Grand Central

As I said in a previous post, I am saddened by this move on Tai's part. I also have to say how uncomfortable I am with his ebay auctioning of medals. It is entirely his decision of course. And BWitcher may be right in his thinking that ANYTHING that moves him closer to a third World Championship is acceptable. I'm just not so sure at all. But, among others, selling his Garry Stead Benefit medal for profit. Just seems grossly misjudged. No doubt Pearson will come out with a Press Release to offer absolution.

Got to admit how terribly disappointed I feel by this. I'm not going to jump on the Tai-bashing bandwaggon. I have been mightily impressed by the guy over the last few seasons. Obviously on the track but also by how he handled himself off-track as well. Odd, for me, but I do feel just a little 'let down' by this though.. Which is a pity. But no more.

I've checked with Wolverhampton and they confirm it is OFF. Belle Vue have also said it is off but you may want to take that with a pinch of salt.

Phil, is there no small part of you now that is getting just a little bit fed up with the BV promotion themselves. Just an infinitesimally small part of your mind that is losing just a little bit of faith in their current performance. Or are you just as rock solid, really? Surely we have reached the point when even you will lose it with them soon.

Absolutely.The Edinburgh story could have just been a bad mistake. But the Woverhampton paper seems to quoting CVS ... that seems a whole lot different. And will surely have a big impact on travelling support. ?? something else for BV to get legal advice on ?? http://www.expressandstar.com/sport/other-sport/speedway/2016/03/23/wolves-speedway-trip-again-called-off/

.I genuinely do not doubt a single word you say. And I am equally genuinely grateful to you that my tongue-in-cheek provocation results in such a measured and reasonable explanation of more detail. It just does lead me to reiterate how beneficial it would be, all round, if this sort of rational understanding was being offered from the official sources rather than by yourself. A statement written in the right manner, as you have just done, would have been so much better if it carried Mr Gordon's own name.

Philip Rising's post above is no doubt a reasonable view of where we stand. And there is no doubt that rather than being a guest of the management his skills would have been much better employed actually handing the PR side for DG and CM. They need someone in that department desparately. The single fact that I am most surprised about is that revealed about the track. We now learn that all the meticulous plans going back years had at the heart this rather bizarre element. That the Speedway track was going to be totally constructed and prepared for opening night by contractors who have nothing to do with a Speedway at all. An English international of vast experience is a promoter and an SCB track inspector is the usual track curator. But they were NEVER going to lay the track. At least in Warsaw the track only went wrong after a genuine expert had tried his best to get it right. Here is was being done by Paddy Murphy and his gang. We were really very lucky that they got so much of it right, weren't we?

Er, yes, deliberately. I thought it apt Whoosh!

Only a Hiccough (surely) ... but a big one. Pocking Hell ! What an understatement.

It won't be long. Like buses You wait ages for one stomach-churning snivelling denial of responsibility, and two come along; only to be followed by a third soon after. Meanwhile, on the issue of refunds... err ... that will take one hell of a long time to appear.

The nature of the two statements today, from Chapman and from Gordon do leave one with some wider questions. If they are so poor in their judgement of how to make a public statement. The content. The language, The tone. That they both lack the skills to do this professionally That they lack the selfwareness of their own inadequacies in this regard, so do not delegate to other better people. Then what of their judgment generally? Chief Exceutive of Belle Vue Speedway ....? Chairman of the BSPA .... ? Speedway in Manchester, Speedway in GB .... it's just not in very good hands, is it?

DG seems to have out-Bustered Buster with that ill tempered statement. Cooler heads, clearer minds and much less vitriol from all sides may be preferable. And would certainly show a little more class.

April 18th 2015 ... to March 19 2016 and no one in Speedway has really learnt a thing. The similarities with the humiliation at Stadion Norodowy to that at the National Speedway Stadium are just too many. But I do not mean the state of the track and the immediate issues related. The real gut wrenching similarity is the dreadful treatment of the paying public by those that are the custodians of our sport. On both occasions there was lamentable on-the-night crisis mangagemnt, the large crowds being left with no information of what was going on for far too long, both in freezing temperatures. Chris and David travelled the world trying to gain experience and they still could not learn the art of communication with their customers. Just like BSI in Warwaw. And then the public statements. As woeful today from Manchester and Rugby as they were last year from Poland. Belle Vue, just like BSI, before them, manage to ensure a Non-statement of a statement. Calculated to offer no substantive information and no real apology just 'regret'. Mealy mouthed corporate bilge. Last year it was the PZM that were first out with the buck-passing 'the track is nothing to do with us' and today we are treated to the most god-awful piece of PR from the BSPA. running away from the stink as fast as they can. Buster you are a disgrace. In many walks of life there are crises and disasters that we must face. But it is the manner of dealing with them that is most revealing of those involved. And the learning from experience. It would seem that in Speedway we are not well blessed with anyone of any decent character, internationally or nationally.

Personally I only used the term scrounging, to be polite. Although the dictionary definition of "seeking to obtain something at the expense of others or by stealth" does seem to fit the bill quite well. I have no problem with whatever word is used. I don't really care. I use kodi myself all the time and love it !

Here is a link to the good news http://sport.bt.com/more-sport-hub/more-sport/bt-sport-signs-tv-presenter-suzi-perry-S11364044894448 Probably the best signing by anyone this winter. .

With the latest news that Suzi Perry is back. It looks as if the coverage will be a quality production. http://sport.bt.com/more-sport-hub/more-sport/bt-sport-signs-tv-presenter-suzi-perry-S11364044894448 So, even if you are not a scrounger on kodi, and are paying the full ticket price. At least there should be VFM!

Spot on. I bet the 'net migration' of TV watching Speedway fans has been OUT of paying this last few months. The Android box/Kodi/Amazon Fires stick explosion has probably meant that for 2016 there will be fewer Speedway Supporters paying any cash at all to to the TV companies than in any previous year this century. My TV bill is at its lowest since about 1998.

But then again, that one is in Chinese.

From memory I believe it is engraved 'BRITISH CHAMPIONSIHP CHALLENGE TROPHY' And as it has been like that since the sixties ... I'd think we can leave it, don't you?

Your remarks say that Dave Jessup would have been THIRD in the 1981 rankings not NINTH if he had just not had those two engine failures at Wembley. Seems that you have got your weightings quite a bit 'off' in that case alone. Surely the whole idea of a 'rankings system is to assist in 'evening out' such one-night events and give a better judgement over the whole season. DJ may have dropped 6 places on the night with those failures, but to also do so in a ranking system for the entire season as well seems to expose a fundamental error in the weightings systems being used.

My own programme , filled in on the night, specifically records all three as tapes exclusions.

"Facebook for Dummies" possibly.

It is always nice to have the same issue settled on two separate threads a few weeks apart. Just for fun. Anyone fancy asking the same question for a third time just so we can go through it all the again? .

May I congratulate everyone for helping to get gustix to to the same place as we all reached a few weeks ago. Repetition was all that was needed, apparently.

Your reporting prowess of the distant past is something I find difficult to comment on. But to find you yourself, casting doubt on your own report from Wembley in1957 seems a pretty damning judgement of it's quality. But what I do know is that in the course of this discussion on this, and other similar threads, you have behaved disgracefully and disrespectfully towards people who have done the actual research.