waiheke1

You are aware that the "doping" infringement dudek committed wasnt of the funny cigarette type, and is actually a legal substance? Yoyr argument is a bit like saying someone who is licensed to carry a gun and commits an offence with it is not as bad as someone who used illegal brass knuckles to commit the same offence.

Yes I did hsve it wrong. Looks like darcy was under uk drink drive limit (37mcg for breath test), but closer to the limit than to zero.

Refer to the darcy ward thread I disagree. I think it is quite relevant to the level of punishment deserved.

if i interpret correctly, that would be over the drink drive limit in NZ which is 400mg for breath test and 80mg for blood test (looks like Darcy was 500mg and100mg in breath/blood respectively, if I'm reading correctly. If that's the case, then he must have had a pretty big session to be blowing that at lunchtime, and has to be looking at the rest of the season surely? Though, that doesn't seem to tie back to Phil's assertion that he may have passed a test four hours later, where I understand he would hav eneeded a close to zero reading?

Kk the most realistic option? Re declaring more than one position to get in holder would severly wesken the team. Perhaps holder should have tried harder to lower his average esrlier in the season...Though if your latest post about a 30 day ban is correct, then using guests would be logical, otherwise you couldnt get darcy back in.

You seem to love a lot about this. I think most other speedway fans are gutted about his stupidity, and the fact it will almost certainly mean we miss out on watching him for a chunk of time.

That he "may" have passed four hours later seems to indicate that it wasn't that marginal Phil?

I think it's a fair comparison tbh. Both amongst the greatest natural talents of all time in their respective sports. Both have achieved at club level, without doing the same at the sports pinnacle (in bests case tbf due to his nationality).I'd argue there is actually quite a fine line between being an alcoholic and "just" having a drinking problem.

Except one drink, or even four, and he would almost certainly not have been over the limit the following day....I'd suggest the amount drunk is of quite dome importance as to the level of risk he was potentially putting others at.

Puk is nki

Tbf, a smart business man is willing to acknowledge when ventures aren't working and shutctgem down, rather than shovelling money into a loss making project. Ford is a cheat, but not sure its valid to have a dig at his promoting skills.

Darcy reminds me a lot of nz cricketer jesse ryder. Everytime it seems he has turned the corner, he stuffs up again. I suspect hes not helped by his circle of mates - certainly the darcy crew I was sat next to at western springs were all trollied by the start of the meeting. Maybe he needs a manager who will tell him when he's being a dickhead. Hope his ban is not too severe though. Rehabilitation rather than punishment for the sake of it - a meeting if he had a low level the seadon if he was over drink drive limit. Would be a real shame to be missing both emil andcdarcy next year.

Agree, a very good meeting. Kk very impressive, nicki looked the quickest he has all season, and gregs gating was as always top class. Really enjoyed it, shame it's been overshadowed by the debacle the day before and darcys exploits.

What would bring you back oldace? The new stadium? Return of star riders to the el? Knowing the meeting would be slickly presented and completed in an hour and a half? The starting point for reviving the elshould surely be winning back lapsed fans, as if the product is right they should be easier targets than strangers to the sport.

Sid - the BL was undisputably stronger I the "old days." The vast majority of the world's top riders raced here - in the 80s the only exceptions were some of the yanks and Egon. I'm not sure all teams had three top heat leaders -statistically, you're always going to end up with an average three riders per team with decent averages under the old heat format), but that doesn't make them all "top class" -and there were some incredibly weak teams (i'm thinking Eastborne/Swindon in 83, Halifax in 84 after Carter got injured) - weaker I would say than any current EL team - but some incredibly strong teams too (Cradley 83 were simply awesome). For the most part I'd say teams weren't as strong as the current Swedish/Polish top teams, purely because top riders were spread over 15 rather than 8 sides. I'd also suggest the Poole team last year (Ward, Janowski, Holder) would have been a top side in any given season in the old days. Matt Ford has man many flaws, and I detest the cheating Poole indulge in, but he does put out strong sides, and if every team in the EL could put out sides of that caliber the EL would be in much better shape. If we are to get back to having top riders and regular 1-7, a single race night (or max two) is needed, along with the EL to have priority over PL for all fixtures, and I'd allow guests/RR only for heatleaders (a PL rider could act as "number 8" cover for second strings, and a local junior/NL rider to cover the reserve slots - that's how I remember it working in the 80s?). was it good that they rode in such atrocious conditions though? Maybe if Peter Collins hadn't had to ride in poor conditions ar Cradlet in 1980 he would have been a world class rider for another 5 years. For more of today's riders speedway is also their full time job, hence it's understandable that they are more risk averse when it comes to putting their future earning son the line? I'm not sure on the whole the racing in the EL is worse than the old BL days, though some of the best racers tracks are gone (Hyde Rd, the Shay, Odsal etc.) and certainly it has lower quality of rider (relative to world standards) - the latter is the main criticism people seem to have of the current EL, yet at the same time many are proposing cutting back further on the number of top riders racing here.

thanks R&R, best of luck to the remaining competitors

You do know that most energy drinks contain caffeine, which is actually dehydrating, don't you? Darcy surely not that stupid???? ROFL!

Dont want to defend darcy, clearly he has been stupid (agsin) but... Kelly moran is one of the most loved speedway riders of all time, one of the "characters" that we are told modern speedway is lacking. Yet he was reputedly so pissed one meeting that he fell at the first bend every time. A one meeting gp ban (in addition to the one just missed) would be about right imo. Hope he sorts himself out, would be such a waste if he ends up another mike lee (and lee at least won a world title). Edit: One match GP ban assumes not drunk at test time, but rather a very low positive reading. If he was say over the drink/drive limit, then a ban for the rest of the season would seem appropriate. plenty of people advocate a zero tolerance level for drink driving. And a diss-proportionate number of accidents involve people who are under the alcohol limit, but have alcohol reading, that's precisely why some argue for zerol tolerance...

Dont want to defend darcy, clearly he has been stupid (agsin) but... Kelly moran is one of the most loved speedway riders of all time, one of the "characters" that we are told modern speedway is lacking. Yet he was reputedly so pissed one meeting that he fell at the first bend every time. A one meeting gp ban (in addition to the one just missed) would be about right imo. Hope he sorts himself out, would be such a waste if he ends up another mike lee (and lee at least won a world title).

Mikebv. What is your proposed solution? Guests and r/r have been around for 40+ years and noone seems to have found a practical solution. What do u suggest? Teams track a local junior in case of missing a rider?

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I prefer the tac sub rule too. But its nonsense for people to say it's less unfair or less of a joke than the current double point ride rule.

Phil - you pointed out that bsi are incurring some extra costs due to this debacle. Mine was that its hard to feel any sympathy for them.Id also suggest that if they want to make speedway truly global, surely it is in their interests for promoters not to be losing shed loads. Would be interested to know what the few things bill b should have done differently to save him the two million bucks he lost. Final point is that surely bsi need to take some responsibility when things go wrong, not just take platitudes when things go right (and cash regardless).

In some cases I don't think a rehearsal would be practical - it wouldn't have been at western springs for example. Would be interesting to get a true view as to whether the track would have been raceable without yesterday's rain. If it would, then maybe a test meeting wouldn't have proved anything?