arthur cross

If someone subsequently admits he might be 2 out of the 3 dictionary definitions of the word I used earlier to describe his economic thinking, I reckon my description was rather accurate !!

Thank you for your reply and in response to it ... 1. By admitting you forgot about the extra costs associated with running your 11 extra meetings, you've totally justified my assessment of your economic thinking as "boneheaded" because that's a rather huge aspect to forget !! 2. Correct, you can't argue against the basic laws of supply and demand ... but based on what I was taught within economics at O-level, A-level and for half of my university degree, it's a pity you haven't a clue what you're talking about ... in reality, those basic laws of supply and demand have to be set alongside the figurework of profit and loss so that you can work out the best economic way forward. You can bring in as much revenue as you like from different varieties of your admission prices and the number of meetings you're running ... but if the costs of staging all those different mixes of supply and demand keep leaving you with a loss rather than a profit, there's not much point trying any of them !! 3. Correct, the guideline/rule on this forum (and most others) are "attack the post, not the poster" ... I have nothing personal against you whatsoever but I do feel that guideline/rule covers the way I've commented about what you wrote a couple of days ago (especially in view of your subsequent admission about simply forgetting the extra costs). Clearly what I'd regard as a helpful and intelligent response to your original post, you regard as "aggressive" ... I'd argue that far too often, far too many people on this forum whinge that they're being "abused" when all they're actually doing is struggling to cope with others being prepared to stand up for a different view to their own.

Are you for real with boneheaded economic thinking like that ? !! Yes, you've come up with a way you think would increase total revenue by 47% but you seem to have conveniently ignored whether going down your route might increase your costs as well. in fact, you've committed yourself to raising your on-the-day costs by 79% (the leap from 14 meetings to 25 meetings) - that's certainly the case for booking your medical cover, paying the referee's match-fee, each meeting's insurance and your track-prep team ... it'll also be the case for renting your stadium unless you're in the minority that already own their own venue (or the very few who pay a lump sum of annual rent to the stadium owner). On top of that, by committing yourself at the start of the year to 25 meetings instead of 14, you're leaving yourself much less room to squeeze in the re-staging of any rained-off meetings without having to use some off-nights that won't suit your die-hards (never mind the more occasional supporters) ... alternatively, later in the season you'll probably end up running a re-staged meeting just to get it out of the way in damper conditions than those under which it was called off in the first place back in the spring so that's another way you won't even get all the fans you think are die-hards attending (never mind those more occasional supporters). Overall (in any line of business, not just speedway), if I told you I might increase your total revenue by 47% providing the weather stays lovely but you've got to find 79% more on-the-day costs and it'll all go belly-up once you've had 3 or more wet days dumped on you by the fickle British climate, would you: A - still plunge ahead with staging 25 meetings instead of 14 ? B - be far more realistic about what you've regarded as a triumphant 47% increase in revenue ? Come on then folks ... who's answering A ... and who's answering B ?

Very easy explanation of why the track record was broken despite last night's awful track conditions. A surface like that gives you more grip than usual (and therefore more speed) but with the risk that you won't be able to control a good chunk of that extra grip/speed because it's so unpredictable ... anyone who managed four laps without any scary moments on the way was going to post a quick time. The infamous 2004 PLRC at Sheffield on Sky was an even better example of what I've just explained than last night's action ... lengthy protests by the riders meant the coverage over-ran by 40 minutes but the race times were some of the quickest all season ... it all ended up with Andre Compton and Simon Stead both riding like maniacs against each other in the final leading to their pile-up on the 3rd bend of the final lap about which Sheffield and Workington fans will never agree (Mark Lemon was the first past the chequered flag but Compton was awarded the title several minutes later with priority being given to the medical checks for both Compton and the excluded Stead before the verdict was announced).

Even by your usual pompous standards, that's a ridiculously patronising and contemptuous response to well-founded criticism and frustration about what's been happening since yesterday lunchtime, Of course, unlike many of those 38,760 in attendance tonight, you didn't have to save up for several months (maybe even the whole year) to cover all the costs of a Grand Prix trip to Cardiff only to spend much of today wondering whether you were going to watch a meeting to match the occasion or something more akin to a demolition derby. As it turned out, it wasn't too bad for most of the way but anyone connected with the sport should be very thankful no-one was seriously hurt in either the semis or the final rather than patting themselves on the back that the winner won't be complaining about the track. On a personal note, I didn't go to the first-ever Cardiff GP in 2001 but I've been to all the others until missing out this year and having watched Eurosport this evening, I'm very glad to have saved my diesel/ticket/social money on this occasion.

He was never included in any Sheffield line-up because they couldn't get a work permit for him for the 2010 season under the name Tyson Barber. But then in 2011, the same rider did get a work permit for Rye House, appearing in their line-up as Tyson Nelson, so he was riding for Rye House in that meeting I mentioned at Sheffield on 28-July-2011 I'm sure Rye House wrote "number-7 Tyson Nelson" when they confirmed their team to Sheffield a few days before that meeting (maybe just "Nelson" because they'd started using that single name for him in their home programmes). But Sheffield wanted their fans to know it was the same rider they weren't able to sign the previous year so they told the racecard printer that Rye House's number-7 was Tyson Barber. There have been loads of examples in plenty of different sports where a player is registered with one name but is better known by the fans and media with a nickname or different name - any football teams using a Latin American player with a one-word name have to write his full name on the teamsheet they hand into the match officials because that full name is the one registered with the FA or UEFA. In speedway (and other motor sport), it's happened a few times that riders have used only part of their name (especially in the early stages of their career) because they haven't wanted their family to know they're doing something so dangerous. I don't know the full story about Tyson Barber/Nelson but (as others have said already in this thread) not much seems to be normal about him !!

A quick check through the historical part of the updates site confirmed that he was listed in the Owlerton racecard as Tyson Barber when Rye House were walloped 64-27 in a Premier League meeting on 28-July-2011. Barber/Nelson scored 2 points at number-7 but had plenty of company among the lower scorers as Jordan Frampton's tactically-aided score on its own beat the rest of the Rockets 14-13 !!

Among all the various angles that can be blamed for Rye's line-up on Saturday, I don't think anyone's pointed out yet that Sheffield were the last team Rye wanted to be facing amid a dispute over Tyson Nelson's eligibility. That's because Sheffield couldn't successfully obtain the right visa for him when they wanted to include him for the season before he made his Rye debut. In fact, Sheffield even listed him in the Owlerton racecard with the surname they'd used for his visa application when he rode there for the first time in Rye's team !! So there was virtually no chance of Sheffield acting in any "best interest of speedway" when Saturday's situation cropped up.

Highly unlikely that the speedway would move into Tuesdays or Fridays at Owlerton because both those nights every week of the year are currently part of Sheffield's BAGS betting shop greyhound contract that runs until the end of 2015 (all the BAGS dog tracks across the country are on a 5-year deal that's only just coming to the end of year-2).

Doesn't look like your dad's solicitors are much good if they've told him the comments are slanderous as that's only the case if he's been told them face-to-face - the moment any comments are quoted or broadcast in any papers, social media, radio or tv it becomes a matter of libel instead of slander because those comments can now be seen/heard by anyone not around any original face-to-face incident.

As usual, a great and comprehensive preview of Scunthorpe's home action. In case Workington do shut down & their results are scrapped, Scunthorpe would lose only 3 league points whereas Newcastle & Somerset would each lose 4 league points (they all enjoyed a wide-enough home win over the Comets but only the Diamonds & the Rebels nicked an away point from Derwent Park). Hence, if Worky shut, Newcastle would then need to win at Plymouth (instead of just drawing) to guarantee finishing ahead of the Scorpions.

Final day for Premier League meetings to count towards the play-offs was originally Sunday 16th September with a view to having a quiet week (or any cup meetings) leading up to the PL Riders Championship at Sheffield the following Sunday and then starting the play-offs in the last week of September. It was agreed at the BSPA's mid-July management committee to extend the cut-off date to include Saturday 22nd September thus giving most clubs an extra week to fit in their home fixtures. At that time, the two Stnday tracks, Glasgow & Newcastle, didn't mind missing out on the extension due to the PLRC as they hadn't been as rain-affected as everyone else and although the weather's hit them lately (Newcastle had only one meeting & 3 washouts in August), they're both still ok to fit their home dates in. The big problem is that everyone's scramble to squeeze in their league fixtures means none of the League Cup or Knockout Cup semis have been raced yet and with only 5 teams filling the 8 spaces left in those competitions (Somerset v Newcastle, Workington v Ipswich in the League Cup & Newc-Workgtn, Ipsw-Edinburgh in KO Cup) any rain-offs in those semis are going to be tough to reschedule.

Blame it entirely on Sky going overboard for the next few weeks on any match Andy Murray plays because their only Grand Slam coverage is the US Open in early September so they're desperate to follow all his build-up contests (BBC & Eurosport share the rights for Aussie/French Opens & BBC produce all of Wimbledon) ... it's their best chance commercially to persuade tennis fans to sign up for Sky despite their sport not having too much coverage for the rest of the year. So once Murray got through to today's semi-finals, he was guaranteed a live slot even if that meant trampling over something else. Given the majority of Sky Sports subscribers are drawn in by football, the "Football First" highlights for the opening day of the Premier League were bound to survive ... the final of cricket's Twenty20 county event would be safe as well as it's only five days before Sky shows the Ashes decider. So that would have left the 3rd round (of 4) in the USPGA golf or the Scandinavian GP at risk of being bumped by Murray's semi ... might not be much in it regarding viewing figures but probably a lot more in-running betting turnover on the golf than the speedway (and Sky's betting partners would definitely have been considered in this decision) ... and both events dominated by a leader who's way clear (Tiger Woods four shots in front in the golf, Jason Crump way ahead in the GP standings). Harsh though it may sound for us speedway fans, it's an absolute no-brainer for a sports executive about whether you lean towards Woods and his golf chums or Crump and his speedway rivals ... trying to explain why Crump should stay at Woods's expense would be impossible in that decision making, especially after speedway was given a big favour only four weeks ago by Sky ripping up their Sunday lunchtime schedule to cope with the rain-ravaged World Cup final.

Almost certainly Chris Holder would have been booked into one of today's flights several weeks ago when planning for the ideal schedule of World Cup Final (Saturday), Polish ExtraLeague (Sunday) & Lakeside-Poole (Monday) ... equally almost certainly, the problem for Charlie/Kelvin etc. was their flight plans yesterday would have been ripped up by the re-staging at Leszno leaving them with far fewer options (as it turned out, none at all) for switching to a flight today.

Yes, there were plenty of times during today's coverage when Charlie was struggling along ... however, instead of slagging her off too much, shouldn't there be a lot more criticism on this thread about Sky's decision in the first place to have her hosting both the run-off and the final ? Whatever her previous work on football or motor racing, it looked a huge gamble to promote her to host these meetings as soon as Thursday's coverage started ... it's a massive step up from being the pits interviewer to holding a whole 3-hour show together even if the 25 races fit smoothly into those 3 hours. Throw in either last night's long-drawn-out decision over the washout or today's big delay during Heat 20 and it's a virtually impossible step up. Either Keith Huewen or Georgie Thompson (who's hosted this World Cup Thursday/Saturday sequence at least a couple of times previously) are far more experienced at waffling around waiting for things to happen ... Keith's dealt with plenty of crash/weather delays in all his various motor sport hosting and Georgie hosts Sky Sports News for 4 or 5 hours per shift several times a week. They're both used to thinking what they're going to be chatting about in a couple of minutes' time while actually chatting along with the current moment ... it's something most viewers won't even realise is going on when this "thinking ahead" is done well but it shows up in a hurry when it's not being done. Best way Charlie can build on today's extended coverage is to be proud of surviving it because she won't face many toiugher tasks than hosting a meeting that lasted around 6 hours over the two days instead of its scheduled 3 hours.

While adding my congratulations to Nigel Pearson & his family, I wonder if this morning's coverage has accidentally seen the end of Tony Millard doing any more speedway commentaries on Sky, certainly beyond any work he might have been guaranteed already this season. It's not easy to switch from being the expert co-commentator to become the lead commentator ... in that respect, Kelvin Tatum switched roles outstandingly today and the way he called Heat 25 along with the Polish celebrations straight afterwards will sound really solid in any end-of-season highlights. Millard's never (to my knowledge) hosted any speedway coverage in front of the camera ... Tatum's already proved he's comfortable in front of the camera and now it's clear his commentating is also good enough to justify him doing the whole of Pearson's usual role on a Monday night if another emergency crops up. Chris Louis's never going to be the most controversial pundit and I used to find him boring as the expert on Elite League meetings ... but he's struck an excellent balance as an ex-rider doing interviews who can also explain what's going on to a more general audience and he stepped up even further today by coping superbly with the double role of co-commentator & trackside reporter after the deluge. Millard's only been doing some of the Saturday GP-commentaries if Pearson's been busy with his Talksport football or Sky darts ... but from now on, I'd much prefer Tatum as lead commentator if Pearson's unavailable. I'll comment more on Charlie Webster on the thread specifically referring to her ... suffice to say here that it's very harsh to judge her and Scott Nicholls (only an occasional pundit in the past) badly when they were trying to fill so much spare time given their collective inexperience ... I hope she adopts the attitude of "if I can survive that, I can survive anything" and use today's coverage to give her more confidence for the rest of the season instead of dwelling badly on any of the tougher moments.

The single reason why the Danish GP is a week earlier in next year's calendar (Sat-5-June-2010) is to avoid clashing with TV-coverage of any of the games in next summer's football World Cup ... there can be 3-week as well as 2-week gaps between each Grand Prix so the knock-on effect of the Danish decision leaves either Sat-19 or Sat-26-June-2010 as options for Cardiff. The South Africans & FIFA have already released the fixture framework for the World Cup ... they start the group games on Fri-11-June and the Danish switch avoids a triple-header of football at 12.30pm, 3pm & 7.30pm our time on Sat-12-June. There's the same triple-header of kick-offs on Sat-19-June (middle batch of group games) ... alternatively, Sat-26-June involves the opening two games of the last-16, kicking-off at 3pm & 7.30pm our time.

If Manuel Almunia's soon going to have lived here long enough as Arsenal's goalkeeper to qualify for England instead of Spain, how much longer do some of our Elite League foreigners have to stay here to qualify for a British wildcard from IMG if there aren't enough Danish, Swedish or Polish wildcards to go round ?

I'm not sure of the exact reason but the BSPA have definitely broken away from their agreement with BSI in previous seasons that led to every club being sent Cardiff tickets ... mind you, those tickets that were sent to the clubs often proved to be 3rd/4th bend seats that were quite a bit more expensive than making your own bookings for the 1st/2nd bend seats.

Surely any speculation Down Under about a Feb-2008 GP in Melbourne swiftly followed by an American GP before a March GP in Cardiff doesn't add up to BSI's ambitions for Cardiff to be the 100th all-time GP ? !! It's 89 GP's at the end of this year ... and presumably 10 again next year to set-up the 100th at Cardiff to kick-off 2008. So where do Melbourne and the Yanks fit-in ? ... 99-A and 99-B on the all-time list so that Cardiff still gets regarded as the 100th

For whatever reasons affect when the Easter weekend falls, it's going to happen in 2008 at the earliest ever date I can remember with Easter Sunday being on March 23rd ... perhaps BSI have their eye on turning the 100th GP into an Easter festival. At least that would give Newport the chance to start earlier on Good Friday for their "eve-of-GP" meeting because otherwise on a working-Friday in March, they'd have to start at either 4pm or 5pm (depending on whether the clocks had already gone forward) due to their lack of floodlights. But overall, I'd reckon it was a big gamble by BSI to ditch their regular 40,000 turnout in June in favour of an earlier date that won't be so attractive in terms of weather.

Tonight's draw (racejacket numbers shown) 16-Lindgren 10-Lindback 14-Protasiewicz 3-Adams 11-Hampel 4-N'Pedersen 1-Rickardsson 5-Hancock 9-Nicholls 2-Crump 8-B'Pedersen 7-Gollob 12-Richardson 13-Zagar 15-Iversen 8-Jonsson (reserves 17-J'Davidsson & 18-E'Andersson) Heat lineup (shown in order of red-blue-white-yellow) 1 FL AL PP LA 2 JH TR NP GH 3 JC BP SN TG 4 NKI MZ AJ LR 5 LR FL JH SN 6 MZ JC AL NP 7 BP NKI TR PP 8 LA GH TG AJ 9 NP AJ FL BP 10 TG JH NKI AL 11 GH SN PP MZ 12 LR LA JC TR 13 TR TG MZ FL 14 AL LR GH BP 15 AJ PP JC JH 16 SN NP LA NKI 17 FL GH NKI JC 18 SN AL TR AJ 19 PP TG LR NP 20 JH MZ BP LA

It won't just be supporters who'll be gutted about Marcin's decision ... various managers, promoters and journalists have relied on it over the years, not just for checking results but especially for the calendar of future events enabling them to work out when one of their riders could be busy with a later round of a European or World event. Of course, Marcin is entitled to make this decision but it's a shame that he doesn't seem to have advertised if anyone would be interested in either taking over his site or at least developing a worthwhile successor site. Above all, thank you Marcin for the many times I've been able to find out what I wanted to know so easily.

And thank you to jay for pointing out to Mr Shovlar the benefits of treating the British GP as an overnight trip. Actually, if our group lived as close to Cardiff as Steve does, we'd make a single day of it and wouldn't mind getting home between midnight and 2am. It's very useful that the motorway/dual carriageway takes you within 3 miles of the city centre ... only problem for us is that we have to use over 300 miles each way of that motorway/dual carriageway to get within sight of Cardiff. We've only one driver so a routine away meeting at Newport is possible "there and back" in one day (set off 9am, back home 11pm) ... but doing justice to the whole Cardiff experience would mean setting off around 7am and getting home at 4am with matchsticks propping up the driver's eyes. So now you know why we treat it as a proper weekend away

I wonder if full-throttle (or anyone else) noticed what Henka Gustafsson said when he was interviewed about Saturday's GP while riding for Oxford on Sky last night. Henka was the expert commentator for Swedish TV at Cardiff and pointed out that the GP picked up from heat 11 onwards. So that makes three of us who saw the same thing on Saturday