ytsejam

Spot on although it ain't really the messing about at the tapes that is the main culprit for this. Said that for ages now. People aren't going to pay the expensive entrance fees if a meeting starts at 7.30pm and is over by 8pm!! Also think of all the revenue from the bars, snacks, burger vans etc that will be lost if people were only there for 30 mins or so!!....Its OBVIOUS to anyone with at least half a brain cell that the meetings are dragged out on purpose for longer than really necessary purely because of financial reasons.

What a couple of totally ludicrous statements from someone clearly totally biased against Ward. Even IF he gets no further punishment (which I can't see being the case) he's not been able to ride in several GP's in 2014, for several matches (and play offs) for his league clubs in various countries and in things like the Australian Championship, so how in the name of God do you come up with such ignorant and stupid comments that he will get off "without punishment "?!! and "he doesn't really miss much racing out of those 12 months"!!! Peoples ignorance really does beggar belief sometimes!! For what its worth I think he SHOULD get a 12 month ban, but if that runs from August to August then how isn't that fair?!!!

Sure it won't be much of a loss for Wolverhampton judging on his lacklustre performances for them for most of this season (which were normally followed a few days later by a GP semi-final/final/winning performace!!!.......strange that!!!)

I hadn't seen that either, so thanks for pointing it out and for a serious and sensible reply too

Not to mention that in both 2013 AND 2014 he only even got into the "Qualifier final" through the back door!!...ALL you stats show is that he is arguably the LUCKIEST and most underserved rider to have been in the actual GP's on a regular basis, ever!! Another season of GP embarrassments lay ahead for him, but hey, he's not going to worry about that whilst he's making money from it (and to be fair, who can blame him!)

So very true and a point so obviously missed by so many in here!. Basically these days, the performances of the 2 reserves more often than not decide which team wins the match. Look at how many meetings last year were won/lost by say 8 points or less and then look at the totals scored between the winning teams 2 reserves and the losing teams and 8/10 the difference in the totals were MORE than the actual difference in the scores. Now, there ARE some good points about the fast track system but surely the worst thing about it is that NO account of the FTR's averages during the season is taken account of. What benefit is yet another season of being at number 6 for the likes of Newman, Garrity, Kerr etc is there going to be when they are still going to be regularly competing against other FTR's more than against heat leaders? Yes, for maybe really young and new riders aged 16 or 17, its a good idea to keep them as a reserve all season (to gain experience) but Newman and Kerr will be in their mid 20's next season and IF they are to seriously improve, then IF and when their averages dictate, then they should move up into the main body of the team and be against better quality riders more often....just like the reserve places always used to. That way, maybe the reserves won't be determining the overall match result nearly ever meeting like they did last year. Thats true to a point but not really much of a valid excuse!!....Poole is nearer to top class Football and Cricket teams than Kings Lynn is. By your reckoning that should mean that Lynn is full to bursting each week!!

The BBC DO with their "joke" BDO World Championships each year!! LOL Talking of darts, its nice to see that "shouter Pearson" is just as useless commentating on the darts as he is the speedway!!

SKY are a complete and utter joke!!...ALL DAY its been forecast that rain is coming yet they buggered about and never attempted to get on with the meeting once. There was absolutely no excuse for all 15 heats not to have been over by a little after 8.30 yet all we got was the usual bull and crap from "Shouty and Screamer" and the tedious and unnecessary (under the circumstances) interviews and endless tedious replays!. Utter pathetic and sadly sums up the whole of this Elite league seasons coverage really. Such a shame that Elite league British speedway would really struggle to survive without those SKY fools, so looks like we're stuck with them

Agree totally with all that Mike, but it should be like that at EVERY meeting, not just tonight! There' no excuse for a meeting with just 15 minutes of actual racing to EVER take more than an hour and a half and really it should be done within an hour.

Fair play to Middlo and Poole for not wanting it called off after heat 10 as I'm sure they could have done if they had wanted. Hopefully this will finally shut up all the childish moaners in here who continually harp on about Poole cheating and only wanting to get to heat 10 in important meetings and then calling the meeting off!!....but then again, I very much doubt it will!!

I.M.O. no-one should or can EVER believe much that comes out of his shouty mouth!. Each week on his commentaries he is saying, sorry, shouting, one thing whilst we can see with our own eyes that what he's saying isn't correct, so there's no surprise there about what you say!!

I've seen some rubbish written in here before but this must be the most imbecilic and stupid post of all time!!...How is the weather's ANYONE'S fault!? Some people really should take a deep breath before they attempt to make posts sometimes!!!

Well, thats been 3 tediously boring "Gate fests" so far in the play offs, and with the forecast for this week, no doubt Thursday will be the same. This season must go down as the most boring ever for the SKY Elite meetings at least, as there's barely been one good one (as far as actual racing and people passing) all year, the only thing that has saved a few has been the fact that the match scores have been close. And as for Pearson's continued fawning all evening over the covering of the track, how about asking a question and being a bit critical about the stupidity of only covering the bends?....makes you really wonder about the intelligence of those who run and promote the sport, when they make such glaring errors like this that once again, turn yet another meeting into a boring farce.

Well, there's one BIG difference in that in previous years a "high scoring reserve" would move up into the main team and therefore not be able to have 7 rides and also replace others in the top 5 who were out of form on the night. This seasons fast track idea has been a decent one but its been wrong that the reserves cannot be promoted into the main team if their average justifies it. Basically as the title of this thread says, reserve strength has decided which 4 teams got into the play offs, which surely shouldn't be the main driving factor behind speedway racing?

TheReturn, on 30 Aug 2014 - 9:31 PM, said: Agreed totally. His main ability behind the microphone when things get a bit exciting is to make perfect monkey noises rather than actually COMMENTATE, which is what he is supposed to be doing and is travelling the world and making a good living out of doing. Continually spoils the racing be it Elite League or Grand Prix with his amateurish and pathetic "noises". Notice also that "TheReturns" post has now "disappeared"....I hope it hasn't been deleted by the "powers that be" under instructions from motor mouth himself or his agent!!? Truth hurts sometimes eh?

THIS is the key thing that should come out of all this. Its lucky that for several other riders that it hasn't been in place this season as there would be a few more others in Wards position now too!

Hope Emil gets a wild card next year if he wants to be back in the GP's. Looks like he's finally getting back to somewhere where he was as a rider a couple of years ago again now and I'd much rather see riders of his ability in the GP's all season than the likes of Harris!

Exactly!!..Been raining on and off for a while there this evening, rain is all around according to the commentators, so what do the promoters/organisers do?.....have a completely unnecessary break rather than getting on with the meeting and getting it finished!!....Once again, speedway promoters only caring about their pockets and not giving a stuff about the paying public (who they'd be lost without!) - pathetic.

Yes, I know that and YES, I know he is very knowledgeable of his specialist subjects, just that speedway most certainly wasn't one of them!!...

That's a good point and correct but it won't ever happen. The BSPA know that the main thing keeping professional league speedway going in this country is SKY and I don't think they would be too happy to have to cover Elite league matches each week when there were at least 5 British riders in each team and less foreign "stars"

Quite right too. The "new" commentator on Eurosport (who thankfully replaced that "Jack bloke" who made even Pearson sound good!) is a much better and more importantly PROFESSIONAL, commentator than the cretin Pearson. For example, when he's commentating on a rider passing someone for the lead, he raises his voice a little, instills some excitement and carries on describing what is happening (like a good commentator should do) rather than just resorting to making monkey noises and screams, that seems to be the standard childish response from Pearson. Thats the sort of thing you expect someone who's been dragged off the terraces and into the commentary booth at the last second and told to "have a go" at commentating, rather than what a so called professional commentator (sic) like Pearson should be doing.

Sadly ANOTHER meeting being dictated by the uneven starting gates!!.....Its about time someone started putting more emphasis on getting the starting gates as FAIR as possible for every meeting instead of worrying about how little shale they can get away with putting on the actual track!!

More like 6 rides!!!...he's a certainty for a tactical somewhere along the line

Bit of an embarrassment for the sport to see large parts of the stadium so empty for this blue riband event. Just shows that speedway perhaps ISN'T such a big thing in Poland after all, its really Mr Gollop that is the attraction, NOT the sport!

Oh my goodness!!...what planet are you on?!!....Last night may have been enjoyable for the close score but the racing was PATHETIC. There wasn't ONE pass for any position (let along the lead) in all 15 races after the 3rd and 4th bend of the first lap (and that was nearly always because of someone hitting a rut and losing control) Every race could have been "called" after 1 lap. The closest we got to anyone passing anyone for any position all night was in the last heat, even the "shouting monkeys" Pearson and Tatum struggled to get even remotely excited all night apart from that race. The track is an utter disgrace and when you think that it was a new purpose built track, then whoever designed it should be shot! These sort of "no passing" tracks are what will finish off professional speedway one day (when SKY have got fed up of trying to consistently polish the proverbial you know what!). The Leicester fans were no doubt pleased with their £10 value but for the neutral, the actual racing itself wasn't worth even 10p!!