The Pedaler

Fit for nothing but a good crop of rhubarb!

What time does the referee assume control of the meeting (therefore becoming the arbiter of the decision to cancel the meeting)? Is it 2 hours before tapes up? i.e. 5.30pm? Oh well, at least it provides a bit more time for the wounds inflicted by the Wolves to heal...and for the team only to get hammered 3 times in the week instead of 4. Avoiding a home defeat in the first week of the season might be a saving grace, as 4 defeats including one at home before everyone else has even started would be a killer blow to home attendances. So, until the next time then, when everyone will be moaning about program inserts...

Big home win.

Based on what evidence? No, only one meeting as a team, away at Wolverhampton, and it was a disaster. The only point in hyping up the Brummies is so that BV fans can gloat all the more when they get their big win. The Brummies have no-one to match Zagar or Cook, let alone Scott Nicholls. Ritchie Worrall did well in a high calibre field at Poole, which is a track not dissimilar to Perry Barr, so he should do well too. The Aces have all the trump cards. I think that if the weather holds out, the Brummies are in for another embarrassing hammering.

If "Birmingham 2014" are the new "Mildenhall 2008" and are in for regular tonkings, then maybe there'll be an increase in the number of NL riders from 2 going up to 7 by next season?

Well, thanks for that. Just what we needed to know. I don't think that on the basis of that I need waste any money this Wednesday then. Nor, by the lack of a thread on the matter, does it look like any other Brummies fans are interested in the Belle Vue fixture either.

From the camera angle, it looks like Clean Cut Sports are the ones providing the audio (Dave Goddard) and the video feed to Bet365, so why not? One minute everyone moans and groans about how Pearson, Tatum and co witter on and on...the next you get a lack of Pearson, Tatum and co wittering on and on...and people still aren't happy. Here's the news...it's no less noisy than the Speedway Updates site, and no-one moans about that. There's no pleasing some.

Assuming that it's on, a huge win for the Bees Assuming that it's off, without any more rain falling between now and then, meaning that the track is still a disgrace, and knowing how long Coventry have had to rectify the problems of the last few days, there's a case to be made for a forfeiture of league points and a 28-day ban for the Bees, as Horton has already effectively stated his intention to withdraw the services of his Coventry teams if the track isn't sorted out. In the mean time however, more rain will come to the rescue, and a "genuine" rain off will be the most likely outcome on Friday.

Well...he was certainly ensuring that all was well at the Belle Vue v Poole meeting last year.

Was it the Polish bloke who (to a load of Rye House self-congratulation) went to Len Silver for advice on track preparation? http://ryehouserockets.co/news.php?extend.727.1

Horton is a member of the BSPA. So what Horton knows, the BSPA know. Did anyone know that the Stadium Staff don't know a blade from a tyre packer? Who knows? Are the track staff employed by and paid by Sandhu and is this Sandhu's way of getting revenge on the BSPA? Who knows, but it's a bloomin' good conspiracy theory.

Maybe they will find that there was some faulty plumbing responsible for the excess water on the track...oops, no, wrong investigation. Seriously though, this should be interesting. What can they do? If as Horton has said, "it wasn't me guv, it was the big bad Brandon track staff" - what can the BSPA do? They have no contractual relationship with the Brandon Boys. They can try to pin the blame on Horton, and he'll only sulk even more than he is already sulking. Bearing in mind that this is a Co-Promoted event WITH THE BSPA, just how much blame will the BSPA's investigation shovel onto itself? Get the buckets of lime and water ready, We're in for a Whitewash here.

Horton sounded very resigned in the statement he's just published.

I wonder if this attempt by the BSPA to hijack Havvy's big night was't at the back of the riders minds when deciding just how dangerous the track was? Wouldn't surprise me if getting one over on the organisation that was so contemptuous of one or the "Riders Union" could have made the track "a little more dangerous than it otherwise might have been" in the eyes of the other "Riders Union" members...just supposin' like.

Far be it for me to defend DiddleMitch, but wasn't he "re-tweeting" something that Boring Pedersen had said in the first place?

Maybe all the internet activity was causing the BSPA Twitter server to run too slowly?

I wish the "like" button could be pressed more than once! Ditto

So my "ageism" is a bad thing but your racism is a good thing is it?...get a grip will you? Wondering if this is Alf Garnett writing? He was a West Ham Boy wasn't he? Look at where young people go in their leisure time. Given a choice, do they go where old people go? Do they go to the Wheeltappers and Shunters Workinig Mens Clubs any more with their fathers and their fathers fathers? Do they go to the local Derby and Joan clubs? Or do they go to where ALL the other young people go...because that's where they are with their mates and the young totty that they can try to "pull"? You make the terraces of the speedway stadium look like the Old People's Home's day out, and you will put youngsters off wanting to be there. It just won't be a "cool" place for them to "hang out". There's no point in looking up your own backside for the answers... if you want a new generation of fans you have to go out and ask THEM what THEY want, and to tailor the show accordingly. Else they won't come, you and I will die out and the support for the sport will die out with us. If that means the sport changes into something that old people won't like, then, that's what's called evolution, You are left with the choice then of evolution or extinction. Take your pick.

At the Monster SWC meetings, they had DJ's spinning their stuff dotted around the tracks in place of the traditional tannoy-broadcast music. Maybe something similar then, with "name DJ's" from the local nightclubs, who can maybe even draw some of their fans into the speedway stadiums with them? Bye! Exactly. Barry Hearne isn't afraid to crack some eggs in order to make an omelette. Can't keep pandering to Dads Army else there won't be any fans left once they all die out.

Hasn't Barry Hearne (the darling of many here on BSF) turned Professional Darts into a circus? Hasn't WWF turned Wrestling into a circus? And yet, these events pull in the crowds despite being far more expensive to attend. Maybe there's a lesson in there somewhere. Good ideas Might as well close some tracks down straight away then. Birmingham has air horns specifically forbidden in the Planning Permission. Take a good look around you. Don't you think that the average speedway fan in Great Britain is a good 20-years past all that kind of thing? CD's of what exactly? Rap Crap and Hip Hop? Heavy Metal? Reggae? Bangra? Every genre of music will have its fans and it's haters of other genres. You are NEVER going to please everyone, least of all the majority of speedway fans who want nothing more than a medley of Glenn Miller and the odd dash of Andy Williams and Val Doonigan.

One wonders what will happen at Zielona Gora IF / when Poole accept their invitation to the Speedway Champions League fixture.

Another clanger dropped by SkySports then? Great start they are having to the new season. http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=pl&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sportowefakty.pl%2Fzuzel%2F425209%2Fnie-bedzie-transmisji-z-meczu-falubazu-w-kings-lynn

AJ has Sinusitis? Did the dog eat his homework as well? #justsaying

The perfect qualification for the new Delete League then.

Are we having moanies? Is teddy bouncing off all the walls? Oh dear! Surely not about NOT getting something cheap or free? And it certainly can't be a moan about the BSPA...No, can't be...must read through all this again...