E I Addio

Whether or not the name is inappropriate is a matter of personal opinion.the British Olympic Team has been known aus Team GB for years, and that's where it all springs from. The days are gone when riders like Ken McKinlaty could have a career that included riding for England, Scotland, Great Britain, thr British Lions, and various others. We now live in a corporate world and if that means speedwáy has to adopt a common brand to gain a few extra crumbs of help it wouldn't otherwise have had, so be it. It could be worse. If your predictions are correct we could soon have our national team riding as the "Sons of Islam" or some such identity, but if Sport England (or the Sports Council as it was known before the world went mad) can pull a few strings behind the scenes to help Belle Vue, Swindon, and hopefully Lakeside and Coventry to find new homes, then bring it it on. Every little helps. It's certainly not worth getting into a huff about.

Absolutely ! Team GB is a brand carried by many branches of British sport. It is a brand promoted by the Sports Council and recognised by agencies and bodies outside sport. To that extent it helps to keep speedway in the general 'sporting" frame and gives certain advantages which I won't bore everybody with, but suffice to say that if people gave the matter a bit of thought and research before getting hot under the collar about such a trivial matter they might realise there is a reason for the name and maybe in the process save themselves an unnecessary heart attack.

One of the points I don't think has been mentioned is that based on what we now know Muddlo's public rantings on the procedure seem even worse than we previously thought. We had weeks of Muddllo bleating in Speedwáy Star claiming he didn't know what was going and that Ward was suffering by the delay, not to mention his foul mouthed utterances on Twitter., but we now know that as early as 3rd September 2014 Muddlo had written a statement on behalf of Ward,, jfor submission to the FIM, and Ford had written one the day before, (presumably Ford wrote his statement first so Muddlo o knew what he was supposed to say in his own statement). Mark Lemon also wrote a statement. So we now know Muddlo and Ford had some contact with Wards lawyers , even though Muddlo claimed in SS he didn't know what was going on. When Muddlo wrote has statement he and Ford would be working out their 2015 team. Having had that initial contact to do the statements are we to believe Muddlo had absolutely no idea what was happening, as he kept claiming week after week in his SS comments, Interestingly , it seems the promoters and officials of Wards Swedish and Polish clubs declined to get involved as there were no statements submitted from them. Ford submitted a statement or testimonial of some kind but didn't go public about it, but Muddlo , idiot t that he is kept telling us he knew nothing when clearly he had enough contact to know something. The man is more than a fool , he iseems to be a devious one as well.. Am I looking at it the wrong way or is Muddlo a disgrace to the sport?

They had a highly paid professional responsible for the track preparation in Warsaw and Tampere and the meetings were hopeless so I don't think thst necessarily supports your argument that professionals are necessarily the answer.

Well, you know what thought did.

IYou are right that rumours are part of everyday life but it's not practical for any organisation to make statements every 5 minutes to admit or deny every piece of tittle tattle that crops up . You are not altogether right about the whole thing about Lakeside moving coming from one of these forums. It was known from the time the present promotion took over that the present stadium was under threat in the Thames Gateway redevelopment. It was always a question of when it would happen. The issue about moving to Kent arose because some idiot took a comment of Len Silvers out of context and posted it on the Lakeside fans forum and that's when the whole thing kicked off. Unfortunately this sport seems to be plagued more than most with pessimists, doom and gloom merchants, and especially gossip mangers who delight in doing the sport harm . Hence we had some know-nothing on here a few weeks ago telling us he or she heard Adam Ellis hated Lakeside and wanted to leave. Despite Adams dad posting in perfectly clear terms that Adam does not hate Lakeside the gossip mongrels persist with the story. By the same token those who persist with the moving to Kent story ignore the limited planning permission there and the othe obstacles that would need to be overcome, they ignore the fact that if it was a simple question of moving to Kent there would be no need for Jon Cook to resign from the MC in order to concentrate on finding a new track, and there would be no point in him having discussions with Thurrock Council. Belle Vue have had help from their local Council in getting a new track, so have Swindon, so why on earth do people thinkThurrock won't be similarly accommodating ? Obviously things are in the air at the moment, but we have known for a long time this was coming but the club we will be getting it from the horses mouth within two weeks so why the ned to keep stirring ? some fans are already travelling from Sittingbourne/Canterbury to Pufleet so it would suit them but others are coming from North of the Thames, places like Chelmsford, Braintree etc so sticking another 80 miles on their round trip would probably be a killer, especially as the curfew at Kent would mean a much earlier start than at present. No doubt it's a big problem for the sport because IF , big IF , Lakeside were lost the EL goes under 8 teams which means the end of the Sky deal and no more EL which is why I think every effort will be made. Looking on the positive side a new purpose built track oto go with Swindon and Belle Vue will give the sport some much needed stability.

Which stil comes down to the fact that the system is deeply flawed partly because of the way the picks work and partly because of difference in ability of the riders in the top tier. If Lakeside had been able to get a rider like Blackbird or Garrity all it would mean is that some other club would have the problem Lakeside now have. Bottom line is that the disparity between the standard of riders is too great. Either you have have to close the gap by including riders like Ritchie Worrall, or perhaps, more sensibly riders such as Garrity and Blackbird who are now basically competent and experienced enough to stand on their own should be chopped off and lesser riders who need the experience should be included, which was really the original intention of the Fast Track scheme (apart from saving money)

I find the shale story very difficult to believe. Admittedly there is a big difference between ELracing and GPs but EL clubs struggle with even the cost of transport so are we to belive that they can barely afford to hire the stadium for a week to get a decent track laid but can afford all these shipping costs every GP in addition to a complete track load of shale (as opposed to the EL simply toping up, and then they chuck the whole lot away afterwards? I find that very difficult to believe.

Exactly . It's an indictment of the total farce they have made of the fast track system. The disparity between the best and the worst of each tier is to large and to many old hands have been included who could easily have been in the 1-5 on merit. Take the Wolves match a few weeks ago for example. Lewis Blackbird was coming out to replace two of the Wolves heatleaders. He made a third place in Heat 13 ahead of GP rider Jason Doylle so he should be well on the way to a fair standard and hardly needs the draft in order to progress. So we had the crazy situation where Wolves got a competent Brit on the cheap, and then spent what they saved on him by hiring a couple of expensive foreigners who got replaced by th e cut-price Brit who was clearly good enough for a 1-5 spot. Then they wonder why they don't have any money. Crazy or what?Then tonight we have blackbird again far out scoring Gomolski who constantly has to be flown in at the cost of an arm and a leg. The other thing is, if you are going to have riders like Blackbird and Auty etc in the draft, the surely on the basis of age and need for experience Ritchie Worral, who is without an EL place, and is far younger than Blackbird and some of the others has an unanswerable claim to be included, as is his brother. Then if Worrall is included why not Ben Barker ? And so it goes on. In a nutshell the public are entitled to expect competitive racing, not two heats per meeting where you can fill the results in before the race even starts, because Garrity or Blackbird are out. The standard has to be either raised or lowered so FTDR riders in the top tier especially are all competitive. Such a great idea once again turned into such a farce

Hmmm, no doubt Joe Screens doctor will certify him unfit and a track specialist guest will come in. How can it be nearly over ? We haven't had the mid-season collapse yet.

It wasn't a question of foresight. Lakeside were never in a position to have the option of choosing Backbird, due to the way the order in which the picks were taken. Just as Leicester who should have had first pick somehow finished up with fifth pick. The real problem with the Fast Track, (or should I say Farce Track) is that Poole will have a guest who is at least as good if not better than their injured reserve while Lakeside will not be able to get a guest reserve who is remotely comparable to the injured Steve Boxall and Adam Ellis who,is from the second tier will be the best reserve for Lakeside, effectively standing in the shoes of their first tier reserve. The Fast Track /Farce track was a great idea that somehow they have managed to mess up and lose even more fans that won't be back

The GSA's effective on 1st May ( in other words the current one) lists Danny as 5.58,,that is also his average stated in the programme. Do the sums. 5.58 is more than 0.38 lower than 6.74. Holder, Zagar, and NKI have dropped their averages, which hardly suggests they are in decline. Averages fluctuate, riders have good spells and bad. A rider who is increasing his average is by definition going through an improving spell. Not a difficult concept.

Ah, so it's now in your opinion, not "everybody knows" . His 2015 team building figure was approved by the SCB so how were Lakeside cheating? The sports governing body may or may not have been inconsistent but if they were that's not Lakeside's fault. Danny King came to Lakeside last year on his Birmingham average. If we apply the same test to Kennett he has still put the best part of two points on his average. But the absolute bottom line is even if we take your figure of 6.39 (which I have never seen anyone else quote on here) he has still moved up to over 7 according to the latest GSA's so how by any stretch of the imagination does that represent a rider in decline? Conversely Danny King, who like Kennett has been riding at No4 has dropped by over a point. Are you suggesting that represents an improvement ? The fact is that Ed had had a torrid time with his last two clubs. Maybe he is happy where he is now. He certainly seems to be, but it's a bit churlish to constantly rubbish a bloke because he has had a few bad seasons.

There was a gasp of surprise from the crowd when Lindgren was announced in heat 15,ahead of Kim who had been flying all night, and together with Ed had been Lakeside's best gater . Logic says put Kim who likes the inside off gate 1 and Ed who likes the outside off gate 3. Vatchers incompetence at its worst. It was the same last year when he kept putting PK in heat 15 whe PK wasn't scoring. Anyway it's done and dusted now, so we'll done to the Bees. I can't see anyone stopping them in the league if they stay fit, although who knows what the play offs will bring. Lakeside's season is as good as over. I don't want to say too much about Mikkel Bech but it looks to me like his confidence is shot. He wasn't really dropping the clutch until the rest had gone and didn't really seem to br enjoying it one bit. He has got bags of potential but unless he gets his head sorted one has to wonder where he goes from here. Nothing at all wrong with the track this week and one point on his home track is not acceptable from a second string let alone a heatleader. Finally ! A word of praise for Ed Kennett. He has had a lot of stick on the. Forum for a few years now but he really looked the business tonight. Very fast and the way he hunted Hans down then passed him and opened up a big gap between himself and the Coventry pair was probably the ride of the season so far at Lakeside.

I disagree. It's still barely 3 years since Adam first sat on a Speedwáy bike. In the EL he has to face EDR riders like Lewis Blackbird and Josh Auty who are vastly more experienced. Adam has undoubted talent in terms of motor cycle skills but his lack of race experience stands out like a sore thumb at times especially against more experienced riders. Riding at No1 for Brum will help his confidence and riding at No6 for Lakeside will still give him the chance to compete with more ex perinced riders. Speedwáy is a confidence sport and Adam still has a lot to learn. It will no doubt come in time but there is such a thing as pushing a rider too far to soon. He is still only 18 and has time on his side.

Whether the rule should or should not have been changed has nothing to do with informing the fans. If the local fans didn't know about the change that's a failure of the promotion/announcer concered not the BSPA. I don't actually think the rule change is that much of a big deal . Coventry have aspirations to come top of the league so iIt is in their interests to stop visiting team collect a point when they come to Brandon. To the sort of anorak like us that comes on this type of forum it's a big deal but to the average fan it's about perception. It's a bit like the TR rule. A great many average fans still think an 8-1 is giving a team an extra 8 points and not an extra 3 points. Personally I think the a TR is far more unfair in many fans eyes than playing around with the scoring system . Ideally I would have preferred to see the scoring system left alone and the TR's abolished completely, but that's a discussion that's been done to death so let's not go there on this thread. No problem. I can explain the LBW rule as well if you like.

What do you mean they didn't know about it ? It was one of the first things announced in the post-AGM statement last November and here we are 6 weeks into the season and people reckon they still don't know about it. What do they expect? Headlines in The Sun ? Full details on the back of their cornflakes packet ? I despair about the fans base in this sport at times. 50 % of the complaints are from people who can't read/can't be bothered to read/wander round in a dream. I am surprised some of them can remember their way home after the meeting. Anyway it was George English that announced it . Jon Cook wasn't even on the MC at that stage. They also announced that there will now only be one TR which I suppose is taking a few people by surprise.

Many a true word id spoken in jest. In industrial situations, in the construction industry's hand signals are still used to this day especially where there is a noisy environment. I know I am speaking with hindsight but maybe some of the communication difficulties for example between the referee and officials could have been resolved if there was some basic visual system as a back up. Sounds silly I know but if hand signals are an approved safety system for manouvring heavy loads, reversing large vehicles and shunting trains they should be adequate to ensble to ref to tell track officials whether a rider is excluded. Just a thought.

It basically highlights the farce that basically good idea of the FTDR has degenerated into. Lewis Backbird for example has been graded into the fast track yet he is of such high calibre he was being wheeled out to replace the Heatleaders riding at No3 and No 5. Yet he wiil spend the whole season without being promoted to the 1-5 whatever his average. That is not what the FTDR was originally designed for. It's very difficult to see a case for riders like Blackbird, Newman and Garrity to not be going up into the top five. That is before we get on to the ridiculousness of the pick where, for example the team who should have had first pick finished up with fifth pick as I recall.

Do you have a link to confirm that or is it something you just dreamed up ?

Barry Thomas rode for a promoter who in that era was a very good track man and did the job himself. The bikes that Barry rode were not so sensitive to set ups and didn't have constant changes of silencer regs messing things up all the time. In short Barry Thomas rode in a what many consider to be a better Speedwáy era. But times change and we have to work with what we have today. It wasn't just Mikkel. Nobody could have tried harder than Rory last night and when a rider of that calibre can't make any impression after bend 2.something is very wrong. Whichever way you break it down, people are not going to pay 18p let alone £18 to see a meeting on a track like last nights week after week. Unless Jon Cook gets a grip the fans won't last the season.

Utterly diabolical track. Have to say well done to Wolves because the tr ack was the same for both sides and te am riding between Freddie and PK in heat 15 was comparable to anything the turbo twins produce but Lakeside management need to have an long think about all this. This seems to happen every year. We get a settled track prep that suits the team and produces decent racing then out of the blue a different track is produced. We have had some reasonable racing this year but tonight wasnt even gate and go it was gate and race over. When staunch long-time fans start complain inthe crowd and on the fans forum, saying they are finished with the sport if this carries on, the promotion need to notice. There were bad vibes from the start when Jon Cook couldn't be bothered to announce the riders on parade. Someone said he went home and if that's true it just about sums the evening up. A couple of years ago we had issues it the track being poor and breaking up and Jon Cook said in his programme notes that certain people were being relieved of their duties and he was going to assume responsibility. After that he got a grip and we started getting good tracks again . They have been reasonably good this year until tonight we suddenly get a dustbowl with no grip and no overtaking and holes appearing. It would be excusable if there was some unusual weather condition like a threat of rain or hot day but there were no problems of that nature. There is no excuse. You can't charge people £18 for tracks like that and expect them to keep coming. Words fail me to describe what a rubbish meeting it was. I can't remember the last time I saw such a poor meeting. One final point. Poole have had ongoing complaints from fans about poor tracks. Now Lakeside fans are complaining about a poor track. Both tracks have the same track curator. Maybe there should be team changes other than the riders.

Fair comment. Its not quite what the Star says but it makes no difference. If the SS version is correct then the worst that can be said is that other refs might have made different judgments but Lawrence was working within the latitude allowed under the rules so any criticism would at most be minor. If your facts are correct then he was a victim of the generally shambolic organisation. I don't doubt what you say, given the general background of organisational incompetence As far as Doyles exclusion is concerned I didn't have a problem with the exclusion itself, but the long delay in announcing the decision made it seem at the time that the referee was dithering and indecisive. However we now know the problem was that the exclusion lights weren't working nor was the referees telephone to the pits so again it was the shambolic organisation of the event. So I happy to say that based on what we now know my original criticism of Lawrence's decisions appears to have been ill-founded, and you have made some valid comments. Not what Steve Brandon said. But what would he know ? He was only in the pit lane talking to the riders.

Yes I was critical of Lawrence, and I also said that I was biased because I never thought much of him in the past, which inevitably colours ones judgment. Speedwáy Star did give a good explanation of events and the problems Lawrence had to deal with, even down to being paranoid that the red lights might fail if he needed them. The Star also gave an informative explanation of how he came to his decisions regarding the tapes and Doyles exclusion. However the Star did say in relation to the the tapes " Lawrence's view of this incident is open to interpretation" and in relation to Doyles exclusion "In such unusual circumstances, maybe riders should have been given a second chance". So in the light of what SS has said about the pressure he was under coupled with the comments half questioning his decisions I'd have to say I still don't think he was a paragon of virtue but not as bad as I thought before reading the SS article and I would now agree with you that in the grand scheme of things he was at worst only a minor player in the tragedy. We are in agreement about the track though, even more so since theSS has now outlined the problems from the start of practice and Olsen is clearly at the front of the firing line, but even then I wonder if their were others factors behind the scenes connected with the time available and maybe other things that have yet to come out. As I said before, I am intrigued by Paul Burbidges comments about lessons not being learned regarding excessive moisture in the temporary tracks at cold damp meetings. We shall have to see if the full truth ever comes out.

Well said. That is pretty much the point Anyone who does not agree with Oldace is, in his words "a moron" but then reality is that, as you say the track was not perfectly anything, at least that's what a lot of the "morons" think. The mere fact that even before the riders meeting it was said that after heat 12 there would be some extended track maintenance, is in itself evidence that the track was not perfectly adequate, otherwise they would not be doing it when the meeting was already running 2 hours late. The question of whether the extended track maintenance would have returned the track to a decent standard suitable for the occasion is something will shall now never know. However, Paul Burbidge makes an interesting point in SS when he said that there seems to be a common denominator in temporary tracks that don't come up to scratch, and that Is excessive moisture. If that was the case on Saturday it difficult to see how the track werecould have been significantly improved as the evening got colder. However that is just speculation. Speedwáy Star has just arrived and I have to say that I think t he article by Peter Oakes (presumably another"moron" on Oldace line of thought) is excellent. Peter Oakes in my view draws the right balance between bluntly saying what needs to be said without mincing his words but at the same time without going OTT as Oldace and a few others seem intent on doing. There were a few interesting quotes from riders in SS:- Chris Harris: Everyonewas in agreement that the track wasn't raceable and for safety reasons the right call was made. Everybody could see that the track wasn't great . We didn't want anyone seriously hurt. Matej Zagar: I even refused to practice. I knew the track wasn't ideal ......I did my best to take points from 3 heats. But rider safety comes first. I totally agree with this. We made a common decision. Everybody has there own opinion but common sense won. NKI . We ne ed to look at safety before anything else. It would have been the wrong decision to continue because people were falling off by them selves. When it's like that I tells you everything about the conditions. I think it was the right decision to call it off, but it's really disappointing Jason Doyle: The track was very dangerous for myself........the right decision was made in the end. Something went wrong with the track and it was like walking on cushions......It wasn't that we didn't want to ride, it was just how dangerous the track was. Nicki Pedersen : The surface was unstable. It was very inconsistent and just moved around all the time when they did the preparation and grading. I put the riders quotes out for what they are worth, to be put in the melting pot of opinion. What is not in dispute is that the track had been giving problems from the first practice session. Maybe in theory the track could have been improved after maintenance and maybe the combined hassle of the practice sessions, the starting gate, and Batch and Holders crashes were the last straw. I don't know. I tend to agree with Peter Oakes when he says that whether the full story of what went wrong will ever come out is hard to say at this juncture. What is clear though is that the bulk of the eveidence suggests that the track was less than "perfectly adequate" as Oldace would have as believe.