Alcoholic Mathematician

I don't believe that urban myth appears in any speedway rulebook. Anyway, even if he is in front, a rider can still be guilty of dangerous riding. And if he is close enough to make contact with his opponent while making a pass then he hasn't fully completed the pass, so it could be argued that he isn't completely in front.

I agree. If he's coming from an outside gate and doesn't hit the front, Pedersen tends to lean on the rider to his left going into the first bend and then slides off. It can appear that he has had his front wheel taken away, and his theatrical gestures are intended to further persuade the referee of his innocence. The ref got the earlier "diving" call correct too when Holta dropped it after Sayfutdinov charged up the inside and took his line without making contact. I do think Andersen was lucky (or Harris was unlucky) in the original start. It was a messy first/second bend which saw Andersen slow, leaving Harris with little chance of avoiding him, although Andersen did go down very easily. I also thought Jonsson was unlucky when Crump slightly changed direction and their paths converged.

It's got very little to do with patriotism. Half the GB team didn't know if it was GB or England they were riding for. Even Jan Staechmann corrected himself on calling the team England. They are professional speedway riders who will ride anywhere and for anyone if the money is right. Sadly they are not as good as they think they are, nor as good as the commentators would like us to believe. It's nothing to do with support, either. The whole of Brandon could have been full of Union Jack waving, cheering fans throughout the whole meeting and it wouldn't have made the slightest difference.

His arrogant (apologies for repeating the word, but no other will do) self-promotion was utterly sickening. He abuses his platform to shamelessly boost his own ego. I'm not interested in hearing about how he has commentated on cup finals and Manchester United matches. Anyway, TalkSport is the Sunday Sport of radio, so he's no John Motson.

It's hardly a new tactic. Getting the other guy excluded is a bonus.

I guess there wasn't a convenient fence for him to sit on.

I'm not sure the supercross way would work for speedway. It's part of the sport that supercross tracks rut up on the corners, and the tight corners aren't comparable to speedway's sweeping bends. I do agree though that there needs to be much deeper thought and experimentation into the preparation of the one-off speedway tracks (do they actually use "shale" anyway?). A rider will be very seriously injured if they allow the current poor standard to continue. But then again, do they (or we, for that matter) want nice sterile racing on easy-to-ride tracks, or incident after incident on tricky surfaces?

I posted earlier without completing my point. Last night's decisions were so favourable to Nicki Pedersen that they appear to have been more than just incompetent refereeing.

When Nicki Pedersen was going through his "bowling ball" stage, he regularly benefited from gaining restarts after being the cause of carnage on the first bend. Last night he twice manufactured situations where, having not made the gate and got across in front of the others into the first turn, he was able to make enough contact with one of the others that he could gently slide off, unscathed, and gain a restart. Not only did he gain restarts, he had the added bonus that the referee was so foolish that he excluded Adams and Bjarne Pedersen as the causes of the stoppages. Ninety-nine times out of one hundred both races would have been restarted with all four, as very few referees, even Tony Steele (who is highly regarded for some reason), would have excluded Pedersen as the real cause.

I agree totally. Sadly it's not only riders who spout this nonsense about the man in front... It's a common misconception that the rider in the lead can do what he wants. He can, provided his actions are not dangerous, unfair or foul (FIM Track Racing Rules). Obviously it's open to interpretation, but I'd say it's recklessly dangerous for a rider to turn left when he's not sufficiently clear of the other rider, and that it's unfair if it causes the other rider to fall.

I always wonder how Cardiff's attendance figure is influenced by the fact that it's the only GP in Britain each season, whereas Sweden and Poland always have two.

I read that as 'John Louis ran off with Jeremy Doncaster'.

And justice was done there too - even Richardson admitted that he went across Zagar, when he had no right to expect Zagar not to be there.

It's obvious that the commentary is done from a studio, even though Sky try to trick us into believing the commentators are actually at the track. This makes it all the more important for the non-expert commentator to be able to identify the riders and call the action from what can sometimes be very brief glimpses. Millard clearly doesn't do his homework, so he is frequently incapable of identifying the riders on sight. More than this, he is prone to numerous lapses where he confuses the helmet colours, leading to him call the wrong placings during the race, until he realises his error, which he sometimes tries to cover by pretending there have been some passes. Millard comes across as amateurish at best. Pearson's approach is to shout to make it all seem more exciting than it often actually is. This soon becomes irritating, as he leaves himself nowhere to go when it does get exciting. He does little to hide his biased opinions, which he should keep to himself anyway - he's there to commentate, nothing more. The experts usually do a good job. Johnston rescued Millard on several occasions last night and still managed to add insight to the events on the track. All we need is a commentator who can identify the riders, tell us who is first, second, third etc, inform us of any passes, tell us the results, and at opportune moments, invite the expert to give more detailed analysis.

My take on it: Richardson moved across Zagar like he wasn't there - but he was and Richardson took the consequences. Bjarne Pedersen briefly lost control, leaving Crump nowhere to go. Good decisions. Notable that Crump is obviously doing Adams a favour in the re-run.

And presumably then it'd be ok for Norris to be subjected to the same kind of hate campaign that Andersen has had to endure?

This incident happened at the slowest part of the track. The riders are not doing over 60 mph on that part of the track.

1. All three were on different paths that converged at the same time. I think the ref was right as all three were involved and no individual was the main cause. 2. Just before making his move on Brhel, Pedersen lifted. Only for a split second, but it took him closer to Brhel than if he hadn't. Not a dirty move by any means, just over-riding. Very similar to Gollob's pass in Heat 21, but Gollob had more room. Brhel wouldn't have fallen if Pedersen had not attempted the pass in that way. I think the ref was right. 3. Not, repeat, not the same circumstances as in Heat 16, in which the collision happened much further along the straight and involved three riders. Pedersen could see Hancock was setting-up an outside run coming off the second bend, and moved out to block him. There is a huge difference between blocking someone and squeezing them right up against the fence, but Pedersen did the latter in a very reckless way. Hancock would not have fallen if Pedersen had left him enough room. I think the ref was wrong. It's the frequency with which Pedersen is involved in such incidents that has angered so many. I'm sure we'd all forgive and forget a one-off incident. Pedersen does this sort of thing all the time. I vehemently disagree with the argument that he puts bums on seats and makes things more exciting. It's only a matter of time before Pedersen causes someone a serious injury or worse.

If he 'just locks up' then he is not fully in control, and it is his own fault if he gets hit. I too didn't think Jesper should have been excluded. If he had stayed on, Gollob's line further into the corner would certainly have taken Jensen into the fence.