Grachan

Actually 15.3.4 makes no sense at all. "Riders must be either “ready to race” or provided the Rider is in the correct Gate Position and is “under the control of the Start Marshal” within the permitted Time Allowance. "?? What does that mean?

That one's been excluded under the two minute time allowance.

It was worse than Ebdon. At least Ebdon came on tv and explained himself and how what he was doing applied to the rules. He also had made it clear to both teams before hand how he was going to handle tape-touching. Nobody had a clue what was going on in the early heats yesterday. But, yeah, it reminded me of that meeting too, Sidney.

Fair play? Seriously? Ok, so if the ref wants to do a system where the clock runs out and riders who aren't ready are excluded, would it not be a good idea to mention it to the team managers at the start? The home side team manager wasn't even aware that there was even a clock there, let alone have an idea of how this system was going to work. Also, why was Gustafsson excluded when he was at the start and ready to race before Jepsen Jensen? Why was Worrall excluded? He was at the start line? The start marshall had absolutely no idea what was going on. Surely if a rider was going against his orders he'd have some sort of idea who was being excluded. Then, in a later heat when Greaves was excluded, the two Coventry riders were not at the tapes when the 2 minutes expired. If Worrall and Gustafsson were excluded earlier, why weren't they? It was absolutely dreadful refereeing. A complete shambles and, at best, biased. Sure, if there is to be a system where riders have to be ready to race at the end of 2 minutes then have that. But it needs to be applied consistently and fairly. Plus, everyone needs to know about it. Stunningly bad.

Many a true word spoken in jest.

Well that was a bizarre meeting I must say. What's was going on at the beginning? Did the ref just decide to put a clock on the centre green, not tell anyone about it, and then exclude riders at will? how can the home team not even know about it? Just the oddest refereeing I've ever seen. It was a frustrating performance from Swindon. In the odd race here and there we looked pretty good and gave the impression we could get back into it, only to let it all collapse again. It was shocking to see so few people at Coventry. I guess when you don't go somewhere for a few years, the drop in crowd i so much more noticeable. The seats in the stand were always full whenever I've been before, but they looked half empty. And the rest of the stadium looked like ghost town. We missed Kildermand badly, although it is quite possible riding that track and knowing how he rides, that he may have ended up on the dog track as some point anyway! But the ref was terrible. And, by the way, in the race where Nathan Greaves was excluded, both Coventry riders should have also been out as neither of them were at the tapes when the 2 minutes ended. And, if you're going to be all precious about excluding riders when the clock runs out so you can get your name mentioned on the telly then you should do it to everyone. MJJ should also have been out when Gustafsson was excluded. They should have interviewed the ref. At least Frank Ebdon came on and explained himself in the England v USA test match when he suddenly decided for himself that touching the tapes was an automatic exclusion in the days before it actually was.

Blue and red weren't at the tapes then when the 2 minutes went.

Yeah but they don't count in the same way if the other side are still in the stadium.

Let's have a Swindon walk out. Haven't seen one of those meetings where the home team ride round on their own for years!

Not really a relevant argument as Darcy Ward is 22 and Nicki Pedersen won his first World title at 26.

It seemed a perfectly reasonable and well balanced quote to me.

I would imagine the local paper, from where it seems the quote came, asked him for a comment.

You love it, don't you? What has Middlo actually done here? He made a short statement saying he doesn't condone what Darcy did but added that there were mitigating circumstances. That's it. One sentence where he makes a point of saying Darcy was wrong. As for Darcy, he's been silly. It's not wise to be drinking the night before a GP, and he's paid the price for that and any hopes he would have had of winning the World title have gone now. I just think it's a shame that people seem to take such great delight in other people's mistakes.

The teams were listed, in riding order, on the Swindon website on Monday. Swindon's only little trick to try to get people to buy a programme is to have a scoreboard that never actually shows the score.

Never judge a meeting by how it comes over on Bet365. The run-off between Anders Michanek and Peter Collins for the 1973 KO Cup would have probably looked a bit boring on one of those.

Who cares about Benji Compton anyway. He ain't going to do a lot. I'd much rather have a young lad like Nathan Greaves giving his all and steadily improving that keep chopping and cganging just to try and shoe horn an extra point in at reserve.

How do you know if you haven't been.

Thought I'd go to this one as it's school holidays. Guess what! Speedway is still actually quite enjoyable. Good win for Swindon, and it's nice to see Nathan Greaves get a few and winning rider of the night. I quite enjoy the fast track riders. Kildermand and North were particularly good for Swindon. For Lakeside I was impressed with Newman. Crowd wasn't massive but decent enough. Was Rosco there? Never heard a thing from him all night. Lakeside did badly with their tr rides. Particularly when Bridger didn't let his partner through. And that was after looking round on the last corner. Very odd.

I don't think it's the racing that made it seem a poor meeting to us who watched on Bet365. It come over really badly on there. Long delays with no clue as to why. Couldn't hear the announcements. Badly placed camera. That's probably why. It certainly wasn't done any favours by the live streaming. I gave up even trying to watch once the interval came along.

They're not seriously having an interval now are they? The gaps between races is excruciating.

Yes. You're correct. It took me a moment to get my head round how the BSPA site averages are laid out. Surprised it's not R/R then.

I just looked up those 6 points. Heat 5 he finsihed at the back - 0 pts Heat 7 - 2 points ahead of Stefan Nielsen and Ben Hopwood. Heat 11 - 1 point ahead of a fallen rider (Pawlicki) Heat 14 - 3 points. Beat Stefan Nielsen and Ben Hopwood. Mikik retired. Ok, so he beat who you'd expect him to beat, but the only riders he beat who finished the race were Stefan Nielsn and Ben Hopwood. Steve Worrall would have probably got the same. Not knocking Richie Worrall, but he is a bit of a surprise guest. I don't think Gustafsson is in the top 3 until next week though, so it would have needed 2 reserve replacements for R/R, plus Nick Morris and Dakota North getting a ride each. Taking that into account it seems a better option. Or, at least, no worse. EDIT: BSPA site has Morris above Gustafsson. According to the Swindon Advertiser, Gustafsson becomes a heatleader from tonight. So I'd say R/R would have been a better option if that's true.

Surely this should be a 2 minutes exclusion for the USA if they sent the wrong rider out,

They gained more than that. They had tac subs too. This was a very good performance by GB.

I think that's a valid point, and I think the lower points limits have had a massive effect on crowd levels to the point of being self defeating. For me I've been not so bothered in recent years. It's not so much because of the strength of Swindon's team because I still can get into the side. But the oppodition just don't look as attractive. I remember a few years ago when the points limits were dropping like crazy. Lakeside were at Swindon. I looked at their line up and just thought it looked rubbish so never went. And Lakeside won!! Made me realise how weak the sides were. And they are even weaker now. So, yes, you need attractive opposition to attract supporters.