lucifer sam

Never quite understood the secret squirrel approach at certain tracks - I find it bizarre. If you want people through the door, then you need to tell them what they can look forward to. I'll add the 1-16 to twitter at around lunchtime, and also point out the key clashes. All the best Rob

Around tomorrow (Thursday) lunchtime. All the best Rob

Terrible waste of potential whatever happened to him? Meanwhile, what about Steve Hone, No 7 / second half rider at Canterbury? Did he fulfil his full potential? All the best Rob

Steve, Joe was making great progress at Hull, but suffered life-threatening injuries in a crash in 1978. At the time, he was a 9.00+ man in the BL. Otherwise, who knows? I can't remember Hull being that unconventional, when we went up there in 1980. Viewing was tricky, because you were too low and were bombarded with granite (therefore it was Nan's first and last experience of a speedway meeting!!). But otherwise I just remember a narrow but fast track. All the best Rob That's true, but at least it meant we had a World Final, rather than a British/American/Danish/Swedish Final. And the continentals didn't always simply make up the numbers, as Szczakiel and Muller proved. And it certainly added to the drama of the ICF, which claimed a number of World Champions during its lifetime. All the best Rob

With Crumpie, Steve Gresham (his team-mate at Newport, Bristol and Swindon) thought the turning point was Crump's injury at Sheffield in 1977. Until that happened, he thought Crumpie was nailed on to become World Champion. All the best Rob

I think there might have been an injury while rode for Bradford. Of course, later on, while he was riding for King's Lynn, he was involved in the horrific pile-up at Odsal in the 1989 WTC Final. Lance had his head in a neck brace on that afternoon, was essentially physically OK, but the psychological effect of that accident was a factor in his subsequent retirement. But it was that missing British year in 1985 which really affected him and changed the whole course of his career. When I interviewed him, he certainly thought that was the big game changer. If you look at 1984, his performance in the final was no fluke. It's already been mentioned that he won the Overseas Final with a maximum, but he also breezed through one of the toughest-ever Inter-Continental Finals (which claimed the stricken Carter and nearly Nielsen too), with a third place. All the best Rob

I see you point, although I would question if a rider who won both the Speedway World Championship and was also three-time World Longtrack Champion could de deemed as not fulfilling potential. I somehow doubt if Muller would have exchanged the above with a successful BL career! All the best Rob

Not really. For example, Nigel De'ath led Erik Gundersen for three laps at Cradley in the opening meeting of 1987. His career seemed to be taking off, then he started to find out how much speedway can hurt. Sadly, that's probably the case with hundreds of riders. All the best Rob

Sid, it wasn't an injury as such. Lance King didn't return to the UK in 1985, because Cradley could only afford him or Erik Gundersen, and perhaps not surprisingly, they went for the World Champ. It killed the momentum of King's career - until then he looked like a future champion. All the best Rob

Eh? They had two riders injured on Saturday night. Which allows two choices: 1. IOW book guests. 2. IOW send weak team, and instead of last night's enthralling encounter, we get a one-sided drubbing. Before you point it out, I realise they didn't have any guests in the immediate post-war period. But I would also point out thanks to unbalanced teams and massive drubbings, amongst other factors, that speedway went from a massive boom (1946-1949) to the point of extinction (1957-1959) in just a decade. Anyway, getting back to the point, terrific meeting last night and great advert for speedway. All the best Rob

Shads, to be fair, both teams had high-scoring guests - it was an inspired race from Ben Morley in Heat 10 that kept Cradley level at that point. Good racing, and a meeting that both teams deserved to take something from. All the best Rob

Good meeting - glad IOW got a point, because they deserved something out of it. Dan Bewley looks something a bit special. All the best Rob

Steve, while it was a shame that Per didn't return in 1987, I didn't mind, because it meant Rambo Razzer returned for another season instead and he was something of a favourite of mine. My list: Arne Pander - injury and politics stopped Oxford's first World Class rider from reaching a single World Final. Martin Dugard - after Oxford, he should have moved to a big track, rather than go back at Eastbourne. The 2000 British Grand Prix showed what he was capable of. Andrew Silver - for exactly the reasons already stated. Wasted his very considerable talent. Dalle Anderson - brilliant at Oxford in 1995. Robbed of the World Under-21 that year in the run-off. And then... nothing really. It just didn't happen for him at Cradley/Stoke in 1996. Nigel De'Ath - massive talent who had the confidence knocked out of him by a series of falls in 1987, following by a scary crash over the top of the Oxford safety fence on 1988's opening night. Alastair Stevens - even bigger talent. The fall through the roof in 1986, while doing a building job, was a set-back, and later on, he just didn't prepare his machinery properly. Carl Blackbird - seemed destined for big things when he - almost unbelievably - passed Hans Nielsen from the back three times on the same night at Oxford in 1986. But it didn't happen. Brian Andersen - he surely would have been World Champion, but for the ill-advised decision to plate his broken collarbone, shortly after winning the 1997 British Grand Prix. So classy on the bike. All the best Rob

Eh? Nothing like letting the facts get in the way. Scunny were on to qualify for the LC semi-finals that year, only for half the team to get injured at Berwick on the Saturday, and we then lost at home to Sheffield the following Monday and the Tigers nicked our place in the semis. Mind you, the mid-signing seasons of Nick Morris and Gary Irving were rather inspired. It all came about because poor Tom Armstrong smashed himself up badly after losing a chain at the EWR. All the best Rob

There was a change over the winter. Sadly, the last AGM took place before that, so we're still effectively running the old regime's rules. Buster had already indicated he wants speedway to be about four riders over four laps, rather than overcomplicated rules. Let's see what Buster, Rob G and co come up with this winter. All the best Rob

And since the start of the GP series: UK 3 Poland 1 PS Hopefully Bomber will get one of the wildcards for the semis - he certainly has better credentials than almost any other non-qualifier, as a former GP winner. All the best Rob

Rob G more-or-less said Wilko was going back to reserve on centre green during Scunny vs Plymouth meeting. We thought Holub would end up on a 5.00. Holub rode well at Ippo, had a bike too powerful for the Scunny track for the first two home matches, then got taken off at Peterborough and got injured. I don't think our team plans have altered, whether Holub is on 3.00 or 5.00. All the best Rob

Don't disagree with you, there. The last AGM took place with the old regime still in charge, so hopefully the new brooms can come up with something a bit more agreeable this winter. As others have said, speedway should be all about four blokes turning left for four laps. All the best Rob

Yup, it is an interpretation and could have gone either way. Some folk have been quoting 18.6.2.1 without noticing that rule is sub rule of 18.6.2, which applies to "new" riders. Which begged the question, did 18.6.2.1 apply if the rider was not "new" in 2016? It's arguable that Scunny may have been better off with Holub at 5.00 and Wilko's and Ash Morris's average below his. Time will tell if that was the case. Personally, I hope it means that Wilko continues to score good points in the 1-5, while Holub gains confidence and scores good points at reserve. He's certainly capable of doing that. All the best Rob Peasley

As promised: http://scunthorpescorpions.co/?p=5417 All the best Rob

Hi, preview for Glasgow vs Scunny was due to be sent out tonight, but I'll get it together a bit sooner than that, so that we can clarify regarding Holub's average. All the best Rob

Yeah, would have been good to have Wilko at reserve, but Rob G and Scunny have to go along with the rules, same as anyone else. But Zdenek will be fine at reserve - hopefully we now get best of both worlds, with Wilko scoring good points in the team and Zdenek scoring good points at reserve. I don't see that it places a lot more pressure on Josh. All the best Rob

The Scotsman has already pointed out that there are more than three fixture clashes. And that's before Belle Vue start to re-arrange their postponed meetings. Surely it's simple common sense being applied in this case. Doubling-up is bad enough as it is, before you allow it to happen with tracks with the same race-night. All the best Rob

This one: 16.3.5 The BSPA MC monitors all proposed moves and has the sole responsibility to approve all (re-)Declared Team Line-Ups having been satisfied they are in the best interests of the sport. Plus two precedents: 1. Swindon having to release Josh Bates, when he signed for Sheffield (on the same race-night). 2. King's Lynn having to release Lewis Kerr, when they moved to Thursday nights and clashed race-nights with Ipswich (Kerr's PL club). It's pretty clear from that, that a rider is not allowed to sign for two clubs with the same race-night. All the best Rob

I'm not Rob Godfrey (the clue is in the sig!), but I agree, his statement on the BSPA website has clarified the whole situation, and made it very clear why doubling-up between two tracks on the same race-night is not allowed. A sign that maybe the BSPA has changed, with more transparency and explaining how a decision has been made. In this case, it was simple common-sense. All the best Rob