E I Addio

So dear old Phil Space is short of news so writes a column telling us what we already know. Investigative journalism at its best. A few answers would be worth reading, or maybe an interview with one of the sports promoters or, administrators would be a good start.

Inconsistent decisions are once again at the root of it. According to today's SS Allen says he tried to to the same thing himself against Coventry earlier in the season but wasn't allowed, so bending the rules is ok if he can get away with it but not if someone else does it. The trouble is that Allens account in SS now tries l implicate Garry Havelock in saying it's OK and Graham Reeve as not objecting if the opposing team agree , so it's all it has really done is muddy the waters instead of clarifying a anything. Bottom line is the sport looks bad all round when the rules are applied inconsistently, or at least appears to be, but worse than that the Golden rule of any business is not to wash your dirty linen in public. That's what Norrie Allen has done and has come out of it looking worse.

I can't help feeling sorry for Kings Lynn. 2014 was their best chance of a Championship but it didn't happen for them . They still looked very solid this year but injuries to Rory and Lewis Kerr have been a blow they won't fully recover from. Rory in particular is irreplaceable as captain, with his off track leadership.. Unfortunately they frequently look like a one heat leader side, and I somehow can't see Kenny. Bear finding any real consitency now. Swindon have had the luck KL never had. They never looked like serious contenders at the start but by being in the right place at the right time when Darcy became available their chances are dramatically transformed. Could potentially be finalists and once there who knows what will happen, but whatever they achieve will be by good fortune in getting Darcy at the right time rather than anything else. If Belle Vue get there it will be on merit. All their 1-5 have had some erratic spells but they have stuck to their task and worked through it. There only problem is that that don't all seem to have a good night at the same time, but if they can all put it together at the right time, they could be outsiders for the final.

Ironically an on form Freddie would probably have done done enough to carry Wolves to a narrow win. Form is such a fickle thing and with the Freddie of 2 or three years ago Wolves season could have been far different. How long can the incredible PK keep this up? He has already probably forgotten more than most riders will ever know but experience continues to triumph over youth. Like most matches these days fast track is the problem. 15 points for Belle Vues reserves, 4 for Wolves. In almost every EL match these days that is the sort of discrepancy we see at reserve, and it it's where so many matches are won and lost. This EDR system has to be sorted out for next year. It is not what the fast track was originally intended to do and not what the public pay to see.

Exactly, and once again proving the point that you can always tell when people are bankrupt of sensible discussion because the red mist comes up and they start exagerrating, misrepresenting or misquoting other people's posts, and throwing insults ( including branding everyone who doesn't agree with them as "thick" or "sycophants") . That's pretty much par for the course for Drop a Cog I am afraid.

That' is the sort of non-point that typifies this sort of thread. If you sit a non-cricket fan in front of a televised cricket match they will almost certainly make the same criticisms, especially if the circumstances demand the batsmen play defensively and are not scoring many runs, even more so when the re is a delay for bad light. Non rugby fans quickly become bored with games where them flow is constantly delayed by line outs. On the other hand you could sit me in front the most exciting soccer match of the season and within minutes I become almost I'll with boredom . The point is certain types of people like certain types of sports. Nobody likes guests etc but most sensible fans realise there is no alternative much of the time. It is in the nature of the sport. The reasons for declining crowds are very complex and there is no quick fix answer. Greyhounds, stock cars, grass track motor cross and a number of other outdoor sports have similarly suffered to a greater or lesser degree, partly due to economic reasons , partly due to other factors. The only hard evidence we have. Is that when a team do well the crowds go up and when they do badly the crowds usually drop. I would suggest, based on other fans I have spoken to that the next biggest complaint is the very erratic fixture list, that leaves fans getting into them habit of doing other things on race . Of course the fact that TV broadcasts from all round the Speedwáy world has reached saturation point is another factor. There comes a point where couch potato mentality takes over if one is not careful

You can always tell when people have lost the argument , because they always start accusing anyone who doesn't agree with them of burying their heads in the sand instead of dealing with the merits of the argument.

the highlighted part is the nub of the problem with this type of discussion, and another problem is that these threads attract too many ex-fans whose only remedy is to turn the clock back.. I agree it is tedious when sides turn up packed with guests and that is a question those in charge need to address when it comes to next years fixture list, but there are a plethora of other problems and the trouble is that by solving one thing you make another worse.. To my mind the biggest single cause of aggravation this year has been erratic fixtures- on one occasion one home meeting in a five week period followed by three in eight days. When there is no fluency people find other things to do, and the casual fan who is happy to go once or twice a month is not going to go three times in eight days. That is all due to Sky and the continental fixture list.. One major change I would like to see and will put out for discussion/thoughts is to reduce the Speedway World Cup to once every four years like Soccer Cricket and Rugby. That would free up two weeks of the fixture list for other domestic meetings. Also reduce the GP's to one a month (say six per season) which would also be a big help to fixtures and rider availability.. Cant see either happening while the TV companies have such a tight grip on the situation, but it would make a big difference to domestic speedway.

Lakeside weren't allowed to,race illegally. The fact that the referee allowed it makes it legal unless and until there is a successful appeal on the point. As had been said already if Norrie Allen doesn't like it he has his remedy and should put his money where his mouth is.

I have to say one thing for Steve, his posts and his match reports over the years prove he regularly turns up tp support his club through thick and thin. Many of the Swindon fans that try to mock him are among the worst for throwing a strop and irregular attendance, if they go at all when their team go through a bad spell. I agree with Skidders post, Steve often make some good points, but sometimes good points are not what some posters want to hear.

In the South East it would cost around £500 minimum. £10 or so per head would be good value if the fans were paying but it would be prohohibitive for. A promoter. Years ago Len Silver laid on a free coach from Stratford to Hackney , just a few miles which I used when I was still at school but it was a bit of an old banger and I don't think there are many like that today. More recently , until a few years ago Lakeside used to lay on a bus form the track to an Underground station somewhere but that was eventually cancelled as it wasn't cost effective.

.tp That statement sums up the bankruptcy of you position. The best answer you can come up with is to imply I am happy with the set-up which is not what I said at all. I am not happy with the set up but I live in the real world and I realise we need real world solutions to real world problems with the sport not knee jerk reactions. That means any idea that is put forward has to explain the financial side of things. I pointed out to you the plain fact that riders have to earn a decent living, but you are unable to explain how that would work in your scheme and the best you cann do is to start mudslinging and claim I am happy with things as they are. The root of the problem is cheap airfares have for years made easier and cheaper to fly foreign riders in than to train riders of our own. There is a dire shortage of home grown riders in our leagues. The dramage there is already done and we have to start from w here we are now instead of moaning about it. The Hagon Shocks academy at Lakeside is starting to produce some talented young riders. That lis the sort of facility that has been missing for years but as they are only just reaching their early teens but it will be several years befor,e they leave school and/ or reach an acceptable league standard. In the meantime we have to manage with the few coming through the few other training facilities we have and there is no quick fix solution, only sticking plaster over the cracks. The other problem is that because of the amount if foreign riders we have and better pay on the continent, plus the long GP season our fixture list has to be built round the GP/SWC / Swedish/Polish season. That is disastrous for the home fixture list but there seems to be little we can do about it because many fans want to see top riders. Those are the two basic problems that need to be overcome before anything else can be properly sorted. I would be interested to see any intelligent suggestions with the financial side properly costed but I haven't seen any yet.

The Elite League runs 14 home league meetings per club per year. If that is all they are going to be allowed to ride they will not make enough money to earn a decent living, and when at times they race once every couple of weeks their sharpness will go and the standard will further deteriorate. In addition There was a big article on Richie Worrall in Speedwáy Star the other week in which he complained of not enough meetings in the PL to earn a living. It all very well taking the popular line about riders should do this or shouldn't do that but the bottom line is that for most of them if they need to double up in order to progress to the top league and to earn a decent living. This is where threads like this go off the rails because you are now saying anything that comes into your head to make a point, whether it's right or wrong. Peter Craven got to the World Final because he went though the qualifying rounds like everybody else in those days, Jack Young was riding in the Second Division when he went through the qualifying rounds and became a World Champion so doubling up would have absolutely nothing to do with getting the chance to become World Champion.

It was very similar at Lakeside on Friday. Swiderski was declared at No 5 for Lakeside and when Bech was injured they moved him up to No2 and used R/R for Nilsson. Swindon on the other hand declared Steve Worrall at No 2 and Craig Cook at No 3 but although neither Worrall nor Cook are injured as far as I know Swindon actually used Blackbird in place of Worrall and R/r for Cook at No 3, so in effect they used a guest for a guest and r/r for another guest. I've had a brief look at the rules they refer to "line ups" rather than riding order so it's not clear whether technically they have to declare them literal line up and nothing else or whether them term is meant to include riding order.

The word I used last time was "hopeless" . If you check the thread another poster described him as "unbelieivably poor" as a guest f or Belle Vue and also noted he was supposed to be the man in form. It is just an opinion, and riders do improve but based on what I saw that is my opinion, rightly or wrongly . It would need to be a remarkable improvement in the space of a few weeks. It can't be proved or disproved but would say these things never go on in speedway especially when qualication for the play offs is concerned ? Think Poole 2009.

1. Every team except Leicester has won at Lakeside this year and I never made excuses for any of those, and I am not making excuses for this defeat. 2. When I posted after the Belle Vue meeting I specifically made a pointed reference to Zengota being "hopeless" . That is not a term I normally use to describe riders, in fact I don't think I ever have, but in that match he stood out as being exceptionally poor. I didn't criticise any of the other riders in that way. This was a rider people had been describing as "the man in form" . I made specific reference to the fact that he didn't even beat Adam Ellis, so it's not as if I hadn't highlighted the fact that something was not right. People can have a different opinion, but having seen both matches it certainly seemed a remarkable transformation to me, especially in the space of a short period of time.

Absolutely no doubt at all in my mind Zengota was deliberately not bothering when he guested for Belle Vue a few weeks ago, given the play off situation. On that occasion he scored 1,1, F , 0, 0, compared with riding for Swindon he scored 0,,1,3,3,2, . When he guested for Belle Vue he was clearly not dropping his clutch until they had all gone in the first two rides. In his last two rides he was making the gate leading for 2/3 laps then letting everybody through. Pretty blatant IMO .

Eastern European in "unavailable to ride small track shock" !

Yes I agree that applying logic to the clumsy grammar you are probably right, but it still doesn't explain how both came to be disqulaified. Not that it really matters now . No doubt in due course we will find that some other referee will apply a different interpretation.

The rule doesn't seem very clear to me. It talks about if the 15 metre gate is already occupied by a second or susmequent re-instatement a reserve switch is the only option, so one interpretation is that you don't get a chance to go off 15 metres if there is a subsequeNt offence. That would fit in with the scenario of Jonsson being at fault first and then Zagar second. I suppose you could also say if Jonsson was excluded for delaying the start, why was Zagar excluded at all? If Josson was moving the referee should have pulled him out there and then and Zagar would not be out at all. But who knows what the rule is really meant to mean and who knows how a referees mind works , or at this stage who really cares ?

That is a strange sequence of events. Jonsson must have committed the offence first because he could not be delaying the start after Zagar touched the tapes. Arguably he delayed the start by moving and causing Zagar to jump first, after having been warned but his offence must presumably have been committed a fraction before Zagars. Who knows how referees minds work though.

Agreed . Cricket is even worse. You take a day off work with no threat of rain then after an hours play they go off for bad light for a couple of hours., even though to the average spectator the light seems to be ok.

As a matter of interest, what happens to season ticket holders when there is an extra meeting due to rain cancellation ? Do they get an extra meeting "free" in contrast to the pay at the gaters, or do they have to pay something ?

I don't think it's that simple. I couldn't tell you anything about my local sports teams apart from Essex Cricket Club because Iam not interested. I have no idea who won the FA Cup or any horse race meetings because they don't register. Although I go to Arena Essex virtually every Speedwáy meeting I couldn't tell you what stock car meetings are on or when because I don't pay attention. It's very very difficult to get people's attention to something they are not interested in . The Lakeside website gives details of the community programme with local schools and charities for the last several years which does focus attention on the club but that involves a lot of effort for slow progress. When the local MP puts something on Twitter those people who follow her movements are specifically paying attention so that is an achievement.