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Everything posted by cyclone
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The main reason I watch Speedway is the visual spectacle, not the background noise. As far as noise is concerned I'm sure the riders and their pit crews would welcome having to dispense with ear defenders when warming up the bikes. If electric bikes can match or better the level entertainment of the current conventional Speedway, and given the removal of one of the main sources of objection by NIMBYs, namely excessive noise, then it make sense to go down this route, unless of course if you still yearn for the reintroduction of dynosaurs
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Although this subject has been briefly discussed in the Edinburgh 2018 thread, as this does not relate to actual team building, and in view of its long term importance to the future existence of The Monarchs, I have therefore created this new topic on this specific subject. Local Armadale Cllr Stuart Borrowman on Facebook on 28 January at 07:19 posted the following:- Council officials are minded to approve the application for 2.7ha of housing at Armadale Stadium. Officers say the capacity issues at Armadale PS(Primary School) have eased and the stadium is not classified by SportScotland as an outdoor sports facility and "doesn't have the appearance or function of open space." However Contact has been made with sportscotland on this issue and their response was :- “sportscotland is aware of the planning application and the potential loss of this facility. We do appreciate that this would impact on the current users of this facility, however sportscotland is not a statutory consultee in this instance, and therefore has no formal remit to comment on the planning application. We don’t define what is or is not a stadium, that is done by planning legislation, sportscotland don’t have a recognition criteria for stadia.” Furthermore on sportscotland website the Master List of Sporting Activities and Governing Bodies Recognised by the Sports Councils ( https://sportscotland.org.uk/media/2846/list-of-uk-recognised-ngbs-and-sport-list-october-2017.pdf ) at the bottom of page 3, Speedway is recognised by sportscotland under the auspices of the Scottish Auto Cycle Union As the above conflicts with Councillor Borrowman’s public statement re sportscotland, perhaps resident West Lothian Speedway fans could either contact both Mr Borrowman and West Lothian Planning Department, or their local Councillor, to ascertain the source of the misleading statement.
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On the Edinburgh Facebook, it appears Rod Godfrey has acknowledged the rule allowing discretion has never been applied since the very unfortunate Ty Proctor/Sheffield affair of 2015, and because immigration is such a major and important topic, needing the qualifying position to be clear and not varying. The discretionary rule should no longer be there (i.e. on the BSPA website) and will be removed. As I personally do not agree with discretionary rules, agree with it's removal and recognise that "clerical oversights" can occur. What is unsatisfactory is that this discretionary exemption issue was raised by both the AMA & Edinburgh at least three months ago and apparently the above explanation has only been provided now. Thus the AMA & Edinburgh could have been spared unnecessarily wasting their time over the interim period if the aforementioned explanation and the expunging of the discretionary rule from http://www.speedwaygb.co./sponsoredmigrantspolicy had been actioned when first raised. (the Section for consideration of applications for discretionary endorsements is still there btw ! ). In Edinburgh's case they could have been exploring alternative signing avenues earlier.
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Different environment when originally introduced as there was a larger pool of UK talent in the second tier of racing. Kennett & Nicholls would still not have been eligible as a) they can hardly now be described as "up and coming", and if iirc, b ) riders could only double up from their current second tier team to a top tier side, not double down from a current top tier side to a second tier team.
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You've missed the point, the ruling does not exclusively apply to UK citizens.
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Existing non British riders on lower 2017 PL averages than Nicholls, such a Fricke, Bellego, Chris Holder, & Tungate are also barred from doubling-up, so your suggestion that the ruling discriminates against British riders is invalid.
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It's not as if Nicholls & Kennett are to be unemployed in 2018, and as things stand, some 2017 double uppers such as Jack Smith, Ricky Wells, Eric Riss will not be riding in both the PL &CL this Season. The statement on the BSPA website justifying the restriction on doubling UP " in order to gain more control of the doubling-up situation and begin steps to reduce the prospect of Premiership and Championship clubs looking too similar" seems reasonable. Allowing those who already double-upped in 2017 to continue to do so, also seems fair - a bit like the proposed residency criteria for Brexit eh And to remind all the "Brits First" brigade, it's not only Nicholls & Kennett that are prevented from doubling-up, so are the likes of Max Fricke, Rohan Tungate, Hans Andersen, and David Bellego etc.
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Appears you can appeal according to what John Campbell posted on the Edinburgh website:- "As we attempted to leave no stone unturned in trying to get the endorsement, my co-promoter Alex even phoned UK Visa and Immigration and their official confirmed that Luke's situation seemed to fall exactly in line with the BSPA procedure, fulfilling both of the criteria for a discretionary endorsement." Personally, I do not favour any discretionary changes being made once the rules are established, and I can understand that if Monarchs were successful, then it might be seen as favouritism, whilst the likes of Lakeside were denied their initially submitted Championship GSAs for Wajtknecht & Morley. Likewise for the MC/BSPA to remain consistent, I would expect them to maintain their bar on Premier riders who do not already have a 2017 Championship GSA and whose 2017 Premier GSA is above 6.00. In essence the likes of Nicholls & Kennett should not suddenly become eligible to sign for any Championship side now, including Newcastle & Peterborough of course
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It has been suggested that any Speedway Supporters resident in West Lothian should try and lobby their local councilors now, before the planning application is voted on. It is unlikely that the Planning Officials, who are recommending approval, will have made the councilors fully aware of the opposition viewpoint.
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I cannot understand the indignation on Facebook of Scott Frame (who although a co-presenter of EM TV, is not an official representative of Edinburgh Speedway), towards Glasgow publicly criticising Sports Scotland for not recognising Armadale Stadium, home to Edinburgh, as “an outdoor sport facility”. He appears to believe that this issue should be initially publicised by the Edinburgh Promotion and seems to infer that Tigers motives are more to do with themselves getting good publicity, which I consider is rubbish! Has he considered that the Edinburgh Promotion might be inhibited from entering the public fray on this issue for fear of damaging their existing relationship with their current landlord, who in effect, holds the Sword of Damocles over them? I get the feeling that Mr Frame, who does quite a bit PR on Speedway, is really a bit miffed that another colleague, namely Phil Lanning, has taken the publicity initiative here. Anyway, I welcome the Tigers support on the matter and hope that they ignore the pettiness of SF, as I reckon the vast majority of Edinburgh fans will appreciate Ian Beattie's statement
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Change to qualification for a UK visa
cyclone replied to Blackadder's topic in Speedway News and Discussions
No! Part of the attraction of the CL is the arrival of young Aussies with potential to progress to greater things. Would the likes of Doyle, Fricke, Tungate, Masters, etc. have ever graced the CL if there was such a restriction in place when they arrived as promising raw youngsters? As usual with some "Brits First" posters on here, they claim that our Antipodean friends are taking the bread out of the mouths of mediocre locals. Fact is that in 2017 this "deluge" of young Aussie invaders totaled one, yes one!, namely Josh Pickering whose performances home & away were appreciated by Monarchs fans. As the visa entrance criteria has already been reduced from top 4 to 3 in State Titles, which as things stand , will prevent new Oz U-21 Champ, Jaimon Lidsey from appearing here in 2018, I would prefer that the previous quota was reinstated, which I believe, would allow Lidsey to be considered. -
First of all we are discussing a CL club here and no one is advocating that the NL should allow overseas riders to participate in their league. At Edinburgh, the supporters have had very few problems with the overseas guys recruited in terms of commitment. Indeed in 2016 when we ran our final home match, due to previous postponements, on 21st October , a break of 3 weeks since our last actual race meeting, our 3 Germans traveled back to honour their commitment. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of a certain English team member who threw a sickie, but was well enough to attend a social function at his EL club on the same night! Unlike the overseas riders who are prepared to commute here, we have great difficulty in attracting decent English prospects to sign on for us, usually citing our base as being too far for them to travel. So what are we supposed to do, just employ any Brit who is willing to come, irrespective of their ability? Well current & potential local supporters up here would soon lose interest if we were compelled to track cannon fodder in the name of keeping all British riders in a job. Oh and btw, our foreign guys do socialise after the meeting and our promising Aussie, Josh Pickering, stayed within a couple hundred yards of the Stadium with a local family.
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So you are unable to provide historical evidence of numerous, if any, foreign newcomers achieving a 7 pt CL GSA in their maiden Season, yet you still persist in claiming that they are "1.8 cheaper in than they should be in the first place". Is it the 1.3 conversion factor that you are unhappy with also? If not, then surely foreign newcomers such as Kasper Andersen recruited by King's Lynn should start on 5.38 instead of 4.00, in order to justify your view that overseas newcomers to the CL begin on 7.00? If the 5.38 PL start figure had been implemented, it might have meant that the likes of Josh Auty would still be at King's Lynn, and who knows, Buster might have been able to accommodate the likes of Jacobs or Perks also IMO the previous 7.00 point starting GSA for overseas newcomers in the PL was correctly reduced, based on the data from previous Seasons, something you wish to ignore in justifying you're so called "ringers" argument.
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Where is your historical evidence to back up your claim? - please provide details of how many of the foreign newcomers to the second tier achieve an average of 7 in their first Season. The reality is that for both Scottish based clubs to attract promising English riders, who generally prefer to race for English CL teams, they require to offer a better financial package. Hence why Edinburgh in particular, try to recruit promising overseas riders within their budget. It may have escaped your notice that Monarchs remained loyal to Englishman Max Clegg whose final GSA in 2015 was 3.48 and only increased to 4.15 after three Seasons. The prerogative of any Promotion is to try to sign riders whom they consider will form part of a competitive team, irrespective of nationality. It would appear Monarchs were the only Promotion willing to sign Englishman Matt Williamson for 2018, so instead of frequently whining on the Edinburgh topic about teams, such as us, signing promising overseas riders, try and be more objective and take account of the geographical difficulties that some clubs encounter with regard to rider recruitment.
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Based on Arnie's treatise, the three foreign newcomers announced for the CL would appear to be re-assessed as:- Andersson (Edinburgh) 5 x 1.25 = 6.25, LIndman (Berwick) 4 x 1.25 = 5.00, & Haertel (Ipswich) 5.5 x 1.25 = 5.63
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Not true - Hans Andersen was rumoured to have been considered for Peterborough, and also the likes of Rohan Tungate, Max Fricke, Timo Lahti, Patrick Hougaard, Kim Nilsson, etc. would also be ineligible. So let's not try paint this as an anti-British measure.
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If the OAP concession was being abused by those under 63 women/under 65 men, then I appreciate that reverting to a single adult admission price would eradicate this cheating. If OAP concession admissions were to be reinstated, then it should require all those seeking to pay the lower rate, to provide proof of age every time they sought entrance by displaying either their birth certificate, passport, or driving licence. The travel concession card would not be valid proof as these are provided when you reach 60.
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Ian Paterson, who has the best Speedway Museum in the Galaxy(From Cinder to Shale), has apart from the largest collection of vintage to modern bikes (Douglas, Rudge, Vincent Vampire etc) also displays a large collection of jars with samples of shale collected from many past & present venues worldwide.
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We're still using a mechanism introduced by Fred Mockford at New Cross in 1934 to start races! Surely there must be a more reliable alternative that is a) more reliable and doesn't malfunction/rise squint, and b) eradicates jump starts/rollers Trialing a start light/transponder system to replace ye olde starting gate as suggested above, should be considered. Perhaps now is the time the FIM for take the lead on this for the benefit of sport worldwide.
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OK I'll bite. Referring to #328, where I was quoting a previous post by MD re AS, if you really reckon that "clearly states that Aaron never gor praised" (what's gor btw ? ) the only thing that is clear is that you are unable to comprehend what was actually stated. Your fellow supporter Manse seems to have the same problem in interpreting the written word. As for apologies, no need to apologize for your faux pas Nice to see the other half of the Victor & Barry tandem team is now giving you his moral support on here. Nighty, night, and remember to put the spoon away.
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Typical inaccurate and moronic reply from another who ignores Summers contribution at Newcastle in the last round, and once again resorts to insulting the poster instead. If you think you can bully me off the topic, forget it as I''m not intimidated by you and your fellow knuckle draggers who seem to think they have an exclusive right to voice an opinion on here, and woe betide anyone who questions their utterances.
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Yup Summers really let you lot down in the last round of the Cup at Newcastle on 9th October, when he top scored a paid 13 score including a tie clinching 5 -1 in heat 15. Did you conveniently forget that? Hope he get's a move to a club where the fans will appreciate his efforts, rather than being made the scapegoat for a lack of team success at Glasgow this Season. It appears for some Tigers fans, as Billy Ocean would say,: "When the going gets tough the Tigs start moaning"