Agree with Keith above about the Zorro crash with Christian Henry. Zorro's footrest tore a chunk out of Christian's bum in what was a blatant fencing by a rider with a reputation for doing the same before and after. Congrats to Ref Stuart Wilson for having the guts to exclude Zorro from the meeting as he reset a precedent to exclude riders for a whole meeting.

A Merry Xmas and a great New Year to all speedway fans, especially Newcastle Diamond/Gems fans. Hope the remaining rider gets announced soon, and I am sure we are going to have a great year. Careful with the booze this year.

Don't know why they haven't gone for Ryan McDonald, except that he is a Glasgow asset. Shouldn't really make any difference though, and saves Edinburgh paying for large distances for every home meeting.

As that Big Brother announcer would say "YOU DECIDE"

Only if you were very 'stupid and biased', given that the rest of my post was taken from SCB's Facebook, and the rest quoted on here by others. See post #77.

Too long a tail. NB. Not a problem I have been known for.

If you miss out the midday bit, what is untrue about any of the rest. BTW, SCB was drinking, but after work. Are you and others oblivious of the constant evidence said by others, that there is a group of posters on the BSF who regularly are the prominent anti Poole. anti Ward, anti BSPA, anti anything that rocks the boat. Like a lot of others think, it is the same posters on all troublesome thread, and all have the same perspective and fully support each other on every issue. Strange that. It usually picks on the same small group of folks who allegedly cannot have a point of view without them being ridiculed and demanded that they debate their POV. Incidently, I don't necessarily include SCB in the group all the time, as he has regulately divorced himself from some important matters, and shown his own individual thinking. Whilst the usuals were having their go during the 2010 AGM fiasco(Hi Dave BTW) and the nominated Brit reserves EDR, the scoring system, etc, etc, SCB held his own counsel on each matter and seemed to remain a bit outside of the thinking of the opposition to the issues. That is his great contribution to this forum, not being just a popularist running with the wolves looking for the kill. I have known and liked SCB for a number of years since Newport first opened up actually, meeting him and Pinny and Alan along with Dietbowers with my yearly visits, and meeting him most times at Cardiff each year. I respect his sensible side and have had many good discussions with him, swopping info with him, and we are friends on Facebook. I look forward to his return after his 'suspension' and hope he will learn from it. As someone said on another thread, let the bother begin.

Steve Brock. There are inks to him and his website on the Newcastle Diamonds Website, and he has some great ones of Nicki. Good luck. Edited Tel no - 07932 948 245 and email:- steve@stevebrock.co.uk

He certainly has, and unfortunately, when drunk on Thursday evening, he decided without reading the actual argument that he would use the R....d word just to push his luck, and see what happened. He has as much admitted to it on Facebook. He is admonished for it, and now suspended, but some of his gang ignore the circumstances and intentions to try and make the decent offended guilty, and out of step. FFS.

Was impressed with him at the 4's till Ulrich did him.

From what I have heard and read, SCB got drunk on the night after work and he decided to be clever and shock people on this forum. It's all just a joke to him, but he has received considerable criticism both on here and Facebook, but I doubt he has regrets which is not acceptable.