E I Addio

Quite.... ...and nothing to do with unemployment benefits either ! !

Poole said sometime ago that Davey would not be riding for them in 2014. My understanding is that the "no approach "agreement also extends to riders who rode for a particular team in 2013 as non assets, so if for example Cook wanted PK and Davey he had until 15th December to get a deal sorted before others could approach them. He has certainly had his share of problems in Poland, including not getting paid.

I totally agree and I know many others that do. The one thing that could be said in favour of the tac/sub in its day is that at least the fans got to see an on-form rider out in place of s struggling rider (usually) and the tac/ride doesn't even do that but times have changed , the world has moved on and its time to consign all the tacticals to history.

Has the rule of attacking the post not the poster been abolished, or is that another ban I see on the horizon ?

When did you ever get a different response from non-speedway fans in a pub ? Maybe in the late 40's early 50's but not in my lifetime. Mention football to non-football fans in a pub (e.g. me) and you get "22 overpaid prima donnas kicking a bag of wind about and behaving like kids" Mention cricket to non cricket fans and you get "Boring game" and so it goes on with non- fans of golf, boxing, stock-cars etc, The thing that's different about speedway is not the reaction of the non-fans its the number of so-called fans that can't wait to slag the sport off for imaginary reasons. Like the OP of this thread for example.

So, as expected its PK and Davey. In fairness it has been those two that have gone out and pulled our chestnuts out of the fire in heat 15 on numerous occasions when others had not done there job and wrapped the match up earlier. They are good blokes an essentially younger team but I can't help feeling the line-up lacks a bit of sparkle. The proof of the pudding is in the eating of course but it does look a bit like another season of always the bridesmaid never the bride unless Lewis pulls out something very special and ups his game quite lot. Pity Swiderski had to go . Super bloke.

Do you imagine that blown motors don't occur in NL or PL matches ? The other side of your argument is that if a motor is blown in a NL/PL match the extra income from the EL will be very handy in replacing it. Add to that the experience gained on set-ups, etc from riding in the EL is likely to have a beneficial knock-on effect in the points scored (and therefore money earned) in the lower leagues..

I think most of us feel like that. Nobody could fault Davey on the way he rode in 2012 and if we had more of the same most people would be well pleased. Davey had a number of problems last season and not getting paid in Poland didn't help. Like a lot of the Aussies he starts throwing his toys around sometimes if things are not working out but if you are building s team to include a 7+ rider I can't think of anyone of those available that would necessarily be any better. I also think the Poole thing is a bit over-rated when you look at the way he bothers with younger riders. You won't find many EL captains that bother half as much as Davey has done. Whether the whole team has been built with the right balance though, is a different matter. Big season needed from Lewis.

Never was on the side of promoting NL riders as such, but given the state of British speedway, if that is the price we have to pay for 36 league meetings a season a instead of 28 then we have to get behind the idea and run with it. Its the only show in town. At least I'll be there every meeting to see how it works out in practice before passing judgment, unlike the moaning minnies who tell us its doomed to fail before a wheel is turned. As for Jon Cook he has, unlike other promoters, at least bothered to go out and organise a fans forum for his club within a week after the AGM finishing to explain the new formats and answer anything else the fans wanted to ask.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhElCQLpCPo

I I creased up at that one. Poor old Sidney. Walks straight into them every time

... maybe they don't like the often unjustified criticism (and abuse) from people who proudly proclaim they haven't been for years, but will only post when they see the opportunity to put the boot in. Sometimes I don't know whether .to laugh or cry, there are so many genuine problems with the sport that are worthy of intelligent discussion yet so many posts are on the lines of "Whoa yeah gor blimey mate I fink the promoters are a bunch of idiots........" then go off on some incorrect tangent about some rule they think exists but doesn't or that Golden era when only Englishmen won the world final. The T/R ,Tac sub is classic example. SCB and Bwitcher have explained in the clearest possible terms, that even I can understand why the Tac Sub rule was even more unfair than the T/r rule but still we get people banging on about tac subs, and of course we get thread after thread like this one where mythical friends or blokes in the office are collapsing with laughter because of guest riders or something. That fact is that there are maybe a dozen or so posters that are really on the ball with different aspects of the sport and come up with some really constructive criticisms or realistic suggestions which make for interesting debate, whether you agree with them or not but many more only seem intent on chipping away at our favourite port with nonsense like this thread.

Let's try to concentrate on the topic under discussion.. The OP is not about ""speedway fans" and it is not about whether idiosyncrasies within the sport appear to be increasing. It is specifically about whether riders riding in different leagues reduce the sport to ridicule in the eyes of those on the outside. That is not a difficult concept for the average person to grasp. What fans within the sport think about other idiosyncrasies is irrelevant to this discussion.

Ah, so you don't know about the rule on bonus points then?

You are completely missing the point as usual.. Please read the title of the thread. The issue is not whether it is typical of the questions people new to speedway often raise. The issue is whether riders riding in different clubs in different leagues reduce the sport to ridicule. The overwhelming balance of opinion on the thread is that it does not. As has been pointed out, many sports have their own idiosyncrasies,

How precisely does it lose the sport credibility ? Are you not aware that a cricketer can play for his county in one league and club in another? What difference does it make if he does his job and entertains the crowd.? The other thing as John Leslie pointed out is the reality of this conversation with a "friend" who apparently knows about sport and has been to speedway meetings but until your "conversation " with him he apparently never questioned how come so many foreign riders were in the meeting in front of a crowd that obviously couldn't pay vast sums of money. And as a sports fan he wouldn't ever have watched it on Sky and got the gist of how it all works would he.? I have discussed the sport with a number of general sports fans and can honestly say the only thing they have found particularly odd is the T/R rule. None of them thought it odd that riders race for different teams in different countries.

I have on DVD an interview with Stuart Robson after a critical heat in a close match in which he said "I have absolutely no idea what the score is." The reason was he had been out 3 times in about 5 or 6 heats and checking the score was low on his list of priorities when he had probably no more than 7 or 8 minutes between races to get himself and his bike sorted and re-focussed on his next ride before going out again. If you had any idea at all what goes on in the pits you would know why the riders, more often than not, don't necessarily know what the team score is at a particular moment in a match.

Mid-afternoon , 3pm-ish apparently. Updates apparently being provided for the twitterati. The BBC World Service want it as headlines on the 6 o'clock news, unless Neasden F.C. sign a replacement goalie for the injured Wally Foot, in which case that will be the main story.

Having done a little research it seems we were both wrong and the award is for the sportsperson who has most captured the publics imagination.. Even that is a bit of a nebulous term but I would have thought that someone who wins any sort of World Championship with a twice broken collar bone must have an irrefutable case to be included, unless you throw in the fact that most of the public are unaware of who he is but that surely must apply also to Ainslie and a whole range of other sports. When the programme was first introduced in 1954 it was limited to those sports shown on BBC's Sportsview programme, so as Speedway is no longer featured on BBC that might have something to do with it.. I seem to recall that when Mark Loram won the World title he didn't even get a mention. Whichever way you look at it the inclusion of Ben Ainslie , and a few of the others without widening out to a wider range of voters choices reduces it to a stitch-up IMO.

Surely the point is that the competition is not who is most successful or which is the most arduous or dangerous sport . It is the Sports PERSONALITY of the year. I am not sure how personality is supposed to be measured but I can't think of many modern sportsman that have that quality in abundance, certainly not Ainslie or Murray. Its a ridiculous programme not far removed from the X--Factor in which mostly couch potatoes will vote for whichever sport they happen to like. Nothing to do with talent or ability. Typical of the dross the BBC specialise in.

Yes, it's being done to cut costs but the benefit, that everyone seems to be missing is that we now get 18 home league meetings per season instead of 14 and all teams meet each other twice instead of some teams twice and others once. The new league structure is not perfect but it is an improvement on what we had.

1. The general consensus of opinion on the forum seems to be that when a poster resorts to name calling it is because he has no other sensible argument to rely on.. If calling me a card is the best you can do you might as well stop digging. 2.So you don't believe the PL promoters were asked to join the party. Have you spoken to any of them ? If not what are the grounds of your belief (apart from figments of imagination)? 3. You have ignored my comments on pre-AGM announcements so I presume you were unaware of them when lurching into your tirade. 4. I have not attempted to justify anything, In fact I do have certain reservations. I have merely pointed out certain facts which undermine your claim that it was all cobbled together on the spur of the moment, and it y really is a pity that some people don't check some facts first so that they can offer constructive criticism in a mature debate instead of a tirade based on supposition. 5.Thank you and goodnight Agreed, but their are now some young kids at the Hagon Shocks Academy that had never ev en sat on a speedway bike until a few months ago but under tuition of Rob Mear some are showing real progress. This is something that should have been done years ago but wasn't, but better late than never. It means giving more kids a chance to start young.

Totally incorrect. What did Jon Cook say about it as long ago as last July? It was reported on this forum for those who bothered to read it (although it appears you couldn't be bothered). What did Jon Cook say in his pre-AGM statement ? Something else it seems you couldn't be bothered to read before lurching into your rant, if you had read it you would know the primary reason for restructuring the league. It was clearly not something thought up on the spur of the moment as you consistently claim. Nobody has said in any official press release that the primary reason for restructuring is to help young Brits. Having said that, if you had any idea what is going on at the Hagon Shocks Academy(something of which you clearly have no knowledge at all), it would be pretty obvious that something like this was the next logical step, although it has arrived sooner rather than later. It is a great pity that the PL promoters were not able to involve themselves in this scheme at this stage , although for perfectly understandable reasons explained by Jon Cook at the fans forum last week (which you obviously couldn't be bothered to attend ). I am not offering an opinion , merely suggesting you stick to facts . By quoting something that wasn't said you are putting the debate on the wrong course.

No Sidney, that's not what Cook said at all. The reading lessons are not coming along very well are they ? Go and check what Cook actually said, instead of what you imagined he said..

Well, lets put it this way; Lewis, Lawson and Bech come to 16.15.If you were to add PK and Dave Watt it would give a total of 31.66.