Bobbin' Along

I started watching speedway at about the time that Ivan decided to only ride in home meetings for his club. I never got to see him race round Swindon, which would have been epic. Being as he's now getting on a bit, I was suprised that he wasn't already "retired from public life", but good luck to him, and I hope he has a long and happy retirement.

The GP is on SATURDAY, the league match is on WEDNESDAY. Do try to keep up.

Ta muchly DW. The Bobbin's will be watching and filling in your race card tomorrow....

He was also the same bloke that was the Reading Mascot back in the 80's. He was known as The Prat in The Parrot Suit then, but will henceforth be known in the Bobbin' household as The Berk in The Box...

Been out/away most of the weekend. Have now watched the GP. I haven't read the rest of the comments, but I was suprised at the quality of the racing. Haven't seen passing like that at a GP for bloomin' years. It's almost as if Tony Olsson let the Lezno track guys do their thing rather than making it as bald as the proverbial. Whatever next? Can't wait to see what the preparation will be like for the first one-off track. It will beinteresting if Olsson can make it better than Olsen.....

Or just call it "Gollob's Retirement Fund"

I quite agree with your sentiments. However, he is still on remand which I believe means that he has not yet come up for trial and therefore has not been proven guilty. If he is, then I'd want him strung up by his danglies, like I would any person found guilty of the same charges. And TBH the 2-facedness of the forum is what makes it...um...interesting!

For the second year running, the Bobbin' family are going to none at all.

I thought that Pedersen was lucky to get away with it tonight. Having said that, no matter what you feel has been done to you, to leave your bike on the track with the other 3 riders still racing at speed was at least stupid and at worst homicidal.

I nearly suffered from SCB's problem then, I was laughing so much. There is no way that the authorities will stoop to recognise any rider when he retires from GP racing. They hardly even acknowledged it when Tony Rickardsson retired - and he was arguably the best world champion of modern times. They may just mention it when Greg Hancock finally retires at the age of 987, but I won't be holding my breath. I am sad that Leigh has decided to call it a day, but not suprised. His GP form this season has been woefully poor by his high standards. I'll still cheer him on tonight though - I'll have to find a new hero next year!

Oh boy - I love that old chestnut. I've been waiting for it to arrive.... I can say what I want, when I want on this forum - within reason and the rules, of course. 'Tis my opinion and I have a right to it - just as it's you're right to be insistent that I can't criticise anyone on a bike because I haven't actually sat on one and ridden it in anger. I agree with most of this. We live in a fabulous country where we can choose who to support. And we have the freedom of speech. I chose therefore not to support a British rider. And equally, Stouffer can choose toblindly support a British rider. just because he's British. Isn't it wonderful?

I'd love to see either Richardson. Woffinden or Kennett as a Wild Card next year. IMHO neither Bomber nor Nicholls deserve a place. Nicholls has been seeded in for long enough and I don't recall that he has ever made it into the top 8 proper at the end of the season. Granted, when Richardson was in the GPs last time, he was pretty poor but his form this year has been outstanding - I think he'd be worth a try. He damn sure can't be any worse. Congratulations to Noddy, Zorro and Hampel. I think Zorro may have flashes of brilliance next year, but I don't think he'll set the world alight. Now Noddy - he's a different matter....

I have a challenge for you then. I may be defeatest - but I challenge youto find a working alternative that doesn't mean losing even more clubs from an already far too small EL. One that we can put into place and that guarantees the result we all want and that ALL clubs, regardless of league, can agree to. Then, come back and tell us all about it and - here's the important bit - put it into practice. I won't hold my breath though because I get the impression you will be a long time finding such an alternative. And this will be my final word to you on this matter.

Me too, and I have mourned the death of weekend speedway. And moved on because there was no other choice. The issue lies not with the GPs but the lack of EL teams. 9 teams is not enough to run a league that lasts wants to run past the middle of August. And this has been proven again and again. Personally, I loved it when we were in the PL because we saw different teams week in and week out rather than seeing Coventry, Peterborough, Wolves etc. 4 times in a season. See above - 9 teams in a league has brought about the gaps, not the advent of the GPs. The GPs have been going on for about 14 years now, if memory serves. And when they started the top flight was a lot bigger and we didn't have the issues we have now. TBF we also didn't have riders demanding such exorbitant amounts of money to ride - and promotions not paying their riders was something we never heard about. Oh please. Now you're just being silly. And patronising. See point above. It seems obvious to me that you have put your own slant on what I wrote. To clarify: We can go on moaning about the GPs for the next 200 years. We can moan about the lack of teams, lack of meetings, GP riders, or lack of them. And we can keep on moaning about them ad nauseum. But at the end of the day, we - the paying public - have absolutely no say in what happens. It's not down to us. We have to accept that the powers that be will continue to push a tired GP formula on an increasing disinterested public, and that we will not significantly increase the amounts of teams that compete which would breathe new life into an ailing league (or even leagues), fantastic though it is to see new teams coming forward. I am saying that we should be realists - "people power" does not, at the moment, rule in Speedway. It is run by a significant few, with their own agendas and ideas. Anyone trying to influence this significant few is, quite bluntly, pushing water up a hill. If the supporters had a representative with a say, then it might be a different matter.

Which is what we've all been saying for the past three or four years. With any luck, with Olsen retiring (huzzah!) at the end of this season, Tony Olsson - or whoever his replacement will be - might even start to utilise the knowledge of the local track curators who, let's face it, know all about their track, vagaries in local weather/humidity etc.

While the powers that be keep the GP system in place - and they will, make no mistake about it - Saturday speedway will not be viable. And whilst so many tracks are owned by the GRA, or have local authorities that won't give planning permission or have ridiculous curfews/noise restrictions, it won't be an option for many clubs either. Whether or not you have GP riders in your team is neither here or there as the current system will not materially change, at least not in the very near future, and we all have to accept it. Defeatist? Maybe. Realist? Definitely. Perhaps as an EL fan I have to be, it may be different for those that support the other leagues. Nicholls didn't get a semi final spot ahead of just Bjerre. There were 3 riders on 7 points don't forget. The farce came about on the count back - Bjerre had more last places, and so was ruled out, but Zagar and Nicholls had identical scores. In a true count back, the rider who had the highest placing in their one race together would have got the nod. That was Zagar as he finished ahead of Nicholls in the last heat. The fact that Nicholls was only given the semi final place because of how low his race jacket number was just shows how idiotic the "rules" (if you can call them that) are. A run-off for the final place would have been much fairer - and you never know, Nicholls might have even got in the semi final on merit.

A lovely sentiment. But it will never happen, not now. We have had more than 10 years of GPs, and we will never go back to the one-off meetings. Saturday night speedway is also a thing of the past. At Swindon we have had to get used to Thursdays because the GRA who own the stadium want that night for the dogs -which has happened at nearly all the GRA owned stadia. It's sad, it's annoying, but it's a fact of life and the sooner we all get used to it, the better.

And at the risk of earning the wrath of all you men out there -I thought blue looked like a fella. I thought it mightily unfair that Nicholls was given the nod over Zagar tonight. The rules being quoted were that it goes down to the race jacket number - the lower number gets the place. If this is indeed the case, then it's really not fair on any wild card because they will always have the number 16 race jacket. I was convinced that Zagar had got the semi-final spot because when you ran through both their races, they had exactly the same wins, seconds, and lasts - but Zagar beat Nicholls in their heat. Apart from that it was pretty so-so. How Hancock managed to not knock off Bjerre is beyond me, and I gave Gollob 5.9 for artistic value for his rolling over after his crash. I couldn't believe that Pedersen blamed just about everyone except for race director and himself for his accident. The man's a fool.

Repeata is on 7-10 tomorrow morning - SKY sports 3 from memory. Sky menus still showing spanish football on Xtra 7-10 tonight. Hope Grachan's right....

You've given me the best laugh ever! It's the last four words that gave me the giggles and I'm very nearly crying here! Edited to add I'm a woman on the "better" side of 21, who really should know better... Red button costs nada, zip, zilch.

It's not the first time Sky have done this - I seem to remember missing a GP some years ago because we were taping it while we were on holiday and weren't aware that it had change to the red button. Also, they have swapped to Sports Xtra mid-meeting before now. Unfortunately, much as we can winge and gripe that they are cutting a live event, it remains that Sky don't value speedway supporters as much as tennis or football supporters. It may have been a different matter if we had a recognisable and successful British rider (the speedway equivalent of Andy Murray, if you will), but who knows?

Ah, some sense at last.

And what I love about this forum is that we have the right to say (within reason, and the forum rules) what ever the hell we like and voice our opinions. And if I want to moan about Moley, or the track, or Sky, or Nicholls or anything else speedway related - and sometimes non-speedway related - then I will do so. You continue enjoying your speedway from the Phillipines. And if you don't like what some of us say - block us. You'll soon find you're talking to your self all the time.

That's a wee bit unfair LS. I had never heard of him either - probably because I concentrate on EL and not the other leagues.